A vast hum, sounding not in their eardrums but in the deepest reaches of their souls, erupted with a thunderous crash.
It was neither a chime nor a deafening roar, but more like an irresistible rhythm of rules rising from the very source.
That tremor of the soul was like a signal, a final rest in a score.
The rotating Taiji Diagram abruptly blurred, and the phantasmal black-and-white petals surrounding them snapped inward!
In the next instant, the enormous phantom Yin-Yang Twin Lives Flower enveloping them, together with the madly spinning Taiji Diagram within it, seemed to exhaust its last trace of strength. Like a dream or a bursting bubble, it vanished into the air without a trace, with a soft "pop."
The light faded.
Only flickering candlelight remained in the secret chamber.
On the bed, Chen Xiaojun and Xiao Yi still sat cross-legged facing each other, their palms pressed together.
Yet the surging, intertwined fluctuations of soul power around them had completely subsided.
Chen Xiaojun's eyes were tightly closed, his head slightly bowed. His breathing was long and faint, as though that soul-stirring resonance had utterly drained his essence, energy, and spirit, plunging him into the deepest stillness of divinity.
Across from him, Xiao Yi seemed to be in even worse condition.
Her graceful body leaned limply backward. Had Chen Xiaojun's hands not still held hers, she would have collapsed.
Long lashes veiled her eyes, and the enchanting flush on her cheeks had not entirely faded. Yet her aura had grown so faint it was almost nonexistent, as though she had exhausted all her life energy and fallen into profound sleep and unconsciousness, utterly unresponsive to the outside world.
Yet in that brief interval, an upheaval far beyond ordinary imagination erupted within Chen Xiaojun's upper soul nest.
Then,