Check-In and Inscription

The dull thud of the stone door closing behind him had not yet fully faded when Taiyi slid down the cold door wall and sat on the ground.

Every gap between his bones ached with weakness. Breaking through those nine layers of restrictions had been a brutal struggle, one layer after another. The Chaos Bell in his sea of consciousness had dimmed, hanging there like an old bronze bell left unpolished for years. Even its hum was faint—it had been drained dry.

He leaned against the door without moving immediately, first pricking up his ears to listen for movement outside.

Dead silence.

But there was another kind of "silence" inside the hall. Darkness—thick, inescapable darkness that swallowed light and sound, dragging even one's vitality into its depths. Taiyi kept his eyes open, yet it felt as though more than a dozen layers of soaked black velvet had been draped over them. He could see nothing.

Yet he could sense it.

Something deep within the hall was moving. Not the movement of a living creature darting about, but a slower, heavier, more ancient rhythm. Like... the heart of some colossal thing buried at the deepest core of the earth, barely beating once every ten thousand years. Every near-nonexistent pulse made the stagnant air in the hall tremble, sending chills seeping out from the cracks in his bones.

The Heart of Pangu.

Taiyi's throat bobbed as he swallowed a mouthful of blood-flecked saliva. In his dantian, the misshapen gray-black Chaos Lotus trembled uncontrollably, its petals quivering—whether from fear or some more primal hunger, he could not tell.

[Detected a taboo-level check-in location: Core Area of Pangu Hall]

[Danger rating: Nine deaths, one life remaining. In the current environment, the host's survival rate is below 10%.]

[Defiance level: Extreme. The sovereign of the Demon Race has secretly entered the sacred land of the Witch Race, touching the bottom line of the Heavenly Dao.]

[Reward calculation formula activated... Calculation complete.]

[Check-in reward: Heaven-Opening Axe Imprint Comprehension (Fragment) ×1, Taboo Points +120]

The system notification slammed into his mind in the same emotionless, icy tone.

Taiyi wiped the corner of his mouth, his palm smeared with sticky blood. He did not respond at once.

He needed to recover, and he also needed to see what this damned place actually looked like. He closed his eyes and regulated his breathing for around a dozen breaths. When he opened them again, his pupils had barely adapted to the all-devouring darkness. Deep within the hall, perhaps several hundred zhang away, a hazy gray glow floated in midair. It was the size of a fist and rose and fell with extreme slowness.

The glow looked weak, but the instant Taiyi glanced at it, his eyeballs felt as though they had been jabbed by red-hot needles. Pain forced him to look away at once.

It was not a matter of brightness, but of "level." The thing wrapped within that light possessed too lofty a status. So lofty that even the act of looking directly at it was an act of sacrilege.

"Damn..." he cursed under his breath. His voice produced a faint echo in the utterly silent hall before the darkness swallowed it.

His consciousness sank into his sea of consciousness. "Scan the hall. Besides that ball of light, what else is there?"

[Scanning... Warning: The core area contains remnants of a high-level will. A deep scan may trigger severe backlash.]

"Don't touch that light. Just check the edges and corners. See if there are any traps I can't step on."

[Understood. Shallow scan initiated.]

A wave finer than spider silk spread from his body, cautiously crawling along the cold floor and rough walls. The feedback soon returned. The space within the hall was wrong. It looked square and orderly, but its actual depth was terrifyingly vast, as though it had been folded and compressed. Apart from the gray light at the center, twelve pillars stood around it, each so thick that even three people joining arms might not be able to encircle one. Every pillar was carved with crooked totems carrying a savage prehistoric air. Their auras differed completely: icy, scorching, heavy, sharp... exactly twelve kinds, faintly corresponding to the origins of the Twelve Ancestral Witches. Even the ground beneath his feet was not stone. It felt somewhat soft, with a sticky elasticity, like... blood scabs that had solidified over countless ages.

No additional mechanisms or traps had been detected.

Or rather, the entire Pangu Hall itself was the greatest trap. The omnipresent pressure of Pangu, heavy enough to crush bones, and the ancient, weighty Dao rhythm that made breathing difficult, were the fiercest defense. Anything without Pangu's bloodline would have its body and soul continuously eroded and assimilated if it remained here too long, eventually becoming part of this hall.

Taiyi calculated rapidly. The Witch Blood Powder would probably remain effective for a little over half an hour. Time was tight.

"Check in."

He spoke silently in his heart.

The instant the words fell—

Boom!

The hazy gray light deep within the hall suddenly expanded!

