After Lin Moyu left the grand array, it rapidly shrank, slipped into the void, and became a tiny point. From then on, the array had a master; a single thought from Lin could set it in motion. In Lin's soul-world, invisible lines appeared between his various arrays, linking them into a strange pattern that was beginning to surface. Once all the arrays were refined, they would form a single rune and unleash astonishing power.
Riding on Xiaopeng, he returned to the Jin Supreme.
"Junior's business is done. How are things on your side, Senior?"
"I've dealt with a tenth of it," the Jin Supreme said. "Give me a few hundred years and I'll finish it."
Though it was only a tenth, he already felt lighter. He knew that once he fully refined the Spider-God Web, he could separate himself from the Insect Stele, regain freedom, and go wherever he pleased. The Stele would remain his treasure—and he would also gain the Web itself. A hint of joy crept into his expression; his mood was clearly good.
"Then let me congratulate you in advance," Lin smiled.
"You've reached Chaos Realm—Great Completion," the Jin Supreme noted. "Seems that Calamity left you some good things."
Lin inclined his head. "The Calamity Supreme did leave this junior a few gifts."
"External power can raise your realm quickly," the Jin Supreme said, "but don't rely on it too much."
"Thank you for the warning, Senior. I understand."
"You're leaving. We may not meet again. Since you don't offend my eyes, I'll tell you one more thing: that fellow is not easy to handle. The Calamity brat's plan may not succeed. Boyang and Baizhong run around tirelessly, but it's of limited use. Purple Star—what she's doing—might actually matter."
"Purple Star is…?" Lin asked.
"The Purple Star Supreme—Boyang's Dao-partner. A formidable woman, no worse than the Calamity Supreme. Since the Ancient Era, only a handful have been worthy of my notice; the rest are trash."
Lin gave a wry smile. "That's your high standard. To me, they're lofty existences I can't hope to reach."
"'Unreachable'? Trash is trash," the Jin Supreme snorted. "No matter how you dress it up."
"Then… which few meet your standards?" Lin took advantage of the good mood to pry for more.
"Count them on one hand: Purple Star, Blackflame, the Great Sword Supreme, Nine Suns. Perhaps one day I'll add you."
In his eyes, the blue-robed Boyang Supreme, the white-robed Baizhong Supreme, the East Pole's Jiuyue Supreme, the West Pole's Xingquan Supreme, and even the North Pole's Supreme weren't much. That he rated Lin so highly almost felt like an honor.
"You flatter me," Lin said. He truly had never aimed merely to stand alongside them—he aimed to surpass even Dao.
"Don't be falsely modest," the Jin Supreme said. "As Calamity's will-heir, you won't be far off."
"May I ask one more thing—what is the Purple Star Supreme doing?"
"I don't know," the Jin Supreme shook his head. "She's very secretive; I know little. I can sense it's dangerous, and she seems to have a group of young women under her. If you get involved, be careful. You're on Calamity's side. In laying out his plan, he gathered allies and made enemies. The East Pole's Jiuyue Supreme and the Venerator of Nine Suns—sister and brother—have a grudge with him. If you run into them, run fast."
"Run fast"—Lin took the hint: those two would truly kill.
After a few more casual exchanges, Lin took his leave.
When he was gone, the Jin Supreme's eyes narrowed slightly, and a third eye opened on his brow. In an instant it lit the void like a blazing sun. His soul voiced words only he could hear: "After so many years, freedom at last. That place—I can finally go. Perhaps there, I can advance further."
His third eye gazed into the distance, across boundless space, as if through the Chaos to the Ancient Wilderness. His body trembled; his inner voice dropped lower. "Something else is coming. The last thing that came threw the Chaos Ancient Wilds into turmoil and ended our era… Will this new arrival end this era as well? Time is short. I must leave—escape this great calamity."
A thread of fear ran through his tone. He had lived too long, knew too much—thus he feared.
Seated on Xiaopeng's back, Lin mused, "The Jin Supreme said the Purple Star Supreme is leading a group of women to do something dangerous. What could it be?" He guessed his wives were among those "girls." If even the Jin Supreme called it dangerous, it wasn't trivial. Would his wives be in danger? Yet it wasn't time to seek them. Even if he wished to, he had no lead. He could only trust the blue-robed old man (the Boyang Supreme) and the Purple Star Supreme; they'd promised his wives wouldn't be harmed.
Little Tree found a wormhole. A strange aura flowed from Lin, and he vanished from the void as the Hidden Spirit Pearl wrapped him. No one could see or sense him—not even a Supreme. The Pearl's power then shrouded Xiaopeng as well; the flash of golden light in the void disappeared. Xiaopeng glanced down and realized he couldn't even see himself. "Amazing!"
Only Lin was unaffected; as the Pearl's master, he could see whatever he wished.
They swaggered straight into the wormhole without drawing any notice. The return trip was even easier than the way in; no one blocked them. Lin could feel the insects' soul-network had recovered, and he roamed within it like an invisible man.
