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Location: Forbidden Area of the Wuji Holy Sect, the Cross-Boundary Ancient Array Platform.

Qi Yun held the Six Realms Heaven, standing at the center of an ancient array platform that was over a thousand feet wide.

Desolate Halberd True Monarch did not come to see him off in person. Only a faint golden sigil, imbued with his will, floated above the array platform—acting as both an overseer and a final safeguard.

Qi Yun took a deep breath, suppressed all distracting thoughts, and slowly poured his Magical Power into the Bronze Block in his hand.

"HUMMM—!"

The Six Realms Heaven trembled violently!

The minuscule, ancient script on its surface, like sparks catching fire, lit up in succession, bursting forth with a deep blue light that wasn’t harsh on the eyes.

The light flowed like quicksilver, rapidly spreading from Qi Yun’s arm to engulf his entire body, wrapping him in a cocoon of deep blue light.

At the same time, the Bronze Block left Qi Yun’s palm, floated three feet above his head, and began to rotate slowly and steadily.

With each rotation, its form grew a fraction more illusory.

Meanwhile, the surrounding space rippled like water after a stone is tossed in. Transparent waves spread out, growing increasingly violent, their edges showing strange, distorted patterns.

"BOOM—!!!"

At the center of the array platform, the deep blue light of the Six Realms Heaven violently imploded to a single point, then erupted with a deafening roar!

A viscous stream of Chaos Color, its hue beyond description, instantly pierced the space above the array platform, extending into an immeasurably distant land!

The moment the passage formed, the deep blue cocoon carrying Qi Yun was dragged inside by an irresistible force, vanishing from sight.

All that remained were the slowly subsiding ripples in space and the faint golden True Monarch sigil above the array platform, which gradually faded away.

...

Qi Yun was enveloped in a stable bubble formed by the power of the Six Realms Heaven, "sliding" along the fantastical and extremely unstable passage at a speed that defied logic.

Outside the passage was not the familiar cosmos, but a place known as the Void Sea.

Here, there was no up or down, no past or future—only an endless, turbulent chaos, constantly forming and dissipating.

Occasionally, he could see indescribable figures drifting aimlessly through the Void Sea, casting indifferent glances at the Six Realms Heaven’s passage as it shot by.

Here, distance was distorted, and causality became blurred.

At some point during this disorienting journey, Qi Yun’s gaze was captured by a "band of light" ahead and to the side of the passage—a band so vast it defied imagination, and so bright he couldn’t look at it directly.

’No, that wasn’t a band of light.’

’It was a... river!’

A river stretched across the boundless Void Sea, its source and end unseen, its width beyond measure. It seemed to be a confluence of countless brilliant stars, vibrant Dao Rhymes, the shifting light of civilizations rising and falling, the ephemeral phantoms of worlds being born and dying, and the purest power of time and fate, all surging together—a magnificent, colossal river!

The roar of the river could not be heard with the ears, yet it directly vibrated Qi Yun’s Dao Foundation and Divine Soul. It was the inexorable song of the Celestial Dao, the sound of countless ages surging relentlessly forward, irreversible!

’This is... the River of Heaven and Earth Years?!’

Qi Yun’s Heart and Spirit reeled in shock, and a look of astonishment crossed his face.

He hadn’t expected to see this supreme river again, here outside the Foundation Establishment Realm.

Just as Qi Yun reeled from his astonishment,

another change occurred in the depths of the Void Sea on the other side of the passage!

A deep, heavy shadow that absorbed all light and scrying was approaching at a constant, slow speed, moving in a direction roughly parallel to the River of Heaven and Earth Years.

Qi Yun focused his entire Heart and Spirit to get a better look.

’It was a... coffin!’

Its entire body was a dull bronze, a color that seemed to have weathered countless eons and steeped itself in the endless, desolate Dao Essence of annihilation. Its form was so archaic it bordered on crude, with no extra ornamentation.

Only at the seam where the lid met the body were fine, web-like cracks faintly visible, exuding a terrifying aura that seemed to isolate all things and seal all of existence.

The coffin was not particularly massive, only about a thousand zhang long.

