Another Deity?

Zhao Xuan was startled. He grabbed Hermione, who had just come down from the tower, and retreated dozens of steps.

Countless wisps of dark black gas seeped out from every crack in the square. The gas was strange, and Zhao Xuan and the stunned Hermione could both sense an intense aura of deathly stillness within it.

As the black gas condensed into a mass, Zhao Xuan keenly noticed that the surrounding plants seemed to have dimmed considerably. The sensation from his divine sense told him... these plants' life force was rapidly draining away.

Zhao Xuan did not dare let down his guard. The Nascent Soul sitting cross-legged with closed eyes in his Sea of Consciousness suddenly opened its eyes, and the World Cleansing White Lotus beneath it began to spin. Illusory, ethereal lotus petals appeared around Zhao Xuan's body in the outside world and slowly unfurled.

The countless strands of black gas coalesced into a humanoid figure before Zhao Xuan and Hermione. However, because it was formed from gas, neither of them could make out its face or body. Where its head seemed to be, a pair of scarlet eyes slowly opened.

In that instant, an inexplicable sense of panic swept over them. They seemed to see the boundless lands around them turn to scorched earth, the sun and moon grow dim, crimson clouds roll across the sky, blood flow across the ground like rivers, and homeless ghosts shriek miserably throughout the mortal world...

With a jolt to his mind, Zhao Xuan instantly broke free from the sensation. Seeing the panic on Hermione's face, he gently placed a hand on her back. The Netherworld Purifying Light flickered, and clarity gradually returned to Hermione's eyes.

Yet when she looked at the shadow not far ahead, fear had entered her gaze.

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