The atmosphere over the Shattered Star Wasteland grew abruptly tense with the appearance of those wounded guards.
Ye Chen and his companions hid behind an enormous stellar wreck, concealing every trace of their auras. Emperor Xuanwu laid down an invisible barrier around them, blocking detection from either side.
"Judging by their injuries, they were wounded by extremely powerful Annihilation Wind and spatial fragments," Ye Yun said quietly, his gaze sharp. "The turmoil in the core region is probably far worse than before."
Shi Meng rubbed his enormous, palm-fan-sized hands together. Rather than fear, fighting spirit blazed in his eyes. "Heh, now that's more like it! I've been cooped up in the Ancestral Grounds so long my bones are about to rust."
Ye Ling rolled her eyes at Shi Meng. Emerald light flickered at her fingertips as she sensed the guards' injuries from afar, her delicate brows drawing together. "Even their life essence has suffered some erosion. The power of annihilation is extremely tenacious. They'll need a long period of quiet recuperation to purge it."
Mo Yu's figure flickered in and out of the shadows, his voice carrying a note of gravity. "Young master, the security seems to have been strengthened. Besides the regular patrols, I can sense at least three concealed Immortal King divine senses sweeping that area in overlapping patterns. If we force our way closer, we'll probably be discovered immediately."
Everyone's gaze settled on Ye Chen.
Should they retreat now, or risk pressing onward?
Ye Chen remained silent. The "warmth" emanating from the Nameless Fragment inside his robes grew increasingly distinct, and the "breathing" of that transparent fissure deep within Mount Annihilation seemed to sound right beside his ear. The longing from his primordial immortal body battered his reason like a surging tide.
Retreat? Return to those tranquil Ancestral Grounds, so familiar that I'm sick of them, and keep living a life of limitless resources without a single surprise?
Advance? Ahead lies a dangerous forbidden zone that even an Immortal Emperor solemnly warned me about—an unknown rift that might harbor unspeakable horrors.
He remembered his listless yawns at his thousandth birthday banquet; remembered the utter lack of interest he had felt when faced with countless divine arts and treasured manuals in the Myriad Laws Abyss; remembered his father's meaningful gaze and the treasures his mother had given him, worried but unwilling to stop him...
Invincibility was an honor, but also a shackle. He longed to break that shackle, even if he could open only the smallest crack.
"We're not going to force our way in." Ye Chen finally spoke, his voice calm but carrying an unquestionable resolve. "Father's decree forbids us from coming within a hundred li of the core region. Right now, we're still more than a hundred and twenty li from its edge."
His gaze swept over them. "We'll wait here."
"Wait?" Shi Meng froze.
"For an opportunity." Ye Chen looked toward the ashen forbidden zone. "For the spatial fluctuations inside to undergo another violent change. For the instant when the Keepers' attention is completely drawn away."
Emperor Xuanwu's brows knotted tightly. "Young master, this is too dangerous! What if..."
"There are no what-ifs." Ye Chen cut him off, his gaze sharp as a blade. "Uncle Xuan, you fought alongside Father. You should know that an opening in battle vanishes in an instant. If we're unwilling to take even this much risk, we might as well turn around and go home now. I trust my judgment, and I trust all of you."
His gaze passed over Ye Yun, Ye Ling, Shi Meng, Mo Yu... and Ye Xiaoshan, who looked somewhat nervous but held tightly to that torn page.
"We are willing to follow you, young master!" Ye Yun was the first to bow, his tone firm. Even his usually cold eyes kindled with fire. A life of ease was not what these elites of the Ye clan wanted either.
"Wherever you go, young master, I'll go!" Ye Ling smiled radiantly, her life aura surging and dispelling a little of the surrounding oppression.
"Heh, that's more like it!" Shi Meng grinned broadly.
Mo Yu nodded silently, his figure growing ever fainter, as though ready to merge into the void at any moment.
Feeling everyone's resolve, Ye Xiaoshan thrust out his chest as well. Though his face was still somewhat pale, he tried hard to look less timid.
Emperor Xuanwu looked at these spirited, fearless young people, especially the look in Ye Chen's eyes—identical to his father's in his youth, never turning back once he had set his sights on a goal. In the end, he swallowed his objections and let them become a heavy sigh. "This old servant... obeys."
The time that followed became unbearably long and agonizing.
They concealed themselves within the barrier like the most patient hunters. Wind wailed across the wasteland. Occasionally, faint explosive cracks of tearing space drifted from afar, along with brief energy fluctuations as the patrols changed shifts.
Ye Chen sat cross-legged, seemingly resting with his eyes closed. In truth, his entire mind was immersed in sensing that fissure. He pushed the power of his dual pupils to its limit, revealing every minute detail of the transparent rift to his "eyes."
It writhed, expanded, then contracted. Like a passage that had yet to fully form, it was profoundly unstable. The "unusual" fluctuations it emitted waxed and waned. Ye Chen could sense that whenever they strengthened, the surrounding spatial structure grew more fragile, and the energy within Mount Annihilation grew more violent.
