Those few words sent the temperature in the secret chamber plummeting.
Shielded behind Old Ancestor Cangwu, Lin Qingzhu felt every hair on her body stand on end.
Old Ancestor Xuanming and the Alliance Leader released their protective laws almost simultaneously, two curtains of light snapping into place before them.
The Old Woman from the Court Guardian Pavilion.
The mad crone they had forced back at the Judgment Assembly.
Her voice continued, thick with barely contained venom and shock. "You dare use the Immortal Court's Sacred Relic to reforge laws... who do you think you are? Do you truly believe you can defy heaven and rewrite your fate?"
Zhou Xuan stood where he was.
He lowered his head and glanced at the Jade Slip fragments scattered across the table. Dim traces of a formation still lingered on them.
A trap planted in advance.
This Jade Slip had contained a backdoor from the day it was seized. It simply had never been activated.
The Old Woman had chosen this moment to trigger it because the Dark Gold vortex just now had given her the coordinates.
"The Earth Vein Instrument is meant to drain this Wasteland dry!"
The Old Woman's voice rose, shrill enough to hurt their ears.
"Yet you're feeding laws back into it! Do you have any idea what you're doing?!"
"You're awakening the true will of the Immortal Court! You'll draw 'that thing' here ahead of time!"
The secret chamber fell silent for two breaths.
Old Ancestor Xuanming and the Alliance Leader exchanged a glance, neither looking pleased.
The Old Woman's reference to "that thing," combined with what Zhou Xuan had previously revealed about Nothingness, pointed all too clearly in one direction.
Emperor Jiang Wu's phantom grew more solid, and he spoke in a deep voice. "Is she threatening us,