But one must not forget: this Ancestral Spirit had always been under someone's control, whether Tang Changsheng's or the Dushi Divine Hall's.
It had spent almost all its time asleep. Now it wanted to resist.
But the Corpse-Guarding Worm Tang Changsheng had planted inside it swiftly stirred. It devoured the Ancestral God's body, multiplying and dividing at a furious pace.
In the blink of an eye, that single Corpse-Guarding Worm had spawned countless others. Together with Wishfire's assault, they gave the Ancestral God scarcely a chance to resist before it was refined alive.
Even so, the process lasted almost the entire night—a measure of just how immense its power had been.
Then an unbroken stream of light poured into Tang Changsheng's Secret Aperture, setting the Heavenly Star trembling.
Within that light, a Hongdong took shape and grew ever stronger. At last, amid a thunderous tremor, it stepped out into the air.
"Thank you for the effort, fellow Daoist. Guard this place from now on!"
"It's no great hardship. Help will be here soon enough. You're the one who needs to be careful. This time, you've thoroughly offended the Dushi Divine Hall!"
"Hmph. I offended the Dushi Divine Hall long ago! One more offense won't make a difference..."
King Pan City still seemed to flourish. Nothing about it betrayed the loss of Crown Prince Shao Jun and the tens of thousands of troops wiped out alongside him.
In truth, an army of a hundred thousand meant little to King Pan City. If word of Crown Prince Shao Jun's death had not been among the news, the defeat might not have caused so much as a ripple here.
After all, the King Pan commanded countless tribes and armies numbering in the tens of millions.
The Black Rock Mountains were merely a