The instant Su Jiu and Chu Luohen vanished completely, the red runes on the stone stele finally began to lose their original glow.
The crisscrossing red lines in the room disappeared along with the changes in the stele, as though everything had returned to its former stillness and nothing had ever changed.
Just then, two more figures suddenly appeared in this space, a woman and a man. They smiled at the stone stele. "Returning Shadow, it's been years."
A cloud of white mist slowly gathered within the stone stele, gradually drifting free of it. It settled beside the pair and slowly took on a human form.
"It certainly has been a long time."
"None of the four who challenged the formation this time were ordinary people: a descendant of the Luoqi Divine Race, someone born with an immaculate glazed body, a female cultivator harboring several kinds of spirits, and a male cultivator whose bodily secrets even I couldn't see through. What, not one of them caught your eye?
"I thought you would choose a master and leave this time."
Returning Shadow shook his head with a smile. "I've grown used to staying here. I really can't be bothered to run hither and thither anymore. Besides, the world won't suffer for having one fewer sacred artifact. I wouldn't be of much practical use to them.
"Being able to stay here for the rest of my life would be quite nice."
The man smiled. "Most artifact spirits long to break free of their shackles, but look at you-you've turned those shackles into something to enjoy. You fall far short of the Nine-Star World-Cleansing Pearl in that respect."
The old man shook his head. "There's no comparing us. Though we're both sacred artifacts, the Nine-Star World-Cleansing Pearl has existed far longer than I