A cold wind swept across the plains as Li Yi and his companions followed the celestial map deep into the desolate frontier known as the Hollow Lands. Once a flourishing kingdom of scholars and cultivators, it had been abandoned centuries ago after a failed experiment involving space-time formations shattered its spatial stability. Now, the land bore silent testimony to its own ruin—flickering mirages, floating rocks, and strange gravitational shifts that made even walking feel like defying nature.
Mo Ruyan's robes fluttered as she came to a halt on the edge of a fragmented cliff. "This place…" she muttered, "I heard tales from the elders. They say time doesn't flow the same here."
Li Yi looked up. The sky was twisted, darker near the edges, with constellations misaligned. "We're not just crossing land anymore," he said. "We're stepping into the fragments of what once was. Be ready for anything."
Each of them had grown stronger since the Celestial Brand trial. Li Yi had advanced to the Spirit Condensation – Peak Stage, his Qi now rich with celestial hues and layered with Chaos essence. Mo Ruyan and Lan Qing'er had reached Spirit Condensation – Late Stage, while Xue Lian, ever the quiet storm, had stepped into Nascent Core – Early Stage, her body surrounded by soft waves of freezing yin Qi.
They moved cautiously through warped terrain until a colossal dome of crystal loomed ahead—shimmering in and out of visibility, half-merged with a collapsed mountainside. The celestial map pulsed within Li Yi's storage ring, pointing them forward.
"The Eternal Vault," whispered Xue Lian. "Said to hold the last records of the Ancient World Cultivators—before even the Upper Realms unified."
A pressure settled over them as they approached. Dozens of corpses littered the entrance—some dried and hollow, others reduced to charred bones. Runes were etched in silver flame across the stone threshold.
Lan Qing'er frowned. "They tried to break in. And failed."
Li Yi raised a palm, and his Chaos Qi flared—disrupting the residual runes without resistance. As the dome shifted and opened, a deep hum echoed within, resonating with the Celestial Flame in his body.
Inside, the vault descended through multiple spiraling levels. The walls were lined with ancient tomes, floating scripture fragments, and suspended memory crystals flickering with ancient cultivators' last visions. In the center of the lower chamber was a sealed jade pedestal—above which floated a spectral tree with glowing leaves, each one containing a flickering scene from a forgotten era.
They moved reverently through the chamber.
Li Yi paused before a slab of metal embedded with shifting runes. As he placed his palm on it, a memory surged forward—an ancient war council.
Figures cloaked in divine armor surrounded a circular table. Their leader, draped in star-metal robes, spoke gravely: "The road to the God Realm must be sealed. The Abyssal Sovereign has marked our bloodlines. We will leave behind fragments of knowledge… and a single prophecy."
A younger version of Li Shentian—his grandfather—stood silently in the back, his Chaos aura suppressed yet simmering beneath the surface.
"They feared our line," whispered Li Yi. "Not because of what we are… but what we might become."
Suddenly, the spectral tree above them shuddered. One of its glowing leaves darkened, cracked, and fell. The moment it touched the ground, the entire chamber trembled.
An ancient guardian stirred.
From the shadows behind the pedestal, a suit of divine armor reassembled—piece by piece—clanking together until a massive, eight-foot construct stood before them. Its helm bore the crest of the God Realm: three stars encircling a single eye.
Ancient Guardian: Tier-Three Divine Construct
Cultivation Level: Nascent Core – Peak Stage
It moved with mechanical precision but deadly intent, and in its gauntlet it held a blade of spiritsteel that screamed through the air as it was drawn.
"You are not of the Eternal Council," the guardian said in a voice like crushing stone. "Access denied. Intruders must be… purged."
Li Yi stepped forward without hesitation. "This knowledge no longer belongs to the dead."
The battle exploded in an instant.
The guardian struck with overwhelming might, its blade generating arcs of silver lightning. Lan Qing'er and Mo Ruyan flanked it, launching a pincer attack, while Xue Lian summoned a frost domain to slow its movement.
Li Yi channeled his Chaos Qi, merging it with the Celestial Flame. His body surged with multicolored light as he activated the second form of the Primordial Chaos Scripture: Heaven-Crushing Pulse.
His fist met the construct's blade, and a shockwave rippled through the vault, cracking ancient walls.
The battle stretched across the entire lower chamber. Every clash of power threatened to destabilize the entire dome. Mo Ruyan's whip lashed through the air, diverting the guardian's strikes, while Lan Qing'er's emerald arrows pierced its joints with pinpoint accuracy. But the construct adapted, countering their patterns with calculated precision.
Xue Lian, bleeding from her lip, released a forbidden technique—freezing her blood into crystalline shards that erupted into a spiraling frost storm.
Li Yi saw the opening.
He rose into the air, body surrounded by a halo of silver and violet.
Chaos Flame Burst!
He crashed down like a comet, striking the guardian's chest with the full force of his cultivation.
BOOM.
The guardian's core shattered.
The armor fell to its knees and collapsed, disintegrating into dust.
Silence reigned.
Then the tree above shimmered and released a pulse of light. From its center descended a fruit of solid energy—half gold, half obsidian.
Inheritance of the Chaos Star Seeker.
It hovered before Li Yi.
He reached out, and the fruit dissolved into his palm. Power surged through him—reconfiguring his meridians, expanding his sea of consciousness, and revealing a celestial path once locked behind bloodline chains.
Li Yi broke through on the spot—
Foundation Establishment – Early Stage.
But unlike others at this realm, his aura surged far higher. His body was now suffused with Chaos Flame and ancient celestial codes. Even the vault reacted, sealing its contents and releasing a final beam of energy upward—into the sky.
Outside, far across the Hollow Lands, that beam rose like a lighthouse in the dark.
Watching from a distant cliff, cloaked figures from the Sacred Abyss Sect narrowed their eyes.
"So, the Chaos Seed has awakened," one of them hissed.
Another—his body half-shadow, half-smoke—chuckled. "Then the true hunt begins."
—
Far above, in the fractured void beyond the God Realm, the Abyssal Sovereign stirred.
His laughter echoed across the sealed battlefield.
"So he lives… the boy with blood older than stars."
—
End of Chapter 24