535: Departure from Chaos

Hearing this, Xiao Bai's dragon eyes instantly lit up, flashing with a look of surprise and honor, and he immediately bowed in response, "Xiao Bai obeys!"

As he accepted the command, he subconsciously tilted his head slightly, his eyes quickly darting to Xiao Hei beside him.

That look carried a hint of unconcealed smugness, as if to say: "See? At the critical moment, the Sovereign still takes me when he goes out!"

"I get to see the big scenes again; as expected, the Sovereign relies on me the most!"

Gu Changge saw all of Xiao Bai's subtle gloating, but he didn't point it out, only a barely perceptible smile flashed in his eyes.

An invisible and intangible mysterious power, yet one that contained the supreme rules, instantly entered Xiao Hei's brow.

Xiao Hei felt the pressure of the Third Level of the Immortal Lord Realm instantly compressed and refined, and his outward aura steadily settled at the Peak of the Heavenly Immortal Realm.

"The heaven and earth of this world can currently only support the power of the Heavenly Immortal Realm."

Gu Changge explained, "Although your Realm is high, you must usually restrain your power to this level."

Hearing this, Xiao Hei's heart tightened, and he immediately understood Gu Changge's deep meaning.

Gu Changge nodded slightly, then gently waved his sleeve.

In the next instant, light and shadow shifted as space was displaced.

By the time Xiao Bai and the other two regained their senses, they found themselves back at the familiar summit of Zizhu Peak.

The next morning, at the summit of Zizhu Peak.

Gu Changge, dressed in a plain white Daoist robe, stood by the cliff with his hands behind his back, his body surrounded by flowing Dao Rhyme, perfectly integrated with heaven and earth.

Behind him, Xiao Ruobai, Fang Hanyu, Ling Xi, Wang Xiaopang, and Mo Yu had all arrived.

Each was high-spirited, their eyes filled with irrepressible expectation and a hint of nervousness at venturing into the unknown.

"Since everyone is here, let us depart."

Gu Changge's voice was calm, and without any visible movement, an invisible great power already enveloped everyone.

In the next moment, everyone felt the scenery before them rapidly ascend and change, with the sharp sound of space tearing in their ears.

In just a few breaths, they had pierced through the thick and warm world barrier of the Xuanhuang Great World and entered a completely different Domain.

Chaos!

Before them were no longer the familiar blue sky, white clouds, mountains, and rivers; replaced by an infinite, indescribably desolate void.

This place was not absolute darkness, but more like a hazy gray background where all colors were mixed and diluted to the extreme.

"Is this the Chaos beyond the world?" Wang Xiaopang clung to the invisible shield Gu Changge had opened, his eyes wide as he muttered to himself.

The magnificent sea of stars they had imagined did not appear; the primitivity and desolation of this Chaos far exceeded their expectations.

With a thought from Gu Changge.

"Roar—!"

A low and majestic Dragon roar sounded, and Xiao Bai's massive Dragon body stretched out within the Chaos.

The Dragon scales were dark, as if they could absorb all light, with only the dragon eyes shining like two golden lamps, illuminating the murky Chaos ahead.

The thousand-foot Dragon body meandered, each scale flowing with the Law patterns of the Heavenly Immortal Peak, slightly smoothing out the surrounding turbulent Chaos Qi currents.

"Come up."

Gu Changge was the first to step onto the Dragon's head.

Everyone followed closely behind, landing on the Dragon's back, which was as wide as a plaza.

The black Dragon Xiao Bai spontaneously formed a stable barrier of Immortal light around his body, protecting everyone securely.

Gu Changge turned back to look at Ling Xi: "Do you have any special marks, aura sensations, or memories of external characteristics regarding the Canglan Great World?"

Ling Xi tried hard to remember, and after a moment, spiritual light flowed from her fingertips, outlining the silhouette of a light sphere in the Void Realm.

