The Ferry Calamity Boat flew through the void of the Ancient Wilds' deepest reaches—no heading, no sense of time. Lin Moyu felt the aura of the Chaotic Ancient Wilds ahead; the world-rules were shifting in subtle ways. Compared to when he first arrived, his soul power had increased enormously and grown far sharper; his understanding of the world had deepened. He could sense the flow of the Dao and the world's changes more clearly than ever. With that, he no longer worried about losing his way—the world-rules themselves were guiding him.
Along the way he encountered several mindless beings; Lin Moyu casually slew them and turned them into nourishment for cultivating his realm-domains.
The world-rules grew clearer and clearer; as he neared the edge of the deepest region he could already feel the Dao of the Chaotic Ancient Wilds. To the long-silent trio—Little Tree and the others—this was the sweetest scent. In the deepest reaches, they hardly dared breathe; they even felt it was a forbidden zone for them. Born of chaos and the Ancient Wilds, they belonged out there, not here. Born strong and born knowing—but still with an upper limit, beyond which growth was hard.
Only when the Ferry Calamity Boat left the deepest region and formally entered the Wilds' void did the three finally exhale. The rules of chaos and the Wilds descended. The Dao in the Wilds wasn't as clear as in the chaos, but at least it was present.
Lin Moyu's aura began to surge. All he had stored up in the deepest region erupted at once; his strength rose rapidly—stronger and stronger—until in just half a day he stood at the peak of Chaos Realm great completion. One more step would be consummation. But now all his realm-domains were in his storage-world, completely detached from this world; under the world-rules, Lin Moyu was "without domains," and without domains he could not break through to consummation. He could, like Little Peng and Little Tree, absorb Primordial Dawn Qi to gain consummation-level combat power, but that would not be a realm breakthrough. Of course, ancient beings like Little Tree don't care about realm—only battle power matters. Lin Moyu is different: he cares about both.
Having hidden all domains, the world-rules judged he had none, so he could not reach consummation. His realm stayed at Chaos Realm great completion—peak state, able to break through at any time. In others' eyes that was already impressive; given his age, he was far younger than those tens-of-millions-of-years old ancients.
When the pressure of the rules receded, Lin Moyu activated the Causality Ring—fruit without cause—to lock onto the Purple Star Calamity Supreme's location. This time he openly targeted Purple Star. The other side would sense it, but with his current strength he no longer needed to fear. If they wanted to talk, great; if not, fists would speak.
Within the Chaotic Ancient Wilds the Causality Ring again showed its heaven-defying nature. The fruit took; a massive backlash surged in. Before, anything involving a Calamity Supreme would have killed Lin Moyu a few times. Now he merely frowned and shouldered it all. This also meant he could use the Causality Ring freely going forward—such backlash would amount to little more than a sting.
He activated the Hidden-Spirit Pearl, cloaking himself and Little Peng. In the Wilds, Little Peng's speed was still unmatched; riding him was far faster than the Ferry Calamity Boat. The ring's feedback put Purple Star extremely far away—they'd need some flight time.
"Let it go smoothly," Lin Moyu murmured. He had already synchronized time: from when he entered the deepest region, a full thousand years had passed in the real world, though in his awareness only a few years. Years inside, millennia outside—the discrepancy was huge. Who knew how far the Great Calamity had progressed?
Whatever the calamity's state, it mattered less than what he needed to do now. Before, he lacked the power; now he had it. First task: find them. "Please, no accidents—don't make this hard for me," he thought, riding on Little Peng's back.
He again used the Causality Ring—fruit without cause: "All my wives are safe." The ring buzzed; no backlash came.
Lin Moyu's face changed—fruit failed. That would mean Ning Yiyi and the others had met misfortune.
"No… that's wrong." He calmed himself and reasoned it out. If one wife had died, the causal thread would simply reduce by one; the remaining would still register as safe, and the fruit would succeed. For the fruit to fail, there were only two possibilities: either all of them were dead—leaving no "wives" in causality, which he would have sensed—or they were not in this world, i.e., in a place insulated from this world's causality—for example, the deepest center of the Ancient Wilds.
He recalled what the Golden Calamity Supreme at the South Pole had said: the Purple Star Calamity Supreme was doing something extremely dangerous—rare indeed in the Ancient Wilds. He didn't know what Purple Star was doing, but it wouldn't be simple. He wouldn't solve it by guesswork—he needed to get there fast.
"Little Peng—faster." Feeling Lin Moyu's urgency, Little Peng went all out. Each secret art was like a blink-jump, spanning billions of li in an instant—at enormous cost to himself. He didn't care: Lin Moyu's business was his; he could recover later. Every second saved mattered.
Lin Moyu's eyes narrowed, a dangerous gleam within. If Ning Yiyi and the others were unharmed, all would be well. If not—no words would be needed. He would show them how hard his fists were. However strong a Calamity Supreme's body and soul, he'd smash them. Calamities, schemes—all be damned.
The distance shrank. A journey that should have taken years Little Peng crushed into one. Near the end, Little Peng's aura was threadbare—on the verge of collapse. If not for Lin Moyu constantly feeding him Life Force, he couldn't have made it. Not even in the ancient era did a Golden-Winged Peng travel like this; this wasn't travel, it was flight from death.
Lin Moyu put Little Peng away to rest. Little Tree's roots spread out, seeking Purple Star's position. The Causality Ring had fixed a region, not a point; Little Tree would pinpoint the final target.
