The residual heat of the forge-like hall at Stone Ridge Mountain had yet to disperse.
Chu Qing spread his five fingers flat. A nail-sized cluster of gray-white embers floated above his fingertips. It did not carry even the slightest spark, yet as it trembled faintly, the surrounding space crumpled like discarded paper, twisting into a sickly distortion. This was the Nirvana Ember, the last trace of poison he had forcibly gouged from the Life Veins of those old monsters from the Nirvana Dao.
Creak—
The grinding of heavy axles broke the deathly silence in the hall.
From the shadows of the side hall, Madam Jin slowly pushed the Great Sun War Chariot forward. Every step she took left a scorched footprint on the bluestone floor. The chariot had been tempered from the essence of Geng Metal. Now, sensing the gray-white embers, its originally dazzling pure golden radiance recoiled violently like a startled living creature, trembling and even letting out faint sounds of metal warping.
Madam Jin stopped three zhang away.
Her fingers clenched tightly around the chariot's handle, her knuckles turning a ghastly white from the force. Even through several layers of defensive formations, the suffocating pressure brought by the suppression of rank made her throat tighten again and again. It felt as though a cold lump of lead had been stuffed into her stomach, churning without end.
"My lord, this thing..." Madam Jin said, her voice terribly hoarse. She instinctively swallowed, only to find her throat dry enough to smoke.
Chu Qing did not turn around. He stared fixedly at the nearly transparent core within the embers, his Dark Gold pupils shrinking to needlepoints.
"The Nirvana Dao's lineage has been cut off, but this fire has not gone out." Chu Qing's voice was icy, like something scraping across frozen