The edges had a unique rhythm that pulsed slightly like breathing, and the whole thing emitted a warm, heavy, yet vibrant bright yellow glow.

The light was not dazzling, but rather gave a sense of stability and inclusiveness, like an ancient land bathed in the afterglow of the setting sun, or the most abundant waves of wheat in late autumn moving on their own without wind.

"This is what the Canglan Great World looked like when I looked back after breaking through the world barrier back then.

It's just that in the Chaos, directions are hard to distinguish, and I don't know exactly where it is."

Gu Changge nodded slightly, his eyes half-closed as his Immortal Emperor-level Divine Sense spread out like a silent tide, surging from him toward the depths of the Chaos.

However, the Chaos Qi was like the thickest mire; even an Immortal Emperor's Divine Sense was greatly weakened and interfered with, and the range of investigation was far less clear than within an ordered world.

As far as his Divine Sense reached, besides more Chaos Qi currents, broken Law turbulences, and scattered, deathly silent floating objects, there was no sign of that unique aura.

After a moment, Gu Changge opened his eyes.

He pointed in a direction, an area in the Chaos where vitality was relatively active.

"We will head in this direction, searching as we go. Xiao Bai, be steady."

"Yes, Revered Master."

The black Dragon Xiao Bai let out a steady Dragon roar, adjusted his direction, harnessed the Immortal light, and began to advance into the depths of the Chaos.

For the first few days, the Disciples were still full of curiosity.

They saw fragments of a massive Immortal Domain wrapped in Chaos Qi currents, drifting slowly, with ruined palaces and dim Immortal light upon them.

They also sensed from afar some world bubbles that emitted faint light and rotated slowly; those were worlds that were newly born or in decline.

However, as they went deeper, the sights they saw became increasingly heavy.

They saw a world whose world barriers were full of holes, its internal Origin being forcibly extracted by some Formation and turned into a beam of spiritual light, merging into a ferocious Immortal Boat floating outside the world.

On the Immortal Boat, several cold-looking Immortals were controlling the Formation.

"Are those people from the Immortal Domain plundering the Origin of a Lower Realm?"

Xiao Ruobai's face darkened. Born in Xuanhuang, they had an instinctive loathing for such things.

"The strong prey on the weak; this is the norm in Chaos."

Gu Changge's tone was flat, yet it carried a hint of coldness.

He did not approach, but merely flicked his finger from a distance.

A strand of barely perceptible Sword Qi crossed tens of thousands of miles of Chaos, accurately entering the core of that Immortal Boat.

That Immortal Boat, along with the several True Immortal and Heavenly Immortal Realm Immortals on it, vanished silently into the Chaos like a drawing wiped away by an eraser, leaving not even a speck of dust behind.

The plundering Formation also collapsed along with it.

The world below seemed to tremble slightly, as if sensing the sudden disappearance of that fatal threat, faintly transmitting a sense of gratitude.

Gu Changge did all this as if brushing away a speck of dust.

But in the eyes of the Disciples behind him, it brought a huge shock.

For the first time, they saw the bloody and cruel side of Chaos so directly, and for the first time, they realized so clearly what the power their Revered Master possessed meant in the Chaos.

It was not the gentle guidance and protection within the Xuanhuang World, but a supreme authority that truly held the power over life and death and disregarded rules.

The group continued forward.

They passed world after world; some had intact world barriers, emitting a strong light and full of vitality.

Other worlds were deathly silent, leaving only an empty shell spinning helplessly in the Chaos... the excitement and curiosity had long since faded from the Disciples' faces, replaced by a heavy solemnity.

Chaos was not a paradise, but a dark forest, a naked plundering ground.

If not for their Revered Master's Heaven-Defying change of fate, the former Xuanhuang would likely have been unable to escape a similar fate.

Ling Xi gazed at the vast Chaos, thinking of her own distant home, her face turning increasingly pale as her slender fingers tightly gripped her collar.