The dark-red exhaust flames beneath the Burning Heaven Sacred Chariot's wheels gradually died out, leaving the air thick with the scorched smell of something forcibly stripped apart by extreme heat.
Chu Qing stepped down from the chariot. The instant his feet touched the ground, an invisible blast of air pressed his black robe behind him. Madam Jin followed close at his heels, her fingertips still burning from gripping the carriage rail earlier—the lingering heat after an eruption of ultimate power, burrowing through flesh and into the cracks of her bones.
Chu Qing did not look back at the great hall. His strides were heavy. With every step upon the bluestone road, the bricks beneath his feet gave faint cracking sounds. The cracking was not caused by pressure; it was more like the land below was gently opening and closing, breathing in and out.
His brows lowered as he abruptly pressed all five fingers against a Mysterious Golden Pillar Stone at his side.
Thump—
A distinct pulse surged through his palm and shot straight up his spine.
This was neither wind nor the flow of Spiritual Energy. It was the "heartbeat" of the entire Stone Ridge Mountain. The beat was chaotic and hurried, carrying an almost pathological physiological craving.
"Quiet down."
Chu Qing murmured, a dull vibration spilling from his throat.
His consciousness instantly plunged downward, passing through layers of rock and restrictions before crashing directly into Stone Ridge Mountain's Earth Core.
That was where Shang Xie's consciousness slumbered. The Shang Xie consciousness that had once coiled around the Life Vein like wisps of smoke had now curled into a ball. That hazy Vague Phantom trembled without end, as though some deeper terror were crushing it by force.
Chu Qing's Divine Sense transformed into a giant hand and forcibly pressed down