A confrontation like this could not be decided in a breath or two. Di Yi had already prepared himself for a prolonged tug-of-war.
Hum...
Just then, the strange lotus suddenly blazed with light, becoming a source of radiance that sent rings of halos rippling outward in every direction, toward Di Yi.
The instant the halos touched Di Yi, his entire body shone brilliantly, releasing an astonishing aura that joined the confrontation.
With this new power joining the fray, the Black Blood sensed trouble. The balance had been broken, to its disadvantage.
But it could do nothing. Its disadvantage only grew. Had it escaped its imprisonment and suppression in its entirety, there might still have been a chance to turn things around, but in reality, it was merely a slightly larger drop.
Seeing that the outcome was already decided, the Black Blood turned sinister. Then it ignited itself, along with every "Black Blood source" formed through its corruption.
In an instant, flames surged. They were clearly burning, yet the temperature plummeted instead.
If Di Yi's fire burned from the outside in, then the fire ignited by the Black Blood burned from the inside out, starting at the very roots.
"You want to shake my foundation?" Di Yi sensed the power that had originally belonged to him rapidly draining away from the places corrupted by the Black Blood. These were the laws, the order, the crystalline patterns formed by the union of flesh, blood, and bone.
He wanted to stop it, but he could not stop it at all. It was too late.
Crack! Crack! ...
Like shattering crystal, those laws, that order, and those crystalline patterns formed by the union of flesh, blood, and bone collapsed and dissolved in the flames ignited by the Black Blood.
Pain.
Agonizing pain.
As though