The palace-robed woman suddenly flung the copper coin in her hand high into the air. With a flash of spiritual light, it transformed into a copper basin roughly a foot across, which plummeted downward and landed precisely in the center of the stone platform.
The basin's surface was covered in layers of extraordinarily complex runes, and within it a hazy purple sphere of light flickered ceaselessly, as though something was hidden inside — yet impossible to make out with any clarity.
The palace-robed woman's expression did not change. She simply extended one slender jade finger and calmly tapped in eight different directions toward the wooden figures arranged around her.
Immediately, the motionless wooden figures began emanating waves of eerie black mist from their surfaces. The mist then coalesced, condensing into eight grotesque ghost faces of different appearances.
They emitted terrifying low growls from behind the wooden figures, writhing and shaking their heads wildly, yet found themselves unable to stray more than a short distance from the wood — clearly bound fast to them.
"Prepare the offering," the palace-robed woman said coolly, paying the strange transformation of the wooden figures no heed whatsoever.
"Yes, Master!"
The black-armored giant acknowledged immediately, then flickered to a position directly above the stone platform and slapped a palm hard against his waist.
With a wet squelch, a palm-sized black leather bag shot out from his body. It spun rapidly, ballooning to roughly ten feet in size, then inverted itself above the purple copper basin.
The mouth of the bag yawned open and a torrent of blood gushed forth, pouring down onto the purple sphere of light in the basin.
Then something strange occurred.
Despite the blood cascading down like a waterfall, the basin — which appeared far too small to contain any significant volume — seemed to have no bottom whatsoever, swallowing every last drop without so much as brimming over.
The black-armored giant appeared entirely unsurised by this, merely maintaining a one-handed seal to keep driving the black leather bag.
For the span of a full meal's time, the bag continued pouring out blood — well over a thousand jin — yet the flow remained steady, showing no sign of weakening or ceasing.
"That's enough, that should do it. This vital blood was obtained from slain Integration Stage ancient beasts — it was no simple matter to collect, so we ought to conserve what we can," the palace-robed woman said suddenly, her slender brows shifting.
"As you command!" The black-armored giant grasped the air with one hand toward the bag.
The torrent of blood immediately ceased as a flash of light appeared at the bag's mouth. The bag shrank back to its original size and flew back toward the giant.
The palace-robed woman took a light breath and formed a seal with one hand. Behind her, a massive pink tree shimmered into existence.
The tree was crystalline and translucent, its branches laden with fist-sized pink blossoms of an unusual kind. Waves of exotic fragrance wafted from them — a scent that, upon drawing it in, could easily send one's mind into a daze of intoxication.
The woman's figure blurred, and she vanished from her spot.
An instant later, she appeared directly above the tree. One slender bare foot, white as jade, alighted delicately upon the topmost blossom, her form perfectly steady without so much as a tremor.
She turned her hand over, and a bone-white blade materialized within it — impossibly thin and extraordinarily sharp.
Without a change in her expression, she slowly raised one arm, letting a section of wrist as smooth as jade emerge from her long sleeve.
With a casual sweep of the bone blade, a thin white line flashed past her wrist.
A stream of thick, faintly silver liquid flowed down in a slender silver thread, dripping onto the crystalline tree below and vanishing into it in a flash.
A deep hum surged forth.
The pale pink tree instantly transformed to a faint silver hue, with silver blossoms hanging thick from every branch. From a distance, the sight was nothing short of dazzling.
After a brief wait, the woman retracted her wrist and parted her lips.
A breath of orchid-like fragrance swept over the wound, and the faint bloodline vanished without a trace under a shimmer of white light.
Only then did the palace-robed woman cast her gaze down toward the purple basin below. She turned her hand over, and the bone blade disappeared, replaced by a length of black silk as fine as a handkerchief, which she tossed into the air.
The sky within the water-curtain darkened abruptly as a layer of pitch-black night descended, blotting out every shred of light from the outside world so thoroughly that not a single glimmer could penetrate.
The woman raised one jade foot once more, pressing its tip gently against the tree below.
With a muffled boom, the enormous tree shattered into countless points of silver light that shot skyward.
Numerous silver stars now adorned the black canopy above, and at the woman's urging, they began to rotate slowly in a pattern of profound and unfathomable complexity.
The space within the water-curtain had effectively become an entirely different world.
The woman's eyes flashed with a crystalline silver light. Her figure blurred, then swelled, transforming into a colossal phantom of white radiance over thirty zhang tall.
Enchanting incantations echoed through the void.
The myriad stars revolved faster and faster around the white phantom as their center, continuously shifting and coalescing into arcane star charts of dizzying complexity.