319: Chapter 319 Crossing the River and the Lost Pearl of the Sea

Zhou Wannian's figure slowly merged into that brilliant and mysterious Starlight River.

As he completely stepped in, the heavy high-dimensional gravity and the violent origin mother qi of the original Taisu Origin World vanished without a trace in an instant. Replacing them was an unprecedented, strange experience that exuded an aura of extreme antiquity and vast nihility.

This Starlight River was not formed by ordinary liquid, but was entirely composed of countless extremely fine yet eternally shining ancient Stardust Sand grains, intertwined and entangled with tangible rivers of years flowing slowly through the void.

Zhou Wannian walked quietly upon this fantastical river paved with time and stars. His faded Green Robe did not reflect brilliant colors under the starlight as it would in the Lower Realm; instead, it presented an absolute simplicity, like a stubborn stone returning to its original state.

His steps seemed steady and leisurely, like a Mortal strolling through a forest, but in reality, the Great Five Elements Illusory World Art within him had already begun to operate spontaneously. The Space Law of Great Perfection from his inner universe formed an invisible absolute dimensional barrier on his body's surface. This barrier firmly blocked the violent time turbulence and high-dimensional stellar pressure—which could instantly cut the Physical Body of an Eternal Realm expert into billions of pieces—three feet away.

Within the inner universe, the leaves of the chaos jianmu swayed gently behind Zhou Wannian, and one hundred and eight clusters of time dao patterns rotated rapidly across the inner universe's firmament. At this moment, Zhou Wannian's will completely merged with his perfect Major Thousand Worlds. He was not just crossing the river with his Physical Body, but using the will of a world to resist and analyze the underlying logic of this unknown dimension.

“Gravity is completely gone, the concept of time is utterly disordered, and the Space Law is in a peculiar state of primal Chaos. Interesting, the dimensional Laws here are countless times more Advanced than that rigid Taisu Origin World.”

Zhou Wannian whispered softly in an easygoing tone, his eyes as deep as ancient wells flashing with the brilliant golden light of the one hundred and eight clusters of time dao patterns. His gaze was like two peerless divine swords capable of dissecting the multiverse, penetrating the roiling mists of time without obstruction to probe the deepest depths of the Starlight River.

He could already clearly perceive that this river contained countless fragments of shattered world remains, some even larger than the Grand Void Firmament, yet all had turned into the most primitive Stardust Sand here. This was a true grave of eras, an ultimate destination forged by countless vanished worlds and time.

Zhou Wannian walked with his hands behind his back, his green robes flowing elegantly. In this river, where there was no sense of time passing and no concept of distance, he did not know how long he had walked.

Perhaps it was a single moment in the outside world, or perhaps it was centuries. Under the control of his perfect inner universe, the passage of time had long lost its original meaning as a measure of existence. His past, present, and future were a trinity, firmly anchoring the absolute fact of his existence, allowing the surrounding time turbulence to wash over him without leaving a single trace.

As he continued deeper, the colorful time turbulence gradually became sparse, replaced by a heavier, more deathly gray spatial mist.

Deep within this gray mist, at the end of the Starlight River, the prototype of a desolate continent—so massive it defied description and whose full extent could not even be probed by Divine Sense—slowly revealed itself from the Chaos.

The moment Zhou Wannian's tall and slender figure stepped out of the Starlight River and his feet landed on this continent.

An extreme sense of vicissitude, as if crossing an endless river of dimensions to reach the most fundamental primal concept of the Universe, erupted like a tangible wave from the deepest part of his Divine Soul.

The grandmist mother earth continent within his inner universe jolted upward, emitting an absolute weight that suppressed all heavens and myriad worlds, instantly neutralizing and absorbing this high-dimensional nihility intent from the outside world.

Zhou Wannian slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air, his deep eyes surveying this brand-new world.

What met his eyes was not a magnificent and terrifyingly oppressive residence of gods like the Taisu Origin World, but a complete world of ruins that seemed to have endured the erosion of countless eras.

