"Thump, thump, thump!"
Across the Central Plains, what sounded like the heartbeat of the land rang out in a steady rhythm.
On the ground already consumed by flesh, the earth spattered blood like molten lava. After the explosion at the immortals' organization, the immortals who had gradually reverted to their true forms had actually withdrawn their hideous bodies of flesh and blood. In human form, they formed a circle across a mile of land. They stood scattered, but as time passed, the living beings outside the circle, weak and strong alike, began following some unknown pattern, expanding its rings one after another.
Most were retainers sent by the Immortal Court. Starting with ten Heavenly Immortals and more than twenty immortals, they were joined by several Body Integration Realm experts cultivated by the Immortal Court, Void Refinement Realm retainers who had risen over the past thousand years, Spirit Transformation cultivators...
It was a profoundly uncanny state. Eventually, every intelligent being within a hundred miles of the circle sensed the summons of some "god." With fervor and bewilderment, they began moving toward the central circle, until more than a thousand figures surrounded its center, lifting their heads in near-obsession to gaze up at the sky.
"Thump, thump, thump..."
Only that fierce, rhythmic heartbeat remained eternally unchanged.
Beneath the firmament of the Endless Night, a bewitching red glow shone. Above these "worshippers" hung—
An enormous heart!
It pulsed in time with the heartbeat, its surface writhing madly with densely packed, scarlet "eyes"! No—on closer inspection, each of those countless "eyes" held a "person" curled inside the eyeball, seemingly ready to break out of its shell at any moment.
Beyond this terrifying, enormous heart, before which even Heavenly Immortals had to bow, the dark traces left by the [Divine Net Devil Gate] had yet