Chapter 1316: Being and Non-being

Old Ghost, you are always absent, and all of you from the Youming Realm…… today's 'gift', I, Yan Buji, have taken note of!

When I return from the Return Ruins, I will surely use this place's 'Initial Silence' to properly repay you all!

Before his words faded, the stone platform's light suddenly blazed, space violently twisted! Yan Buji's figure within the light pillar became blurry and transparent!

"Stop him!" the Asura war general's eyes nearly burst, burning soul power, he hurled the blood-red spear in his hand, attempting a final strike!

However, the spear, upon touching the peak of the spatial fluctuation, was bounced back by the distorted power of law, breaking apart inch by inch!

"Whoosh!"

The gray light pillar suddenly contracted, taking with it Yan Buji and that ancient stone platform, vanishing without a trace in an instant! Only a slowly calming space vortex remained where they had been, along with several pursuers who had lunged at empty air, their faces ashen.

In the valley, the purple mist recondensed, as if nothing had ever happened.

Only a trace of Yan Buji's chaotic death qi and soul-origin fluctuation lingering in the air proved that a shocking cross-world transmission had just taken place here.

An ancient nether beast expert, his whole body shrouded in a rotting aura, extended his withered claw to sense the lingering fluctuation, hoarsely whispering:

"The Return Ruins Sea Eye…… that place of exile even the sovereigns dare not lightly tread…… he actually dared to go……"

"If this brat does not die…… the Youming Realm will likely have to face a true 'Path Thief'……"

Stealing the power of the Demon Abyss, stealing the Order Light, and now even stealing the path to the Youming Realm's most ancient forbidden land! Yan Buji's road has already set foot upon the mad plunder of myriad heavens' Daos, achieving his ultimate chaos conquest!

The tearing sensation of the spatial transmission far surpassed before, as if not undergoing a planar jump but being cast into a cosmic digestive organ. The gray light pillar protecting him emitted a piercing wail under indescribable pressure, flickering uncertainly. Yan Buji held fast to his mind, spreading chaotic death qi throughout his body, resisting that terrifying force which seemed to utterly grind him down even at the conceptual level.

No one knows how long passed—perhaps an instant, perhaps eternity—when that maddening tearing sensation suddenly vanished.

The light pillar enveloping him shattered like fragile glass with a bang, turning into specks of flowing light that dissipated.

He fell.

Not falling toward the earth, but toward a stretch of…… "Nothing".

Here there is no light, no darkness, no concept of up, down, left, or right, no sense of time flowing. Not even does "space" exist as an entity. Only absolute, overwhelming "Nothingness". Deeper than the Youming Realm's ancient Dao of "Forgetfulness", more thorough than the Abyss of Silence Extinction. This is a state where even "dead silence" cannot be spoken of, for "death" itself is a state, whereas here, even "state" does not exist—the "Initial Silence".

Yan Buji could not feel his body, could not feel his energy, even his thought became sluggish and hazy, as if the next moment he would completely cease, merging into this absolute "Nothing".

"This place…… is it the Return Ruins Sea Eye?"

Intense sense of danger rang like a final alarm in his consciousness about to fade! He understood, the "Initial Silence" is not an energy that can be easily absorbed; it is a background, a condition, a law that reduces all things to "zero"! If he cannot resist, he will become part of this "Nothing" and vanish completely.

"No! My path is Chaos! Chaos contains 'being' and also contains 'non-being'! How could it be assimilated by 'Nothing'!"

The lingering will burst forth with final stubbornness and madness! He no longer tried to "perceive" or "resist", for in this "Nothing", perception and resistance themselves lose their object and meaning.

He turned inward, fully driving that strand of newborn chaos flow imbued with the meaning of life and death reincarnation!

Not to oppose the outside, but to evolve chaos within himself!

He contracted his remaining consciousness, the soul that remained stubborn after part of its origin was severed, and that strand of chaos flow into a single core point. Then, taking this point as the core, ignoring the external "Nothing", he forcibly opened up within!

"When chaos first opens, yin and yang undetermined, pure and turbid not separated…… this is precisely the beginning of 'Nothing', and also the start of 'Being'!"

"My body is Chaos! My mind is the Origin!"

"Give me…… open!"

A soundless boom exploded in the deepest reaches of his consciousness!

That core point suddenly expanded! Not an expansion of matter or energy, but a confirmation of "Existence", a birth of a "Concept"! The hazy chaos flow within him circulated, no longer merely blending life and death, but beginning to simulate and evolve the "Initial Silence" of this "Return Ruins Sea Eye"!

His Chaos, by nature, seeks to encompass and evolve all things. Now he regarded this external, absolute "Nothing" as an extreme environment and special nutrient needed for his Chaos evolution!

This is an extremely reckless and dangerous act. He is not absorbing the "Initial Silence", but attempting to found his own "Existence" upon coexistence with this "Initial Silence", even using it as a cornerstone!

His consciousness wildly oscillated at the edge of life and death. At times it seemed to completely merge into "Nothing", losing all self; at other times, due to the forcible evolution of inner chaos, a faint sense of "I" recongealed.

His "Chaos Domain" unfolded inside him in another form, no longer expanding outward but contracting inward, condensing, forming a subtle balance with this external "Nothing". The hazy flow's color grew deeper, nearly transparent, its connotation of "dead silence" intensifying to the extreme, even beginning to inversely affect the external "Nothing", around the core of his consciousness he forged an exceedingly tiny yet truly existent "Island of Existence"!

After who knows how many cycles of consciousness annihilation and rebirth, finally

Yan Buji violently "opened his eyes".

He still could not feel his familiar flesh, nor sense energy flowing. But he could clearly "perceive" his own "Existence". He seemed to have become an intangible, constantly arising and ceasing "Chaos Thought", suspended in this absolute "Nothing".

He succeeded!

He was not assimilated by the Return Ruins Sea Eye; instead, aided by this utmost "Initial Silence", he completed a crucial tempering and elevation of his own Chaos Path! His Chaos, in true meaning, encompassed the concept of "Nothing", becoming deeper and more primordial. Although his total power had not recovered much, its essence had undergone a transformative metamorphosis!