Your Spell Version is Too Low!

Beneath his wide sleeves, Qi Yun’s fingers shifted in a motion almost imperceptible to the naked eye. A faint light, like flowing Star Dust, swirled at his fingertips.

He was attempting to divine the threads of cause and effect, to grasp a sliver of an omen regarding the fortune of the three brocade boxes before him, and even the entire Upper Profound Celestial Palace.

Although he was currently only at the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage, the nature of his Venerable Dao Foundation meant his Dao Position was already on par with that of a Great Master.

His reserves of Magical Power and accumulation of Divine Techniques were not yet a match for those ancient monsters who had cultivated for ages.

But he already possessed some of the power of a Great Master.

However—

As the Dao Rhyme circulated at his fingertips, Qi Yun’s brow slowly furrowed.

Blank.

What he saw was a heart-stopping, pure BLANKNESS.

It was not a concealing fog, nor was it the chaos of heavenly secrets, but a more fundamental "nothingness."

It was as if this Celestial Palace floating in the sea of clouds, these three brocade boxes lying quietly on the floor, and even the Side Hall he currently occupied existed apart from it all. They were independent, outside the Sea of Cause and Effect that runs through Heaven and Earth and time, maintaining the cycle of fortune and failure for all things.

There were no tethers to past causes, no threads leading to future effects.

They were like a still life painted on the void, utterly disconnected from the ceaseless pulse of the real world.

’A place untouched by cause and effect...’ Qi Yun felt a chill in his heart.

’The methods of a True Monarch truly touch upon the very roots of the Great Dao. To think they could carve out such a "causal vacuum" from thin air?’

And yet, even existences this powerful had been drowned in the endless river of time.

Just as his thoughts raced, weighing whether he should risk opening the brocade boxes,

a Spiritual Sense transmission from God of Wealth Cai Shen, deep within his Purple Mansion, suddenly rang out as a sharp warning:

"Careful!"

Without a shred of doubt, Qi Yun’s solid form instantly dissolved into a wisp of Clear Wind, vanishing on the spot.

At that very same instant.

A figure appeared without any warning, right where he had just been standing.

It was a Daoist.

He wore a simple, ancient-style, grayish-white Daoist Robe. His figure was gaunt, his face plain, and his features were so blurry they seemed veiled in a thin mist.

But what was truly bizarre was that his entire being—from his hair to his Daoist Robe, from his skin to his eyes—was a uniform, lifeless, dead white.

It made the Daoist look like a simple, casually drawn sketch.

The moment this dead-white figure appeared, its right hand was extended forward, its fingers slightly curved into a claw.

Its fingertips were positioned—precisely where Qi Yun’s head had just been!

Silent. Still. No fluctuations of Spiritual Power. It didn’t even stir a wisp of air.

If not for God of Wealth’s warning cry and Qi Yun’s impossibly fast reaction,

that claw would have silently clamped down on the top of his skull.

Qi Yun’s figure reformed dozens of feet away. His gaze narrowed to cold points of starlight as he stared fixedly at the bizarre Dead White Daoist that had appeared.

’What... is this thing?’

Even with his current Divine Sense and the perception granted by Daluo Heaven, he had completely failed to notice how this thing had appeared or approached.

It had no aura of life, no fluctuations of Magical Power, not even a sense of "presence."

If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, his Divine Sense would have simply registered a patch of "blankness"—the exact same feeling he’d had when trying to divine cause and effect.

The Dead White Daoist seemed not to react to its failed attack, remaining frozen for a moment in that forward-reaching posture.

Then it slowly lowered its arm, its movements sluggish, like a puppet with rusty joints.

As it lowered its right hand, the back of its hand happened to brush against the edge of the verdigris-mottled Purple Copper Incense Burner that lay toppled nearby.

No sound.

No flash of light.

The very instant of contact.

That corner of the incense burner—a hard vessel that had endured the erosion of endless ages and hadn’t even cracked when struck by immense force earlier—silently... vanished.

It was as if an "eraser" had gently wiped away a corner of a scroll.

The edge of the missing section was as smooth as a mirror, as if that part of the incense burner had never existed in the first place.

Qi Yun’s pupils contracted violently.

"It’s a Dao Evil."

God of Wealth’s urgent Spiritual Sense transmission exploded in Qi Yun’s Sea of Consciousness, his voice carrying a rare solemnity:

"This is a bizarre entity formed from the dying regrets of a True Monarch.

It is formless and substanceless, neither living nor dead—the manifestation of a ’flawed’ piece of the Great Dao.

All techniques below the True Monarch Level are completely useless against it!

Furthermore, this creature is saturated with the Power of Transformation.

Anything it touches will be instantly erased, just like that incense burner!

There’s no logic to it, no way to resist it. The moment it touches you, you undergo the Transformation Dao!"

"Go, now!

You can’t fight it head-on, you can’t even stall for time!

If it so much as grazes you, you will instantly and utterly vanish from this world, with no chance of reincarnation!"

God of Wealth didn’t need to say another word. Qi Yun already understood the horror before him.

