The instant he withdrew it, his whole body shuddered, and cold sweat soaked his back. This thing was too dangerous. Leaving it out for even one more breath meant gambling with his life.
But it had worked.
Inside the case, the last traces of movement subsided.
Everyone held their breath and stared into the Black Iron Case.
One drop.
Just one drop.
A fist-sized drop of liquid hovered at the very center of the Earth Vein Instrument.
A chaotic sheen flowed across its surface—not the radiance of any single attribute, but the seamless, natural luster of all laws returning to one.
Silence.
So silent that everyone's heartbeat could be heard.
"Origin law..."
Emperor Jiang Wu's phantom drifted a little closer, his voice trembling uncontrollably.
"He refined that pile of scrap metal into a drop of origin law?"
No one answered him.
Because everyone was transfixed by the aura emanating from that drop.
It was not the fluctuation of any particular law.
It was law itself.
The pure embodiment of the very concept of "law."
Old Ancestor Cangwu had withdrawn his vine barrier at some point. He stood rooted to the spot, his hands hanging at his sides, like an old man frightened out of his wits.
Lin Qingzhu clutched the corner of Old Ancestor Cangwu's robe so tightly that her knuckles turned white, but her eyes remained fixed on Zhou Xuan's back.
Zhou Xuan pulled his Right Arm out of the case.
Below the elbow, it was covered in blood, the flesh peeled back to expose the stark white bone beneath.
But he did not tend to the wound.
He stared at the hovering drop of origin law and took two ragged breaths.
Then he reached his left hand into the case and closed his fingers.
He grasped the drop