It did not grow brighter. Its sense of presence simply surged, so overwhelming that it felt as though an invisible giant hand had seized Taiyi's heart and crushed it violently. His vision went dark, sweetness rose in his throat, and he nearly spat out blood. The blood throughout his body seemed to flow backward. The origin of True Sun Fire shrank into the deepest part of his dantian like a startled rabbit, while even the Blood Fiend Power flowing through his meridians froze stiff, instinctively prostrating itself.

Above the gray light, the mist that had originally drifted slowly began to churn and gather wildly.

There was no sound and no shifting light, but Taiyi's spirit saw it—not with his eyes, but as an image branded directly into the depths of his true spirit.

A phantom.

It was so blurred that only the outline of a human figure remained, yet it was so tall that it seemed to support heaven and earth, though there was no distinction between heaven and earth within this hall. With its back to Taiyi, it held an equally illusory giant axe and made the simplest, yet most terrifying, movement—

It raised its arm and swung down.

The first axe strike that opened heaven.

Taiyi's pupils shrank to pinpoints. He wanted to avert his "gaze," but his soul seemed nailed in place, completely unable to move. The things contained within that axe imprint were too complex, yet too pure. Complex enough to seem to contain the prototypes of every law since the birth of the Great Wilderness, the source of all order; pure enough to strip away every embellishment and technique, leaving only the most primal, tyrannical "power"—the power that split chaos, divided the clear from the turbid, and established heaven and earth.

It was not something his current level could comprehend. If he forced himself to watch, even his true spirit might be ground into dust by that lofty Dao rhythm.

[Warning! The host's cultivation is insufficient. Forced observation will cause the Dao foundation to collapse!]

[Would you like to activate the "Taboo Resonance" service? Consumes 25 Taboo Points and temporarily raises the limit of Dao rhythm tolerance for 30 seconds.]

The warning came just in time. There was even a rare hint of urgency in that cold voice.

Taiyi clenched his teeth so hard that he tasted blood from his gums. "Activate it!"

Twenty-five Taboo Points were deducted instantly. A cool but non-piercing energy surged from nowhere, rapidly flowing over his eyes and covering their surface with an extremely thin, almost imperceptible "film." The soul-searing pain immediately lessened by more than half. Although it was like looking through fogged glass, blurry and indistinct, he could at least barely keep watching.

He seized those precious thirty seconds, his eyes burning from staring as he fixed them on the phantom trace of that axe.

Its trajectory... had no fixed trajectory.

Or rather, every instant of it evolved infinite possibilities, encompassing every possible way of "splitting." Taiyi saw black cracks torn violently through space. He saw time twist on either side of the axe edge, strange ripples forming from their differing speeds. He saw earth, fire, wind, and water flash into existence within the axe light before vanishing again, cycling without end...

But at its core was the point of "nothingness" at the very tip of the axe blade.

It was not emptiness, nor was it void. It was absolute "nothingness," before even the concept of "existence" had been born. Opening heaven and earth meant forcibly and tyrannically cleaving "something" out of that point of "nothingness."

Taiyi's mind buzzed as though some solid yet narrow understanding had been violently chiseled open. His fixed understanding that Grand Unity Golden Immortals had to bloom twelve-petaled flowers, his faint unease over his own malformed Three Flowers, his confusion over where the road ahead lay... at that moment, all of it was illuminated by a sliver of light from that ultimate "nothingness."

So the end of "something" might connect to "nothingness." And "nothingness" was the true beginning.

Thirty seconds passed in an instant.

The coolness around his eyes ebbed away like a tide. Taiyi shut his eyes fiercely, but two streams of scorching bloody tears still poured down his cheeks uncontrollably, splattering into tiny blood blossoms on the cold ground. His eyes felt as though they had been repeatedly seared by branding irons, burning with pain, while his vision filled with dancing golden sparks and black spots.

Yet the corner of his mouth gradually spread wider and wider, finally becoming a bloodstained, nearly crazed grin.

"Worth it... fucking worth it..."

He whispered hoarsely, his voice trembling badly, yet unable to hide his suppressed excitement.

Although he had only understood scraps from the outermost edges, although he had no way to digest the profundity of creating something from nothing and could not even touch its threshold, the seed had been planted. That was enough. That was fucking enough!

[Heaven-Opening Axe Imprint Comprehension (Fragment) has been stored in the system space.]

[Notice: This comprehension contains taboo-level Dao rhythm. The host is advised to attempt refinement after reaching the middle stage of Quasi-Saint. Forced comprehension carries the risk of true spirit collapse.]

Taiyi ignored the system's routine warning. Supporting himself on his weak, trembling legs, he swayed to his feet. His vision darkened several times before he steadied himself. He roughly wiped his face with his bloodstained sleeve, then turned to look at the cold, heavy inner wall of the stone door beside him, covered in traces of time.

It was time to handle the real business.

Leave behind a little "souvenir."

