The secret-lock formation, under Brian Grant's powerful magic, silently shattered, and the storage earring exploded on the spot into hundreds and thousands of fragments. The storage space established within the earring also broke apart. The force of spatial annihilation decomposed everything inside the storage space into nothingness.

The burst of seven-colored light from the shattered earring quickly dimmed. Brian Grant let out a breath. Just as he was about to ride his sword back, his eyes suddenly brightened—a brilliant golden light flashed forth from the void.

The golden light grew ever more intense, its vast magical power faintly resonating with the power of the stars in the heavens. Within the golden light, countless divine runes slowly began to take shape.

Brian Grant was greatly alarmed; the situation before his eyes was far beyond his expectations. If the fluctuation of vital energy exceeded fifty thousand standard units, it would trigger the protective network of Tianlin City. Once Tianlin City activated the guardian flying stars in the sky, even if Brian Grant turned into an ant, there would be nowhere to hide.

Moreover, once Tianlin City activated its protective formation, all personnel entering or leaving would be automatically recorded. At that point, Brian Grant would have no way to explain his whereabouts.

Now, Brian Grant had two choices: one, to turn and leave immediately, abandoning everything and fleeing to another country; or two, to resolve this sudden trouble. Brian Grant had always thought himself decisive enough, but when faced with a choice that could change his life, he couldn't help but hesitate.

Watching the divine runes continuously forming within the golden light, Brian Grant sensed a familiar, intimate aura. "To hell with it!" Brian Grant's peerless talent allowed him to instantly judge that this enormous divine rune formation had no offensive power.

Since that was the case, he might as well try to resolve this trouble first. Brian Grant gave himself thirty seconds—if he couldn't solve the problem within that time, he would turn and leave without lingering a second longer.

Having made up his mind, Brian Grant took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

"Spatial transmission, the turning of time, the inheritance of will?" One hundred twenty-eight thousand six hundred divine runes were arranged according to the eight trigrams, forming a super-complex divine rune eight-trigram formation. Brian Grant could barely discern some general meaning from the combination of runes.

"This formation is too complex—there's no way I can unravel it in a short time. If I get the chance, I must trust myself. This formation has no harmful effects; I just need to find the sequence, and it will be easy to shut it down." Brian Grant comforted himself mentally, trying his best to salvage his future.

After observing the formation from the outside for three seconds, Brian Grant, relying on his innate intuition for divine runes, confirmed that the very center of the formation was a core. There, he should be able to control the changes in the formation.

The formation's vital energy reaction grew ever stronger. Gritting his teeth, Brian Grant rode his sword into the core of the formation. Once in position, bathed in gentle golden divine light, Brian Grant felt as if he was being pierced by countless golden rays. His whole body trembled, and in an instant, countless vital energy channels formed by divine runes established a stable connection with him.

It was as if Brian Grant now possessed countless eyes and ears; the boundless vital energy of this world, in all its detail, seemed to be within his perception. Brian Grant even felt that, with the help of this formation, he could manipulate the world's vital energy without limit.

But this was only a beautiful illusion. In reality, the sheer volume of information nearly burst Brian Grant's mind. Fortunately, the feedback from the formation was not compulsory; once Brian Grant chose to reject the information, his mind immediately cleared.

Brian Grant had no time to study the changes in the divine rune formation. He could only rely on his intuition to control some of the formation's branches that specifically absorbed vital energy, attempting to cut off the formation's energy input. Without vital energy, the formation would naturally dissipate.

Brian Grant didn't know if he was truly a genius or just lucky enough. Under his control, the golden divine light emitted by the formation grew dimmer and dimmer, and the divine rune formation covering a hundred meters in radius slowly contracted. Everything was developing in a direction favorable to Brian Grant.

"Whew..." Brian Grant let out a breath. A black prayer bead, about the size of a fingernail, floated before his eyes. Once the formation was fully withdrawn, it turned into this black bead.

Brian Grant recognized this black bead. In Eric Bolton's storage space, among more than a dozen antiques, there was this very black bead.

"It must have been the destruction of the storage space and the force of spatial annihilation that triggered the mysterious power within the black bead, causing the situation just now," Brian Grant speculated inwardly, reaching out to take the black bead.

As soon as Brian Grant's fingertip touched the black bead, a sudden change occurred.

A profound, boundless, and overwhelming divine consciousness forcefully invaded Brian Grant's sea of consciousness. The tenacious soul that Brian Grant had cultivated for over ten years was instantly crushed to dust under such power, without the slightest resistance.

In the endless infusion of will, Brian Grant saw a beautiful blue planet, home to countless humans. Yet these humans possessed no supernatural powers, and their bodies were extremely fragile. But they had their own wisdom and a rich, diverse culture. In a daze, Brian Grant became one of them, experiencing love and hate, joy and sorrow, separation and reunion on a corner of this planet.

Between life and death, Brian Grant seemed to be reborn in the chaos. In the deep, endless starry sky, countless fierce, menacing, double-winged evil dragons bared their fangs and claws, filling the void in all directions. In the encirclement of the double-winged evil dragons, a white-robed, sword-wielding figure stood proudly.