The entire continent appeared a deathly grayish-white. The ground was not made of ordinary soil or rock, but of a strange material that was neither metal nor stone, which even Zhou Wannian's Space Law of Great Perfection could not instantly shatter. This material was covered with countless crisscrossing, bottomless void cracks, each spewing gray astral winds capable of annihilating Laws.

In the distance, bronze divine halls millions of feet high, inscribed with Archaic Divine Runes, stood tall. These halls were already in ruins, many reduced to a few thick bone pillars. The celestial barriers above had long since collapsed, revealing a pure black void abyss filled with the aura of destruction.

Most striking were the massive skeletal remains floating throughout the land, which still emitted terrifying high-dimensional pressure even after being dead for countless eras. There was an archaic divine Dragon larger than a galaxy, its skull crushed by some blunt instrument, its nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine ribs all broken and twisted together; there was a massive divine envoy with nine hundred and ninety-nine pairs of wings, its body forcibly pierced by relentless chains of order, its eerie eyes still open in death, filled with extreme terror and despair toward some absolute destructive power.

Here, there was no origin mother qi, nor was there the Spiritual Qi of the Lower Realm. There was only a fundamental Law power called "Nihility," roaring and tearing wildly in the air, attempting to assimilate all heretical existences possessing life and Laws into basic nihility dust.

Even if a so-called God King who had mastered the taisu heavenly dao stood here, they would likely be crushed into a thin meat patty within a ten-thousandth of a second just by facing the rejection force of this world's Laws.

Zhou Wannian stood quietly at the edge of the altar, feeling this extreme pressure that could cause the Dao Heart of a Creation Realm expert to collapse instantly. Not a single trace of panic or wariness appeared in his eyes, which were as deep as ancient wells.

He casually raised his right hand, extended his index finger from his wide green sleeve, and very slowly brushed off his sleeve, which had no dust on it to begin with.

He tilted his chin slightly, looking past the dancing gray astral winds of nihility toward the ruined bronze divine halls inscribed with Archaic Divine Runes in the distance. A faint, somewhat lazy and easygoing smile played at the corners of his mouth.

Zhou Wannian whispered softly in a steady tone, “The stability of the Space Law here is tens of thousands of times higher than that rigid Taisu Origin World. This level of Nihility Qi barely counts as the foundation a truly mature dimensional ruin should have. It seems this new place for a stroll behind the door will bring me some amusement.”

He looked down at where he was standing.

He was currently standing in the center of a massive, dodecahedron-shaped abandoned altar made entirely of a long-extinct Archaic Divine Gold.

The surface of this altar was covered with the mottled traces of time's erosion, and many places were even overgrown with strange glowing archaic moss. The Formation patterns around the altar were dim and lightless, and many high-dimensional divine Seals were damaged, clearly having not been activated for countless eras.

Just as Zhou Wannian was examining this abandoned altar.

From within the distant nihility ruins, a sudden, extremely urgent sound like thunderous breaking air rang out.

“Rumble...”

Accompanied by this sound, the thick gray mist of nihility in the air was forcibly torn apart.

A ten-thousand-zhang-long Void Creature, shaped like a giant centipede and covered in dark red shells, burst out from the depths of the ruins like a streak of black light, carrying corrosive acid capable of melting Laws and ten thousand streaks of destructive Divine Power.

Its dense compound eyes were currently filled with extreme terror and the desire to escape. It recklessly ignited its Law Origin, attempting to use this extreme speed to flee the fatal threat behind it.

The aura of this Void Centipede was extremely powerful, having surpassed ordinary God King commanders and reached the peak of a half-step Creator. Even Canglan God King in his prime might not have been able to drive it into such a desperate corner so easily.

But this half-step Creator-level Void Creature was now like a pitiful ant encountering its natural enemy, fleeing for its life.

Behind it, within the gray mist, a figure only the size of an ordinary person, with a face completely obscured by shadows, was walking at an unhurried pace.

This figure seemed to walk very slowly, but in reality, with every step he took, the gray mist beneath his feet would automatically fold, instantly crossing countless fragments of abandoned Small World remains on the brink of collapse and void storm eyes from which even light could not escape.

