Volume 1, Chapter 48: What Must Come, Has Come
Within the withered and exhausted world, a faint, wispy trace of spiritual energy, like a lost wanderer, quietly returned.
At the foot of the mountain, a long-dried spiritual vein began to slowly revive, much like an aged tree sprouting fresh buds.
"This is..." Xiao Fan abruptly opened his eyes, which were filled with utter disbelief.
Subconsciously, he circulated his cultivation technique, and that trace of newborn spiritual energy was drawn into his body without the slightest obstruction, transforming into a single droplet of sweet dew within his desolate Dantian.
At that very moment, a streak of light was fleeing in panic toward him from the distant horizon. Right behind it, several formidable auras were in hot pursuit.
"Xiao Fan! Save me!" The figure within the stream of light was none other than his former beloved, who had now become the dao companion of his mortal enemy.
And the ones hunting her down were precisely a few lackeys under his arch-nemesis.
In the past, whenever such a "plot development" occurred, it signified that a massive trap was awaiting him. Had he stepped in, he undoubtedly would have fallen into the snare, facing nine deaths and barely a chance of survival.
Yet today, as Xiao Fan gazed at that woman, his heart remained completely tranquil. He merely felt the auras of those pursuers with utter indifference.
"Strange... Their power seems to have weakened? No, not weakened... it has become hollow." Xiao Fan keenly perceived that although their cultivation realms remained, the divine arts they executed had lost the backing of a certain "Dao," becoming mere empty forms that possessed vastly reduced might.
It was as if... the very source of their power had been drained away.
"Useless trash! You can't even catch up to a single woman!" The leading figure in black robes roared furiously, thrusting out a palm that churned with billowing black Qi.
Had it been any other time, that single palm strike would have been enough to seal the void and extinguish all life.
Yet at this moment, the moment that black Qi left his body, it was repelled by an invisible, newly born "order" within the world, diminishing its power by a full seventy percent out of nowhere.
A sharp glint flashed in Xiao Fan's eyes.
Without a second thought, his figure flickered and he appeared before the woman. Forming a sword with his fingers, he met the black Qi palm print with a faint yet exceptionally pure sword Qi.
"Rip!"
The sword Qi collided with the palm print like a hot knife through butter!
The black-robed man let out a miserable scream as his entire arm was shredded into a fine mist by the sword Qi.
"How is this possible?! My demonic arts..." He stared in terror at his wound, utterly unable to comprehend what had happened.
Xiao Fan did not give him a second chance. Sword light flashed, and several heads soared into the sky.
The entire process was clean and decisive.
The woman stared blankly at him, her eyes filled with a complex myriad of emotions.
Xiao Fan, however, did not even spare her a glance. He raised his head, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath of the air carrying the scent of rebirth.
He did not know what had happened, but he knew that the cage binding him had shattered.
From this day onward, his era had truly begun.
...
Within the Gu family courtyard.
Gu Changsheng slowly regained consciousness and let out a long yawn.
"Ah... That was such a good sleep." He stretched his limbs, feeling thoroughly refreshed throughout his entire body, save for some messy, chaotic images lingering in his mind that gave him a mild headache.
Some nonsense about stars generating and perishing, gods and demons kowtowing, and a lonely, solitary silhouette...
"How bizarre. Honestly, it's not even as realistic as dreaming about roasted lamb kidneys," he muttered, feeling his throat parched and dry.
Habitually, he reached toward the small stone table beside him.
Uncle Fu would usually have a pot of fragrant tea prepared at just the right temperature by the time he woke up from his afternoon nap.
Today, however, when his fingers brushed against the teacup, what greeted his touch was a chilling coldness.
"Where has Uncle Fu gone?" Gu Changsheng frowned, slightly displeased. "I can't even get a cup of hot tea anymore. Standards are really dropping."
He had merely made a casual complaint.
Yet the instant his words fell, something happened.
The teacup in his hand, crafted from ordinary green jade, suddenly emitted a gentle, humming vibration.
A faint, almost imperceptible trace of spiritual light flashed across the surface of the cup.
