The star of fortune shone high, bathing the mortal world in its light.
Crimson fortune light churned in chaotic waves. The star rose ever more slowly until it finally stopped, while Qi Changsheng's figure grew increasingly indistinct, as though he would dissolve into the Dao.
The northern heavens tore open, and the night sky shattered.
A vast, wondrous white beast's head slowly turned toward them. Its eyes, as large as stars, rolled as it surveyed the heavens for traces.
Bai Ze.
Endless divine Dao qi arose from this strange beast's body. Its divine status was far below that of the Golden Cores Xu Xuan had seen before; on closer inspection, it was only comparable to Jiang Li of the Upper Firmament.
A divine core.
Indeed, a divine core in an exceedingly poor state, one that had never reached perfection.
Such a being might easily decide the life or death of a Purple Mansion cultivator, but it differed fundamentally from a True Lord.
He... might not possess authority, or rather, might have no autonomy in wielding it.
Xu Xuan's mind gradually stilled. Like the Purple Mansion cultivators around him, he remained motionless, making no unusual move.
Yet Bai Ze's head in Northern Heaven spoke again. His beastly face seemed to change from moment to moment, resisting any definite shape beneath a radiance of the three virtues.
He spoke again. "Greater Yin?"
No one answered his question, nor was there the slightest sign of anything unusual.
But Bai Ze seemed to notice something then and gradually vanished. Behind his white beast's head trailed ethereal clouds of merit, their cloudy body covered in orchids, immortal peaches, and golden plums, with no beast's body in sight.
The northern night sky slowly closed, and everything returned to normal. Now, however, the many Purple Mansion cultivators