Under Sora's description, Ichibe'e no longer knew how to express his shock.
"You mean to say, all of this... was chosen and arranged by the Soul King himself!?"
"Yes!" Sora nodded, a look of admiration also appearing on his face: "The Soul King is truly impressive!"
"To be able to escape the constraints of being the Soul King in this way, I can only say that he lives up to the title of Soul King!"
"At the same time, people like the Tsunayashiro Clan probably never even considered such a possibility!"
"Heh!" Sora chuckled: "That's normal. The Soul King's perspective spans tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of years. A clown like Tsunayashiro probably can't even maintain their family line for that long!"
Ichibe'e fell silent again.
In this moment, he was somewhat dumbfounded.
After all, even though he guarded this corpse-like Soul King and had sometimes mocked him for having such immense power yet ending up like this, he hadn't expected that, under Sora's description, the clown was actually himself!
'Ah...'
Ichibe'e couldn't hold it together.
After a long while, he finally snapped back from the reality described by Sora.
"All of this is just your speculation, my lord. It can't be taken as fact!" Ichibe'e said.
"Let's focus on the matter at hand. Do you have any ideas regarding the Soul King's situation, my lord?"
"Ideas? Of course I do!" Sora took a few steps forward.
Then, before Ichibe'e could react, he suddenly reached out and placed his hand on top of the Soul King's crystal!
The next second, an unprecedented gale appeared in the Soul King's chamber!
Then, the sky began to roar with thunder and flash with lightning. The entire world started to shake, as if doomsday had arrived!
At the highest point of the sky, several cracks tore open, revealing the starry expanse beyond!
Seeing this, Sora looked at it curiously for a moment, but then paid it no further attention!
Sora focused on what was before him.
Looking at Sora, Ichibe'e asked urgently: "My lord, what are you trying to do?"
"Do? Isn't it obvious?" Sora replied with a smile: "I am going to become the Soul King!"
"As long as I become the Soul King, won't you no longer have to worry about these problems?"
"But!" Ichibe'e didn't know what to say. They wanted Sora to help solve the problem, not to become their father!
If that happened, how was he supposed to handle things?
Ichibe'e screamed internally.
He tried to stop Sora, but was shocked to find he couldn't move!
Not only could he not move!
Shutara, Hikifune, Nimaiya, Kirinji, and even Yamamoto, who had just arrived at the Soul King Palace—
Everyone could clearly feel that they couldn't move!
No, it wasn't that they couldn't move. It was that time in this world had stopped!
It was just because their strength was very high that, even with time stopped, they could still perceive and think!
But, what exactly have Sora done!?
In the Soul King Palace, only Ichibe'e, who was on the scene, looked at Sora in shock.
But immediately, he understood what Sora had done!
Because, after a series of astonishing anomalies, the next second, the world suddenly became calm again!
It was as if all the previous anomalies were just accidents!
However, they were not accidents, because new anomalies arrived!
"Th-this..." Ichibe'e looked towards the outside of the hall in shock.
At that moment, purple auspicious clouds stretched for thousands of miles, sweet dew fell from the heavens, and golden lotuses sprouted from the earth! It was clearly a scene of a sage attaining enlightenment!
"Could it be!" Ichibe'e looked at Sora in disbelief.
Just then, Sora also looked at Ichibe'e.
Sora smiled slightly: "How do you like the special effects I made?"
"Ah?" Hearing Sora's words, Ichibe'e was stunned for a moment, not quite understanding.
He didn't know what 'special effects' were. But, being the Monk Who Calls the True Name, upon hearing the words, Ichibe'e somewhat understood.
But the problem was...
Ichibe'e touched the golden lotus sprouting from the ground. This golden lotus was real!
'Special effects were supposed to be fake, but this thing of yours was clearly real!'
'This really wasn't made with special effects! It was very real!'
Ichibe'e screamed internally.
At that moment, as if he could hear Ichibe'e's thoughts, Sora smiled.
"For it to be this real, of course I did some trivial work to turn the fake into the real!"
As he spoke, Sora took half a step forward, revealing the space behind him!
"Th-this..." Ichibe'e looked over in shock.
The crystal that had contained the Soul King was now empty.
'Where was the Soul King?'
Connecting this to what Sora had just said,
Ichibe'e couldn't believe it!
'Had he, really... succeeded!!?'