"The Lord of the Altar left behind a watchdog?"
Qin Chuan raised a finger.
"Myriad Creation, reverse."
A black Erasure Rule swept through.
The bone spikes remained undamaged, but the control marks left inside them were wiped clean.
Thousands of Divine Souls regained their freedom and hovered in the passage, bewildered.
An old man in a tattered robe was the first to recover his senses.
He stared at the vertical eye on Qin Chuan's forehead, then at the Chaos Chalice in his hand. His soul form rippled violently.
"You're not Withered Silence."
Qin Chuan kept walking.
"Is Withered Silence the Lord of the Altar's name?"
The old man froze.
"You don't even know who he is, and you dared enter the Altar of Origin?"
"He's dead."
Qin Chuan casually took out the bone fragments the Lord of the Altar had left behind.
"I even ate half his Dao Fruit."
The thousands of Divine Souls fell silent.
The old man stared at the fragments for several seconds.
"Dead?"
"Withered Silence is dead?"
"You killed him?"
"You ask a lot of questions."
Qin Chuan stopped before the Bone Gate.
"How do I take control of this altar?"
Instead of answering, the old man backed away.
The surrounding Divine Souls scattered too, afraid to go near the Bone Gate.
"Don't touch it!"
"Withered Silence may be dead, but the altar is still running."
"Any living being who touches the Sovereignty Mark will be treated as a candidate for the next altar master!"
Qin Chuan's raised hand stopped before the Bone Gate.
"A candidate?"
He looked back at the robed old man. "Why hide from becoming its master?"
The old man's soul form retreated several more steps. "Do you really think the altar master owns this place?"
"If he isn't its master, what is