Deep within the Returning Light Heavenly City, a long, winding crystal corridor traverses several suspended palaces, with sheer cliffs on the outside overlooking a vast Skeleton Star Sea. Endless ancient colossal remains float amidst the gray starlight, eternally silent.
The celestial dome continuously refracted the fading light of a bygone era, and colorful rays swept across Hua Yin's face, making his originally peaceful expression appear uncertain and unpredictable.
He walked slowly, and the elders behind him had already scattered and left. When there was no one around, Hua Yin stopped on a suspended stone platform on a protruding cliff.
Standing with his hands behind his back on the cliff, gazing at the ancient, silent Skeleton Star Sea, the respectful and peaceful demeanor he had displayed in the main hall vanished completely, replaced by a growing somber and coldness in his eyes. Every word Nangong Xingyun had spoken echoed repeatedly in his mind, each word crystal clear.
"Such a fine seedling..." "I will take him back to the clan..." "The clan has even better elixirs and miraculous medicines..." Hua Yin's eyes twitched slightly. Upon hearing this, those around him could only envy Hua Jingmeng for receiving such a divine gift and rising to the top in one step.
Only he felt a surge of fear and unease in his heart, and the first name that uncontrollably surfaced in his mind Hua Jingyun.
This person is Hua Jingmeng's uncle, and for many years he has been a thorn in Hua Jingmeng's side, deeply rooted and difficult to remove.
Hua Jingyun was already a formidable force, and now with the addition of Hua Jingmeng, a dark horse who has suddenly risen to prominence, the situation has become unpredictable. No one could have predicted that Hua Jingmeng, once regarded by the entire clan as a mediocre playboy, had been biding his time for many years, possessing endless trump cards, enough to fight Qin Yu to such a desperate point.
This matter has already instilled deep fear in Hua Yin.
However, if Hua Jingmeng remains in the Eternal Nonexistence Limitless Domain and is confined to the internal structure of the Hua Lineage, even with her unparalleled talent and astonishing foundation, there will still be clues to follow and forces to control her, and there will always be room for maneuver.
Now the situation has completely reversed. Nangong Xingyun personally crossed realms to visit, making an exception to bring him into the Supreme Transformation Primordial Domain and send him to the Nangong Ancestral Land. The last trace of feigned indifference in Hua Yin's eyes shattered, his lips slowly tightened, and a chill rose in his heart.
"It just so happens to be at this time..." He spoke in a very low voice, almost inaudible. A ray of sunlight flashed past from outside the cliff, instantly illuminating half of his face, making it appear deathly pale and cold. He knew better than anyone the weight of the Nangong Lineage.
With the unparalleled talent that Hua Jingmeng displayed in this battle, once her Fate Soul's origin is completely restored, and with the Nangong Lineage's supreme techniques, top-notch resources, and personal guidance from the strongest, her current decline from the True Annihilation Realm can be reversed in an instant, and her future will be limitless.
What's even more troublesome is that Nangong Xingyun's personal arrival to guide her is the clearest gesture of protection. From this day forward, no one in the myriad realms will dare to easily harm Hua Jingmeng in the slightest. The coldness in Hua Yin's eyes deepened layer by layer.
If Hua Jingmeng were to gain the true approval of the Nangong Lineage, the biggest beneficiary would undoubtedly be Hua Jingyun. He slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air, his chest rising and falling very lightly, but the turmoil and apprehension surging in his heart could not be calmed for a long time. Countless doubts followed one after another, piling up layer upon layer.
Hua Jingmeng has been a playboy for many years. Is it due to her naturally carefree nature, or is she deliberately concealing her true abilities? How much does Hua Jingyun know about this, and was he orchestrating the entire affair? What is the true origin of the supreme divine weapon and forbidden martial arts that suddenly appeared during the competition?
Hua Jingmeng has endured until now, and now she has made a name for herself. Has Hua Jingyun been secretly manipulating things behind the scenes all along? Thinking of this, Hua Yin's eyes grew even colder.
Hua Jingmeng's defeat in this battle was the weakest opportunity of his life. His Fate Soul was severely injured, his cultivation level plummeted, and his divine weapon was destroyed. If it were anyone else, it would be enough to cause them to fall into eternal silence and have their Great Dao broken.
Hua Yin had long planned to reassess its value and seize the opportunity to manipulate the situation, but Nangong Xingyun alone overturned the entire game. Hua Jingmeng broke free from the Eternal Nonexistence Limitless Domain, escaped the Hua Lineage's checks and balances, and completely escaped his control.
What bothered him even more was the storage bag that had been inexplicably bestowed upon him. The brief, almost imperceptible glance he had just exchanged with it was so fleeting that even Hua Nongrui hadn't noticed it, yet he had seen it clearly.
When Nangong Xingyun gifted the storage bag, he said, "Consider this a reward for you." Why this reward? Was it because Hua Lineage of Hua Nongrui? Or was it a disguised reward for Hua Jingmeng's background and talent?
Nangong Xingyun left no explanation, leaving endless blanks and making it impossible for anyone to guess. Hua Yin narrowed his eyes slightly, his brows furrowed deeply. He hated nothing more than such unpredictable and incomprehensible variables.
This matter involves the forces of Hua Jingmeng, Hua Jingyun, and the Nangong Lineage. Every unknown change could become the root of future upheaval and backlash. Turbulent currents swept across the cliff, causing robes to flutter in the wind.
