Inside the Dewlight Pavilion, there was a deathly silence.
When Phainon stepped in again, the surrounding air seemed to solidify around him.
Inside the pavilion, Dan Shu stood as still as before.
Only this time, on the stone table in front of her, a warm jade box rested quietly.
"This is a 'Cloud-Feasting Dew-Gathering Pill,'" Dan Shu said, without turning around, her voice carrying a compassionate allure through the air.
"Outsiders travel thousands of miles, displaced and wandering, seeking nothing but this. Take it, and you will break free from the shackles of your mortal body and embrace the supreme blessing of the Abundance's Divine Lord."
Phainon's gaze fell upon the jade box.
Beneath the golden mask, his lips silently curved into a smile.
"So, whose spinal fluid did you drain this time?"
His voice was calm, yet it exposed Dan Shu's hypocrisy, leaving her nowhere to hide.
Dan Shu's body stiffened for a moment.
But she quickly recovered, her voice still so gentle that not a ripple could be heard.
"This is a necessary sacrifice."
"Your trial is to swallow it."
Phainon's movements showed no hesitation; he stepped forward and opened the jade box.
A pill, glowing with the aura of life, lay within, exuding an intoxicating vitality.
Phainon picked up the pill, pushed aside a corner of his mask, and, without even looking, tossed it into his mouth.
His movements were fluid and natural, as if he were swallowing an ordinary candy.
Dan Shu tilted her head slightly.
She immersed her entire being in listening, eager to catch the grand and magnificent symphony of life that was about to unfold within Phainon's body!
She was anticipating it.
Anticipating that vast life force to explode within the man in black robes.
Anticipating him to be overwhelmed by the power of Abundance, losing his sanity, falling into demonic delusion, and completing his true evolution.
However... one breath.
Two breaths.
Three breaths.
Nothing happened.
That supreme immortal medicine, capable of making stones bloom and withered bones grow flesh, was like a clay ox entering the sea.
There was no surge of energy, no fluctuation of aura, not even a ripple.
It was as if a pebble had sunk into a dead sea.
Dan Shu's perpetually gentle and compassionate face finally faltered.
Her vacant eyes suddenly "looked" at Phainon, her voice filled with undisguised shock and confusion.
"What exactly is your body?"
"Are you talking about the feeling?" Phainon tilted his head, his icy blue eyes clearly reflecting Dan Shu's discomposed face.
He commented, "It tastes good. A little sweet."
"This is impossible!"
Dan Shu's voice suddenly grew sharp, "The blessing of Abundance! The power of the Medicine Master! Why is it ineffective against you?!"
Phainon did not answer.
He simply stood there quietly.
No one knew that within him, a war had ended before it even began.
The moment the pill entered his throat, the torrent of life, representing the rampant growth of madness, tried to scour and transform every corner of his existence.
But what did it encounter?
It encountered an eternally burning furnace.
The 'life' of Abundance, before it even touched him, was completely evaporated, burned away, and erased.
Along with the life force contained within it, it all returned to nothingness!
Dan Shu's expression suddenly changed dramatically.
She couldn't hear anything.
She couldn't hear anything at all.
That which was shrouded beneath the black robe was not a body of flesh and blood at all.
It was a furnace that incinerated all things!
She finally understood why the man before her was so mad.
Because within him, there was no longer any place for 'life'!
"So... that's how it is... So, perfection is also a kind of natural flaw."
The shock on Dan Shu's face faded, replaced by a morbid appreciation.
She had once thought Phainon was a pitiful person who needed to be saved.
Only at this moment did she realize with a start that the man's very existence was the greatest blasphemy against the word "Abundance."
His existence simply could not bear the blessing of "endless life."
"Your test is complete."
Dan Shu's voice returned to their gentle tone.
"Once I am ready, I will notify you. At that time, you will witness with your own eyes... the rebirth of the Ambrosial Arbor."
As her words fell.
A gentle breeze came, stirring the wind chimes on the pavilion's eaves.
Phainon's figure had long since vanished.
Dan Shu stood alone in the pavilion, and after a long while, she let out a low, dreamlike whisper.
"A man whom even Abundance cannot bless..."
"A man who walks in opposition to Abundance..."
She looked up, her vacant eyes seemingly piercing through the sky, seeing that arrow that forever patrolled the star sea, hunting down everything related to Abundance.
Viewing longevity as a sin!
Among all things in the world, the only one hostile to Abundance is The Hunt.
"Could it be that he..."
"Has already been recognized by the Reignbow Arbiter?!"