Primordial Era: The Three Senior Brothers of the Taiqing Clan

The projection of the Mountain and River Map cracked in that instant, the light of the golden cage dimmed rapidly, and the four longswords of the Immortal Slaughtering Sword Formation let out a mournful cry at the same time, their light teetering on the verge of collapse.

From within the crevice, an eye slowly opened.

That eye was incredibly large; the pupil alone was enough to cover the entire sky of the Ruins of Return.

The depths of his pupils were a pure, absolute darkness, with occasional flashes of dark red lines, like the aurora borealis drifting through the depths of the starry sky.

That eye looked at Chen Qing, and at the seven saints, its gaze devoid of any emotion, only an absolute, all-encompassing, icy scrutiny.

Chen Qing raised his head and met the giant eye's gaze. His heart pounded violently, and the Pangu Dao Foundation within him trembled violently, emitting a thunderous roar like a great bell.

The roar jolted him awake from the suffocating pressure, and he abruptly activated the Pangu Dao Foundation, unleashing the power of his inner world to an unprecedented degree.

The golden light curtain burst forth with dazzling light, and its expansion speed suddenly doubled. In that instant, a large area at the edge of the Ruins was completely covered by the golden sealing patterns.

The giant eye's pupil contracted slightly, as if stung by the golden light.

Then, from the depths of the rift came an extremely ancient and muffled voice, a voice that did not belong to any language, yet everyone understood its meaning:

"Descendants of Pangu..."

Chen Qing didn't speak. He suddenly changed the hand seal posture, interlacing his fingers and facing the sky.

Pangu's Dao Foundation ignited completely within his body, like a star reaching the end of its life, releasing all its energy at the last moment.

A wall of light suddenly rose from the edge of the golden light curtain, like an inverted bowl, enveloping the entire edge of the Ruins of Return along with the rift where the giant eye was located.

"Retreat!" Chen Qing roared.

The seven sages retreated simultaneously, not even having time to retrieve the magical treasures that were still in operation, leaving them stranded on the spot.

The figures of Laozi, Yuanshi, Tongtian, Nuwa, Jieyin, and Zhunti retreated rapidly in the purple chaos, protected by golden light, allowing them to maintain their form under the increasingly powerful pressure.

Chen Qing took one last look at the giant eye.

He saw that the dark red lines in the giant eye's pupil were increasing rapidly, as if something was awakening from the deepest depths.

He saw that the golden light barrier began to show fine cracks under the gaze of the giant eye, and each crack seemed to be alive as it slowly spread outwards.

He pressed his hands down sharply.

The entire golden light wall was like a door about to close, shrinking, compressing, and sealing towards the crack at an incredible speed.

As the edge of the light barrier closed in, it continuously rubbed against the darkness of the Ruins, producing a deafening roar.

The sound was like billions of mountains collapsing at the same time, or like an entire ocean freezing into ice in the same instant.

As the giant eye in the rift watched the light barrier approach, the dark red lines deep within its pupil finally stopped increasing and began to fade slowly.

That ancient voice rang out for the last time, more muffled and distant than before, as if the speaker were retreating into an extremely deep and distant abyss:

The golden light barrier closed completely.

The rift disappeared, the giant eye disappeared, and the black tide deep within the Ruins of Return shrank rapidly as if its source had been cut off.

The entire Ruins of Return fell silent the moment the light barrier closed, leaving only scattered remnants of darkness clinging weakly to the edge of the seal, like a few embers remaining after a great fire had been extinguished.

Chen Qing's body plummeted straight down from mid-air. The hand seals in his hands had dissipated, his ten fingers hanging limply at his sides, and the Pangu Dao Foundation within his body, which had been burned out, was like charcoal that had been burned out, leaving only grayish-white embers that faintly flickered with the last bit of warmth deep within his dantian.

His consciousness gradually blurred as he fell. Before it blurred, he saw Tongtian's figure breaking through the air and catching him steadily with a pair of arms.

"You held on." Tongtian's voice rang in his ears, trembling with an extremely slight intensity that even he himself didn't realize. "You fucking held on."

Chen Qing tried to smile, but his lips only twitched before he completely lost consciousness.

The seven sages gathered at the edge of the purple chaos, their auras extremely unstable, as if they had finally found a safe haven after experiencing a storm that lasted for several days.

Laozi took the unconscious Chen Qing and used his spiritual energy to nourish his primordial spirit. He discovered that the Pangu Dao Foundation in Chen Qing's dantian was almost completely dimmed and invisible, but fortunately, his inner world was not damaged and his life was not in danger.

"We'll talk about it when we get back." Laozi only said one sentence, and the group did not linger. They passed through the purple chaos and sped off towards the prehistoric world.

