Behind the three men lay Soul Slave corpses piled into a small mountain.
Before them stood a stone platform.
An ink-black heart, fully the size of a human head, floated above the platform.
It quivered faintly, giving off a steady "thump, thump."
Around it drifted a layer of black-and-white luminous dust, surrounding the heart like stars clustered around the moon.
Lin Mo narrowed his eyes and said gravely, "This is the end of the Pale Moon Soul-Suppressing Tower. There's no path ahead."
"This heart must be the Pale Moon Soul-Suppressing Tower's soul core!"
They had slaughtered countless Swollen-Head Softshell Turtles and undead Soul Slaves on their way here, nearly exhausting the Heavenly Thunder World-Cleansing Fruit's power.
Now, Lin Mo gathered the last of the heavenly thunder's power into his palm, formed it into a lightning sphere, and blasted it out.
The lightning sphere held the power to annihilate all things. It was the strongest blow Lin Mo had unleashed since their assault began.
Yet the lightning sphere never even struck the heart. The instant it touched the surrounding black-and-white luminous dust, it vanished into thin air, scattering in all directions as streams of electricity.
"...It didn't work?"
At the sight, the smiles on Feng Xu's and Mo Qing's faces froze, replaced by astonishment.
"Fellow Daoist Lin's attack was so powerful that even a Nether Guard or an Evil General might not have withstood it."
"How could the soul core, the Pale Moon Soul-Suppressing Tower's vital heart, possess such powerful defenses?"
Mo Qing asked fearfully, "Could this soul core be protected by the power of rules, just like the tower gate outside?"
Before Lin Mo could answer, the Black Tortoise's voice sounded overhead.
"No-"
"This is not the power of rules. The Netherworld cultivators have stolen my power."
Lin Mo hurriedly