Silence.
Between heaven and earth, only a deathly silence remained.
The hundreds of millions of dark purple demonic shadows above Vulture Peak no longer stirred. Even the cold gleam of the God-Slaying Spear had temporarily faded. Luohu stood with the spear in hand, that sinister smile lingering on his lips as he leisurely awaited an answer.
Outside Vulture Peak, across tens of thousands of miles of sky, countless watching cultivators were equally silent. They deliberately softened even their breathing, afraid the slightest sound might break this unbearably taut stillness.
Everyone was waiting.
Waiting for Jieyin and Zhunti's response.
It would mark another turning point in the balance of power across the entire Primordial World.
Within Vulture Peak.
Jieyin and Zhunti stood shoulder to shoulder. Beneath their feet lay the blood-soaked earth of Vulture Peak; behind them stood the surviving, trembling Buddhist School disciples. Before them stood Luohu, holding the God-Slaying Spear with a mocking expression.
Upon hearing Luohu's words, both their expressions had changed drastically.
Without question, it was just as everyone had said.
This condition was more agonizing to them than death.
Bow and admit fault.
To an ordinary cultivator, those words might mean no more than losing some face.
But to Jieyin and Zhunti, they were a devastating blow.
They were two mighty Sages, the two leaders of the Buddhist School, supreme beings worshipped by hundreds of millions of living beings.
If they bowed to Luohu and admitted fault before all the beings of the Primordial World, would they not become a laughingstock for all eternity?
What dignity would the Buddhist School have left?
Where would its authority be?
More frightening still, once this humiliation descended upon them, it could never be washed away.
Ten thousand years, a hundred thousand years, a million years... even until the