Chapter 1313: Soul Relay Ancient Path

The broken random teleportation talisman, under the law suppression of the Youming Jie, had its effect greatly reduced and failed to teleport Yan Buji far away; after the spatial fluctuation subsided, he found himself in a deeper, older tunnel.

Both sides of the tunnel were black rock walls smooth as mirrors, etched with ancient murals already blurred beyond recognition, depicting incomprehensible scenes of soul conveyance and reincarnation. Beneath his feet lay a path paved with pale stone fragments, winding and twisting toward an unknown dark depth. The air was filled with a death aura denser and purer than the outside, and a faint residual spatial fluctuation seemed to come from a distant era.

"Is this… the Youming Ancient Path?" Yan Buji held the icy "Relay" token in his hand; the token seemed to resonate faintly with some hidden lattice here, emitting a weak warmth.

He recalled some extremely ancient rumors. In the age before the Youming Jie was fully divided and governed by the major powers, there existed natural passages connecting important nodes, called "Youming Ancient Paths". Later most of these paths were altered or abandoned; only those possessing a specific token could perceive and step onto these long‑forgotten routes.

"It seems this token is more valuable than expected," Yan Buji's spirit slightly lifted. Walking this ancient path not only lets him avoid most Youming creatures' harassment and the Shura clan's hunts, the pure Youming death aura here also aids his healing and stabilizes his newly‑born power.

He immediately sat cross‑legged, disregarding the danger of the passage, and began to fully circulate the Chaos Technique. The grayish, life‑and‑death‑turning Chaos qi streamed from his core, slowly wandering around his body. Wherever it passed, the hidden wounds left by forced fusion were repaired thread by thread, while the external pure Youming death aura was greedily drawn in, refined, and merged into this new qi, causing it to gradually swell, its color deepening and becoming more restrained.

His Chaos was originally based on "Chaos", encompassing all things. At this moment it merged with the Youming death‑silence source; its "death" side was greatly amplified, yet the "life" potential stemming from the "Infinity essence" did not vanish, but like the yang fish in a Taiji diagram, hid beneath the extreme "death silence", maintaining a dynamic, dangerous balance.

After an indeterminate amount of time, Yan Buji emerged from his meditation; his injuries had recovered three or four‑tenths, and his new power was beginning to stabilize. He stood, feeling the barrier between himself and this Youming realm had lessened considerably, allowing freer movement.

He continued forward along the pale stone‑fragment path. The ancient road was terrifyingly silent, only his faint footsteps echoing in the cavernous tunnel. Occasionally he could see scattered, long‑decayed broken armor or massive skeletons along the side, testifying to the ancient wars once fought here.

He reached a relatively open cavern, where three divergent routes appeared ahead. At the entrance of each branch, the rock wall bore a vague Youming ancient character.

The left bore "NIE" (Sin), from which countless cries of pain and curses emanated, resentment soaring to the heavens.

The right bore "FA" (Punishment), suffused with a heart‑pounding aura of destructive thunder and scorching karmic fire.

The middle bore "WANG" (Forget), a dead Silence where even light and sound seemed devoured, leaving only absolute void and stillness.

The three roads seemed to represent three different reincarnation fates, or rather, three manifestations of different Youming laws.

Yan Buji sensed briefly and dismissed "NIE" and "FA". The resentment and destructive aura of those two were too violent, mismatching his current need to calmly absorb death aura and comprehend the life‑death cycle. The middle "WANG" road, with its ultimate death silence and void, instead subtly aligned with the death‑silence side of his newly‑born Chaos.

He did not hesitate and stepped onto the "WANG" ancient path.

The moment he stepped in, it was as if he crossed a boundary. All external sounds, light, even energy fluctuations vanished instantly, leaving only absolute darkness and Silence. Even his own sense of Existence began to blur within this extreme "nothing".

"What a formidable Forget River realm…" Yan Buji thought coldly. This was not an attack but an omnipresent law erosion, meant to make one forget the past, forget the self, and finally become part of this void.

