Sun Returns Home

Chapter Nine: Sun Returns Home

Taiyi woke before dawn had fully broken.

It did not really count as waking—he had barely slept at all. His eyelids felt heavy, yet the tangled mess in his mind refused to settle. One moment, he saw Di Jun's exhausted face from last night when he had said, "Your brother is here." The next, he sensed the Chaos Bell twitching faintly in his dantian from time to time, as if it were having spasms. Outside, the sea of clouds remained dark blue, while only the faintest sliver of pale light had appeared in the east, so faint it was almost invisible.

He remained still in bed, but his divine sense sank into his body.

The Chaos True Sun Fire in his dantian was well-behaved enough. Golden-red flames slowly circulated, looking noticeably stronger than they had three days ago. The bell beside it, however, was rather irritating—the Chaos Bell hung there, its body inexplicably trembling every so often with a hum, making his entire dantian shake along with it.

"Brother," Taiyi muttered inwardly, "can't you just say what you want? Twitching like that is creeping me out."

The bell ignored him.

Taiyi sighed and sat up. The two jade pendants lay side by side at the edge of the bed: a Golden Crow and an eagle, both glimmering gently in the hazy morning light. He picked up the Golden Crow pendant and held it in his palm. The jade was warm against his hand, its warmth creeping up his arm as if it wanted to burrow into his heart.

He had to visit the Sun Star today.

It was not only to familiarize himself with his power—he wanted somewhere quiet. The Heavenly Court was too noisy. Not noisy in sound, but in that invisible way that weighed on his chest and made it hard to breathe. Everyone looked at him with expectation, calculation, and eager desperation that said, "Eastern Emperor Your Majesty, you must lead us through a bloody path." He was beginning to struggle under it.

When he pushed open the window, damp, chilly morning wind poured in and made him shiver. Outside, the cloud sea churned, and the distant outlines of palaces remained hidden in shadow. At this hour, even the demon soldiers on night patrol were drowsy, their footsteps sparse and scattered.

He changed into a simple black fitted outfit. The fabric was soft and comfortable against his skin. As he fastened his belt, he paused and hung both jade pendants from it—the Golden Crow on the left and the eagle on the right. Once they were in place, he lowered his head to inspect them and suddenly found it a little funny. What were they, protective charms? Could jade pendants really block the calamities that were bound to come?

When he leaped down from the rear terrace, the wind shrieked sharply past his ears.

He fell, accelerated, then twisted and transformed into a golden streak. This time, he flew somewhat absentmindedly, the trail of light he carved through the cloud sea crooked and wavering like a drunkard's path. Only after flying for a while did he suddenly come to his senses—no, he was Eastern Emperor Taiyi now. He needed to act like an Eastern Emperor.

The golden streak abruptly straightened, its speed surging as it tore through the cloud sea toward the southeast.

When the Sun Star entered his sight, Taiyi paused.

That enormous star hung in the void, its surface rolling with endless golden waves. Its light was blinding, and the heat reached him from afar, baking his face. He hovered there and watched it for a long while, the irritation in his heart gradually calming.

This was home.

He activated his protective true fire. Golden flames spilled from within him and wrapped around his entire body. Then he flew toward the Sun Star, not quickly, like a wanderer approaching an old home he had not returned to in years—eager, yet hesitant with the timid unease of one nearing home.

The closer he got, the higher the temperature rose.

When he was still several hundred miles from the surface, the surrounding void had already begun to distort, light bending into strange arcs. An ordinary Great Luo would have had to stop here; going farther would consume too much protective mana to endure. But Taiyi only felt... comfortable.

Truly comfortable.

It was like a person frozen stiff soaking in a hot spring. Every pore opened wide, greedily absorbing the pure True Sun Fire energy around him. Those violent flames, powerful enough to vaporize metal in an instant, settled upon him as gently as a spring breeze. Rather than being depleted, his protective true fire grew ever brighter, its color shifting from pale gold to deep gold.

That was the advantage of an innate foundation.

There were countless cultivators in the Great Wilderness, but those who had crawled out of the Sun Star's womb like him could be counted on two hands—there were only two: him and Di Jun. That closeness in their bloodline was something no amount of acquired cultivation could replace.

When he was only fifty miles from the surface, he stopped.

He closed his eyes and spread out his divine sense.

At the peak of Great Luo, divine sense could cover thousands of miles of mountains and rivers when fully unleashed. But on the Sun Star, the violent fiery energy interfered with divine sense. An ordinary Great Luo would be impressive if he could probe even a thousand miles. Yet Taiyi's divine sense moved as freely as a fish in water—the Sun Star Origin Mark granted him a natural immunity to the flames here.

His divine sense spread like an invisible net, slowly covering that golden sea of fire.

