Yuan Chu stood with his hands behind his back, gazing up at the vaulted ceiling of the great hall as he let out a long sigh.
"Alas..."
"Transcendence... is too difficult."
"Could it be that, other than Pan, we truly have no way to transcend?"
"How exactly is this path supposed to be walked?"
As he spoke, Yuan Chu's voice sank, carrying a profound sense of powerlessness.
With that sigh, Yuan Chu's translucent phantom gradually faded, finally vanishing completely from the great hall as though he had never appeared at all.
Time passed.
There was no alternation of day and night within the Origin Realm of Ten Thousand Daos, and within the inheritance palace, the passage of years could not be felt at all.
Who knew how much time had gone by.
Within a great hall deep inside the palace, space suddenly rippled violently.
Four figures stumbled out of the void. They were Jiemie, Kongxuan, Wuwang, and Xu Yuan of the Abyssal Sea Divine Hub.
The four of them looked rather bedraggled. Their robes were torn, their auras fluctuated unsteadily, and even the origins of their laws had grown somewhat listless.
Clearly, they had suffered greatly during the trial—one could even say they had endured countless hardships.
Kongxuan steadied himself and gasped for breath.
"This trial was too absurd. It nearly drained my origin dry."
Xu Yuan's face was pale as well. Still shaken, he glanced at the void behind them.
"The methods left behind by a True Saint are not something we can easily see through. Getting out alive is already quite good."
Yet they had no time to care about their injuries. Eight eyes stared fixedly at the center of the great hall.
There stood a tall stone platform. Above it floated a gray sphere of light,