Heng's Imperial Guards, I'm Coming!

Lin Yi chose the burst mode.

There are two ways to use the Chaos Source Seal Pact: continuous amplification and a one-time burst.

The former excels in its longevity; once activated, it provides a stable power boost for each use of the corresponding secret technique over a period of time, but the boost is limited. The latter, on the other hand, unleashes all the power of the laws contained within the seal in a single attack, resulting in a surge in power. However, the cost is that the seal will fall into dormancy and require a long period of nurturing to recover.

In conventional combat, a one-off burst of power is often used as a last resort.

Because once used, one's strongest ability becomes completely useless, and if one fails to defeat the enemy in one strike, one will be in a very passive position.

But Lin Yi didn't care.

This is a simulated, illusory world, not reality; he has only one opponent.

What he needs to do is achieve victory in one strike.

Deep within his soul, the Chaos Source Seal Pact erupted with a powerful Silverblue light.

The light was cold and pure, without any warmth, as if each ray of light was condensed from the Annihilation Power.

Light surged from the Soul Origin, rushing towards his eyes along the veins woven by the Chaos Law, and converging deep within his pupils.

Lin Yi's eyes changed completely at that moment.

His originally dark pupils were completely swallowed by a Silverblue light. The light was not dazzling, but it had a chilling, deathly quality.

In the center of the pupil, an extremely fine vertical line suddenly opened, as if the eyelid of some ancient reptile was tearing open a seal that had been closed for billions of Epoch, directly locking onto the opponent.

When those two beams of light shot out from his eyes, all the light in the entire void was sucked away at the same instant.

The Silverblue light wasn't dazzling, but it possessed a quality that could devour everything; wherever the light passed, space seemed to freeze silently.

The Light of Eternal Silence.

Freeze everything, annihilate everything.

The illusory figure opposite was just as quick.

Almost the instant the Light of Eternal Silence burst forth, the phantom also activated its own Chaos Source Seal Pact.

A condensed, incomparably powerful torrent of blackish-gray energy erupted from in front of the phantom.

The torrent was composed of layers upon layers of waves, each layer woven from countless fine threads of law, possessing immense power. With each layer stacked upon the other, its destructive force reached an astonishing level.

Lin Yi silently made a judgment in his heart.

With such power, its Chaos Source Seal Pact should belong to the level of the initial stage of sainthood.

Lin Yi couldn't help but secretly complain.

This is the kind of opponent of the same level that Wen Xiao mentioned? Shouldn't a normal opponent of the same level be someone of the most ordinary caliber?

I wasn't even aiming for the worst kind of ordinary seal, just a high-quality one would have been fine. But instead, it's a divine seal?

This already places him among the more outstanding direct descendants of the various Eternal Source Family.

Despite his complaints, Lin Yi wasn't particularly worried.

Because he was well aware of the power of the Light of Eternal Silence, for him, at the same level, even a Saint-grade item... was not enough.

After all, the Light of Eternal Silence isn't even at the bottom of the divine-grade rankings.

It not only boasts an amplification factor of up to sixteen, but also possesses a unique annihilation characteristic, capable of directly freezing the opponent's law structure upon collision with their attack, fundamentally disintegrating the opponent's attack.

Soon, under Lin Yi's leisurely gaze, the two attacks collided violently in the gray void.

The layered waves of laws solidified instantly upon touching the Light of Eternal Silence, then collapsed silently.

One floor, two floors, three floors.

Countless waves of laws crashed into that Silverblue extinction light like moths to a flame, only to be frozen and disintegrated.

In less than a breath, that incredibly powerful torrent of laws vanished completely.

It was as if it had never existed.

The Light of Eternal Silence encountered almost no real hindrance and directly engulfed the phantom.

And then... that was it.

The phantom, like its attack, was frozen, then disintegrated and dissolved into the Silverblue light.

Return to Stillness to the gray void.

Lin Yi slowly closed his eyes. The vertical lines subtly closed the moment his eyes closed, and the Silverblue light faded from his pupils, retreating back into the depths of his pupils.

When he opened his eyes again, they had returned to their usual dark and deep appearance, showing no signs of abnormality.

But deep within his eyes, a faint wisp of Silverblue afterglow lingered, like the last ray of aurora borealis after a blizzard, slowly melting away.

At the same time, ripples began to spread slowly from the boundary of the gray void.

The void began to crumble inch by inch from beneath his feet, like dust blown away by the wind, and the gray mist receded in all directions.

The semi-transparent light membrane floor beneath Lin Yi's feet returned to the same level as the assessment grounds, while the gray void above his head transformed back into the ever-flowing dark golden law patterns on the dome of the Constant Guard's garrison.

The figures of the other examinees who had been isolated from the illusory world also reappeared in his field of vision.

