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

"What did you dream about?"

"I dreamt that I had never come out before."

Lin Qing'er squatted outside the barrier of light. The barrier was cool, and her breath condensed into a thin mist on it. "You're out now."

Yuan put the bowl down. The bottom of the bowl hit the stone floor, the dull thud carrying far in the night. "I used to not drink water. Because I felt that drinking water meant acknowledging that I was still alive."

"And now?"

Yuan thought for a long time. "I don't know."

Dawn was approaching. Lin Qing'er stood up and went back to sleep. Yuan, holding an empty bowl, sat by the bare wall, watching the sky gradually brighten. A bluish hue spread from the east, like ink seeping in. The branches of the old plum tree turned from black to green. The sound of the stream became clearer. He hadn't seen dawn in a long time.

The members of the Mutual Aid Society discovered a ruin deep within the Chaos Abyss. Mud Egg went to see it himself; the stone door had a closed-eye symbol on it and couldn't be pushed open. He tried to break it with a hoe, but the hoe broke, and the stone door remained unmoved. He sent someone to inform Qin Yuan.

Qin Yuan arrived with Yuan. Muddy leaned against the stone gate, holding only a taro instead of a hoe. He saw Yuan and turned his face away.

Yuan placed his hand on the stone door. The closed-eye symbol lit up briefly, then went dark. His fingers slid down the stone door.

"It recognizes me. But it won't let me in."

Qin Yuan placed his palm on the stone door. Golden light, the guardian of the Heavenly Dao, surged from his palm, and the closed-eye symbols lit up one after another, like sleeping eyes opening in sequence. The stone door slowly cracked open, and a cold wind blew out from the crack, carrying the smell of decay.

Behind the door was a downward spiral passage. The walls were covered with murals, painted a dark red, perhaps blood. The first mural depicted the Primordial Chaos creating all worlds. Its hand was enormous, holding up stars. The second mural showed living beings slaughtering each other on the earth, their corpses piled high like mountains. The Primordial Chaos covered its face, unable to bear the sight. The third mural showed the Primordial Chaos tearing a black mass from its chest; the mass struggled in its hand like a bird being held captive. The fourth mural showed the Primordial Chaos throwing the black mass into the abyss, and the fissure in the abyss closed.

Yuan stood before the fourth mural, his fingers trembling. "That's me."

Heavy footsteps echoed from the depths of the passage. They weren't human footsteps, but the sound of stones hitting the ground. One after another, the sound shook dust from the walls, causing it to fall in a flurry.

Qin Yuan drew his sword and stood in front of Yuan. Ni Dan stuffed the taro into his arms and gripped the broken hoe handle tightly.

The stone statue emerged from the darkness. Twenty feet tall, carved from black rock, it wielded a stone axe. Dark red flames burned in its eye sockets; the flames produced no smoke, yet waves of heat emanated from them. Without a word or revealing its identity, the statue swung its axe directly at Qin Yuan. The wind whipped up by the axe blade knocked Yuan to the ground; only Mud Egg managed to avoid being blown away by clinging to a crevice in the stone wall.

Qin Yuan raised his sword to parry. The blade clashed with the stone axe, sparks flying. He was thrown back several steps, his hand split open, blood flowing down the hilt of his sword. The stone statue's power far exceeded the eighth level of the Myriad Paths Returning to the Origin realm; each axe blow felt like a mountain crashing down.

The second axe blow came. Qin Yuan dodged to the side, the blade grazing his shoulder and slicing off a piece of his clothing. His shoulder was exposed, with three bloody gashes on his skin.

Yuan, huddled in the corner, lacked cultivation and couldn't offer any help. He stared at the statue's eye sockets, where dark red flames flickered like a heart. Suddenly, he shouted, "Its weakness is its eye sockets! It'll stop when the flames go out!"

Qin Yuan dodged the statue's third axe blow, which slammed into the ground, creating a deep crater. Taking advantage of the statue's momentary lapse in movement, he leaped up and plunged his sword into its eye socket. The sword tip pierced the flames, causing them to explode and scatter dark red fragments. The statue's body froze, its axe-wielding posture suspended in mid-air, before cracking began to appear from its eye socket, the cracks spreading across its face, neck, and chest. With a deafening crash, the statue shattered into pieces, piling up on the ground.

Qin Yuan landed on the ground, his hands trembling. Blood dripped from his tiger's mouth onto the gravel, seeping into the cracks between the stones. He tore off a piece of his clothing and wrapped it around his tiger's mouth, biting one end of the cloth and tying a knot.

How did you know?

Yuan stood up from the corner, his legs trembling. "I sensed my malice. Flame is its core, not stone. Just like my ancestral core."

Qin Yuan didn't ask any further questions. He turned and walked deeper into the passage. His footsteps echoed in the spiral tunnel, like a heartbeat. Yuan followed behind, his footsteps light, like a cat stepping on cotton. Nidan brought up the rear, clutching a broken hoe handle, occasionally glancing back at the darkness behind him.

At the end of the passage was a circular hall. The walls were covered with murals, larger and denser than those in the passage itself. The last few murals depicted the aftermath of the Primordial Chaos's death. In the murals, the Primordial Chaos's body shattered, transforming into nine glowing stones—the Primordial Cores. These nine stones floated in the void, and then someone arrived. Not a being from the myriad worlds, but a faceless figure clad in black armor. They took five of the Primordial Cores, scattering the remaining four throughout the myriad worlds.

Yuan deciphered the inscription beneath the mural: "The Eternal Night Dynasty. On the other side of the Void Sea. They use ancestral cores to create an undead army."

Qin Yuan looked at the next mural. It depicted the colossal city of the Eternal Night Dynasty, its walls etched with skulls. In the center stood a black altar, upon which floated five ancestral cores. Below the altar were countless warriors, neatly arranged like crops. The final mural: the myriad realms were shrouded in darkness, all living beings transformed into skeletons, kneeling on the ground, worshipping the banner of the Eternal Night Dynasty.

"They want to destroy all worlds," Yuan said in a low voice. "And they've already begun."

In the center of the hall stood a small, stone altar with a glowing stone suspended above it. It wasn't the ancestral core; the light wasn't black, but white. Qin Yuan reached out and grasped it, and countless images surged from the stone, flooding his mind.

The army of the Eternal Night Dynasty assembled at the edge of the Void Sea. Black armor, faceless warriors, black swords, black banners. Ten thousand strong, perhaps more. The leader stood on a high platform, his entire body clad in black scales, with six eyes on his face. He raised his hand, and the army's shouts shook the entire screen. The final frame: a world at the edge of countless realms, the sky turned black, the sun extinguished.

Qin Yuan brought the memory stone back to the Council of Myriad Realms. Inside the council hall, he released the images. On the white screen, the army of the Eternal Night Dynasty moved, its black flags fluttering. The footsteps of 100,000 men were inaudible, but everyone's heart beat in rhythm with the images.

The councilors were pale. Someone dropped their teacup, and it shattered. Someone stood up, then sat down again.

The Speaker asked, "What is the strength of the Eternal Night Dynasty?"

Qin Yuan said, "The leader of the army is a first-level Chaos Ruler. The ruler of the Heavenly Dynasty is even stronger, but that is unknown."

A representative from a great world stood up. "Let's make peace. We can pay tribute every year—"

Qin Yuan interrupted him. "They don't want peace. They want the lives of everyone in the myriad realms. Tribute? Whose lives will you offer as tribute?"