Chi Tongyue slowly raised her head. Above her was also a vast expanse of gray and white; there was no sky, no dome, and no sun, moon, or stars. The space above and below her was the same ancient color, the entire space resembling a scroll of gray and white paper that had been soaked in countless years.
Slowly unfolded by some immeasurable force, the paper showed no complete mountain and river patterns, only large areas of fine and blurry ancient traces extending silently along the boundless void, making it impossible to discern where heaven and earth began or ended.
Even more strangely, there was no discernible light source in this space, yet everything around was clearly visible. A grayish-white glow slowly seeped out from the depths of the void, evenly enveloping every corner, without any obvious direction of illumination or any variation in intensity.
Chi Tongyue looked down at her feet, her cold eyes suddenly narrowing. She realized that there was no shadow left on her feet. The hem of her dark blue dress hung clearly, and her feet were firmly planted on the transparent surface. However, the shadow that should have appeared with her body had completely disappeared. Even the figures of Chi Tianhong and Chi Ninghua beside her did not leave any dark marks on her feet.
"Here..." Chi Ninghua spoke slowly, a deep look of surprise and doubt appearing on her beautiful face. She looked down at the transparent platform beneath her feet, then raised her right hand, attempting to probe the surrounding world with her Fate Soul essence. However, the moment the wisp of essence left her palm, it slowly dissipated along the gray-white void, without touching any clear spatial boundaries. "I can't even distinguish up from down!"
Chi Tianhong slowly took a few steps forward, leaning on his dark blue ancient staff. The tip of the staff lightly touched the transparent surface beneath his feet, without making any clear sound. He frowned slightly, then raised the staff and gently tapped it again, but there was still no echo. It was as if all sounds, after touching this gray space, would be slowly absorbed by some ancient silence.
Just then, ten thousand disciples of the Chi Lineage entered one after another. The originally silent space gradually became filled with human voices, but as soon as those voices rang out, they quickly became low and indistinct. Even though two disciples were only a few feet apart, they had to tilt their ears slightly to hear each other when they were talking.
As the sound traveled through the gray void, it gradually lost its original clarity. Many people subconsciously raised their voices, but the sound they uttered would sink slowly near their feet as soon as it left their lips, unable to travel far at all.
"Everyone, stay close together, don't get separated!" Chi Ninghua immediately instructed the disciples beside her. Her voice was very clear, but it became extremely muffled when it reached a distance of more than ten feet. Seeing this, several stewards immediately relayed the order back and forth along the ranks. The ten thousand Chi Lineage cultivators gradually gathered their formation, their expressions full of vigilance towards this unfamiliar world.
Chi Tongyue stood quietly in front, her gaze slowly moving along the boundless gray-white void. Then, her eyes suddenly froze. In an extremely distant place, there floated an ancient star map of immeasurable size.
That star map was not truly attached to any mountains or the sky, nor did it have fixed spatial coordinates. It lay quietly in the depths of the gray and white primordial chaos, presenting an extremely ancient circular outline.
The twelve enormous star positions are arranged in a circle, each engraved with extremely complex ancient patterns. Deep within these patterns, the true name and fundamental principles of the Primordial Beast Luminary are faintly revealed.
Ancient characters flowed slowly along the surface of the stars, some strokes so deep they were impossible to look at directly, while others were hidden in a grayish-white glow, impossible to fully decipher no matter how the Fate Soul's will probe.
Of the twelve star positions, only two were emitting a strong light.
The rat's position was lit. It was an extremely faint grayish-white glow, curled up in a corner of the vast star map. The light did not shine outward, but instead slowly converged along itself, its Beginningless aura. Inside the star position, a tiny tooth-like outline vaguely appeared. Deep within the tooth-like outline, there were no complete patterns, only an unseen grayish-white void.
The position of the Ox was also lit. The deep, dark yellow light quietly settled in the star map, as heavy as countless ancient mountains pressing down together. The surface of the star position vaguely revealed an ancient outline like a horizontal mountain. Dark yellow patterns flowed slowly along the outline. Each time it lit up, it caused the surrounding gray-white void to sink slightly.
The remaining ten star positions were either extremely faint, almost negligible, or completely shrouded in darkness. These star positions had no radiance, and the massive circular grooves were bottomless, with no complete zodiac animal outlines visible inside; only extremely blurry ancient patterns slowly rose and fell along the edges.
