Where the thunder passed, the void silently evaporated, leaving behind a pitch-black crack that refused to close.
Eight-colored Law Fragments flickered along the crack's edges, radiating a chilling aura of finality.
This was the first bolt of the Eightfold Origin Heavenly Punishment. It carried the destructive power of eight Origin Laws, enough to grievously wound an Eighth-Revolution Immortal Emperor.
Fang Chen did not dodge.
He did not even raise his Body Protection Spiritual Light.
He simply stood there, looking up at the world-destroying thunderbolt, his eyes full of anticipation.
Boom!
The Purple-Gold thunderbolt struck the Heaven Refining Furnace head-on.
The furnace shuddered violently, and the phantom Otherworldly Beast on its lid snapped its eyes open.
There was no fear in those eyes, no panic—only an almost greedy excitement.
Hum!
The Chaos Star Chart Patterns across the furnace flared. Five Imperial Flames surged from within and became five roaring Fire Dragons that coiled around the Purple-Gold thunderbolt.
The Fire Dragons opened their vast jaws and ravenously devoured the power of the Eightfold Origin Laws within the thunderbolt.
The thunderbolt thrashed, erupting with blinding light and deafening roars as it tried to break free.
But the five Fire Dragons clung to it like maggots in bone, biting into it mouthful by mouthful, devouring and refining it.
The thick thunderbolt shrank visibly.
A hundred yards, fifty yards, ten yards, one yard...
At last, the five Fire Dragons devoured the entire thunderbolt.
The Heaven Refining Furnace blazed brighter. Its Chaos Star Chart Patterns raced across its surface, and the colors of the Five Imperial Flames deepened.
Inside the furnace, fine Purple-Gold patterns began to emerge across the Spirit Sword Talisman's forming Sword Embryo as Heavenly Punishment Power poured into it.
Those patterns were different from the Runes Fang Chen was about to inscribe. They