324: Chapter 324 Star Gate Ruins and the Old Fishing Man

The pure white tower reaching the heavens collapsed with a roar behind Zhou Wannian, turning into a sky full of meaningless geometric fragments. This dimension, once ruled by absolute order and cold axioms, completely disintegrated as its logic core was shattered.

Zhou Wannian toyed with the invisible key in his hand, which emitted a brilliant starlight. This key had no physical form, being composed entirely of condensed dimensional crossing Law. It floated quietly in his palm, rippling outward with faint yet vast spatial undulations.

The Great Five Elements Illusory World Art circulated smoothly within his body, and a thread of all-encompassing Creation Aura flowed from Zhou Wannian's fingertips into the starlight key.

In an instant, an ancient gate interwoven with endless starlight slowly opened in the Void Realm. Behind the gate was no blinding light, only gusts of sea breeze carrying an Aura of vicissitude and destruction, accompanied by the faint, muffled sound of waves crashing.

With his hands behind his back and his green robes fluttering slightly in the starlight, Zhou Wannian did not hesitate. He took steady, relaxed steps and composedly walked through the gate of starlight.

The moment he crossed the Star Gate, the surrounding scenery underwent a world-shaking transformation.

What met his eyes was no longer those piercing geometric grids and the rigid, pure white world, but a vast and boundless Universe Sea of deep, profound blue.

The water of this sea was no ordinary water, but the liquefied Origin of countless shattered Major Thousand Worlds. Between the rolling waves, one could faintly see the broken skeletons of stars, fractured Great Dao Laws, and the remains of countless fallen deities drifting within. Above the firmament was a chaotic void without sun or moon, illuminated only by occasional massive meteor showers that lit up this vast sea filled with death and mystery.

Zhou Wannian's feet landed steadily on a dilapidated Ferry Crossing built from unknown decayed wood. This Ferry Crossing floated solitarily above the deep blue Universe Sea, with no sign of land in any direction, appearing like a lone leaf of a boat amidst the endless waves.

At the very edge of the Ferry Crossing, on a piece of withered wood extending over the water, sat a hunched old man wearing a tattered bamboo hat and an old straw raincoat.

The old man held a fishing rod crafted from dark black bone, with a line as thin as gossamer descending into the bottomless deep blue water. No world-shaking cultivation fluctuations could be felt from him; he exuded the vicissitude and simplicity of an old fisherman from the mortal world. Had he not been sitting above this Universe Sea, where even Creation Realm experts would not dare tread lightly, anyone would have taken him for an ordinary fisherman.

Zhou Wannian looked at the old man in the straw raincoat, a flicker of faint interest passing through his eyes that were as deep as an ancient well. He stepped forward, the decayed wooden planks creaking slightly under his feet as he walked unhurriedly to the old man's side.

Sensing Zhou Wannian's arrival, the old man in the straw raincoat slowly turned his head.

Beneath the bamboo hat was an aged face covered in deep, walnut-like wrinkles. He grinned at Zhou Wannian, revealing a set of incomplete yellow teeth. The smile appeared exceptionally simple and honest, making one instinctively want to lower their guard.

In a slightly raspy voice with a heavy local accent, the old man asked kindly, "Youngster, no living person has visited this Boundary Ruins Sea for countless Chaos Eons. How did a tender-skinned lad like you get lost and end up in this desolate wilderness?"

Zhou Wannian remained composed. He sat down cross-legged on an empty wooden plank beside the old man, his posture very relaxed as if he were just resting at a roadside tea stall.

In a steady, calm tone, Zhou Wannian replied, "I had nothing to do, so I took a stroll. I just dismantled a boring cage full of dead rules and followed the guidance of a key to your Ferry Crossing. Old man, what rare things can be caught in this sea?"

Hearing this, a faint glint flickered imperceptibly in the old man's cloudy eyes, though his smile became even more honest and amiable. His seemingly skeletal hands tightly gripped the fishing rod as he stared at the undulating surface of the sea.

The old man said with a chuckle, "In this sea, there are only the remains of dead worlds; what rare things could there be? I am just a blind, lonely fisherman sitting here, hoping to catch a few small remnant Law fish to boil a bit of soup to prolong my life. If you are thirsty, youngster, there is still a sip of soup left in my fish basket. If you don't mind, you can moisten your throat."

As he spoke, the old man naturally extended a foot wearing a tattered straw sandal and kicked a broken bamboo fish basket, which emitted a strong fishy stench, toward Zhou Wannian.

The fish basket appeared dilapidated, but under the Great Perfection spatial perception of Zhou Wannian's inner universe, it had nowhere to hide. Inside that basket was a death black hole that had been forcibly compressed. Once an ordinary Cultivator's gaze or Divine Sense entered it, their Divine Soul would be instantly bitten by the black hole and dragged inside to become fresh bait on the old man's hook.

On the surface, the old man was honest and kind like a warm-hearted elder, but in reality, he hid murderous intent, being a thorough smiling tiger who ate people without spitting out the bones.