But against the empty, boundless backdrop of the Void Sea, it seemed exceptionally stark and... heavy.

And beneath this ancient and mysterious bronze coffin,

to his shock, there were four figures positioned at the four corners, carrying the coffin on their shoulders as they marched onward in silence!

Those four figures were all shrouded in a hazy halo of light, their specific appearances unclear, only their general outlines barely discernible.

But from each figure flowed an incomparably majestic and utterly pure aura of the "Dao"!

It was an aura Qi Yun had encountered only recently.

’True Monarch!’

Four genuine, True Monarch Level existences!

’True Monarchs carrying a coffin?!’

The thought, utterly absurd yet unfolding right before his eyes, exploded like a thunderclap in Qi Yun’s Sea of Consciousness!

’Four True Monarchs, acting like common porters, shouldering an ancient bronze coffin and walking through the treacherous Void Sea?’

’What kind of being is buried in that coffin... to require four True Monarchs to personally act as pallbearers?’

’And where are they headed?’

Countless questions and an indescribable horror instantly overwhelmed Qi Yun.

The coffin-bearing procession took no notice of the passing "mote of dust" that was the Six Realms Heaven.

They maintained their constant speed and silence, gradually intersecting with the passage, and headed towards the deeper, more unfathomable reaches of the Void Sea.

They finally vanished against a backdrop where endless chaos and the glow of the River of Heaven and Earth Years intertwined.

Only the shock of that fleeting glimpse, and the heavy, silent image of the ancient bronze coffin, were deeply branded into the core of Qi Yun’s Dao Heart.

An unknown amount of time passed—perhaps an instant, perhaps an eternity.

The passage of the Six Realms Heaven trembled, and he felt a completely different resistance and texture from up ahead.

Qi Yun pulled his mind back from the shock and focused his gaze forward.

At the end of the passage, the hazy, massive phantom of a "realm membrane" was slowly coming into view.

The membrane had a vast, ancient, faint bluish-gray luster. Within it, one could vaguely discern rolling mountains and rivers and shifting clouds. It exuded a Heaven and Earth Dao Rhyme completely different from that of the Profound Yellow World, yet just as vast and profound.

Cangque Realm Heaven... he had arrived!

The deep blue light of the Six Realms Heaven began to flicker violently as it cautiously "probed" the azure membrane.

It was attempting to quietly open an entrance without causing a violent disturbance.

Qi Yun took a deep breath. His expression once again became focused and calm.

A strange new world, hidden dangers, the lost Fruit Position... everything awaited him beyond that azure membrane.

...

The cocoon of light deposited Qi Yun at the edge of a desolate stretch of hills.

Then, the Six Realms Heaven Bronze Block transformed into a faint glimmer of light and vanished into Qi Yun’s robes, falling completely silent as it entered a long period of Energy Storage.

The moment his feet touched the earth of Cang Que, a vast and ancient Heaven and Earth Spiritual Mechanism, utterly different from that of the Profound Yellow World, washed over him.

But almost in the same instant that his body solidified and his senses returned, Qi Yun didn’t hesitate in the slightest, not even opening his eyes to survey his surroundings.

Desolate Halberd True Monarch’s warning, like an iron law branded onto his Divine Soul, was instantly triggered.

"Seal!"

HUM!

In an instant, all the pores and acupoints on Qi Yun’s body, and even his Divine Sense, were completely sealed from within!

The Magical Power surging through his body like a great river was forcibly suppressed, compressed, and withdrawn into the deepest part of his Dao Foundation, becoming as still as frozen amber.

His Purple Mansion Sea of Consciousness stirred with invisible waves, and all his outwardly projected Divine Thoughts were yanked back, wrapped up, and sealed away layer by layer.

Even the flow of his mortal body’s qi and blood, the beating of his heart, and the rhythm of his breathing were suppressed to the absolute limit.

An obscure, heavy, and withered mystical energy began to spread over his body.

Wherever this energy passed, his skin, his hair, his Daoist Robe...

All his external features began to rapidly lose their vibrant life and color, their texture becoming rough, hard, and cold.

