Qin Chuan motioned for the two women to stabilize their power, then walked toward the empty space left behind by the vanished ice crystal core.
Pure energy still lingered there, the essence accumulated over countless years throughout the Land of Divine Remains.
He extended his Divine Sense, preparing to absorb all that unclaimed wealth.
Shadow Divine Power spread into an invisible net and swept toward the drifting motes of blue light.
It went smoothly. The energy offered no resistance as it was rapidly drawn together, compressed, and absorbed into Qin Chuan's Divine Soul.
His reserves of Divine Essence slowly began to recover.
But just as Qin Chuan's Divine Sense reached the heart of that space and he was about to draw out the last trace of Origin Essence, he stopped.
His Divine Sense had touched something.
It was neither energy nor a physical object. It was more like a brand, a shackle buried deep beneath time and law.
By absorbing the Origin Essence, he had unwittingly brushed the dust from the lock.
Drawing out the final trace of energy was like turning the key.
Hummm—
The entire Underground Ice Crystal Palace—no, the entire Far North Icefield—fell into Absolute Silence.
It was not merely the absence of sound, but stillness on a conceptual level.
The energy flowing through the air froze.
Within the Night Domain Alesha had spread around them, the surging shadows seemed to freeze into black crystal, utterly motionless.
The Deceit Runes circling Dies Martin hung rigid in midair, their glow stripped of all vitality.
Even time and space grew thick and sluggish.
A cold beyond physical limits struck directly at their Divine Souls.
It was the ultimate cold, in which all things sank into heat death.
Before that presence, the power Tiga Lingyu and Song Ling had only