They were in a patch of void; Purple Star clearly wasn't in this layer of space. That didn't stop Little Tree. Moments later he whispered, "Found them. They're in the lowest layer of space."
"Let's go in," Lin Moyu said.
Little Tree opened layer upon layer. Space in the Ancient Wilds was heavier and more chaotic than in the chaos; layers often folded and clung together like a thousand-layer pastry. With a somewhat brute-force approach, Little Tree tore through layer after layer and plunged to the bottom.
The bottom layer was studded with space vortices linking the chaos and the Wilds—but as one-way passages: from chaos into the Wilds, not the reverse. These were naturally formed by the world-rules. With enough power one could reverse a vortex and force a path from the Wilds into the chaos, but aside from Calamity Supremes specialized in space, most couldn't.
Among the vortices were scattered points of glimmering light, seemingly random.
"There's a special independent space here," Little Tree said. "Those glimmers are its reflection. Inside is something odd—like it's severed from the Ancient Wilds. Master, do we break in, or knock first?"
"Courtesy before force," Lin Moyu said. "It's the Purple Star Calamity Supreme in there. I'm here to take people. If we can talk, better not to fight."
Little Tree understood. Roots reached out and knocked on the independent space.
Bang, bang, bang—three dull notes reverberated. The independent space shuddered, ripples fanning outward. If anyone was inside, they would surely hear—even in seclusion.
They waited. No response.
"Again." Lin Moyu frowned slightly. This semi-severed space blocked even Little Tree's senses; they couldn't probe inside. But since the Causality Ring pointed here, Purple Star had to be within.
Little Tree knocked three more times, louder than before. Still nothing.
Lin Moyu's patience ran out; a bad feeling rose. "Force it open."
Little Tree had been waiting. A sea of roots surged forth, forming two huge hands that grabbed the independent space. Instantly, the scattered lights blazed, and a faint, glass-clear outline of a space took shape. Little Tree tore a rift open, and a different aura rushed out.
Lin Moyu's expression shifted. He sensed an aura not belonging to the Chaotic Ancient Wilds.
"Feels like another world," Little Tree murmured.
"Go in first," Lin Moyu said. With a sweep of overwhelming soul power he cleared the leaking aura and then slipped through the rift. It sealed behind him; all returned to normal.
The space was large—mountains, waters, a pleasant environment. Lin Moyu swept it once and quickly fixed a target, streaking forward like a ray. The farther he went, the clearer the aura from another world became, mingled—somewhat chaotically—with that of the Ancient Wilds.
Following the trail, he soon reached the destination: a formation. It was unusual, unlike formations of the Ancient Wilds; the runes flowing on it were ones he had never seen.
Sensing through the formation, he felt someone inside. Odd or not, such a formation couldn't stump Lin Moyu; after a brief look he grasped its workings, drew a few runes, and sent them in. The formation opened itself. He stepped through like a master returning home.
Inside lay another space, fairly large. Here, the aura of the Ancient Wilds weakened, while that of another world surged. There were also many life-signs within the array—several very familiar.
"Found them." Ning Yiyi's aura and the others'. At last.
But in the next heartbeat his eyes narrowed. He clearly sensed Ning Yiyi and the others, yet they were not here.
"Up ahead, a space-time passage—to another world," Little Tree said.
Lin Moyu asked the Primordial Chaos Gem, "Aside from the Wall of Heaven and Earth, can passages to other realm-ruins appear inside a world?"
"Occasionally," the gem said. "Worlds in the Forbidden Zone of Life aren't fixed; sometimes they bump into other realm-ruins. Sometimes they separate at once; sometimes a space passage forms naturally between them."
Lin Moyu understood. Purple Star had found such a passage, built an independent space here, and sent Ning Yiyi and the others as teams to explore the realm-ruin. In other worlds, such expeditions are run by True Supremes, who set up many teams to explore realm-ruins. But these expeditions are dangerous; casualties are common, and total wipeouts happen often.
To send Ning Yiyi and the others on something this dangerous—Lin Moyu's fists clenched; thunder crackled around him and vast force surged.
He flew toward the center of the formation and soon saw a space passage. No one was here. On this side, a formation-within-a-formation was running; all the auras had been left behind here. Ning Yiyi and the others' traces were intact—all eight present. Judging by those traces, their realms were very high—apparently beyond Chaos Realm consummation. Besides them, there were other auras: one was Bóyáng Calamity Supreme, another also a Calamity Supreme he hadn't met—likely Purple Star. There was also a faint remaining trace—
Elder Sister. Lin Moyu sensed Lin Mohan's aura. She had been here too.
They were now on the other side of the passage.
Little Tree probed the passage. "Master, I don't sense danger there—for now."
No sensing of danger did not mean no danger. Lin Moyu didn't hesitate—he charged in.
This space passage was very stable—far more stable than the ad-hoc one Little Tree had built at the Wall of Heaven and Earth. Lin Moyu judged that some powerful artifact had been used as a base to keep it stable.
"Tsk, tsk," the gem said. "This Purple Star Calamity Supreme has ideas. She used Spatial Vines to bind two worlds together."
"How so?" Lin Moyu asked.
"Even if a realm-ruin touches another world and opens a passage, it's unstable and soon separates. Purple Star used a world-origin material called Spatial Vines to tie the realm-ruin down so it can't drift away; with other materials she stabilized the passage."
"So she put in real effort," Lin Moyu said. "I wonder what she found in that realm-ruin. No one does this without gain. She must have discovered something. But every realm-ruin is different—we'll only know once we go in."