Dead silence.
Atop the White Bone Altar, which bore the despair and curses accumulated throughout the Heavenly Abyss Fragment Realm over countless ages, there was only absolute dead silence.
Beyond the altar, the torrent of resentment that could instantly tear any Foundation Establishment cultivator to pieces seemed firmly barred by an invisible sigh, unable to stir even the slightest ripple.
Chu Bai stood quietly beneath the faintly azure-glowing [Immortal Boundary-Stele], his gaze resting on the desiccated corpse seated cross-legged before him.
The two sickly green soul flames in the corpse's eye sockets flickered like dying candles in the wind, yet held a resilience that had endured a hundred thousand years without being extinguished.
"At last... you have come... a hundred thousand years..."
"The next... inheritor of the kindling flame..."
This strand of divine sense passed through no medium, resounding directly in the deepest reaches of Chu Bai's sea of consciousness.
The voice was ancient and hoarse, steeped in boundless exhaustion, as though uttering those few words alone had consumed much of his scant remaining strength.
Yet this exceedingly faint strand of divine sense stirred towering waves in Chu Bai's sea of consciousness, which had already reached the [Quasi-Purple Abode] level.
Chu Bai could clearly sense that although this remnant soul was so weak he might scatter at any moment,
the slightest trace of primordial "Dao resonance" emanating from him was so lofty and vast that it inspired despair.
It belonged to a level utterly beyond Foundation Establishment.
Without a doubt, these withered bones had once belonged to a genuine Purple Abode Realm powerhouse, perhaps even... a supreme existence beyond Purple Abode!
Chu Bai drew a deep breath, slowly drawing the surging black-purple baleful intent around him back into his body.
Clasping his hands, he solemnly saluted the desiccated corpse as