C2172 It Was Located in Two Different Realms
In the foreign lands, Yu Yuan lay sprawled on a crumbling bone altar, gazing up at the pitch-black sky. His colossal, ten-million-foot-tall form had been shattered, and now, restored to his original state, he had been transported to this desolate place by his own power. The remnants of that power still lingered in his flesh and blood, relentlessly consuming his vitality.
Deep within his sea of consciousness, a greenish-black taint had formed into menacing clouds. Yu Yuan, motionless, battled against this pervasive corrupting force, depleting the energy stored in his acupoints, limbs, organs, and very soul. Yet, in these foreign lands, he could not draw even the slightest bit of energy. It was a world long dead, its life force drained, devoid of any living beings. It had been silent for untold years.
A wave of sorrow and rage welled up within Yu Yuan, growing more intense by the moment. He was certain of his past existence in that chaotic realm, where he had been extinguished by the Origin Soul and darkness, only to be resurrected and used to carve out seven abyssal layers and massacre other Origin Spirits, all to empower the Origin Soul's dominion over the laws of the world—unbeknownst to him. The Earth Spirit was merely one of the many Origin Spirits that had been annihilated.
A spokesperson? The perfect vessel? Yu Yuan scoffed, his mind roiling with thoughts as the flames of hatred blazed within him.
"Where are we?" Barol of the Star Race and Brie of the Dark Elfkind emerged side by side from the Dragon Slash Platform. They peered into the distance, where the skeletal remains of colossal creatures were fused with star fragments, drifting in the void. There were countless such behemoths, more fearsome even than the Starry Behemoths, whose combat prowess in life must have been unspeakably formidable. Alas, they were now extinct.
Fragments of suns, moons, and stars were scattered all around, yet devoid of any power. As Barol and Brie extended their senses and blood energy, they encountered only emptiness and silence—no wind, no rain, not even a stir in the air.
Beside them, Yu Yuan's skin bore greenish-black spots that surfaced through his clothing. These spots were spread across his body, some deepening, others being erased by his own strength, but all the while, Yu Yuan was frantically consuming his own power to fight the corruption.
"This is the Abyss of the dead."
Yu Yuan rose slowly to a seated position.
His connection with the Yang God had been severed, and the pitch-black canopy above was the dark land he once knew—the Creation Land.
In that profound darkness, he had caught a fleeting glimpse of this place, his homeland that had been laid to waste.
It was also the true Abyss referred to by the other.
His soul's awareness reached out, encountering the unimaginable remains of colossal beings—Chaos Djinn—and the shattered remnants of Heaven and Earth that he remembered.
Above these fractured realms, grand palaces of varied designs spoke of a once-thriving civilization that had emerged from the depths of the Abyss.
The scale of the true Abyss was likely comparable to the Origin Realm, yet his consciousness could only explore a minuscule portion.
Within this scope, there were innumerable fragmented stars and realms, home to at least a dozen nations of intelligent races, lunar meteorites drained of their moon energy, and crimson shards stripped of solar essence.
Weapons, massive as mountains, were embedded in the dust-covered stars. As his awareness passed by, these titanic arms shattered with a crack, reducing to dust.
Eroded by eons, the divine blades that once could cleave stars, now devoid of their essence, had become mere husks, stripped of their formidable might.
"The Abyss?"
Barol looked on in astonishment, his gaze shifting warily as if expecting an Evil God to emerge at any moment.
"It shouldn't be like this."
Worry etched deep lines into Brie's forehead, aging him considerably. "An Abyss like this couldn't give rise to Evil Gods. A world so utterly silent, devoid of any usable energy, couldn't possibly spawn such formidable beings. After all, energy is the bedrock of the universe and all life within it."
He had discerned the critical issue.
This world was dead, drained of all vitality by the Chaos Abyss, leaving the Starfield a void, bereft of the slightest spark of stellar energy.
"The Abyss you're familiar with has seven layers above the dark expanse overhead," Yu Yuan mused aloud. "But this Abyss is the genuine article. Its vastness rivals that of the Origin Realm. The beings and civilizations it birthed once eclipsed those of the Origin and Desolate Realms. Alas, it has been razed, its inhabitants perished."
"The Origin Realm might follow suit and become just like this desolate place."
Upon hearing this, Barol and Brie's hearts skipped a beat. They surveyed the strange and expansive world of silence around them, feeling the weight of the heavens and earth, their faces etched with solemnity.
The thought of the Origin Realm succumbing to such a fate filled them with despair and a sense of helplessness, as if life itself had lost its meaning.
Boom!
The bone altar beneath Yu Yuan crumbled shortly after he rose to his feet.
Amidst a cloud of bone dust, Yu Yuan descended onto the parched earth, his neck and the forehead above the Soul Altar marred by greenish-black spots.
Each spot represented the residual corrupting power he had left behind, relentlessly ravaging the life force within Yu Yuan's body and draining his soul energy.
"He wants to deplete my strength, to have my flesh, spiritual energy, and soul energy all consumed by this world. I cannot find any other source of power to replenish myself here. It seems he can remotely infuse his power into the spots that have infected me."
Yu Yuan quickly clarified his thoughts.
During the confrontation in the Gray Domain, his adversary had used the devilish body forged from the Evil God Temple and wielded the Heaven Opening Flare Star, yet seemed unable to handle Yu Yuan, who possessed a seven-tiered Soul Altar.
