The Dao Fruit

Order Dao Ancestor turned back and glanced at them.

Unwillingness.

The second scene was the moment the seal took shape.

Order Dao Ancestor stood at the center of the formation, golden flames swirling around him.

Those flames were his Dao Fruit burning, the cultivation of his entire life burning, his very life burning.

He looked at the sealed Hand of the Lord of Corruption, at the spatial rifts slowly healing, at the Dao Ancestors kneeling in the distance with gratitude in their eyes.

He should have been at peace.

But he was not.

He looked into the depths of the void.

There, the Lord of Corruption's true body was slowly retreating, its scarlet eyes still fixed upon him.

Within those eyes were madness, greed, and mockery.

Mocking him for choosing the seal when he had clearly had a chance to break through.

Mocking him for choosing death when he could clearly have survived.

Order Dao Ancestor watched those eyes, his lips moving faintly.

Chu Ming clearly made out the shape of the words.

They were two words.

"What a pity."

The third scene was the moment his body dispersed.

His feet vanished, turning into drifting motes of golden light.

Then came his legs... his torso...

Those motes floated into the heart of the formation, merging into the chains and becoming part of the seal.

In the end, only a head remained.

That head floated in the void, its eyes half-open and half-closed, its expression peaceful.

Yet deep within those eyes, a trace of light flickered.

Within that light was unwillingness.

A deep, lingering unwillingness that could never be let go.

"Just half a step..."

His voice grew softer and softer, farther and farther away.

"Just half a step, and I could..."

Before he could finish.

His head, too, turned into