89: Chapter 89 The Depths of Nothingness, The Shadow of the End

The moment he rushed into the rift, it was like falling into a bottomless ice cellar.

Viscous, ice-cold, and filled with endless malice and Chaos, the darkness pressed in from all sides, as if it wanted to crush, assimilate, and reduce the intruder to nothingness, from physical body to Divine Soul.

What was even more terrifying was the horrific will that struck deep into the Soul, filled with "negation" and "the end," stabbing crazily at Lin Wan's Divine Soul like billions of cold steel needles.

If not for the protection of the Chaos Return-to-Ruins Dao Fruit, and the secret techniques from the Five Elements Dao Venerable's Legacy regarding resisting the erosion of "the end," this mental shock alone would likely have been enough to cause an ordinary Soul Transformation Cultivator's consciousness to collapse, turning them into a part of this darkness.

"Chaos Return-to-Ruins, no Law can invade; my heart is like the Dao, no external evil can disturb!"

Lin Wan recited the Dao scripture in his heart, his brow's Dao Fruit shining with brilliant silver light.

The Chaos Dao Rhyme flowed around his body, forming a tough, constantly cycling layer of Chaos light cocoon on his skin, isolating the pervasive darkness, coldness, and mental shocks, while slowly decomposing, purifying, and absorbing the relatively "gentle" evil power contained within to replenish his own consumption.

The chaos dao sword hovered in front of him, its blade flowing with warm Chaos brilliance, illuminating a radius of about a foot, and emitting a Sword Intent that severed falsehoods and destroyed evil, causing the viscous darkness and twisted shadows attempting to approach or entangle him to retreat one after another.

Lin Wan steadied his figure and focused his attention on observing his surroundings.

This place was not the completely void space he had imagined.

It was filled with thick, liquid-like pitch-black mist that rolled and writhed as if it possessed life.

Deep within the mist, one could vaguely see some even deeper, dark red patterns like blood vessels or neural networks, pulsing slowly and emitting heart-palpitating evil energy.

In the distance, there were even larger, indescribable, terrifying "landscapes"—phantoms that seemed to be forcibly fused together from the faces of countless wailing creatures, twisted limbs, and shattered stars—floating and shifting in the darkness, emitting an Aura of despair, madness, and destruction.

This place felt like a chaotic and disordered "dump" filled with concepts of "death," "the end," and "nothingness," left behind after the power of "the end" had eroded, assimilated, and digested countless worlds; it also felt like the "digestive tract" or "womb" of some vast, evil, indescribable existence.

"Here... is this the 'interior' of the erosion of 'the end'?" Lin Wan felt shocked.

He felt intense spatial disorder and temporal Chaos; the concepts of up, down, left, and right became blurred, as if he were in a bizarre dream that was constantly collapsing and expanding.

What made his heart palpitate even more was that he could clearly feel that the "Law" of this space was completely different from the Laws of the world he was familiar with; one could even say it was... completely twisted, opposing, and filled with malice.

Here, the vitality of living beings would be constantly extracted and annihilated, and all orderly existence would slide toward disorder, Chaos, and nothingness.

If not for the Chaos Return-to-Ruins Dao he cultivated, which itself contained the characteristics of "inclusion," "evolution," and "the end," and had a certain adaptability to this environment, it would likely be extremely difficult even to maintain his own form and consciousness.

"I must find the 'core' of this rift, or the 'node' that connects it to the 'other shore,' in order to attempt to seal or destroy it."

Lin Wan steadied his mind and, relying on the Chaos Return-to-Ruins Dao Fruit's faint sensing of the "the end" Law and his capture of higher-level energy fluctuations, began to slowly move toward the deepest part of this dark space, the direction where the evil power was most concentrated and the will was most focused.

Along the way, he encountered various unimaginable, eerie sights and attacks.

Sometimes, countless pale, withered, sharp-clawed arms would suddenly reach out from the darkness, trying to drag him into the deeper void.

Lin Wan swung the chaos dao sword, and wherever the sword light passed, the arms broke and dissipated one after another.

Sometimes, countless whispers filled with temptation or resentment would ring in his ears, trying to stir up the deepest desires, fears, or regrets in his heart, inducing a Heart Demon.

Lin Wan's Dao Heart was like iron; with the Chaos Dao Rhyme flowing, all distracting thoughts were like dream bubbles, unable to shake him.

