The instant those bright-red chunks of flesh shattered, Jiang Ding sensed something.
He turned his gaze toward the distant stars. Across ten million miles, he saw a scene unfold.
In the cold starry void, atop a meteorite, lay an old man with sallow hair matted into clumps. A blazing golden flying sword had pierced his chest, pinning him fast to the rock. He could not move an inch.
Strangely, even so, he could still draw on a trace of Void Refining essence to convert the chaos of the void into spiritual energy, replenishing and repairing himself.
This had gone on for over a thousand years!
The old man had been pinned there for a millennium, unable to move. Day and night, the terrifying, scorching Sword Qi of destruction tormented him, burning his soul and flesh. He could neither live nor die. His wails never ceased, and his hatred drove him to the brink of madness.
But at that moment, as though sensing something, the blazing golden flying sword embedded in his chest slowly faded and dissolved into nothing.
My gift to you, Sword Pavilion's sword heir.
That final whisper sounded through the void, an echo of mana left a thousand years ago.
The wound through the old man's chest healed in the blink of an eye.
"Roar!"
He rose, his eyes bloodred and wild. After more than a thousand years of unrelenting torment under the Great Sun Destruction Sword Intent, he had fallen into utter madness. He resembled a beast more than a man.
"Great Sun! Great Sun!"
"Great Sun!"
The blood-robed old man shrieked. As though he had sensed something, he turned into a streak of wild light and flew toward the small world. Like a shooting star, his crimson radiance flashed through the cosmic void, hurtling onward.
At