Chapter 595: The Heavens

Until the thread fully settled within the cradle, touching the infant's forehead.

The tip began to glow with a faint light, as if capable of piercing through all things, effortlessly sinking beneath the infant's delicate skin.

In an instant!

The infant's distant, indifferent gaze vanished instantly, replaced by an overwhelming, 极致 terror!

No!

Impossible!

That outsider, though powerful, was merely a Return to Void—how could they possibly…

Soon, the pitch-black pupils expanded, staining the entire eyeball a solid, ink-black hue.

If a Soul Transformation or higher cultivator were to use divine perception to observe at this moment, they would see the infant's flesh and blood radiating a faint luminescence, bones glowing like Bai Yu, their surfaces inscribed with intricate, winding mystic patterns.

After all, this was the will of a realm incarnated as a human—how could it be ordinary?

Although Mission World 4 had failed to ascend to a Dao-Union Bie Dajie, it had briefly touched that boundary.

As the world's own will, it had thus absorbed a trace of the unique quality of the Dao-Union Bie Dajie's Hun Tian Yi.

Later, it had personally witnessed countless cultivators within the realm modifying nearby small worlds to escape—and inevitably, it had developed an instinctive desire to "break free."

But the world was already on the edge of the Return to Void; even if it could shed some of the world's constraints, where could it flee?

Without turning the entire world into nourishment, it would ultimately perish alongside the world itself.

It had already resigned itself to despair.

Yet it never imagined an outsider, wielding a technique of unparalleled mystery, had arrived in this world, seeking to "save it!"

She had truly pulled this world back from the brink of destruction.

Since then, it had plotted to exploit the world's turmoil and break free from its constraints.

But the outsider's methods far exceeded its comprehension.

To avoid detection, it could only act in secrecy, splitting off a portion of itself to be reborn as this infant, concealing itself fully while awaiting its chance.

Finally!

It had waited for the outsider's departure!

It had thought the long-awaited moment had finally come—yet the result was…

Whispered murmurs, sobbing cries, wild laughter… as if the sum of all "sound" in the world echoed within the soul, coalescing into a single calm voice understandable to all sentient beings.

【Detected: Mission World 4's World Will has broken free from world constraints. Initiating correction protocol…】

Hum~

From above, a sliver of light descended, traveling along the thin, resilient, neither-real-nor-illusory thread and sinking beneath the infant's skin!

The chamber fell utterly silent, yet within the infant, a cataclysmic transformation unfolded.

In the unseen depths, the thread was slowly being drawn outward, its tip dragging something of immense weight.

'This is impossible—!'

A roar that existed nowhere in reality twisted in shadow, desperately struggling—but immobilized by the thread's power.

The World Will had gone utterly mad.

The current situation was utterly incomprehensible to it.

It could feel the portion it had cast into the world being peeled and extracted from the infant's body by this sudden thread.

But the problem was—the infant had been born precisely because of that portion it had cast into the world.

It could be said without exaggeration that it was the infant itself.

Yet now, it was being peeled out of 'itself' by this thread!

How could this be possible!

【Activating Protocol One—Annihilation】

Annihilation?!

As the calm voice, formed from countless sounds, sounded again, the World Will's thoughts froze in that instant.

Then, the twisted shadow at the thread's tip vanished like a drawing erased by an eraser, dissolving bit by bit into nothingness.

Above the clouds, boundless malice converged; jagged, pitch-black Lei Ting tore through the golden clouds above.

Boom!

Boom—rumble!

Lei She writhed wildly, radiating a heavy aura of destruction, as if ready to flatten the entire Floating Scenery City in the next second.

The four Foundation Establishment completions within Floating Scenery City snapped out of their shock from the Ascension Platform and shot skyward as four streaks of light, watching warily the pitch-black Lei Ting poised to strike.

Yet before they could devise a response, the malice hovering above Floating Scenery City vanished abruptly.

The Lei Guang dissipated, as if erased at its very root by some presence.

In the unseen depths, the entire world seemed to undergo some change—but the Foundation Establishment completion realm was still too low to perceive it.

They merely felt the world's lingering hostility, unchanged since the Return to Void elders had fled.

So they silently resolved to train even harder in the Soul Refining and World Restoration Method.

After all, when you live under someone else's roof, you must bow your head…

Especially when that someone is the world itself—even the Return to Void elders had to atone with diligence, let alone them.

No one knew—not even the five Return to Void elders sensed more than a vague impression.

The World Will was erased by the Tai Xuan Immortal Net on the day it was cast upon the Ascension Platform.

Floating Scenery City.

In the Xiangfang room of the Yuan family, the infant lay in the cradle, eyes round and bright, filled with innocence and ignorance.

And indeed, it was now indistinguishable from an ordinary newborn infant.

……

……

Deep within Mission World 4.

A sword-intent spirit-body of Xu Xing sat quietly in the same way, a longsword glowing crimson all over resting behind his back, while Immortal Net threads coiled around the fingertips of his right hand.

His gaze swept over the entirety of Mission World 4.

"Not bad."

He had discovered its intention before the world's will had even been born into the world.

However, considering that Qi Ling was still present at the time, Xu Xing suppressed the Immortal Net's world-detection function, wanting to see whether Qi Ling could discover it on her own.

If she could discover it, then this time she would be able to claim the full Ascension Points from all the rewards.

Unfortunately, until the mission was settled and she departed, she had not noticed any anomaly at all.

Of course, this couldn't be blamed on her — the difficulty of the missions for the first batch of Ascension Envoys had always been extremely high to begin with.

Thus, after Qi Ling departed, Xu Xing simply went ahead and tested the Immortal Net's 'World Detection' function.

With the prior lessons of the Tai Xuan Realm and the Earth Immortal Realm, from the very beginning of the Tai Xuan Immortal Net's design, programs to guard against the world's will and Hun Tian Yi had been incorporated.

As for the test results…

They were still fairly in line with expectations.

Only…

"Whether it's the world's will or Hun Tian Yi, they can only break free of the world's restrictions during a period of world upheaval."

The situations of the Earth Immortal Realm and the current Mission World 4 could corroborate this very point.

Then…

What about the Tai Xuan Realm?

The Tai Xuan Realm stands supreme, reflecting the chaos, eternally shining over all the heavens.

Yet how could a realm this powerful experience upheaval, allowing 'Heaven' to find an opening and descend into the world to become the 'Azure Ancestor'?

One must remember that in that final battle of those years, even the Central Continent had been smashed apart, and 'Tai' had transformed into the boundless starry sky.

Even so, the Tai Xuan Realm itself had not experienced the slightest upheaval…

Xu Xing's thoughts churned ceaselessly, impossible to still, yet he still could not conceive of any possibility that would cause the Tai Xuan Realm to undergo upheaval.

After a long while, he finally let out a soft sigh.

"My understanding of the Tai Xuan Realm is still lacking somewhat."

Looking forward from the current point in time, when he transmigrated to the Tai Xuan Realm, the Tai Xuan Realm was in the midst of its Remote Antiquity period.

As for the even more distant Greater Antiquity period, there was simply no way to know.

Let alone the 'Primeval Beginning' when innate Dao-realm beings like Gu, Xuan, and Tai were born.

……

……

Tai Xuan Realm, Sword Sect Outer Gate.

At the Ru Sect inspection checkpoint, a stream of people surged, lining up in several long queues.

On the other side was the free passage set up specifically for 'Xian Sect Special Recruitment' contestants, with comparatively fewer people.

By the roadside, Chi Jiuyu was waiting with Lin Xuanxuan, a box of snack pills given to him by Lin Xuanxuan still in his hand.

Pan-fried fish flavored.