"Father Emperor?"
The corner of Lu Xuan's mouth lifted slightly, golden light flowing through his eyes.
He could clearly see countless streams of black air writhing beneath the other man's skin, like... a puppet pulled by strings.
"My good imperial son..."
Emperor Zhenwu's mouth opened and closed mechanically, yet his voice seemed to come from somewhere far away.
"Aren't you curious... why I've become like this?"
As he spoke, the temperature in the hall plummeted.
From the ground, the pillars, and even the Dragon Throne, thick black Yin Energy began to seep out.
Like living creatures, that Yin Energy slowly spread toward Lu Xuan's feet...
Lu Xuan suddenly smiled.
He lightly stomped his foot, and a golden ripple spread outward.
Wherever it passed, the black liquid met it like snow under the blazing sun and instantly evaporated without a trace!
"My son..."
Emperor Zhenwu's voice drifted near and far, like an echo floating up from the abyss.
His ashen face twisted, at times as savage as an evil ghost, at others revealing traces of human pain.
Pale fingers extended from the sleeves of his dragon robe. The nails upon them had already turned a strange bluish-black.
"I never thought... all of this was real..."
His head tilted at an unnatural angle, his white hair dancing through the air like venomous snakes.
Those deathly pale, pupil-less eyes stared fixedly at Lu Xuan, their depths churning with horrifying greed. "What... exactly happened to you?"
As he spoke, Emperor Zhenwu's body began to convulse unnaturally, as if something inside him were struggling.
His bright yellow dragon robe was torn open in strips by some force, revealing skin covered in black patterns beneath.
Those patterns writhed like living things, forming one agonized human face after another.
"I... I can feel it..."
Emperor Zhenwu suddenly