His Deep Blue Daoist Robe took on the grayish-white of weathered rock. The texture of his skin transformed into natural stone grain. The contours of his brows and eyes solidified in a grayish-brown light, subtly shifting. He lost some of the liveliness of a living being, gaining instead the rough, time-worn quality of a natural object.

In the space of three to five breaths, the young, profoundly powerful Daoist had vanished.

In his place stood a stone statue about seven feet tall, its posture natural. It was a deep gray color, blending in almost perfectly with the surrounding rocks.

At the very instant Qi Yun completed his self-sealing and fully transformed into a statue!

A lofty, cold gaze, one that looked down upon all of creation, suddenly descended.

It swept over the wilderness, over the hills and plants, over the streams and soil, and naturally, it also swept over this "newly appeared" stone statue.

Under this "gaze,"

even though Qi Yun had sealed himself to the utmost limit and turned into solid stone, a tremor of fear still arose uncontrollably from the depths of his Purple Mansion.

The feeling was like standing naked on an ice field, enveloped by the omnipresent cold wind and absolute zero.

Nowhere to run!

Nowhere to hide!

Fortunately, the "gaze" only lingered on the stone statue for a moment before receding like a tide, leaving no trace.

But that cold, indifferent, supreme majesty, a power that controlled Heaven and Earth, left Qi Yun feeling a pressure even greater than that of a True Monarch!

’So this is... the will of Cang Que’s heavens!’

The crisis was, for the moment, averted.

The statue remained silent, one with the wilderness.

...

The sun rose and the moon set; seasons came and went.

The rough, grayish-brown statue stood silently on the edge of the wild slope, enduring the wind and rain, the sun and frost.

After the first spring rain, tender green shoots sprouted from the damp earth at the statue’s feet, followed by a scattering of wildflowers.

During the sweltering summer, vines climbed the statue’s legs, their dense leaves providing a patch of shade and leaving winding green trails in their wake.

As the autumn winds blew, withered grass and fallen leaves piled up around the statue. A few unknown wild fruits rolled to its feet, rotted, and returned to the earth.

In the white winter snow, thick snow buried most of the statue, revealing only its shoulders and slightly bowed head. Seen from afar, it looked like a strange rock naturally protruding from the mountain.

Gradually, villagers from a nearby settlement, who came to the mountains to gather firewood and herbs, discovered the statue that had "appeared from who knows when."

Its posture was serene, and though its face was indistinct, it had an indescribable air about it, completely different from the surrounding rocks.

"Perhaps the Mountain Deity has shown his presence and left behind his Dharma Body?" an elder speculated.

And so, at some point, a small clearing was made in front of the statue.

Someone found a flat stone to serve as an offering table. Someone else placed a few pieces of their own, not-so-fresh fruit upon it. Someone even brought a crudely made ceramic incense burner, chipped at the lip, which held the bamboo remnants of several long-extinguished incense sticks.

The statue became a wild deity on this nameless slope, an untended god in a temple made of nature itself.

Children occasionally played here and would curiously touch the statue’s cold "body".

Passing travelers resting their feet would also bow twice to the statue, praying for a safe journey.

There were even bolder youths who tried to climb onto the statue’s shoulders, but always failed due to the slippery moss growing on its surface.

Day after day, month after month.

Beyond the mountains, in Qingyuan County, markets bustled and quieted, and crops were harvested season after season.

The plants on the wild slope withered and flourished for several cycles.

The offerings before the statue were replaced an unknown number of times, and the crude ceramic incense burner filled with rainwater and dust.

「In the blink of an eye.」

Nearly three hundred days and nights had quietly passed in the Cangque Realm.

...

On this day, the heavens were exceptionally bright.

The overnight rain had just cleared, and the sky was as blue as if it had been washed, without a trace of cloud.

The golden-red sun leaped over the eastern ridge, drenching the land in its light and chasing away the last vestiges of morning chill and mist.

On the wild slope, dewdrops on the grass and leaves sparkled with rainbow light.

A ray of sunlight fell on the stone statue.

With a faint CRACK...

This statue, which had been silent for nearly a year, slowly cracked open a small fissure.

...