At this moment, Hogg's yearning for cultivation had reached its absolute peak. If only Li Yuan would nod in agreement, he would abandon the magic he had painstakingly cultivated for over two hundred years without a single moment of hesitation.
His Adam's apple bobbed, and he leaned forward, just about to speak, when a red-and-blue figure suddenly burst into his line of sight.
A battered and exhausted Venus landed beside Hogg. Her entire body was covered in injuries, with charred black marks on her chest and fresh blood on her forehead.
But to her, these were mere flesh wounds. It was the lingering damage to her chest from Gorman's magic that was proving to be a bit troublesome. As for the dragon beneath her, it went without saying that it was virtually unharmed.
Even crashing into the ground from such a height was no major issue for it. After all, the defense of the dragon race ranked among the top three in this world.
Venus first looked at the motionless Eldest Princess in front of her, then glanced at Hogg, who was similarly silent.
She could not help but feel puzzled—though as for why Li Yuan was here, she did not question it at all.
“What just happened? How did the abyssal monsters suddenly disappear? Have the gods descended? And what about the monsters in the rift above?”
She threw several questions at Hogg in rapid succession, but the only response she received was a gentle shake of his head. Hogg took a deep breath, suppressing the complex emotions in his heart, and replied:
“The gods have not descended. As for the monsters... it was Mr. Li who acted.”
“Mr. Li?”
Venus grew even more confused. For someone to be called “Mr. Li” by Hogg—she followed Hogg's gaze, only to see the back of a figure dressed in a cyan robe.
Wasn't this the teahouse owner? He was also the Empire's target, of course. But why would Hogg refer to him as “Mr. Li”?
However... this confusion did not last long. A strange sensation suddenly welled up in Venus's heart.
It was as if Hogg's way of addressing Li Yuan was entirely natural. Unconsciously, she even nodded in agreement.
But soon, her gaze shifted to Gorman. Although she did not know why the other woman was suddenly standing still with a look as if she had seen a ghost, she didn't care.
Gripping her longsword, she prepared to charge forward immediately. She cared nothing for chivalry; on a battlefield of life and death, all that mattered was killing the enemy.
Just as the dragon spread its wings, Hogg's figure blocked their path, and he gently shook his head.
“There is no need anymore, Lady Sage.”
Venus frowned and asked in return,
“What do you mean?”
“With Mr. Li here, everything is over.”
“What do you mean by over—”
As she spoke, her gaze fell upon Li Yuan once more. The words she was about to utter instantly shifted in meaning, and she nodded in deep agreement.
“It indeed is over. What do we do now?”
“Just watch as spectators.”
With that, Hogg and Venus fell completely silent, both of them taking a few steps back.
Looking at the rifts in the sky, a trace of surprise appeared between Li Yuan's brows. Surprisingly, even under his decree, there were still so many monsters unaffected.
In other words... that rift did not belong to this world? But with the Heavenly Dao not yet formed and the power of laws incredibly fragile, how did these rifts appear here in the first place?
Furthermore, they had been summoned artificially, which made it even stranger.
Generally speaking, worlds where the Heavenly Dao had not yet fully formed remained in a state of “stealth” within the endless void.
This was a form of self-defense, preventing them from being discovered prematurely by other higher-tier worlds and suffering devastating calamities—after all, not every higher-tier world was as friendly as the Kyushu Continent.
When the Kyushu Continent discovered lower-tier worlds, it mostly adopted a wait-and-see attitude, occasionally offering a helping hand.
However, when it came to these worlds in a state of “stealth,” most cultivators chose to keep their distance—unless by accident or out of absolute necessity, they would never set foot in them.
This was because in this “stealth” state, any cultivator who entered would also be hidden, their connection to the Heavenly Dao severed, and they would lose its guidance... simply put, it was like a prison—one could enter, but never leave.
Unless they directly invaded with an entire world, even if they could break through the world barrier and escape, they would easily lose their way in the void storms, or be torn to shreds by spatial turbulence, resulting in complete soul dispersion.
Even if an immortal were to arrive in person, the outcome would be no different.
Those like Li Yuan and Xuan Wei who could miraculously survive were one in a billion, but that was all—without the guidance of the Heavenly Dao, they could only remain obediently in this world.
This was why Li Yuan found it strange—this Abyssal Rift... there might be some secrets behind it that he could find interesting.
But for now, he only wished to completely sever this unwanted karma as soon as possible.
Li Yuan did not have the patience to wait for the rift to disappear naturally. Using his finger as a sword, his gaze grew slightly serious as he slowly swept his hand upward in a lifting motion.
Suddenly, a sword qi manifested in midair without warning. At first, it appeared as nothing more than a flickering, hair-thin line of light, but in the blink of an eye, it split the entire sky in two.
Clouds rolled and the sun and moon retreated. Wherever the thin line passed, space shattered inch by inch, leaving behind a turbulent void fissure that swallowed all creation.
All things fell silent, and heaven and earth lost their color.
The Abyssal Rift hanging high in the sky dissolved into nothingness the instant the sword qi swept past it.
Even the twinkling stars in the deep reaches of the firmament suffered collateral damage—wherever the sword qi reached, stars collapsed one after another, shattering into countless fragments.
The sky, once densely blanketed with stars, was instantly torn open to reveal a massive, pitch-black fissure under this single strike.
Watching this scene, Hogg and Venus felt their minds go completely blank, so utterly shocked that they lost the ability to think... but Gorman was different.
If what she felt before was sheer, unadulterated terror, now only numbness remained—she had never imagined that anyone could achieve such a level.
No, not even the gods could do this! In the face of the Abyss, even the gods had to avoid its edge.
Yet the reality was—the power bestowed upon her by the Lord of the Abyss had been erased, millions of abyssal monsters had been turned to ash, and even the Abyssal Rift had been destroyed in an incomprehensible manner.
All of this had become reality in just a few short minutes.
Just a moment ago, she had been looking down on everyone like a victor, but now she was reduced to a lamb awaiting slaughter. Under the weight of this massive reversal of fortune, she could only succumb to numbness.
Yet she could not muster even a shred of hostility toward this person who had suddenly appeared and done all of this.
It was a contradictory state—she was terrified, numb, and wanted to flee, but the moment her eyes fell upon this young man, all negative emotions toward him in her heart would instantly vanish.
Everything he did became completely natural and expected.
Yet this conflicted with her own cognition. Gorman stared blankly at Li Yuan, her brow furrowing and relaxing in a cycle of confusion.
Gorman tried to break free from this bizarre loop, only to find that the moment the thought of breaking free arose, it vanished.
Even the act of questioning itself was not permitted.
His existence, his actions, his everything—would be deemed “reasonable” by all things in the world.
This was the essence of the Dao, and the path Li Yuan had chosen for himself after achieving the Mahayana stage.
“I am the Dao.”
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