Chapter Four: Where Is This? Chaos?

At this moment, Chen Xing gave off an unsettling aura. Though a sigh escaped his lips, he did not seem truly conscious. Most astonishing of all, a purple bead was embedded in the very center of his forehead, lending him an eerie and supernatural appearance.

It turned out that when Chen Xing was hurled through the air, fate intervened: the bead he wore around his neck struck his forehead at the very instant he landed. In that moment, Chen Xing lost all sensation. No one noticed that as the bead pierced his brow, the blood that should have flowed mingled seamlessly into the bead, not a single drop spilling out.

...

The battle in the clearing was drawing to its end. Out of the seven warriors, including Wen Jun, four now lay lifeless in pools of blood. After all, what could they do against monsters that simply could not be killed?

"Captain, I can't accept this. I just can't!" The three remaining men, their backs pressed against a massive boulder, faced the monsters advancing step by step, roaring in defiance.

Indeed, who could accept such a fate? Four comrades lost, and not a single monster slain. Wen Jun forced a bitter smile. "Enough. Our brothers are waiting for us. Are you afraid?" "No!" came the hoarse, unified shout.

"Kill!" As they prepared to charge one final time, a sudden change swept over the scene. The monsters surrounding them began to tremble as if encountering their natural enemy, all their former savagery instantly gone.

The group looked about in confusion and saw that Chen Xing, previously unconscious, now floated in midair, eyes closed. The purple bead at his brow radiated wave after wave of violet ripples, enveloping the entire uncanny space.

Strangely, not only did the monsters quake in fear, but the black clouds atop the mountain, which had been spewing forth more monsters, abruptly ceased and began to shudder. From their original size, vast as a hundred feet across, they shrank to a mere ten feet in diameter and slowly descended to the mountaintop, spreading out as if kneeling in reverence to Chen Xing, suspended in the air.

At that moment, the Azure Dragon circling the sky and the White Tiger atop the mountain also prostrated themselves, bowing their heads to the ground before Chen Xing, not daring to lift their gaze, as if in the presence of a divinity.

Just then, a cold, emotionless voice echoed through the space: "Calamity, is it? The Lord of Dao has not returned; you must bide your time." As the words faded, the rusty sword that had fallen from Chen Xing's grasp began to rise, and as it floated upward, the rust vanished as if erased by an unseen hand.

By the time the sword hovered before Chen Xing, it blazed with crimson light, exuding a boundless majesty laced with the aura of death. Three ancient characters shone with brilliance upon the hilt. Though Wen Jun and the others could not read them, they somehow knew, with eerie certainty, the name: The Immortal Entombing Sword.

They were stunned. The Immortal Entombing Sword? The legendary blade from myth? One of the Four Immortal-Slaying Swords? Impossible!

The sword hovered before Chen Xing's brow, and the purple bead shot forth a ray of red light, striking the blade. Instantly, the sword's radiance intensified. It soared up toward the black clouds on the mountaintop, threatening to strike them down. The black clouds shivered and emitted a strange ripple of energy. The sword paused, hanging motionless in the air.

"Though you are destined to emerge, the Lord of Dao has not returned, and Heaven must not destroy the Ancestral Star. I will not annihilate you now. When the Lord returns, Heaven and Dao will settle accounts. For now, I seal you away for a time—be gone!" The cold voice issued its decree. With that, the sword blazed forth, sweeping the black smoke up in its wake and vanishing into the heavens.

"You sacred beasts have guarded the Ancestral Star for countless years. When the Lord returns, your fate will be decided. Return to your places, and await your destinies."

At these words, the Azure Dragon and White Tiger on the mountaintop bowed their heads deeply and vanished in an instant. A flash of earthy-yellow light revealed the Black Tortoise, serpentine-headed and turtle-bodied, who approached and bowed to the still-floating, eyes-closed Chen Xing before fading away.

...

Wen Jun and the others stared dumbfounded at the scene before them. When the Black Tortoise disappeared, the environment around them suddenly shifted. They found themselves once more in the forests of Shennongjia. Everything that had happened seemed like a dream—except the corpses of their fallen comrades nearby proved it was all too real.

"Sigh. You may go now. But know this: a great calamity still awaits the Ancestral Star. Take care in the days to come." As the voice faded, a beam of light flashed out of nowhere. Wen Jun and the others blinked and suddenly found themselves standing at the outskirts of Shennongjia. Before them stood Wang Yan and the rest of their team, eyes wide with shock at their sudden appearance.

Still dazed, none of them had time to speak before a feeble, broken voice reached their ears: "I... Wasn't I dead? What... what's going on?"

Wen Jun spun around in astonishment. The four comrades who had died now opened their eyes, returned to life.

A dozen pairs of eyes stared at each other in disbelief. Wang Yan asked, "Captain, what on earth just happened?"

