Wu Heng stood on a relatively stable patch of "ground."
This was not actually ground, but the enormous shell of some unknown creature. Its surface was covered in honeycomb-like structures, with pale yellow mucus seeping from every hole.
A magic array had been carved beneath his feet, its grooves cutting deep into the shell. The edges were smooth, as though laser-cut.
At the center of the array sat a fist-sized black crystal, countless specks of light flowing within it.
He waited in silence.
Behind him, the Puppet Wraith floated quietly.
Its mass of tentacles writhed slowly, as if breathing. Compared to the real world, it had shrunk by half, but its core structure had become denser. Every tentacle gleamed with a metallic sheen.
After waiting for around ten minutes, the black crystal at the center of the array suddenly lit up and turned transparent.
Through the crystal, he could see the scene on the other side: South Dakota on Earth, directly beneath the healing pit inside the abandoned warehouse.
The viewpoint looked upward from below, as if from the bottom of the pit.
Then, a massive number of light specks began to fall.
Pale yellow specks, numbering in the thousands upon thousands, emerged from the void above the crystal like rain flowing upstream. They slowly descended, passed through the crystal, and landed on the magic array.
Every speck was a fragment of a Purgatory soul.
But unlike before, these fragments were extraordinarily pure. There were no impurities, no chaotic memories, no agonized howls—only the essence of pure energy remained.
It was like wheat ground into flour, with the bran and impurities sifted away.
Wu Heng raised a hand.
The Puppet Wraith's tentacles extended all at once, spreading like blooming petals to catch every falling speck of light. Countless tiny mouths