Xuanzang pressed his palms together and slowly recited:
"Immaculate Pure Light."
His voice was low, yet it resounded like mighty bells, rolling in waves between the hall's beams and pillars.
Behind Xuanzang's head, the Golden Buddha Wheel rose inch by inch.
Soft golden radiance fell upon his shoulders, then flowed downward, slowly spreading out from behind him.
It gradually enveloped everyone in the hall.
The Queen sat beside a pillar, still wrapped in the Brocade Kasaya.
She had only just awakened and was still somewhat dazed, her gaze fixed on Xuanzang.
When that dazzling light appeared, she instinctively turned her face aside.
But the moment she did, her entire body froze.
Countless things seemed to have suddenly appeared in the hall.
The Queen looked down at a female official curled on her side beside her. Right behind the woman, a black human figure clung to her back.
It had no brows or eyes, no mouth or nose.
Only a blurry, pitch-black head, hanging low.
Its chest and abdomen pressed tightly against the official's back, as though it had been lying there for a long time.
Two slender arms reached over her shoulders from behind and rested against the sides of her neck.
Ten fingers hung against her flesh.
Beneath each pitch-black fingertip, a fine blue-black thread extended.
Those threads had already burrowed into her flesh.
They branched along the sides of her neck, utterly motionless.
As the golden light fell, the shadow seemed startled, its head jerking upward.
Then both its arms abruptly tightened!
Its ten fingers dug viciously into the sides of the official's neck.
"Urgh!"
The official's body went rigid.
At the very instant those black hands exerted force, the previously motionless blue-black threads beneath the skin of her neck shot upward together!
Several black lines raced