Facing the broken fish basket that harbored fatal killing intent, Zhou Wannian didn't even lift an eyelid. He remained seated steadily, his green robes fluttering slightly in the sea breeze.

In a casual tone, as if declining a neighbor's kindness, Zhou Wannian said calmly, "You are too kind, old man. My appetite is quite picky; I really cannot stomach swill boiled from leftovers. Besides, the water in your fish basket is too deep; I'm afraid I might accidentally scald my tongue."

The honest smile on the old man's face stiffened abruptly but returned to normal in an instant. Pretending not to understand, he let out a heavy sigh.

Shaking his head, the old man said, "Alas, young people nowadays are just too picky. Very well, since you won't drink, I won't force you. However, youngster, the winds and waves of this Boundary Ruins Sea are very great. Since you are sitting so close to me, if you are grazed by a big fish I catch and lose your life, don't blame me for not warning you."

As soon as he finished speaking, the old man's hands gripping the fishing rod suddenly jerked upward with force.

Boom!

The deep blue sea surface exploded instantly. A terrifying monster a million feet long, pieced together from countless decayed stars and broken chains, was forcibly dragged from the deep sea by that gossamer-thin fishing line.

This monster emitted a destructive pressure comparable to a Creator. The moment it emerged from the water, it opened its bloody maw, which was large enough to swallow a galaxy, and with a spray of foul-smelling seawater, it didn't bite toward the old man but lunged with extreme precision and ruthlessness toward Zhou Wannian sitting nearby.

This was not fishing at all; the old man was using fishing as a pretext to directly control this peerless malevolent creature of the sea to launch a fatal strike against Zhou Wannian.

The violent hurricane made the decayed wood of the Ferry Crossing creak madly. Facing such a terrifying creature capable of biting a Major Thousand World into pieces in an instant, Zhou Wannian's expression remained as calm as water.

He did not stand up, nor did he manifest any defensive Magic Treasure. He simply raised his right hand in a very ordinary manner, curled his index finger slightly, and flicked it casually upward toward the lunging bloody maw.

Zhou Wannian spoke two words in a steady tone: "Noisy."

Buzz!

The perfectly self-consistent inner universe rules of the Great Five Elements Illusory World Art descended upon this dilapidated Ferry Crossing without reservation at this moment.

One hundred and eight clusters of time dao patterns erupted with blinding golden divine light at Zhou Wannian's fingertip. The power of Great Perfection Space Collapse and Great Perfection Five Elements Disintegration transformed into an absolute dimensional blade that the naked eye could not capture.

The million-foot-long aggressive creature, capable of sweeping through the heavens, did not experience a deafening energy explosion the moment it touched the golden divine light. Its massive stellar body was like it had crashed into a Wall of Sighs forged from time and nothingness.

Starting from its massive head, the violent destruction Laws were forcibly reversed by Great Perfection Time Reversal. Immediately following, the Great Perfection Five Elements Disintegration power acted like billions of sharp surgical knives, completely dissecting and stripping its pieced-together body from a conceptual level.

In a mere half a breath's time.

Under Zhou Wannian's casual flick, this terrifying deep-sea behemoth completely disintegrated into a sky full of exceptionally fine deep blue powder, drifting down onto the sea surface. Not a single drop of seawater managed to splash onto Zhou Wannian's green robes.

The old face of the man in the straw raincoat, which had been wearing an honest smile, was now completely stiff and frozen.

In his cloudy eyes, an irrepressible extreme terror and horror exploded. His hands gripping the fishing rod trembled violently, and the rod, crafted from some unknown divine material, actually emitted a sound of breaking under the strain at this moment.

He had lived for countless Chaos Eons and had fished and killed countless passing cross-realm titans by the Boundary Ruins Sea, yet he had never seen such an inconceivable dimensional suppression. There was no clash of magic powers, no stalemate of Divine Abilities—just a single flick of a finger had completely erased his proudest trump card. This kind of power was simply beyond his range of understanding.

The old man in the straw raincoat could no longer maintain his disguised honesty and simplicity. He abruptly threw away the fishing rod and, like a frightened monkey, scrambled backward, trying to put distance between himself and Zhou Wannian.

The old man's voice was hoarse and filled with a despairing tremor as he shouted in terror, "You... what kind of dimensional monster are you? Just what kind of world is hidden inside you?"

Zhou Wannian slowly withdrew his right hand and casually brushed his sleeve. His eyes, deep as an ancient well, calmly watched the old man who was like a stray dog. The leisurely smile on his lips had not disappeared; instead, it gained a bit more depth.

In a casual tone with an absolute relaxation that comes from holding the power over life and death, Zhou Wannian said calmly, "I told you, I am just a leisurely stroller. Your fishing skills are truly poor, and the bait you throw out is both sour and stinking. Now, put away your act of playing the fool. I ask, you answer. If you satisfy me, your old bones might sit on this Ferry Crossing for a few more days. If you dare utter another word of nonsense, I will let you personally go beneath this sea to serve as fodder for those dead fish."