Zhou Xuan raised his left hand and pointed at the boundless darkness behind the Divine Temple.
"The Supreme One's Heart is gone." Zhou Xuan grinned, his teeth covered in golden blood. "Then I'll go back in and dig out something else to make up for it."
On the Divine Temple's jade steps.
Golden light blazed. The Supreme One's Heart melted into a pool of dark-gold liquid and flowed down Ji Chen's throat.
The black chains wrapped around his divine soul trembled a few times, then shattered section by section, dissolving into black smoke that drifted away into the starry sky.
The ashen pallor faded from Ji Chen's face. His breathing steadied.
But he did not open his eyes.
Yao Guang stood beside him, watched Ji Chen for a while, and shook her head.
"It won't work," Yao Guang said flatly. "The Supreme One's Heart replenished his vitality, and the sacrifice has been broken off. But his Dao Fruit is too depleted. It's a bottomless hole. He's trapped in Return-to-Void Slumber now. He won't die, but he won't wake up either."
Zhou Xuan knelt on one knee and reached out with his left hand to rest it on Ji Chen's wrist.
His pulse was steady, but his body was utterly empty. Any laws poured into him simply drained away, like a vessel with its bottom gone.
"How do I save him?" Zhou Xuan stood.
"The Main God has an Origin Sacred Relic." Yao Guang lifted her chin toward the nothingness above. "The source of all laws across the myriad worlds. Only that can rebuild his burned-out Dao Fruit."
Zhou Xuan nodded. He asked nothing more.
He bent down and lifted Ji Chen into his arms with his left hand.
The moment he moved, Zhou Xuan's expression changed.
The right half of