The great door opened; an unusual aura surged out to meet him. As expected, it was not Chaos and the Ancient Wilds. Lin Moyu could clearly sense the aura came from another heaven-and-earth—beyond this passage lay a different world.
How had the Chaos Wild Ox found another heaven-and-earth, and even asked him to go in to fetch corpses? How did he know there were two bodies inside? That meant he had been here himself—he might even have placed the bodies there with his own hands.
Before entering, Lin Moyu glanced back at Nine-Suns Venerable. Nine-Suns seemed unable to see the opened gate; this passage was visible only to Lin Moyu. The instant he stepped in, Lin Moyu vanished from Chaos and the Ancient Wilds. Nine-Suns suddenly lost Lin Moyu's aura. "Strange—where did he go?" What he saw was beyond his understanding. He wanted to approach, but the massed Undying Spirit Soldiers—and the Wildshade Broodmother hidden in another timespace—were all warning him: don't come near.
Inside the passage, Lin Moyu walked unhurriedly. The breath of another heaven-and-earth kept wafting in. From that aura he could judge this world was already dead—a heaven-and-earth remnant; among the few worlds he had visited, the remnant at this passage's far end was the weakest.
Entering the passage was tantamount to leaving Chaos and the Ancient Wilds. Lin Moyu asked, "What is that set of secret arts?" Since the Primal Chaos Gem had insisted he agree, those secret arts were surely not simple.
The Primal Chaos Gem said, "In the heavens and earth, almost all secret arts rely on the heaven-and-earth rules. Without the support of those rules, there is no power of the Dao; without the power of the Dao, the arts cease to work. But there is a special class of secret arts that do not fall under this: when each heaven-and-earth is newly born, it simultaneously evolves a secret art called the Primal Dawn Law. The Primal Dawn Law and Primal Dawn Qi are born together, and even precede the rules of heaven and earth; they are on the same tier as the heaven-and-earth itself, above the rules.
"However, the Primal Dawn Law cannot be cultivated by ordinary folk even if they obtain it. It isn't for them; it is prepared for Supremes. Supremes can use the Primal Dawn Law to further seize control of their heaven-and-earth. Legend says the Primal Dawn Law hides the secret of a heaven-and-earth's origin, but no one has ever fully unraveled it; most Supremes think that is only legend."
Lin Moyu heard the implication. "You think the legend is true?"
The Primal Chaos Gem said, "Where there's smoke, there's fire. The Po-Cang Emperor once said: whether a legend is true depends on the person—if you can see through it, it's true; if you can't, it's false." Yet again it was the Po-Cang Emperor—once the pinnacle among Supremes of all heavens and earths—whose sight far exceeded others. "Did he see through it?"
The Primal Chaos Gem shook his head. "Likely not completely—but he saw a hint. If you can obtain the Primal Dawn Art, you can study it well. Though you don't intend to become a Supreme within Chaos and the Ancient Wilds, stones from other mountains can polish jade—studying more won't hurt."
Lin Moyu understood: even if he couldn't penetrate its mysteries, he could at least grasp its surface. It would indeed be all benefit, no harm. Moreover, the Primal Dawn Law was hard to find; many Supremes had to spend tremendous effort to locate it. Being on the same tier as heaven-and-earth, though it exists within heaven-and-earth, it is ever-changing and can take any form, making the search extremely difficult. Since he was entering the passage anyway, agreeing to help Nine-Suns Venerable cost him nothing.
The passage was exceptionally quiet; for two days an invisible force pushed him forward. Suddenly the passage ended. Vast sky and broad earth—before his eyes a brand-new heaven-and-earth remnant unfolded. Lin Moyu could feel the expanse was not small; traces of life still lingered here. Green trees, mountain ranges, grasslands, lakes—none were lacking. In addition, there were many buildings, as if marks left by history; some arrays still operated, protecting these structures from the ravages of time. On the surface, one could not tell this was a destroyed world.
This world had a peculiarity: its heaven and earth were inverted—earth above his head, sky beneath his feet. When the world collapsed, the rules in this region were damaged, creating the current state.
The spatial passage behind him had already vanished. He would have to find a path back within this heaven-and-earth or he would not be able to return. The stone pagoda no longer shone—having entered this world, it had only one function left: to store corpses. His gaze swept the surroundings: nothing out of the ordinary—no souls, no living beings, seemingly no danger.
