Huo Ling listened to the conversation between the Emperor Lord and the Immortal Lord.
One terrifying term after another entered his ears, each one making his heart tremble with fear.
The scene within the great hall seemed as though time had been put on fast-forward.
People appeared and vanished intermittently.
One powerful being after another departed and returned, until in the end, they never appeared in this great hall again.
The Emperor Lord and the Immortal Lord conversed many more times within the hall.
At times, Huo Ling could clearly hear what they were saying, but most of the time, he could hear nothing at all.
Even the number of imperial guards in the hall kept dwindling.
From more than a thousand at the start, to several hundred later, until only a little over a hundred remained in the end.
The powerful figures within the hall—the many civil and military officials—also steadily grew fewer and fewer.
In the end, it seemed that no one remained in this great hall. Only Huo Ling stood there alone.
"The great calamity of the era has arrived... The Chaos Sea has submerged the Central Heavenly Court, and the immortals and gods have entered the Five Decays of Heaven and Man."
"The human path has passed away, the divine path has been severed, the immortal path has been destroyed... Chaos has arrived!"
"The Other Shore Divine Ark sails across the sea. How many of us can reach the other shore?"
"How bitter..."
Within the ruined great hall, Huo Ling's form kept changing. At times, he was a divine being clad in golden armor; at others, he was a legendary mage wearing a mage's robe.
The halls around him seemed to have returned to how they had looked when Huo Ling first arrived. Everything around him