333: Chapter 333 The Ferryman at the Edge of Nothingness, Finding the True Source at the End of Cause and Effect

“Having eaten and drunk my fill, it's time for this junkyard to close its doors for good.”

Zhou Wannian’s light chuckle, carrying an extreme sense of relaxation, slowly dissipated at the bottom of the absolute silence of the Primordial Abyss.

His eyes, as clear as a baby's yet capable of reflecting the birth and death of all heavens, swept very indifferently over the remains of the Tomb of Ten Thousand Worlds that had turned into deathly gray powder beneath his feet.

There was no lingering attachment.

There was no regret.

For a Creation True God like him, whose Great Five Elements Illusory World Art had reached Great Perfection and whose inner universe was perfectly self-consistent.

This kind of deformed creation, pieced together by stacking dead objects, no matter if its volume were hundreds of millions of times larger, was merely a few malignant tumors in the natural evolution process of the Major Thousand Worlds.

Now that the tumor had been removed, the Origin had returned to its true state.

He turned slightly, his deep gaze following that extremely weak yet exceptionally stubborn spatial fluctuation captured when his inner universe throbbed just now, looking toward the very edge of this Primordial Abyss.

It was a "Non-existence" deeper than darkness.

It was a conceptual boundary of "Non-existence" that even the Great Perfection Space Law found difficult to directly analyze.

Zhou Wannian placed his hands casually behind his back.

His faded green robe appeared so ethereal and transcendent within this empty abyss.

He did not activate any earth-shattering light of flight.

He simply, in a very ordinary manner, lifted his right foot.

Facing that boundary of "Non-existence," he took a plain and simple step forward.

"Buzz."

As this step landed.

There was no folding of space.

There was no traversing of time.

This was a pure dimensional leap.

Zhou Wannian's tall and slender green figure rippled like a water wave in place, and then naturally merged into that indescribable Void Realm.

When he set foot on solid ground again.

The scene before him had already undergone a bizarre change that was difficult to explain with any common sense of the immortal cultivation world.

Here.

There was no sky, no earth.

Nor was there the absolute darkness from before.

In all directions, there was a strange, thick mist that appeared translucent and gray-white.

Within this mist, there was no Spiritual Qi, no Devilish Qi, and certainly not the so-called origin mother qi.

There was only an extremely pure and ancient scent of "Karma."

Countless visible threads, emitting a faint light, shuttled and intertwined within this gray-white mist.

Some threads were as brilliant as a river of stars, while others were as dim as a candle stub in the wind; some threads extended straight toward an unknown distance, while others were tangled in a dead knot like a mess of hemp.

This was the birthplace of Karma for the heavens, the myriad worlds, and the endless multiverse.

The final end of the Sea of Karma.

Zhou Wannian stood in this space filled with Karma threads.

A faint, interested smile appeared on his handsome and easygoing face.

In a steady tone, as if visiting a complex textile factory, Zhou Wannian softly commented, “Visualizing the Karma of the heavens and myriad worlds into these touchable threads—this method is a bit more clever than those fellows outside who only know how to fight and kill. It seems that at the end of this Primordial Abyss, there is a tailor who likes to weave fate.”

He did not touch the Karma threads floating around him.

For someone like him, whose inner universe was perfectly self-consistent, he had long since jumped out of the Karma closed loop of this Great Primordial Void.

His existence itself was an absolute fact independent of all threads.

Just as Zhou Wannian was observing this strange space.

Deep within the thick gray-white Karma mist ahead.

A very rhythmic and dull sound of rowing suddenly came.

“Splash... splash...”

It was as if a small boat were pushing aside this thick Sea of Karma, slowly approaching.

Zhou Wannian stopped in place.

With his hands still behind his back, his deep gaze quietly watched the direction the sound was coming from.

Before long.

A very ancient Black-awning Boat, made entirely of an unknown black wood, emerged soundlessly through the waves from the mist like a ghost.

At the bow of the boat.

Stood a ferryman wearing a straw raincoat and a bamboo hat.

He held a long black bamboo pole in his hand, punting through this Karma void that had no actual seawater, one stroke at a time.

When this Black-awning Boat stopped in the void less than a hundred zhang from Zhou Wannian.

The ferryman slowly raised his head.

Beneath the bamboo hat.

There was no face.

There were no features.

There was only an extremely deep and calm gray-white vortex that seemed capable of swallowing all emotions and fluctuations.

This was not the insidious and vicious Blind Old Fisherman Zhou Wannian had encountered by the shore of the Boundary Ruins Sea.

On the ferryman before him, there was not a trace of killing intent, nor any greed or malice.

What he radiated was an absolute neutrality, an absolute bystander's perspective, and an ultimate sense of vicissitude that spanned across endless chaos epochs.

The ferryman did not open his mouth.

But a very grand intention, devoid of any emotional ups and downs, was clearly transmitted to the front of Zhou Wannian's Sea of Consciousness within this Karma mist.

The ferryman inquired with an ethereal intention, “A perfect inner universe. An absolute variable untainted by Karma. You have crossed the abyss, torn through layers of illusions, and come to this end of Karma. Traveler from a foreign land, what are you searching for?”

This intention was like a cold wind blowing across an ancient glacier.

It carried no temperature, yet it could penetrate the Soul's defenses.

