Chapter 1361: All Laws Tend Toward Silence Extinction

The Shattered Star Wasteland presented a scene of strange, magnificent vastness far beyond imagination.

Upon stepping into the edge of the wasteland, heaven and earth seemed to be replaced. Underfoot, the ground was no longer solid soil and rock, but a strange material composed of shattered fragments flashing with various faint lights, as if countless stellar remnants had piled up; stepping on it produced a hollow, distant echo. The sky hung low, showing a twisted dark purple, within which countless huge, either intact or broken, glowing stellar phantoms hovered, slowly rotating, colliding, annihilating, casting ever-changing light and shadow. The air was filled with intense stellar power, chaotic spatial fluctuations, and that omnipresent, unsettling 'Returning to Void' sense.

This sense of Returning to Void was clearer and more essential than what was felt in the Nether River. It was not mere destruction, but the 'inevitability' and 'destination' of all things moving toward extinction and all laws falling into Silence Extinction. Being here, one could almost hear the sigh from the end of time and see the scene of the universe's end. Ordinary cultivators need no external attack; just this Dao resonance eroding is enough to shatter their Dao Heart and scatter their magical power.

Yan Buji's inner chaos core trembled violently, not from fear but from a kind of excitement upon encountering something akin to 'same kind' yet not quite. Chaos is the undifferentiated origin of all things, the starting point of all possibilities; while Returning to Void is the endpoint where all things cease and all ends. They belong to the most fundamental layer of cosmic law, yet are exact opposites. Now, in this Shattered Star Wasteland, the intent of termination is so intense that it instead stimulates his inner chaos force to become more active and refined, exuding a vigorous, uplifting vitality that opposes extinction.

Fairy Yueli's surroundings glowed with ever brighter, clear moonlight, but upon closer look, the edge of that moonlight was silently wearing down and opposing the intangible Returning to Void Dao resonance, emitting a faint sound like shattering glass. Her clear, cold face also gained a hint of solemnity.

"The Returning to Void Dao resonance here is stronger than last time." Fairy Yueli whispered, "The ancient formation may have changed."

Following the map and bone fragments jointly pointed out by Jing Xuzi, the Boundary Void Ancient Formation lies at the wasteland's deepest core, the 'Shattered Star Abyss'. It is a ring-shaped abyss formed by countless massive stellar remnants encircling it, bottomless, and also the source of the Returning to Void intent.

The two ceased speaking, restrained their breath, and hurried deep into the wasteland. The wasteland was no easy path. Giant cracks dotted the ground, spewing chaotic energy flows and spatial fragments; floating starbone fragments occasionally fell, smashing pits and triggering minor spatial collapses; moreover, some strange entities, seemingly formed from starlight and grudge, the 'Starbone Resentful Spirits', wandered about. Though incorporeal, they excel at attacking souls and can draw in surrounding stellar fragments to strike, making them quite troublesome.

Yan Buji and Fairy Yueli each employed their methods. Where Yan Buji's chaos force passed, resentful spirits were devoured and chaotic energy smoothed. Where Fairy Yueli's moonlight swept, resentment was purified and spatial turbulence frozen. Joined forces, the two Great Perfection Peak cultivators easily dispelled ordinary dangers.

However, as they went deeper, pressure grew. The Returning to Void intent, like an invisible tide, became ever heavier, not only eroding their magical shields but also trying to seep into their souls, arousing deep-seated fatigue, despair, and identification with 'termination'. Fairy Yueli's moonlight shield had compressed to three feet around her, its smooth surface showing fine cracks like ice cracks in porcelain. Yan Buji's chaos shield, while able to continually assimilate the Returning to Void Dao resonance, also consumed considerable energy.

After traveling several thousand li, the scene ahead suddenly changed.

On a relatively flat wasteland paved with dark silver stardust, three towering, cloud‑piercing broken stone steles stood in a triangular arrangement. The steles were neither gold nor jade, dark gray in color, their surfaces covered with ancient, twisted runes that emitted a faint vibration sharing the source of the surrounding Returning to Void intent but more obscure. On the ground at the center of the three steles was etched a huge, complex circular formation diagram; its lines were equally dim, yet faintly connected to the steles and to the wasteland's Returning to Void Dao resonance.

This was not the Boundary Void Ancient Formation, but clearly an important node on its periphery, or in other words, a 'outpost' or 'seal'.

And at this moment, a figure stood silently at the center of the formation diagram.

He was an old man wearing a tattered gray robe, stooped, with sparse gray‑white hair, a face as withered as dried bark, eyes tightly shut, devoid of any vital aura—like a corpse that had stood for myriad ages. Yet standing there, he seemed to be the convergence point of the Shattered Star Wasteland's Returning to Void Dao resonance, the faint light of the three steles flowing around him as a center.

