As the "modified" Twelve-Grade Golden Lotus of Merit completely fused into the earth's core.
The Netherworld, which had been violently shaking, suddenly fell eerily silent for an instant.
Like the brief, suffocating dead silence before a storm.
The next moment.
Thump!
A dull yet powerful heartbeat sounded from the deepest depths of the earth.
It was not the heartbeat of a living creature, but the pulse of the entire Earthly Dao's will awakening!
Immediately afterward, an indescribably vast and mighty power erupted from the Six Paths of Reincarnation, spreading madly outward in rings!
Rumble—!!!
The earth's crust rejoiced, and the River of the Dead boiled.
The Earthly Dao Laws, once incomplete and only able to cling beneath the Heavenly Dao Laws to survive, now resembled a muscular man who had swallowed a miraculous tonic. Its muscles bulged, and its body rapidly expanded!
It was no longer a cripple needing crutches.
It stood up!
And it stood straight, towering between heaven and earth!
At the same time, the winds and clouds above the nine heavens abruptly changed.
A gigantic eye, cold and merciless, which had hung above all living beings for countless ages, manifested without warning over the Netherworld.
The Eye of the Heavenly Dao!
It had sensed a threat.
It had sensed a brand-new order capable of shaking its rule, growing wildly in that dark corner below.
Thunder roiled within that enormous eye. Purple Sky Divine Thunder gathered like a torrential downpour, seemingly ready to descend the next moment as world-destroying heavenly punishment and force this disobedient "younger brother" back into the mire.
Houtu's expression changed drastically, and she instinctively gripped Qin Feng's arm.
It was the instinctive fear of the Heavenly Dao's majesty, carved into her bones.
Yet Qin Feng did not even raise his head. He merely held