Kong Xian spoke slowly, his voice deep and grave, like an ancient bell tolling through the empty Hall of Eternity.
"He fooled every last one of us!"
Seven gazes turned toward him at once.
Kong Xian's gray eyes fixed on the blue-robed figure hovering above the Ruins in the Light Mirror. A complicated emotion flickered through them.
"We thought he didn't dare fight. We thought he was afraid, that he'd turned back at the Star Core Graveyard Periphery because he'd lost his nerve. But he wasn't afraid. He went back to prepare—for an ambush none of us saw coming!"
He paused, a trace of wonder in his voice.
"He refined those Water-Drop Treasures in the Sea of Laws, went back to refine sword talismans, then secretly planted them all in the Core Region of the Star Core Graveyard. Everything was for this moment. From the outermost layer to the innermost, silver, gold, black, gray, gray-white—wave after wave, layer after layer, he blew the Teleportation Array sky-high!"
The Human Emperor spoke slowly, a sharp glint flashing in his clouded old eyes.
"The Teleportation Array is destroyed. Reinforcements are cut off. The ordinary devils in the lair all died in those terrifying, chain-reaction explosions. Those left are the powerful True Devil Emperors!"
His gaze settled on the blue-robed figure in the Light Mirror.
Fang Chen, Great Emperor Huo Li, and the others stood in the void at the Star Core Graveyard Periphery. Fang Chen's blue robes snapped in the wind, his long hair streamed behind him, and the Floating Immortal Sword rested in his hand.
His gaze swept over the Seventh-Turn True Devil Emperors still struggling, over the Order Demon Emperor kneeling amid the Ruins, and over the once-impregnable Teleportation Array Platform, now scarred and shattered.
Calm as still water.
As though