It was over.

[Mission: Decapitation Strike – Huanling]

[Mission Reward: For each powerful enemy killed, gain 10,000 EXP and 100 points.]

Wen Yuncheng used to imagine what a battle between Star Saints would be like. She couldn’t help but use Lin Jinyu as a model for her fantasies, picturing something like a single sword strike cleaving mountains and rivers. Or perhaps the raising of a hand would change the weather. The fight should be intense and spectacular, an earth-shattering back-and-forth. At the very least, a spar should last a few hundred rounds, right?

She always imagined what Lin Jinyu’s battles as a Star Saint would be like—her movement techniques, her sword moves, the image of her fighting an enemy for three hundred rounds. But once she herself reached the Star Saint level, she discovered that all it took was one control skill plus a few attack skills to easily one-shot an opponent of the same rank. The only thing she needed to consider was the margin for error. The skill cooldowns were too long. Wen Yuncheng couldn’t make a mistake, couldn’t miss. Her skills couldn’t be wasted, and her control had to be stable. Only then could she inflict the maximum amount of damage.

Eliminate the enemy before they can act. This was probably the secret to a Mechanical Spirit’s one-on-one combat.

The three-minute battle was over.

The Huanling armies attempting to provide support through the planar passage hadn’t even fully teleported over before their Phantom Saint was gone. Whether they were generals or soldiers, they were all at a loss when the Phantom Saint died, unsure of what to do. They had never imagined such a situation.

Especially since the Phantom Saint had died too easily. Wen Yuncheng had won too easily.

But Wen Yuncheng didn’t care about them. Whether they fled or attacked, she was not afraid. Right now… only the Dragon King remained.

The Mechanical Domain expanded, and the Hidden Assassin was released, locking onto the Dragon King. The duration of the H-S.P. Falcon hadn’t ended yet. Wen Yuncheng directly ordered the G-3 Predator to lock onto the Dragon King and continuously fire its laser, while repeatedly activating the Falcon’s support form attacks.

“Focus fire on the Dragon King! Slay the dragon!-” Wen Yuncheng shouted, deactivating her mech and sitting on the Mechanical Throne instead. She raised her hand and threw out over a hundred mechanical spheres, and one C-03 Air Wing after another appeared in an instant. “Seize the opening!”

The Assassin’s first strike inflicted fear, the second inflicted weakness. This was the perfect opportunity to focus fire on the Dragon King. Although Wen Yuncheng had no more attack skills available, with all the half-saints and over a dozen Star Emperors attacking with all their might, burning their blood essence, killing the Dragon King wouldn’t be difficult.

It would just take time.

The battle against the Dragon King seemed to return to reality. Wen Yuncheng only used the Assassin and left a spiritual brand on the Dragon King, then sat on her throne, controlling the Air Wings to carry out harassing attacks.

Defeat was certain; it could not be changed. Facing the siege of more than a dozen Emperor-rank experts, the Dragon King sensed a different aura from Lin Jinyu’s strike—a feeling of suppression. The feeling of planar suppression.

It was the pull of the Heart of the Plane’s aura, the suppression the Heart of the Plane exerted on the creatures within the plane.

In that instant, the Dragon King was utterly shocked. The true Child of the Plane wasn’t Wen Yuncheng? It wasn’t Wen Yuncheng! It was Lin Jinyu? But how was that possible? Then what was Wen Yuncheng? With all her abilities, she—”What are you?”

The Dragon King erupted in a frenzy. Even as the combined attacks of the half-saints sent its scales flying and its flesh spattering, it didn’t waver in the slightest. He looked at Wen Yuncheng and said, unwilling to accept it, “What in the world are you? You’re not—you’re not the god of the Starry Sky Continent at all!-“

“Shh~ Perhaps I’m the god’s guardian?” Wen Yuncheng chuckled softly, exchanging a gentle look with Lin Jinyu. “Seniors!”

Chu Han and the others reacted immediately. The half-saints did their best to pin down the Dragon King. In that instant, Wen Yuncheng maneuvered her Floating Magnetic Disk to rapidly approach the Dragon King, firing a magnetic pulse combined with a stun grenade, then continued her joint assault with the Predator and the Falcon. She threw a mechanical sphere high into the air with all her might. The massive Star-Annihilator Cannon unfolded in the sky as it fell! In that moment, Wen Yuncheng retracted her mech, using the Floating Magnetic Disk and consuming a large amount of mana to forcibly support the Star-Annihilator Cannon from below, while she herself flew with her Mechanical Wings.

The three Protectors turned back and struggled to hold up the enormous Star-Annihilator Cannon—

The Dragon King sensed the crisis and let out a long dragon’s roar. Its massive golden body instantly burst with golden light. However, before the light could fully flare, Lin Jinyu’s sword intent erupted. Her sword strike activated the Heart of the Plane. She violently spat out a mouthful of blood essence and suppressed the Dragon King’s golden light with all her might.

“Haha, hahaha…” The Dragon King laughed miserably. Suppressed by the Heart of the Plane, its body interfered with by the magnetic pulse and stun grenade… Facing the ever-accumulating energy of the Star-Annihilator Cannon, the Dragon King let out a low shout. “I have lost. All mistakes began with me, and they will end with me! This has nothing to do with Dragon Island. Wen Yuncheng, you owe me one favor—the young dragons are innocent!”

The Star-Annihilator Cannon was already aimed at the Dragon King. A constantly rotating black hole condensed at its muzzle, and purple energy instantly overflowed, enveloping the cannon’s body. The three Protectors were merely supporting this behemoth from below, yet they could sense an immense energy that could almost annihilate them!

