Xia Xuan stamped his foot on the stone platform, smashing a crater dozens of yards wide into the ice beneath him. Shards of ice and stone shot in every direction like shrapnel.
A brilliant radiance burst out behind him, reaching ten thousand yards into the sky.
The light came suddenly and fiercely. Dark gold radiance poured from his body like a blazing sun rising behind him, bathing the entire stone platform in its regal, domineering glow.
Within that light, an enormous figure rapidly took shape.
The figure stood between heaven and earth like a mountain.
It was even larger than Tie Kui's Supreme Dharma Body. Its head touched the heavens and its feet stood upon the earth. Merely standing there made the entire stone platform groan under its weight.
It wore a heavenly king's crown cast from dark gold. Nine strings of beads hung before its brow, each bead carved from a whole piece of top-grade spiritual jade and glowing with a gentle yet imposing luster.
Its face bore a strong resemblance to Xia Xuan's, but looked sterner and more commanding. Swordlike brows swept toward its temples, eyes cold as stars gazed down upon all things, its nose rose like a mountain ridge, and its lips formed a firm line. An air of fierce dominance filled the world around it.
It wore dark gold armor engraved with dragon patterns. Its plates were covered in ancient script recording the great deeds of generations of Xia Emperors. Together, those inscriptions gathered a vast power of the state.
Its arms hung at its sides, its palms as broad as doors and its five fingers long as iron pillars. Dark gold Dragon Qi coiled around every finger. Each breath seemed to swallow mountains and rivers; the air streaming from its nostrils formed two dark