"How could a world like this trap the September Supreme?" Strange. Her soul avatar had entered here; if there was no danger, it shouldn't have been trapped. Even if she couldn't find the way back at once, so many years had passed—she should have combed the entire remnant by now.
He summoned the Primal Chaos Gem. "Take a look—what's wrong here?"
The Primal Chaos Gem made a circuit of the world. His eyes narrowed. "There is indeed a problem. The rules of this heaven-and-earth remnant haven't completely collapsed; it is presently undergoing a slow-motion collapse."
"How so?" Lin Moyu faintly sensed something off—as if things were more troublesome than he thought.
"Simply put," the Primal Chaos Gem said, "this heaven-and-earth did collapse, but its rate of collapse is very slow; it will take an age to shatter completely. Worlds like this, when they finally do break down, do not form heaven-and-earth remnants—they are directly annihilated. If a heaven-and-earth collapses all at once, it forms a remnant, and a remnant can persist for a very long time. But if it collapses slowly, there is no remnant stage; it goes straight to annihilation. The end is destruction either way—but the process differs.
"Such heavens and earths are the most disliked by Supremes," he continued, "because during this collapse they are easy to enter and hard to leave. Getting in is not difficult—Supremes can erect a spatial passage to enter. But leaving is troublesome; those who come in must search for a way out, and such exits are few—sometimes none."
"Does this world have an exit?" Lin Moyu asked.
The Primal Chaos Gem shook his head. "It does—and more than one—but you cannot take them."
"Why not?" Lin Moyu didn't understand.
"As a heaven-and-earth collapses," the Primal Chaos Gem said, "space gradually breaks down. The barrier between the heaven-and-earth and the Life-Forbidden Zone will be breached, forming spatial passages. Thus most passages do not lead back, but lead into the Life-Forbidden Zone."
"Hss—going to the Life-Forbidden Zone—how is that different from suicide?" Even someone like him, who seemed to court death, wouldn't go there looking for trouble. That wouldn't be courting death—that would be true death.
"There's no way to tell them apart, is there?" Lin Moyu asked.
The Primal Chaos Gem nodded. "No way. That's why Supremes loathe these worlds. Entering one is basically waiting to die."
Lin Moyu mused to himself, "The heaven-and-earth collapses, yet the rules still exist—there must be a sliver of vitality in the rules. So it won't be a dead end; there must be a way."
"The only living path," said the Primal Chaos Gem, "is to find the world core and refine it—only then can you find the way back. There have been similar cases twice. Everyone retains karmic ties to the heaven-and-earth they belong to; even upon entering another, that link isn't completely severed. In the moment before you finish refining the world core, by following that karmic link—so long as the passage you came by still exists—you can naturally locate it. This method comes from countless explorations by many Supremes. When you can't find the way back, it's the only way."
Back in the Life-Forbidden Zone, the Primal Chaos Gem had seen too much—many Supreme expedition teams returned to their own heavens and earths by this method.
"The only problem," he added, "is that some world cores aren't easy to find—especially in slow-collapse worlds like this. It hasn't fully collapsed, its scope is vast, and the core has yet to surface. Finding it won't be easy. The September Supreme's soul avatar was trapped here for years and still couldn't find it. And even if she found it, she might not be able to refine it."
"I more or less understand why the Huntian Wild Dragon didn't come himself," Lin Moyu said. "He likely knows a thing or two and fears that if he enters, he won't get out."
"Mm," the Primal Chaos Gem agreed. "That sounds quite reasonable—perhaps that's exactly it."
What Lin Moyu needed to do became three things: first, find the two corpses the Huntian Wild Dragon spoke of and store them in the pagoda; second, find the September Supreme's soul avatar; third, find the world core and refine it.
"One thing at a time. We'll start with the Huntian Wild Dragon."
With a thought, Lin Moyu summoned a vast host of Undying Spirit Soldiers and sent them in all directions. A map unfolded in his mind, quickly growing from crude to detailed as the Undying Spirit Soldiers relayed everything they saw and heard, merging into a detailed terrain chart.
He felt as if he'd returned to the days when he explored secret realms: upon entering any secret realm, the first thing he did was send skeletons to scout and map it—make plans before moving. That had always been his way. Back then his strength was limited; a careless step could mean death, so he acted with meticulous care. Only as his strength grew did he dare more. Thinking back now, he felt a bit of nostalgia.
