403: Chaotic Breath Soil

Time Without Trace was at the end of his rope. His silver robes were stained with blood, and his once-brilliant Time-Space Aeon Tribulation Indestructible Dao Bone was now dim and lusterless, his aura withered to the extreme. In his arms, after unleashing that world-shaking strike, the light at the center of Bai Li's brow had withdrawn, her cracks hidden as she fell back into a deep coma. However, her aura was much steadier than before, as if she had sunk into a long dream nurturing endless vitality.

Just as Time Without Trace forced a breath of Origin Qi, preparing to take Bai Li away from this devastated, broken region where the Dao was in disarray—

A change descended without warning!

No sound! No breath! No waves! No ripples!

There was not a single ripple in space, not a hint of energy disturbance, and not even a perceptible fluctuation in time itself.

In that instant, Time Without Trace, along with Bai Li in his arms and the floating star debris around them, were wiped away as if by an invisible giant hand, vanishing from the spot without a trace!

In the next moment, they found themselves within an absolute singularity that words could not begin to describe.

Here, there was no up or down, no past or future. Beneath their feet roared the river of origin, flowing with scenes of the birth, glory, and extinction of billions of star systems; every spray of water was an epic of a world's rise and fall. Above them was a slowly rotating Chaos Chronological Star Map, engraved with every timeline trajectory of the Primal Plane and interwoven with fate and Karma; it was vast and profound, beyond the reach of even the greatest wisdom to glimpse even a fraction of it.

A figure stood with his back to them, quietly stationed at the untraceable absolute source of the river of origin. His mere existence seemed to be the anchor and endpoint of the entire time-space dimension, the physical Incarnation of eternal ages. His aura was so vast and boundless that Time Without Trace, who had just survived a life-and-death struggle against a Saint and considered himself seasoned, felt as small as a grain of sand in the Ganges. Even looking up at him felt like an impossible luxury!

The First Palace Master of the Time-Space Divine Temple—the Time Venerable! He was incomparable to the Clone that Trace-less had seen before! This was the head of the nineteen supreme Palace Masters who governed the Time-Space Divine Temple, the one who held authority over time and space for hundreds of epochs and suppressed the Primal Plane—His Excellency the Time Venerable himself!

"A... farce." The Time Venerable's voice was flat and waveless, yet it seemed to contain the ultimate rhythm of the birth and death of the Universe and the rotation of epochs. He did not even turn around; with just a glance, he seemed to pierce through infinite dimensions and endless time, landing precisely on the unconscious Bai Li.

"chaos loess..." The Time Venerable's voice carried a hint of realization that saw through the ages. "No wonder it could make the filth of the Dark Abyss so pathetic, instantly dismantling that Puppet Saint's power." His flat tone then shifted into a gravity that was imperceptible yet heavier than a galaxy. "This item is a secret of the life taboo; it should not exist in the present world, let alone be... nurtured at this moment."

His gaze finally turned toward Time Without Trace.

Time Without Trace felt as if everything about him—his Physical Body, Divine Soul, Dao principles, and even every trace of his past and future—was exposed under this gaze, thoroughly analyzed and pierced through! Those eyes were hundreds of millions of times deeper than his own silver eyes, as if they contained all the mysteries and majesty of time itself.

Time was stretched infinitely within this singularity, yet it also seemed frozen in an instant. The Time Venerable's gaze lingered on Time Without Trace for what felt like an entire epoch. Finally, on that eternal face that seemed carved by time itself, a fluctuation—extremely rare and subtle, yet enough to shake the heavens—flickered across his indifferent expression.

"So that's how it is," the Time Venerable spoke slowly, his voice carrying a sense of sudden realization and an indescribable, complex meaning that spanned across endless years. "Divine Souls from the same source, like a mirror image; Dao principles vastly different, each proving its own path... You are not an independent soul, but... that Lin Yuan's Time-Space Reflection Clone."

His identity was completely seen through! Time Without Trace's mind felt as if it were struck by a torrent of time, and his Divine Soul shook violently! But he forcibly suppressed his roiling emotions, lowered his silver eyes, and responded respectfully and frankly, "The Palace Master is perceptive. It is indeed so."

The Time Venerable's gaze once again swept over Bai Li, whose aura was steady yet contained terrifying potential, before finally returning to Time Without Trace. He remained silent for a long time. The river of origin beneath their feet surged incessantly, and the Chaos Star Map above slowly rotated, as if silently calculating an infinite future.

"Forget it." A soft sigh escaped, seemingly containing the vicissitudes of eternity and a faint, imperceptible... consideration. "That you could protect this girl and trigger the Origin within her to counter the Dark Abyss is also a matter of Opportunity. The thing within her is of great importance; fortune and disaster are two sides of the same coin."

He paused, his voice returning to the absolute indifference of a Dominator of time and space. "Your original body, Lin Yuan, carries the secrets of the Grandmist and is trapped in the blood-war calamity of the plane. If he can survive and break through the calamity, he may one day reach the absolute peak and stand among us. Today's events shall serve as the forging of a good Karma."

"However..." The Time Venerable's tone suddenly shifted, his gaze projecting like a physical force into the depths of the river of origin and the Chaos Star Map with unprecedented gravity. "The 'chaos loess' accompanying Bai Li has awakened. Its Origin aura will surely act like a lighthouse, drawing the ancient and greedy gazes from the deepest parts of the Dark Abyss, and may even... disturb certain indescribable existences sleeping at the end of time and the ruins of epochs. This matter is no longer something I alone, or even my Time-Space Divine Temple, can decide."

"Once this girl has stabilized her Origin and repaired her injuries within the 'Time Origin Pool'..." The Time Venerable's voice carried an unquestionable, supreme majesty that overrode all the Daos of the heavens, like a final chronological decree. "You shall bring her with you to the 'Time Sequence Sacred Hall'."

"This deity shall personally convene—the Time-Space Divine Temple's Joint Saint Judgment of the Nineteen Palace Masters!"

The 'Time Origin Hall' stood loftily above the flowing sea of time and stars, forged entirely from immortal 'Time Origin Divine Crystals,' emitting a warm and vast aura of the Origin of time. The palace gates opened silently, as if they had long been waiting for their arrival.

Time Without Trace carried the still-unconscious Bai Li into the hall. Before them was a boundless silver lake composed of liquid time Origin—the 'Time Origin Pool.' The pool water was not actual water, but highly concentrated, gently tamed time Origin power. He gently placed Bai Li into the pool. The silver liquid time Origin tenderly enveloped her broken body.

Under the nourishment of the pure time Origin, the hidden emerald crack at the center of her brow glowed with a soft halo. The injuries she sustained from unsealing the 'chaos loess' Origin began to be slowly repaired and nurtured. Color returned to her pale face, her breathing became long and steady, and she fell into the deepest peaceful sleep.

Time Without Trace sat cross-legged by the pool, his silver eyes watching the sleeping face within. Strands of the Time Origin Pool's power also seeped into his body, repairing the Dao injuries left from the battle with the Saint controlled by the Dark Abyss and nourishing his Time-Space Aeon Tribulation Indestructible Dao Bone. His mind was calm as he sorted through the events of this journey.

The slander and betrayal of the Yuqing Palace, the framing and execution of Xuan Yin, the heartlessness and punishment of Mo Yunxin, the assassination attempt by the Dark Abyss's minions, the terror of the controlled Saint, the world-shaking eruption of the 'chaos loess' within Bai Li, and... the Time Venerable's gaze that saw through everything and exposed his identity as a Clone.