Chapter 1232: Trace Back!_2

“Not enough.” Xu Ran shook his head, “That sword just now was already my limit. And ‘Heaven’s Principle’ merely descended with a decree. There is still a vast…sea between us.”

“Indeed, you have seen that sea.” The Tomb Guardian nodded, his expression becoming serious, “This graveyard land is only a corner. If you want to continue forward, you must go to broader horizons and witness the true storms.”

“Senior, please guide me,” Xu Ran said respectfully.

“Sea of Realms.” The Tomb Guardian uttered, “It is a chaotic sea composed of countless shattered cosmos, discarded epochs, and exiled places. There is where the order of ‘Heaven’s Principle’ is weakest, and where all the world’s ‘heretics’ and ‘rebels’ gather. There are endless opportunities but also infinite dangers.”

“What you need to do is to go there, find more ‘kindred spirits’, and gather more ‘countercurrents’. Your ‘pool’ needs more water.”

“Sea of Realms…” Xu Ran murmured this name, eyes igniting with blazing fighting spirit.

“However, the Sea of Realms is perilous. With your current strength, entering directly would be near death.” The Tomb Guardian shifted his tone, “Before entering the true Sea of Realms, you need a springboard, a place…to adapt.”

His withered finger pointed in the void, and a vast star map unfolded before Xu Ran.

At the edge of the star map, a region was marked as “Chaos” and “Unknown”, sparse with stars, filled with massive temporal storms and law fractures everywhere.

“Here is the ‘Ruins of Myriad Domains’.” The Tomb Guardian pointed to that area, “It’s the ‘shallows’ of the Sea of Realms, formed by the world remnants discarded by ‘Heaven’s Principle’ after battles. The rules there are chaotic, the order collapsed, but many peculiar civilizations and powerful entities were born because of this.”

“Your first destination is here. Survive here, gain a foothold, and find the ‘ancient passageway’ to delve deeper into the Sea of Realms.”

“Understood.” Xu Ran memorized the star map.

“Go.” The Tomb Guardian took one last look at Xu Ran, eyes filled with endless expectations, “Remember, what you carry is not just your own Dao. It is…the hope of all who discontent throughout eternity.”

“Young man, good luck.” The phantom of the remnants also nodded, “If fate allows, perhaps we will meet again in the Sea of Realms.”

Xu Ran bowed deeply to them again, saying no more.

He turned around, and the “Rebel” character on his brow lightly flashed, and the space before him was forcibly torn apart by an invisible force, revealing a pathway leading to the depths of the unknown.

He stepped forward, and his figure vanished instantly.

…

The feeling of traversing space-time was now commonplace for Xu Ran.

This time, however, was entirely different.

Within the passageway, he could clearly sense the surrounding laws becoming more chaotic, more…strange.

In some places, time flow speed was as swift as lightning; in others, space structure was fragile as paper. In some places, even the most basic “cause and effect” displayed a twisted state.

This was the Ruins of Myriad Domains. A…dumping ground abandoned by ‘Heaven’s Principle’.

After an indeterminate length of time, visibility unexpectedly broadened.

Xu Ran found himself amidst a deathly silent void.

Looking around, bizarre and colorful sights surrounded him.

A massive land remnant floating in the void, covered in eerie plants emanating metallic sheen.

A long-extinguished star skeleton, eternally emitting cold resentment.

A ‘river of rubbish’ formed by countless shattered magical treasures and weapons fragments, slowly flowing in the void.

The energy here was mixed and violent, brimming with an aura of decay and destruction. Ordinary cultivators likely couldn’t even breathe here before being ripped to shreds by the chaotic rules.

But for Xu Ran, this environment gave him a feeling of…like a fish in water.

Because the myriad Dao principles within him originated from various systems, he himself was a “chaotic” aggregate.

“Is this…the new starting point?”

Xu Ran mumbled, divine thought spreading like tidal currents, beginning to probe this unfamiliar region.

Soon, he discovered signs of life activity.

Not far away, in a massive meteor belt, a few ‘void ships’ of grotesque design, pieced together from various world remnants, were docked.

A group of cultivators with fierce presence, exuding strong bloody evil qi, were using peculiar tools on that meteor belt, mining a glowing mineral.

“Hmm?”

Just as Xu Ran’s divine thought swept over them, the leader of the group, a one-eyed Great Han, suddenly raised his head, his gaze sharp as a falcon, accurately locking onto Xu Ran’s location!

“A newcomer! A fat sheep!”

The one-eyed Great Han’s face displayed a cruel and greedy smile, his single eye flashing with a light named “chaos” and “plunder”.

“Brothers, let’s get to work! The Black Sand Vulture never returns empty-handed!”

Boom!

The engines of those rundown void ships suddenly sprayed dark red energy flames, encircling Xu Ran’s direction at astonishing speed!

…

In the void, Xu Ran quietly hovered, watching the void ships drawing closer, his expression calm.

He could sense that the enemy’s cultivation was not high. Even the strongest one-eyed Great Han was just at the Daoist Monarch’s Third or Fourth Heaven level. But in this chaotic space, their aura of experienced slaughter was far beyond that of sheltered flowers.

“Stop! Kid, where did you crawl out from?”

On the lead void ship, the one-eyed Great Han wielded a massive saw-toothed battle saber, pointed at Xu Ran, and shouted sternly.

“Just arrived, looking for directions,” Xu Ran stated calmly.

“Looking for directions?” The one-eyed Great Han and his lackeys burst into laughter, as if hearing a great joke.

“Hahaha! Kid, is your brain broken? In the Ruins of Myriad Domains, asking for directions costs money!”

“You look tender-skinned and pure, not like a wily veteran of the ruins. How about this, hand over your storage magical treasure and that seemingly good dao robe. If I’m in a good mood, I’ll point you to a ‘living path’, how about it?”

Xu Ran’s gaze swept over their faces full of greed and cruelty, slowly shaking his head.

“Seems there’s no deal.”

“Deal? I’ll show you now, in the Ruins of Myriad Domains, fists are the only truth!”

The one-eyed Great Han gave a grim smile, wasted no more words, and the saw-toothed battle saber in his hand suddenly flared with a crimson light!

“Bloody Butcher Demon Slash!”

He slashed, a thousand-zhang long blade tempered by endless evil qi and resentment surged forth, with a shrill wail, aimed fiercely at Xu Ran’s head!

This slash carried an extremely malicious law, not only able to cleave flesh but also tarnish the divine soul, condemning those struck to eternal pain.

It is the most common and practical “underworld technique” in the Ruins of Myriad Domains.

Facing this treacherously fierce slash, Xu Ran didn’t even lift an eyelid.

He merely raised his right hand lightly.

“Rebel.”

A word, spoken.

No earth-shattering momentum, as if stating the simplest fact.

And yet, this one word caused the entire void to…freeze!

The ferocious crimson blade, at a distance of just a hundred zhang from Xu Ran, abruptly halted. Subsequently, in the one-eyed Great Han’s terrified eyes, the thick evil qi and resentment on the blade rapidly faded and transformed!