He was waiting for the instant those fluctuations reached their peak!
Time trickled by, from morning to noon, then until the sun's shadow slanted westward. There was no true day or night in the Shattered Star Wasteland, only an eternal gloom woven from starlight and the aura of destruction.
Suddenly!
Ye Chen, who had been sensing with his eyes closed, snapped them open, chaotic light bursting from his pupils!
"It's here!"
Almost at the same instant he spoke—
BOOOOM!!!
A thunderous crash, far deeper and more terrifying than yesterday's, erupted from the heart of Mount Annihilation! It was not sound traveling through the air, but a violent tremor in the laws of the Great Dao!
The entire Shattered Star Wasteland shook fiercely. Spiderweb cracks split the ground, and countless stellar wrecks tumbled and bounced from the shock! That gray curtain seemed to be savagely torn by an enormous invisible hand. It instantly warped and swelled, releasing heart-stopping destructive energy!
"On guard!"
"Stabilize the seal!"
"All personnel, fall back a hundred li!"
Several powerful Immortal King divine senses swept through like a storm, charged with shock and fury, all converging on the sudden upheaval at the heart of Mount Annihilation! Space boiled like water. Countless tiny fissures flashed into existence and vanished, while savage Annihilation Wind mingled with chaotic spatial power, forming visible gray-black waves that swept outward!
Now!
Ye Chen sprang to his feet and barked, "Go!"
Without the slightest hesitation, Emperor Xuanwu blazed with earthen-yellow divine light. Enveloping Ye Chen and his ten followers, he became a barely perceptible streak of light. Rather than charging straight toward Mount Annihilation, he skimmed the ground like a ghost, using the quaking earth and turbulent energy as cover. At an incredible speed, he precisely skirted several weak points in space and hurtled toward the edge of the core region where the fluctuations originated!
To an Immortal Emperor, a hundred li was no more than a step.
Almost in the blink of an eye, they crossed the original hundred-li boundary and reached the true outer edge of Mount Annihilation. Here, chaotic energy formed a violent force field, and their vision filled with distorted light and shattered fragments of space. The guards who had been recovering here had long since been taken away by their comrades in a panicked retreat.
"It's right there!" Ye Chen's gaze locked firmly ahead.
Less than ten li away, space had twisted completely into an enormous vortex. At its very center, the once-tiny transparent fissure had now expanded to more than a person's height! It was no longer transparent, but radiated a deep light of nothingness that seemed capable of devouring all illumination! Terrifying suction poured from it, dragging at everything nearby. Space, light, even laws were being swallowed!
Beyond the fissure was no longer a vague sensation, but a deep, dark, utterly unknown vista! Dimly, fragments of laws wholly unlike those of the Three Thousand Great Worlds seemed to fly out through the fissure like shards of a broken mirror!
"Wh-what is that?" Ye Xiaoshan stared at the terrifying fissure, feeling the nearly scalding "heat" of the torn page inside his robes, his voice trembling.
Even Shi Meng had lost his smile, his expression grave as he watched that opening of nothingness, which seemed capable of destroying everything.
Emperor Xuanwu's expression changed drastically. He could clearly feel that the aura emanating from the fissure held an unmistakable, powerful rejection of him, an Immortal Emperor! It was as though it were warning him that this road was closed—or rather, that an existence as "complete" as he was would not be permitted to pass!
"Young master! This fissure is extremely unstable, and... it seems to be rejecting me!" Emperor Xuanwu said urgently. "The world beyond it has laws entirely different from those of our universe. Its danger is impossible to measure!"
Ye Chen looked at the fissure so close before him, feeling the unprecedented activity and longing of the primordial chaos purple qi within his body, as well as the elation emanating from that torn page, as though it had found where it belonged. He knew there was no turning back.
He drew a deep breath, suppressing the stirring in his heart, his gaze resolute.
"My mind is made up."
He glanced at the followers behind him, their expressions equally determined, then turned to the anxious Emperor Xuanwu.
"Uncle Xuan, stay here to receive us. If... if we don't return for a while, tell Father not to worry. I know my limits."
With that, before Emperor Xuanwu could try to dissuade him again, the primordial chaos purple qi within Ye Chen erupted, enveloping him and his ten followers. They became a brilliant streak of purple light and charged without hesitation toward the rift radiating that light of nothingness!
"Young master!!!" Emperor Xuanwu was beside himself with horror. He tried to stop them, but a terrifying repulsive force surged from the fissure, holding him firmly outside. He could only watch helplessly as that streak of purple light was swallowed by the rift in an instant and vanished without a trace!
After swallowing Ye Chen and the others, the rift seemed to exhaust its energy. It began trembling violently and shrinking rapidly before his eyes.
Emperor Xuanwu stood rooted to the spot, watching the core region swiftly return to calm, leaving behind only an even more devastated stretch of space. For the first time, bewilderment and helplessness appeared on his honest, kindly face.
Young Master Chen... went in?
Into a completely unknown world where even an Immortal Emperor couldn't set foot?
Before you continue