The Shadow of Annihilation retreated, leaving behind a battlefield steeped in deathly silence and despair. The Ancient Demon Star Altar had nearly half collapsed, unstable arcs of energy flickering amid its shattered ruins. The once-majestic Grand Star Array of the Heavens had completely vanished, leaving only scattered, broken star runes that flickered like fireflies. The Star Sea Alliance reinforcements had suffered grievous casualties, their fleet crippled. Grief covered the cultivators' faces, and morale had sunk to rock bottom. In the central area, the ancient Primordial Stone Coffin hovered silently, its surface covered in cracks and its radiance entirely extinguished. Not a trace of life could be sensed from it, and Li Wuyang's fate remained unknown.
"Venerable Wuyang... the stone coffin..." Elder Xuanji wept openly, extending a trembling hand but not daring to touch the cold, silent coffin. The Ling Xiao Sword Master leaned on his broken ancient sword, tears in his fierce eyes as the sword qi around him dimmed. Queen Elara's Scepter of Life glowed faintly as she tried to shower the coffin with Life Light Rain, but it vanished without a trace. Confucian Venerate Wenzai Dao let out a long sigh. Even Vast Righteous Qi could not disperse the despair hanging in the air.
"Even the Primordial Stone Coffin and the Nirvana Star Formation... do we still have any hope?" a young cultivator muttered, his Dao heart on the verge of collapse. The shadow of failure loomed over everyone. The terrifying power displayed by The Finality Council—especially that incomprehensible Shadow of Annihilation—made resistance seem utterly futile.
Yet at that darkest moment, deep within the seemingly lifeless Primordial Stone Coffin, a faint but incomparably tenacious spark of spiritual light suddenly flickered! Immediately afterward, a weak yet incomparably pure pulse containing the vitality of reincarnation passed through the coffin walls,