Hua Yin remained standing on the stone platform, his gaze piercing through the layers of suspended palaces, looking towards the direction of the Stillness Blossom Ancestral Hall. He restrained all thoughts of prying or questioning. With Nangong Xingyun just gone and Hua Nongrui having issued a strict gag order, any extra action at this moment would only leave a flaw and give himself a handle to use against him.
Hua Yin has held a high position and remained firmly at the core of the Hua Lineage for many years. His greatest strength lies in his ability to endure and bide his time, waiting for the right opportunity to strike. The more turbulent his emotions are and the more unpredictable the situation becomes, the more composed he remains.
But after today, there are two people he must completely re-examine: one is Hua Jingmeng, and the other is Hua Jingyun. Hua Yin slowly withdrew his gaze from the distance, turned around and stepped into the deep corridor. A seven-colored beam of light from the dome slowly swept past his back and landed on the stone steps of the corridor.
His face regained its usual composure, gentleness, and peace, without a trace of gloom or hostility, perfectly concealing all his emotions. Only the hand clenched tightly in his sleeve remained clenched even after he had walked a great distance away.
The Fourth Multidimensional Universe, the Void Dharma Realm, is a realm without seasons or day and night. The eternal sky is perpetually covered by a gray-white darkness, with the two colors overlapping and swirling, obscuring the light of day. A peerless rift stretches across the far horizon, at the bottom of which there are no stars, no heaven and earth, no phenomena, only layers of nothingness slowly writhing, rising and falling, vast and desolate.
The landscape here is unlike any other place in the world. The peaks have no fixed shape, and the mountains alternate between solid and ethereal, sometimes appearing as solid as steel, and sometimes as faint as clouds and smoke. The entire cliff face often disappears silently for a few breaths before returning to its original position, as it has been since time immemorial.
Deep within the domain, the dark mountain ranges crisscross, embracing a massive depression stretching for thousands of miles. The infamous forbidden and deadly Nine Nether Cold Pool the Void Dharma Realm lies dormant at the very bottom of this depression.
The Nine Nether Cold Pool stretches to the ninth heaven, its other shore unseen.
The pool's water has solidified into an inky black and deep blue, eternally still and Silent Void. For hundreds of miles along the pool's shore, rock layers are covered with gray-blue, cold crystals, with countless crystalline edges piercing out from the cliffs, the longest exceeding several hundred feet. The crystals contain rings of incomplete, ancient Dao patterns. Some of these Dao patterns are frozen in a fleeting moment, remaining still for millions of years, never to change again.
The closer one gets to the icy pool, the more the world seems to vanish into nothingness. First, the transmission of sound becomes sluggish, then the space becomes hazy, and even the order of time, cause and effect, and the sequence of events become stagnant, sluggish, and slowed down by the extreme yin chill emanating from the bottom of the pool.
The cold here transcends physical sensation, freezing the very laws of heaven and earth.
The gray pebbles falling from the cliff top gradually slowed their descent as they entered the pool within a hundred feet, eventually freezing into a suspended state. The pebbles had not fallen, had not landed, had not stopped falling; the cause of their fall and the result of their landing had been completely sealed away by the deep blue frost.
Ten feet further down, even the state of "falling" was completely frozen, the past, present, and future were completely severed, leaving only a stubborn rock still in the void, defying all reason.
The ancient rift valley on one side of the pool has long been frozen by the chilling power of the Nine Nether. The entangled causal patterns at the bottom of the valley are either completely dead and solidified, or flickering with faint light. Whenever they try to extend and evolve, they are forcibly pushed back to their original point by the coldness of the pool, never to advance an inch.
The Nine Nether Cold Pool never freezes flesh and blood, but rather the logic of the world and the cause and effect of heaven and earth.
As the cultivator lingered by the pool, his mind gradually slowed, and his thoughts became sluggish. At first, he experienced a momentary lapse in concentration, followed by difficulty in distinguishing truth from falsehood, cause from effect, and reason from reality. When his mind was completely sealed by the chilling aura, all worldly reasoning and cognition vanished, and those traces of the origin that transcended common sense and had been hidden for millennia quietly began to appear.
Therefore, although the Nine Nether Cold Pool is infamous and harbors hidden killing intent, it still attracts countless high-level cultivators to take the risk. What people seek is to take advantage of the moment of sealing away the world to glimpse the true essence of heaven and earth beyond logic, break through the barriers to enlightenment, and solidify their foundation in the Dao.
However, the Heavenly Dao of this realm is cruel, and those who can enter without dying and glimpse the Dao while remaining intact have always been few and far between. At this moment, on the north bank of the Nine Nether Cold Pool.
Six figures moved slowly and cautiously along the narrow, icy ridge.
The leader was tall and robust, with broad shoulders and a dark blue robe that accentuated his composure and solemnity. A black belt cinched his waist, and he walked slowly with his hands at his sides, showing no sign of panic. With each step, he first used his Fate Soul essence to sweep across the path ahead for dozens of feet. His gaze was deep and alert, shifting in all directions without ever settling on one spot.
This person is named Chen Yong, a steward of the Annihilation God Clan. He possesses the True Annihilation Realm · Peak, with profound knowledge and extensive experience.
Behind him followed five cultivators at the True Annihilation Realm · Initial Stage. The six of them maintained a constant distance of seven or eight zhang from each other, and none of them dared to overstep the bounds and approach the pool water even half a step. The deeper they went, the quieter the world became. In the end, even the slightest sound of clothes rubbing together became intermittent and sluggish, which was extremely eerie.