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

Chaos Heaven looked at the two pits on the roof of the palace, then at Qin Yuan.

"The shot is off-target. It's not chopped up. Why?"

"Cleaving requires equal force. I don't have that right now," Qin Yuan said. "If you miss, you just need to change direction."

Chaos Heaven nodded. "Clever."

He struck again. This time, he charged forward, engaging in close combat. Fists, palms, elbows, knees, legs—each strike carried the power of chaos, each strike enough to shatter a meteorite. Qin Yuan parried with his sword, dodged with his agility, and took a blow from an elbow with his left arm. The wound on his left shoulder reopened, and blood dripped from his sleeve.

But he did not back down.

He was searching. Searching for Chaos Heaven's weakness. Chaos Heaven was almost perfect—its attacks were relentless, its defense impenetrable, and its aura undisturbed. But Qin Yuan noticed a detail: every time Chaos Heaven threw a left punch, its right hand would slightly open, as if preparing to catch something. This wasn't an attacking action, but a habit. It was muscle memory formed after fighting too many battles.

Qin Yuan waited until Chaos Heaven threw another left punch. The instant his right hand opened, he transferred the sword to his left, freeing his right hand to strike Chaos Heaven's chest with a palm.

In the palm of his hand, a golden ball of light, compressed to the size of a fingernail.

Chaos Heaven sensed danger. He tried to dodge, but his body, propelled by the momentum of his left punch, couldn't retract. The golden orb struck his chest.

There was no explosion. No wounds. No blood. Chaos looked down at his chest, where the skin, muscles, bones—all of "existence"—had vanished. Not blown away, not burned, but simply disappeared. As if nothing had ever existed there.

Chaos Heaven looked up at Qin Yuan. The light in its golden eyes began to dim.

"What is this?" he asked.

Qin Yuan said, "This is protection. When I want to protect someone, nothing in my way will exist."

Chaos Heaven remained silent for a moment. His body began to spread outwards from his chest, disappearing piece by piece. It wasn't decay, nor was it fragmentation; rather, it resembled pencil marks erased by an eraser.

"Interesting," he said. That was his last sentence.

His body had completely vanished. On the stone table, the bronze lamp was still lit. The golden flame on the wick flickered, as if nothing had happened.

The black palace began to crumble. The walls cracked, the roof collapsed, and the ground caved in. Chaotic energy poured in from the cracks, hazy and carrying a musty smell.

Qin Yuan pulled Lin Qing'er and ran towards the palace gate. The gate was already crooked, the frame tilted, allowing only one person to pass sideways. Qin Yuan pushed Lin Qing'er out first, then followed behind. Just as he squeezed through the opening, the palace behind them collapsed completely. Black boulders crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of gray mist.

Qin Yuan stood in the void, gazing at the ruins. He still held the black sword in his hand. The blade was undamaged, without even a scratch.

Lin Qing'er looked at him. His left shoulder was bleeding again, his right leg was trembling, and his face was covered in ash and blood. But he stood very straight.

"Go back?" she asked.

Qin Yuan gazed into the distance. Deep within the Chaos Abyss, even denser chaotic energy and darker places lay hidden. There, perhaps, lay even more enemies, more cities, and even more battles.

"Go back," he said.

The two turned and flew towards the crack.

As Qin Yuan flew over the ruins of Chaos Fire City, he stopped and glanced at them. Dark red crystal fragments floated in the chaotic energy, like congealed blood. As he flew over the ruins of Chaos Ice City, he heard the clanging of icicles striking each other, but it was just the sound of the wind. By the time he flew over Chaos Thunder City, the dark clouds had dispersed, leaving only a pile of charred rocks.

The crack remained. The black fissure hung in the void, with chaotic energy churning at its edges, like a wound in the process of healing.

Qin Yuanxian passed through the crack, with Lin Qing'er following behind.

The night behind the Xuan Yuan Sect is quieter than anywhere else in the myriad realms.

Qin Yuan sat under the old plum tree, his eyes closed. The injury on his left shoulder had mostly healed, and although his right leg was still not very strong, he no longer needed a cane. Lin Qing'er was asleep inside, her breathing very soft, which he could hear even through the wooden wall.

He heard more than just her breathing. There was something else. Coming from the direction of the crack wasn't sound, not vibration, but something low-frequency, continuous, like a heartbeat. It wasn't in his ears, it was in his bones. Qin Yuan's knuckles trembled slightly, not from cold, but from resonance.

He opened his eyes. In the darkness, the black crack was clearly visible, like a gash torn open in the sky. The crack was a finger's width wider than it had been three days ago. Chaotic energy seeped out from it, hazy and almost invisible in the night sky, but Qin Yuan could feel it spreading.

He stood up and went into the room. Lin Qing'er was still asleep, but the blanket had slipped down to her waist. He pulled the blanket up to cover her shoulders. Her eyelashes fluttered, but she didn't open her eyes.

Qin Yuan stepped out of the house and flew towards the crack.

At the edge of the crack, the chaotic energy was three times denser than before. It no longer seeped out slowly, but surged out like a fountain, crashing against the spiritual energy of all realms, hissing like water droplets splashing on a hot pan. Qin Yuan stood before the crack, looking inside. Deep within the chaotic energy, there was a pair of eyes.

These weren't the eyes of the Chaos Heaven. The Chaos Heaven's eyes were golden, like lamps. These eyes were gray, like stone, like solidified magma, like long-dead stars. They had no pupils, no whites, just a huge, oval-shaped gray area lying deep within the chaotic energy. Size? Qin Yuan couldn't judge. The distance was too great, the chaotic energy too dense; in the dim light, he could only see the shape and the direction the eyes were gazing—directly towards him.

Qin Yuan did not retreat. He stood before the crack, looking into those eyes. The eyes did not move, simply staring at him.

Time passed. Perhaps a few breaths, perhaps half an hour. At the edge of the crack, a piece of chaotic crystal loosened, fell, and crashed into a spot in the void with a dull thud. Those eyes vanished. Not closed, not moved away, but erased from Qin Yuan's sight as if they had never existed.

The churning of chaotic energy did not stop; on the contrary, it became even more intense.

Qin Yuan stood in front of the crack for a while longer, making sure that the eyes wouldn't reappear. Then he turned around and flew back to the back mountain of the Xuan Yuan Sect.

Lin Qing'er was already awake. She sat by the door, wearing an overcoat, holding a hoe in her hand—not to plant herbs, but simply to hold it. She was waiting for him.

"The crack has widened," she said. Not a question, but a statement.

"Um."

"There's something inside."

"Yes," Qin Yuan said, "It's stronger than the Chaos Heaven."

Lin Qing'er put down the hoe, stood up, and went into the house. Qin Yuan heard her packing her things—clothes, pills, a few spirit stones, and a spare sword. She didn't ask him if he was going or not, because she already knew the answer.