In another space-time, amid chaos concealed by the power of a Divine Ability.
Sudiluo's Imperial City was like a floating island world that had fallen into the infinite void. In every direction, above and below, lay a boundless expanse, like the endless black abyss of the starry sky.
At its center was an island, a vast floating land embodying the "round heavens and square earth" of ancient legends.
The Imperial City stood upon it, as though someone had excavated the entire city with immense Dharma Power, forcibly severed it from its surroundings, and hurled it into the stars.
Yet anyone who approached its outskirts and carefully examined the edges of that dark domain would discover billowing black Origin Energy, like smoke. Space-time resonated within it, and laws surged, revealing occasional glimpses of parched earth once soaked in blood, or Desert Ruins weathered by a thousand years of wind and sand.
Farther inside, within the Imperial City, phantom images seemed to teem across the ground paved with blue bricks and massive stones. One moment it was ordinary masonry; the next, a desolate wasteland buried beneath windblown sand.
There were still many Yakshas in the city, but practically all those at Earth Rank or above had obeyed Sudiluo's orders and departed ahead of time, taking other Yakshas closely connected to him. Most of those left behind were "useless" expendable pawns. At a critical moment, they could also serve as materials to fill out the sacrificial ritual, adding bricks and mortar to the grand resurrection plan envisioned by that survivor of the Ancient Cultivators.
"Ever since noon, the sky's been completely dark. We can't see the sun at all!"
"What on earth is going on?"
At a street corner unnoticed by the Yakshas, a group of unmistakably human captives whispered among themselves.
They