Soon he left the southern core, speeding toward the edge—where war still raged. There he would locate a sub-array of the Cross-Domain Grand Array, refine it, and, once successful, only the North Pole would remain. With the Hidden Spirit Pearl, even a Supreme guardian in the north would be no issue.
Lin slipped silently into the South-Central battlefield. Moving through the war, he drew no attention—the Pearl erased his trail and his presence. He saw battle after large-scale battle. With the Insect Stele restored, the insect clans moved again; fighting filled the void along the South–Central border and even spilled into the Scar of Desolation. Corpses of the strong floated in space—but oddly, not a drop of blood remained, and all souls had dissipated.
"The North Pole's Supreme has acted," Lin thought, understanding. The Northern Supreme needed flesh, blood, and souls for a blood-sacrifice to the World's Wall gate. They wanted to enter the Wall to seek fortune—unaware there is actually nothing inside to gain. (Well—now there is Little Tree's rebuilt time-space passage; if they enter that, even a Supreme might perish in moments.)
He searched the battlefield, homing in by his sense of the array. It was far more accurate than when he'd triangulated in the West Pole. He also used the Cause-Seeking Ring, directly planting a fruit to further lock the location. Xiaopeng carried him noiselessly across half the battlefield, nearing the Cross-Domain array.
Suddenly Lin looked aside. It seemed empty, yet he felt someone there—then the feeling vanished. "Gone?" The other was hiding and suppressing their aura, but without a Hidden Spirit Pearl they couldn't escape Lin's perception. The area had clearly seen a recent battle; many corpses were still fresh. There should have been blood and soul-fragments, but both were gone—collected. Lin was now certain the Northern Supreme had moved.
"Decades have passed—I wonder how things stand in the North and East," he thought. "The West is likely just going through the motions—even if they fight, it won't be serious. But why do I feel something's off?"
He voiced the unease to Little Tree and Chaos Seed for analysis.
"Master," Little Tree said, "some rules of the Chaos are changing."
"Because of that thing in the deepest Ancient Wilderness?" Lin asked.
"Most likely," Little Tree said. "It's approaching the Chaos; its influence grows. You should have noticed—people of the Central Domain are fighting fiercer than before, becoming more warlike. They never feared battle or killing, but by nature they weren't belligerent—their qi has always been balanced and steady. Even in war, with killing intent everywhere, there remained a unique calm—their dao-hearts. Now that balance is fading, replaced by belligerence. The change is subtle; they don't even feel it."
As Lin passed more battles, careful observation confirmed the shift.
Chaos Seed pondered. "Little Tree, remember? Back in our time, something similar happened."
"I'm thinking the same," Little Tree said. "We didn't notice then, but it's true. Aside from the naturally bloodthirsty, some who weren't warlike later became so. I used to think it was for the sake of that flower; now I'm not so sure. A few were indifferent to the world and wouldn't have fought unless the flower was right before them—yet later…"
"When my memories returned, I mulled this too," Chaos Seed said. "I think I was influenced as well. Our era likely perished because of that flower."
"Right," Little Tree said. "The flower's appearance subtly altered our minds, sparked chaos, and ended our age."
"Now something else is coming from the deep Ancient Wilderness," Chaos Seed said. "Will it end this age?"
"Not necessarily," Little Tree replied. "Back then there was no one who could suppress everyone. Now there is such a being; it'll be hard for things to spiral like before." Even as he said it, he sounded uncertain.
Lin fell into thought. Their reasoning held, yet something felt amiss.
"Master, what seems wrong?" Little Tree asked.
"It's not wrong, just… incomplete," Lin said slowly. "That thing is coming—we know, the Supremes know, and it—Dao—must know. With its ability, intercepting midway isn't a problem. So why hasn't it moved? Is it constrained from acting, or has that thing screened off its perception? Another possibility: it's waiting for the Chaos Ancient Wilds to plunge into turmoil. After gaining that strange flower, it became the strongest—but still didn't truly rule the Chaos. There must be other reasons. Maybe it's waiting for an opportunity—for the Chaos to erupt; waiting for a peer to appear and then using them as a stepping stone: break to establish.
"Dao won't be content with the status quo. Perhaps this thing from the deep is its chance. It stirs unrest; the Chaos may fall into great disorder—that could be Dao's opening."
Little Tree and Chaos Seed fell silent, weighing Lin's words against their long memories.
At length, Little Tree said softly, "You've considered it more fully than we did. It may have lain dormant all this time waiting for such a chance. Whatever's coming from the deep could be it."
"Another angle," Chaos Seed added. "It might simply know more than we do—and thus choose better than we can, while we can only guess."
"That's true," Lin said. "And it's in the dark, watching the whole Chaos. Whatever the Supremes do, it knows—ready to act and force events along its desired path."
Little Tree's eyes gleamed. "But now we're about to enter the dark too. Maybe we can change the course—"
"No," Lin shook his head. "Until we have enough strength, we don't meddle—no matter what happens in the Chaos Ancient Wilds. We focus on our own work. If your fist is big enough, there's nothing you can't solve."