When Dugu Jiu's figure vanished over the horizon, three thousand steel blades disintegrated into iron dust, and an inch-long sword mark was left on the web of each wielder's hand.
-----------------
On the Observatory, the pool of blood suddenly erupted into a thirty-foot wave, and the force of the blast sent Guo Lang's Daoist Hat flying.
Blue veins bulged on his bare scalp, and jade-white tendons gleamed with a cold light under the moon.
The twelve main Blood Jars wailed in unison, and the Profound Iron Chains sealing their mouths were melted into liquid iron by the boiling blood within.
Guo Lang had no choice but to stop, staring blankly at the Blood Jars before him.
"Why have you stopped?"
The Empress's voice drifted from beneath the Nine Dragon Canopy, her Twelve-Streamed Jade Crown swaying slightly.
The golden bricks beneath her feet, etched with the Profound Bird Pattern, were beginning to crack, and a blackish-red Dirt Qi from the Earth Vein seeped from the fissures.
