The purple lightning filling the sky and the gold-and-black demonic wind and martial astral force slowly dispersed above the Linjiang Forbidden Zone.
The will of "Heavenly Dao annihilation," which had suppressed every Grandmaster and prodigy until they could not lift their heads, ebbed away like a receding tide as the purple heavenly punishment eye shattered, leaving not the slightest trace between heaven and earth.
Were it not for the mass graveyard around them, pulverized into dust, and the lingering, heart-stopping smell of scorching in the air, that apocalyptic spectacle would have seemed like nothing more than an absurd dream.
At the edge of the Bone House's ruins, the elderly Meng Po stood hunched over, the large, coarse porcelain bowl in her hand long since empty.
Her cloudy eyes, weathered by countless years, stared unblinkingly at Li Xiang, who sat cross-legged at the edge of the pit. More precisely, she was watching the interwoven dark-blue and dark-gold radiance around him as it slowly receded into his limbs and bones.
Great Sage, oh, Great Sage...
Meng Po murmured silently to herself, her shriveled lips stirring slightly. Deep within her eyes flickered an exceedingly complicated light: reminiscence, reverence, and an undisguisable trace of inquisitive curiosity.
She knew that monkey who had wreaked havoc in Heaven all too well.
He had been an unrivaled madman with "defiance" carved into the depths of his soul, one who had dared to smash even the Jade Emperor's Lingxiao Palace to pieces. This wisp of regret and malice he had severed upon attaining Buddhahood had endured countless ages in the Bone Cavern Tavern at the very bottom of the Netherworld. Time had not worn down his temperament; it had only made him more extreme, more pure.
*That staff strike pierced heavenly punishment. It certainly felt good. But before