Realizing he couldn't defeat him directly, he had cast Yu Yuan into the true depths of the abyss to engage in a prolonged war of attrition.
In this enduring battle, his foe could continuously channel power, while Yu Yuan was unable to draw strength from the lifeless world.
Defeat seemed inevitable, just a matter of time.
"This world contains the Creation Wood and the Thunderbolt Origin Spirit; I should search for them. And Beilstein is supposed to descend here, though it's uncertain whether he has broken through the Darkness Origin Spirit's blockade to arrive successfully."
After exchanging a few words with Barol and Brie, Yu Yuan activated the Dragon Slash Platform and set off with them in search of life.
The abyss was boundless, its original laws shattered, leaving everything in utter stillness.
Unable to affect the void's laws, the Dragon Slash Platform could only traverse the expanse using its internal power, aimlessly seeking signs of life.
...
The Origin Realm, now indistinguishable from the Perish Starfield.
An ancient tome of considerable heft descended amidst a kaleidoscope of light, crossing vast expanses of space to arrive suddenly.
Around the former stronghold of the Divine Soul Sect, numerous skeletons floated—alien beasts, the souls of devils, Unrestrained Stage cultivators from the Protoss, and mighty beings from the abyss. The air was thick with the stench of death.
"The Secular Bird Queen has been here."
Zhong Chichen was taken aback. The concentration of death energy at the border of the Perish Starfield and the Desolate Realm was intense, reminiscent of the disturbances caused by Chen Qinghuang in the Serene Starfield.
He noticed several alien beasts whose bodies were active with corpse energy, seemingly undergoing a transformation into Yin Corpses.
Hovering above the Time Book, the Creation Pool that Yu Yuan had shifted seemed to stir once more, influenced by the pervasive aura of death in the area.
Zhong Chichen grunted, nearly tumbling into the Creation Pool and becoming part of the grotesque mass of flesh.
With his fingers, he formed a seal before his chest, harnessing the power of the Time Book to encase himself within a separate dimension, shielding himself from the Perish Starfield and resisting the seductive pull of the flesh.
"She must have left this place," Yu Yuan mused, his surprise evident.
Once Yuan Li, the King of the Desolate Realm, had withdrawn the mountain, the natural barrier between the two realms had reestablished itself. Aside from those with dark life force powers like himself and Yuan Li, only the Demon Phoenix could traverse freely between the realms using the Phoenix Shrine.
Unexpectedly, the Secular Bird Queen had managed to penetrate the barrier after being exposed to the death symbols from the foreign lands.
"We've had an unusually smooth journey; I expected more resistance," Zhong Chichen mused, massaging his forehead. "Yu Yuan, could it be that someone deliberately allowed passage for you to reach the Desolate Realm?"
"Regardless, I must go," Yu Yuan affirmed.
Gazing into the Creation Pool and sensing the terrifying potency of the blood energy, he knew the power within this flesh exceeded that of the Origin Blood from both the Origin Realm and the Desolate Realm. It also harbored life seeds containing the ultimate essence of life, which he was eager to unravel.
"Yu Yuan!" Youyu's voice suddenly echoed from the Path of the Dead in the Perish Starfield. He emerged and flew towards the Time Book. "Are you heading to the Desolate Realm?"
"Why have you come?" Yu Yuan inquired with a hint of surprise.
"I can't make it on my own. I need your strength to escort me to the Desolate Realm." The heart stone on Youyu's chest glowed resplendently, having seemingly integrated into his Undead Sovereign form.
Yu Yuan narrowed his eyes and could discern ghostly figures within the heart stone.
Beyond the myriad spirits and spectral entities, there was a rivulet strikingly similar to the initial source of the Yin Meridian, teeming with wandering souls. The essence of the Yin Sunflower, like luminous silver pebbles, lay at the riverbed.
Youyu intended not only to journey to the Desolate Realm but also to transport the Origin Soul's belongings through the heart stone.
"The Origin Soul is with you?" Yu Yuan asked, taken aback.
"No, it has simply refined a separate Yin Meridian source," Youyu clarified, shaking his head. "It's still undecided. It sent me ahead to assess the situation in the Desolate Realm. This Yin Meridian source, a fragment of its being, could become its new form should it perish in the Origin Realm."
"Of course, if the conditions in the Desolate Realm are favorable, it will follow upon receiving my signal," Youyu explained.
"What's this?"
Youyu, observing the undulating flesh within the Creation Pool at Yu Yuan's feet, expressed his astonishment: "This mass of flesh emits a formidable magnetic field, possessing a potent warping effect on powerful beings of flesh and blood. Thankfully, I'm unaffected."
"Have you truly resolved to venture into the Desolate Realm?" Yu Yuan probed once more.
"It's a command from it, as well as a pact between us."
"Very well, I shall guide you there."
The Creation Pool, having detached from the Time Book, made its way toward the boundary separating the realms under Zhong Chichen's watchful eye.
With a tearing sound, the Creation Pool, as it traversed the barrier, absorbed some of the distinct blood energy that isolated the two worlds, significantly weakening the inter-realm seal.
Zhong Chichen, realizing his mastery over the forces of time and space and his status as a Tenth Level Dragon God, pondered whether he too might attempt to breach the divide.
