Xiaopeng flew for several days, seeing hundreds of thousands of corpses along the way, and finally came upon living people. The aftershocks of battle rolled outward like great waves, weakening at extreme distances into rippling layers that spread even farther. Mixed within the aftershocks were auras of the Ancient Wilds and of Chaos—searing heat intertwined with biting cold. The combatants were beings of the East Extremity and of the Ancient Wilds. Judging by aura alone, neither side was particularly strong: mostly Chaos Realm (Major), with a few at Chaos Realm (Perfect)—nothing noteworthy in Lin Moyu's eyes.
Lin Moyu had no intention of intervening—he was merely passing through. "Whether you kill or die has nothing to do with me." Suddenly he sensed an anomaly. While he was still far away, both sides abruptly stopped fighting. Then Lin Moyu felt himself locked onto—from both sides at once. His existence was like a beacon in the night, glaringly bright. In the next breath, a barrage of attacks crossed space and swept toward him, all perfectly locked on, as if he were right before them, though in truth he was still very far away.
"The rules of Heaven and Earth." Lin Moyu understood clearly: this was their doing. Having branded him the enemy of Heaven and Earth, those rules would stir up killing intent toward him in all beings under Heaven and Earth. Even those with steadfast Dao-hearts would be affected. Moreover, the rules would help them lock onto him, leaving him nowhere to escape.
Lin Moyu sighed lightly. "This tribulation was fated for me. Don't hold back." The first half was for those attacking him—the moment they struck, they set foot on the path to death. The last four words were for Xiaopeng.
Xiaopeng answered once and abruptly accelerated. With secret arts unfurled, he turned into a streak of golden light and smashed through all the incoming attacks. A Golden-Winged Roc flashed through the void, its wings beating to scatter countless golden rays; wherever the light fell, attacks shattered and lives ended. Whether they were from the East Extremity or the Ancient Wilds, all fell en masse beneath the golden light. Even Chaos Realm (Perfect) failed to last ten breaths. Xiaopeng passed over them, left a field of corpses, and sped off without lingering.
From the first encounter, Lin Moyu already knew he was about to begin a killing rampage. Under the influence of the rules of Heaven and Earth, those people took him for a treasure to prove the Dao with—everyone longed to execute him. And the instant they moved, they invited calamity. Sure enough, everyone he met thereafter would lock onto him from afar, see him as an enemy, and strike without hesitation whether they were a match or not. Greed shone in their eyes—the hunger to prove the Dao, the craving for power. In the end, they would pay the price for it.
Where Xiaopeng passed, he left seas of corpses. Causality descended, but Lin Moyu negated it with the power of his domains. "I only kill people—I don't take on the karma."
As Xiaopeng drew closer to the cross-domain grand array, the battles he encountered grew more frequent. At last, some powerful Perfect-level experts appeared. By then, Xiaopeng could no longer one-shot them. Lin Moyu summoned the Wildshade Broodmother. The Broodmother attacked while traversing another layer of timespace; even as its enemies fell, they did not know how they had died. Attacks from spacetime were silent and unfathomable.
"It seems the Great Calamity has entered a new stage," Lin Moyu said.
"More or less," replied the Primal Chaos Gem. "A Great Calamity can generally be divided into three phases: brewing, outbreak, and wind-down. We're already at the peak of brewing, on the edge of the outbreak. The several Chaos Realm (Perfect) you met in recent days were elite among their level, yet they still came under the rules' sway—on seeing you, their greed seized their minds and they even lost reason. That means the Calamity has reached a certain point—Heaven-and-Earth's rules are already affecting them. A step further and the top Perfects will be affected: on seeing you, they'll act. After that come the quasi-Supremes and the Supremes; their Dao-hearts look rock-solid, but in the end they still cannot avoid the rules' influence. All beings under Heaven and Earth are thus; the only difference is sooner or later. Only the few who have surpassed Supreme can ignore the rules' influence—but even they cannot avoid the Calamity."
"Coming back this time really is enemies everywhere," Lin Moyu said. "Even if I wanted to hide, it's useless. The rules have turned me into a lantern in the night—wherever I go, I can't hide my glow. In the void, they can spot me from tens of billions of li away and launch attacks. Their attacks will likewise be aided by the rules—locking onto me, even inexplicably piercing the void to cross vast distances in an instant and appear before me. A Perfect expert's flying sword that should have taken ten breaths to reach me suddenly found a spatial slit before it, and in the next breath, it was at my face. Only the rules could pull that off."
