Roars, shattering, wails, furious howls, cheers...
All sounds seemed to vanish—or rather, become too insignificant to matter, like dust that dared not run wild at such a moment.
A Formless Vortex emerged from within the Imperial Capital, drawing all scattered Spiritual Substance inward, toward its eternal destination—that absolute darkness and void...
The Audience Road cracked, trembling and keening.
The road that displayed Celestial Origin's authority, that had witnessed countless audience-seekers kneel in devout worship, could actually no longer bear the existence of that figure. It had been crushed!
No, rather than crushed, it was more accurate to say that it could no longer maintain its own structure.
Under the all-pervading corrosion and dissolution of Black Flame, all things lost their original forms, melting into chaotic confusion, utterly collapsing and losing all meaning.
Even Ji Jue himself could no longer make out his own outline.
Beneath the Seven-Horned Crown wreathed in thorns, the body under the black robe had become nothing but the purest flame, with no flesh or blood remaining.
Within the Black Flame, only a face flickered in and out of sight.
It resembled some mask cast from metal—smiling yet sorrowful, gold yet iron. Its shape, features, and material changed with every passing second, never settling into any fixed form.
Heavenly Being Form!
This was the essence Origin Stone had elucidated through tempering and trial, the true form achieved after traversing all phenomena of the world. Merely existing here was like a drop of thick ink falling onto white paper, effortlessly pressing down every color and turning the once-vivid world mottled.
Ji Jue raised his head and looked at the "enemy" before him.
He laughed soundlessly.
The Spirit-Burning Curse, which burned the five aggregates and ignited consciousness and selfhood, entered his awareness like a spark falling into a furnace,