The eight golden-red truth-words—"To slay the Dao is not a sin; to protect the Dao is the tribulation"—inscribed by the Black Tortoise as he burned away his own essence, stood like eight immortal stars branded upon the pages of the suspended *Book of Repentance*. They radiated a mournful, eternal light, forming a silent confrontation against the "Heaven and Earth are unkind" truth-words hanging high above. The isolated island in the canyon was cloaked in deathly silence, and a sense of confusion and heaviness, born from the key memories erased from their minds, hung over Yang Jian and Sun Wukong. Within the Eight Trigrams Formation Diagram, the green flames of Nezha flickered unsteadily; the power sustaining the grand formation fluctuated as the Black Tortoise dissipated.
Amidst this silent confrontation of sorrow, a sound emerged—
"Hiss..."
Chapter 449