As Gu Xiaosang began to make her move, gazes fell upon her from the Vacuum Hometown, the Fusang Ancient Tree Domain, and elsewhere.
At the same time, the sound of the Dao rang ceaselessly in the ears of believer after believer, cleansing their hearts and stirring a resonance within them.
Prayers and chants rose one after another and flowed together, swelling to a magnificent crescendo.
The Myriad Heavens and Worlds shook. Endless white lotuses bloomed around Gu Xiaosang, fresh and otherworldly. They formed a Lotus Platform that bore her aloft, where she sat high above all as cool, pale light spilled down from her, like an immortal woman none dared profane.
Between Heaven and Earth, the illusory River of Time appeared. It flowed from the past, surging without end, its waters shimmering as they washed over all things and all living beings.
But unlike the River of Time as it had normally appeared, the Time Tributaries representing the future beyond the present point had grown sparse in this age—few and far between.
They were no longer endless, too numerous to count, as they had been before.
And in the past, the future reaches of the River of Time had branched in many directions, holding infinite possibilities rather than one fixed course.
Now it was different. When Cultivators of sufficient strength looked toward the future, its riot of possibilities had vanished.
Every remaining tributary pointed to a single outcome.
It was the end of all living beings and all things, the end of the world, the end of time.
At the end of time lay darkness—darkness and nothingness that made hearts quake and blood run cold.
It was the destruction of this Era and of every Era. It was the final Apocalypse!
At the true Apocalypse, the true end, even Other