198: Creating something from nothing, defying the current and escaping into the void.
"Boom—!!!"
An indescribable pressure, like the weight of the entire Universe, crashed down!
It was not an impact of energy, but a crushing of rules; it was the ultimate chill of "Existence" itself being negated by "Non-existence"!
Ye Chen felt like an ant grasped by an invisible giant hand; even his thoughts were nearly frozen.
His Soul was trembling, his Physical Body was wailing; his newly achieved cultivation and his Major Achievement Nirvana Sword Intent seemed so pale and powerless before this will, which seemed to represent the final destination of the Universe!
The Source of Nirvana! The true core will of the Gui Xu Sea Eye had awakened!
Those "eyes" that opened from the depths of the vortex were indifferent and hollow, devoid of any emotion, holding only pure, absolute "End."
It "looked" at Ye Chen, or more accurately, it "looked" at the Chaos skeleton in front of Ye Chen, and the chaos source core in the skeleton's hand!
It was as if Ye Chen, the intruder, along with the traces left by the previous wielder of the chaos ancestral talisman, were "errors" that needed to be completely erased!
"Crack!"
Ye Chen's Major Achievement Nirvana Sword Intent Domain, which surrounded him, could not even support him for a single breath before it filled with cracks like fragile glass and shattered instantly!
The terrifying power of devouring and Nirvana acted instantly upon his Physical Body and Divine Soul, like billions of invisible bone-scraping steel knives!
"Puff!"
He spat out a mouthful of blood, which instantly turned into nothingness the moment it left his body.
His skin cracked, his bones groaned under the unbearable weight, and his Divine Soul felt as if it were being pulled out of his body to be cast into that eternal darkness!
Death! Closer than ever before!
He didn't even have time to touch the chaos source core that was within reach!
He could not die here!
A strong desire to survive and an unyielding Dao of Sword will burned wildly, like the last spark in a gale!
The information left by the previous skeleton flashed through his mind like lightning—
"...Must comprehend the mystery of 'Something from Nothing'... The flow of rules... is both a shackle... and a path... Follow the traces of 'Spatial Nirvana'... and one can go against the flow..."
Something from Nothing! Traces of Spatial Nirvana!
In this moment of life and death, Ye Chen's thinking speed soared to the extreme.
He abandoned all resistance, abandoned all distracting thoughts, and even abandoned his attachment to "life," immersing all his focus into the understanding of "Nothing" and "Something," and "Spatial Nirvana"!
Chaos encompasses all things; Nothing is also a form of Something! Absolute nothingness also contains the potential to give birth to everything! Just like the singularity before Chaos opened!
Spatial Nirvana is not the complete disappearance of space, but the end and "reset" of spatial structure, dimensions, and even the concept of "Existence"! In this ultimate "Nothing," is there also a hidden path to return to "Something"?
His gaze was locked tightly onto that gray airflow representing "Spatial Nirvana"! Inside the airflow, countless tiny spaces were constantly being born and destroyed; those "traces" of destruction were the "Traces of Nirvana"!
At the same time, the chaos ancestral talisman in his Qi Sea, which had completed the "Foundation of Existence," seemed to sense its host's determination and Epiphany, erupting with a final, unwilling-to-be-silent light, resonating strongly with the chaos source core in the hands of the previous skeleton!
"Hum!"
The chaos source core, as if moved by this homologous call and Ye Chen's Epiphany in his desperate situation, detached itself from the skeleton's palm, turned into a stream of light, and instantly merged into Ye Chen's glabella!
"Boom!!!"
A more vast and majestic Chaos Origin and the cultivation insights of a peerless expert, like the Big Bang at the beginning of the Universe, were released in Ye Chen's Sea of Consciousness and Qi Sea! Under the impact of this power, his cultivation Bottleneck was easily pierced like thin paper!
Tiangang Realm Fourth Layer! Middle Stage! Late Stage!
It soared all the way to the Peak of the Tiangang Realm Fourth Layer, just one step away from the Fifth Layer, before slowly stagnating!
But his increase in power, when facing the pressure of the "Source of Nirvana" at this moment, was still not enough! The truly critical thing was the ultimate insights into "Something from Nothing" and the "Essence of Space" contained within the chaos source core, which were rapidly fusing with Ye Chen's own understanding!
Now is the time!
Ye Chen's eyes suddenly erupted with unprecedented brilliance! That light was not vibrant with life, but a light of Chaos that saw through existence and nothingness, and perceived Nirvana!
