"Careful."
Sensing something strange within the fragments, Xu Shi instinctively pulled Xie Qingyan back a step.
In truth, he did not need to warn her. The dog woman had already become wary herself—after all, she was not really some lovestruck little girl who could not walk away at the sight of beautiful scenery.
The ones truly unable to move were the creatures living inside the Sea God's body. As those specks of starlight scattered down, the fish immediately gathered into schools as if by conditioned reflex and began to migrate. The immobile seaweed and coral swayed their bodies as though dancing in the wind.
Rather than gradually fading away, the starlight slowly converged like magnetic shards, forming a smooth sphere that floated within the vast space.
"Is this some kind of mineral?"
Xie Qingyan blinked, her fascination entirely turning into curiosity. "But it doesn't look like one either... This sphere doesn't even have a physical form."
After all, she had clearly seen the fragments pass straight through the school of fish when they gathered just now.
Yet the "Rust Fog" energy contained within those fragments was extraordinarily immense. As an S-rank Ascendant, when she calmed down and sensed it, she actually felt a trace of awe born from her own insignificance.
It had nothing to do with her personality. It was simply the instinctive reaction of the weak when facing the strong, the basic law of survival of the fittest.
"Definitely not."
Xu Shi felt the same way, and it gave him a rough idea. "I feel like this is more like..."
Before he could finish, he saw the sphere change again.
The sphere, which had already stabilized, suddenly contracted inward sharply as though taking a deep breath. Then it burst apart soundlessly. Yet it did not turn back into