Inside the room.
Surprise crossed Xu Yuan's face.
Qi Canghai had actually come?
Was he here to kill me?
...No.
He was buying time!
How could that be?
Xu Jingchen glanced out the window, chanting arcane incantations without pause. All the light gathered above Xu Yuan's head.
Countless deities appeared from Emptiness, joining the chant and guarding him on either side.
Realizations and knowledge of the "inhuman" and the "non-nonhuman" surfaced in Xu Yuan's mind—
This knowledge belonged neither to living beings nor to the Immortal Species.
They were Rules born after the Universe underwent Dimensional Ascension!
A special power far above all else!
At that moment,
understanding dawned on him.
The entire Dark Crown Ritual had been eroded, corrupted, and altered.
Over countless Epochs,
many who had carried out the Coronation Ceremony had been forced to vanish under a profoundly malicious influence, never to exist again.
Humanity had never completed the true Dark Crown Ritual!
In the end, with no other choice,
the Jailer had been forced to use the Rule of Imprisonment to trap the three executors of Transaction, Devouring, and Calling.
He had done it to keep them alive!
Afterward, the Jailer, too, had vanished under the erosion of that profound malice!
What Xu Yuan was about to undergo Coronation for was the Jailer's Imprisonment!
The ritual had reached its most critical moment!
"Faster... just a little faster..."
Xu Yuan closed his eyes and murmured.
Nearby,
the Vendor, the Cook, and the Retainer exchanged glances and nodded to one another.
"There might... be a glimmer of hope," the Vendor said, clenching his fists.
"No one's completed the true Dark Crown in countless Epochs. We might as well gamble on this." The Cook lowered his head and looked at the dry, rough calluses on his hands.
"We're imprisoned