Endless Chaos, eternal silence.
A figure floated within the Chaos, drifting in a certain direction due to inertia.
The figure was drenched in blood, its right arm and forearm completely severed. At the wound's edge, crimson Sword Light clung like a festering wound, locked in a destructive dance with the divine power surging from its body.
A crimson-golden spear gripped its left hand, its shaft bearing a slender, barely perceptible crack from hilt to tip.
This was Han Yi, his eyes tightly shut, his aura fading to near nothingness. Severely injured, he lay in a deep, coma-like state.
His wounds ran deeper than mere physical damage. The true extent of his injuries lay within his Dharma Manifestation and Divine Aperture World.
Within his body, the Dao Fruit—once fully integrated with the Dao Realm—had been forced back into manifestation. A thirty-three-tiered Dao Tower now stood at the heart of the Dao Realm's land. Yet this once resplendent, flawless tower now bore countless cracks, teetering on the brink of collapse.
Not only that, but within the Dao Realm, the Dao Principles were collapsing, resembling the end of the world. Outside the Dao Realm, it was filled with terrifying destructive power.
A figure in gray robes stood at the edge of destruction. This figure was none other than Taiyuan. He had tried several times to leave the Dao Realm, but each attempt forced him back.
"The Dao Realm still exists, and the Dao Fruit hasn't completely shattered. Han Yi's condition is dire, but he hasn't yet perished completely."
"Enough dwelling on it. Since I can't leave, I'll try to stabilize the Dao Realm. As for repairing the Dao Fruit, that must rely on his own efforts."
Though worried, Taiyuan was powerless to act. As the will of an Ancient Artifact without its True Form or its vast spirituality, he couldn't break through the Dao Realm of Han Yi, who had already reached the External Dao.
He could only intervene, beginning to suppress the rebellious and disordered Dao Principles within the Dao Realm.
This was the state of Han Yi's internal Dao Realm, which was actually the best condition within his body. After all, in this attempt to wield Yueguang, he had primarily relied on the power of the Divine Race.
Within Han Yi's body, over ninety percent of the Divine Aperture Worlds had already collapsed and perished. The remaining ten percent were in chaos, steadily marching toward their own destruction.
Within these Divine Aperture Worlds, Innate Divine Spirits died in droves, while only a small number of Supreme Gods struggled to survive amidst the wreckage.
Although new Divine Aperture Worlds continued to form, their emergence barely kept pace with the rate of destruction. Moreover, the divine power provided by these newly formed worlds paled in comparison to that of the original worlds.
Thanks to the boundless nature of Creation, there came a point where the divine power generated by the newly formed Divine Aperture Worlds gradually balanced the power lost from the collapsing worlds. However, this merely maintained the status quo, leaving the situation dire.
Even the largest Divine Aperture World within his body—the first to form, the Central Palace Divine Aperture World—was now ravaged by a World-Destroying storm of destruction.
Yet this very world proved to be the greatest variable.
At the edge of the Central Palace Divine Aperture World stood a black Dao Stele.
As the waves of destruction reached the stele, mysterious fluctuations began emanating from it. These fluctuations triggered the emergence of a new power within Han Yi's body.
This Dao Stele was none other than the Profound Xuan Dao Stele Han Yi had discovered at the ruins of Ashen Mountain.
The power that emerged within Han Yi's body wasn't inherent to the Dao Stele itself, but rather a force that had been dormant within him. The stele merely used mysterious vibrations to awaken this power.
This force was formless and profoundly enigmatic, transcending both the Great Dao and Chaos Power. It represented a higher-order energy.
Under its influence, the raging destructive forces were utterly annihilated, dissolving completely into the Void.
Moreover, this power didn't remain confined to the Central Palace Divine Aperture World. It gradually spread to other Divine Aperture Worlds, merging with them and imbuing them with higher-order properties.
Outside, Han Yi lay unconscious, unaware that lines of notifications were popping up on his panel:
Boundary Force consumed, Boundary Force -1.
Boundary Force consumed, Boundary Force -1.
The notifications continued for 21 lines, indicating that 21 points of Boundary Force had been consumed before they ceased. This quantity matched the original amount of Boundary Force displayed on the panel.
Within Han Yi's body, the fluctuations of the Profound Xuan Dao Stele dissipated completely as the Boundary Force was utterly depleted.
However, the 21 points of Boundary Force that had merged into his body triggered a unique transformation within him—a change that had never before occurred in a Dao Realm cultivator.
A profound metamorphosis, one that would break down the old to build anew, quietly unfolded in this corner of Chaos.
Amidst the Chaos, Han Yi's body drifted for a distance before gradually approaching a Great World. With surprising ease, he collided with the World Barrier and entered the realm.
