The radiance of a blazing sun blossomed from the colossal gate, as though a great sun had appeared out of thin air in the sky.
Scorching light and heat, accompanied by hymns, spread wantonly in every direction. The first to bear the brunt was the rhinoceros beetle crouching atop the bare trunk of the divine tree.
When the light and heat struck the rhinoceros beetle, blazing flames immediately condensed over its shell. As the flames burned and the heat seeped in, the hymns began pouring relentlessly into its mind.
Those voices, like countless living beings loudly singing praises, transformed into frenzied poison that continuously corroded its way inside.
The rhinoceros beetle's gaze sharpened. A faint halo flowed down from its horn, blocking all the light, heat, and hymns.
A slender woman, six meters tall, stepped out from the colossal gate. She wore a somewhat loose, plain-colored robe, while a pale golden silk shawl draped over her arms swayed in the wind.
Like a holy spirit banished to the mortal realm, she stepped through the air. The frenzied shouts filling the air turned into devout murmurs along with her arrival.
At the same time, pain immediately appeared in the eyes of the rhinoceros beetle, which had just barely been able to resist the corrosion.
It warily stared at the figure emerging from the colossal gate, drawing upon a lingering trace of tribulation lightning within its body and running it through itself, forcibly dispersing that seemingly gentle yet far harder-to-resist power.
The six-meter-tall woman drifted lightly through the air, curiously studying the rhinoceros beetle not far away.
"Is it this realm's world-guarding divine beast?"
The woman did not act rashly. Instead, she first surveyed her surroundings.
The exposed portion of the divine tree's trunk, having gone through all manner of twists and