First, take down the Sword Demon, then save Runeterra.

Seeing that neither the Imperial General nor the Chief Sun Priest was willing to back down, Yun Ana shook her head helplessly and walked to the Magic Mirror.

“If Zhao Xin hadn’t been on the verge of death, I really wouldn’t have wanted Ya Heng to appear in front of you. It’s because of this that things have turned out this way. They’re right, these bastards are really different from the past.”

Aheng looked at her old friend in surprise; even she had stood up to vouch for Aatrox.

The two fought side by side for decades, sealing away the evil Darkin in Ionia, and the High Priest had absolute trust in her.

“Are you serious?” Yaheng stared into her eyes. “You’ve never met Aatrox, you don’t know how terrifying his past was, more terrifying than any Darkin we’ve ever encountered.”

Yun Ana shrugged: "They found me not long ago. At first, I attacked them as soon as we met, just like you. But they were after the sealing techniques you taught me. The bastard that needed my help to seal was called... Zoranny? After the mission was successful, Aatrox didn't cause any more damage. He's much stronger than any we've seen before!"

“Zolani…” Yaheng’s pupils contracted slightly. He was very familiar with this name because he had also presided over Zolani’s ascension ceremony.

In the dark and relentless Void Annihilation War, Zoranny saved countless comrades with her gentle and compassionate heart, and deservedly earned the qualification for Ascension, becoming one of the last people to ascend before Empress Setaka's death.

After that, no one else was able to gain the approval of the solar disk until hundreds of years later when Azir made a remarkable achievement and successfully restarted the ascension ceremony.

The Imperial General and a physician should never have crossed paths, but during the Darkin War, Aatrox frantically searched for Zolani's whereabouts, killing her whenever he met her. Even Yaheng had heard of this, but because he was far from the Shurima continent, he had no way of knowing the details.

"It's just a personal grudge," Yaheng sneered. "He and I are old acquaintances. Although I don't know why, Zolani and he have long been mortal enemies. Aatrox, after all this time, you're still chasing after her. Do you want to prolong the Darkin War to this day? To turn the world into a hell for your slaughter once again?"

On the other side of the magic mirror, Ato resisted the urge to cover his face. This guy made such a judgment so easily without knowing the reason, which shows how deep his hatred for his fallen compatriots was. It was clearly Zolani who was chasing after him, okay?

Aatrox laughed sarcastically: "You're right, she and I are sworn enemies. She devoured so many of my subordinates, using them as nourishment for her own evolution. Since we're old friends, guess what I'll do after losing my subordinates?"

"Now, she dares to cooperate with the Void, wanting to tear open the rift in the north! No matter what I did before, I never imagined that the Void would return to the world! And yet, she did just that!"

"Breaking the seal isn't enough. I've found a power of a sufficiently high level; I'm going to destroy her true form!"

After his explanation, Aatrox became very emotional, as if he had regained the madness he felt when they first met.

To cooperate with him, Ator's mind stirred slightly, and he took out the dull-looking Darkin Chain Scythe from his scabbard space.

The sealing formation created by Yaheng can be vaguely seen above.

“I sealed it,” Yun Ana nodded. “That bastard named Zolani did indeed want to do something that would threaten the world, just like those two thousand years ago, but the few around Aatrox are still relatively well-behaved.”

"How many?" Yaheng had completely entered the rhythm of the other side of the magic mirror, and doubts arose in his heart again. Could it be that the corruption and depravity on his compatriots could really disappear?

"Hehe, everyone, come out and meet the High Priest who will guide you on the path to ascension." Aatrox chuckled wickedly, seemingly pleased by their setbacks.

So, aside from Stellato, Tarrosh, Varus, Jorah, and even some of Balcux who had recovered some of his powers, those who had temporary flesh and blood stepped forward, while those who didn't appeared as phantoms.

“You…” Yaheng looked at the familiar faces and was speechless.

The cruelty and bloodlust they had seen disappeared, replaced by tranquility and peace.

"Isn't this the High Priest of Yaheng?" Verus grinned, his voice layered with emotion. "A rare figure indeed. After helping me ascend to immortality, before I even had a chance to thank you, you resigned from your position as High Priest and vanished without a trace. Was the Queen's death too much of a blow to you?"

Yaheng trembled and sighed, "The Empress has been kind to me and is the person I respect most. I never thought that anything in the world could make her die, but this is only one of the reasons."

"The sun priesthood of that time was no longer what it used to be. Ascension meant leaving the mortal body and gaining a long life, which was undoubtedly fatally attractive to mortals."

"The priesthood is filled with too many people driven by greed, who use their positions to amass wealth, add their own and their powerful relatives' names to the selection list, create a false impression for them, and fabricate merits..."

"I discussed with the Queen that no matter how much resistance we faced, we would create a brand new order of Sun Priests, but before we could put it into practice, Icathia found the Void..."

As the high priest recounted the secrets, everyone felt as if history had stepped into reality.

Ato suddenly realized that Xerath had said that the Sun Priests were all his men back then, and Azir only had traitors around him and no allies. No wonder the ritual could not have succeeded!

This situation is directly related to Yaheng's disappointment and departure.

As for why some Darkin can be killed so easily, they are probably just unqualified, flawed products who barely passed the ritual.

“Why not ask Aatrox or the Grand Maester for help?” he asked. “With their support, we can achieve the same goal.”

Yaheng sneered, "Do you think I didn't do it? Which ascendant isn't arrogant and proud, always looking down on mortals? Who cares which mortal ascends today? Even Grand Scholars can't avoid it. As for Aatrox? Heh, old friend, you would care about the life or death of ants? I'm embarrassed for you to say that."

Ato couldn't help but nod. When he first got the magic sword, the other party couldn't stop talking about "ants" and "maggots".

Aatrox coughed. After falling from the body of a noble celestial being to become a Darkin, and with the scabbard having cleansed him of corruption, he could now understand some of the feelings of a lowly mortal.

Yaheng continued, “Veluth, you are truly qualified to achieve ascension. But among the last batch of ascendants, there are many inferior beings who are just trying to take advantage of the chaos. They risk failing their ascension and becoming Baka just to climb onto the ascension platform. I can no longer change that.”

As soon as the words were spoken, the Darkin felt a sense of loss.

It turns out that after the Queen died, the Shurima Empire also died.

The continuation of the lineage to Azir's generation was merely a matter of prolonging life; the only way forward was to completely overhaul the entire line.