Within the Great World, his body traversed the Void Space, gradually drawing closer to a continent, and began to descend towards it.
Just as Han Yi drifted through the Chaos and inadvertently entered a Great World, within the Chaos, only two of the Myriad Journeys Palace's Heavenly Venerables returned. Wuxiang Celestial Venerable had not appeared.
The two returning Heavenly Venerables had ashen faces, their expressions filled with overwhelming fury.
After hearing a Dao Realm cultivator report on another battle near the Imperial Palace, their expressions shifted to shock.
"The Great True Saint Sword of the True Saint Palace... That sword is no ordinary weapon. It has reappeared in the world."
"A peak Limitless Realm Chaos Divine Clan member? Could they be from the Ancestor God Star?"
"What a troubled era."
Instead of venturing out to investigate, they activated the Formation Arts surrounding the Imperial Palace, allowing it to continue its operation and depart the Chaos.
A Dao Harmonization Realm cultivator inquired about Wuxiang Celestial Venerable's whereabouts. The two Heavenly Venerables shook their heads, and one replied:
"Wizard Elephant drew Lu Jiuxiao away alone."
"Don't worry. Even if he's not a match for Jiuxiao, at worst, he'll lose some face. There's no danger of his demise."
These two were confident because they knew that the Wuxiang Celestial Venerable possessed a trump card left behind by the true Palace Master of the Myriad Journeys Palace. This trump card would only be activated in a life-and-death crisis.
After the Imperial Palace was normally activated, Dao Realm cultivators continuously departed, bringing news of the two major events near the Myriad Journeys Palace to their respective factions, or selling the intelligence through various channels.
Such intelligence trading was common in the Chaos, and this time, the information concerned the Myriad Journeys Palace, its three Heavenly Venerables, the high-level rogue cultivator Lu Jiuxiao, and subsequently, the True Saint Palace, the Great True Saint Sword, Daoist Suxi, and the mysterious Divine Race member wielding the Divine Venerable Ancient Artifact.
This intelligence was extremely valuable.
As this intelligence spread throughout the Chaos, the mysterious Divine Race member wielding the Divine Venerable Ancient Artifact became widely discussed. However, since Han Yi had only recently been active in the Chaos, his identity remained hidden in the mist, unknown to all.
In the Void Profound Great World, within the Yin Ancient Great Swamp, seven figures trudged through the mysterious swamp, venturing deeper into its heart.
The Yin Ancient Great Swamp was an enigmatic place in the Void Profound Great World, its mystery stemming from two factors.
First, a mysterious force permeated the swamp, preventing even Dao Realm cultivators from flying. They could only rely on their physical strength to move forward.
In other words, the Yin Ancient Great Swamp was a no-fly zone.
Second, the swamp was enveloped by a colorless, odorless substance.
This substance inevitably clung to any cultivator who entered the swamp, no matter how rigorous their defenses.
The cultivators of the Void Profound Great World called this substance the Yin Ancient Poison.
!
For Dao Realm cultivators who ventured into the Yin Ancient Great Swamp, the Yin Ancient Poison swarmed towards them like sharks sensing blood. Within the time it takes an incense stick to burn, it could destroy their Dao Body, forcing them into the Transformation Path.
Since ancient times, the Yin Ancient Great Swamp has been a forbidden land for Dao Realm cultivators.
However, for those below the Dao Realm, while the Yin Ancient Poison was troublesome, it wasn't fatal. They could remain in the swamp for no more than ten years, but upon leaving, they needed ten times that duration to recover and purge the poison.
The seven figures before us comprised five Great Luo Immortal Venerables and two Grand Unity Immortal Monarchs. They had ventured into this place because, not long ago, a terrifying tremor had originated from the deepest recesses of the Yin Ancient Great Swamp.
This tremor had alarmed the Town Ancient Dao Sect, a power located beyond the great swamp.
The Void Profound Great World was an ordinary Great World nestled within the Chaos. The Void Profound Continent, situated at its heart, was roughly the size of two Great Luo Immortal Realms combined.
Within the Void Profound Continent, there existed only two Heavenly Venerate-level factions, along with eight Dao Realm Forces. The Town Ancient Dao Sect was one of these eight Dao Realm Forces, its overall strength ranking in the middle to lower tier, far from exceptional. Within this Dao Sect, there were only two Dao Realm cultivators, both at the First Step of the Dao Realm.
The seven Immortals dispatched by the Town Ancient Dao Sect were all Great Luo Immortal Venerables and two Peak Grand Unity Immortal Monarchs, all below the Dao Realm.
