The victor had been decided.
Lu Jun sheathed his sword. The Ice Abyss Sword slid soundlessly back into its scabbard, and the faint click of hilt against sheath mouth rang with exceptional clarity through the deathly silent ruins.
He stood quietly where he was, his white robes utterly still in the breeze, his calm gaze fixed on the figure lying amid the rubble in the distance, his aura weak and feeble.
Huo Yuhao did not rise, nor did he try to summon what remained of his Divine Power.
He simply lay there, staring at the dim yet still lofty sky. After a long while, the corner of his lips twitched, seeming like a smile, yet also like a sigh.
"Enough..."
His voice was soft, carrying the rasp of long weariness, yet it strangely carried through the silence.
"The torment of these ten thousand years has truly been enough."
He slowly turned his head. His gaze passed through the dust stirred up by the ruins and met Lu Jun's in midair.
Those eyes, which had always held both ice and blazing fire, now contained only bottomless exhaustion and a trace of relief.
"To be able to see someone in this era, ten thousand years later, truly defeat me..."
Huo Yuhao paused, every word seeming to be squeezed from the depths of his chest.
"Wonderful."
Lu Jun's brows drew together almost imperceptibly.
He did not hear the unwillingness of a defeated man, nor the wistful lament of a powerhouse, in those words.
What he heard was something deeper, heavier.
The emptiness of laying down a burden, and a near-cruel entrustment.
In that instant, Lu Jun understood.
This was not merely a battle over a Super Divine Artifact, nor merely a duel between two supreme powerhouses.
Huo Yuhao had used himself as a