He immediately steadied his mind; the grayish Chaos qi within accelerated, emitting a unique vibration. This vibration carried the same death silence as its surroundings, yet also bore Chaos's unique, transcendent‑beyond‑life‑and‑death "I‑attachment" imprint, stubbornly resisting the Assimilation of the "Forget" law.

He walked within this absolute void, as if treading the end of time, the terminus of all things. Here, he gained deeper insight into his newly‑born Chaos power, now infused with the meaning of life and death.

"The utmost death is not an end, but another form of 'stillness', the state of all things returning to the void, also the starting point of infinite possibilities… My Chaos must encompass this 'stillness', and within this 'stillness', nurture the new 'movement' of rebirth…"

He felt it in his heart, no longer merely resisting but actively drawing a thread of the 'Forget' law's meaning into the Chaos qi, attempting a deeper fusion and extrapolation. This process was far gentler than the previous forced merging with the Nine‑abyss origin, yet far more perilous; a slight slip could truly lose himself, being completely 'forgotten'.

Just as he was immersed in this dangerous insight, a speck of faint light suddenly appeared in the endless darkness ahead.

It was an extremely ancient, broken stone pavilion, as if it had stood since antiquity at the end of this 'Forget' ancient path. Within the pavilion, a hunched figure, almost merged with the darkness, could be vaguely seen, back turned to him.

Yan Buji's heart tightened, and he snapped out of his insight, the Chaos Force subtly gathering. Whoever could appear in such a place was certainly not ordinary.

He stepped slowly toward it, stopping ten zhang away from the pavilion.

The hunched figure seemed unaware of his arrival, remaining motionless like a statue. On the pavilion's pillars were two ancient characters, almost worn smooth by time—"Soul Relay".

At that moment, the hunched figure let out a sigh as if laden with ten‑thousand‑year dust, turning slowly and extremely stiffly.

It was not a solid form, but an extremely thin, ever‑fading residual soul. He wore an ancient official robe whose original color and style were long indiscernible, his face blurred, only a pair of eyes—hollow, numb, yet seeming to have witnessed all cycles of reincarnation.

The residual soul's gaze fell upon Yan Buji, or rather, upon the "Relay" token in his hand; in the hollow eyes a barely perceptible ripple seemed to arise.

"Bearer of the token… may rest at this Relay… temporarily…" The residual soul's voice was dry and hoarse, fragmented, as if about to vanish completely, "but… the water of 'Wangchuan'… cannot be crossed for long… remember… remember…"

Having said this, the residual soul no longer paid attention to Yan Buji, slowly turned again, facing the boundless darkness beyond the pavilion, resuming its ancient unchanging Silence.

Yan Buji slightly furrowed his brows. This residual soul seemed to be the guardian of this "Soul Relay", or perhaps a part of the ancient path's rule. Its information was limited, but the four words "cannot be crossed for long" carried a serious warning.

He sensed his own condition; although he had gained much insight here, his will felt a hint of fatigue, the constant erosion of the 'Forget' law not being without cost.

He decided to heed this ancient warning, not delving further, but sitting at the edge of the Soul Relay pavilion to consolidate his cultivation using the relatively "safe" environment, while contemplating his next move.

"The constant conflict with the Shura clan will inevitably lead to massive hunts in the outside world; this Youming Ancient Path can provide temporary refuge, but not a long‑term solution. I need stronger power, need to fully master the secret of the life‑death cycle… perhaps I should visit the truly forbidden places of the Youming Jie…"

His gaze turned toward the deeper darkness of the ancient path, and the small "Relay" token in his hand that seemed able to point the way.

This tiny token might not only help him avoid danger, but also guide him toward the ultimate places in the Youming Jie where ancient secrets and powers lie buried…

After a brief rest, Yan Buji stood, gave a slight nod to the hunched residual soul's back, then turned and retraced his steps out of this "Forget" zone. He needed to seek other marked nodes on the ancient path's map, or, using the token's sensing, find a chance to leave the path and head toward his next target.