Lin Yi blinked and realized that he was no longer in his original position. More than a hundred stone platforms were now quietly floating above the assessment site, arranged in a loose circular array.

He has already left the assessment area.

The stone platform was carrying him, suspended above the assessment area.

Almost simultaneously, a dazzling golden beam of light suddenly shone in the void above the assessment site.

The beam of light descended vertically from the highest point of the dome, like a golden waterfall cascading down from the heavens, and then unfolded above the plaza, transforming into a giant golden list.

A line of text is slowly appearing on the list.

It was an extremely concise line of text, so concise that it contained only two words and a number. Lin Yi: 3.

Lin Yi looked up and saw his name firmly ranked first on the golden list hanging above his head.

Lin Yi estimated that the so-called three likely refers to the time taken, which is 3 chen. Chen is a unit of time in the Chaos Cosmic Sea, roughly the length of a second in the Blue Star era.

His gaze lingered on that number for a moment, then slowly returned to his side.

Good, first place.

He was fairly satisfied with this result.

The spectators who had been quietly waiting on the surrounding floating stone platforms immediately noticed this scene.

An elderly man sitting in the third row on the east side of the stone platform was originally holding a small teacup.

He wore a dark blue robe with an ancient clan emblem embroidered in silver thread. Judging from the fluctuations of the laws emanating from him, his cultivation had already reached the Eternal Source Realm Completion.

He was leisurely sipping the fine wine in his cup, his gaze aimlessly sweeping over the area above the assessment field shrouded in the illusory light array.

Based on past experience, such assessments usually take some time before candidates complete them, since the requirement of "no injuries" makes the assessment less likely to be completed quickly.

However, his self-illumination suddenly stopped.

In that once empty void, a dark gold list had appeared without anyone noticing.

And there was already a name on the list.

Lin Yi.

The old man uttered the name instinctively.

Sitting beside him was a beautiful woman in a deep purple robe, whose hand, which was playing with a small talisman, paused slightly.

"So fast? It's over already?"

The beautiful woman put down the talisman in her hand and exclaimed in surprise, "This instantly killed the opponent?"

"Is that even a question?"

On the other side, a man wearing blue armor slowly spoke.

"To achieve this in a battle against someone of the same level, it's clear that they used the ultimate strike of the Chaos Source Seal Pact."

"Nonsense."

A burly man sitting not far behind him couldn't help but interject, "Anyone can unleash the Chaos Source Seal Pact. His opponent will definitely unleash their own Chaos Source Seal Pact immediately as well."

"Although Inspector Wen just mentioned opponents of the same rank, this 'opponent of the same rank' is different from the usual meaning."

"As you all should know, in all the assessments of the Constant Guard, whenever someone uses a phantom as an opponent, the phantom's Chaos Source Seal Pact is uniformly set to the initial Saint-grade level."

The man in blue armor remained silent for a moment, then slowly nodded.

"Not bad. A newly acquired Saint-grade Chaos Source Seal Pact. Generally speaking, when both sides activate their seals simultaneously and their most powerful attacks collide, even if one side wins, most of the power will be neutralized in the collision."

As he said this, he raised his head, his gaze returning to the golden list.

"That's very interesting. It means that when the phantom's seal attack collided with his seal attack, it produced almost no effective countermeasure. To achieve this level of overwhelming power... Lin Yi's Chaos Source Seal Pact must at least be of the Divine grade... The first seal is already of the Divine grade, interesting."

"The original intention of the Constant Guard's assessment was to test combat ability and skills, however..."

He changed the subject, a faint smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.

"The strength of the Chaos Source Seal Pact is itself a kind of ability. Being able to instantly kill an opponent with overwhelming force is also a skill. After all, in a real life-or-death battle, there is no chance for the opponent to breathe. Using force to overcome skill is quite appropriate."

The powerful figures around them all nodded in agreement.

That makes perfect sense.

The Constant Guard are not just casual sparring partners on the ring; they frequently face all sorts of situations. In those life-or-death battles, who cares what methods you use to win?

Winning is winning; surviving is the greatest skill.

"However, having been in seclusion all this time, I haven't seen this unfamiliar face before... Hmm, let me take a look."

The blue-armored man withdrew his gaze and instead took out a rune that was shimmering faintly.

He quickly let out a soft "hmm".

"The Wen Family?"

The man in blue armor frowned slightly, then relaxed.

"It's the Wen Xiao, that Wen Family... no wonder."

Similar conversations were taking place on the viewing platforms in other directions.

In one corner of the stone platform on the south side, several practitioners dressed in uniform white robes were gathered together, discussing in hushed tones.

One of the women looked up at the name on the golden list, her expression very complicated.

"In my memory, very few of the prodigies from Constant Island could defeat an opponent of the same level who possessed a Saint-grade seal so quickly."

