Chenning Lu's body and spirit continuously dissolved and then repaired under the pure, clear sunlight, nourished by the spiritual energy of the Thunder Pool. He was like a stone, gradually becoming purer and more refined with each blow, impurities being removed through relentless refinement. The pain he endured was sufficient to drive even the Sovereigns to mental collapse. Yet this was the price that had to be paid—only through destruction could the deep-seated pollution within his soul be cleansed. A series of piercing, agonizing cries echoed throughout the Thunder Pool, sometimes muffled by thunderous roars, and at other times clearly heard. As the purification process continued, Chenning Lu's endurance soon reached its limit, and his cries turned into pleas: "Kill me! Kill me! Let me return to the spiritual realm! Let me return to the spiritual realm!" The Golden Official of the Solar Trial maintained his golden light column, ensuring a constant flow of purification energy washing over the fallen Sovereigns, his face cold and stern, showing no mercy. To him, such fallen beings were destined to die if they could not be purified. "Thunder God!" Channing Lu, now embodied as an elemental creature, suddenly roared toward the depths of the thunder pool: "How can one sentence decide my fate? How can one sentence dissolve decades of my efforts—like the waters of the Desen River flowing into the sea, vanishing without a trace? How can that be?!" Recalling his vow made by the thunder pool years ago, he had once silently pledged that one day he would pull you from your divine pedestal, crush you into the mud, and make you taste the滋味 of being dominated by others. His roar transformed into a wild, frenzied laugh. The very next instant, the elemental form of Channing Lu exploded, sending shockwaves that dispersed the surrounding plasma and clouds. Defeated? The Golden Judge of the Sun gathered his golden light column and gazed intently. In the vacuum created by the electromagnetic surge, Channing Lu’s spirit manifested. His spirit had sustained damage during the explosion and now appeared fragmented. The Judge sighed, knowing the purification had failed—his body consumed, his soul shattered, beyond recovery. A soul of a fallen being has no need to exist. As it was about to purify this primordial spirit, the spirit of Qian Cheng Lu suddenly swelled out—like a balloon being inflated, its features becoming blurred. Strange, mysterious symbols emerged on the ethereal surface of the spirit, spreading like black vines across its entire form. Then, a single-eyed, horned head emerged from the greatly distended chest of Qian Cheng Lu, followed by his hands, torso, and feet. As the monstrosity emerged, the spirit of Qian Cheng Lu rapidly shriveled, until only an empty shell remained, and its soul vibrations completely ceased. The single-eyed, horned creature was small in stature, though humanoid—its skin was coarse and resilient, deep purple in hue, with horn-like, sharp claws. Indeed, it too was a spiritual entity, its body translucent and ethereal. It stood motionless, radiating an intensely cold, malevolent aura. Though its features were unattractive, the single eye on its forehead was neither fierce nor cold, but rather vacant and innocent—like that of a newborn infant. As the Grand Elder of Taiguan and one of the foremost strongholds among the current generation of day-wandering deities, Daji Xingguan immediately sensed that this spirit of resentment was extraordinary—it had emerged from the immortal essence of Qian Ning Lu. A unique spirit of resentment nurtured upon the soul of this Eighth-Level Sovereign. Such a powerful soul magic, one he himself had never fully mastered, was known only to the Lady of the Yin in the present age—no one else, he could think of, had achieved it. Moreover, Daji Xingguan detected a severe contamination within the lone-eyed spirit—power drawn from the profession of the Distorted Ones. What would the Spirit Expansion and Biological Alchemy guilds do? Frowning, he pondered, though puzzled, he would not allow this spirit to remain. At once, he spread his arms, summoning golden light columns. Pure and clear divine energies of the Sun descended, enveloping the humanoid spirit with one horn and one eye. "Wah! Wah!" the humanoid spirit with one horn and one eye cried out, its voice sharp and piercing, rapidly dissolving as it was bathed in the Sun's divine power. Plink, plink... one by one, the flesh and muscle from its body fall away, splashing deep purple liquid that remains uncleaned by the power of the Sun God. This liquid spreads out, mingling with the surging plasma and dark clouds rushing in to fill the gaps. Instantly, the bright blue plasma turns deep purple, and the dark clouds transform into purple clouds—like toxic smoke exhaled by the畸变者. The purple contamination spreads swiftly, staining the plasma and clouds wherever it passes, and before the Sun God's judge can react, the entire thunder pool is now a vibrant shade of purple. The judge's heart sinks to the very depths. The contamination that cannot be purified by the Sun God's power must be of half-divine, or even higher rank. And if the Sun God's power cannot purify it, then certainly not the lightning. A deep, resonant roar rises from the depths of the thunder pool—half-human, half-beast—layer upon layer of purple clouds surge and ripple, as if the pool itself were boiling. Clearly, the chief prosecutor at the pool's base has been contaminated. The Red Sun Judge's body surged with golden flames, blocking the toxic mist rising from the Thunder Pool and urgently asking, "Lord Thunder, do you need assistance?" The roar from the bottom of the pool echoed steadily, yet went unanswered. Without delay, the Red Sun Judge spread his arms, activating the solar emblem on his forehead, and beams of pure, clear gold light poured into the pool. "Shh... shh..." The purple clouds rapidly dissipated, and as the pollution was diluted, the purifying power of the Sun God's essence began to manifest. Yet the Red Sun Judge's expression remained grave, for the Sun