Thunder Sage looked slightly embarrassed. Under normal circumstances, he indeed wouldn’t have passed on the message.
Lan Xiaobu smiled, “Thunder Sage did well, going out of his way to inform me in the City of Eternity. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have known you were in the Burial Path Great Origin.”
Though Lan Xiaobu knew Thunder Sage’s message was likely permitted by the entity in the Burial Path Great Tomb, who probably wanted Thunder Sage to lure the Eternal Sage there, only for Thunder Sage to bring Mo Wuji and Lan Xiaobu instead.
Thunder Sage glanced gratefully at Lan Xiaobu, admiring his magnanimity. Had he known Lan Xiaobu was so reasonable, he wouldn’t have joined the Eternal Sage in pursuing him, instead seeking friendship.
Lan Xiaobu introduced again, “This is Mo Wuji. Without his help, we’d all be trapped.”
“Brother Mo, I’ve heard of you, you’re remarkable. Thank you for saving me,” Qi Manwei said, bowing quickly. She’d long heard of Mo Wuji’s reputation.
Mo Wuji smiled, “Xiaobu and I are friends, helping is only natural. Besides, we gained a lot this time.”
“Mo, Lan, when do we head to the Chaos River?” Thunder Sage asked. With Mo Wuji and Lan Xiaobu leaving, he didn’t dare stay in the Land of Eternity alone. The thought of the tomb filled with Creation Sage skeletons made lingering unthinkable.
Lan Xiaobu glanced at where the Seven Realms Stone had stopped, an unfamiliar place. Mo Wuji said, “This is the Land of Eternity, not far from the Heavenly Secret Sage’s Heavenly Secret Bone.”
Lan Xiaobu sighed, “I’m worried that if we leave, the entity in the Burial Path Great Origin won’t spare the Land of Eternity.”
“Even if we stay, he won’t spare it. Knowing you have the Seven Realms Stone, he’s probably itching to come after us,” Mo Wuji said with a wry smile.
“He can’t leave the Burial Path Great Tomb for now, his dao seems to have issues. The Burial Path Great Origin is where he absorbs vast dao principles from the heavens and earth,” Qi Manwei interjected.
Lan Xiaobu said self-mockingly, “We thought we’d severed the mottled dao principles in the Burial Path Great Origin, but this guy absorbed them all. Over the years, how many mottled dao principles has he taken in?”
Lan Xiaobu even wondered if the entity was a cosmic recycling station, finding use in others’ discarded dao principles. Beyond those, he’d also collected Creation Sages, seemingly taking all kinds.
Mo Wuji said, “If this Burial Path Sage can’t leave the Burial Path Great Origin for now, the Land of Eternity should be safe short-term. If we reach Creation Sage level, we could return to deal with him. Otherwise, coming back is just serving ourselves up.”
Thunder Sage sighed. He’d already said Creation Sage level might not suffice against the Burial Path Sage, but since Mo Wuji insisted, he said no more. Given the chance, he’d flee and never return.
“Thunder, give me the dao principle coordinates for the Chaos River,” Lan Xiaobu decided to head there now.
“Chaos River?” Qi Manwei said, surprised.
Lan Xiaobu looked at her, “You’ve heard of it?”
Qi Manwei nodded, “Yes, the entity in the Burial Path Great Tomb said once his dao recovers, he’d take me through the Chaos River to leave this vast realm and pursue the supreme dao.”
Lan Xiaobu and Mo Wuji shared a thought: was the Burial Path Sage merely passing through the Land of Eternity?
“Is his cultivated dao the Burial Path?” Lan Xiaobu asked again.
Qi Manwei shook her head, “He mentioned a Burial Path Mansion, but also said his cultivation technique was something grand… right, the Great Cosmic Technique.”
Lan Xiaobu and Mo Wuji exchanged glances, their suspicions partly confirmed—this entity indeed cultivated the Great Cosmic Technique.
