"The shadow of Holy Burial cannot descend, and our race's true bodies cannot enter this world."
Ji Wen gently stroked the cracked half of his face, his fingertips brushing the writhing fissures as bloody light glimmered in his eyes.
"If not for that madman Ji Huang, Heavenly Origin should have been torn open ages ago."
In the darkness, demonic shadows growled.
"Ji Huang."
"Ji Huang."
"Ji Huang!"
Several Heavenly Demons chewed over that name like an old wound, their voices laced with venom-and a dread they could not hide.
The Immortal Emperor who had burst onto the scene back then had single-handedly slain seven of the Twelve Dutian Demons and gravely wounded the other five. He had sealed the world barrier, severed the sacrificial path, and forcibly driven the Holy Race out of Heavenly Origin.
Countless ages had passed, yet they still remembered that humiliation.
Ji Wen's fingers slowly tightened inside his sleeves. Beneath his official robes, countless tiny tendrils pierced his skin, only for him to force them back down.
"Shh, keep your voices down. Keep them down, heeheehee."
"Our race suffered grievously, but Ji Huang isn't doing so well himself, kekeke!"
"Blood Sin brought back some precious intelligence, you know."
Then he changed tack, his voice settling back into calm. "If Ji Huang intends to piece the Thirty-Three Heavens back together, sooner or later, he will have to retrieve the other fragments."
"Those fragments are scattered everywhere-the Great Xia Ancient Dynasty, the Azure Lotus Sword Sect, the North Pole Ice God Palace... which of them hasn't hidden away a few bones of the old heavens?"
"Will they hand them over obediently?"
"Will they kneel and offer ten thousand years of accumulated foundations to the new Immortal Court?"
Countless demonic shadows circled, sneering.
"He will have to reclaim them