Qin Ling'er's voice carried resolve, along with a trace of barely concealed reluctance and exhaustion.
She had always been an incomplete spirit body, existing by relying on the Spirit Embryo Incarnation. Previously, in the Eastern Wasteland, she had already self-destructed once to help Gu Sheng fight Xiao Beixuan. Although she had later received nourishment and recovered somewhat within the Imperial Sect ruins, she was still far from returning to her peak. Choosing to self-destruct the spirit embryo again now was no different from damaging her very foundation. She might even fall into eternal slumber.
Gu Sheng's heart clenched sharply, and an indescribably complicated emotion surged within him. Yet the situation was critical, leaving him no room for hesitation or grief.
He could only respond as quickly as possible within his sea of consciousness.
"Ling'er... thank you! I promise you, I will survive! Wait for me to wake you!"
This entire exchange of thoughts took place within one-hundredth, or even one-thousandth, of an instant.
And in that fleeting moment, at the center of the arena, the true qi and Venerable Dao essence boiling within Shi Wufeng finally erupted completely!
There was no earth-shaking boom as a prelude. What appeared first was a ring of gray-black destructive energy ripples, visible to the naked eye and distorting the light. Centered on Shi Wufeng's ruined body, they spread soundlessly yet with incomparably terrifying speed! Wherever they passed, the void let out a groan of unbearable strain and trembled violently, like a massive boulder thrown into calm water!
Dense, pitch-black spatial cracks, as savage as lightning, appeared from nowhere, spread, and intersected across several hundred zhang along with the expanding ripples! This was the self-destruction of a Venerable Realm origin. The intensity of energy released in that instant had reached a terrifying level capable of