As they passed through the massive, dark gold gate, the ancient patterns on the gateposts, which had long since faded, suddenly glowed for a moment, as if casting a final, silent glance at the travelers on their way home.

The light was so brief and fleeting that Tongtian, who was at the very front, didn't even notice it.

All he knew was that the sky above had brightened, the clouds were bathed in the golden light of the rising sun, and the vast, peaceful earth stretched out beneath their feet, as always.

Deep within the Ruins of Return, behind the golden light barrier that had been reassembled, the boundless darkness lay as silent as a sleeping ocean.

In the center of the darkness, the enormous eyes had closed again, with only the last dark red line deep within the pupils still beating extremely slowly, like a heart.

The intervals between pulsations are long, but each one is slightly shorter than the last.

The pattern silently counted down the time in the darkness, waiting for the next moment when a crack would appear in the light barrier.

Inside the Purple Cloud Palace, seven sages sat around Chen Qing, none of them uttering a word.

Lao Tzu placed his hand on Chen Qing's body, remained silent for a long time, and finally exhaled: "He will wake up by tomorrow at the latest. After he wakes up, there will be a tough battle to prepare for."

Tongtian sat against the wall in the corner, the Four Swords of Zhuxian resting on his lap. The luster on the swords was a little dimmer than before, but they were still sharp.

He closed his eyes, as if resting, but everyone knew he wasn't really asleep.

Yuanshi stood by the window, gazing at the world outside bathed in sunlight. At the top of the jade ruyi in his hand, the Chaos Pearl was still rotating extremely slowly. The black tide absorbed by the pearl had not yet been completely refined. Strands of black energy, as thin as hair, moved within the pearl, like snakes trapped in a transparent cage.

Nuwa sat beside Chen Qing, with the Map of Mountains and Rivers spread out on her lap. She was gently stroking a cracked mountain range on the map with her fingertips—the place where the Map of Mountains and Rivers had been shattered by the aura of that giant eye. Repairing it would take time and couldn't be rushed.

Outside the palace, Jieyin and Zhunti were working together to set up a purification barrier covering the entire Zixiao Palace. Their hand seals moved slowly and deliberately, like two farmers sowing seeds row by row in the fields.

The hall was quiet and peaceful, as if the fierce battle with the abyss that had just taken place was a distant nightmare.

But everyone knew it wasn't a dream. The injuries, whether minor or severe, on each person were living proof that in the darkness deep within that chaos, an eye had indeed opened, seen them, and remembered them.

As for how long the golden light barrier Chen Qing left on the seal could last, no one dared to make an accurate judgment.

Laozi released Chen Qing's wrist, stood up, walked to Tongtian's side, and patted his third junior brother on the shoulder. Tongtian didn't open his eyes, but only slightly turned his head to indicate that he was awake.

"Did you see it clearly?" Lao Tzu asked in a low voice.

Tongtian remained silent for a moment, then slowly raised his eyelids, revealing a pair of eyes that were calm to the point of being almost empty: "I see clearly. That eye and that thing called 'Shi' deep in the Ruins of Return are of the same origin."

The gray-robed old man was indeed just one of its tentacles; its true form was much larger than we imagined.

How big is it?

Tongtian thought for a moment, then shook his head: "I don't know. I only know that when that eye opened, I felt the entire chaos contracting. It was as if its very existence was squeezing out all the surrounding space."

Lao Tzu remained silent, only turning his gaze to the azure sky outside the hall. The sunlight was perfect, and thin clouds blanketed the sky like cotton wool scattered by the wind. How long could this peaceful and tranquil primordial world endure under the watchful eye of the Void of Return?

No one knows the answer. But at least for now, the sky is bright, the wind is warm, and Chen Qing's breathing is steady. That's enough.

We'll talk about the rest when he wakes up.

……

When Chen Qing woke up, the sun was setting in the west, and golden light slanted in through the cracks in the palace door, casting a bright triangle on the floor tiles.

He moved his fingers first, and a dull pain came from his fingertips, as if thousands of fine needles were slowly moving under his skin at the same time.

He tried to mobilize the power within his body, but his dantian was empty. The aura of Pangu's Dao Foundation was as faint as a wisp of smoke. The once surging Pangu power during the fusion was now reduced to a few grayish-white embers, quietly sinking to the deepest part of his dantian, like the last spark buried in the soil after a heavy snowfall.

He slowly sat up, supporting himself on the edge of the bed. His movements were extremely slow, and every movement aggravated the ruptured wounds all over his body, causing them to protest silently.

But he still sat up. He leaned against the back of the couch, closed his eyes, and immersed his consciousness into his inner world, examining his condition inch by inch.