Their objective was to venture deep into the Yin Ancient Great Swamp to investigate the source of the tremors.
"Great Elder," one of the Immortals asked, "just how vast is this Yin Ancient Great Swamp? We've been traveling inward for a month and still haven't reached its depths. According to the Void Profound Continent's geography, we should have already plunged into the Void by now."
A Grand Unity Immortal Monarch asked, his body enveloped in a faint purple glow. Though this aura couldn't block the formless assaults of the Yin Ancient Poison, he kept it active as a precaution.
Within the Yin Ancient Great Swamp, beyond the Yin Ancient Poison, lurked special venomous creatures. The Sect's records described these creatures as the greatest adversaries Immortals faced when venturing into this vast swamp.
Even tens of thousands of years ago, an Immortal Sovereign returning to the Sect had recorded encountering a Yin Ancient Fiend within the swamp—a being that transcended the Immortal Sovereign realm, having reached the Dao Realm.
In addition to the Grand Unity Immortal Monarch's protective aura, another Grand Unity Immortal Monarch and five other Immortal Sovereigns also possessed similar defenses. These had been bestowed upon them by two Dao Realm cultivators before they ventured into the Yin Ancient Great Swamp.
The Great Elder, an Immortal Sovereign and leader of this expedition, was a middle-aged man with a resolute expression. He gazed into the distance, his gaze as steady as a mountain, and shook his head slightly.
"The formation of the Yin Ancient Great Swamp is said to date back to the creation of the Void Profound Great World itself."
"Legend has it that its depths lead to the origin of the world—a place even two Heavenly Venerables couldn't enter."
His gaze shifted to the fellow cultivators from the Sect standing beside him, and he spoke solemnly:
"Therefore, no matter which path we choose, we won't be able to cross this vast swamp."
"Of course, the Sect didn't send us here to cross the Yin Ancient Great Swamp, nor to explore its depths or find its end."
"Instead, our mission is to investigate the Source of the Tremors."
"The two Sect Leaders are concerned that these tremors might be caused by a major upheaval within the Yin Ancient Great Swamp. If such an upheaval were to affect the Sect, we would need to relocate."
"Thus, our mission is of great significance. We must achieve something."
Hearing this, the group felt a profound sense of solemnity.
Seeing the cultivators silent, the Great Elder of the Town Ancient Dao Sect continued walking forward, followed by six figures.
Although the Yin Ancient Great Swamp prohibited aerial movement, it placed no restrictions on speed. Though they could only rely on their Dao Bodies to walk, the physical bodies of the Grand Unity and Great Luo cultivators allowed each step to cover vast distances. This pace was slightly slower than flying escape techniques, but the difference was not significant.
Half a month later, they encountered a group of over a hundred Yin Ancient Creatures. The most powerful among them rivaled an Immortal Sovereign, while the others possessed strength comparable to Immortal Monarchs or Golden Immortals.
However, the seven-member team had prepared for such an encounter. They unleashed Formation Arts, slaughtering the entire group of Yin Ancient Creatures. Their corpses were then stored in special artifacts for later study.
The physical bodies of these Yin Ancient Creatures made excellent materials for Pill and Artifact Refinement, and were highly valuable.
They continued their journey.
After another three months of travel, they finally stopped before a modest mountain range.
"We've finally reached Ancient Mirror Mountain," a Grand Unity cultivator said, visibly relieved. "The Sect has protective towers in this mountain range where we can rest and regroup."
But at that moment, the Great Elder of the Town Ancient Dao Sect, a middle-aged man with a resolute expression, suddenly paled.
"Something's wrong. Very wrong."
"I've visited Ancient Mirror Mountain three times before, and this is my fourth. But every time, this mountain range has never been this quiet. Look—what's the situation with these mountains now?"
Another Immortal Sovereign merely sensed the area, too cautious to use his Immortal Sense to probe Ancient Mirror Mountain directly. Yet he too quickly realized that this silence was unnaturally profound.
This stillness differed from the quietness elsewhere in the Yin Ancient Mountain Range. In other places, while Yin Ancient Creatures might be absent, venomous insects and reptiles that posed a threat to low-tier Immortals were still rampant.
But in this mountain range ahead, not a single insect or reptile could be found.
The hearts of all the cultivators grew heavy with dread.
When things go against the norm, there must be a demon at work. They knew that something extraordinary must have occurred on Ancient Mirror Mountain for all the insects and creatures that usually swarmed the area to vanish without a trace.
"Stay alert. This might be our final destination," the Great Elder cautioned, his expression grave. He then suppressed his aura and strode toward the distant mountain range, followed by the others.
To avoid disturbing any anomalies that might be lurking within the mountains, they moved with painstaking slowness.