The pillar of light began to collapse, flakes of radiance peeling off and drifting down slowly like falling leaves.
Inside the entire light pillar, there was only one ship—the Adjudicator.
The Ora people’s ship compressed into a perfect crystal hexahedron and was captured by the passing Adjudicator.
The form of the Giant Sound Whale Elder dissipated within the light pillar, leaving only hundreds upon thousands of baby Giant Sound Whales, struggling to bear the heavy burden as they pressed forward toward the figure standing tall at the exit in the distance.
“Keep going!”
Both sides cheered each other on.
Closer. Even closer.
Lin Xiaohe’s wings of light dissolved into motes of radiance, scattering in every direction.
She was exhausted beyond her limits, so weak that only instinct kept her going.
One baby Giant Sound Whale after another, unable to withstand the violent rays of light, burst into clouds of stardust.
A hundred li. Fifty li.
They were clearly only that tiny distance away, yet the Adjudicator struggled forward with extraordinary difficulty.
Lin Xiaohe forced her eyes open. The stardust from the last baby Giant Sound Whale’s explosion left speckles across her irises.
Only the final ten li remained.
Lin Xiaohe felt her body was on the verge of splitting apart into pieces.
If not for the three-quarters of a divine spark she possessed, she would have long since remained forever in the light pillar, just like the Giant Sound Whale Elder.
Hold on. Just hold on a little longer.
Hold on until the Adjudicator escapes, and then she could finally rest completely.
The Adjudicator had no viewing windows, but through the shell of the Void Devourer, Lin Xiaohe seemed to lock eyes with everyone inside the Adjudicator.
That second stretched as long as ten thousand years.
Hardy gave the decisive order: “Open the energy channel, fire up the engines—let’s give it everything we’ve got!”
They were gambling that the engines’ final burst of thrust could carry the Adjudicator across the ten-li gap between life and death!
Not far away, inside a silver warship, the Awakened clenched their fists and shouted at the top of their lungs.
“Adjudicator, hurry! You can do it!”
“Five li!”
“Three li!”
“Two li!”
“They’re out!”
The Awakened erupted in thunderous cheers, hugging each other, overjoyed at the Adjudicator’s escape.
Yet in the very next second, before the delight could fade from their faces, their pupils flashed with terror.
“No! Xiaohe!” The Lin family members let out heart-wrenching cries, throwing themselves against the observation window, their eyes nearly splitting with anguish.
They saw Lin Xiaohe—with a thunderous boom—flattened like a pressed loaf of bread, about to plunge into the boundless void.
Suddenly, a beam of light shot out from Chang Qing’s body. At an impossible speed, it raced into the light pillar before the exit passage could fully close.
When the light pillar sealed completely shut, waves of powerful energy ripples spread rapidly in all directions.
Chang Qing’s dimension-piercing ship hooked onto the Adjudicator, using a curvature bubble to fold space, and fled the area as if running for dear life.
In the final second of the jump, Chang Qing looked back, his voice heavy with grief: “The starry sky shines brilliant and vast, yet you fall forever into darkness. The road ahead—I’ll walk it for you.”
Lin Xiaohe watched the Adjudicator finally escape and wore a faint smile of relief.
Her body, tempered by the divine spark, ultimately could not withstand the collapse of the universe and crumbled into ash.
Just then, a beam of light shot in from beyond the domain.
As if possessing its own consciousness, it merged with the battered three-quarters of a divine spark.
What was the process of becoming a [Domain Sovereign] like?
If Lin Xiaohe were to describe it, it was boundless darkness, and a heart-stopping, tumultuous upheaval in the final moments of life.
She seemed to be rising continuously, her psionic level increasing at an extreme rate, faster and faster, as if an acceleration field existed that rapidly elevated and strengthened her.
The space-time around her warped violently. Two intensely powerful light pillars were on the verge of forming a closed circle.
Lin Xiaohe had a premonition that once this circle fully closed, nothing could escape from it—including herself.
Perhaps because the previous three-quarters of the divine spark had been depleted too much, or perhaps because the one-quarter of the divine spark came from a Domain Sovereign beyond the domain and did not cooperate with the other divine sparks, the two beams of light stopped just as they were about to close.
Lin Xiaohe let out a quiet sigh of relief.
If there was hope of living, who would willingly choose death?
A complete divine spark was extremely domineering.
A fluctuation that transcended all things swept across every particle of Lin Xiaohe’s body, branding it with the mark of the divine spark.
But this process did not go smoothly. The divine spark encountered the [Unnameable Existence].
The two sides fought fiercely, locked in battle.
Although the [Unnameable Existence] was few in number, its strength was immense.
Back and forth they fought, Lin Xiaohe’s body shattering and reforming, shattering again, and continuing to reform.
Lin Xiaohe…
Please, I’m begging you—could you two pay attention to whose body this is? Could you show some respect for the owner?!
The Void was about to arrive, and you’re still fighting! Still fighting! Can’t you shake hands and make peace, be good roommates—is that so hard?
Lin Xiaohe had no control over these two troublemakers.
With disaster looming, the divine spark and the [Unnameable Existence] were still going at it hammer and tongs.
When the first touch of the Void was about to reach Lin Xiaohe, these two finally cooperated.
A massive coffin appeared out of nowhere, ignoring the Void as if it had materialized from thin air, descended upon this place, and then vanished on the spot.
What vanished along with it was Lin Xiaohe.
Nine dragons bearing a coffin—and they carried her away too.
She lay inside the coffin, watching like a bystander as the divine spark and the [Unnameable Existence] fought over her body.
What a pain in the ass.
What was even more of a pain in the ass was that she couldn’t get out of the coffin.
Right—she was just a stowaway, not the coffin’s owner.
Hehe.
Lin Xiaohe kept a straight face. Not hehe at all!!
Time inside the coffin was long and maddening.
Lin Xiaohe couldn’t sense any changes in the outside world, nor could she control her own body.
She could only curl up in a corner and amuse herself.
“Hey hey, anyone there? Do you know who I am? I’m super strong!”
“Once upon a time there was a mountain, and on the mountain there was a temple, and in the temple there was a coffin, and in the coffin there was a poor unlucky soul.”
“Malan blooms twenty-one—what comes next again?”
Who knew how many years passed. Lin Xiaohe muttered every word she could say, every sentence she could string together, until she finally reached the predicament of having nothing left to say.
The divine spark and the [Unnameable Existence] finally stopped fighting. They each occupied a position on Lin Xiaohe’s new body, minding their own business like well water not crossing river water.
Lin Xiaohe returned to her own body and wept with joy.
What a perfect body this was! Sleek lines, every detail of the fiery red battle armor exquisitely crafted, brimming with a sense of power.
Wasn’t this the God of War themselves?!
Loved it. Loved it.
Lin Xiaohe returned to her body and lay there serenely.
She didn’t think about what the Adjudicator might encounter, or whether it could survive beyond the domain.
She felt she had already fulfilled her duty as Sovereign—the Adjudicator’s fate had nothing to do with her… As if!
“Let me out! Let me out right now!”
If you don’t stay silent in the darkness, you’ll go mad in the darkness!
Lin Xiaohe pounded on the coffin lid with a clang-clang-clang.
This life—she couldn’t endure another second of it!
Just as Lin Xiaohe was going about her daily routine of banging on the coffin board, she keenly sensed a fluctuation.
A Descender was nearby!