This crossing was no longer flying or teleporting in the traditional sense, but a dimensional assimilation that transcended the dimensions of this archaic desolate continent. As long as his Divine Sense could lock onto a coordinate, his Physical Body could resonate with the Laws of the desolate continent and appear in that position instantly, with no power capable of obstructing his steps.

Beneath this gray figure's feet, the five perfect archaic Origin Laws of the Great Five Elements Illusory World Art were perfectly connected and fused by the infinite creative vitality scattered by the chaos jianmu. This formed an absolute dimensional barrier with a translucent glazed texture on his body's surface. No matter how the external nihility astral winds output commands to reduce everything to zero, his timeline remained as solid as a rock, anchoring the absolute fact of his existence.

Zhou Wannian stood quietly at the edge of the altar, watching the half-step Creator-level Void Creature fleeing like a stray dog, a faint, somewhat mocking smile playing on his lips.

Zhou Wannian whispered softly in an easygoing tone, “I knew there were far too many filthy things in these nihility ruins, enough to make one feel nauseous. No matter which corner or crack you crawled out of, since we've met, I'll clean you up while I'm at it.”

He did not bring out any world-shaking Innate treasures, nor did he perform any supreme Divine Ability that would strike terror into the hearts of gods and buddhas.

He simply raised his right hand normally, pressed his index and middle fingers together, and made a simple downward pressing motion toward the massive Void Centipede about to rush over the altar.

Zhou Wannian spoke a single word in a steady tone: “Extinguish.”

Buzz.

The perfectly self-consistent inner universe rules of the Great Five Elements Illusory World Art erupted at this moment with a terrifying power completely different from when he faced the thunder divine general. This was a frantic crushing between underlying code and underlying code.

One hundred and eight clusters of time dao patterns, as brilliant as suns, gathered at his long, fair index finger, condensing into a tiny singularity only the size of a fist but emitting a five-colored glazed luster, representing the highest underlying rules of this perfectly self-consistent Universe. The Space Collapse of Great Perfection and the Law of time erasure were perfectly fused into this one finger.

An incredible scene of despair played out shockingly above the archaic nihility altar.

The massive Void Centipede, carrying the power to destroy countless lower Major Thousand Worlds and claiming to be able to melt the Time Law, hit the singularity as if it had struck a wall of sighs forged from time and nothingness.

No world-shaking energy explosion occurred, nor was there any blinding divine light. Starting from the very front of contact, its indestructible dark red shell, its corrosive acid capable of melting Laws, and even its powerful blood and flesh containing the power of a half-step Creator all underwent a desperate collapse like the destruction of a world under the wash of the Time Reversal Law of Great Perfection. Under the wash of the Five Elements Disintegration Law, these high-dimensional primitive Law fragments were domineeringly and forcibly dismantled and crushed.

Within a ten-thousandth of a second.

The ten-thousand-zhang-long half-step Creator Void Centipede, which had ruled over countless dimensional planes, was completely erased from the definition of existence under Zhou Wannian's seemingly insignificant finger, before it could even let out a scream. Its massive body turned into countless flying, extremely fine gray primitive light streams, scattering around the altar, and was then swallowed in one gulp by Zhou Wannian's inner universe, which opened its devouring maw like a whale sucking in water.

An instant kill.

A true absolute crushing that transcended the world's foundations.

Effortless and clean to the extreme.

With this filthy ant completely erased, the gray mist above the altar was forcibly cleared within a ten-thousandth of a second. The space that was originally filled with corrosive and malicious auras returned to its absolute silence and peace once more.

Only the slight humming of the nine pearls around the altar due to the sudden decrease in pressure reminded everyone that the absolute crushing that transcended world dimensions had truly occurred.

Zhou Wannian slowly withdrew his right hand, feeling his inner universe become even more rounded and flawless after devouring the Law fragments of this crawler, with a faint throb of wanting to break through its original dimension. A faint smile of natural certainty played on his lips.

