The Ruins of Zhangshi.
The core in their deepest reaches rippled slowly like an ocean. As Wang Ba once again poured Immortal Power into the horn in his hand, waves suddenly rose across the calm surface of the "deep sea"...
The waves on the sea swiftly awakened a consciousness steeped in silence and slumber.
"It" suddenly "opened" its "eyes," filled with fury. "Again!"
"Will this never end!"
"Don't think that just because you're Six... huh?"
The consciousness paused, staring in astonishment at the confrontation unfolding a short distance outside.
"It's that little monk who came here last time..."
"It" was somewhat surprised.
"Why has he come again? Is he lying in ambush here?"
"How dare he?"
And even as "it" marveled.
In the void not far away.
Wang Ba's expression was utterly grave as he watched Buddha Lord Tianshang step fully out of the void opposite him.
"Were you waiting here for me?"
Wang Ba asked in a low voice.
Buddha Lord Tianshang's expression was calm and detached, his pitch-black and bluish-purple eyes fixed on Wang Ba. Not a trace remained of the decline in his condition caused by Buddha Lord Tianyin's mutually destructive method. Instead, he possessed an indescribably greater sense of oppression than when Wang Ba had last seen him.
Without a single unnecessary word, he held one palm upright before him, formed a seal with his other hand, and gently pressed it toward Wang Ba.
There was no murderous intent, nor the slightest fluctuation of emotion. It was as ordinary as taking up a brush to write a character or reaching out to pluck a zither string.
Yet at that moment, all Wang Ba saw was an enormous Buddha with a full face standing majestically before him, tall enough to pluck the stars. Countless phantoms of Bodhisattvas