He "saw" the paths along which the flames flowed, the nodes where energy converged, and the newly born, ignorant fire spirits deep within the sea of flame. Farther down, the liquid fire sea roiled. Every drop of fiery liquid contained enough energy to blast a Grand Unity Golden Immortal to death.

"Not enough."

Taiyi opened his eyes, sank, and plunged into the liquid fire sea.

The scorching heat instantly enveloped his entire body.

But this time, he did not circulate his power to resist it. Instead, he released his defenses and allowed the liquid flames to scour his body. Blazing currents seeped into his skin, his flesh, and deep into his bones. The Chaos True Sun Fire in his dantian spun joyfully, like a starving child finding a feast laid across a table, devouring everything wildly.

Comfortable.

Fucking comfortable.

He floated in the middle layer of the fire sea, soaking as though he were in a bath, and remained there for two hours. Only when the mana within him swelled to the point of pain, and the Chaos True Sun Fire had grown to the size of a fist and slowed its rotation, did he stop—it was full. Any more and it would burst.

He slowly opened his eyes and felt the surging power within him.

In terms of mana cultivation, he already stood at the absolute peak of Great Luo. Half a step forward would make him a Quasi-Saint. Yet that half-step seemed separated from him by an invisible membrane. It was right before his eyes, but he simply could not pierce it.

It was not that he lacked mana—the Sun Star Origin Mark, the Chaos True Fire refined from baleful blood, and the Chaos Bell constantly nourishing him day and night: combined, they were enough to build a foundation for an early-stage Quasi-Saint.

He was missing something.

He lacked that flash of realization, that feeling of Oh, so that's how it is. He lacked the clarity of knowing what he wanted to become. It was like building a house. The bricks, tiles, and lumber were all ready, but the blueprint had not been drawn clearly. The house could not be built, and even if it were, it would collapse.

With a thought, he summoned the Chaos Bell from his dantian.

The bell floated before him, its ancient dark-yellow body marked by three rings of sun patterns glowing faintly across its surface. A layer of dark red flickered around its edges—that was the mark left after refining the baleful blood. Taiyi reached out and pressed his palm against the bell.

Warmth passed into his hand, while a steady, rhythmic vibration came from within the bell, like a heartbeat.

This time, his divine sense entered far more smoothly.

The Chaos Bell possessed forty-nine Innate Restrictions, corresponding to the Great Dao's fifty and heaven's derived forty-nine. The original Taiyi had refined thirty-seven of them, only to become stuck before the thirty-eighth for tens of thousands of years. It was not due to insufficient mana, but inadequate realm—starting from the thirty-eighth restriction, it involved the essence of the laws of time and space. Without touching Primordial Chaos, it could not be unraveled.

Taiyi's divine sense arrived before the thirty-eighth restriction.

It was a chaotic-colored curtain of light, filled with countless intricate time-space Dao patterns that made one dizzy just looking at them. He drew a deep breath—though there was no air in the fire sea—and his divine sense became a needle that slowly pierced within.

Boom—

An enormous flood of information poured in.

They were neither words nor images, but more direct "sensations." Sensations regarding the "speed" of time, the "layers" of space, and how to slow time within one area while folding space in another. These fragmented sensations were chaotic and disordered, like a shattered puzzle. They were sharp enough to cut his Primordial Spirit with agonizing pain.

Taiyi clenched his teeth and endured the pain, sorting through them bit by bit, piecing them together bit by bit.

After an unknown amount of time, realization suddenly struck him.

His divine sense withdrew from the restriction. When he opened his eyes, a flash of chaotic light passed through them. He raised his right hand, palm facing upward, and stirred his thoughts.

The surrounding flames suddenly stopped.

They had not gone out. They had solidified—centered on him, every drop of liquid flame within thirty yards froze in place. Roiling waves hung suspended in midair, while flowing flames became still golden crystals. The entire region seemed as though someone had pressed pause; only he and the Chaos Bell continued to move normally.

Time-Space Stasis, its embryonic form.

It could only last three breaths, cover a range of thirty yards, and consumed a terrifying amount of energy—just that one move had drained nearly thirty percent of his dantian mana. But he had succeeded.

After three breaths, the flames began to flow again.

Taiyi panted, sweat beading on his forehead, yet it felt as if a fire had ignited in his heart. He had done it. This path worked. With the embryonic form of Time-Space Stasis, the Chaos True Sun Fire's destructive effect on the laws of order, and the Chaos Bell's suppressive power—even against an early-stage Quasi-Saint, he now dared to clash.

No, not merely clash.

He could win.

He recalled the Chaos Bell and sat cross-legged to regulate his breathing. Pure True Sun Fire energy surged in from all around, rapidly replenishing his losses. He recovered faster than before this time—his control over power had become more precise, so his recovery efficiency naturally improved as well.