God's purification was far too slow. As a peak Sovereign specializing in the Sun, his divine power was the ultimate remedy against all forms of pollution. Yet against the purple clouds, this otherwise invincible power failed to deliver the expected results—prompting him to recall the Fallen Holy Grail. That artifact's pollution was even resistant to the purification efforts of the Day-Wandering Deities. The purple clouds and the Fallen Holy Grail shared striking similarities in their nature—likely indicating a pollution of a level surpassing that of a half-divine being. … The Marshal's study. "Is there a major issue with Tianfa?" Fu Qingxuan set down the book *One Hundred Years of Solitude*, her gaze deep and focused on the half-divine figure standing in the empty space, her tone growing serious. "What exactly happened?" The Chairman sipped the deep red liquid in his highball glass. "Do you remember the incident ten years ago, when Tianfa's chief prosecutor, Thor, was ambushed?" "Of course I do," Fu Qingxuan opened her desk drawer, retrieved a box of chocolate beans and a bottle of cola. "At that time, I was still busy with the records for the transcendent stage quests at the Fu family. After Thor was attacked, Tianfa sent representatives to our family to request assistance from the elders in investigating the case—they needed scouts for tracking, observation, and analysis." "You should know, then, how Thor managed to evade the pursuit," the Chairman said. Fu Qingxuan slowly unfastened the chocolate wrapper, twirled it between her fingers, and popped it into her mouth, her cheeks puffing up immediately. "It was your guild's vice president who saved him. His realm ID is apparently Pan Xi Edison." While thinking, she always needed to eat something sweet. "Correct," the chairman nodded. "At the time, Thor was handling a confidential matter—his movements and assignments were strictly confidential. However, the evil faction had precisely laid an ambush and nearly succeeded." "So you suspect a spy within the Divine Judgment," Fu Qingxuan said, savoring chocolate bits as she spoke. The chairman chuckled. "Doesn't it make sense that there are spies within Divine Judgment? After all, even your Five-Element Alliance and major orderly organizations worldwide have all been infiltrated to the point of being mere sieves. Honestly, I don't even feel the need to elaborate on that." Fu Qingxuan replied coldly, "Then what would you like to say?" "Mr. Chairman, his tone suddenly deepened: 'Many years later, Edison told me that at the time, he felt "observed"—no matter how hard he tried to escape, he could never shake off that sense of being watched. He was repeatedly transported across the world, back and forth between the realms, yet that lofty, superior gaze persisted. It only vanished when he entered the Thunder God's palace and placed the Thunder God into the Thunder Pool.'" At this point, the gaze beneath the mask sharpened, fixed steadily upon Fu Qingxuan's exquisite, cool, and resolute face: "General, have you any thoughts?" Fu Qingxuan's pupils instantly contracted. Then, she nearly leapt from her high-backed chair. "What do you mean? Are you telling me that the chief executive of the Divine Judgment, Borias, has been secretly aligning with the forces of evil, and that one of the most powerful half-gods of the lawful faction—the very one considered the strongest—has fallen?" It's no surprise that Fu Qingxuan reacted so dramatically. Anyone hearing such a revelation would surely be stunned. How is this any different from questioning the very premise that the King has rebelled?" Unless that CEO has already been corrupted and has become a fallen one, it's theoretically difficult for a half-god to be tainted—even legendary deities find it hard to completely corrupt a half-god, since each half-god holds administrative privileges, which are among the highest-ranking items in the spiritual realm. When a half-god is corrupted, it's more like being poisoned: they become aware of it, can resist it, seek help, and even recover on their own. Unlike ordinary spiritual travelers, they don't experience a complete distortion of perception and fail to recognize the changes as problematic. If that CEO has been corrupted, how could she have concealed it from the other CEO, who is equally vigilant and mutually supervising? To date, there has been only one instance of a lawful half-god being corrupted—Ling Tu—and even then, she was corrupted before becoming the sovereign of the Moon. "I didn't say she's a fallen one," the chairman gently shook his glass, sipping slowly and calmly. "You could simply reduce the frequency of your unnecessary remarks and idle gestures. "Fu Qingxuan's forehead, smooth and clear, showed prominent veins: 'Don't beat around the bush. Tell me—what's your evidence?' The chairman set down his high-footed cup, still failing to get straight to the point, and instead recounted another past event: 'Do you know about the collapse of the Maqi mountain peak? That happened in 2007. The renowned spiritual family, the Marshall family, of the Free Federation, issued invitations to the major powers in the second region under the Federation's name, claiming to have uncovered a secret capable of reshaping the world order and announcing it at a conference.' Fu Qingxuan suppressed her growing urge to stab him with her sword a hundred times over. 'But before the announcement, the Maqi mountain collapsed, and all attendees perished beneath the earth—none survived. In the year and a half that followed, the surviving members of the Marshall family gradually passed away, and the entire family was effectively erased. To this day, we still don't know what the secret the Marshall family spoke of was.'" The president, who had stood for a long time, leaned on the table with one hand and shifted his buttocks upward, saying: "Few know that at the time, there was a direct descendant of the Marshall family who happened to be within the spiritual realm instance. He thus narrowly escaped both the collapse of Marquis Mountain and the subsequent elimination efforts."