I gain ten years' worth of cultivation every day, and even geniuses will only see my doorstep!

The sky of the Eternal Sacred Realm is golden, but not the gold of the sun; it is a solidified gold. Time here seems to have been frozen for billions of years, and even the wind carries an ancient scent.

On the third day after Qin Yuan entered the Eternal Holy Realm, he encountered the golden-robed youth.

The young man stood on a floating continent, holding a golden spear with its tip pointing into the void, as if waiting for something. His eyes lit up when he saw Qin Yuan.

"So you're the one who caused trouble in the Origin Holy Realm?"

Qin Yuan stopped in his tracks. "Causing trouble? I was just passing by."

The golden-robed youth laughed, a laugh tinged with an indescribable weariness. "Passing by? Do you know where this is? The Eternal Sacred Realm. Here, time has no meaning. I've lived for eighty million years, doing the same thing every day—patrolling, killing, then patrolling again. I'm sick of it."

Qin Yuan looked at him. "Then why don't you leave?"

The young man in the golden robe was taken aback. "Leave? Where to?"

"Up there," Qin Yuan pointed to the sky.

The golden-robed youth looked in the direction he was pointing. It was the highest point of the Eternal Sacred Realm, where a curtain of light stretched out, beyond which lay the Sacred Domain of Myriad Realms. He had gazed upon it for countless millennia, never once considering crossing it.

"What...is there?" he murmured.

Qin Yuan said, "I don't know. That's why I want to go and see."

The golden-robed youth remained silent for a long time. Then he sheathed his spear and stepped aside to make way. "Go. I won't stop you. But be careful, the people of the Eternal Holy Court aren't as easy to talk to as I am."

Qin Yuan nodded and continued onward with Lin Qing'er.

The young man in the golden robe watched their retreating figures and suddenly called out, "Hey, you, Qin Yuan!"

Qin Yuan turned around.

"If one day you reach the top, come back and tell me what it's like up there." There was a longing in the golden-robed youth's voice, like a prisoner longing for freedom.

Qin Yuan smiled. "Okay."

The Lord of the Eternal Holy Court was a middle-aged man, dressed in an eternal golden dragon robe, sitting in a palace hundreds of millions of feet high, like a statue. After hearing about Qin Yuan's deeds, he did not lead people to surround and intercept him like Qing Lan did, but instead sent a messenger.

The messenger was a young man, a first-level Eternal Saint Emperor, who flew tremblingly before Qin Yuan. "The Court Master... the Court Master says he wants to see you."

Qin Yuan asked, "Why didn't he come himself?"

The messenger paused, taken aback. "The Lord of the Court... never leaves the palace."

Qin Yuan thought for a moment and said to Lin Qing'er, "Let's go take a look."

The palace of the Eternal Holy Court was more magnificent and colder than that of the Origin Holy Court. There were no windows, no sunlight, only countless eternal lamps casting a dim, yellowish glow. The Lord of the Court sat motionless on a high platform, like a mountain.

When Qin Yuan walked in, he didn't look up.

"You've arrived."

Qin Yuan stood in the center of the hall, surveying his surroundings. "How long have you been here?"

The court presiding official was silent for a moment. "Two hundred million years."

"They haven't left for two hundred million years?"

"I'm not going out."

Qin Yuan suddenly laughed. "Are you afraid to go out, or are you afraid to go out?"

The court judge raised his head, a cold glint flashing in his eyes. "What do you mean?"

Qin Yuan said, "The outside world is vast, much larger than you imagine. Yet you choose to confine yourself to this palace, like a prisoner. Are you the ruler of the Eternal Holy Realm, or its prisoner?"

The court master suddenly stood up, his aura surging. The entire palace trembled, the ever-burning lamps swayed violently, and light and shadow flickered.

"How dare you insult me?"

Qin Yuan did not back down. "This isn't an insult, it's a statement. You ask me why I can fight beyond my level? Because my path is protection. Protection requires going out, engaging with the world, and facing danger. What is your path? Is it eternity? Eternity isn't stillness, it's not locking yourself away. True eternity is remaining unchanged amidst change. You don't even dare to change, so what are you talking about eternity for?"

The presiding judge was stunned.

He stood there, like a stone statue whose surface had been pierced, his expression shifting from anger to bewilderment, and from bewilderment to contemplation. He had lived for billions of years, and no one had ever spoken these words to him. Everyone feared him, respected him, and avoided him; no one dared enter his palace, much less question his teachings.

"You..." his voice was hoarse, "Who exactly are you?"

Qin Yuan turned and walked out of the hall. "Just passing by. Court Master, the Eternal Holy Realm is vast, go out and take a look."

His figure disappeared outside the palace gate. The court master stood there, motionless for a long time.

Three days later, the Eternal Holy Court announced its dissolution. The Court Master left the palace where he had resided for two hundred million years and flew alone towards the Sacred Realm of Myriad Realms. No one knew where he went, but some said that they saw a middle-aged man in a golden dragon robe standing there for a long time before stepping inside the light screen of the Sacred Realm of Myriad Realms.

The sky above the Sacred Realm of Myriad Realms is white, but not the white of snow; it is a blank white. It is as if the entire world is a blank sheet of paper, waiting to be written on.

On his very first day here, Qin Yuan sensed something different—the rules here weren't fixed, but changed according to the observer's will. This meant that here, intention was more important than power.

"Interesting," Qin Yuan murmured.

Lin Qing'er looked around curiously. "The spiritual energy here is so strange. Sometimes it's so dense that it's impossible to breathe, and other times there's not a trace of it."

"Because someone is watching us," Qin Yuan said.

Lin Qing'er was taken aback. "Who?"

Qin Yuan pointed into the distance. There stood a colossal palace, entirely white, like a towering pillar reaching to the heavens at the edge of the earth. Around the palace were no other buildings, no cultivators, only emptiness.

"The Holy Court of Myriad Realms"

Qin Yuan and Lin Qing'er walked towards the palace. They walked for three days and three nights, but the palace remained in the distance, seemingly forever out of reach. Lin Qing'er grew increasingly impatient. "Are we just going in circles?"

Qin Yuan shook his head. "No. It's retreating."

"Who is retreating?"

"palace."

Lin Qing'er didn't understand. Qin Yuan explained, "The rule of the Myriad Realms Sacred Domain is that thoughts determine reality. If we want to get closer to it, it will retreat. Because our very thought of 'wanting to get closer' acknowledges the fact that 'we are at a distance.'"

Lin Qing'er thought for a moment. "Then what should we do?"

Qin Yuan stopped and closed his eyes. He stopped thinking about getting closer, about the distance, about the palace. He cleared his mind of all thoughts, leaving his heart a blank.

Then he opened his eyes.

The palace was right in front of us.

The door was open.

The Lord of the Holy Court of Myriad Realms was an old man with white hair, sitting cross-legged in the center of the main hall, with a chessboard in front of him. There were no chess pieces on the chessboard, only crisscrossing lines.

"You've arrived." The old man didn't even look up. "Sit."

Qin Yuan whispered a few words in Lin Qing'er's ear, then walked to the chessboard and sat down alone.