He slowly turned his head, his deep, well-like eyes reflecting the birth and death of stars as they looked toward the mist of ruins from which the gray figure had emerged. A leisurely smile played on his lips as he spoke softly, "The shackles are broken. This long journey can finally be considered to have a bit of the flavor of true freedom."

As his calm words fell, Zhou Wannian lightly dusted the sleeves of his green robe with his right hand held behind his back. Stepping onto the smooth grand path paved by one hundred and eight clusters of golden time dao patterns, his pace was extremely steady and leisurely, utterly composed. He took a slow step toward the deepest part of the gray mist—the Corrupted Abyss, an impossibly massive structure exuding a chaotic and despairing underlying logic, as if proclaiming the total collapse of the fundamental code of this world.

With an overbearing calm that suggested total control, Zhou Wannian said indifferently, "Since you've all come to seek death, then line up and come one by one. These filthy things in the depths of the Great Primordial Void are truly lacking in discipline."

The moment his step moved out of the ruins' mist.

In the void not far from his side, an extremely faint spatial fluctuation suddenly appeared—so faint that even the Space Law of the Great Five Elements Illusory World Art almost overlooked it.

This fluctuation did not come from those floating world bubbles, nor did it come from the Corrupted Abyss; rather, it originated from the absolute edge of this pure white space, from a void rift connecting to an unknown dimension.

Zhou Wannian stopped in his tracks and slightly turned his head. His deep gaze was like two sword lights piercing through eternity, stabbing directly at the void where the fluctuation had appeared.

From that extremely tiny rift, a hand slowly reached out.

It was a withered palm, sickly pale with large knuckles and nails like sharp black daggers. There was no sign of life in this palm, nor any fluctuations of Laws, but as soon as it emerged from the rift, the surrounding pure white space seemed contaminated by thick ink, rapidly spreading circles of nauseating grayish-black Death Qi.

Following that, a hunched figure draped in a tattered black cloak, its face completely obscured by shadows, squeezed through the rift with great difficulty.

The appearance of this figure did not cause any world-shaking phenomena, but it brought an unprecedented absolute malice to these ruins—one that even the Great Five Elements Illusory World Art felt an instinctive repulsion toward.

This was not some Devil Head born within a multiverse, nor was it one of those Nirvanic creatures hiding in the void.

This was a creature from an unknown dimension, an external dimension completely different from the multiversal System.

The hunched figure slowly raised its head. There was no face beneath the hood, only a rapidly spinning black vortex that constantly spewed forth the Karma of rot and despair. Deep within the vortex, two eerie, intensely greedy crimson Soul fires flickered violently. Through the dense grayish-black Death Qi, it stared fixedly at Zhou Wannian in the center of the altar.

It did not attack immediately. Instead, using a voice that came from no features and did not travel through the air, but rather exploded directly at the lowest level of the Divine Soul, it said: "A fresh, undefined Physical Body. Without the Seal of that damned Heavenly Dao Formation. These ruins shall become new rations for the great 'Dimension Harvester.' You, an indigenous creature with a perfect Soul and a delicious Origin, hand over the Law Dao Fruit within you, and I may grant you the supreme honor of becoming the lowest slave of my race."

As it spoke, it took an arrogant step forward. Its terrifying corrupted will, capable of eroding the causality of a Major Thousand Worlds, swept toward Zhou Wannian like a surging flood. Under the erosion of this corrupted will, the indestructible Nirvanic Astral Wind shield on the outer perimeter of the altar was instantly covered in shocking black cracks like a spiderweb.

Facing this sudden alien creature and its blatant declaration of plunder.

Zhou Wannian's expression remained as calm as water. He didn't even knit his brows; his handsome and easygoing face wore a chillingly relaxed and casual smile. He ignored the other's arrogant threat and did not immediately move to obliterate it.

He simply turned around in an ordinary manner, his eyes as deep as an ancient well looking calmly at the hunched figure, while his right hand, held behind his back, casually slipped out of the wide sleeve of his green robe.

