Elsewhere, in the highest hall at Heavenly Abyss Pass.
Xiao Canglan stood before a window, his gaze piercing the formation's spiritual radiance as he watched the Five-Colored Escape Light recede into the eastern sky.
The escape light flew resolutely onward, without the slightest reluctance.
It soon dwindled to a barely perceptible speck on the horizon, then vanished completely into the boundless sea of clouds.
Yue Hanshan's burly figure waited nearby, his expression gloomy. Only after a long silence did he speak. "Spirit Venerable, are we just... letting him leave? How many resources has Heavenly Abyss Pass poured into him over the past century and more? Vast quantities of spirit stones, military equipment, fortune empowerment-he could take almost anything he wanted!"
"Now that we've finally seen results, the blade has slipped free of its sheath and gone far away before its edge has even dulled! We've simply handed him all those benefits for nothing! Hasn't all our painstaking effort gone down the river?"
Xiao Canglan did not answer immediately. He continued gazing in the direction Qing Chen had vanished, his eyes unfathomable.
After a long while, he gave a soft sigh, laden with complicated meaning: regret, anger, and a trace of appreciation.
"Hanshan," he finally said, "my decision is made."
He paused, then continued, "As I see it, Qing Chen is by no means someone content to remain beneath others. He can bend and straighten as circumstances demand, like a jackal or wolf whose wild nature cannot be tamed.
"Today, under my pressure, he preferred to bleed from all seven orifices and suffer injury to his divine soul rather than give up sustaining a domain of rules to temper his divine soul. Such ambition must be considered, and must be guarded against."
Yue Hanshan's brows knitted tightly. "Then we must beware