Cold, howling mountain winds tore through the shattered ravine, carrying the sharp, bitter stench of ozone, pulverized rock, and scorched flesh.
Haoran gasped, his eyelids snapping open as consciousness violently re-anchored into his physical vessel.
The cosmic silence of his cleansed spiritual sea vanished, instantly replaced by the raw, bruising agony of reality.
The grotesque, rubbery tentacles that had sprouted from his flank had dissolved into grey ash, the weeping, lidless eyes along his arms had closed and withered, and the toothed maws embedded in his ribs had sealed back into smooth, unblemished skin.
His hair fell loose, shining like spun gold under the pale, dust-veiled sun, and his unblinking eyes returned to their deep, radiant pools of imperial celestial amber.
Yet the moment his vision cleared, the air seized in his lungs.
He found Huo Yue hugging him, still unconscious and bleeding.