“I’m just an ordinary person. I won’t slaughter the innocent dragons.” Wen Yuncheng said in a low voice, “We’re even.”

As she spoke, the shell brewing within the Star-Annihilator Cannon was finally fired! The moment the purple-black energy sphere appeared, the world seemed to dim. The half-saints and Star Emperors who had been pinning down the Dragon King all retreated rapidly. Wen Yuncheng’s mech covered her body, and the Heaven-rank little lamp ignited in front of her. She flew swiftly to Lin Jinyu’s side—the next instant, the black energy sphere smashed into the Dragon King’s body and then dissolved into it.

The Dragon King remained in that posture, frozen for a brief second, before instantly shattering and dissolving!—

There were no overflowing energy fluctuations, only silent annihilation and destruction. Starting from the point of impact, the Dragon King’s body instantly turned to dust and dissipated.

[Mission: Dragon Slaying!]

[Mission Complete: Kill the Dragon King, gain 150,000 EXP.]

One hundred and fifty thousand experience points, but the excited, joyful feeling of the past was gone. It was all over.

She turned the Star-Annihilator Cannon and the Air Wings back into mechanical spheres and put them away. Wen Yuncheng fed Lin Jinyu a bottle of Grandmaster-level HP potion. The Little Ice Mountain’s injuries… well, drinking a potion wouldn’t hurt.

The Protectors and half-saints directly surrounded the Huanling generals who had teleported over at the beginning. Wen Yuncheng hadn’t killed all of them last time. Now that the Phantom Saint was dead, these people had completely lost hope. Some generals and soldiers even self-destructed before the half-saints could act.

The generals who had arrived earlier through the planar passage were easily captured by the half-saints. The planar passage connecting the two planes was instantly shattered, signifying that the connection between the two planes was completely severed.

“We won? We won!-“

“Long live the Starry Sky Continent! Long live the Empire!-“

News of the great victory in the war spread back to the Empire. The Protectors escorted some surrendered Huanling people back to the Imperial Capital in a high-profile aerial procession. In the towns they passed along the way, many residents looked up from the streets, cheering.

Wen Yuncheng and Lin Jinyu also returned to the Imperial Capital.

“Lin Jinyu, you-“

“I’m sorry.” Before Wen Yuncheng could finish, Lin Jinyu immediately apologized. “I sensed the suppressive effect of the Heart of the Plane on the Dragon King, so… that’s why I acted.”

Wen Yuncheng didn’t speak, just stared at Lin Jinyu expressionlessly.

“…I’m sorry.” Lin Jinyu clearly wanted to explain something, but she was at a loss as to how, so in the end, she could only apologize again.

“Hmph.” Wen Yuncheng snorted deliberately. She wasn’t actually that angry, but in the past, whenever she took risks, Lin Jinyu would always stare at her like this. It was rare for Lin Jinyu to be in the wrong, so Wen Yuncheng intentionally kept a straight face for a moment. “Then I’ll reluctantly forgive you~”

“…” Lin Jinyu now understood that Wen Yuncheng wasn’t angry, but she didn’t say anything. After all, she was the one who had forcefully exerted herself.

“It’s all over…” Wen Yuncheng sighed deeply. Regarding the handling of the Dragon Race and the demonic beasts of the Demonic Beast Great Forest, and the Empire’s relationship with them… it was time for peace. In these matters, she was only responsible for offering suggestions and supervision. The implementation and execution would still rely on the Empire and its representatives, the Protectors.

Wen Yuncheng would naturally fulfill her promise to the Dragon King. The Empire would not deliberately target the innocent young dragons and the reclusive dragons who had long lived on Dragon Island. The Demonic Beast Great Forest was still the Demonic Beast Great Forest, and Dragon Island was still Dragon Island. Everything seemed unchanged, but the relationship between these two and the Empire would clearly become much closer.

In the Demonic Beast Great Forest, for instance, half of the original sovereigns were dead. The hibernating and reclusive Black Tortoise King and Black Abyss King had always remained neutral. Because of this neutrality, they avoided the calamity of war, but they no longer held the status of absolute sovereigns in the Demonic Beast Great Forest.

The rulers of the Demonic Beast Great Forest would become the Celestial Fox King and the Rainbow Phoenix King, with the Celestial Fox King as the leader.

A new Dragon King had been appointed on Dragon Island, an outstanding descendant whom the previous Dragon King had entrusted. It was a very young dragon who detested war and had entered a deep slumber within the dragon veins because the Dragon King and the elders had insisted on cooperating with Huanling. However, it was awakened by the resolute Dragon King to bear the heavy burden of changing Dragon Island after his death and living in peace with the Empire, becoming the new Dragon King.

Its strength was only at the Venerate rank, perhaps not enough to command respect. But the remaining Emperor-rank dragons on Dragon Island were all at its command. This was something the old Dragon King had arranged for his descendant long ago. It could be considered the last thing the Dragon King, who had been wrong to the very end, did for his descendant.

The post-war Empire became even busier. Whether it was rebuilding towns or compensating the families of those who had sacrificed their lives in the war, these were all tedious and work-intensive tasks. The sects were busy helping rebuild local towns, and many began to recruit children who had become orphans or whose families were struggling due to the war as disciples. The Celestial Fox King was busy managing his takeover of the Demonic Beast Great Forest, and the new Dragon King was busy placating the Dragon Race and reaching a unified agreement with the Empire.

Wen Yuncheng was also very busy. She was busy sending wedding invitations to her friends, busy communicating with Sect Master Lin about the wedding arrangements, busy discussing with Lin Jinyu where to build their new home and how to decorate it, busy creating a home of her own.

A Star Saint like her, busy with such things after a great war, was probably one of a kind.