Tianyuan City, Shen Xiu's courtyard.
By the time they returned to Tianyuan City, the sky on the horizon had already begun to pale. A night of bloody battle had left everyone utterly exhausted. Murong Zhan and his men were all pale-faced and unsteady on their feet. Yet no one asked to rest, because there was something more important to do—the Heart of Darkness was still in Lin Fan's hands. Every moment this bead containing the power of the extraterritorial evil race remained in existence brought another measure of uncertainty.
Shen Xiu sat on a stone stool in the courtyard, watching Lin Fan take the Heart of Darkness from his sleeve and place it on the stone table. In the morning light, the fist-sized black bead appeared far calmer than it had on Black Cloud Mountain. The dark-red glow within the cracks on its surface no longer surged violently, but moved slowly and faintly, as though it had fallen asleep. But Shen Xiu knew this was only an illusion. The evil race's power within the bead had merely been temporarily suppressed by Lin Fan's seal. The instant that seal loosened, that power would erupt at once.
"Brother Lin, what do you plan to do with this bead?" Shen Xiu asked.
Lin Fan sat down across the stone table, resting both hands on his knees. His gaze fell upon the Heart of Darkness. After a moment of silence, he slowly said, "The Heart of Darkness is a supreme treasure of the extraterritorial evil race. It contains a wisp of the Evil Race King's origin power. That power has some kind of connection to the seal deep within the Myriad Spirit Abyss. If it is handled improperly, it could trigger a chain reaction in the seal and hasten its collapse."
Murong Zhan stood