Sometimes, the darkness in front would suddenly condense into a "wall of nothingness" that seemed capable of swallowing everything, even light could not escape, blocking his path.

Lin Wan would then use the power of the Chaos Return-to-Ruins to evolve the Five Elements rotation, forcibly "opening up" a short passage to pass through with difficulty.

At other times, he would encounter some "creations of the end" wandering in this dark space—more twisted, powerful, and seemingly possessing a certain "hunting" instinct.

Their forms were even more indescribable: some were like a pool of pitch-black sludge that constantly writhed and changed shape, capable of spawning thousands of tentacles to attack; some were like a ball of gray mist composed of countless tiny, wailing human faces, adept at mental pollution and Soul devouring; others were simply "Shadow Demons," ghost-like entities formed purely from the will of "the end" without a fixed shape, against which physical attacks were almost ineffective, but which could directly erode the Divine Soul and Dao foundation.

These "creations of the end" varied in strength, but the weakest were comparable to the Nascent Soul stage, and the powerful ones even reached the Early Stage or Middle Stage of Soul Transformation.

Lin Wan had to respond carefully, coordinating the chaos dao sword with the Chaos Return-to-Ruins Dao Fruit, either slashing or suppressing, devouring or refining, moving forward with difficulty.

He also added a few scars to his body—Dao Wounds left after being eroded by the will of "the end," which were difficult to remove in a short time and radiated an Aura of coldness and deathly silence.

But correspondingly, every time he killed and refined these powerful "creations of the end," he was able to peel off and absorb purer, more original "the end" Law fragments from their cores, as well as gain some understanding of this "the end" space, making his Chaos Return-to-Ruins Dao Fruit increasingly solid and powerful, his control over "the end" more and more handy, and his cultivation steadily advancing toward the Middle Stage of Soul Transformation.

He did not know how long he had been moving forward—perhaps an instant, perhaps ten thousand years.

In this void land where time was disordered, time had lost its meaning.

Finally, the thick, impenetrable darkness ahead began to thin.

Replaced by a more bizarre, more unsettling Chaos light interwoven with dark red and pitch black.

And in the center of that light, Lin Wan saw a scene that made his pupils shrink.

It was not some "core" or "node."

But a... huge, constantly rotating vortex, presenting a chaotic hue, with its edges covered in countless fine, hideous, dark red patterns pulsing like blood vessels!

In the center of the vortex was a deep, absolute "nothingness" that seemed capable of swallowing all existence.

From that "nothingness," a constant stream of terrifying energy and matter—interwoven with pitch black, dark red, and gray-white—that was purer, more terrifying, and seemingly contained the Origin of "the end," was erupting like a volcano, gushing out, spreading, and pouring into this dark space, maintaining the existence of the rift and constantly eroding and assimilating the world barrier of the Tiannan Continent outside.

And around that huge Chaos vortex, floating in the void, were... twelve!

Twelve eerie "altars," a hundred feet high, pitch black, with hideous forms, resembling twisted giant towers or the withered limbs of some huge creature!

Each altar was engraved with dense, ancient runes filled with blasphemy and Chaos, which Lin Wan could not understand at all.

At the top of each altar was embedded a huge, constantly pulsing crystal—dark gold, blood red, or gray-white—emitting an evil power that was of the same Origin as the Chaos vortex but more condensed and "orderly"!

What made Lin Wan's heart sink even more was that he saw, sitting cross-legged on three of the altars, three figures!

These three figures were not the twisted, chaotic "creations of the end" he had encountered before, but presented a relatively "complete" humanoid form!

They were wearing tattered armor or robes of an ancient style that radiated a strong Aura of decay and destruction; their faces were shrouded in shadows and could not be seen clearly, but the Aura radiating from them was vast as the sea, cold and dead, filled with the supreme Dao Rhyme of "the end," and their strength had clearly reached—the Late Stage of Soul Transformation! They had even faintly touched the threshold of Void Refining!

At this moment, these three figures were each facing a huge crystal on top of an altar, hands forming seals, chanting, seemingly using themselves as a medium to channel and control the Origin power gushing from the Chaos vortex, injecting it into the altar, and then connecting it to the huge space rift outside through the altar, maintaining, stabilizing, and even... attempting to expand the scale of the rift!

