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

The other two indentations—the dagger and the hand—seemed to throb. Not extinguished, but waiting.

From deep within the stone gate came two voices. One male and one female, not appearing directly in one's mind, but as if coming from a great distance, separated by a wall.

"Arata underestimated his opponent."

"Let's go together."

The stone gate shattered completely. Not from a impact, but from melting within. Fragments of the stone slabs turned into a black liquid, flowing across the ground before evaporating.

Two ancient gods rose from the liquid.

The first was a woman. She was tall and thin, three times the height of Qin Yuan, with skin as transparent as glass, through which one could see the chaotic energy flowing within her. This chaotic energy wasn't gray, but silvery-white, like mercury. Her face was normal—she had eyes, a nose, and a mouth—but her eyes had no pupils, only a silvery-white expanse. She held a short blade in each hand, the blades also transparent, through which one could see the chaotic energy swirling.

"Ruins," she said. Her voice was cold, like the scraping of metal.

The second was male. He was short and stout, only a head taller than Qin Yuan, but three times wider. His skin was yellowish-brown with rock-like patterns, resembling a weathered boulder. His hands were enormous, each finger as thick as Qin Yuan's arm, with barbs at the tips. He had no neck; his head grew directly from his shoulders.

"Yao," he said. His voice was deep, like a stone rolling.

Xu moved. She was so fast that Qin Yuan only saw a silver-white afterimage. A short blade slashed towards his throat from the left. Qin Yuan dodged to the side; the blade grazed his chin, severing several strands of his beard. He parried the second strike with his black longsword, but Xu's second hand was already upon him. The short blade collided with the sword, sparks flying.

After retreating, she charged forward again. This time she was even faster, her short blade drawing countless silver-white arcs in the air, like a net. Qin Yuan used the blade to block her vitals, but a cut appeared on his old left shoulder, and blood gushed out. His right leg was also cut, not deep, but right on the spot where he had been injured before.

Yao made his move. He didn't move, but simply placed his hands on the ground. The chaotic crystals on the ground began to grow, sprouting from the ground like plants, transforming into countless stone spikes that pierced Qin Yuan's feet, behind, and sides. Qin Yuan jumped up, but the stone spikes chased after him, growing higher and higher.

As he leaped into the air, Xu created three identical clones, attacking simultaneously from three directions. Unable to gain leverage in mid-air, Qin Yuan could only use his sword to block attacks from one direction; he couldn't block the attacks from the other two.

He closed his eyes.

Guarding the Heavenly Dao. Not for attacking, not for defending, but for sensing. Sensing "existence." No matter how real the Void's clone may be, it is still fake. The fake does not exist. The real exists.

The second one from the left.

Qin Yuan opened his eyes and thrust his sword at the second Xu from the left. The blade pierced through her silvery-white skin, penetrating her chest. The transparent skin shattered, and silvery-white chaotic energy surged from the wound like a deflated balloon. Xu's body flattened, shrank, and finally turned into a pool of silvery-white liquid, seeping into the ground.

The other two clones disappeared at the same time.

Yao roared. He raised his hands from the ground, and all the stone spikes and chaotic crystals on the ground converged towards him, coalescing into a gigantic stone giant in front of him. The giant was thirty feet tall, its body was earthen yellow, and its surface had rock patterns, exactly like Yao. It raised its right fist and smashed it towards Qin Yuan.

Qin Yuan did not retreat. He focused his protective aura on his left fist, golden light enveloping it, and threw a punch to meet the attack head-on.

Fist against fist. The stone giant's fist began to shatter from its fingertips, cracks spreading to its wrist, elbow, shoulder, and entire torso. The thirty-zhang-tall stone giant collapsed before Qin Yuan, rubble raining down, hitting the ground, Qin Yuan, and the light barrier erected by Lin Qing'er.

Having lost the stone giant, Yao turned and ran. His legs were short, but his pace was fast, making him run like a frightened wild boar. Qin Yuan caught up and severed his left leg with a single sword stroke. Yao fell to the ground and rolled twice. Qin Yuan then severed his right leg.

Yao knelt on the ground, and a yellowish-brown liquid flowed from his severed leg, pooling on the ground.

"Don't kill me," it said. Its voice was no longer deep, but high-pitched, like a child's. "I can tell you the secrets of the ancient gods. Don't kill me."

Qin Yuan's sword stopped above Yao's head. "Speak."

Yao's lips trembled. "There are nine ancient gods. Huang, Xu, and Yao are the weakest. The strongest is called the Ancestor of Chaos, who is still asleep. When it awakens, all worlds will be destroyed."

"How can we stop it?"

"Enter the ancient god's tomb. Destroy its core before it awakens."

"Where is the tomb?"

Yao pointed deeper into the ruins. "There's a door there. It requires the cores of three ancient gods to open."

Qin Yuan looked at Yao. "Do you have a core?"

Yao's expression changed. Its earthen-yellow skin turned gray, like cement. Qin Yuan didn't ask any more questions. The sword fell, and Yao's head rolled to the side. A second ancient god core emerged from its corpse, earthen-yellow in color, and smaller than Huang's.

Qin Yuan walked to the corpse in the ruins; the silvery-white liquid had solidified. He brushed aside the solidified liquid with his hand and found the third core. It was silvery-white, like a piece of frozen mercury.

Three cores. Mouth, short blade, hand. Wasteland, ruins, cradle.

Qin Yuan held the three cores in his hands. They simultaneously transformed into liquid and merged into his skin. His cultivation level rose from the seventh level of the Chaos Opening Realm to the ninth level. Lin Qing'er rose from the first level of the Chaos Opening Realm to the third level.

The ground was shaking. It wasn't an earthquake, but something deeper was calling out.

Deeper into the ruins, the stone pillars became fewer and fewer, and the ground grew increasingly dark. It wasn't the stone's natural color, but rather something had stained it black. Qin Yuan's boots hissed as they stepped on it, as if being corroded.

At the end, there stood a black stone gate. The gate was three zhang high and two zhang wide, its surface smooth, without any patterns or inscriptions. There were only three recesses, arranged in a triangle. Each recess was a different shape—one circular, one rhomboid, and one triangular.

Qin Yuan embedded the three cores into the depressions. The circular depression contained the core of Huang, the rhomboid one contained the core of Xu, and the triangular one contained the core of Yao. The cores and depressions fit together perfectly, as if they were originally one.

The door began to glow. Not from the recesses, but from the center of the door, from the empty space between the three recesses. The light seeped out from there, spreading outwards along the patterns on the door. The patterns were originally invisible, only becoming clear after the light passed through them—not strokes, not patterns, but a picture. The totems of nine ancient gods, arranged in a circle. The center was empty.

That should be the location of the progenitor of chaos.