Immediately following that, an incredible scene unfolded.
The originally ice-cold tea began to billow with wisps of hot steam at a speed visible to the naked eye. The surface of the teacup also transitioned from freezing cold to warm and mellow, finally stabilizing at the most optimal temperature for drinking.
Having accomplished all this, the green jade teacup remained quietly in Gu Changsheng's hand like a child awaiting praise from its master, the spiritual light on its body seeming to gleam with a touch of joyous excitement.
"Oh?" Gu Changsheng was somewhat surprised.
He picked up the teacup and took a small sip; the temperature was precisely right.
"How strange." He did not dwell on it, simply assuming that Uncle Fu had utilized some new warming artifact, and casually placed the teacup back onto the table.
However, he failed to notice that when his hand withdrew, the teacup vibrated gently once more, as if expressing a certain sense of "loss."
Not far away, Uncle Fu—who had just returned to the courtyard after handling some trivial branch-family matters—happened to witness this entire scene.
He was struck as if by lightning, freezing completely in place.
His pupils violently constricted.
What he was looking at was not the phenomenon of the tea suddenly heating up, but rather... that teacup!
In his eyes, that utterly mundane green jade teacup had given birth to a wisp of faint "true spirit" at that very instant!
It was no longer a lifeless object!
Instead, it possessed the most primitive, nascent "consciousness"! And its consciousness had only a single core—to please, to please the very existence who had created it!
This was... one of the legendary authorities of the Primordial Ancestor...
The Enlightenment of All Things!
Words following one's will was the power to alter "rules."
Whereas the Enlightenment of All Things was the power to bestow "life"! It was the authority of creation itself!
Although it was merely the leakage of an authority so faint it was almost negligible, this signified that... the Primordial Ancestor was awakening faster and faster from his slumber!
Previously, telling the Heavenly Dao to scram had been a passive defense born of "pure, effortless inaction."
Yet this time, simply because of a casual complaint, a teacup had been unconsciously enlightened. This was the instinctive, active overflow of the Ancestor's own power!
A monstrous storm raged within Uncle Fu's heart.
First came wild ecstasy, his entire body trembling with agitation. The reappearance of the Ancestor's authority was a momentous blessing!
Immediately afterward, a deep sense of apprehension welled up in his mind.
Such a commotion could not possibly be concealed from those ancient monsters slumbering at the ends of various dimensions.
They were about to lose their composure.
Uncle Fu took a deep breath, suppressing the myriad of thoughts churning within him. Once again wearing his respectful and kindly smile, he slowly walked over.
"Young Master, you are awake. It was this old servant's negligence; the tea had grown cold."
Gu Changsheng waved a hand and pointed at the cup on the table. "It's fine, it heated itself up. This new artifact of yours is quite nice and rather intelligent."
The corner of Uncle Fu's eye twitched slightly.
Intelligent... artifact...
Well, that made sense. In the eyes of the Primordial Ancestor, enlightening an inanimate object was probably no different from casually crafting a little trinket.
He respectfully replied, "Indeed. As long as Young Master likes it."
As he spoke, he unobtrusively retrieved the green jade teacup—which had already birthed a "true spirit"—and carefully stowed it away within his sleeve's cosmos.
After all, this was the first "sacred artifact" personally enlightened by the Primordial Ancestor since his awakening.
It had to be worshipped!
The very second he put the teacup away, Uncle Fu's expression tightened slightly.
He sensed vast, desolate, and ancient wills traversing boundless space and time, casting their gaze from all directions toward this tiny courtyard.
Uncle Fu sighed inwardly.
As expected, what was bound to come had finally arrived.
Deep within the Sea of Chaos, at the core of a dying star marching toward heat death, light and heat had long since been devoured by extreme gravity, leaving behind only eternal darkness and ice.
Inside the "corpse" of this star, an old man wearing crimson battle armor, with a mane of red hair blazing like a raging fire, sat cross-legged in deep slumber. Every single breath he drew caused the surrounding space-time to undergo minute contractions and reorganizations.