"What is this...?"
Gu Daozi sprang to his feet, crossed to Lin Xiao in one stride, and took the Jade Box.
He carefully sensed the fluctuations coming from within the Jade Box, then opened it all the way.
A layer of soft silver silk lined the Jade Box.
On the silk lay a teardrop-shaped crystal.
The crystal was about the size of a thumb and partly translucent. A river of stars seemed to turn within it, while countless fine lines of time flowed slowly through its depths.
It gave off a gentle glow, rich with the aura of the Time Law—purer and older even than the temporal fluctuations from Fang Chen's Time Bell.
"The Flowing Time's Tear... It really is the Flowing Time's Tear!"
Gu Daozi's voice trembled. "Lin Xiao, where did you get this?"
Lin Xiao scratched his head and said, a little embarrassed, "I found it back when I was at the Great Emperor Realm, in a collapsed Palace in the Land of Ending. All this time, I thought it was an ordinary stone!"
"Where was that?"
Gu Daozi looked at Lin Xiao as he asked.
Lin Xiao frowned. "I don't know what that place was, but that stretch of Ancient City was deep in the Heavenly Ruins. Back then, people from the Devil Race were hunting me. I fled inside because I was desperate!"
"The Heavenly Ruins?"
Gu Daozi murmured, "Those are the ruins of the Ancient Heavenly Court. After the Heaven-Slaying War, the Heavenly Court was besieged by armies of the Devil Race and Heavenly Slaves, then battered by the Heaven and Earth Laws. It became a wasteland. Even now, terrifying storms of Law still shroud those ruins. In that environment, the stronger a Cultivator is, the more severely they're affected!"
Nether Prison Immortal King and