Sea of Chaos

Biodata

Nature and Laws

• The Sea of Chaos is boundless; even the Other Shore is likened to a drifting leaf within it 450.
• It can reduce a cultivator's Great Dao and cultivation the closer they approach, while direct exposure may dissolve beings into Primordial Chaos Qi 741 746 762.
• Most Great Daos lose their normal effect in the sea because they are suppressed by the overwhelmingly advanced Chaos Dao 756.
• Space-time, causality, and sequence are unstable within it. Cause can become effect, time can reverse, and events may lack a fixed temporal order 741 992.
• Karma, Calamity Fortune, Reincarnation, and Slaughter are not absent from the Sea of Chaos; they persist in chaotic states 1006 1016.
• The Sea of Chaos has no fixed center: every location within it may be regarded as its center 1037.
• It retains no memory of universes that perish within it; their histories may vanish completely beneath Primordial Chaos Qi 838.

Chaos as a State of Dao

The nature of Chaos is disputed by those who study it.

• The Chaos Bell describes the Sea of Chaos as encompassing all known and unknown Great Daos, including the Innate Nine Daos and Void 989.
• Hun Tunsheng later concludes that Chaos is not itself a Dao, but the chaotic state of all Daos; this insight causes him to leave the Dao Alliance 1024.
• Xu Ying similarly observes that the Sea of Chaos does not eliminate karma, but renders karma chaotic 1016.

Environment and Phenomena

Dangers

• Dao suppression — Great Daos and cultivation weaken near the sea, while even powerful magic treasures may disintegrate in anomalous regions 746 965.
• Assimilation — Cultivators who lose control of their Chaos cultivation can become Primordial Chaos Qi or irreversibly lose their sense of self 762 953.
• Spatial collapse — Space and time can be annihilated, leaving only Chaos 763.
• Unstable currents — The sea produces massive rifts, Wuji zones, Dao winds, and undercurrents dangerous even to Dao Lords 965.
• Calamity Fortune — The sea itself carries chaotic Karma and Calamity Fortune; entering it does not guarantee escape from Nirvana or tribulation 1006.
• Cosmic Hong Yuans — A sufficiently large Hong Yuan can devour space-time, matter, energy, Primordial Chaos Qi, and ultimately the Sea of Chaos itself 838 1030.

Chaos Creatures

Chaos Creatures are immense beings that swim through Primordial Chaos Qi. Some resemble giant turtles or tortoises, while others assume humanoid forms after reaching solid ground 874 987.

• Many Chaos Creatures are former Dao seekers who entered the Sea of Chaos voluntarily after becoming devoted to its mysteries 988.
• In their Chaos forms, they observe the birth and destruction of universes, generally avoiding interference with mortal affairs 988.
• They are described as naturally kind and intensely curious, though some have attempted to drag vessels or cultivators into the Great Abyss 875 1003.
• Their eyes may appear to contain entire universes, and even Taiyi Dao Master's sword light was absorbed without effect by one of them 874.
• On land or Chaos Stone, they can revert to their original forms: peculiar Dao cultivators who have reached the end of their respective Great Daos 987 1003.

Chaos Lord and Oaths

The Chaos Lord is the ruler associated with the Sea of Chaos and the leader of its Chaos Creature followers.

• The Chaos Lord's path is passed down through generations 989 990.
• Chaos Creatures maintain the Sea of Chaos' order under the Chaos Lord and gather when summoned to pay homage 988 989.
• The Chaos Lord's Great Dao draws the submission of cultivators who have reached the end of their own paths 989.
• Tai Huang is identified as the Chaos Lord of his generation, having guarded the Sea of Chaos for trillions of years 989.
• Xu Ying later assumes and is recognized under the title of Chaos Lord, commanding the allegiance of numerous transformed Chaos beings 1003.

Chaos Oath

A Chaos Oath is sworn to the Chaos Lord through incense and a spoken pledge.

• Those who swear feel that breaking the oath will bring certain death; the oath is acknowledged by a lingering bell chime 753.
• The oath's consequences remain effective even when the Chaos Lord is traveling through the Sea of Chaos 1030.
• Dao Masters and leaders of multiple realms used such oaths to establish an alliance against the Other Shore 753.

Relationship with Universes

• Universes are born from Chaos and eventually return to it through Nirvana, leaving behind fragments, spiritual roots, or Hong Yuans 838 1051.
• A Hong Yuan may open into a new universe when its Primordial Chaos develops into Heaven-and-Earth Great Dao 874.
• Destroyed universes can leave behind Innate Spiritual Roots that survive abnormal Nirvana and later grow into Chaos Spiritual Roots 872.
• Chaos Spiritual Roots absorb Primordial Chaos Qi, making the Sea of Chaos progressively thinner and clearer 1031 1035.
• As the sea thins, universes can appear to float in a void-like expanse and expand without the former suppression of Primordial Chaos Qi 1030 1032.

Threat of the Cosmic Hong Yuan

The Black Jade Lingzhi and other Chaos Spiritual Roots cultivate Cosmic Hong Yuans by consuming the Sea of Chaos.

• The Black Jade Lingzhi cannot be eradicated even by Xu Ying, and its Hong Yuan can withstand attacks from Primordial Beginning Realm beings 1030.
• Numerous spiritual roots planted by Xu Ying compete with the Black Jade Lingzhi for Primordial Chaos Qi, accelerating the thinning of the sea 1031 1035.
• If the roots consume the Sea of Chaos' past and future space-time, the Sea of Chaos will disappear completely 1031.
• The Dao Sovereign states that the Sea of Chaos has become concentrated within a Hong Yuan and that opening it is a foregone conclusion 1064.

Story Role / Major Events

• Yingzhou approaches the Sea of Chaos, whose scale dwarfs the surrounding realms and causes fear even among powerful cultivators 449.
• Emperor Mingdao warns that time and causality become unreliable within the sea after surviving an earlier voyage through it 741.
• The Sea of Chaos surges over the Former Court ruins, suppressing the Great Dao of everyone caught in its path and erasing an Other Shore scout who falls into it 746.
• Xu Ying begins cultivating the Chaos Great Dao rapidly while traveling aboard the Cui Yan Tower Ship, using its protective inscriptions to resist assimilation 756.
• The Chaos Lotus absorbs a Chaos Dao Scene and the Primordial Chaos Qi of nearby Chaos cultivators, drawing the attention of a Primordial Chaos Dao Lord 763.
• Xu Ying and Taiyi Dao Master open a new universe within the sea through their battle, sharing its creation merit 874.
• The Chaos Bell carries Xu Ying and Yuan Weiyang to the Great Rift Valley, where they discover the Broken Saber, Dao Blood River, Chaos Divine Mountains, and the Chaos Lord's dwelling 986 987.
• Tens of thousands of Chaos beings gather in the Great Rift Valley to acknowledge Xu Ying as the Chaos Lord 989.
• Xu Ying plants Chaos Spiritual Roots throughout the sea to counter the Black Jade Lingzhi, changing the sea's density and threatening its continued existence 1031 1035.
• The Dao Sovereign reveals that opening or annihilating the Sea of Chaos cannot reveal the true Dao, which extends beyond the Great Daos present within it 1067.