Thunder Sage handed Lan Xiaobu a jade slip with dao principle coordinates, “Brother Lan, this leads to the Qintian Ancient Road. From there, you can find the Chaos River.”
Qintian Ancient Road? Another unfamiliar place.
Thunder Sage quickly explained, “The Qintian Ancient Road is a void nexus in the vast cosmos, where cultivators from countless universes gather for opportunities. Most who reach it seek Creation Sage prospects; ordinary cultivators rarely go.”
“Have you been?” Lan Xiaobu asked.
Thunder Sage smiled awkwardly, “I’m not originally from the Land of Eternity but an ordinary universe. I found the Land of Eternity via the Qintian Ancient Road, gained opportunities, and achieved Creation Sage status. I’m not the only one—Reflecting Dao Sage also came from elsewhere.”
“Alright, to the Qintian Ancient Road,” Lan Xiaobu stored the jade slip, sent a message to Zhen Changyuan and others, informing Fate Sage Zhen Changyuan about the Burial Path Great Origin, and activated the Seven Realms Stone.
…
“Can it cross spatial domains?” Six months into the Seven Realms Stone’s flight, Mo Wuji couldn’t help asking.
The stone’s greatest strength wasn’t ordinary travel but crossing domains, even planes and universes. They’d escaped the Burial Path Great Origin’s depths because it breached domains and equivalent arrays.
Lan Xiaobu shook his head, “It can cross domains, but Thunder’s coordinates are vague. A misstep, and we might end up in an unrelated domain. Also, my strength is low, so controlling the stone across domains risks failure.”
Mo Wuji nodded. Haste makes waste. At the stone’s speed, a few years would reach the Qintian Ancient Road. A wrong domain could mean centuries to return.
Dao principle jade slips, if not of high grade, lose effectiveness across many domains. Though Thunder Sage was a Creation Sage, the dao rhythm coordinates he etched felt underwhelming to Lan Xiaobu and Mo Wuji.
Five years later, the Seven Realms Stone slowed and stopped.
“We’re close,” Thunder Sage said. His journey from the Qintian Ancient Road to the Land of Eternity took centuries; this time, only five or six years.
“We’ll proceed by void traversal,” Lan Xiaobu stowed the Seven Realms Stone.
The Qintian Ancient Road linked numerous vast realms and universes, mostly for those seeking Creation Sage status, meaning it teemed with powerhouses. Flaunting the Seven Realms Stone could shift their goal from finding the Chaos River to fleeing for their lives.
After days of traversal, a yellowish dirt path appeared before them.
It seemed to materialise abruptly, suspended in the void, stretching far beyond divine sense’s reach.
At the path’s entrance, a weathered sign tilted in the ground, bearing four crooked characters: “Qintian Ancient Road.”
Thunder Sage explained, “This is the Qintian Ancient Road. No matter where you approach from, you’ll see this dirt path extending. On it, divine sense is restricted, so you rely on sight.”
“It stretches endlessly, and no one’s around. How do we inquire about directions?” Qi Manwei asked, puzzled.
Thunder Sage smiled, “Step onto the Qintian Ancient Road, and you’ll find waystations along the path, each with exits. You can ask for directions there. The Chaos River is renowned, many will know it.”
“Where does the Qintian Ancient Road lead?” Lan Xiaobu asked, surprised.
He’d thought it was like a void city, where cultivators from vast universes gathered to trade valuable information.
Instead, it was literally an ancient road, with waystations for inquiries?
Thunder Sage said awkwardly, “I don’t know, but I’ve heard it has no end. No one has ever reached its terminus. On the road, you stay on it unless you exit via a waystation.”
Another bizarre place. Mo Wuji nodded to Lan Xiaobu, “Let’s go see.”
He stepped onto the Qintian Ancient Road first.
Seeing Mo Wuji step on, Lan Xiaobu and the others followed onto the narrow, yellowish dirt path.
