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

She took a deep breath.

"But when it flipped to the very end, it saw someone deep in my memory. I didn't know that person, but the thing did. The moment it saw that person, it threw me aside and kept laughing, laughing so hard that the whole dungeon shook."

"Who is that person?" Qin Yuan asked.

"An old man," Yan Yue said, "wearing a gray robe, with a purple gourd hanging from his waist, and always speaking only half-truths. He called that person—"

She looked into Qin Yuan's eyes and spoke slowly and deliberately.

"The Old Man of Chaos".

Qin Yuan's pupils suddenly contracted.

The Old Man of Chaos. He hadn't heard those four words in a long time. Back when he was still at the Heavenly Monarch realm in the Desolate Domain, he had ventured into an ancient secret realm and encountered a remnant soul who called himself the Old Man of Chaos. That remnant soul gave him the inheritance of the "Nine Transformations of Chaos," helping him embark on the path to the Creation Realm. Later, he learned that the Old Man of Chaos was just an alias, and that the remnant soul had another name in an even more ancient era—the Old Man of Chaos.

"He said I owed him something," Qin Yuan said slowly. "Back in the secret realm, he did give me the Nine Transformations of Chaos. But he said 'gift,' not 'loan.' Now he suddenly says I owe him something—"

"Perhaps it's not the Nine Transformations of Chaos," Su Yao suddenly said.

Everyone looked at her.

Su Yao walked up to Qin Yuan and looked down at the black crystal in his hand. Her Chaos Saint Body's perception allowed her to understand the essence of this crystal better than anyone else.

"The Elder of Chaos, the Origin of Chaos, the Incarnation of Chaos." Su Yao raised her head and looked at Qin Yuan. "What is the relationship between these three? The Demon God says that it is the incarnation of Chaos, and it is the incarnation of the will of Chaos. The Elder of Chaos is called the 'Elder of Chaos' and possesses the Nine Transformations of Chaos, a technique that directly points to the Creation Realm. And what you are holding in your hand now is the Origin of Chaos left behind after the Demon God's remnant soul was scattered—a pure, mindless core of chaos."

Her voice wasn't loud, but every word was like a stone thrown into water.

"What if these three were originally one?"

The camp was so quiet that only the sound of the wind could be heard.

Flames danced silently at Yan Lingji's fingertips, Mu Hongyi's grip on her sword tightened and loosened, and the ice beneath Bing Ji's feet unknowingly spread two zhang. Everyone understood what Su Yao was saying—if the Chaos Elder, the remnant soul of the Demon God, and the Chaos Origin were truly of the same origin, then the "thing" the Chaos Elder was now asking Qin Yuan for was very likely this black crystal.

"What does he want to do with it?" Red Moon broke the silence.

"I don't know." Su Yao shook her head. "But a being who can grant the Nine Transformations of Chaos, a being feared by the remnant soul of a demon god, what he wants must be more dangerous than this crystal itself."

Qin Yuan held the black crystal up to his eyes and flipped it over. The ancient divine runes on the back shimmered faintly in the morning light. Yue Yao had said she didn't recognize the last three characters. Now, thinking back, perhaps it wasn't that she didn't recognize them, but rather that those three characters shouldn't have been recognized in the first place.

He put the crystal into his pocket.

"Let's go back first," he said. "Let him tell us what he wants to his face."

Eternal Heavenly Realm, Heavenly Sword Holy Land.

The plaza in front of the Sword Pavilion was already packed with people. The disciples of the Heavenly Sword Holy Land stood in formation, their swords drawn half an inch from their sheaths, all eyes fixed on the person in the center of the plaza.

It was an old man dressed in a gray robe, with a purple gourd hanging from his waist. His hair was messy, as if he hadn't groomed it in a long time. He sat cross-legged in the center of the square, his eyes half-closed, a withered blade of grass in his hand, basking in the sun while humming an off-key tune. He didn't look like a peerless expert who had descended from the Heavenly Ladder at all; he looked more like an old drunkard who had crawled out of some mountain ravine.

But the sword fanatic dared not be careless in the slightest. His longsword was already drawn, its blade held horizontally in front of him, and he was like a taut bowstring. Because he had witnessed the old man descending the heavenly ladder with his own eyes—with one step, the world changed color, and the seven ancient swords collected in the Sword Pavilion were simultaneously drawn and bowed to him.

Of those seven swords, three had been imbued with his own sword intent. But at that moment, his sword intent vanished without a trace, like a mud ox sinking into the sea.

"Fellow Daoist Sword Maniac, can you please not be so tense?" The gray-robed elder opened one eye and glanced at him lazily. "I already said, I'm just here to say a few words to Qin Yuan, and then I'll leave. With such a big entourage, it makes it seem like I'm going to wipe out your entire family."

"What do you want to say to Qin Yuan?" The sword fanatic did not put down his sword.

"Let's chat for a bit," the gray-robed old man said, a blade of dry grass dangling from his mouth. "He's my disciple, isn't it normal for a master to catch up with his apprentice?"

Sword Maniac's brows furrowed even more. As far as he knew, Qin Yuan only had two masters. One was the Iron Sword Elder of the Iron Sword Sect, who had passed away many years ago. The other was his mentor from the Myriad Realms era, who had perished countless millennia ago. He had never heard Qin Yuan mention this old man who claimed to be Qin Yuan's master.

"Don't think about it." The gray-robed old man seemed to see through his thoughts and chuckled. "He doesn't mention me because he thinks I'm already dead. In fact, I have died several times, but I've come back to life each time."

He stood up, dusted himself off, and looked up at the horizon. In that direction, a spatial rift was slowly opening, and a white-haired figure in hemp clothing emerged from it.

When Qin Yuan landed on the Sword Pavilion Square, the bone blade was already in his hand. The seven women and Yan Yue followed closely behind, filing out of the crack one after another. Qin Yuan paused for a moment when he saw the gray-robed old man for the first time.

That face was exactly the same as the ancient man he had seen in the Desolate Ancient Realm. Yet, it was different. The ancient man from back then was a dissipating remnant soul, transparent, weak, and ready to vanish with the wind at any moment. But this old man before him had ruddy skin, an unfathomable aura, and the occasional glint in his cloudy old eyes made the chaotic power within him tremble.

"Little Qin Yuan." The gray-robed old man looked at him with a smile, "You've grown quite a bit. Back when you were given the Nine Transformations of Chaos, you weren't even a Heavenly Monarch yet, and now you're already at the Creation Realm? Not bad, not bad, you haven't disgraced this old man."

"What do you want?" Qin Yuan skipped the pleasantries and went straight to the point.

The old man in the gray robe sighed, seemingly disappointed by Qin Yuan's cold and unsympathetic attitude. He took a purple gourd from his waist, uncorked it, took a sip, and wiped his mouth with his sleeve.

"I want the Core of Chaos," he said. "The one you have."

Qin Yuan's fingers twitched slightly, but he didn't touch the crystal in his robes. He looked at the gray-robed old man with a calm expression, so calm that it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.