A man with a more mature appearance standing next to her shook his head upon hearing this.

"That's not quite right. This assessment method is indeed more advantageous for Lin Yi. Think about it, he's at the initial stage of the Eternal Source Realm, while his opponent's illusory figure is at the same level, and both of them only have one Chaos Source Seal Pact. His Divine-grade Imprint against the newly entered Saint-grade Imprint naturally gives him a significant advantage. But if it were a candidate at the middle stage of the Eternal Source Realm, who already has four or five Chaos Source Seal Pact, even if one of them is Divine-grade and the rest are Saint-grade, while his opponent's illusory figure has five or six Saint-grade Imprints, then that advantage would be reduced."

He paused, then continued, "If we switch to the High Order of the Eternal Source Realm, with Chaos Source Seal Pact, the advantage of a single Divine-grade Imprint will be further diluted, making it even more difficult to achieve this level of overwhelming dominance."

The young woman nodded thoughtfully upon hearing this.

"You mean, Inspector Wen made him..."

"Ahem, you can't say that."

The mature man quickly shook his head and said, "Do you think Inspector Wen is deliberately favoring his own people? This kind of assessment method has appeared several times before, it's not like Inspector Wen Xiao invented it. Who is Inspector Wen? He can reach the position of Inspector, do you think he would do anything outrageous for a junior? It's just a matter of chance."

He raised his hand and pointed to the golden list.

"And Lin Yi proved with his own abilities that he could handle this opportune moment."

Above the examination hall, the dark gold list still floated silently in the void.

On the list, the name "Lin Yi" firmly occupied the top spot, and the number "3" was clear and eye-catching under the pale golden light.

Below this name, the second line of the list remains blank.

The faint murmurs in the War Zone gradually subsided.

After learning about Lin Yi's relationship with the Wen Family, all the forces that wanted to win over this newcomer abandoned the idea.

Are you kidding me?

Snatching people from the Wen Family family?

Not to mention that Wen Xiao himself is the Inspector of the Constant Guard, just the presence of those three Constant Lord- level experts from the Wen Family is enough to deter many people in the entire Silent Cosmos Domain from daring to provoke them.

Just as the commotion subsided and the War Zone Return to Stillness, another stone platform trembled slightly.

Another examinee was teleported out of the virtual world.

He was a tall, slender young man, whose dark green, fitted armor made his tall figure appear even more elongated.

He stood on the stone platform, blinked blankly for a moment, then looked up and saw the golden list floating above him.

His gaze fell on the very top of the list, lingering for a moment on "Lin Yi" and the number "3".

At this point, his name appeared on the second line, taking 182 seconds.

He fell silent.

In the following time, the stone platforms trembled slightly, teleporting the candidates who had completed the assessment out of the illusory world.

The third, the fifth, the twelfth, the twenty-third...

Each time the stone platform trembled, a candidate would look around blankly for a moment, then see the golden list above their head, and at the very top, the name and number that stood firmly like a mountain pressing down, and they would all fall silent.

The names on the golden list increased one after another, arranged in rows, with the time number following each name getting larger and larger.

Only when the last person appeared at the end of the list did the entire list ripple slightly with gold, and then it froze in mid-air like solidified Amber.

On the high platform, Wen Xiao stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze sweeping across the golden list line by line, finally landing on the two words at the very top.

Lin Yi.

His expression didn't change much, remaining as cold and composed as ever.

However, if someone familiar with him were to observe him closely up close, they would notice that the lines at the corners of his mouth seemed to have softened by a negligible amount compared to before.

In fact, no one had ever told him that Lin Yi had cultivated a divine seal.

No one, including Wen Xu and Wen Qianfei, had specifically reported this matter to him.

He had once heard Wen Qianfei mention that she had given the drop of Eternal Silence Abyss Dragon's essence blood to Diao Yi.

That's all.

This is quite normal, after all, he was the one who gave the item back then, and now it's being given away. Out of respect, it's only natural to inform him.

The first test in this assessment used the method of condensing illusory images of the same level in the illusory realm.

This was certainly not his original creation, nor was it a recent modification.

However, he also admitted that before determining the assessment method, he did know that this method would be relatively advantageous to Lin Yi.

The prerequisite is that Diao Yi can refine that drop of Eternal Silence Abyss Dragon's essence blood into a divine-grade seal.

To be able to master the Nine Source Eternal Pact Art and successfully condense a divine-grade seal in such a short time is truly a testament to Diao Yi's own abilities.

Since Yi has this ability, why not let him go with the flow?

Wen Xiao withdrew his gaze, put his hands back behind his back, and gently pressed his right hand down in the air.

"The first assessment is now complete. We will now proceed to the second assessment."

Wen Xiao didn't give everyone much time to calm down.