Lin Moyu was helpless. That is what it means to be the enemy of Heaven and Earth—there's nowhere to appeal. Thus, the best countermeasure comes down to a single word: kill.
Xiaopeng advanced while the Wildshade Broodmother cleared the way. Any who moved against Lin Moyu were not spared. They slaughtered their way forward, dyeing the void with blood, leaving nothing but corpses behind. After several more days, they finally approached the cross-domain grand array.
"Stop," Lin Moyu barked. The speeding Xiaopeng halted at once.
Xiaopeng peered into the void. "Father, what is it?"
"There's someone ahead," Lin Moyu said. "You head back first." His tone carried a weight of gravity. Xiaopeng obeyed and immediately returned into Yushen Heaven and Earth.
Lin Moyu looked at the void ahead. "Senior, please show yourself."
The void twisted; countless stones floated into view, and a colossal entity revealed itself. Its body stretched millions of li, with innumerable stones whirling around it, each stone like a continent. The one who came was the Chaos Wild Ox. Lin Moyu had not expected to meet him here.
"Senior, weren't you headed to the Ancient Wilds? Why have you returned?" Lin Moyu asked softly.
The Chaos Wild Ox slowly opened his eyes and glanced at Lin Moyu. A deep voice rumbled: "I came to find you."
"What instructions does Senior have?" Lin Moyu asked.
"Two matters," said the Chaos Wild Ox. "First, to deliver someone's message: refine the last grand formation as soon as possible."
"So he's impatient," Lin Moyu thought; he knew exactly who had sent the message. The Calamity Supreme could no longer wait. Understandable—since the Calamity might erupt at any moment, and their chance to assault the Transcendent realm would be then, he would be anxious. The greater his urgency, the more it meant that formation was no small thing; the less Lin Moyu felt like refining it quickly. "The more you hurry, the less I will."
"And the second matter?" Lin Moyu asked.
"Come over," said the Chaos Wild Ox.
Lin Moyu flew closer. He did not doubt the Chaos Wild Ox; he could sense no malice toward himself, and he had confidence in his own strength. When he reached the Ox, the stones around that massive body whirled, weaving a grand formation and forming an independent space that screened off their auras. Only then did the Ox speak in a low voice: "The second matter is a trade."
The Chaos Wild Ox's arrival surprised Lin Moyu. First, why come to him at all? The Ox was aligned with the Calamity Supreme, a piece on the Calamity Supreme's board. Normally, having finished his task, he should have returned to the Ancient Wilds to proceed with the next step of the Calamity Supreme's plan, not sought Lin Moyu out. Yet here he was to propose a deal—strange in itself. Lin Moyu could think of only one possibility: the Chaos Wild Ox and the Calamity Supreme were not of one heart. He had a private agenda, or had learned something of the Calamity Supreme's secrets and grown other ideas.
There was another question: how had the Ox found him? Even as the enemy of Heaven and Earth, the brightest star in the night, the Ox shouldn't have been able to locate him so easily. Clearly, he had calculated Lin Moyu would come here and waited.
The Ox's eyes were limpid, unruffled like an ancient well. The Calamity seemed not to have affected him yet. Lin Moyu did not know his true strength; by aura alone, he seemed at quasi-Supreme level—enough to resist the present Calamity.
"What trade does Senior wish to make?" Lin Moyu asked.
"I want you to go somewhere and bring something back for me," said the Chaos Wild Ox.
Lin Moyu nodded. "Where? And what?"
"I'll tell you that in a moment. First, your payment." The Ox opened his mouth, and within it a resplendent crystal came into view. The crystal sparkled as if it gathered all the colors under Heaven and Earth. Its gem bore countless facets, each like a mirror showing shifting scenes. It seemed somewhat similar to the Spatial God-Mountain, yet different. The crystal gave Lin Moyu a sense of something even more advanced. It was a supreme treasure. Though he did not know its name, Lin Moyu had already judged its tier.
"Po-Cang Crystal!" the Primal Chaos Gem suddenly cried. "How could this be here?"