The body's injuries are slowly healing themselves. The dantian world is undamaged, and the Pangu Dao Foundation itself has not disappeared; it has only exhausted its stored power, like a lake that has been drained of water, leaving only a dried-up lakebed. However, the outline of the lakebed is still there, and given enough time, the water will refill.

He breathed a sigh of relief and opened his eyes again.

A cup of warm spiritual tea sat beside the couch, its clear and bright liquor topped with a few pale golden leaves.

He picked up the teacup and slowly took a sip. The warmth slid down his throat into his stomach, then transformed into a gentle spiritual energy that seeped into his limbs and bones, like parched earth finally welcoming its first drizzle.

He didn't know who prepared it, whether it was Laozi, Nuwa, or just a long-standing custom of Zixiao Palace, but this thoughtfulness warmed his heart slightly.

The palace doors were pushed open. The Tongtian Sect Leader walked in, and seeing Chen Qing already sitting up drinking tea, he paused, then his face broke into an undisguised expression of relief: "Good that you're awake. I told you you'd wake up today, and I thought he was just bragging."

"When did Master ever boast?" Chen Qing put down his teacup, his voice a little hoarse, but his spirits had recovered somewhat.

Chen Qing continued, "How long did I sleep?"

"Today is the eleventh day." Tongtian's expression turned serious. "While you were unconscious, there was no unusual activity at Guixu. I went to check on the Dark Gold Gate every day, and the sealed light barrier was still there, with no new cracks appearing. But..."

He paused for a moment, "After that eye closed, the chaotic energy at the edge of the Ruins returned to the state it was in before you first went there—slow, silent, as if nothing had happened."

But my elder brother said that was actually the most strange thing. It was too quiet, as if it were waiting for something.

Chen Qing nodded, moved his wrists, and found that although his magic power was exhausted, his physical strength was still there.

After merging with Pangu's Dao Foundation, his physical body had been tempered by the power of Pangu. Although many of his meridians had cracked, the strength of his bones and muscles far surpassed what he had before. Even without using the power of the world, his physical strength alone was enough to crush most of the prehistoric cultivators.

"Where is the old man in the gray robe?" he asked.

Tongtian shook his head: "When the seal closed, he hadn't had time to escape from the Mountain and River Map and was sealed inside as well."

But the problem is—it was originally just a segment of the 'devourer's' tentacles; the main body has been locked back in. We don't know if this segment of the tentacle can survive independently.

"In other words, he may still be alive, or he may have lost consciousness along with his original body as it entered a deep sleep."

"Yes." Tongtian looked at Chen Qing, "but what concerns me even more is something else."

"you say."

Tongtian was silent for a while, seemingly considering his words, before speaking: "When I was in the Demon God Realm, I met a child named Xuanya."

He was a local, not very old, but with an exceptionally sharp intuition.

He told me that the Demon Lord had mobilized all the troops from the three cities to the area beneath the Demon God's Palace to dig something up.

I saw the pit with my own eyes—it was bottomless, and malevolent energy constantly surged from it. The elder under the Demon Lord said they had already dug to the eighth layer of the seal, and they still needed to dig another thirty feet down.

Chen Qing's gaze sharpened slightly: "There's a seal beneath the Demon God Palace too?"

"Yes. And that thing is breathing." Tongtian's expression was unusually grave as he said this. "I listened while lying on the ground. It breathes every three breaths, with an extremely steady rhythm. The breathing sound and the knocking sound are perfectly synchronized—those demon soldiers aren't digging; they're chiseling away at the surface of the seal, peeling it away layer by layer. The owner of that breathing is suppressed extremely deep, but the Demon Lord is helping it break free."

The air in the hall seemed to freeze for a moment. Chen Qing's fingers tapped unconsciously on the edge of the bed, countless clues rapidly connecting in his mind.

The seal beneath the Demon God Palace, the giant eye deep within the Ruins of Return, the gray-robed elder proposing allegiance under the guise of the will of Heaven, the Demon Lord's secret warnings... a hidden thread is gradually emerging.

"Is it possible that the thing the Demon Lord dug up, and the 'Devouring' in the Ruins, are... the same thing?" Chen Qing said slowly.

Tongtian looked at him, not answering immediately. After a moment, he spoke: "I've considered this possibility. But geographically speaking, Guixu is deep within the Chaos, and the Demon God Realm is in another direction of the Primordial World. The two places are extremely far apart, separated by several layers of void rifts. If it were the same entity, it couldn't possibly be sealed in two places simultaneously."

"Unless it's separated," Chen Qing said.

Tongtian's pupils contracted slightly.