The giant ape Saint Emperor was engulfed in white light. His divine power and the source of his Imperial Dao poured back into him through the radiance he had unleashed.
He fought desperately to stop it, but lasted only a few breaths. His towering body shriveled into a corpse, then crumbled to ash.
Before that heaven-reaching giant, the fall of the foremost of the nine Emperors was no more than a spark dying at his fingertip.
Wang Xuan now stood at an unimaginable height.
His head had shattered the highest heavens, his feet had sunk deep into the Netherworld, and entire worlds rose no higher than his knees.
He lowered his gaze. The eight remaining Emperors were as tiny as fireflies, their auras faint and feeble.
Within him, the transformation continued.
Billions of particles flickered. Barriers had only just formed around world after world, and godlike beings had only just opened their eyes. His aura kept climbing. This transformation was far from complete.
The eight Emperors' reactions were plain to the giant.
The Scorpion Saint Shadow was the most treacherous. Rather than flee, he used the turmoil among his companions as cover, slipped into the void, and silently drove the hooked tip of his tail toward the giant's back.
He put everything into that strike, yet as the hook reached Wang Xuan, it was like a slender thorn thrust at a mountain ten thousand fathoms high.
Clang!
A layer of distorted time deflected the hook. Without turning, Wang Xuan reached back with two fingers as vast as Divine Peaks and clamped down on the Scorpion Saint Shadow's tail, hook and all. White light wound its way up the hook.
"Ah!" the Scorpion Saint Shadow screamed. He tried to sever his tail and escape, but the white light had sunk into