He took something from the system space—not something exchanged from the system, but private goods brought from the Sun Palace. It was a crystal fragment the size of a fingernail, bright scarlet-gold, its edges slightly melted. It was formed from the essence of lava from the core of the Sun Star, cooled over hundreds of millions of years under extreme pressure. It was absurdly hard. Even a full-force strike from an ordinary Grand Unity Golden Immortal might fail to leave a scratch on it. It was also a supreme auxiliary material for cultivating the supreme Yang path of True Sun Fire.

Now, Taiyi intended to use it as a "pen" to leave his name in the most sacred and dangerous place in the Great Wilderness.

He staggered to the inner side of the stone door and reached out to touch the wall. It was rough and cold, carrying the eternal chill of the deep earth. An extremely faint yet incomparably resilient Dao rhythm slowly circulated across the stone surface. It was Pangu Hall's innate defense, something it had possessed since birth. Carving words into it was nearly as difficult as carving words into an Innate Supreme Treasure.

Taiyi weighed the heavy Sun Crystal Shard in his hand, took a deep breath, and suppressed the churning blood and pain throughout his body. He slowly and laboriously poured his remaining mana into it—mixed with the blazing heat of True Sun Fire, the savagery of Blood Fiend Power, and a faint, indistinct trace of the "nothingness" he had just comprehended from the Heaven-Opening Axe Imprint.

The crystal fragment lit up. It was not its usual dazzling gold-red, but a restrained and profound dark gold, as though it were burning from within. At its edges, an extremely faint gray gleam flowed indistinctly.

He raised his heavy arm, pressed a sharp corner of the crystal fragment firmly against the cold stone wall, then used all his strength to carve the first stroke!

Screech—Creak—

A teeth-grinding shriek, as though metal and stone were scraping desperately against one another, exploded through the dead-silent hall. The faint Dao markings on the wall flared brilliantly, resisting the crystal fragment with all their might as strings of tiny sparks burst forth. The muscles in Taiyi's arm tightened and bulged at once, veins writhing like earthworms. He braced with his shoulder, threw his entire weight into it, and pushed the crystal fragment forward bit by bit, inch by agonizing inch.

This was not carving. This was a contest of strength! A struggle against this ancient hall itself, which had existed since the opening of the Great Wilderness and carried Pangu's legacy! The Dao markings on the wall were violently disturbed by that tyrannical external force, producing a deep, unwilling hum. The entire massive stone door began to tremble faintly, shedding specks of dust that had accumulated over countless ages.

At last, the first stroke was carved out with immense difficulty—the opening of a crooked "Eastern," every turn filled with ruthless, resolute force.

Taiyi gasped like a broken bellows. The web between his thumb and forefinger had been completely split open, blood gushing out and running down the crystal fragment, dripping into the fresh grooves. The blood was not pure, noble gold. It was dark red mixed into gold, with the gray decay of undivided chaos showing through the red. Blended together, it looked demonic and inauspicious.

He did not stop. His eyes hardened as he continued carving the second character.

"Emperor"!

This character was even harder than "Eastern"! The stone wall's resistance became increasingly violent. The Dao markings shone so brightly that they nearly condensed into a solid shield, wrapping tightly around the crystal fragment and frantically squeezing away the power Taiyi had poured into it. Veins bulged wildly on Taiyi's forehead and neck. His teeth ground together with creaks as blood seeped from the corner of his mouth once more. His heart hardened, and he unhesitatingly drew upon most of the 120 Taboo Points he had just received, mixing them with his nearly exhausted mana. The result became an even more tyrannical, more defiant force, which he fiercely poured into the crystal fragment before pressing down again!

"Open—!!!"

A suppressed roar squeezed from his throat as the crystal fragment suddenly sank downward!

Crack... Snap!

Several faint but distinct sounds of breaking rang out. The stone wall itself had not cracked. Rather, that resilient layer of Dao marking protection had been forcibly chiseled open under the impact of Taboo Points—the authority of an anomaly—and Taiyi's origin power, shattering into a tiny gap! Taking advantage of it, the crystal fragment surged forward, and the latter half of "Emperor" was completed in one unstoppable sweep!

After finishing that character, Taiyi's vision went completely dark for an instant. Thunderous ringing filled his ears, and his body swayed violently, nearly pitching face-first onto the ground. His mana was almost entirely gone, while an empty, stabbing ache came from his dantian. Yet he still did not stop. Leaning against the stone wall, he took two ragged breaths tinged with the scent of rust. The fierce light in his eyes only grew stronger as he carved "Tai" and "Yi."

Those two characters were carved quickly, their strokes wild and careless. Some areas even came out broken due to his exhaustion. Yet that reckless, arrogant spirit—I came, so what are you going to do about it?—was even more naked and overbearing than in the first two characters. Once he carved the final stroke, Taiyi looked as though he had just been dragged from water. Sweat and blood mixed together, dripping from his chin, while his breathing came out in shattered gasps.