Facing this kind of ultimate questioning that could make any great power feel ashamed.

Zhou Wannian.

Showed no reverence.

Nor did he put on an air of profound mystery.

His faded green robe fluttered slightly in the mist.

The corners of his mouth curled into a very easygoing and relaxed faint smile, yet it revealed an absolute confidence from his very core.

In a steady tone, as if chatting with an old man asking for directions by the roadside, Zhou Wannian naturally replied, “Searching? Old man, your question is a bit strange. I have never had those bitter obsessions of searching for some ultimate truth.”

He brushed his sleeves in a very ordinary manner.

With a calm expression, Zhou Wannian continued, “I said it before, I'm just a person taking a walk, wandering around to see the sights. Breaking that turtle shell outside was because it was in my way; coming here is also just because the scenery in this place looks a little bit more pleasing to the eye than outside.”

These words, which were free-spirited and casual to the extreme.

Caused the faceless ferryman to fall into a very brief silence.

It seemed that in his ancient logic, which had existed for countless epochs, he had never encountered such an unreasonable and impulsive cross-realm giant.

A moment later.

On the ferryman's gray-white vortex face, a very weak fluctuation named ‘helplessness’ seemed to flash.

The ferryman transmitted his intention again, with a barely perceptible fluctuation in his voice: “Taking a walk? Taking a walk at the end of Karma, in the Place of Returning to Silence where all things originate? You, this variable, indeed act contrary to common logic. Since you do not seek truth nor transcendence, do you know that you are already standing before the final threshold of this Great Primordial Void?”

The black bamboo pole in his hand slowly pointed toward the depths of the mist behind the boat.

The ferryman solemnly declared with his intention: “I am the ferryman of this Sea of Karma, named ‘Yindu’. My duty is to guard this end of Karma. Behind me is the true birthplace of these endless dimensions—the ‘Realm of True Origin’. There, there is no Heavenly Dao, no Law, only the most pure intertwining of ‘non-being’ and ‘being’. From ancient times to the present, the number of living beings who could reach me is less than the fingers on one hand. However, not a single person has ever stepped onto my Black-awning Boat alive.”

This declaration.

Carried a coldness that stated an indisputable fact.

He did not threaten.

He was merely recounting a very objective and cruel universal Law.

However.

Facing this final warning that was enough to make anyone stop in their tracks.

On Zhou Wannian's handsome and easygoing face, that lazy smile not only didn't fade but instead grew a bit more pronounced.

In a steady tone, carrying a very natural dominance, Zhou Wannian spoke indifferently.

With a calm expression, Zhou Wannian said, “The reason no one from ancient times to the present could get on the boat alive is simply because their own inner universes weren't cultivated to enough Perfection, and their bones weren't hard enough. Old man, your ferryman's craft must be quite boring. Today, I, this idle person, will be your passenger for free, and incidentally go to that so-called ‘Realm of True Origin’ to see what the most primitive mud of this Universe is really made of.”

He did not ask for the other party's consent.

Nor did he take out any Magic Treasure to force his way onto the boat.

Zhou Wannian still maintained his relaxed posture with his hands behind his back.

In a very ordinary manner, he lifted his right foot.

Facing that Black-awning Boat suspended in the Karma mist.

He took a plain and simple step forward.

“Buzz!”

As this step was taken.

The perfectly self-consistent inner universe rules of the Great Five Elements Illusory World Art suddenly erupted within this Sea of Karma.

An incredible scene of crushing power was shockingly performed at this end of Karma.

Those dense gray-white Karma threads that were originally intertwined in the void.

At the moment Zhou Wannian approached.

They were like a spider web encountering its nemesis.

One after another, they emitted very faint snapping sounds, retreating and making way to both sides very submissively, even with a hint of fear.

Not a single Karma thread dared to touch the thin Five-colored Glazed Barrier on the surface of Zhou Wannian's body.

Because.

A Major Thousand Worlds that is a perfect closed loop in itself.

Absolutely rejects any external Karma contamination.

Zhou Wannian's tall and slender green figure, as if entering an uninhabited region, very steadily and naturally crossed the hundred zhang of void.

“Tap.”

A very light yet very clear sound of a footstep rang out in the silence.

Zhou Wannian's spotless cloth shoes landed firmly on the bow deck of that Black-awning Boat.

He stood there, just like that, steadily in front of the ferryman who claimed no one had ever set foot there alive.

On the ferryman's faceless vortex face, the rotation stalled in a very rare manner.

His hands holding the bamboo pole trembled slightly.

He felt it.

This Youth in Green Robe before him.

Was not resisting Karma.

Rather, his existence itself and the mass of his inner universe had completely surpassed the limit that this Sea of Karma could carry.

As he stood on this small boat, this ancient vessel that had carried the weight of Karma for countless epochs even let out an overburdened creak in the void because it could not withstand the absolute mass of his perfect world.

Zhou Wannian casually brushed the sleeves of his green robe.

His eyes, deep as an ancient well, looked at the dazed ferryman before him.

In a steady tone, with a bit of leisurely urging, Zhou Wannian indifferently said, “What are you dazing for? The guest is on the boat; hurry up and start rowing. My interest in taking a walk has just been piqued; don't spoil my mood.”