A heavy silence consumed the void. Not a single Primordial dared to speak or move.
Di Jun's aura crashed over them like a dying star; vast, merciless, and suffocating.
From the back of the crowd, a low hiss cut through the stillness. Vyrinox shifted his enormous, serpentine body; each scale glinted with ancient malice.
He uncoiled slowly, like a living shadow, his presence thick with contempt.
"Cowards. Not a single one of them is worth using," he sneered inwardly, slithering forward without hesitation.
The other Primordials instinctively stepped back; his presence overwhelming.
His towering, serpentine body floated at the front, his coils shifting like storm clouds.
His vertical pupil, cold and unblinking, locked onto Di Jun.
"Di Jun," he hissed, his voice cold enough to freeze flame. "Are you truly going to block us from investigating the rumored treasure?"
Di Jun didn't budge, his double pupils narrowed in silent fury.
"What treasure?" he said flatly. "And even if such a thing exists; by law, by right, by creation's first breath, anything within the Divine Sun is mine."
But Vyrinox remained unmoved, his coils tightening as if he were a predator preparing to strike.
"You speak of logic and law," he said in a low voice charged with contempt. "Those are chains for weak. Don't tell me you've become so naive, Di Jun."
His tongue flicked through the void, tasting the tension sharp as blades and the fear thick as smoke.
But beneath it all was a deeper, more telling scent of hunger; Hunger for power. Hunger to rise. Hunger to not be left behind.
Vyrinox's eyes narrowed, his slit pupils gleaming with silent calculation.
"They've grown cautious since Mortevant's death," he mused. "Cowards, most of them, but their greed hasn't faded. If anything, it's grown sharper. They just needed a reason. A little push."
His coils shifted ever so slightly, his presence expanding like a slow, inevitable tide.
"One nudge," he thought, "and I can turn them into my pawns. Although temporary, but useful."
He smiled slowly and cruelly as he continued, "The Creator's treasure." "Don't lie to us, Di Jun. We all felt the Creator's aura. We all know it's real," he said, not giving him a chance to reply.
The moment the words "The Creator's treasure" left his mouth, the air changed.
The phrase echoed in every primordial's mind, deeper than thought.
Greed surged like an unleashed tide. The slight reverence they had for him shattered, and their caution crumbled.
Now, even those who had cowered before Di Jun's presence began to move.
"What's wrong with this fool?" Xuan Wu muttered through the telepathic link, his tone laced with disbelief.
He sent the thought to Vorak, the horned Primordial who was floating nearby. "Why would he speak it aloud? Now they all know. And what does he mean by we all felt the creator's aura when he wasn't here the first time?"
Most of the gathered Primordials hadn't come with a clear purpose. Some had followed out of idle curiosity.
Others nearby had sensed Lex's aura during the last surge, but they had backed off, feeling unsure.
A few, like scavengers drawn by instinct, had simply sensed that opportunity was at the divine.
Vorak's mental voice answered back, laced with irritation. "I think he overheard us. Don't forget, he was trailing just behind, and do you expect Vyrinox to say the truth when he is walking deception?"
"Even so, he should've held his tongue. Loose words invite sharp blades." Xuan Wu answered back.
Xuan Wu narrowed his eyes, locking his gaze onto Vyrinox with a cold stare.
Whatever respect he once had for him had evaporated. He no longer saw a clever schemer, only a loud, reckless fool.
Fools were dangerous in the worst way, not because they were strong, but because they didn't know when to be quiet.
A fool didn't warrant caution. Only removal.
All around them, the atmosphere shifted. The void trembled. Space itself seemed to ripple as the Primordials tensed and silently drew boundaries amongst themselves.
They were no longer united against Di Jun and no longer passive. Everyone had become a potential threat and rival.
Their eyes turned toward the Divine Sun, it now looked like an unimaginable delicacy.
However, none dared approach as high above was the Celestial Eye, still overseeing the tribulations of the young golden crows.
It didn't blink. It didn't speak. But its presence although just an apparition of the real was suffocating them.
Every Primordial felt the pressure of universal authority emanating from it.
Then, like a blade through silence, Di Jun's calm yet steel-filled voice rang out: "There is no treasure of the Creator in my domain."
Vyrinox's lips curled into a mocking sneer and his eyes gleamed with dark amusement.
"Empty words, Di Jun," he said in a smooth, venomous voice. "Do you take us for fools? A flat denial? Is that the best you can offer? If I stood where you do, with something that valuable buried beneath my feet, I'd lie too."
A murmur of unspoken agreement rippled through the void.
Di Jun's gaze didn't waver. His voice cut through the silence like divine fire.
"And yet it's you who speaks, Vyrinox, the Deceiver," he said, his tone sharp, cold, and final.
"Your name is a curse spoken across a thousand realms. Your oaths are sand. Your truths are illusions. Your words weigh less than ash, why do you think any sane person would believe you?"
Vyrinox chuckled low and wickedly; the sound echoed like a storm on the horizon.
"Oh, how dramatic," he said, his tongue flicking lazily. Then, with a subtle shift of his tail, he gestured toward the nearby brooding figure. "But luckily for me, I'm not the only voice in this void."
He turned and locked eyes with Xuan Wu.
"My dear friend here; ancient, wise, and far less theatrical than I, can confirm what we all felt. Go on, Xuan Wu. Tell them."
All eyes turned to the black-armored giant tortoise.
Xuan Wu stared back at Vyrinox with a face like carved stone, but the aura around him twisted and flared. His hostility was no longer hidden.
He remained silent with steady eyes, but his mind churned beneath the surface.
"Of course there's something here. It's valuable beyond measure. But the Creator's treasure?"He almost scoffed inwardly.
"Even if it were true, do you think I'd say it out loud in front of this pack of vultures?"
After a long pause, he turned to face the gathering of Primordials. His ancient face was unreadable and his old voice was calm and deliberate.
"There's no treasure here," he said, his voice solemn.
Then, Vyrinox, slowly and dramatically, raised a small orb, dark and crystalline, pulsing faintly with stored cosmic energy
"Oh, then explain this?" he said, smiling, though the smile didn't reach his eyes.
The orb glowed as Xuan Wu's voice echoed from it; "We should slow down. What if the Creator is still here?"
The reaction was immediate. There were gasps and murmurs, and sharp glances were exchanged in the air like daggers.
Suspicion bloomed like wildfire, between those who knew Lex's presence and those who didn't.
Vyrinox didn't flinch. His stare bore into Xuan Wu like a blade pressing against flesh.
"Is that your voice?" he asked, though his tone made it clear that he already knew the answer.
His thoughts flickered with quiet satisfaction. "Try to make me look like a liar, will you? Let's see how you dig yourself out of this."
But Xuan Wu didn't waver as he met Vyrinox's stare with one of his own: cold and absolute.
"It is my voice," he said. "But so what?"
The murmurs stilled.
"I stand by my words," he continued. "There is no treasure of the Creator here. But the Creator was here."
That sentence changed everything, for those who were skeptical of the treasure's existence.
"The Creator was here?" a primordial muttered. "Then what's so special about this place