"This is the power we pursued..."
"After silence spanning endless epochs, at last, a successor has reached this place."
"Successor, we entrust the road ahead, that most perilous and most glorious final stretch of the return journey, to you. We can no longer walk beside you."
"You must be careful. Beware of the conceptual content that bursts from the depths of your soul, disguised as your own will."
"The virus's erosion can sometimes be far more extreme, far more pervasive than you imagine..."
"It may already have quietly taken root where you would least expect..."
On round 39999 of the Epic Divine Ability's Contemplation Return Path, the last towering "ancient heroic spirit," the One-Armed Giant wreathed in dark gold radiance on the verge of extinguishing, fell heavily.
The instant his body, vast enough to support an entire Star Domain, touched the gray ground of the Star Path, it began dissolving into brilliant light dust that drifted across the sky.
At the final moment before he vanished completely, his eyes, which had burned for untold epochs, remained fixed on Zhou Heng. There was no resentment in that gaze, no regret, only an indescribable relief, as though every burden had been lifted.
It was as though he had completed the most solemn charge entrusted to him for endless epochs.
And as the One-Armed Giant fell, new notifications quietly appeared on Zhou Heng's retinas.
[You have successfully cleared Epic Divine Ability Restoration · Round 39999 with overwhelming dominance.] [Epic Divine Ability all attributes +1eeeee]
In an instant, the numbers beside all thirteen basic attribute fields on his "Epic Divine Ability" panel leaped together to a staggering, suffocating figure that would drive any bearer of the title "Heaven" mad.
His basic attributes had all reached 1eeeee.
The seemingly unreachable first-stage panel requirements