My little sect, which disappeared a thousand years ago, has become a sacred site!

"system!"

Gu Changyuan clenched his fists tightly, his eyes surging with barely suppressed excitement.

After a thousand years, I finally got out of that hellish place.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and with each breath, his internal organs felt an unprecedented sense of comfort.

Compared to the chaotic ruins, this place is simply a paradise.

In that chaotic land, even "air" was a luxury.

The so-called "airflow" is actually a mixture of chaotic energy and spatial fragments. It takes a lot of spiritual power to purify and transform it when inhaled.

As far as the eye can see, there is only endless darkness.

Not to mention the endless fighting and the desperate situation of scarce resources, Gu Changyuan felt it was a miracle that he hadn't been driven crazy by the fact that he could survive in such a place for a thousand years.

[Welcome back, host!]

"System, how long has it been since I left the Nine Heavens Realm? You were able to bring me back because you also know about the situation in the Ruins of Chaos, right?"

[One thousand one hundred and eleven years have passed since the host left the Nine Heavens Realm. The normal connection between the system and the host has been forcibly severed.]

However, the core binding remains intact, and the system can still maintain a minimal connection with the host through the "Sect Cultivation Synchronization" function.

In other words, for the past thousand years, the disciples of the three major forces under the host's command have continued to provide the host with cultivation points and spiritual energy.

"I see."

Gu Changyuan pondered to himself, no wonder his spiritual power had been constantly recovering in the Chaotic Ruins for thousands of years, without any signs of depletion.

It is important to understand that there is no spiritual energy—or rather, no "spiritual energy" in the conventional sense.

All cultivators use their own stored spiritual power, and once it is exhausted, they can only rely on external items such as spirit stones and pills to replenish it.

Spirit stones and elixirs are the hardest currencies there.

Two powerful individuals can fight for three days and three nights over a single high-grade spirit stone, ultimately perishing together.

If a powerful being were to publicly produce half a bottle of pills to restore spiritual energy, it would immediately attract hundreds of people to attack, ultimately resulting in bloodshed for miles around.

But he himself... has never been troubled by a depletion of spiritual energy.

When he first entered the Ruins of Chaos, he was only at the Refinement Realm—in a place where the Chaos Realm was everywhere and the Great Luo Realm was occasionally seen, the Refinement Realm was no different from an ant.

But he survived.

The reason is that his spiritual power is inexhaustible.

Each use will replenish itself in a very short time.

After each battle, his total spiritual power would even increase slightly.

This allowed him to unleash his supernatural powers without restraint, to fight one battle after another, and to not have to be as meticulous as others in the use of every bit of spiritual energy.

He never told anyone this secret.

In the chaos of ruins, possessing a treasure is a crime.

If people knew that he possessed an almost limitless ability to recover spiritual energy, the powerful figures of the entire Chaotic Ruins would probably unite to kill him.

After all, who wouldn't want to have such an incredible ability?

Over the past 1,100 years, the system has continuously attempted to rebuild a stable connection channel, but due to the unique spatial structure of the Chaotic Ruins, it has never succeeded.

[Until the system detected a large-scale spatial tremor in the Chaotic Ruins, deducing that a temporary "weak point" might have been created, it concentrated its energy to forcibly tear open a temporary passage, pulling the host back.]

Gu Changyuan nodded slightly, digesting this information.

"So, the system must have consumed quite a bit of resources."

Yes. The system consumed the vast majority of its energy to complete this traction. For at least several years, the system will be unable to provide any additional functions beyond its basic information retrieval capabilities.

However, the core binding remains intact, so the host need not worry about that.

Thank you.

[It's my duty.]

Gu Changyuan said no more. He raised his right hand and slowly closed his five fingers.

The movement was very light, but as the fingers bent, the air around the palm began to twist and compress, producing a subtle "crackling" sound.

That was the lament of space unable to withstand the pressure.

It requires no force; a simple, casual grip is all it takes to generate such power.

Gu Changyuan looked down at his hands. The palm lines were clear, the skin was fair, and there wasn't a single callus on the joints.

These hands have torn apart the heads of chaotic beasts in the Ruins of Chaos, crushed the spines of ancient races, and set up sword formations that could reverse life and death in desperate situations.

But now, they just hang quietly at my sides.

"Me now..."

Gu Changyuan murmured.

"There is indeed no need for the system to provide any capabilities other than information."

This is the truth.

The millennia of fighting and plundering in the chaotic ruins had amassed enough wealth to drive any power mad.

Which of those powerful figures he killed wasn't an old monster who had lived for thousands or tens of thousands of years?

Their personal storage treasures were filled with rare and precious items, ancient cultivation techniques, and lost elixirs from their respective worlds.

Gu Changyuan roughly estimated that if all the resources in his Chaos Pouch were taken out, they would be enough to fill ten mountains ten thousand feet high.

With such a foundation, why would he need the system to provide any further assistance?

It's more than enough to enhance the strength of the three major sects.

"Oh, right."

Gu Changyuan suddenly remembered something and asked in his mind.

"System, what is the current state of the three major sects I founded back then? Do you still know?"

This is his biggest concern.

One thousand one hundred years, the world has changed dramatically.

What have become of those disciples he personally took in, those cultivation techniques he casually left behind, and those sects he founded?

After the host left, the system itself became trapped in the spatial interlayer and was unable to move.

The only information we can receive is the spiritual energy feedback from the three major sects, along with the disciple's identity information accompanying each feedback.

As soon as the system finished speaking, three semi-transparent light screens instantly appeared in Gu Changyuan's mind, densely displaying names and cultivation levels.

He glanced at it briefly and saw that the number of registered disciples in the Celestial Human Sect alone had exceeded 10,000, while the Celestial Demon Sect and the Celestial Demon Sect together had more than 18,000, bringing the total number of disciples in the three sects to nearly 30,000.

"Holy crap, is this still that small, run-down sect from back then?"