At that moment, the Sky-Mending Pavilion Master stood outside, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.
He had seen it all clearly. Ye Xuan had simply ignored the attacks of the killing arrays.
"Is this the might of someone with Double Pupils?"
"Can he see through all illusions and perceive the source of everything?"
The Sky-Mending Pavilion Master wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, his awe of Ye Xuan deepening even further.
After passing through the passage lined with killing arrays, the view before him suddenly opened up.
It was no longer the lush green mountains and waters of the outside world, but a vast, hazy realm.
It was as if this place had existed before Heaven Splitting and Earth Opening, shrouded in chaotic mist. The Heaven and Earth Essence was so dense it seemed almost solid.
An ancient stillness permeated the air. There was no sound of wind, nor any birdsong.
"An Ancient Small World."
Ye Xuan took a deep breath, sensing the laws here, so utterly different from those of the outside world.
The laws here were more ancient, more complete, and even closer to the source of the Great Dao.
He followed a winding stone staircase deeper into this world.
The farther he went, the stronger the sense of age and decay became.
Ancient medicines lay withered everywhere along the path, alongside enormous beast bones long since weathered away. They spoke of the glory and desolation this place had once witnessed.
He did not know how long he walked.
The mist ahead gradually dispersed.
A lone mountain peak rose abruptly between heaven and earth.
The peak was not tall, yet it carried an aura that seemed to suppress the ages.
At its summit stood a simple Stone Pavilion.
A figure sat cross-legged inside.
Ye Xuan stopped and sent his gaze through the void, fixing it on that figure.
It was a woman.
She wore a simple gray robe of an ancient style, its original color long since faded beyond recognition.
Her figure was slender and graceful. Even seated, her curves were breathtaking.
Her long black hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall, reaching all the way to the ground.
She looked like a statue that had sat here for endless ages.
Yet even so, her peerless beauty and bearing remained impossible to conceal.
She sat there in silence, motionless.
And yet she seemed to have become one with this world, with this chaos.
Her loneliness was not the desolation of someone abandoned. It was the solitude of one standing at the end of the River of Time, having witnessed all splendor fade away.
The solitude of the invincible.
"Twin Pupils Woman."
Ye Xuan silently repeated the name in his mind.
In the original story, she was the very embodiment of mystery, an undefeated legend from ancient times.
Even in this age, she was a being who could look down upon all living things.
Perhaps sensing an outsider's arrival.
Or perhaps sensing the presence of her kind.
The statue finally moved.
She opened her eyes.
Boom!
The instant she did, this small world, so still and lifeless moments ago, seemed to come alive.
Two dazzling beams of light shot from her eyes, tearing through the chaos mist in an instant.
What kind of eyes were they?
Each eye had two pupils, turning within it.
One large and one small, one before the other.
Deep within those pupils, it seemed that the scene of Heaven Splitting and Earth Opening was unfolding.
Stars fell, the sun collapsed, chaos opened, and all things were reborn.
Life and death, destruction and creation—everything revolved in cycles within those eyes.
The Ancient Double Pupils!
A natural-born Sage, capable of seeing the source and opening heaven and earth!
The two beams of light were like peerless Immortal Swords, crossing the distance between them and fixing directly upon Ye Xuan.
This was no attack, but an instinctive scrutiny.
Yet before an expert of this level, scrutiny alone exerted tremendous pressure.
Ye Xuan stood at the foot of the mountain, his clothes snapping in the wind.
Faced with a gaze powerful enough to make even a Venerable kneel, he did not retreat a single step.
Instead,
the corner of his mouth curled into a faint smile.
"Since you're awake, Senior, let's say hello."
Ye Xuan opened his eyes wide as well.
Hum!
There was no sound, but the entire void twisted violently.
The Chaos Heavy Pupils in Ye Xuan's eyes no longer held back. They revolved at full power.
If the Twin Pupils Woman's eyes depicted the birth and destruction of heaven and earth, then Ye Xuan's eyes represented the "One" and the "Nothingness" that existed before heaven and earth were born.
Gray beams shot from his eyes, meeting the Twin Pupils Woman's gaze.
Their eyes collided in the void.
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—
There was no explosion, no flash of fire.
But at the point where their gazes met, the void was annihilated outright.
The stable Space Law began to collapse, and black fissures spread in every direction.
The roar of the Great Dao thundered like a storm from the highest heavens, echoing throughout the entire Small World.
The Ancient Double Pupils ruled over creation.
The Chaos Heavy Pupils ruled over returning to the source.
This was a clash of fundamentals.
The Twin Pupils Woman saw stars exploding and worlds evolving.
Ye Xuan saw a hazy expanse of chaos. No matter what the other person evolved, he could break it down, reducing it to its most primitive particles.
One breath, two breaths, three breaths.
For the first time, a trace of surprise crossed the Gray-Robed Woman's placid, exquisitely beautiful face, as cold as ten-thousand-year-old ice.
She had discovered that her pupil power was being suppressed!
Her Double Pupils could see through the weaknesses of every technique in the world and unleash attacks at their utmost extreme.
Yet before those gray eyes, all her techniques seemed pale and powerless.
Her opponent was like a giant black hole, ignoring the rules and devouring everything.
That aura was more ancient and more fundamental than her Ancient Double Pupils.
"This is... chaos?"
The Gray-Robed Woman's red lips parted. Her voice was hoarse, as if she had not spoken in a long time, with the deep resonance of the ages in it.
The divine light in her eyes slowly faded, and the tension between them dissipated with it.
Since her pupil power was inferior, there was no point in continuing the contest.
Seeing this, Ye Xuan also reined in the Chaos Qi in his eyes, returning them to their normal black-and-white appearance.
The mist roiling around them settled once more.
The Gray-Robed Woman's robe came into view. Though old, it was immaculate.
She looked at Ye Xuan, a hint of scrutiny and curiosity in her eyes.
"To think someone like you, another bearer of Double Pupils, would be born in this age..."
Her voice was soft, yet it reached Ye Xuan clearly.
"The source of your Double Pupils seems stronger than mine."
It was an exceptionally high compliment.
Coming from an undefeated legend of ancient times, it carried even greater weight.
Ye Xuan smiled, but did not let the praise go to his head.
He tapped the tip of his foot against the ground. His figure rose like a falling leaf, crossing the distance from the foot of the mountain to its summit and landing outside the Stone Pavilion.
Up close, the woman was even more beautiful.
Her beauty did not belong to the mortal world. It carried a divine quality, detached from all earthly things.
Ye Xuan straightened his clothes and cupped his hands toward the woman in the pavilion. His tone was half teasing, half sincere.
"I am Ye Xuan. My respects, Twin Pupils Woman Senior!"
At that form of address,
the Gray-Robed Woman, who had been so composed, suddenly furrowed her lovely brows.
For a moment, some of the immortal air around her seemed to fade, replaced by a hint of worldly warmth.
Her expression darkened in plain sight.
"Kid, what kind of terrible title is that?"
She glared at Ye Xuan, her eyes unmistakably scornful.
"Either call me Senior, or call me Sister."
"What do you mean, Twin Pupils Woman?"
"Do these eyes mean I have no other features?"
Her sudden complaint instantly lightened the tense atmosphere.
Ye Xuan was taken aback, then laughed despite himself.
That was true.
Everyone called her the Twin Pupils Woman and remembered only her eyes, forgetting that she was a living person, a peerlessly beautiful woman.
"You're right, Senior."
Ye Xuan readily accepted the correction, his smile growing brighter.
He looked at the ancient deity before him, who was sulking, blinked, and asked,
"Then may I ask your name, Senior...?"
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