Chapter 1230: I Have Come Back

That day, Han Wuxian's "Original Self Returning to Void One Finger" indeed erased his consciousness and most of his essence from the level of existence. But Yan Buji, as the Demonic Sovereign who had pushed the Desire Dao to the Great Vehicle Realm, possessed a Dao Heart so devious and life-preserving methods so hidden that they far exceeded Han Wuxian's imagination.

While constructing the Desire Demon Nation and condensing the "Desire" will, he also secretly severed his most core, most primal thread of "will to survive," and using the strange treasure he had by chance obtained while traveling in the Forgotten Sand in his youth—the Extinction Stone Coffin—as a lure, he hid this thread of essence there in advance.

The Extinction Stone Coffin can perfectly isolate all aura and deduction, simulating an absolute lifeless state. Although Han Wuxian's Returning to Void Will is strong, he also failed to notice that this last thread of spark, long wrapped in the "Extinction" exterior and detached from the main consciousness, had been hidden there.

At this moment, this spark is undergoing an extremely slow change. It no longer tries to restore itself to the original "Yan Buji," but in this absolute stillness and desolation, it draws upon the ancient existence of this land, the most humble yet tenacious yearning of all things for "existence" itself.

The withered bones buried beneath the yellow sand, the dissipating grudges of wandering souls in the wind, and even the desolate feeling of this world itself heading toward decline… all these "Age of Dharma Decline" vapors that ordinary cultivators avoid like plague have become the finest nourishment for this thread of "will to survive."

It is transforming, being remolded.

A will that is more introverted, deeper, and also more dangerous is quietly gestating under the protection of the Extinction Stone Coffin. It no longer flaunts "Desire," but begins to understand "No desire brings strength," to understand "vitality in extinction," to understand the utmost "will to persist," which itself is a kind of strength.

In the cave, the throb of that point of black spark seemed, compared to three years ago, slightly stronger. It was no longer merely surviving, but had begun… the breath of recovery.

Far in the cave abode of the Myriad Souls Mountain Range, Han Wuxian felt, at this moment, an inexplicable ripple stir in his heart-lake. He again gazed at the thread of essence sealed at his fingertip; that throb seemed to clear for an instant, then quickly vanished.

He rose, walked to the mouth of the cave abode, and gazed westward at the endless horizon. The sunshine was just right; the world of cultivation was flourishing, as if the demonic calamity had completely become the past.

But he knew that some shadows would not dissipate so easily.

Consciousness, like a feather sinking into a bottomless abyss.

No light, no sound, no concept of time, not even a sense of "I" existing. Only an eternal, icy void. Is this the ultimate extinction brought by the Returning to Void Power? Even existence itself is wiped out…

No.

Within this absolute "nothing," a point of the most primal, most obstinate throb, like a drowning man instinctively struggling upward, suddenly tensed!

That is not thought, not memory, not even a remnant soul, but a survival instinct that had long surpassed the soul's imprint and merged with the Dao's instinct—the will to survive!

"Ex…ist…"

A thought so vague it almost did not exist rippled in the void. This thought bore neither Yan Buji's name nor his former glory and ambition; only the most basic instinct of a living being to resist extinction remained.

This instinct, this purest "desire," sensed the call of "home."

Forgotten Sand, a thousand zhang underground, the Extinction Stone Coffin.

That point of black essence, weak as a dying candle's spark, flared a thread! It began to beat at an extremely slow yet extraordinarily steady rhythm, like a heart on the verge of exhaustion receiving its first thread of vitality.

"Draw…"

Instinct drove it. It no longer needed to actively operate demonic arts; its very existence was the supreme method of devouring. It began to absorb, within this coffin, beneath this desert, between heaven and earth, every thought and energy related to "decline," "barrenness," "dead end."

The helplessness of sand grains weathered over hundreds of millions of years, the resentful stillness of buried bones, the most vicious curses of fading souls before dissipation, even the "twilight" sentiment emitted by this world as its spiritual energy waned… all these negative existences that ordinary living beings regard as deadly poison and shun, now turned into the sweetest nourishment, greedily devoured by that point of black spark.

These energies were no longer transformed into domineering demonic essence, but used to nourish that most fundamental "will to survive," to reweave the foundation of "existence."

The process was slow enough to make one's hair stand on end. One year, two years… time lost its meaning here.

The black spark gradually solidified, from an illusory point of light into a tiny, viscous droplet of darkness that seemed to bear the weight of countless ages. Inside the droplet, countless tiny runes representing various negative desires arose and ceased, recombining.

Consciousness began to sprout anew from pure instinct, like the primordial chaos parting, clear and turbid separating.

First to recover were fragments of memory.

A flood of hatred and brutality, like a volcano erupting from the dark droplet, nearly burst apart the newly condensed form! But immediately, a colder, deeper thought forcibly suppressed that anger.

That was a warning stemming from the "survival" instinct.

"Anger… useless… only hastens… destruction…"

The droplet surged violently, then gradually calmed. The newborn consciousness began, with an unprecedented calm, to examine itself, to examine the past.

"The Desire Dao… controls external desire, enslaves others' hearts… seems flawless…"

"But, external desire can be controlled; what does one's own heart rely on? Over-reliance on control becomes obsession… therefore, before his will that returns to the original heart… it is not able to withstand a single blow…"

One failed experience after another, each detail of clashes with the Dao, were repeatedly savored and analyzed. Without anger, without resentment, there was only a near‑cold rationality.

"Desire… is not merely plunder, not merely control…"

"The will to survive is a fundamental instinct…"

"In extinction, the will to persist shows its tenacity…"

"Only the utmost 'nothing' can give birth to the utmost 'something'…"

"So it turns out… so it turns out… the 'Desire' I once clung to was merely the superficial layer of desire…"

The dark droplet began to spin, exuding a more introverted, more profound implication. It no longer pursued outward display and control, but turned inward to explore the source of desire, to explore the relationship between "existence" itself and desire.

It began to actively guide the absorbed forces of decline and barrenness, no longer merely devouring them, but using them as a "pressure," a "whetstone," to temper this newborn, purer core will.

The droplet gradually elongated and deformed, outlining a vague humanoid silhouette. Inside the outline, bones and meridians began to be slowly constructed from the purest desire law and the intent of extinction. This is not a fleshly body, but a condensate closer to the Dao's law.

The five senses gradually became clear, still that handsome, nearly demonic face, but the eyes that once held endless whirlpools of desire now resembled two deep, bottomless ancient wells—dark, calm, reflecting nothing external, only containing the utmost yearning for "existence" itself.

At a certain moment in the third year.

Inside the Extinction Stone Coffin, the suspended black figure suddenly opened its eyes!

No radiant light burst forth, no demonic aura surged. Only a deep darkness that seemed able to swallow all light.

He slowly lowered his head, gazing at his palm formed of pure dark energy, and gently clenched it.

"I… have come back."