Chapter 1350: Order Ruins City

As if sensing his gaze and the end of the battle, the emerald‑green light of the crystal core brightened slightly. Immediately, a stream of emerald light, softer and purer than before, seemed to come alive, separating from the core and slowly flowing toward Yan Buji.

Within the light flow lay an extremely pure life essence and the solidified origin of law; more importantly, it seemed to carry a purifying will.

"Is this… part of the reward?" Yan Buji did not resist, letting the emerald light flow envelop him.

The light flow soaked his whole body; he instantly felt all fatigue vanish, his expended mana and spirit rapidly recovering, while surface wounds healed at an astonishing speed. More crucially, the stubborn dark imprint lodged deep in his spirit, under the scouring of this light flow imbued with the forest core's purifying will and pure law of life, melted away like ice under a blazing sun, swiftly dissolving and finally disappearing completely!

The lingering "Gate of the End" imprint that had troubled him for so long was finally purified!

Yan Buji let out a long breath, feeling his spirit unprecedentedly relaxed and clear.

At the same time, the amber seal on his brow heated again, transmitting new information—not in words, but as a vague spatial route map, along with fuzzy coordinates and a brief description of the "Order Ruins City".

"Guidance has been given…… transaction complete……" a weak but clear thought came directly from the life crystal core, the will of the forest: "Leave…… O disturber of chaos…… may your path…… find the true "Source"……"

The emerald light flow slowly retreated into the crystal core. The core's light seemed a bit warmer and more stable than before.

Yan Buji solemnly clasped his hands before the life crystal core: "Thank you, senior."

He lingered no longer, turned, and quickly left the crystal core space along the path indicated by the amber seal.

Passing through layers of ancient trees, this time he felt the surrounding inert laws seemed a bit "friendly" toward him, resistance greatly reduced. Under the amber seal's precise guidance, he soon found a hidden passage concealed in the tangled roots of giant trees.

At the end of the passage stood a space barrier shimmering with a water‑like halo; beyond it, a starkly different scene could be vaguely seen—a vaster expanse under a dull yellow sky, barren land, yet with towering outlines of massive ruined buildings.

"Order Ruins City…" a flicker of anticipation crossed Yan Buji's eyes. He gave one last glance to the dim, slumbering ancient forest, then without hesitation stepped into the space barrier.

The dizziness from entering the space barrier had not yet fully faded when a completely different aura enveloped Yan Buji entirely.

Dry, desolate, bleak—yet unlike the dead silence of the Silence Extinction wasteland where all things meet their end. The air here is suffused with a sense of broken order, as if a vast, precise, law‑strict civilization once existed; though now collapsed, its lingering law fragments stubbornly cling to the broken walls and ruins, resisting time's erosion and total chaos.

Before him lay a wasteland that stretched beyond sight.

Massive remnants of structures made from some bluish‑gray metal and unknown stone lay toppled, stacked, and broken at bizarre angles—some reaching hundreds of zhang tall, like mountains cleaved at the waist; others sprawled across the ground for miles, where the outlines of halls, plazas, and towers could still be discerned. The architecture is ancient and strange, with hard lines and complex structure; its surface bears countless dim runes that still faintly pulse with law fluctuations.

The sky is an unchanging dull yellow, without sun or moon, only a heavy layer of leaden clouds that seem condensed from dust and shattered law. The clouds hang extremely low, almost within reach; occasionally a faint, arc‑like flash of order lightning slips through a gap in the clouds, emitting a low, muffled roar.

Underfoot lay hard black stone slabs riddled with cracks; in the fissures stubbornly grew low‑lying, iron‑gray ferns that emitted a faint order glow, apparently mutant varieties adapted to this environment.

Yan Buji stood in place, carefully sensing. The laws here were utterly different from those of the aberrant Crimson Sea and the slumbering ancient forest—no crazy distortion or erosion, no gentle solidification or precipitation, but a rigid, framework‑like order. The spatial structure is relatively stable, yet the flow of law is sluggish, as if bound by invisible shackles.

He tried to stir a thread of chaos power, but encountered an invisible resistance in its operation. It was not suppression, more like a rejection—the chaos traits of "disorder" and "evolution" clashed with the lingering order laws of this place. He had to expend extra effort to let chaos power flow smoothly.

"Order Ruins City… indeed lives up to its name," Yan Buji murmured. The forest's will led him here for a reason. Perhaps the lingering order laws here are exactly what he needs to further perfect his chaos path, especially as a chance to understand the dialectical relationship between "order" and "chaos." After all, his chaos path stems from "chaos," yet also absorbed a hint of Han Wuxian's "Order Light," though later it leaned more toward "chaos" and "silence extinction." If he could truly comprehend and embrace "order," perhaps his chaos would become more rounded, drawing closer to the so‑called "Supreme Ultimate" state.

He did not rush into the ruins; instead, he first found a relatively intact section of broken wall, sat cross‑legged to regulate his breath, adapt to the local law environment, and thoroughly check his condition after the imprint's purification.

After several cycles of circulation, his state returned to peak. He rose and began cautiously exploring the endless ruins.

The ruins were not empty. He soon found traces of "activity."

They were semi‑transparent phantoms, like condensed pale gold mist. Their forms varied—some resembled spear‑wielding warriors, some scholars holding books, others busy artisans—slowly drifting along fixed routes in the ruins, repeating their former motions. They had no substance nor consciousness, merely law remnants born from lingering order statutes combined with the obsessions of past living beings; generally non‑aggressive, unless actively disturbed or stepped into their guarded zones.

Yan Buji avoided several patrolling warrior phantoms and, at a corner of the ruins resembling a library, found several relatively intact jade slabs covered in runes. Sinking his divine sense into them, he discovered not techniques but fragmentary information about the city's former laws, social structure, and basic rules of energy operation—though broken, they gave him a preliminary understanding: this was a mighty civilization that highly relied on and worshipped "order," seeking to regulate everything with strict statutes.

Going deeper, the ruins' scale grew ever grander and the lingering law fluctuations stronger. He even saw some relatively well‑preserved architectural cores—for example, the top of a half‑collapsed tower, still hovering with a slowly rotating golden prism crystal cracked all over, emitting steady order light that illuminated a small area and dispelled the dull yellow dust.

However, danger also came with it.

At what seemed the center of an ancient plaza, the ground suddenly blazed with a complex pale‑gold spell pattern! Immediately, several strands of solidified order chains shot out from the void and the ground at once! These chains were not metal, but condensed pure order law, appearing as pale‑gold translucent substance, flowing with the intent of confinement, binding, and judgment; swift as lightning, they instantly coiled toward Yan Buji who had stepped into the spell's range!

"A trap!" Yan Buji's eyes narrowed, his body darting aside. Yet the order chains seemed to anticipate his moves, shadowing him, while a few more shot from odd angles to block his retreat.