Hearing the Gem's shock in his soul, Lin Moyu asked with curiosity, "So it's called the Po-Cang Crystal—is it related to the Po-Cang Emperor?"
"Yes," said the Primal Chaos Gem. "It's something the Po-Cang Emperor specially forged before entering the Life-Forbidden Zone. He used a secret art to send it away. No one knew where it went." The Gem had personally witnessed the Emperor forge it, but the Emperor then sent it off and its whereabouts were unknown. To see it appear here was unexpected. "Master must obtain it. I think there should be something very important inside." The Gem's tone was slightly urgent; for one as nearly desireless as he, such a side was surprising.
Lin Moyu had made up his mind, but he did not rush; instead, he probed, "What is this item?"
"I don't know what it is," the Chaos Wild Ox said. "But it is extraordinary—and it should be fated for Dao-friend Lin. Does Dao-friend find this payment satisfactory?"
Lin Moyu did not answer directly. "Whether I'm satisfied depends on where you want me to go, what you want me to take, and how dangerous it is."
The Chaos Wild Ox said, "Dao-friend Lin knows there are always peculiar places under Heaven and Earth that can only be reached by special means. You'll need to take a spacetime passage to get there. Inside are two corpses. Bring them back for me."
Those two corpses could not be moved lightly; the Ox produced a specially-made stone pagoda that could contain them. Travel a spacetime passage to an unknown place and bring back two corpses, and those corpses could only be stored in the pagoda—this did not feel simple to Lin Moyu.
"You still haven't said what dangers lie there," Lin Moyu said.
"For others, very dangerous; for Dao-friend Lin, not much," the Ox replied.
"You're sure?" Lin Moyu clearly did not believe him.
"This old ox is sure," said the Ox. "Perhaps not ten parts safe, but at least nine."
"You must be wondering why this old ox came to you, and what my relationship with him is," the Ox added.
Lin Moyu nodded lightly. "I am a bit curious."
"All answers will be given after Dao-friend brings those two corpses back," said the Ox.
Lin Moyu fell into thought, as though weighing whether to go. In truth, the moment the Po-Cang Crystal appeared, he already had his answer—he would go. There was benefit to it. Even if there were small dangers, he could accept them. Going would also alter his relationship with the Chaos Wild Ox; even if they could not become friends, at least they wouldn't be enemies. If he refused, he would gain an enemy; while he did not fear that, it would still be troublesome.
After feigning contemplation for a moment, Lin Moyu said, "Very well. I agree, Senior."
The Chaos Wild Ox grunted. A stone pagoda appeared before him, only palm-sized and not at all ornate. It was refined by the Ox from a certain stone at his side; its interior held its own space, meant for storing the corpses. After handing it to Lin Moyu, the Ox said in a low voice, "In the East Extremity's center lies a sea of fire. The spacetime passage is within that sea. As for the precise spot, Dao-friend will need to find it yourself. When you draw near the passage, this pagoda will react." The pagoda could store the corpses and sense the passage.
"I understand," Lin Moyu said.
"In the East Extremity's sea of fire, Dao-friend may encounter some small trouble," the Ox continued. "But this old ox believes you can resolve it."
Lin Moyu did not argue. The so-called "small trouble" was no small matter: everyone knew that the East Extremity's Sea of Fire was the proof-Dao ground of the East Extremity's Jiuyue Supreme, and also her lair. If he went there, he would certainly draw her attention. Jiuyue Supreme was an enemy of the Calamity Supreme; even if Lin Moyu were not the enemy of Heaven and Earth, in her eyes he was the inheritor of the Calamity Supreme's will—an enemy, not a friend. She would not let him go easily. That was the so-called "small trouble." But having agreed, he would not shrink back. A Supreme, nothing more. If it truly came to a fight, he had no fear. For the Po-Cang Crystal, this deal was worth doing.
"I wish Dao-friend Lin success," said the Chaos Wild Ox. As he spoke, his immense body warped, and space folded with it. He left in an exceedingly uncanny manner. Even Lin Moyu could not make out how he departed—it seemed some rule of Heaven and Earth, or some Dao, but not space.
"Hongmeng, can you tell what method he used to leave?" Lin Moyu asked.
"He left along a Fate Interstice," said the Primal Chaos Gem.
"You're sure?"
"Sure."