A passage of unknown end and unknown origin.
Bizarre and kaleidoscopic, deep and desolate, a young man covered in fragments of Principles of the Dao and draped in a Xuan Cloak walked alone upon it.
The passage was constructed between worlds, standing high above time and space, detached from destiny and karma, built entirely of laws and Daoist rhyme; this was the power of a taboo tier.
Only absolute powerhouses could set foot upon it. Around the young man, the Power of Years traversed past, future, and present; the Power of Space was distributed across up, down, east, west, south, and north; karma and destiny governed all cause and effect. Various Principles of the Dao circulated in a loop, forming an intangible and formless Ring of Laws that enveloped him within, rendering him immune to all techniques.
Just at that moment, a dazzling light appeared ahead in the passage.
The light,
sacred yet icy.
grand yet tyrannical.
The brightness of the light softened in an instant, revealing a man with a tall and majestic figure, wearing the Imperial Ping Tian Crown with its twelve strings of beads, draped in the Imperial Mianfu Robe, with the Son of Heaven Sword hanging at his waist, and stepping upon the paths of mountains and rivers spanning ten thousand miles. The Daoist rhyme pulsing around his body was mountains, rivers, lakes, and seas; it was the cosmos and starry rivers; it was kings and marquises, generals and ministers; it was the common people and the altars of state; it was the tyrannical power that mastered life and death...
"You... have returned!" the Imperial Daoist said after a moment of silence.
"Indeed! I have returned!" said the man draped in the Xuan Cloak.
"Once you left, you should never have come back."
"There is no