Snap.
A spark burst from the gaps in the tortoiseshell as tongues of flame licked across it, striking especially clear in the oppressive atmosphere. Seemingly sensing the heavy gazes around it, the flame trembled, quietly reining in some of its fervor and dimming somewhat.
Deep within the octagonal tower.
The Grand Diviners of the Divination Group sat gathered together, watching the flickering bonfire beneath Mister Zhuge's hands and the dark yellow tortoiseshell floating above it, silent for a time.
After a moment, Li Si, a Grand Diviner of the Immortal Qin Hunting Team, was the first to speak.
"Seconded."
He toyed with the yarrow stalks before him, squinting as though measuring the number of stalks between his fingers and the distances between them. Soon after, the other Grand Diviners voiced their opinions as well.
"Seconded."
"Seconded."
"Seconded."
Whoosh!
The pressure of their gazes lifted. Beneath the tortoiseshell, the fire sprang to life again, cheerfully licking at those scorched cracks, trying to glimpse the face of fate at the boundary between illusion and reality.
But a fair hand reached down and pressed upon the flames, effortlessly crushing that sliver of prying. Then Zhuge dusted off his hand and tucked the still-scorching tortoiseshell into his robes.
With a flick of his finger, several dim azure glimmers left his fingertips and vanished into the dark void.
Outside the octagonal tower.
At the edge of the Black Prison Battlefield.
As the wizard hunting teams originally stationed at the outer fortress withdrew one after another, the battlefield before it and the Hell Equation previously constructed by the demons grew increasingly empty. Only several enormous figures towering between heaven and earth remained, still facing off and battling.
The Archwizard who had originally sat cross-legged upon a lotus dais had risen, revealing a solemn Dharma