The instant the mark entered his body, Zhou Xuan let out a muffled grunt.
His body jerked backward, his back striking the edge of the table and pushing it half a foot across the floor.
Zhou Xuan's face turned deathly pale. His knuckles whitened as he braced both hands against the tabletop, and veins bulged on his forehead from the strain.
Ye Changqing struggled to lift his head, his face full of anxiety.
Lin Qingzhu gave a stifled cry from the corner. She tried to stand, but the lingering pressure held her down.
The old man in the Dragon Robe stood in the center of the Light Pillar, his gray eyes calmly watching Zhou Xuan's reaction.
Zhou Xuan's body shook violently, his breathing growing rapid and heavy. The tremors sent blood streaming from the wound in his left shoulder, forming a small puddle on the table.
He looked as though he was in agony.
He looked as though he could barely hold on.
But on Zhou Xuan's lowered face, the corners of his mouth were curling upward.
Inside his sea of consciousness, the Metal-colored mark had only just pierced the divine soul barrier. Before it could take root, a deep blue glow enveloped it.
The system panel lit up in the depths of his sea of consciousness.
[Foreign Law intrusion detected] [Activating Golden Touch module] [Analyzing...]
The Metal-colored mark struggled violently within the deep blue light. The Law patterns inside it tried to expand outward and establish a connection with Zhou Xuan's divine soul.
But the system's isolation layer was more thorough than any ordinary defense. Every attempt by the mark to expand was precisely cut short.
[Analysis progress: 12%...27%...41%...]
The system immediately stripped out the hidden thread in the mark's inner layer and sealed it