As the searing pain ebbed like a tide, Qian Fan's eyelashes trembled violently, and strands of hair soaked in cold sweat clung to his pale forehead.
He snapped his eyes open, his pupils shrinking to pinpoints at the sudden change in light. He instinctively propped himself up on his elbows, but the excessive force knocked over the gilded candlestick beside his bed.
The exquisite candlestick crashed to the floor, its sharp shattering echoing through the empty bedchamber. Gilded fragments and flickering candlelight reflected the star chart set into the vaulted ceiling. The stars, formed from luminous pearls, shimmered with an eerie, shifting radiance, as though enacting some ancient and mysterious celestial pattern.
"Where is this..." His voice was hoarse, frail as though he had yet to recover from a long illness.
His fingertips unconsciously dug into the soft velvet sheets beneath him. Their texture was as smooth as flowing water, yet did nothing to ease his unease.
The thirty-square-meter bed was covered with bedding woven from ice silkworm silk. Silver-thread tassels hanging from its four corners swayed gently with his breathing, tracing silent arcs through the still air.
Rather than the usual angelic crests, the tops of the bedposts bore spiral totems shaped like eyes. Tiny blue crystals were embedded in every groove, gleaming coldly in the shadows, as though they were alive and watching him.
Qian Fan stepped barefoot onto the smooth, warm green jade tiles. A chill shot from his soles up his spine, making him shudder. Staggering, he braced himself against a bedpost. As his fingertips brushed the totem's surface, the crystals suddenly emitted a faint hum. An eerie blue glow wound up his skin, tracing mysterious inscriptions around his wrist.
The unexpected discovery made his entire body tense. His fallen angel martial soul instantly unfurled behind him, yet its six wings drooped strangely. The black mist clinging to its dark purple feathers began to dissolve, as though it had lost the ability to resist this mysterious power.
"Tang San?" Suddenly recalling the last scene before he lost consciousness, he lunged toward the golden doors.
The cold sweat on his palms spread into dark marks on the doors. A liquid sheen flowed across the metal's surface. It felt neither substantial like gold nor cold like aluminum alloy, but instead like some living substance, rippling beneath his touch.
Gritting his teeth, Qian Fan unleashed Fallen Angel's Wrath. Dark purple soul power condensed into a savage, enormous claw in his palm and hurtled toward the doors with a piercing whistle. Yet the instant it touched them, it was devoured without a trace, leaving only a faint scorched smell, as though his attack had never existed.
"Looks like my soul power's been restricted too..." He retreated half a step, his back striking the cold bedpost with a dull thud.
Just then, the system interface suddenly flickered across his retinas. Dazzling red light illuminated his shocked face, but it only managed to display the red warning "Energy barrier activated" before going completely dark.
Qian Fan dug his nails deep into his palms. The pride with which he had swept across the Ten Thousand Monster Domain in his previous life crumbled to dust in that instant. Never before had he felt so powerless and insignificant.
Creak-the doors slowly opened, spilling a soft halo of light into the chamber.
Xu Fangyuan appeared in the glow, holding Xu Yuan'er's hand. The old man's plain white robe billowed without wind. As its sleeves swept across the floor, they left faint stellar trails on the green jade tiles, as though each step shattered the boundaries of space.
Qian Fan's pupils abruptly contracted. The soul power he had secretly gathered had barely formed at his fingertips before dissipating like dew evaporating beneath a blazing sun.
His Adam's apple bobbed, and he forced a smile uglier than a grimace. "You must be joking, senior. I merely noticed that these doors were made of an extraordinary material and wanted to test how sturdy they were."
His voice carried a tension and dread he could not conceal.
Xu Yuan'er suddenly broke free of her grandfather's hand. Her white dress, embroidered with silver-thread starbursts, skimmed the floor, stirring a sweet floral fragrance like the purest breeze of spring.
She tilted her head up at Qian Fan, her large, glistening eyes reflecting his stunned expression. "Big brother, don't you want to play with Yuan'er?"
The starburst ornaments in her hair swayed gently with her movements, casting tiny flecks of light across her fair cheeks like scattered stars.
