"Small wonder you dared to clamor before me. So you have some measure of strength."
The black creature's eyes were crimson as blood, two scarlet glimmers flickering faintly in the darkness.
Suddenly, it let out a faint sigh, the sound bleak and distant, as though it had traveled across an endless river of time.
"If not for the long years of suppression, which ground away most of This Seat's power, then..." It paused, and its voice abruptly turned cold. "Did you truly think that with your trifling cultivation, you could contend against This Seat?"
Billowing black mist surged around it like boiling ink, within which countless twisted faces could vaguely be seen struggling in agony.
Some of those faces were savage, some grief-stricken, some warped beyond recognition by rage. Every one of them was a wronged soul that had died by its hand in the ancient era.
"But it does not matter." The black creature's tone returned to its unhurried composure as it said coldly, "Killing you will still be more than enough."
The moment the words fell, the smoky clouds around the black creature suddenly shot skyward.
The dense black mist was like a black dragon that had slumbered for ten thousand years suddenly awakening, roaring as it soared into the heavens. Then, the black mist gathered and spun in midair, eventually forming one enormous black divine ring after another.
One, two, three...
The divine rings layered atop one another and slowly revolved. With each additional ring, the void trembled a little more, as though even heaven and earth feared this power.
A full eighteen divine rings hovered above the black creature's head. Black radiance flowed across them, their brilliance restrained, yet they emanated a suffocating pressure.
Empowered by the eighteen divine rings, the black creature's already terrifying aura