449: Chapter 449 A Star Path Hidden in a Severed Tentacle, A Leisurely Scholar Enters a Spider Web

Zhou Wannian's finger rested lightly on the incomplete mark between the boy Stone's brows. That drop of pale cyan blood, now seemingly imbued with life, slowly seeped from his fingertip into the boy's wound.

The lead-gray Death Qi that had been tangled within the boy's flesh, under the pure Origin transmitted from the Creator's fingertip, hissed and melted away like fresh snow meeting the scorching sun.

The boy Stone's limbs, originally stiff and covered in stone scales, began to tremble slightly. His eyes, once murky as if veiled by gray fog, regained a hint of focus at this moment.

"Awake."

Zhou Wannian's voice was calm and indifferent, as if he were waking a dozing patron in a tavern.

Stone opened his eyes, and what met his gaze was that face in green robes—the one that haunted his dreams, the one he could never forget, even if he were turned to ash. A gurgling sound escaped his throat as he tried to kneel, but he found his body still suffering from the aftereffects of petrification, leaving him only able to tremble uncontrollably.

"Realm… Realm Lord…" the boy's cracked lips moved, his voice as coarse as gravel.

"That's enough, stop kneeling, it's an eyesore." Zhou Wannian withdrew his hand and patted the boy's shoulder. With that touch, a stream of pure vitality flowed through Stone's Meridians. As this vitality washed over him, the sharp stone scales embedded in his flesh automatically flaked off one by one, falling onto the mud-strewn ruins.

Stone felt his entire body lighten. The rancid Death Qi that had nearly torn his Divine Soul apart was gone, replaced by a long-lost, gentle warmth.

"I've just patched the hole in the Qingping Realm." Zhou Wannian gestured to the surrounding land, which had stabilized slightly, and his gaze swept over the boy's mud-stained face. "As for the portal from now on, since you are the Realm Lord, you must keep it secure. Don't let any stray cats or dogs from the outside stick their claws in and gouge out the heart of this place again. I'm not willing to do this job a second time."

The boy's eyes widened, wanting to say something more, but Zhou Wannian had already turned and left, not glancing at him again.

High above the ruins of the great hall, the spatial rifts that Zhou Wannian had severed with a wave of his sleeve did not close after his departure. Instead, at the broken edges, the spatial barrier took on a distorted, transparent appearance, like a torn spiderweb, revealing the bottomless, pitch-black passage behind it.

Zhou Wannian walked to the rift with a calm gait. Without the slightest hesitation, he lifted his foot and stepped into the passage that connected to the abyss.

Light and shadow twisted and collapsed in an instant. There were no brilliant galaxies here as in a conventional Star Domain. Beneath Zhou Wannian's feet lay an ancient road paved with the crumbled remains of countless civilizations.

On both sides of the ancient road hung stars of deathly silence. These stars were like mummified corpses drained of their marrow; their surfaces were covered in bottomless fissures, with no stellar light dancing upon them, only cold, gray tones. At the center of each star was a lead-gray tentacle extending deep into the Void Realm, greedily siphoning away the remaining Origin.

This was a graveyard formed by stringing together countless worlds that had been drained of life.

Zhou Wannian walked forward along the ancient road. He knew this was a trap. The place called the "Loom" at the end of this road must have been set with a lethal formation designed specifically for him. The monster beneath the Withered Well was likely already there, having prepared layers of murderous intent, just waiting for him—this chess piece—to walk right into the net.

But he did not care. He walked along this ancient road that exuded the stale scent of death, his green robes fluttering, his demeanor calm and composed.

When he reached the middle section of the ancient road, Zhou Wannian's gaze fell upon the geological structure beneath his feet. The rock layers here were a peculiar deep brown, exuding the rusty scent of oxidized metal. In the gaps where he stepped, one could see excavation marks beneath the fractured surface that displayed perfect geometric configurations. It was the same method of sinkhole mining he had seen beneath the Taiwu Ancestral Court.

Zhou Wannian stopped, crouched down, and brushed his fingertip over the excavation marks, staining his fingertip with fine metallic powder. A flash of realization crossed his deep eyes. So that was it.

The bunch from the Truth Realm, who had gone to such great lengths to excavate the so-called source of civilization beneath the Taiwu Ancestral Court, were actually just digging into a small extension of this ancient road that traversed the endless starry sky.

Those geometric civilizations that established rules and harvested Origin across the All Heavens and Myriad Worlds had merely dug into the outer skin of this ancient road, picking up a few broken shards, and deluded themselves into thinking they had grasped the ultimate truth of the Universe, using it to construct their cold, mechanical doctrines.

This entire starry ancient road was the true vein of that massive experimental ground inside the Taiwu Ancestral Court. And this so-called trap was merely a spiderweb on this ancient road, specifically used to capture those so-called high-dimensional Creators who dared to step into the forbidden zone.

Zhou Wannian stood up and casually brushed the metallic powder from his fingertips. He looked at the faint, eerie light emanating from the dark Void Realm ahead, where the spatial fluctuations were extremely violent, as if an unceasing machine were endlessly cutting through reality.

"The Loom." He murmured, then took a large stride, stepping into the layered shadows.

Ahead on the road, a massive spiderweb, hidden within the dimensions of the Void Realm, was silently spreading in the darkness, waiting for this uninvited guest to arrive. Zhou Wannian did not stop, his figure appearing all the more upright in the shadows at the end of the ancient road.