Yue Xiao's body, brittle as ancient frost, began to glow with the last of her Reincarnation Thread. She poured every memory, every touch, and every tear into Lu Chen's grey, vacant eyes.
"Remember me, Chen!" she cried, her form dissolving into golden stardust that flooded his soul.
For a heartbeat, it worked. Lu Chen's eyes snapped from grey to a brilliant, human gold. The Aether-Zero blade roared with the weight of a billion stolen sunsets. With a scream of pure, agonizing grief, Lu Chen drove the blade forward, shattering Fang Yuan's defensive field and piercing deep into the God's obsidian chest.
Silence fell over the world. The Rank 9 heart was punctured.
But Fang Yuan didn't scream. He didn't even flinch. He looked down at the blade buried in his chest, then up at Lu Chen with a gaze of terrifying, cold pity.
"Emotional resonance," Fang Yuan whispered, his voice as steady as a mountain. "A classic catalyst. Did you really think I didn't calculate for the Saintess's sacrifice? I needed your blade to reach its maximum 'Emotional Density' so the pill I forge from you would be... perfect."
Fang Yuan's hand closed around Lu Chen's throat, his grip crushing the Golden Qi instantly. The wound in his chest didn't bleed; it began to swallow the Aether-Zero blade, absorbing the weapon and the spirit of Lin'er into his own body.
"Thank you, Lu Chen," Fang Yuan smiled, and for the first time, it wasn't a cold smile—it was a satisfied one. "You brought me the Tenth Law, the Aether Heart, and the Reincarnation Essence all in one vessel. The Harvest is complete."
With a sickening snap, Fang Yuan extinguished the light in Lu Chen's eyes. As the hero's body turned to ash, the obsidian sky collapsed, and the Azure Sky Continent began to dissolve into the Great Refinement Cauldrons of the God who had won.