Four more characters remained.

He pressed his tongue against the roof of his mouth, tasting the fishy sweetness of his own blood. His eyes were as fierce as those of a dying wolf. Resting for less than a breath, he raised his trembling arm again, pressed the crystal fragment against the stone wall, and continued carving!

"Was," "Here," "For," "A Visit."

The four characters were small and hastily scrawled, squeezed beneath the four flamboyant characters of "Eastern Emperor Taiyi" like a casually added footnote. Yet it was precisely that casualness, combined with the eight characters themselves, that brought out the ultimate provocation: I toured the place, left my name behind—what can you do about it?

At the end of the final stroke, Taiyi's arm finally lost all strength. The hard Sun Crystal Shard slipped from between his fingers with a clatter, fell onto the dark ground, rolled several times, and even its glow dimmed. He could no longer support himself. With his back against the freezing stone wall, he slowly slid down to sit, his vision darkening in waves as chaotic flashes of light and ringing filled his senses.

It was done.

"Eastern Emperor Taiyi was here for a visit."

The eight characters were each nearly three zhang tall, deeply embedded into the rough, ancient stone of the inner door wall. Deep within the grooves of the strokes, dark-red bloody light flowed faintly like a living thing, corroding the stone. The Blood Fiend trait within his blood was continuously resisting and slowly contaminating Pangu Hall's own laws and Dao rhythm, making the inscription resemble a venomous thorn embedded in a sacred body, constantly radiating the aura of an "anomaly" and "defiance."

Almost at the exact instant the final stroke was completed—

The gray light hovering above the residual essence of the Heart of Pangu at the deepest part of the hall suddenly contracted violently, as though even light had been sucked into it. Immediately afterward, it expanded without warning, shaking heaven and earth!

Boom—!!!

A heartbeat roar a hundred times stronger and a thousand times heavier than before slammed directly into the deepest part of Taiyi's true spirit! He spat out a huge mouthful of blood. This time, blood seeped from his ears and the corners of his eyes as well. This was not a physical attack, but the purest crushing pressure and rage from the lingering will of the one who had opened heaven. Pangu's will had long dispersed, leaving only a trace of instinctive echo, but the inscription on the stone wall, overflowing with desecration and provocation, had utterly ignited it!

The entire ancient Pangu Hall began to shake violently!

The blood-scab-like substance on the ground glowed with thick dark-red light, as though it were about to come alive. The twisted totems on the twelve massive pillars containing the origins of the Ancestral Witches lit up one after another, releasing immense auras that were icy, scorching, heavy, and more. They gave off deep resonances like the wails of countless beasts. The omnipresent pressure of Pangu, already immensely heavy, suddenly increased more than tenfold! The air solidified like iron plates, space itself seemed to groan, and countless invisible primordial divine mountains crashed down upon him!

Every bone in Taiyi's body creaked under unbearable strain. His knee buckled, and he slammed down heavily onto one knee, denting the layer of "blood scab" on the ground. Yet he immediately braced himself with one arm. Veins bulged across his neck as he stubbornly held his head high, refusing to let his other leg kneel as well.

He bared bloodstained teeth and gave the gray light deep within the hall, flickering erratically in fury, a smile mingling pain, exhaustion, and madness.

"Can't... take it already?"

His voice was hoarse and broken, yet he forced it louder, carrying an unruly edge as it struggled to spread through the shaking, roaring hall.

"Don't rush... there'll be plenty more... to make you lose your mind..."

After saying that, he wasted no more words. Using the last trace of his strength, he struggled to turn around and pressed his bloodstained palm against the cold, heavy stone door.

It was time to leave.

If he did not run now, he really would leave his life here and become decoration for this damned hall.

Just as he exerted force with his five fingers and the stone door opened inward by a narrow crack—

The ceaselessly churning gray mist in the hall suddenly gathered and condensed behind him, forming an axe imprint that was illusory yet incomparably solid, radiating the pure aura of destruction from the dawn of creation. Soundlessly, it cleaved toward the center of his back with ruthless determination!

This was not the lingering Dao image he had seen during his comprehension. It was pure "punishment" and "erasure," condensed after Pangu's remaining will had been thoroughly enraged! The axe imprint locked onto the aura of "anomaly" and "desecrator" around Taiyi, ignoring the distance of space and appearing directly three feet behind him. Its cold killing intent pierced to the marrow!

The aura of death was so real, so cold.

Taiyi's scalp exploded with terror, and every hair on his body stood on end.

This axe strike could not be dodged, blocked, or received.

He would die.

He was really going to die.