Qian Fan's heart suddenly skipped a beat. The slight upward lilt at the end of the girl's words overlapped with a hazy figure buried deep in his memory, stirring recollections long sealed away.
He stepped back half a pace, only to bump into the edge of the bed with a muffled grunt. Xu Fangyuan's gaze instantly became a poison-tempered dagger. A faint scraping of chains came from within his sleeves, and danger filled the air.
"I..." Qian Fan's throat tightened. "What would you like to play, little sister Yuan'er? I'll play anything with you."
Xu Yuan'er cheered and threw herself into his arms. The fragrance of her hair curled around his nose, warm and familiar.
Qian Fan stiffly raised his hand, but just as he touched her shoulder, Xu Fangyuan interrupted him with a cold cough.
A streak of starlight flew from the old man's sleeve like a transparent blade, separating the two by half a meter. "In that case, begin teaching Yuan'er to cultivate tomorrow."
Before his words had faded, he had vanished with his granddaughter into a vortex of starlight. Qian Fan was left staring blankly at the empty doorway, with only a faint floral fragrance and a barely perceptible trace of oppressive power lingering in the air.
Meanwhile.
Within the Great Enshrined Hall on the Douluo Continent, the atmosphere was suffocatingly oppressive.
Golden Crocodile Douluo's cries pierced the heavy stone doors, filled with despair and grief.
Qian Daoliu lay on the bed. His once snow-white hair was now a frosty gray, as though he had aged decades overnight.
Specks of golden light seeped through the bandages wrapped around his chest, evidence that his formidable angel divine power was draining away.
His six-winged angel martial soul was dim and lightless, and his nine Soul Rings had lost their former brilliance. They flickered like candles about to go out, every flash seeming to tell of his ebbing life.
"Big brother! Wake up!" Golden Crocodile Douluo seized Qian Daoliu's hand, only to recoil half a step in shock at the raised dark purple markings beneath his skin.
Those markings spread like venomous snakes. Wherever they reached, his golden skin gradually cracked like a dried riverbed, as though some evil power were eating away at it.
Bibi Dong leaned against a pillar, the blood at the corner of her mouth already congealed into a black scab, her face as pale as paper. Her soul-devouring spider emperor martial soul had fallen dormant, its eight long legs hanging limply against the floor. Every venomous spine had lost its former sheen, like a withered plant.
"Notify all the elders," she said hoarsely, her exhaustion impossible to hide. Her fingertips traced defensive formation patterns across the floor, every stroke unbearably heavy. "From this day onward, Spirit Hall is under level-one lockdown."
And in the Divine Realm.
The Five Great God Kings gathered before the shattered central nexus, the atmosphere unbearably grim.
The Goddess of Life trembled as she touched the fissures in the ground. Viscous liquid seeped from those pitch-black cracks, giving off a nauseating stench.
Wherever it passed, divine inscriptions flaked away like corroded murals, as though the very foundations of the Divine Realm were being dismantled.
"We must close the ascension passage," the God King of Goodness said, tightening her grip on her scepter. The jewel at its tip shone with an ominous red light, as though heralding an impending catastrophe.
"In the bodies of the divine officials who recently disappeared, we detected... power that does not belong to the Divine Realm."
The Destruction God King suddenly swept out a blast of destructive power, a terrifying force capable of annihilating stars. Yet the instant it touched the fissure, it was swallowed without a trace.
His pupils abruptly contracted, and his face turned deathly pale. He cursed under his breath. "This isn't divine power at all. It's more like... the product of some distorted spatial law."
His voice was filled with fear and disbelief. The other God Kings turned deathly pale as well, as though every drop of blood had been drained from their faces.
A muffled explosion sounded in the distance. Dazzling white light rose from the direction of a temple, illuminating the sky over the entire Divine Realm.
The God King of Order abruptly rose, golden hair billowing without wind, eyes filled with vigilance and resolve. "Seal all spatial nodes immediately!"
Before the command had faded, the protective barrier at the edge of the Divine Realm suddenly blazed with dazzling red light, as though something were forcibly breaking through from outside. The entire Divine Realm shook violently, as though it might collapse at any moment...
Before you continue