Fang Mo stopped before the Heavenly Prison Gate, holding the half of a hair crown the white-haired elder had dropped while fleeing.
The fragment was made of colored glass, with a few silver-white hairs still clinging to it, giving off a faint glow in the morning light.
"Iron Bull, bring those two heads over."
Iron Bull had just carried the Heaven Devouring Hou's enormous head into the Blood Pool over his shoulder. He turned and came back out, carrying two things.
One was the helmet left behind after the rusty-armored Old Zhao had been annihilated in the God-Destroying Pearl's explosion. Rust and flesh clung together, still steaming with scorched heat.
The other was a beast horn gouged out beforehand from the severed stump of the Heaven Devouring Hou's neck. Thicker than a grown man's waist, its dark gray surface was covered in cracks, with dried blood crusted on its tip.
Fang Mo took the horn and weighed it in his hand.
"Old Yan, are the flagpoles on the gate tall enough?"
Old Yan leaned halfway out from behind the gate, looked up at the two thirty-foot iron flagpoles on either side, and considered for a moment.
"Tall enough, yes. But once we hang them up, I'm afraid half the Divine Capital will be able to see them."
"That's exactly the point."
Fang Mo tossed the horn to Iron Bull, who caught it with one hand and scooped up the rusty helmet with the other. He walked beneath the gate and used iron chains to hang the two objects at the tops of the two flagpoles.
As the horn went up, the chain scraped shrilly. The horn slowly turned in the morning breeze, its shadow sweeping across the stone paving.
Qian Dagui stood on the Duty Room steps, his neck craned