"I won't kneel! I won't kneel! I'll be damned if I kneel!"
Xiao Fan's face twisted savagely. Blood had dyed his entire body crimson, bloody fissures opened across his skin, and his bones gave off a series of cracking sounds as they neared collapse.
Yet Xiao Fan's thoughts only grew more frenzied.
His pitch-black eyes blazed with fury, opened so wide that the corners split and bled. Blood streamed from them, and because of his awkward posture, some flowed back into his eyes, staining them a fierce red.
The nails of both his hands had long since dug into his palms. Drops of scarlet blood dripped from them onto the stone plaza beneath his feet.
At some point, Xiao Fan had descended from the void and landed in the very center of the plaza. But he was so completely lost in his frenzy that he noticed nothing.
As Xiao Fan resisted, his body was constantly torn apart. Wisps of faint white light emerged from the surrounding plaza and merged into him, repairing his torn flesh, yet he perceived none of it.
All he could feel was the tearing pain throughout his body. All he could see was that immense stone gate towering into the void, radiating an ancient, primeval aura. Its vast pressure forced him to summon every scrap of energy in his body just to resist the will that inadvertently emanated from it.
After an unknown length of time, the towering stone gate gradually faded from Xiao Fan's vision, and the will that had been crushing his mind vanished as well.
Xiao Fan felt his entire body relax. He instantly crumpled to the ground, falling flat in the center of the stone plaza. The stones beneath him had already been stained red by the blood dripping from his body.