"This art of yours is truly handy," the Primal Chaos Gem said.
"Indeed. Without it, I could hardly have come this far," Lin Moyu replied.
"I've studied your art closely before," the Primal Chaos Gem went on. "It doesn't belong to any Dao rule of Chaos and the Ancient Wilds, and I've never seen its like in other heavens and earths either. Yet strangely, it is nevertheless constrained by the rules of Chaos and the Ancient Wilds. If you hadn't forcibly elevated it this time, it might have been trapped there."
"I find that odd as well," Lin Moyu said. "I can't figure it out now—perhaps later I will." His summoning art had progressed step by step with him: from a handful of skeletons at the start, to gradually merging into undead servants, and finally into today's Undying Spirit Soldiers. In that respect it was no different from other arts. But now, at this realm, his understanding of heaven-and-earth was utterly different; his art in truth did not belong to Chaos and the Ancient Wilds at all. Still, there was no need to obsess over the issue; if even the Primal Chaos Gem couldn't see through it, he had no reason to think he could. Only sufficient strength can unravel all riddles.
The world was vast. This heaven-and-earth was undergoing a slow collapse—who knew for how many years—and still had not finished collapsing. It remained absurdly large. Lin Moyu sent out a hundred billion Undying Spirit Soldiers in different directions. They flew for a full three months and still had not found the boundary of the world—nor any discoveries. The map in his mind had become enormous.
From it he noticed something else: not every region in this heaven-and-earth had chaotic rules; a few zones still had normal rules. In those normal regions, heaven and earth weren't inverted—mountains and lakes lay beneath his feet, and the sky was still the sky.
Within every heaven-and-earth there should be infinite worlds. In Chaos and the Ancient Wilds, besides the void there are myriad realms. According to the Primal Chaos Gem, the first step in a heaven-and-earth's collapse is that all internal worlds collapse together. They don't necessarily collapse completely; those that don't are fused together, compressed by the entire heaven-and-earth into one continuous sheet. If Chaos and the Ancient Wilds fell into such a state, then all realms would present themselves in the Chaos; the worlds within the realms would be revealed; different realms would collide and eventually merge into one. The void of Chaos and the Ancient Wilds might disappear, returning to a configuration of heaven above and earth below—said to be the original state of a heaven-and-earth. Collapse is also a return to the origin. At the instant collapse begins, terrifying power erupts within; all living beings are erased. Only Supremes can survive; even those at the level of Supreme Venerable cannot escape. So it was here. In three months, the Undying Spirit Soldiers did not see a single living being. They did see many arrays and many traces left by the years. Lin Moyu followed his soldiers' footsteps to look over those arrays. Any array that could last until now was powerful without exception. From them, Lin Moyu could infer that the beings who once lived here were very strong.
Studying arrays of different heavens and earths, Lin Moyu found certain commonalities. Though heaven-and-earth rules differ, the basic principles of arrays are interlinked. He had a vague feeling: that ultimately arrays should be able to detach from heaven-and-earth and stand on their own—able to exert great power even without relying on heaven-and-earth rules. If one absolutely had to borrow external power, then borrow the power of the Life-Forbidden Zone; compared to heaven-and-earth rules, the Life-Forbidden Zone is on a higher tier. The idea was sheer audacity—no one had ever dared think of harnessing the Life-Forbidden Zone's power. Even Supremes shunned it.
Lin Moyu shared his thought with the Primal Chaos Gem. The Gem was speechless—what could he say? "Audacious" didn't suffice—this was outright wild fantasy.
Lin Moyu didn't see it that way. It wasn't as if he'd never dealt with the Life-Forbidden Zone. Its power was terrifying—but not unusable. The key was how to use it. If used well, the effect would be astonishing.
During this time, the Primal Chaos Gem also scrutinized this heaven-and-earth, searching for the world core. For others, finding the core would be extremely difficult; for him, not exactly difficult—just not easy. He followed the world's residual power, teasing out its threads, while continuously having Lin Moyu change direction so he could fix their position. The rules here had already collapsed; if they still existed, the search would be much easier—just follow the rules. As it was, the task felt like fishing a needle from the sea.
Half a year later, the Undying Spirit Soldiers finally made a discovery: they found a mountain—a mountain formed from corpses.