321: Chapter 321 Farewell

Although he no longer possessed the Peak, full-strength aura of an overlord who could look down upon eternity and shatter stars with a flick of a finger, the power currently surging through his limbs was as hot as magma and roaring like a wild Dragon—enough for him to trample all the thorns on the path ahead and cross that pitch-black, ten-thousand-foot abyss.

The broken spacetime nodes were slowly healing at a speed almost imperceptible to the naked eye.

The turbulent Laws that had once torn through the Universe and shattered Divine Souls had completely subsided, revealing a clear trajectory leading to the "Present".

That trajectory was like a solid silver ribbon, swaying leisurely in the ink-black, deathly silent Void Realm, suffused with the hot and vivid aura unique to the current world.

It was not a road, but a bridge paved by fate itself, spanning across eternal time, welding the broken past and the unknown future firmly together.

Chu Changsheng took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the churning, surging Qi and blood in his chest.

These eyes, which had witnessed endless blood, fire, and smoke, and had weathered countless storms, now held only one kind of flame—a resolute determination to burn everything away, leaving no path of retreat.

He took one last look at this Void Realm that had borne so many turning points and choices.

Those burning obsessions, broken regrets, and hot vows... all turned into flowing sand between his fingers at this moment, scattering into the boundless nothingness.

Without hesitation.

He turned, strode forward, and stepped into the rift leading to reality. The silver light swallowed him like a tidal wave, leaving no trace.

...

At the end of the River of Time.

This place transcended the birth and death of the Myriad Heavens and Worlds, without beginning or end, without day or night.

There was only boundless, deathly silence, and that endless, flowing silver mist of light, carrying all the possibilities of the Myriad Heavens and Worlds.

As the mist of light churned, one could vaguely see—worlds born with a roar from Chaos, only to fall apart in the torrent of time. Karma quietly formed in the darkness, only to vanish in the cycle of fate. Choices played out clearly in the Mortal World, only to sink into oblivion under the mockery of destiny.

The Chu Changsheng of the future—or rather, the "Taichu Heaven Lord" who had already regained the authority of Taichu and stood at the Peak of the Myriad Heavens and Dao—was standing quietly here.

There was no oppressive aura about him; his presence was rounded and restrained, standing like a deep abyss or a towering mountain, perfectly integrated with the vast Dao rhyme of this place at the end of all things. It was as if he were part of this place, an Incarnation of time, a manifestation of the Dao.

Let the River of Time surge endlessly, let the birth and death of worlds play out in turns, he remained unmoved—like an ancient deity overlooking the shifting of eras.

But those eyes, which had seen all the vicissitudes of life, were not looking at the surging River of Time at this moment. He was looking at someone. A stunningly beautiful figure.

Her very existence was an extreme.

Her face was peerless, yet it was not the beauty of the Mortal World—it was the ultimate manifestation of the formless Dao.

At a single glance, all things in heaven and earth were eclipsed by her radiance, and even the surging River of Time seemed to slow its pace before her, willing to flow with gentle tenderness for her.

She was draped in a purple-gold dress woven from threads of fate and veins of Karma. The hem of her dress fluttered lightly, merging with the surrounding silver mist of time, indistinguishable from it.

The purple-gold patterns on the dress were not dead things, but flowed slowly like living creatures, constantly emerging and vanishing. The rise and fall of each pattern reflected the rise and fall of a world, the beginning and end of a segment of Karma, and the critical choices at a crossroads of destiny. It was as if she alone bore the entire fate of the Myriad Heavens and Worlds.

Every movement of hers affected the birth, death, and sinking of billions of stars. She stood barefoot upon the flowing silver river of light. Where her toes touched, ripples containing the supreme mysteries of time and fate spread out.

The ripples spread in layers, turning into countless tiny, shimmering butterflies, flapping their transparent wings in a dance before finally dissipating into nothingness—silently telling of the impermanence and profound mystery of fate.

She looked quietly at the Taichu Heaven Lord. In those eyes, clear as a newborn Universe and deep as an eternal star abyss, there was no excitement of reunion, only a calmness and understanding deeply rooted in the Foundation of time.

"Taichu Heaven Lord." She spoke, her voice as soft as a spring breeze brushing over a lake, yet it could easily pierce through that eternal silence, reaching the deepest parts of the heart.

"The thing I promised you has been completed. Now... it is your turn."

The Taichu Heaven Lord nodded slightly, his calmness like an eternal star chart, without the slightest ripple.

"Naturally."

He spoke, his voice gentle, yet it resonated with the surrounding flowing mist of light, triggering ripples of Laws. Even the end of the River of Time trembled quietly at this voice—as if even the Dao were respectfully responding to his words.

"Reversing Karma this time, stepping into the 'Past', and disturbing the established River of Fate was indeed no easy task. You have worked hard, Heavenly Maiden."

The moment his voice fell, a current of Chaos Qi slowly churned at the Taichu Heaven Lord's chest. Within this Qi lay the brilliant, mighty power of creation, causing the surrounding silver mist of light to tremble violently and bow in submission.

The next moment—a miniature Grandmist sun rose slowly from his chest. That was one-fifth of his Origin power.

The sun hung high, shining with ten thousand rays of light, instantly illuminating the endless nothingness at the end of time. The power contained within was enough to easily destroy a Major Thousand Worlds, yet it was firmly controlled by him, with not a trace leaking out—like a docile, dormant star, quietly hanging at his chest, emitting a warm and majestic radiance.

