The End!

"Jingle, jingle—"

The piercing, uncanny chime of copper coins echoed through the fog. The moment it sounded, the thin mist parted in layers, like snow meeting boiling water.

The old Prefect clutched his head and let out a pained growl. Veins bulged across his skin, and blood poured from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. But the next instant, he resolutely covered his ears, turned, and charged toward the dawn.

Xia Lun ignored him. His eyes were fixed on "Daoist Huang’s Eyeball" in his hand.

The eyeball shifted slightly. Blood vessels spread across its white like a spiderweb—which meant the answer to his divination was no.

Even that enormous Abyssal Hand could not stop the Man in the Flesh from continuing her Ritual!

"The mantis stalks the cicada, the oriole stalks the mantis, and then the mantis eats the oriole. Talk about a mouse running off with a wildcat." Xia Lun muttered the deadpan joke to himself. The next instant, his vision abruptly darkened.

Boom!

Agony exploded through the back of his head. His blood vessels throbbed and bulged, and his sense of vigor vanished in an instant.

Warm blood trickled from his nostrils. Xia Lun wiped it away with the back of his hand, unconcerned. If anything, his smile widened.

He had proved that Life Drain did more than combine with Weakness Insight in combat. When gathering information, the excess Life Force it provided could also offset the side effects of using "Daoist Huang’s Eyeball"!

He shook his head, cast those irrelevant thoughts aside, and turned toward Sorrow Hill City in the dream.

Golden dawnlight shone from behind him, halo after halo blooming faintly above his head like a crown.

"Time to meet the stronger version of the Man in the Flesh," he muttered.

But after only a couple