"The first test is your combat strength. The second test is your willpower."

"The rules are simple. You will be pulled into the illusion again. There are no opponents in the illusion, but you will be surrounded by various mental interferences. What you need to do is resist these interferences while trying your best to find the void node in the illusion, and then use your own Soul Power to break through the illusion and escape."

"The shorter the time, the higher the ranking. If you have any questions, please ask now."

Wen Xiao paused briefly, and seeing that no one spoke, he raised his right hand high, fingers together like a sword.

"So now..."

... Keeffe!

The moment his voice fell, countless pale golden threads descended from the sky once more, weaving together in mid-air to form a massive ring of light.

Diao Yi felt his vision suddenly go white again.

The surrounding stone platform, examinees, spectators, and even the golden list above his head were all simultaneously removed from his perception range.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in a completely unfamiliar void.

This void is completely different from the gray space we encountered during the first assessment.

The first assessment was a gray void. Although it was empty, it had no sound, no temperature, and no smell, giving people a sense of utter nothingness.

This void is too beautiful.

Beneath my feet stretched a sea of flowers that stretched to the horizon.

The flowers had shapes and colors never seen before, each one radiating a dreamlike glow. The petals swayed gently in the windless air, and the scattered pollen, like fine dust, wove into flowing rainbows in the sky.

The fragrance of the flowers is refreshing and sweet, as if it can cleanse the soul.

At the end of the sea of flowers, the horizon faintly outlines the silhouette of a city so magnificent it defies description.

But Yi had no time to appreciate any of this.

The moment Cheng Wei stepped into this void, a voice rang in his ears.

"You've done enough... Stop now, there's no need to go any further..."

"Look here, how beautiful it is. Why do you want to leave?"

Countless sounds flooded into his consciousness from all directions. These sounds were neither deafening nor shrill, but rather as gentle as a spring breeze, as whispered in a lover's ear, or as a mother's warm murmur during a bath.

As the sound rang out, the sea of flowers before them changed.

Aurelia stood smiling at him amidst a patch of Silverblue Star Radiance flowers. Soon, other figures appeared: Master Xuchen, Senior Brother Prison Suppressor, Senior Sister Thousand Illusions, Xuan Yan, Tian Ge...

Their eyes were full of anticipation.

Don't go.

"Stay here."

You've already done enough for others.

"This is where you belong."

The sound became clearer and clearer.

Although he knew it was an illusion, Diao Yi found that these whispers and scenes could not be blocked at all; instead, they assaulted his mind wave after wave.

"Tsk, you have to listen whether you want to or not, you have to watch whether you want to or not. The supply chain is still that kind of slow, insidious interference..."

Diao Yi chuckled inwardly.

He's not afraid of any of that.

Whether it's a head-on soul-crushing attack or a gentle, pervasive infiltration of consciousness, it makes no difference to him.

Cheng believed he had a trump card.

Without the slightest hesitation, Lin Yi directly activated the vast liquid lake within the Purple Mist Space.

Spiritual Enlightenment Qi erupted deep within his soul, instantly cleansing his entire being.

The whispers that had been babbling in his ear stopped abruptly at that moment.

Of course, it wasn't dispelled; it's just that his consciousness became incredibly clear under the blessing of the Spiritual Enlightenment Qi.

After discarding those mental attacks, Diao Yi silently observed for a while, then raised his hand, his five fingers slightly spread, and aimed at a seemingly ordinary open space in the sea of flowers.

That place is the core, enveloped by layers of flowers and the whispering of warm water, a place that has been carefully disguised.

Break!

Under his will, the Soul Power burst forth like a tangible sword.

Where the sword light struck, an extremely fine crack suddenly appeared in the open space.

The crack wasn't wide, only a tenth the thickness of a hair, but the instant it appeared, the entire sea of flowers, the silhouette of the entire city, all those whispered conversations and familiar faces, shattered like a broken mirror, crumbling inch by inch from the crack.

A crisp cracking sound echoed in the void, and countless crystalline fragments fell like Star Dust, revealing the pure darkness behind the fragments.

Then the darkness began to recede.

The familiar dark gold dome of the Constant Guard's garrison reappeared overhead, and the stone platform beneath their feet remained unchanged.

He's back.

Diao Yi blinked and subconsciously looked up.

The dark gold list still hovered in the void.

However, at this moment, the rankings for the first assessment are already fixed, while on the other side of the list, the rankings for the second assessment are slowly emerging.

The first thing to rise was still the top row.

Lin Yi: 17.

The scores for the two assessments were displayed side-by-side after his name, and soon the two scores merged, eventually becoming: 20.

This number was displayed in the most prominent position on the entire list.

Diao Yi raised his head, saw his name firmly at the top of the list, and finally revealed a satisfied smile.

Constant Guard, here I come!