The Saint Lotus Seed truly lived up to its name. In no more than the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the flames had burned to the soles of Xu Zhi's thousand-zhang body. Wherever the flames passed, a transparent, crystalline silver shell blazing with radiance appeared before Xiao Hua. The imposing aura rolling from that shell through the air was utterly unrestrained. The golden light around Xiao Hua's body could not withstand it and slowly retreated without his noticing, withdrawing over a hundred miles. Beneath the silver light, Xiao Hua's figure continued to drift farther away.
Boom... The flames reached Xu Zhi's feet and transformed into a lotus-seed shape again, curling back toward the top of his head. Within several breaths, the lotus-seed flames had rushed to Xu Zhi's Immortal Mark. Whoosh... Wherever the flames fell, all aura and all radiance were drawn into the Immortal Mark. Boom... Another mass of aura burst out from within the Immortal Mark and fell into the lotus-seed flames. A trace of flowing light appeared once more upon Xu Zhi's Immortal Mark, clearly somewhat different from before. At the instant that flowing light vanished, the pillar of light that seemed to pierce heaven and earth slowly shrank, while the rift torn open in the starry sky began to close.
"Xu Zhi..." Seeing this, Fairy Xingyue hurriedly urged her body toward the pillar of light, calling urgently, "Quick! This is our last chance to return to the Immortal Realm!"
"Alright!" Xu Zhi answered. He lifted a hand and grabbed. With a light clang, the lotus-seed flames drifting above his head condensed into a single silver lotus seed.
Xu Zhi moved into the silver pillar of light. Looking toward Xiao Hua, his voice rang out like thunder. "Xiao Hua! My divination was not