"Boom!"
An earth-shaking crash rang out.
The entire Rebirth Tower exploded, shattering inch by inch from its tip downward.
Before the fragments could reach the ground, they dissolved into specks of ghostly light in midair, scattering like countless fireflies.
A gale swept through the valley. The gray-black mist seemed to come alive, churning madly as it surged toward the collapsing tower.
Wherever the mist passed, the rocks hissed, as though something were gnawing at them.
Then something new slowly emerged from the shattered tower.
It was a furnace, a furnace a thousand zhang tall! Pitch-black all over, it nonetheless glimmered with an eerie bloody light!
The furnace had eight corners, each carved with a hideous ghost's head! Those ghosts gaped with blood-filled maws and exposed fangs, as though roaring soundlessly!
Densely packed images covered the furnace's surface. Cultivators fought to the death! Devils wailed! Demon beasts devoured! Evil ghosts grinned savagely!
Together, those images formed a purgatory diagram!
Beneath the furnace, three-colored flames rose.
One was ghostly blue, one dark purple, and one scarlet.
The three colors intertwined, surging from deep beneath the furnace and licking its body with a sizzling sound.
Mountain winds howled, and the valley suddenly fell quiet.
A quarter of an hour earlier, terrifying powers had been colliding here. Now there was nothing.
Only the thousand-zhang furnace stood quietly, casting a riot of colors over the surrounding gray-black mist, like an overturned pot of poison, eerily brilliant and utterly terrifying.
A figure slowly emerged from the mountain's shadow.
White hair.
Black robes.
Bare feet.
It was a woman. She walked slowly, as though treading on clouds, yet also as though treading on knife edges.
With every step, a thin layer of ghostly green light separated her soles from the ground.
It was Zhao Ningyi.
She