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

Who owns that eye?

"The third aspect of the primordial will of chaos." The man said something Qin Yuan didn't quite understand, then continued, "Chaos gave birth to two aspects: order and disorder. Order became the Primordial Beginning, and disorder became the Demon Gods. But above order and disorder, there exists a third will—the will of chaos itself. It has no good or evil, no distinction between order and disorder; it has only one instinct: to devour everything and return everything to chaos. The Primordial Beginning and the Demon Gods are both parts of it, but neither is its entirety. It is the true embodiment of chaos, and the existence of the outer realms is an extension of its will."

Qin Yuan's brow furrowed slightly. He recalled Yuan Chu's words—Yuan Chu represented the "order" aspect of chaos, while the Demon God represented the "chaos" aspect; together, they constituted the complete will of chaos. But Yuan Chu hadn't mentioned that above order and chaos, there was an even more primordial entity. Did Yuan Chu become the complete will of chaos after merging with the core of chaos? If he was complete, then where did this "third aspect of the primordial will of chaos" from the outer realms come from?

"Yuan Chu fused with the Chaos Core, so it's not complete?" Qin Yuan asked.

"The Primordial Chaos was a fusion of chaos and order, not the original form of chaos itself." The man shook his head. "You can think of chaos as a great tree. The roots are the primordial will of chaos, and the trunk branches into two—order and chaos. The Primordial Chaos and the Demon God are respectively the embodiment of order and chaos, but neither of them are the roots. The roots of that tree have always been hidden deep within the outer realms, at the very end of this void. Ten thousand years ago, it tried to extend its roots into the void, and I severed them just as they touched the boundary of the void. But it didn't die; it simply retreated into the depths of the outer realms, waiting for its roots to grow back."

"How much longer?"

"It's already grown." The man gestured with his chin toward Qin Yuan's back. "It sensed you when you came in."

Qin Yuan turned around.

Behind him, the void was gathering. It wasn't being absorbed by anything, but rather the void itself was coalescing, like something slumbering and awakening. Veins-like lines emerged from the void, flowing with grayish-white light, all converging at a central point. That central point was slowly expanding.

It is an eye.

It was larger than any eye he had seen in the chaotic turbulence before, boundless and vast, so large that Qin Yuan felt as if he were standing on the surface of a planet, with that eye occupying the entire sky. Its pupil was not a vertical slit, but a rotating vortex, reflecting countless images of the void—the Seventy-Two Holy Dynasties, the Thirty-Six Dao Sects, the Nine Ancient Clans, the Eternal Heaven Domain, and the Myriad Realms—all the images were slowly rotating in the vortex, as if they had been swept into a vortex from which they could not escape.

The pupil of that eye moved slightly, aiming at Qin Yuan's direction.

Then Qin Yuan heard a voice. Not one he heard with his ears, but one that crashed directly into the depths of his consciousness. It wasn't a word spoken, but a pure will that transcended the boundaries of language, instilling its intent into his consciousness.

—Return.

—Return to chaos.

—Your bones, your blood, your sword, everything you protect.

—All originated from chaos.

—It should return to chaos.

Qin Yuan's pupils contracted sharply. His consciousness was being eroded by that will, more violently and directly than before he entered. The chaotic power within him began to spiral out of control, as if summoned by some force, surging wildly outwards. The starry sky and galaxy on the bone blade dimmed, and the patterns on the blade extinguished one by one.

"Hold on." The voice came from behind him, and a hand pressed against his back. A stream of pure chaotic energy flowed from the man's palm into Qin Yuan's body, suppressing the chaotic energy that was about to spiral out of control back into his meridians. Qin Yuan took a deep breath, and the light of the Eye of Chaos shone brightly again, resisting the erosion of the eye's will.

"Thank you," Qin Yuan said.

"You're welcome. This is my last bit of strength." The man's voice was even weaker than before. "I've sat at the entrance of the sealed passage for a hundred thousand years. My power has long been worn away by the chaotic currents. That blow I gave you just now was the last bit of my reserves."

He walked to Qin Yuan's side and stood shoulder to shoulder with him facing the enormous eye that blotted out the sky.

"Ten thousand years ago, I slashed it. That slash severed all its roots that stretched into the void, but it only damaged its surface. It retreated to the depths of the outer realms to recuperate for ten thousand years, and now it has returned. But I no longer have the strength to slash like that again."

He turned his head, his eyes closed, and faced Qin Yuan.

"But you still have some."

Qin Yuan looked down at the bone blade in his hand. The blade was much darker than before, and more than half of the patterns on it had faded. He knew that even at his peak, he couldn't unleash the same strike the Guardian had delivered years ago. Ten thousand years ago, the Guardian was at the peak of the Immortal Realm, having poured all the essence of his Seven Star Sacred Body into the blade to barely sever the invasion passage from the outer realms. He was now only at the ninth level of the Sovereign Realm; even with the essence of the seven women, he couldn't possibly achieve the power of that strike from back then.

"What are you thinking about?" the guardian asked.

"I'm thinking about how to unleash that same strike you made back then," Qin Yuan said.

The guardian was silent for a moment, then spoke: "The Chaos Sacred Path you inherited is a cultivation method based on the aspect of order. The Primordial Beginning gave you the Nine Transformations of Chaos, and the Chaos Saint Lord gave you the complete version of the Chaos Sacred Path, but these are all powers of order. Facing the primordial will of chaos, the power of order is insufficient. It is itself the source of both order and chaos. Attacking it with power derived from it is like trying to wash water against the ocean—it won't work."

"Then what should we use?"

The guardian raised his finger and touched the spot between his eyebrows.

"Use your own Dao. Not the Nine Transformations of Chaos, not the Holy Dao of Chaos, not anything passed down to you by anyone else. But something you yourself comprehended from ten thousand years of guarding. What the Primordial Beginning gave you is unimportant, what the Holy Lord of Chaos gave you is unimportant. What matters is, what were you thinking when you were planting taro on the back mountain of the Guixu Palace?"

Qin Yuan's fingers tightened slightly as he gripped the bone blade.

What was he thinking about while planting taro? He was thinking about the tea Su Yao brewed, the chili peppers Yan Lingji secretly added to the porridge, the sound of Mu Hongyi sharpening her sword in the courtyard, Bing Ji's profile as she sat quietly by the cold pond, the sound of the wind as Hong Yue practiced her spear, Yue Yao changing the wildflowers every day, and Jian Wushuang's silhouette as he polished his sword under the moonlight. He was thinking about Yan Yue standing at the entrance of Guixu Palace, leaning on her wooden cane, and how she had said she would save him a south-facing room. He was thinking about that ordinary, insignificant wish—he wanted to live a quiet life with them, without anyone disturbing, without anyone disrupting, without anyone hurting him.

But there are always people who come to bother us.