Chaos City

The public ships bound for the Initial Universe departed based solely on passenger count, not a fixed schedule.

They took off as soon as they were full.

Until then, even if everyone waiting was an Immortal God, the ship would not leave a moment early.

Thus, a wait of several hundred years was sometimes possible.

"Understood." Hu Yanbo said no more.

Over a thousand passengers of all shapes and sizes waited in the magnificent transparent hall. Most were World Lords, while a small minority were the finest elites among Domain Lords.

There were also Immortal Gods, of course, but only a handful.

Each occupied a separate spot, like a silent mountain, their presence marking out a small territory that no one dared casually enter.

Hu Yanbo likewise chose a secluded corner and silently sat down cross-legged.

Yet almost all the Immortal Gods scattered throughout the hall cast discreet glances in his direction the instant he sat down and reined in his aura.

This newcomer stood at a level beyond their own.

Time flowed silently through the transparent hall amid the stars.

For Domain Lords and World Lords, it was a period of quiet meditation; for Immortal Gods, it was merely a brief respite.

Before they knew it, more than ten standard cosmic days had slipped by.

Not long after the last two figures hurried through the entrance to the waiting hall-

Hum...

A middle-aged man in a simple, elegant white robe appeared before them without warning.

His gaze swept precisely over the thousand-plus cultivators. When it passed over Hu Yanbo in the corner, it paused almost imperceptibly for the briefest instant. A faint gleam crossed his eyes, and he gave an equally subtle nod in Hu Yanbo's direction.

"Everyone, follow me."

The instant his words fell, divine power enveloped every Domain Lord and World Lord in the hall, leaving only the Immortal Gods untouched.

Whoosh!

Drawn along by the white-robed man's power, over a thousand figures became a vast streak of light and flew deeper inside.

Hu Yanbo and the other Immortal Gods needed no urging.

Almost as soon as that power enveloped the weaker cultivators, they too became brilliant streaks of divine light and shot after the white-robed man.

Several minutes later-

They saw a colossal vessel: a blue-gray spaceship more than ten thousand meters in diameter, its sleek hull covered in energy circuits, like a silent steel beast.

The white-robed man hovered before its enormous boarding hatch. His voice was crisp and forceful. "Board! It will take you to the Initial Universe."

No further words were needed.

With a thought, Hu Yanbo and the other Immortal Gods flickered like phantoms and passed straight through the open boarding passage.

Behind them, the torrent of light split under the white-robed man's control, pouring into dozens of large entrances opened along the ship's sides.

Hu Yanbo entered the central main hall, as spacious as a small plaza. The moment his foot touched the floor, a heavy, invisible pressure crashed down like a sea made solid!

Hu Yanbo and the others looked up. Before them stood a man clad in dark silver battle armor, flowing secret patterns coursing over its surface. His towering physique resembled a mountain, and even as he stood there casually, the invisible aura he radiated seemed like a bottomless ocean, vast beyond measure!

He was the Controller of the ship on this voyage-a King-level Immortal!

His piercing gaze swept over the thousand-plus new arrivals below. His voice rang through the hall like the deep resonance of an ancient bell. "Welcome aboard. I am Sky Axe King. On this journey, I will escort you to the Initial Universe!"

"Thank you, Sky Axe King!" The thousand-plus people below, including Hu Yanbo and the other newly boarded Immortals, all bowed.

Sky Axe King's gaze briefly paused among the bowing crowd, as though he had noticed Hu Yanbo. The corner of his mouth twitched almost imperceptibly before he burst into hearty laughter. "The Initial Universe! Set sail!"

Rumble!

Hum!

Space violently warped in an instant. Without moving forward at all, the enormous ship vanished from where it stood!

An unknown amount of time passed.

Boom!!!

Amid an unprecedentedly violent shudder and roar, the dizzying sensation of temporal distortion abruptly vanished, and the ship returned to "normal" cosmic space.

"Open the ceiling!" Sky Axe King's booming voice rang out.

Clack-crack-

The vast metal dome overhead slid silently apart like the jaws of a giant beast, revealing a sturdy, transparent protective crystal canopy with halos of energy flowing across it.

Beyond that canopy lay humanity's legendary sacred land-the Initial Universe!

Like everyone else, Hu Yanbo immediately looked up.

Through the crystal canopy, he saw not a brilliant river of stars, but a... strange, boundless scene of chaos, as though creation had only just begun!

Beyond the dome stretched endless dimness, seemingly without boundaries.

Wisps of chaos-colored currents drifted and flowed slowly through the void, like frozen waterfalls or clouds of congealed mist.

More breathtaking still was the "horizon" at the edge of their vision!

Space there resembled a sheet of cloth being constantly kneaded. From time to time, without warning, a crack rang out, and it split like a mirror, opening enormous, unfathomably deep fissures!

Within those pitch-black spatial rifts, countless immense secret patterns faintly emerged, intricate and profound, shimmering with the colors of chaos.

Then, accompanied by a muffled roar like the first opening of heaven and earth, those enormous fissures abruptly closed inward, joining together!

Countless threads of law, billions of times finer than a strand of hair yet clearly visible, formed from nothing along the edges of the closing gaps!

Like living creatures, they drew one another in, linked together, and intertwined!

The immense chaos patterns flowed and danced with them...

Space split-secret patterns appeared-threads of law formed and linked together-space closed and repaired itself-laws wove secret patterns to mend the rifts... The cycle repeated, without beginning or end!

That grand, primordial spectacle, filled with brutal beauty yet containing endless laws, was like an invisible "Creator" seated at the far end of the universe, using a "weaving shuttle" that passed through every law to patiently weave, repair, and expand this newborn cosmos, stitch by stitch!

What an Initial Universe! Hu Yanbo gazed at the laws of the cosmos working like a loom, emotion surging through him like a tide. If I could have cultivated here back then, my achievements would surely have far surpassed what they are today!

Those clearly visible workings of the laws seemed almost within reach, far surpassing anything he had encountered in any secret realm throughout his long life!

The ship cruised steadily through the vast, dim void at tremendous speed.

Before long, the outline of an ancient, majestic city of indescribable immensity began to emerge through the chaotic currents ahead.

It seemed like a cornerstone standing at the dawn of the universe, bearing the weathered weight of endless ages.

"Of the World Lords who have entered Chaos City to cultivate over the ages, thirty to forty percent at the lowest, and seventy to eighty percent at the highest, ultimately broke through to become Immortals! Do not squander this opportunity!" Sky Axe King said.