Zhou Wannian murmured calmly to himself, "I knew there were too many things hidden in this Desolate Continent of Nihility that make one nauseous. One System escaped, one God King was crushed, and now even these flies that don't belong to this Universe dream of jumping out to get a share of the spoils."

The hunched figure ignored Zhou Wannian's self-muttering. Within its logic chain defined by the dimension as "Supreme Plunder," the Youth in Green Robe before it was nothing more than an ant about to be sacrificed and rewritten.

Within the black vortex, the eerie crimson Soul fires flickered violently, emitting a piercing screech like metal grinding against metal. Piercing through the heavy Nirvanic Heavenly Dao of this world, the voice boomed deep within Zhou Wannian's Sea of Consciousness: "It seems you have chosen for this Physical Body, along with my clansmen, to become rations for the great Dimension Harvester."

The hunched figure emitted a sound representing the judgment of the supreme dimensional will, a judgment of "Law Stripping." It did not unleash any world-shaking Divine Power, nor did it manifest any world-shaking Innate Supreme Treasure.

It simply reached out its sickly pale, large-knuckled withered right hand quite casually, fingers slightly spread. Facing Zhou Wannian at the center of the altar, it made a very casual, plain motion of pressing downward.

This seemingly insignificant action, within a ten-thousandth of a breath of breaking away from the underlying dimensional logic of this Primordial Desolate Continent of Nihility, exploded with a terrifying power that even the eye of taissu heavenly punishment did not possess.

There was no deafening sound of spatial explosion, nor any radiant shockwave.

This was an ultimate logical erasure called "Dimensional Reduction Rewriting." At the tips of the hunched figure's fingers, the elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, as well as time, space, and Karma at the base of the Great Primordial Void, were completely stripped of their original definition codes at this moment, forcibly judged as "illusory" and "non-existent."

Under this judgment, the terrifying corrupted will that eroded the Law of causality turned into an ultimate dimensional reduction tsunami capable of splitting the multiversal System in two, surging madly toward Zhou Wannian. Any matter, energy, or Law touched by this tsunami would instantly undergo a non-physical collapse of non-existence. The Nirvanic Astral Wind shield on the outer perimeter of the altar, which had remained unscarred despite countless eons of erosion, could not even last for a ten-thousandth of a breath upon contact with the tsunami before being completely erased from the conceptual existence of this world.

An incredible scene of despair played out shockingly on this abandoned altar in the ruins, which had endured the erosion of countless eons. That ultimate dimensional reduction tsunami, claimed to be able to split the multiversal System in two and erase all definitions of existence, slammed into the glazed-textured barrier surrounding Zhou Wannian's body.

No deafening explosion occurred, nor was there any brilliant or dazzling radiance.

It was like a violent, despairing tsunami capable of destroying the multiversal System, slamming hard against an eternally enduring foundation of a perfect, independent Major Thousand Worlds that was unfettered by any logic.

Starting from the very front of the contact, that dimensional reduction tsunami carrying the Karma of dimensional destruction and judged as "non-existent" was subjected to the joint washing of the Great Five Elements Illusory World Art's five perfectly self-consistent Primordial Origin Laws and the Great Perfection Space and Time Laws. Its dimensional reduction logic code, judged as "illusory," was overbearingly and forcibly dismantled, stripped of all definitions of existence.

Zhou Wannian stood at the center of his inner universe. His eyes, deep as an ancient well and reflecting the scene of stellar nirvana, slowly scanned the sky-blotting ultimate dimensional reduction tsunami before him—one capable of splitting the entire Great Primordial Void in two and erasing all definitions of existence. A faint, naturally confident smile touched his lips as he spoke softly:

"Using an undefined piece of junk code to judge the definition of my existence? Your understanding of power is so impoverished it's despairing. True freedom is not seeking anything from the outside; I am truth, I am absolute Karma. Before my Universe, your so-called dimensional reduction logic code is no different from nonsense. Since you've come, then honestly turn into nourishment and offer your final bit of heat for the evolution of my world."

As his voice fell, Zhou Wannian slowly raised his right hand from behind his back and clenched his five fingers inward.