And around them, the remaining nine vacant altars were also rotating slowly, the crystals on them flickering, as if they could be "activated" at any time.

"Are these... the 'Apostles' of 'the end'? Or... higher-level 'priests' or 'lords'?"

Lin Wan's internal alarm bells rang loudly.

He understood instantly that this space rift was definitely not naturally formed, nor was it a simple erosion of "the end."

This was a premeditated, organized, and powerful-existence-led "passage" attempting to forcibly open a stable route capable of allowing higher-level power to pass through and invade the Tiannan Continent!

And these twelve altars, along with the three "Apostles" at the Late Stage of Soul Transformation, were the key to maintaining, stabilizing, and even "expanding" this passage!

No wonder the rift was so terrifying, no wonder the monsters in the camp behaved "orderly," no wonder the evil power within was so pure and terrifying!

"I must stop them! Destroy the altars, or at least interrupt their ritual!"

Lin Wan made a decision in an instant.

Once these twelve altars were all activated and this passage was completely stabilized and expanded, I fear that even more terrifying "the end" existences—perhaps even Void Refining or higher-level ones—would descend upon the Tiannan Continent through here!

At that time, it would be the true end of the world!

Although facing three "Apostles of the end" at the Late Stage of Soul Transformation and that terrifying Chaos vortex, Lin Wan also felt unprecedented pressure.

But he had no choice.

"Five Elements Returning to Ruins, Dao Sword Unparalleled—Break!"

No more hesitation, no more hiding.

Lin Wan raised his Aura to the limit; the power of the Chaos Return-to-Ruins Dao Fruit and the chaos dao sword exploded without reservation!

He transformed into a streak of primordial Chaos, carrying the supreme Sword Intent that severed all things and ended falsehoods, and slashed fiercely toward a vacant altar nearest to him, where the "Apostle" seemed to be fully casting spells and unable to attend to anything else!

He intended to destroy one altar first, break the balance, and create Chaos!

"Hmm? A... bug that slipped through the net?"

However, just as Lin Wan's sword light was about to strike the altar, a cold, indifferent, and seemingly emotionless thought wave, yet carrying a sense of superiority as if looking down on an ant, suddenly rang out in the void.

The voice came from the "Apostle" with the blurred face sitting on the altar Lin Wan had chosen as his target.

He didn't even look up, still maintaining the seal-forming posture, but the face shrouded in shadow seemed to turn slightly in Lin Wan's direction.

"Hum—!"

An indescribable, more vast, more condensed, and more "the end"-filled horrific will, like an invisible collapse of the heavens, descended instantly and collided fiercely with the Chaos sword light Lin Wan had slashed out!

"Crack!"

Lin Wan's full-strength sword strike, which was enough to threaten a Middle Stage Soul Transformation Cultivator and contained the true meaning of the Chaos Return-to-Ruins Dao, was like fragile glass in the face of this more Advanced and more original will of "the end," shattering and disintegrating inch by inch!

Along with Lin Wan himself, who was also heavily struck, he let out a muffled groan, his body shook violently, and he was sent flying backward.

The Chaos light armor on his body appeared with cracks, and a trace of dark golden blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.

Just a thought, a single glance, and it defeated his full-strength strike and injured him!

Is this the strength of a Late Stage Soul Transformation Cultivator, and specifically one from the side of "the end"?!

It is simply a world of difference from an ordinary Cultivator at the Late Stage of Soul Transformation!

"Interesting... you actually have the scent of 'Five Elements' and 'Return-to-Ruins' on you... and a trace of... an unpleasant, familiar brand of 'the end'..."

The "Apostle's" thought fluctuated again, seemingly carrying a hint of faint interest and... a trace of imperceptible disgust,

"Is it the inheritor left by that old guy, the Five Elements Dao Venerable? To think you have grown to this point... It seems the 'seed' left behind back then has bloomed into a rather nice little flower. Pity, it bloomed in the wrong place."

"Very well, since you have delivered yourself to my doorstep, I shall pluck this flower, take your Dao Fruit, and offer it to the 'Master.' I presume it will accelerate the 'Master's' 'digestion' of this world."

Before the words faded, the "Apostle" finally... moved.

He slowly raised a hand—that hand, pale, withered, and covered with black patterns like cracked porcelain—and reached toward the flying-backward Lin Wan, grasping lightly through the air.

"Nothingness—Return to Burial."