Ten dark star positions surround the central area, as if there are still ten ancient Seal of End and Beginning, waiting for some kind of return that has not yet come.
Chi Tongyue slowly raised her head, gazing at the vast and boundless twelve zodiac animal star chart, an undisguised shock appearing in her usually cool eyes. "Rat... Ox..." she murmured, then turned to Chi Tianhong, "Elder, look!"
Chi Tianhong slowly raised his head, his aged eyes moving along each of the twelve star positions, finally settling on the two ancient star positions that had already lit up. His expression gradually became solemn. "Only the Rat and Ox positions are lit; the other ten remain silent. It seems that although we have passed the trial of Vajra Radiance, this ancient star map is not yet truly complete!"
Just as everyone was gazing at the star map, Chi Tongyue suddenly noticed that at the very center of the enormous star map, there was an extremely tiny dot floating. That dot had no light, nor any obvious darkness, and quietly existed at the center of the twelve stars that surrounded it, its size almost indistinguishable.
If Chi Tongyue's gaze hadn't happened to sweep over that spot, she wouldn't have noticed its existence at all. However, once she truly saw that point, her cool eyes found it difficult to look away.
The gray-white void around that point was undergoing extremely subtle distortions. Countless indistinguishable ancient patterns intersected along the edge of the point. The spatial traces that should have extended in different directions were constantly overlapping around that tiny point, eventually all returning to an indistinguishable silence.
Chi Tongyue's brows furrowed slowly. She tried to look away, but found that the strange scene presented by that point was deeply etched into her Fate Soul's perception, as if countless paths that had not yet truly unfolded were converging within that extremely small area. However, no matter how hard she concentrated, she could not see what was hidden within it.
"Tongyue!" Chi Tianhong's deep voice suddenly came.
Chi Tongyue snapped back to reality, her clear, cold eyes trembling slightly before she slowly turned her head. Chi Tianhong looked at her, a hint of worry appearing on his aged face. "What happened to you just now? I called you several times, but you didn't respond!"
Upon hearing this, Chi Tongyue's heart trembled. She clearly felt that she had only gazed at that point for a moment and had not noticed Chi Tianhong calling her. However, upon recalling it now, an extremely subtle blank appeared deep within her Fate Soul, and she could no longer clearly distinguish how long she had been staring at that point.
She slowly shook her head, her voice low. "It's nothing, it's just that the center of that star map... seems a bit strange!"
Upon hearing this, Chi Tianhong immediately looked up, his aged eyes slowly probing along the center of the star map. After a moment, he also noticed the extremely tiny dot. His previously composed expression suddenly hardened, and he quickly withdrew his gaze, no longer staring at it. "This place is not safe to look at for long!" he whispered, a deep wariness appearing on his aged face.
Chi Tongyue nodded slowly, then turned her attention to the gray-white void around her. Only now did she realize that this space was not as empty as she had imagined.
Not far from the Chi Lineage's group, in a grayish-white area, an extremely fine depression appeared in the void. The depression lacked a complete shape, but its edges retained a faint, ancient aura.
It was as if someone had once sat cross-legged there, lingered for a long time, and then slowly pressed the traces of their existence into this transparent space. There were no traces of clothing or divine weapons around the depression, only a faint warmth that slowly emanated from the gray-white void.
Looking further into the distance, several lines of extremely blurry ancient characters floated silently. These characters were not actually engraved on any stone wall, nor were they attached to any complete primordial Dao patterns. A few gray-white strokes hung forlornly in the void, the characters were extremely faint, and many strokes were incomplete, making it impossible to decipher their contents.
But after gazing at them for a moment, Chi Tongyue sensed an extremely deep weariness from the remaining strokes, as if the person who left these words had been waiting here for an immeasurable amount of time.
In another grayish-white area, a winding, blurry trace remained. That trace slowly extended along the transparent plane, sometimes to the left, sometimes back, and finally gradually disappeared into a grayish-white void.
There were no complete footprints on the surface of the traces, only a faint line left after being stepped on repeatedly. It seemed that a cultivator had paced back and forth here, waiting, lingering, and turning back, until even the traces he left behind were gradually diluted by this space.
Further afield, countless faint gray shadows floated silently. These shadows had lost their complete form, making it impossible to discern who they belonged to or what they had left behind.
Only a faint trace of existence remained in the gray void. As the starlight of the Rat position slowly flickered, those gray shadows also gradually faded, eventually merging into the boundless primordial chaos around them.