Now, let's return to Zhang Shuai.
The instant Xu Hong withdrew the divine inscription formation that had trapped him, Zhang Shuai, who had been on the verge of death under the refinement of the laws and whose consciousness had nearly sunk into oblivion, was like a drowning man suddenly breaking through the surface. His mind abruptly regained clarity.
However, after being trapped and refined by the divine inscription formation for so long, he was in an abysmal state. His body was riddled with wounds, his meridians were cracked like drought-stricken earth, and his divine soul flickered dimly like a candle in the wind. He was so weak that even gathering a thread of divine sense brought piercing pain and immense difficulty.
He did not even have a moment to circulate his cultivation technique and recover a sliver of vital energy.
Because the moment his consciousness returned, the destructive shockwave produced by his clone's self-destruction—powerful enough to destroy heaven and earth—had already arrived in a thunderous rush, carrying white light that annihilated all things!
Zhang Shuai's world was instantly flooded and swallowed by endless, blindingly pure white light!
Yet the expected collapse of his body and tearing of his divine soul never came.
The destructive white light washed over his body and soaked into his divine soul, but instead of bringing pure devastation and pain, it carried an indescribable sense of closeness and warmth born from their shared origin. Like spring sunlight, it quietly enveloped him through the facade of destruction.
At the heart of this world-ending light, he clearly sensed intense reluctance, boundless grief, and an unyielding will to protect him in those final moments.
It was the final imprint of his clone's divine soul, left behind before it completely dissipated!
The lightning power cultivated by the clone had originally