Taiyin Star.
A colossal star radiating a cold, pale glow.
Unlike the Solar Star, it was not violent, nor was it filled with destructive power.
Its surface was covered by a thick layer of ten-thousand-year black ice condensed from Taiyin True Force.
There was no life here, no sound.
Only eternal solitude and cold.
Three figures crossed the chaos and descended upon this frozen world.
They were Nuwa, Xihe, and True Lord Yuding.
The instant they landed, an extreme chill seeped up through the soles of their feet and invaded their souls.
This chill was not merely low temperature.
It was more like a law.
A law capable of freezing thought, erasing emotions, and reducing all things to absolute "stillness."
"Such terrifying Taiyin power."
A trace of gravity appeared on Xihe's face.
She had once been the god of Taiyin, yet she had never felt such pure, such formidable cold.
During the ancient era of the Demon Heavenly Court, the Taiyin Star had been cold, but it still had the Moon Laurel Tree, the Guanghan Palace, and circulating vitality.
Now, the Taiyin Star held only deathly silence.
"This place was altered."
Nuwa reached out and touched the black ice beneath her feet.
A flicker of realization flashed through her eyes.
"While suppressing the Solar Star, Father God Pangu also transformed the Taiyin Star."
"He turned this place into a lock, a yin lock that echoed the Solar Cage from afar."
True Lord Yuding said nothing.
He merely circulated his mystic art in silence, using his own Yuqing Immortal Light to resist the all-pervading chill.
At the same time, his divine sense began scanning the entire law structure of the Taiyin Star like the most precise instrument.
He needed to construct a complete model of this place's laws for Chen Ran aboard the flagship far away.
That was his mission.
"Where is the key?"
Xihe asked.
Her gaze turned toward the depths of the Taiyin Star.
There lay a region shrouded in even deeper darkness.
According to the information Eastern Emperor Taiyi had left behind, the key was there.
The three did not hesitate and flew in that direction.
The deeper they went, the stronger the soul-freezing chill became.
Even a saint like Nuwa felt a measure of strain.
It was as though the entire world rejected their entry.
At last.
They arrived before a massive iceberg.
Beneath the iceberg, they could vaguely make out the outline of a palace.
The palace was breathtakingly beautiful, yet it exuded a heartbreaking solitude.
Guanghan Palace.
"This is the place."
Xihe's voice trembled faintly.
She could sense that Eastern Emperor Taiyi's final guidance ended here.
Yet just as they prepared to enter the palace.
A thought devoid of even the slightest emotion emerged from the deepest part of the palace.
"Outsiders, halt."
That thought made Nuwa and Xihe stop at once.
Disbelief appeared on both their faces.
There was actually someone here!
A figure slowly emerged from the shadows of Guanghan Palace.
It was a woman.
She wore plain white palace attire. Her beauty was peerless, yet she seemed like an ice sculpture.
There was no light in her eyes, no emotion.
Only an eternal, unchanging dead stillness like that of the Taiyin Star.
"Chang'e?"
Xihe cried out in shock.
She recognized the woman.
She had been the leader of a human tribe during the ancient Demon Heavenly Court era, and Hou Yi's wife.
Back then, Hou Yi had shot down the suns, becoming mortal enemies with the demon race.
To take revenge, Di Jun had bestowed poisoned wine, but Chang'e had consumed it by mistake.
In the end, Chang'e ascended to the moon palace and was separated from Hou Yi forever.
But that was merely a legend.
Xihe knew very well that Chang'e had been nothing more than an ordinary mortal back then.
How could she have survived on the Taiyin Star until now?
And how could she possess power that even saints found threatening?
"I am not Chang'e."
The woman spoke.
Her voice sounded like two blocks of black ice grinding against each other.
"Chang'e was assimilated by this place's laws and died on the very first day she entered the moon palace."
"I am the watcher of this 'key.'"
Watcher.
The word made Nuwa's heart tremble.
She understood.
The woman before them was no longer a living being.
She was something akin to an Artifact Spirit, fused with the laws of the Taiyin Star and this "key."
She was the final line of defense for this lock.
"We have come to take the key."
Nuwa stated their purpose directly.
"The Primordial World is in danger. We need it to open up a chance of survival."
"Hope?"
For the first time, a ripple appeared on the watcher's face.
It was an extreme mockery.
"The hope you speak of is using it to open another hell?"
"Trading destruction for destruction. Is this the solution you came up with?"
Her words left Nuwa speechless.
"You will not have the key."
The watcher's attitude was utterly resolute.
"This is my mission."
"Unless..."
Her gaze swept over Nuwa and Xihe.
At last, it settled on True Lord Yuding, who had remained silent from beginning to end.
"Unless you can prove it to me."
"Prove that you are qualified to wield this power, enough to destroy the world."
"How do we prove it?" Nuwa asked.
The watcher raised a finger.
She pointed toward the depths of Guanghan Palace, at a huge ancient tree that had completely withered, leaving behind only ice-sculpture-like branches.
The Moon Laurel Tree.
That demand made Xihe draw in a sharp breath.
This Moon Laurel Tree was the origin of the Taiyin Star.
It had completely died along with the Taiyin Star's transformation.
Its vitality and laws had both been utterly erased by that eternal power of stillness.
Make a tree that was completely dead bloom again?
How could that be possible!
Even saints could not accomplish it!
This was not creation. It was reversing the laws of the entire world!
Nuwa's expression became incomparably grave as well.
She could create life.
But she could not turn something that had completely returned to "nothing" back into "something."
That was something only Pangu could do.
Just as everyone fell into despair.
True Lord Yuding finally spoke.
"I can try."
His words drew everyone's attention.
He slowly walked beneath the withered Moon Laurel Tree.
He did not use Magic Power, nor did he bring forth any magical treasure.
He simply sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.
Then, everything he had seen and felt here, along with the impossible trial proposed by the watcher.
He transmitted it all, unchanged, through his divine sense to Chen Ran aboard the flagship far away.
"Executor."
"Your choice now."
Before you continue