Settlement

A viscous substance enveloped Xia Lun. Its icy touch seemed to seep into his skin through every pore. Darkness surrounded him, only to shatter into a rapid violin rondo.

He opened his eyes.

Xia Lun found himself floating in midair, as though he were in the weightlessness of space. Below him stretched an ocean of colorful fruit.

Every one of those fruits was a Memory Fruit. As he glanced around, they began to flicker, and familiar scenes suddenly appeared.

Under dim moonlight, scarlet fungal threads covered a ruined Taoist temple. The phlegmy groans of Skinned Corpses rose and fell.

Bodies lay everywhere. In the Darkroom, the corpses of civilians were piled high, their stench of rotting flesh mingling with the cloying sweetness of Yin Longevity Pills.

Torches burned dimly. Masked Cultists stood everywhere, silently watching the blood-robed Taoist Xuan Yan like identical copies. Cold sword blades reflected icy eyes.

Nuo Masks, flashes of swords, scarlet droplets of blood spraying through the air; flames, explosions, charred fragments flying in every direction; fire rising as fear of collapse and hysterical screams spread with the black smoke.

Mobs carrying torches; mushroom zombies with split-open heads crawling with fungal threads; the lean Manhunter, the ox-strong Rahu, and the veiled Man in the Flesh, hiding a soft laugh behind his hand.

The scenes flashed and changed wildly. A red Abyssal Hand towered into the clouds. Above them floated swaying red lanterns and a massive, spinning Golden Core. The city and the earth twisted and tilted, slowly drawing toward the Golden Core.

The fleeting images suddenly froze. A golden, round-pupiled eye slowly opened, and flames swallowed every scene. Fire scattered in all directions before everything condensed into a round pill gleaming with golden light!

An instant later, the pill vanished too. Golden light scattered, its liquid