Once he had recovered, he did not rush to leave. Instead, he extended his divine sense deeper into the Sun Star.

He still remembered the secret realm fluctuation mentioned by the system. His divine sense descended all the way down, passing through layer after layer of fire sea until it reached the outer edge of the core region. Sure enough, there was an abnormal point of fluctuation there, extremely faint, pulsing like a heartbeat. Once. Then again.

The fluctuation carried the chaotic, lawless aura unique to Chaos.

The moment Taiyi's divine sense drew close, it was repelled by an invisible barrier. It was not a defensive barrier, but a barrier of "levels"—the laws at the entrance to that secret realm were too advanced. His divine sense could not reach it yet.

[The secret realm entrance is protected by Chaos laws]

[Recommendation: Attempt again after reaching the Quasi-Saint realm and initially mastering the power of Primordial Chaos]

As expected.

Taiyi withdrew his divine sense, and instead felt more at ease. Having a goal was enough. What he feared was a road ahead shrouded in utter uncertainty. This secret realm was most likely left behind by a Chaos Demon God, and whatever lay inside was probably extraordinary. To enter it, he first needed to break through to Quasi-Saint.

Then he would break through.

He rose from the fire sea and flew outward. Passing through layer upon layer of blazing flames, he emerged from the surface of the Sun Star and returned to the void. Looking back, that enormous star hung silently behind him, radiating endless light and heat.

It was time to return.

Halfway back to the Heavenly Court, he detoured to that asteroid belt. He found a fragment the size of a house and landed on it, then raised his hand to summon the Chaos Bell.

He needed to test his strength.

He imagined an early-stage Quasi-Saint enemy standing before him—Kunpeng, for example. That old fellow was an early-stage Quasi-Saint who had advanced through opportunism. His foundation was weak, making him the perfect hypothetical opponent.

With a thought, the Chaos Bell rose into the air, its mouth aimed at a larger fragment below.

This was not a simple bell strike.

Taiyi formed hand seals with both hands, and mana surged from within him. The sun patterns on the Chaos Bell's surface suddenly lit up, while the dark-red layer around its edges became clear as blood. The bell began to spin faster and faster, churning the surrounding void into a visible vortex.

"Suppress!"

With that single shout, the Chaos Bell crashed down.

There was no sound.

Or rather, the bell itself swallowed the sound. The enormous fragment beneath its mouth jolted violently, then began to vanish inch by inch from its center. It was not shattering—it was annihilation. The very existence of matter was directly erased, leaving behind not even a speck of dust.

The range of annihilation continuously expanded, swallowing the entire fragment in the blink of an eye. Its force did not diminish. It continued downward, plowing a pitch-black, bottomless trench through the void. That was the trace of space being completely pierced through. Chaotic currents poured backward through the rupture, howling like ghosts weeping.

Taiyi panted as he recalled the Chaos Bell.

That attack had consumed forty percent of his mana. But its power... was enough. He was confident that if Kunpeng took that blow head-on without dodging, he would lose a layer of skin even if he did not die.

This was the power of the Chaos Bell's second level of control.

Satisfied, he turned and flew back. As he traveled, he calculated his next step: he needed to prepare to break through to Quasi-Saint. He would not take the path of severing the Three Corpses—it required finding three Xiantian Spirit Treasures with compatible attributes, then cutting away one's good thoughts, evil thoughts, and obsessions piece by piece. It was too painful, and too fake. That left only Prove Dao with Strength.

Prove Dao with Strength was difficult because it required an accumulation of mana comparable to that of a saint. But he had the system, the Sun Star, and time—though not much of it.

By the time he returned to the Sun Palace, it was already afternoon.

When he pushed open the door, the bedchamber was so quiet he could hear his own heartbeat. He walked to the desk, sat down, and took out the scroll of the Calamity Survival Record once more.

He unrolled it and picked up his brush.

This time, he wrote quickly:

"Great Luo peak, Time-Space Stasis initially formed."

"The Sun Star secret realm requires Quasi-Saint cultivation to enter."

"Next, break through to Quasi-Saint."

After writing, he stared silently at the still-wet ink for a long while before picking up the brush again and adding another line:

"Prove Dao with Strength, do not sever the Three Corpses."

It was a decision, and also a harsh declaration to himself.

Outside the window, the sunlight gradually slanted westward, and the Sun Star at the end of the cloud sea began to sink. Taiyi put away the jade slip and walked to the window, gazing at the sky burned red by the evening glow.

Starting tomorrow, he would have to give it everything.

The Zixiao Palace sermon was imminent. Once it ended, the waters of the Great Wilderness would turn murky. Before then, he had to become strong enough—strong enough to protect those he needed to protect in those muddy waters, and to walk the path he wished to walk.

He touched the two jade pendants at his waist.

They were warm, like two living hearts.