The coffin had no lid. Through its open mouth, a figure could be seen lying inside.
It was a man who looked about thirty, his face pale as paper and his features so refined he looked less like a living person than a jade statue carved with painstaking care.
He wore a black Imperial Robe embroidered with countless twisted Runes in Dark Gold thread—the embodiment of the Nether Race's supreme Cycle Law.
He was the Nether Race's most ancient being, the Nether Emperor.
He had fought in the First Heaven-Extermination War and was the only peerless expert in Nether Race history to have cultivated the Cycle Law to the Ninth Layer.
During the Second Heaven-Extermination War, he had held off four Ninth-Turn Heavenly Slaves alone. In the end, his strength had failed, and he had nearly fallen.
The Nether Race's Cycle Law had kept him hovering at death's edge for tens of millions of years. He had neither died completely nor been able to truly awaken. He remained suspended between life and death, neither living nor dead, neither gone nor truly present.
Kong Xian stood before the Palace of White Bones, gazing at the pale face in the coffin. For a moment, he was silent.
"Nether Emperor!"
His voice was soft, yet it carried clearly into the depths of the Palace.
There was no response from the coffin.
Kong Xian was in no hurry. He knew the Nether Race's slumber was different from that of other races.
The other races' ancestors slept to heal their wounds. The Nether Emperor slept to comprehend the fine line between life and death, to grasp the ultimate mystery of the Cycle Law.
"The World Will's Clone has awakened."
Kong Xian spoke again.
This time, the coffin responded.
The sleeping body still did not move,