News of Su Mo's return to the Imperial Palace soon spread beyond its walls.
Yet along with it came news that shocked the world...
Su Mo had fallen ill.
A man whose cultivation stood at the pinnacle of the Nine Heavens had actually fallen ill.
But the people of the world found little cause for doubt in this news. Instead, they all recalled that figure swaying on the verge of collapse in the void after severing heaven.
Severing heaven had not merely buried the national fortune. The Human Emperor must have paid a terrible price as well.
After all, the Human Emperor was only in the Inquiry Realm.
With Inquiry Realm cultivation, he had followed the Confucian Sage's example and severed heaven. Had anyone said it came without a price, the world would not have believed it.
And even more people believed that Su Mo had fallen ill from heartache...
These were merely rumors circulating through the world, but in truth, Su Mo had indeed fallen "ill."
However, Su Mo was not truly ill. Rather, the Book of Life and Death had absorbed too much soul incense at once. When those countless strands of soul incense entered Su Mo's body together, they carried more feelings than he could bear for the moment.
Every strand of soul incense carried a person's lifelong attachments. As those outside attachments accumulated, Su Mo's divine soul began to struggle beneath them. At least... he could not digest the emotions within that soul incense in so short a time.
Emotions by the thousands shrouded his heart, as though they sought to devour his own divine soul.
Upon returning to the Imperial Palace, Su Mo had sunk into the agony of the backlash from those countless strands of soul incense.
Every moment, his ears rang with weeping,