Zhunti spoke, his voice hoarse:
"Senior Brother..."
"Are we just going to wait here to die?"
Jieyin fell silent.
He looked at the murky surface of the pool, at the withered lotus flowers.
After a long while, he slowly spoke:
"What else can we do?"
"The two of us are only at the Fifth Heaven. Even if we join forces, our combat strength is still only at the Fifth Heaven."
"There are at least three Zenith Heaven experts outside. How could we possibly be their match?"
"Even if we stake our lives on it, all we can do is make them spend a little more effort."
Zhunti lowered his head and clenched his fists.
The veins stood out on his hands, yet beneath that tension lay a helplessness he had no choice but to accept.
"Xuandu..."
Zhunti spoke softly, his voice as cold as Eternal Ice.
"Just who... are you?"
"You have cultivated for only tens of thousands of epochs. How did you reach this point?"
"How could you scheme so deeply?"
"How could you lay out such a grand scheme?"
Jieyin did not answer.
He merely stood by the pool with his hands behind his back, lifting his eyes toward the sky, toward the direction of Purple Heaven Palace.
Toward that grey figure concealed within Chaos.
"Dao Ancestor..."
He spoke softly, his voice scattering into the wind.
"Do you know that the Great Wilderness... is about to change?"
As his words fell, the night wind howled.
The wind passed through the ravines of Mount Sumeru, across the surface of the Eight Treasures Merit Pool.
It swept through Jieyin's golden monk's robes and across Zhunti's ashen face.
No one answered. There was only the wind, only the faint ripples on the pool.
Only those two golden figures stood amid the