"Devour."

With that chillingly relaxed smile on his handsome and easygoing face, Zhou Wannian casually dusted his green robe's sleeve. His deep, well-like eyes pierced through the gray mist, locking directly onto the rapidly melting and collapsing gray-white Nirvanic light pillar.

"Roar—"

Within the inner universe, the grandmist mother earth continent, the great sea true water, the Primordial Gengjin Ore Vein, the nine nether earth core lotus burning like a ghostly sun, and the chaos jianmu—all of which had been silent for countless eons—now emitted terrifying roars like the Big Bang of creation. The Great Perfection Space Law twisted and collapsed frantically in the depths of the inner universe's void, forming devouring singularities capable of splitting this Desolate Continent of Nihility in two. The river of time, formed by the one hundred and eight clusters of golden time dao patterns, surged out along the inner universe's devouring channel.

That gray-white Nirvanic Heavenly Punishment light pillar, claimed to be able to split the multiversal System in two and erase all definitions of existence, underwent a despairing collapse like the nirvana of a world under the joint crushing of the Great Five Elements Illusory World Art's five perfectly self-consistent Primordial Origins and the Great Perfection Space and Time Laws.

The extremely fine gray initial Origin powder dancing in the air was instantly swallowed into Zhou Wannian's inner universe, which had opened its massive devouring maw like a whale taking in water.

The boundlessly thick grandmist mother earth continent greedily absorbed this heavy Nirvanic mass, its edges expanding outward at a speed that defied spatial logic. The great sea true water kicked up waves that surged against the Nine Heavens, each drop of seawater becoming as heavy as a thousand tons and containing gravity Laws capable of crushing multiverses. The chaos jianmu absorbed the Taisu Thunder Law, and countless chaotic divine patterns flashing with piercing thunderlight condensed on its roots. The one hundred and eight clusters of time dao patterns spun rapidly in the inner universe's river of time, thoroughly refining this Nirvanic Origin into the finest supplement for nourishing its own Major Thousand Worlds.

Zhou Wannian stood quietly in the center of the altar, his eyes slightly closed. His green robe took on a flawless glazed divine light amidst the dancing rain of energy. His aura continued to rise, yet became increasingly restrained, like an eternal deity awakening, capable of crushing this Primordial Continent at will.

After a long time, when the last bit of Nirvanic light was completely absorbed and assimilated by the chaos jianmu, Zhou Wannian slowly opened his eyes. Within those deep, well-like eyes flowed the vast scenes of stellar nirvana and the rebirth of all things, but soon, these sights—enough to drive a God King completely mad—receded, returning to a clear, composed, and easygoing light like that of a Mortal.

A faint smile touched the corners of Zhou Wannian's mouth as he spoke composedly: "It seems this junkyard in the depths of the Great Primordial Void is quite a good place for nourishment. One System, one God King's divine body, and one Nirvanic Heavenly Dao Origin are worth tens of millions of eons of my Universe's self-operation."

He did not linger there. Casually dusting the sleeves of his green robe, his pace extremely steady and leisurely, he stepped unhurriedly onto the perfectly self-consistent spatial stairs of the Great Five Elements Illusory World Art. From the edge of the ten-thousand-foot-tall abandoned altar, he walked into the air as if strolling in a courtyard, returning into the depths of the Nirvanic mist and into the deathly silent world filled with the ruins of countless Major Thousand Worlds.

With his hands behind his back and his green robe flowing elegantly, Zhou Wannian strolled as if in a courtyard, treading upon the smooth grand path paved by one hundred and eight clusters of golden time dao patterns. His pace was extremely steady and leisurely as he walked composedly across this Primordial Desolate Continent of Nihility, which was filled with endless dimensional ruins and had endured the erosion of countless eons.

A faint, naturally confident smile played on Zhou Wannian's lips as he said indifferently, "Since I've seen the crude scenery here and conveniently cleaned up the place, let's see what kind of old secrets are hidden within these ancient ruins. I hope those filthy things that can't see the light can add a bit of the flavor of freedom to this long stroll of mine."