.

The three of them reappeared on a vast, green plain that stretched endlessly toward the horizon for several miles.

Here, the air was much fresher and richer in pure spiritual Qi, making it an ideal place for any cultivator.

Unfortunately, none of them could settle here, as this place was part of none other than the Secret Realm itself.

After Zhu Rong had repaired it, he regained control of it and decided it would be the perfect place for what they intended to do.

They had taken quite a risk by taking out the heart directly within the manor, but it had been necessary.

Before proceeding, they needed to restore the heart's spiritual link with that plane of existence.

It was an invisible bond present in all living beings, a mark that tied them to the world they belonged to.

That bond had been severed in the past, and moving forward with their plan without reestablishing it would only cause complications later, something neither of them could afford at this moment.

So, they chose to take the risk and extract the heart outside, recreating that connection before entering the Secret Realm.

Of course, this alerted the heavens, which, unsurprisingly, wasted no time intervening to stop what they were about to do.

It was something that went against their will, but considering the long list of things that they had already done all of them against it's will lately, Zhu Rong wasn't particularly concerned about their displeasure.

Still holding the heart in his hand, Zhu Rong looked toward the figure of Liang Yuexin, who hovered above the ground before him.

A faint crimson aura enveloped him, and his eyes took on a deeper red hue. He raised his hand over Liang Yuexin and released the still-beating heart he held.

It descended slowly at first, like a drop of rain, then faster and faster, as though drawn by an unseen force toward its destination.

Once done, he wasted no time.

With a single mental command, six rays of different colors shot out from the ring on his finger and floated before him, solidifying into six distinct objects.

A long, slender horn branched like that of a deer, with a crystalline blue, bone like surface.

A single leaf, the size of a palm, perfectly shaped and deep green, with silver veins that seemed to flow like streams of living sap.

A large, curved scale, thin with jagged edges, whose color shifted as it floated, from deep blue to emerald green, streaked with black gleams that moved like liquid shadows.

A feather nearly half a meter long, crimson fading to gold at the tip. Each filament looked like it was made of living light, emitting a constant, gentle warmth, never burning, but always present, like an eternal breath.

A crystalline fragment the size of a walnut, pale blue with silvery reflections. Inside it floated a small vortex of light, resembling a miniature galaxy.

And finally, a small flame suspended above a black lotus, whose petals seemed forged from liquid obsidian.

The flame didn't burn normally; it moved slowly, as if underwater, its colors shifting from pure white to deep violet.

Six objects, each unique, rare, and magnificent in its own way.

Items so precious that, if revealed to the outside world, they could easily ignite wars across the empire.

Yet here they all were, gathered together in one place, all owned by a single man who regarded them as mere tools before making a gesture with his hand.

Instantly, all six shot upward.

One of them stopped first, the horn, and as it did, it became enveloped in a bright yellow glow that exploded outward, forming a runic matrix that expanded in every direction, soon taking the shape of a massive disc, ten meters wide, covered in countless symbols and inscriptions.

And it was only the first.

The other objects rose higher, and soon, at about ten meters above the first, another halted, the feather.

It emitted a golden orange light, and, just like the horn, a runic matrix spread from it, forming a disc twice the size of the previous one.

And so it continued.

Each object rose one by one, stopping at different heights before manifesting its own glowing matrix, each one twice as large as the last, until all six hung suspended in the sky, one above the other, their colors intertwining like layers of an ethereal formation.

Finally, the last and highest, the black lotus with the flame, stopped, releasing a dark, silvery radiance.

Its runic formation expanded rapidly, covering a vast portion of the sky, its diameter exceeding three hundred meters.

Seeing this, Zhu Rong channeled his Qi throughout his body, and as if influenced by it, the blood within Liang Yuexin began to flow faster, first in an uneven, rushing pulse through his veins, then settling into a steadier, more controlled rhythm.

Yuan Lan, taking that as the signal to begin, extended her right arm forward and closed her fingers as if grasping something in the air.

To the naked eye, it seemed as though she did nothing, but in truth, she had just seized a long web of threads, some coming from distant places, others from herself and Zhu Rong, and others still from the formations above, all converging toward Liang Yuexin.

As she did, the formations began to rotate, each in opposite directions. Their brilliance intensified rapidly, until their combined light became blinding.

At that moment, the sky above began to darken.

Black clouds gathered, but unlike before, this was not the heavens wrath nor a tribulation lighting, what was about to descend now carried a far more ancient, mystical, and sacred aura, one that made even the heavens beyond the Secret Realm tremble.

The swirling clouds condensed into a vast vortex with a pitch black center.

Then, from the formations below, a thin pillar of light shot upward, piercing the vortex. The instant it entered, the vortex convulsed violently before bursting into radiance.

A massive beam of light descended from the heavens, striking the first formation directly.

The moment it was hit, the beam stopped at that height, not by its own choice, but because it could not advance further.

The black lotus began to glow brighter and brighter until it disintegrated, allowing the light to pass through again, now darker in hue and reduced to half its previous size.

It struck the second formation, and the same thing happened,

the material dissolved, the light changed tone again, and its diameter halved once more.

This repeated four more times, each time shrinking the beam, until it reached the horn.

When it did, the light, once golden and roaring, had become a pure, blinding white no wider than a few meters.

It descended and struck everything beneath it in full.

Zhu Rong and Yuan Lan had already stepped aside, watching as Liang Yuexin's body was engulfed by the radiant pillar.

The materials served as a medium to form the entire process array needed to implant the heart into Liang Yuexin's body.

They were rare and nearly impossible to find, personally gathered by the other Zhu Rong in preparation for a future moment when they would be needed, and that moment had come.

They were things that no ordinary person could ever hope to obtain, and it was likely that many of them would not reappear in this plane of existence for millions of years, if not longer.

Their worth was immeasurable, enough to make anyone who knew their origins lose their mind.

Yet in the eyes of the man watching all of this with a calm, impassive expression, and perhaps a trace of expectation, those items were meaningless, nothing compared to the figure now immersed within the pillar of light.

It lasted only a few seconds, yet to those who witnessed it, it felt eternal.

The pillar of light flickered, contracting as if drawn inward by an invisible force, and finally burst into countless ethereal fragments that scattered through the air, dissolving like glowing ashes.

One by one, the formations in the sky vanished, and the materials at their cores crumbled into dust, leaving behind only a faint echo of their former energy.

Below, the plain where the beam had struck was completely erased.

At the center of the crater, where Liang Yuexin once was, now lay a dark cocoon streaked with violet and black veins that shimmered and pulsed like living lightning beneath its surface.

The shell was semi transparent, faintly glowing, and it throbbed gently, as if alive.

Within, a faint silhouette could be seen curled in a fetal position, wrapped in a trembling halo of light.

Her features couldn't be made out, only her shape, but with every pulse, a wave of white light rippled from her chest, momentarily pushing back the surrounding darkness.

Zhu Rong and Yuan Lan stood silently, their expressions unreadable.

The air around them still buzzed with residual energy, trembling faintly, as though the very earth itself held its breath, waiting for something… or someone, to awaken.

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