"Go!"

He barked, his voice decisive and utterly without hesitation.

The instant the word "Go!" left his lips, Qi Yun’s hands formed a complex Ancient Seal before his chest.

"Array, activate!"

He stomped heavily on the ground!

The smooth, cloud-patterned White Jade floor beneath him suddenly erupted with a blinding Chaos-Colored light!

Countless fine and profound Array Patterns, as if alive, spread madly out from where he stood. They wove and interlinked, instantly forming the spectral image of a massive Array Map that covered the entire Side Hall!

The light of the array shot upward, transforming into countless streams of chaotic energy and illusory Dao phantoms that surged like a tidal wave toward the silently standing, dead-white figure of the Dao Evil!

Qi Yun didn’t make this move with any vain hope of injuring or trapping the terrifying creature.

God of Wealth had said that techniques below the True Monarch Level were almost useless.

All he wanted was a chance, however brief, to force the bizarre creature to follow some kind of "rule" rather than act completely at random.

It worked!

The instant the array’s light swept over it, the Dao Evil began to "react."

Its hollow, dead-white eyes swiveled slightly to "look" at the surging torrent of light.

Then it raised the right hand that had just erased a corner of the incense burner and gave a light wave at the chaotic light rushing toward it.

As if brushing away a speck of dust.

Without a sound, the vast torrent of light—powerful enough to trap and kill an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator—instantly melted away where it met the dead-white hand. Like snow under a blazing sun, it simply dissipated into nothingness!

"Now!"

A sharp glint flared in Qi Yun’s eyes. With a low shout, he turned and fled.

The Daluo Heaven Magical Power in his body ignited, transforming him into an unprecedentedly brilliant, chaotic streak of light. He shot toward the portal at the edge of the sea of clouds—the gateway back to the outside world!

The streak of light tore a vacuum tunnel through the sea of clouds that shrieked and refused to close.

Back in the Side Hall, the Dao Evil seemed to "notice" its prey’s escape.

It slowly turned to face the sea of clouds outside, its hollow, dead-white eyes "watching" the chaotic streak of light rapidly receding into the distance.

It made no move to pursue.

It just stood there silently. Then, like a drop of water soaking into sand, its figure slowly faded and grew transparent.

It seemed that it would not relentlessly pursue anyone who chose to leave the Upper Profound Celestial Palace.

A few breaths later, the Dao Evil’s figure vanished completely from the ravaged Side Hall, as if it had never been there at all.

Only the Purple Copper Incense Burner on the floor, now missing a corner, silently testified to the heart-stopping, life-or-death terror of that single moment.

...

The chaotic streak of light tore through the sea of clouds. Moving at a speed that nearly surpassed his current limits, Qi Yun rushed toward the location he remembered from their arrival.

Finally, the sea of clouds churned ahead, and the spectral silver portal faintly came into view.

"Open the gate!"

The moment Qi Yun spoke, Situ Huaji, who was right behind him, immediately activated the Treasure Key in his body, and the silver portal opened once more.

Without slowing down, the streak of light that was Qi Yun plunged headfirst into the swirling silver chaos.

The familiar sensation of warped space-time and disorienting lights washed over him.

A few breaths later, the scene before his eyes snapped into focus.

The ink-black seawater, the low, moaning sea breeze, and the familiar night sky overhead with its enormous stars.

They were out.

Back on solid ground.

Qi Yun dispersed his Escape Light and let out a faint sigh of relief.

He glanced back at the massive, slowly spinning, and eternally unchanging whirlpool of the Sea Eye, a complex look flashing in his eyes.

’The Celestial Court’s Relics, the Upper Profound Celestial Palace... they were so close, yet that terrifying Dao Evil ruined everything at the last second. We couldn’t even touch the three brocade boxes that were right in front of us...’

To say he wasn’t disappointed would be a lie.

Just as he was feeling a pang of melancholy,

Situ Huaji, standing beside him and having just recovered from his terror, suddenly broke into a strange smile—a mixture of lingering fear and irrepressible excitement.

He glanced around furtively to confirm that the "Dao Evil" hadn’t followed them out, then carefully reached a hand inside his robes.

Under Qi Yun’s rather stunned gaze, Situ Huaji pulled three foot-square boxes of varying materials from inside his tattered Fierce Demon Daoist Robe—

—brocade boxes.

One was dark gold with cloud-and-thunder patterns, one was made of indigo-green cold jade, and one was ebony wood affixed with a Cinnabar sealing strip.

They were none other than the three ancient, undamaged brocade boxes that had been lying in the wreckage of the Upper Profound Celestial Palace’s Side Hall!

"Heh heh..."

Situ Huaji cradled the three brocade boxes, his smile widening until it was almost a distorted grimace of excitement. He lowered his voice, which was filled with an inexpressible mix of smugness and relief:

"Master... things were critical back there. This junior saw you were focused on that terrifying monster, so I... I took the liberty of grabbing these on the way out."

He licked his dry lips, his eyes gleaming.

"The goods... they’re all here!"

...