Deep within this Origin, which resembled a Grandmist sun, the phantom of the Primordial Ancestral Realm floated and flickered, just like the prototype of a Universe curled up in a Chaos placenta, breathing out the vast, eternal aura of antiquity.

The roots of the World Tree, sinewy like Dragons, broke through the walls from the core of the Ancestral Realm. The tangled veins pierced through billions of Void Realm barriers, spreading to every corner of the Myriad Heavens and Worlds. Every fiber and root hair was breathing in the swirling Grandmist Purple Qi, dyeing the Chaos into a hazy purple mist.

The wing shadow of the Kunpeng covered the sky and the sun. When its giant wings cut through Chaos, they stirred up a sky full of flowing light and shattered shadows. The aftershocks of its flapping wings were like ancient thunder, enough to make thousands of Star Domains tremble, and even the flow of star rivers to stutter.

Furthermore, infinite Dao Laws, like brilliant star tracks, intertwined and flowed within the Origin—sometimes turning into mysterious, shining runes, sometimes condensing into clanging Law chains. That was the core Foundation of his authority over Taichu.

"This is an agreement; there is no need to speak of 'work'." The Heavenly Maiden stepped lightly on the river of light with her bare feet, and where her toes touched, silver ripples spread out in layers.

The fate patterns on the purple-gold dress she wore suddenly lit up, and the purple-gold light jumped and traveled like a living thing, echoing from afar with that Origin power—as if two lights born from the same source were resonating at the end of the River of Time.

The Taichu Heaven Lord raised his hand. A wisp of extremely faint Chaos Qi rippled from his fingertips, ethereal like smoke, yet carrying the supreme majesty of controlling heaven and earth. That Origin power seemed to be drawn by an invisible force, slowly drifting toward the Heavenly Maiden.

Along the way, the churning silver mist of light automatically retreated like a tide, not daring to touch it in the slightest. Even the chaotic flow of time around it seemed to be smoothed out by this pure, unparalleled power, revealing a sense of near-sacred order—every wisp of light, every thread of mist, flowed slowly along the most ancient trajectories.

"This one-fifth of my Origin is not only the capital for repairs, but also my repayment for 'Karma'." He watched as the Origin power gradually merged into the purple-gold halo around the Heavenly Maiden, his gaze as deep as an eternal cold pool.

"You and I both know that the price of reversing time is never easy to pay. Pull one hair and the whole body moves; the slightest carelessness means eternal damnation."

The Heavenly Maiden touched the Origin with her fingertips. As soon as that vast, boundless power entered her body, the most chaotic fate patterns on her dress instantly stabilized. Those Karma lines, which had been twisted and shattered due to Chu Changsheng's multiple near-death experiences and Heaven-Defying changes to his fate, were gently combed by an invisible hand, slowly returning to their places, and regaining a warm, jade-like luster.

She looked up at the Taichu Heaven Lord, her clear eyes reflecting his steady figure, her voice carrying a hint of imperceptible worry: "The price is inherently part of the Dao's balance. But you... by stripping away one-fifth of your Origin, your Heaven Lord Dao Foundation will be temporarily unstable. If the demons from 'outside the realm' spy on you now and take advantage of the weakness..."

"It is of no concern." The Taichu Heaven Lord interrupted her. His tone was calm, yet carried a certainty born of enduring ten thousand tribulations—an absolute self-confidence born from walking out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, and holding the power over the birth and death of the heavens.

"The Dao of Taichu never relies on the depth of the Origin to stand, but on 'ceaseless life'. This one-fifth of my Origin, while seemingly a weakening, will actually take root and grow again in the 'Present' Chu Changsheng. When he ascends to the Peak, this power will return to me, bearing the accumulation of ten thousand years."

He paused, his lips curving slightly upward. "The future... will only be more refined, more majestic."

He raised his hand and pointed to the river of light beneath the Heavenly Maiden's feet. It reflected a clear picture—in the Eastern Domain, in a small town with blue-tiled roofs, a youthful-looking Chu Changsheng was walking slowly. Although his face was still a bit pale and his figure still appeared weak, those eyes... were startlingly bright. As if they contained the entire starry ocean. Firm, not allowing the slightest wavering.

The Taichu Heaven Lord's voice softened a little, and a hint of gratification flashed in his eyes: "He is already walking his own path. And I only need to guard this end, waiting quietly for the day he grows enough to stand side by side with me—waiting for the moment the Primordial Ancestral Realm returns to the Myriad Heavens."

The Heavenly Maiden looked in the direction of his gaze. On her purple-gold dress, the fate pattern representing Chu Changsheng was now emitting an unprecedentedly vivid light. It was shining brilliantly. As if foretelling—a magnificent legend was about to unfold.

She nodded gently, the purple-gold halo around her becoming even more brilliant, like a purple-gold sun, illuminating the entire nothingness at the end of time. She began to fully activate that one-fifth of the Origin.

The purple-gold light surged into the River of Time like a tide. Wherever it passed, the hideous, terrifying cracks healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the violent, turbulent Laws were forcibly smoothed out—the River of Time became calm and orderly again, flowing with an eternal, unchanging rhythm.

"Then... we part ways here." The Heavenly Maiden's voice gradually merged into the mist of light, becoming ethereal and distant. "When the dust of fate settles, and the time comes for the Primordial Ancestral Realm to return to the Myriad Heavens... you and I will naturally meet again."

As her voice fell, her figure, along with that purple-gold dress of fate, slowly sank toward the silver River of Time—as if to merge into that flowing mist of light, returning to the depths of the River of Fate.