Fairy Yueli abruptly halted, her clear eyes flashing with extreme wariness, even a hint of fear: 'The Returning to Void Envoy! It… has actually awakened!'

"Returning to Void Envoy?" Yan Buji gazed solemnly at the gray‑robed elder. From him he sensed a pure, unadulterated 'termination' Dao resonance, its purity and power far surpassing the surroundings. This was certainly no living being, but more like a puppet or guardian manifested from some rule or ancient power.

"Legends say the Boundary Void Ancient Formation has a guardian, formed from the formation's Returning to Void Power, upholding the will of 'termination' to erase any 'living' existence that approaches or disturbs the formation's balance." Fairy Yueli spoke faster, "It normally lies dormant, only awakening when the formation is threatened or specific conditions are triggered. Last time it was opened, it did not appear… It seems that we, or rather your chaos aura, have roused it."

As if to confirm her words, the gray‑robed elder's tightly shut eyes slowly opened.

There were no eyeballs; within the sockets swirled two deep, bottomless dark vortices, as if able to devour all light and hope. A chilling, soul‑freezing sense of dead stillness instantly locked onto Yan Buji and Fairy Yueli.

"Life… disturb… Returning to Void… when… Silence Extinction…"

Dry and broken, like a voice that had not spoken for millions of years, it echoed directly deep in their souls. Each word carried the heavy Returning to Void Dao resonance, striking their minds.

Before the sound faded, the gray‑robed elder—the Returning to Void Envoy—lifted his withered right hand toward the two and pressed lightly.

Without any earth‑shaking spectacle, only a dull gray ripple, hardly noticeable, spread silently from his palm.

Where it passed, space seemed to lose the concept of 'existence', directly turning into the most primitive 'nothingness'. The dark‑silver stardust ground vanished, revealing deeper darkness below. Even the pervasive stellar power and spatial fluctuations were easily erased by this 'Returning to Void ripple', as if they had never existed.

Fairy Yueli's face changed abruptly; she hastily formed seals, and behind her a phantom of the bright moon surged, turning into an immaculate cold moon that blocked her front, her moonlight condensing to the extreme, nearly solidifying into an ice‑crystal barrier.

"Yin Absolute Zero Domain!"

Yan Buji's pupils contracted; from that light press he felt an unprecedented threat. It was a pure crushing of 'Dao' and 'Li', a direct negation of 'existence' by 'termination'!

He dared not hold back; his inner chaos core spun at an unprecedented speed, his Great Perfection Peak cultivation bursting forth unreservedly! Gray radiance shot up from his whole body, no longer a thin shield but a surging chaos star nebula that seemed able to devour everything. Within the nebula, earth, water, fire, wind rushed forth, temporal‑spatial fragments drifted, evolving a terrifying scene of heaven‑splitting, earth‑opening and the birth and death of all things.

Great Chaos Divine Ability—Open Heaven and Earth, All Things Return to Void!

He likewise threw a punch; at the fist's tip, the chaos star nebula condensed to the extreme, becoming an infinitesimal gray point whose interior frenetically enacted the birth and death of the universe, and he slammed it fiercely into the spreading Returning to Void ripple!

At the instant Fairy Yueli's Absolute Zero Domain met the Returning to Void ripple, the extreme cold capable of freezing time‑space rapidly 'withered' and 'declined'; her moonlight faded and dissipated at visible speed, as if washed by eons of time, finally with a soft 'pop' the ice‑crystal barrier shattered, she let out a muffled grunt, a trace of silver blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, her body staggered back, and her bright moonlight dimmed by a third. Just one contact left her injured.

And Yan Buji's chaos gray point collided with the Returning to Void ripple.

This time, there was neither melting nor devouring.

But rather a fierce clash and merging of two fundamental cosmic laws!

Inside the gray point, the scene of cosmic birth and death and the Returning to Void ripple's 'termination' Dao resonance clashed wildly, annihilated, yet strangely coexisted. At the collision's center appeared an extremely unstable orb of intertwined black, white, and gray light; around it, space totally collapsed into a zone of chaos that continually shrank and expanded, and temporal flow became utterly disordered.

"Boom—!!!!"

Only then did the delayed, heaven‑splitting‑like terrifying roar and energy storm erupt explosively! From the collision point, a ring‑shaped shockwave blending the Returning to Void's dead stillness with chaos' ferocity expanded spherically!

The three ancient stone steles trembled violently, their runes flashing wildly, barely withstanding the impact. The great formation below flickered indistinctly. Fairy Yueli had already flown backward, simultaneously brandishing a moon‑entwined ancient mirror to shield her person, yet the impact still churned her qi and blood.