"The weary sun, gently bidding farewell to the sea..."
The sun, weary, tenderly bid the sea farewell.
In the midst of the mournful wails shaking Xiematai, a hoarse voice sang, "In that moment, you confessed, that there is no love."
It was then you confessed, love was no more...
As Ye Xueya sang, the White Wolf ran silently, disappearing in a flash from the sky.
From the shattered ruins of the Central District, a piercing waterfall of light surged skyward.
The falling sun let out its last, tragic scream.
In the scorched pit, the blood-red sun was split open. Piercing sunlight, like gushing blood, sprayed in all directions, drop by drop, so thick and viscous.
Beneath layers of radiance writhed piece after piece of crawling flesh.
The dead, stillborn child continued to thrash with dozens of tentacles. Its purple-black flesh rooted and sprouted in the soil, spreading rapidly, only to die just as quickly.
In the end, within the dimming sunshine, that massive, mountain-like tumorous bulk emerged.
And from within the split flesh at its center, a vast eye formed of countless malformed compound eyes emerged. These countless pitch-black compound eyes reflected the same face, and numerous identical faces opened their lips, humming the same tune.
She raised the White Wolf Hook and thrust forward.
Quietly, it punctured the very center of the eye. Blood gushed like a waterfall, completely drenching Ye Xueya in red.
Through the White Wolf Hook, the last glimmer of its ferocious vitality steadfastly locked onto Ye Xueya's visage, intending to plant the most venomous curse.
"Don't be sad..."
Ye Xueya cracked a carefree smile, tilted her head away, and flicked her lighter to light the cigarette at the corner of her mouth. "If there were only the sun in the sky, how lonely that would be, don't you think?"
Her once-lovely face was now covered in cracks. Purple-black blood seeped from her broken features, making her look ferocious.
It was hard to tell who the real Evil Ghost was.
As she smiled, the stillborn's flesh suddenly convulsed madly before becoming utterly rigid, solidifying into pitch-black stone.
Giant cracks spread from the petrified eye, causing it to shatter.
A heartbreaking wail that echoed through the heavens spread in all directions, even reaching the deepest parts of the Abyss.
The stillborn child, already dead in the womb, had finally met its utter destruction.
Ye Xueya collapsed to the ground, drained of all strength.
She had won, but she didn't feel happy.
The incomplete Sun Shaman Imprint rose slowly from the debris, condensing into a solemn, yet flawed, Lustrous Sun Wheel in midair. It seemed to want to break through the sky and escape, but under the deterrence of the White Wolf Hook, it remained frozen in place, unable to move.
With the death of the stillborn child, the Sun Shaman Imprint lost the soil that had nurtured it. The purple-black Lustrous Sun Wheel trembled continuously, revealing countless minute cracks.
Its foundation was unstable, ready to crumble at any moment.
What was worse, as the blood qi fueling it was cut off, it began to lose the power to maintain its 'sublimated' state. It gradually lost momentum and returned to its original, inert form.
Like a tree without roots, even with sprouting new branches, it couldn't stop its own decay and death.
The decades of painstaking effort by the Yingzhou Phylogeny were rapidly fading away.
"Stripped back to its original form, huh? How tragic," Ye Xueya leaned against the ruins, cocking her head to study its gradual decay. Her tone was devoid of any fluctuation, betraying neither pity nor indifference.
She just quietly smoked, humming an old tune from the Russian Federation.
"The sun, weary, tenderly bid the sea farewell."
"And it was then you finally confessed, love was no more..."
The sun, the weary sun, had set.
A crisp cracking sound came from within her.
It was the sound of her Stigma breaking.
The North Dipper Stigma dimmed.
The power gained through forced ascension quickly dissipated, dragging her soul to crumble along with it.
So, holding the cigarette that had almost burned out, she smiled, "Don't be afraid, I feel the same."
The Sun Shaman's Lustrous Sun Wheel sensed danger. Riddled with cracks, it trembled and wailed, attempting to flee. But under the gaze of the White Wolf phantom, it could not fly further than ten meters, no matter how it tried.
The cold light of the silver hook crisscrossed the ground.
It marked a prison.
"Proud White Wolf, roams where there's a path; as it responds and transforms, it clutches the spiritual hook..."
As her Stigma collapsed, Ye Xueya raised the flickering white light in her hand. Her pale face was illuminated, making the blood seeping from her nose and mouth appear even more vivid.
Thus, gazing at this Divine Artifact formed by the Miracle Imprint, she finally made up her mind and chanted the final verse:
"—Only virtue is fitting; from Yin, witness Zhou!"
In that instant, the Miracle Imprint—representing the cycle of Sky's Command and heralding the change of dynasties—pierced Ye Xueya's chest, thrusting into the turbulent North Dipper Stigma.
The next moment, the nine prominent and two hidden stars of its grim constellation shattered!