When the sword light surged from the tip, it made no sound, like a drop of ink falling into the deep sea...
Yet the instant it touched the giant whale's body, it erupted into silvery white light, like stars being born.
The sword light pierced straight through the Demon Empress, splitting her enormous body in two.
Everything shattered layer by layer within the sword light, breaking apart into dark motes that filled the sky.
In the final moment before death...
She saw the past.
She saw the deep sea.
The dark, warm deep sea that had been hers twenty thousand years ago.
She saw him swimming beside her, a figure like moonlight in the depths.
He turned to look at her. Faint phosphorescence from the seabed glimmered in his eyes, gentle and still.
She reached toward him, her hand trembling faintly in the air.
Everything turned to darkness.
At last, Cao Xin took one long look at the place where the Demon Empress had vanished, then chose to leave.
His figure disappeared from the blood-soaked ruins like a wisp of dust scattered by the wind, melting into the red haze slowly receding from the sky.
With the Blood River God-Slaying Array gone, the sky over the Dou Ling Continent gradually regained its original color. The dark red drained from the clouds layer by layer, revealing the cold, clear blue of late autumn.
Amid the scattered ruins, survivors poked their heads out from cellars and behind broken walls. They gazed at the sky, normal once more, not knowing what had happened or whom to thank.
A moment later, Cao Xin appeared above a massive pit in the heart of the Far North.
As he stepped out of the void...
Beneath his feet lay ice that had not melted in ten