I gain ten years' worth of cultivation every day, and even geniuses will only see my doorstep!

Qin Yuan stared at the spot where the light had shattered. Nothing remained; only pure nothingness. The primordial will of chaos hadn't been completely destroyed; it was chaos itself, and as long as chaos existed, it wouldn't perish. But its self-awareness had been shattered, just as the remnant soul of the demon god, after Qin Yuan dispersed its consciousness, was reduced to a chaotic core. Now, it had reverted to an unconscious force within chaos, no longer possessing the will to devour everything. At least until the next hundred thousand years arrived, it would no longer pose a threat to the Great Void.

Qin Yuan turned and walked towards the door. With each step he took into the void, the ripples beneath his feet were fainter than when he had come. When he reached the thirty-third step, he saw the door. The door was still open, and the guardian with his eyes closed stood in place on the doorframe, his expression calm.

"It's over." Qin Yuan walked up to him.

The guardian nodded without saying a word.

"Let's go back together," Qin Yuan said. "Ye Wuji knows many experts in the Taixu Realm, and they'll surely find a way to help you restore your physical body. The Seven Women's essence has a strong nourishing effect on the power of chaos, so it's not impossible for it to extend your lifespan by hundreds of thousands of years."

The guardian shook his head.

"My consciousness was almost gone before you even entered. That palm strike I gave you just now was the last bit of my strength." He closed his eyes, but a smile played on his lips. "This body is from 100,000 years ago; it should have been buried long ago. The reason I've held on until today is to see with my own eyes whether those who come after me can withstand it."

He raised his hand and stuffed the Chaos Seal back into Qin Yuan's hand.

"Take the Chaos Seal back with you. The remaining protective power inside can last for another 100,000 years. If there is any movement in the outer realms one day, this seal will give you an early warning."

Qin Yuan grasped the Chaos Seal without saying a word of politeness.

"Your name," Qin Yuan said.

"The name really doesn't matter anymore." The man gently shook his head, then raised his hand and pushed Qin Yuan in the chest. The force was light, but Qin Yuan was pushed back three steps, landing right in the center of the door frame. At the same time, the runes on the door frame lit up, and a gentle yet irresistible force enveloped Qin Yuan, pushing him towards the door.

"The name of the guardian is not important. What matters is whether the next guardian can protect what they want to protect. You did, and I'm very happy."

He waved to Qin Yuan from the other side of the door.

"The bells of Seven Stars Market will never ring again."

Then he turned and walked toward the direction where the giant eye had collapsed.

His figure vanished into nothingness. The door slowly closed, sealing all the nothingness, all the chaotic currents, and all the remaining will on the other side.

Qin Yuan stood on the stone steps outside the door, holding the Chaos Seal in his hand. Only after the door closed did the hum of the bone blade slowly subside. He looked down at the Chaos Seal in his hand; the vortex shape of unopened chaos on the seal's knob refracted a faint halo of light under the illumination. He remembered; the guardian had never uttered his name from beginning to end, but he knew what that name was—it didn't matter anymore.

Below the stone steps, the seven beams of light on the membrane had converged. Su Yao's star-fixing disc was at the front of the group, its beam steadily pointing in the direction they had come from. Qin Yuan jumped down from the stone steps and landed in front of the seven women.

Yan Lingji stared at him for a while, then reached out and punched him in the chest. The force wasn't light; it landed squarely on the ribs that had just been shattered by the shadow, and Qin Yuan groaned.

"Serves you right." Yan Lingji's eyes were red. "Who told you to come in alone? You deserve to be beaten."

Qin Yuan did not refute.

Su Yao stepped forward and placed her palm on his chest, slowly channeling the chaotic essence into his shattered ribs. She didn't speak, but from the slight trembling of her fingertips, one could sense that the few dozen breaths she had waited behind the door felt longer than ten years.

Qin Yuan raised his hand and gently patted the back of her hand.

"Go home," he said.

The return journey was faster than the journey there. Although the cracks on the sealing membrane remained, the chaotic creatures in the Chaos Sea had all dispersed into the depths of the chaotic turbulence after the primordial will of chaos was shattered, encountering no further obstacles along the way. Upon reaching the center point marked on the star chart, the Chaos Seal in Su Yao's hand automatically lit up, resonating with the membrane. A white crack opened before them, revealing the lights of the first hall of the Seven Star Tower on the other side.

Qin Yuan was the last to pass through the crack. He glanced back at the outer realm—the chaotic sea was still churning, and multicolored light was still exploding and extinguishing within it, but the hostile gaze that had permeated the entire outer realm before had completely disappeared.

The seal crack slowly closed, forever separating the outer realm from the other side.

In the main hall of the Seven Star Tower, the light from the luminous pearl was even brighter than when they arrived. Qin Yuan walked to the center of the hall, knelt on one knee before the stone statue, and gently placed the Chaos Seal on the statue's clasped hands.

"Senior, you're back."

The stone statue remained unresponsive, but Qin Yuan knew that the last wisp of divine consciousness within it had dissipated. The guardian with its eyes closed had done what needed to be done and said what needed to be said; now it could finally truly rest.

Su Yao walked to Qin Yuan's side and took out a small teapot from her sleeve. She had brought it from the Guixu Palace and kept it warm with her own energy throughout the journey, so the tea was still hot. She poured a cup and placed it at the foot of the stone statue.

"Let's go." Qin Yuan stood up.

Outside the Seven Star Tower, the darkness of the Desolate Starfield had begun to recede. Starlight was shining again in the sky, though still faint, but no longer the complete darkness that had rejected all light. Liu San, who was squatting on a meteorite on the outskirts of the Desolate Starfield, was idly counting stars when he saw Qin Yuan and his group emerge from the edge of darkness and jumped up.

"Brother Qin! You actually made it out alive! Three days! A full three days! I almost turned the Wuji Dao Court's distress signal into my will!"

"Three days?" Yan Lingji was taken aback, glancing back in the direction they came from. "We've been inside for at least five days."

"Only three days have passed outside," Su Yao said softly. "The flow of time inside the Chaos Sea is different from that outside."

Qin Yuan looked up at the starry sky. The territories of the seventy-two holy dynasties stretched across the sea of ​​stars, the mountain gates of the thirty-six Dao sects shimmered in the distance, and the ancestral stars of the nine ancient clans slept deep within the nebulae. This was the peace he had carved out with his sword.

"Return to the Eternal Heaven," he said.

The pillar of light from the Eternal Ladder stood out starkly in the night sky of the Great Void, piercing straight through the clouds and illuminating all realms. Qin Yuan, leading the seven women, embarked on their return journey. The guardian's voice rang out for the last time, tinged with a hint of melancholy: "Every time you come to the Great Void, something significant always happens. Next time you come, could you perhaps give us a heads-up?"