By the time Tang San realized something was amiss, it was already too late.
The surrounding space shattered, and the scattered chaos energy reversed, directly pulling everything into the realm of nothingness.
The Sacred Clear Sea vanished, replaced by a vast void.
Calling it a "vast void" wasn't entirely accurate. At this moment, the surroundings weren't just devoid of matter—there was no sense of time or space either.
Tang San felt as if all his powers had lost their connection.
Aside from the power contained within this phantom form of his, he couldn't harness anything around him—not even the laws of the universe.
Where was this?
"This is chaos," Xu Yuan said indifferently.
He looked at Tang San, a hint of mockery in his eyes.
Here, Tang San was like a lamb awaiting slaughter.
Chaos was merely a corresponding dimension. If Xu Yuan had simply dragged Tang San here, there was a chance Tang San might escape on his own at some point.
Thus, Xu Yuan had to enter personally to seal Tang San, ensuring he couldn't return.
Even if he couldn't completely kill Tang San, he would at least seal his consciousness here.
In the deepest reaches of chaos, there was no concept of time or space. A single second here might equate to decades in the universe—or perhaps centuries here might only be an instant in the cosmos. The year Xu Yuan disappeared was spent here. By his own understanding of time, he had been lost for thirteen years.
Time in chaos was difficult to define, especially when trying to correlate it with the universe—there was no standard.
However, Xu Yuan had already spent twelve years here and had mastered chaos energy, giving him some confidence in constraining the flow of time within a certain range. He wouldn't have entered again if he hadn't been sure he could prevent decades or centuries from passing in the outside world during a brief moment in chaos.
"Enough. You don't need to know anything more. Since you're already an old relic erased from history, stay quietly in the shadows."
Xu Yuan still had matters to attend to outside, so he acted decisively.
The Primordial Chaos Spear began devouring chaos energy, using it to evolve Yin-Yang and the Five Elements.
During this process of evolution, the spear also adapted to chaos energy, absorbing a significant amount of it. The black-and-white colors on the spear intertwined, becoming increasingly nebulous, approaching a chaotic state.
The forces of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements intertwined, merging into the chaotic space.
Tang San's expression shifted slightly.
He tried to summon water elements but found the surrounding chaos energy impossible to control. Even though he had once absorbed chaos energy for cultivation, it required long-term refinement. He couldn't manipulate it as freely as Xu Yuan did.
He used his own power to disrupt the balance of the Five Elements in Xu Yuan's technique.
The Five Elements' mutual generation and restraint allowed Xu Yuan to wield incredible effects. However, under Tang San's efforts, the water element weakened and was even induced to degrade, quickly breaking the balance of the Five Elements.
Seeing this, Xu Yuan thrust his spear forward.
Chaos energy converged into a vortex, erupting at the spear's tip.
Tang San's expression changed slightly.
In this place, he didn't want to clash directly with Xu Yuan.
He had a premonition that the more he fought here, the more chaotic the surrounding chaos energy would become, making it harder for him to return.
Xu Yuan might know how to return, but he wouldn't be able to find his way back in this disordered space.
He even had a feeling that even if he imitated Xu Yuan and tried to leave the same way Xu Yuan did, he still wouldn't be able to escape.
No one had ever reached chaos, or at least, in his understanding, no one had ever returned from chaos. There was no information about chaos at all.
However, Xu Yuan wouldn't let him avoid this so easily.
Though he couldn't fully control chaos, this place was still somewhat his home turf.
Space distorted.
Chaos energy stirred the surroundings, and all space seemed to converge toward a single point—the vortex of chaos energy at the tip of the Primordial Chaos Spear.
Tang San's expression changed.
The more he tried to evade, the closer he got to Xu Yuan's spear tip.
Finally, realizing his current predicament, Tang San mobilized all his strength.
From the golden eye at his brow, a drop of golden blood-tears fell, and the entire eye seemed to vanish. The golden blood-tears radiated a heart-stopping power.
Looking at that drop of golden blood-tears, Xu Yuan inexplicably thought of the Guanyin Tear from the Tang Sect's hidden weapons.
Could this be the precursor to the Guanyin Tear?
With the Guanyin Tear, Tang San had severely wounded Qian Renxue after she became a god. It was possible he gained some kind of enhancement during its practical use—perhaps a blessing from his past life as a Supreme God King?
Gritting his teeth, Tang San hurled the golden droplet, shaped like a teardrop, forward.
Boom!
The golden tear pierced through the vortex of chaos energy, not being completely swallowed by it. Instead, it struck the tip of the Primordial Chaos Spear directly.
Fortunately, its power had been significantly weakened by the vortex of chaos energy.
Feeling the immense recoil from the spear, Xu Yuan's right hand went numb, and he even sensed Jue trembling.
That last strike had nearly overwhelmed Jue.
Xu Yuan narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at Tang San across from him. He put away all his disdain and no longer grew arrogant due to the surrounding chaos.
This technique, similar to the Guanyin Tear, was indeed terrifying. And Tang San might possess other abilities corresponding to the Tang Sect's techniques. As far as Xu Yuan knew, after the Guanyin Tear came the Bodhi Blood.
Had he not felt the power of that golden tear just now, Xu Yuan wouldn't have thought much of the Tang Sect's hidden weapon techniques.
After all, they were just unorthodox methods.
However, this projection of Tang San's past life served as a wake-up call.
What if the Tang Sect's techniques weren't executed through martial arts methods?
Putting away the Primordial Chaos Spear, Xu Yuan stopped using it.
Above his head, a canon emerged.
As the canon descended, a world appeared within the chaotic space.
A river of time that penetrated chaos enveloped the two of them.
"What is this?"
Tang San's face showed shock.
Was this the embodiment of the essence's function?
No, it was more than that.
Tang San sensed it—time around them had become utterly chaotic.
Completely chaotic.
Within this chaos, the River of Time truly reversed time.
The vortex of chaos energy reappeared, forming at the site of their earlier collision. It became the core of space, drawing any movement toward it.
Countless runes flew out from the canon above Xu Yuan's head, standing out starkly in the chaos. It was as if they were sketching a complete chain of laws from nothingness in the otherwise empty chaos.
It was fortunate that Xu Yuan had stored Jue away; otherwise, who knows what Jue would have thought upon seeing this canon.
The chains of law and the River of Time intertwined around them, forming a cage.
"I'll deal with your reincarnation, Tang San, then come back to release you."
After saying this, Xu Yuan left the canon here and returned to Falan Planet through the Will World.
The Will World was the bridge between existence and nothingness and also the means by which he stabilized the flow of time between the two regions. Even so, despite not spending too much time in chaos, when Xu Yuan returned to Falan Planet, ten days had already passed.
------------------------------------------------------
40+ Chapters Ahead Guaranteed: patreon.com/EphemeralShadow
There's something for free patrons too! Free Patrons receive 1 chapter in advance :)