Rumble!
The three giant hands vanished in an instant. Terrifying energy spread outward, and the warships in the starry sky rocked violently, like little boats on a vast sea, ready to sink at any moment.
Above, the enormous eye formed by the World Will stared fixedly at the Black Phoenix Immortal Emperor, at the immense Fire Phoenix stretching across the void, at the figure wrapped in Scarlet-Gold Flame.
The Black Phoenix Immortal Emperor raised her head and met that gray-white eye.
Her phoenix eyes held no emotion, only calm.
"Are you coming again?"
Her voice was so soft it sounded like she was speaking to herself.
The gray-white eye in the sky remained silent.
A moment later, it slowly closed.
The shattered sky began to heal. Under the restoration of the Heaven and Earth Laws, its fine cracks slowly sealed, and the gray-white light receded from the fissures, revealing the normal starry sky beyond.
The Heavenly Punishment was over.
The Black Phoenix Immortal Emperor had won.
A brief, deathly silence gripped the warships. Then cheers erupted like an avalanche crashing into the sea.
"Long live the Black Phoenix Immortal Emperor!"
"Immortal Emperor! Immortal Emperor! Immortal Emperor!"
"The peak of the one-turn Immortal Emperor realm! The Outer Heavens has an Immortal Emperor at that peak too!"
The cultivators wept with excitement. Some clutched their heads and sobbed, some howled at the sky, and others knelt on the decks and bowed toward the Black Phoenix Immortal Emperor.
They had waited far too long for this day.
Yet just when everyone thought it was over—
Crack!
A huge fissure opened once more in the shattered sky.
Some force tore space itself apart from within. The fissure was dark gold, its jagged edges like a wound ripped open by sharp claws.
Beyond it lay