Wen Jun was silent for a moment. "We'll talk about it when we get back." He turned to the soldiers behind him and said sternly, "This is an order: not a word about what happened today to anyone, unless authorized by your superiors. Any violation will be dealt with under military law!"

"Yes, Captain!" they replied in unison. They understood only too well the consequences of speaking of such uncanny matters.

"I want to ask—where's my brother Chenzi? Captain?" the portly soldier pressed anxiously.

Wen Jun regarded him deeply. "I can't tell you now. All I can say is that he should be all right." "What do you mean, 'should be all right'? What happened? Where is he?" The portly man grew agitated, his emotions threatening to boil over.

Seeing his distress, and anxious to report the day's events, Wen Jun exchanged a glance with Wang Yan. She understood, and with a swift blow to the back of the man's neck, knocked him unconscious.

"Carry him. We're heading back." He set off at once, muttering to himself: Ancestral Star, great calamity...

...

After all had been sent away, Chen Xing, still with eyes closed, murmured to himself, "It's time to return. The endless tribulation—ha." With a wave of his hand, a river of immeasurable length appeared before him, stretching across the very fabric of time and space, its end lost to sight. Upon its waves, countless blossoms rose and fell, each seeming to contain a world, cycling endlessly from destruction to birth, life to death...

A beam of light shot from the purple bead at Chen Xing's brow, connecting to the source of the river of time and space. In an instant, both he and the river vanished from this world.

...

Dazed and groggy, Chen Xing slowly regained consciousness. When he opened his eyes, he found himself shrouded in misty darkness—there was not a hint of light. "Huh, it's not dawn yet. I'll sleep a bit longer." He rolled over, about to drift off again.

"No, wait, didn't I just run into some monsters?" With a start, Chen Xing was fully awake. Looking around, he saw only endless, boundless chaos, himself floating in the void.

"Where am I? Is this outer space?" Chen Xing was completely bewildered. Even if he had died, he couldn't possibly have ended up with a burial in space.

He examined himself—yes, it was still his own body. As he tried to piece together where he was, a sudden, stabbing pain shot through his brow. An immense flood of memories surged into his mind. Overwhelmed, Chen Xing lost consciousness once more...

Lost in the endless passage of time, Chen Xing finally woke from his stupor. With a helpless, wry smile, he realized from the memories he'd received that he understood a few things. But the memory was so vast that he had absorbed only a billionth of it.

Even that fraction was almost too much to bear. From the memories, he gathered that he now dwelled in the primordial chaos, before Pangu split heaven and earth—yet he was not a time traveler.

Why had he suddenly come from the modern world to this time before creation, yet not as a transmigrant? This mystery eluded him for now. The memories told him so, just as they told him why his physical body could survive in the chaos—something almost impossible to explain.

Chen Xing touched his forehead with a bitter smile. It was smooth and unmarked, but he knew the bizarre purple bead was still there. Though he did not yet know what it was, he understood that everything now was due to its presence.

With a flicker, his form entered a vast, empty space veined with twisting purple currents, its size immeasurable.

Suddenly, Chen Xing's eyes widened. In one corner of this space was a heap of familiar objects: swords, bells, cauldrons, banners, spears—dozens in all. They were the "junk" he had picked up in dreams as a child. Somehow, they had all appeared here.

He had learned of the space within the bead from the memories, but finding these dream-found items here filled Chen Xing with both surprise and delight.

He hurried forward and picked up a tower-shaped object. The moment it touched his hand, information flooded his mind: "Hongmeng Pagoda, born of the primordial chaos, contains a vast world within. Once refined, it will nurture life of its own accord. Generates endless primordial purple energy, its defenses are invincible—even a sage of the Great Dao cannot break it."

Chen Xing's jaw dropped. Heavens! This pagoda far surpassed the legendary Taiji Diagram of old, its power worlds apart. It even contained a great world within—on par with the mythic realm of the Great Desolation. The Taiji Diagram was only a treasure of postnatal merit, but this pagoda was a primordial treasure. He could scarcely contain his excitement.

Just as he was about to examine the other items, he noticed a modest stone stele in their midst. The rest of the treasures surrounded it, as if courtiers paying homage to an emperor.

Yes! That was the feeling Chen Xing got—ministers worshipping their sovereign. Driven by curiosity, he reached out to touch the stone stele. The moment his hand touched it, a powerful suction seized hold, startling him. As he struggled to pull away, strange energies surged into his body. Gradually, Chen Xing calmed, then sat down cross-legged.

...

In the chaos where time is unmarked, ages passed in silence. One day, Chen Xing slowly opened his eyes. Violet light swirled within them, as if countless worlds were rising and falling in endless cycles of birth and destruction. It was as though myriad immortals, gods, demons, beasts, and ancestral humans from innumerable ages were worshipping him...

"Sigh!" In the purple space, Chen Xing uttered a sigh—at last, he understood everything.