He ignored his body that was about to completely disintegrate, ignored the vortex that devoured everything, and poured all his focus and power, including the newly acquired power of the chaos source core, into the guixu sword in his hand!
But he did not slash towards the vortex, nor did he slash towards those "eyes."
He thrust his sword towards that airflow of "Spatial Nirvana" rules, towards the deepest part of the countless spatial "traces" that were destroyed and reborn within it!
This sword strike had no killing intent, no defense, only a pure "guidance" and "resonance"!
"Chaos as the root, Nirvana as the guide! Something from Nothing—Open!"
The tip of the guixu sword landed with extreme precision on a "Trace of Spatial Nirvana" that was about to be completely annihilated!
A miraculous thing happened!
When the Traces of Nirvana, which originally represented the ultimate "Nothing," came into contact with the sword tip containing all of Ye Chen's Epiphany intentions and the power of the Chaos Origin, its extreme "Nothing" seemed to have been cast with a seed of "Something"!
An imperceptible, brand-new "Spatial Origin Point" had actually been born out of thin air at the end of that Trace of Nirvana!
This "Spatial Origin Point," weak as a candle in the wind, stubbornly resisted the surrounding Nirvana of the Guixu Sea. It was not a stable space, but an extremely short-lived, extremely unstable—"passage"! A passage that used "Spatial Nirvana" as a springboard to connect in reverse to the world of "Existence"!
It worked!
Ye Chen had a flash of inspiration and knew that this was likely the only chance, and a fleeting one at that!
He suddenly retracted the guixu sword, used his last ounce of strength, and his figure turned into a stream of light, shooting without hesitation towards that newly born, insignificant "Spatial Origin Point"!
"Hum!"
Just as his figure merged into that "Origin Point," the will of the Source of Nirvana seemed to become even colder. The devouring power of the entire core of the Guixu Sea suddenly increased by several orders of magnitude. That newly born "Spatial Origin Point" fluctuated violently like a bubble, on the verge of complete destruction!
And Ye Chen's figure had already disappeared into it!
"Boom—!"
The core of the Guixu Sea returned to that deathly silence, the rhythm of only endings. The central vortex slowly calmed down, and those indifferent "eyes" gradually faded into the darkness. Only the pearly-white Chaos skeleton remained sitting there quietly, as if it had been so since time immemorial.
...
A bout of dizziness, as if crossing the barriers of countless worlds, and as if drifting at the end of time.
Ye Chen felt like a leaf thrown into a raging sea; his Physical Body and Divine Soul were enduring unspeakable tearing and squeezing. The newly acquired power of the chaos source core surged within his body, barely protecting his foundation.
He did not know how much time had passed, but that terrifying tearing sensation suddenly disappeared.
"Thump!"
He fell heavily onto the hard ground, the intense pain causing him to almost pass out.
He forced himself to lift his head and looked around.
This was no longer the deathly silent core of the Guixu Sea, nor was it the chaotic Void Realm of the Shattered Star Belt.
It was a... desolate, ancient, dilapidated hall filled with a faint aura of Chaos!
The hall was built of unknown material and had long since collapsed for the most part. Between the broken walls and ruins, countless ancient patterns similar to the Dao symbols of the chaos ancestral talisman were carved. In the sky, there were no sun, moon, or stars, only a gray, slowly rotating stream of Chaos.
Where was this?
Was it the Secret Realm left behind by that previous wielder of the chaos ancestral talisman? Or was it some ancient ruin reached randomly through the passage opened by "Something from Nothing"?
Ye Chen struggled to sit cross-legged, feeling the extremely serious injuries within his body, as well as the power of the chaos source core, which was majestic but restless. He knew that he must immediately go into seclusion to heal his injuries and completely refine this power.
Otherwise, before he could explore this place, he might be blown up by this power, or dragged down by his injuries.
He glanced at the guixu sword in his hand, which had dimmed significantly, and then felt the chaos ancestral talisman in his Qi Sea, which was flowing with light but had not yet fully fused with the power of the chaos source core. He moved his body with difficulty, hid behind a relatively intact broken wall, and set up a few simple concealment Restrictions.
Subsequently, he closed his eyes, operated the Primordial Chaos Art with all his might, and began the difficult process of healing and refining.
This trip to the Gui Xu Sea Eye was a brush with death, with huge gains, but the crisis it brought was equally unprecedented.