System Possession, One Sword Shocks the Gods

172: A miraculous encounter in the abyss, whispers of the godsCold, deathly stillness, and boundless darkness.

Ye Chen’s consciousness was like a flickering candle in a gale, torn by the spatial turbulence and liable to be extinguished at any moment. The chaos ancestral talisman emitted a hazy, clear radiance, barely protecting his mind and the core of his Physical Body, but the ubiquitous spatial cutting force still made him feel as if his body were being subjected to a thousand cuts.

An unknown amount of time passed—it felt like a mere instant, yet also like eternity.

*Thud!*

He fell heavily onto a hard, cold floor. The intense impact exacerbated the condition of his already collapsing body. His vision went black, and he lost consciousness completely... until a faint ray of light pierced the eternal darkness.

Ye Chen’s eyelids twitched with difficulty before slowly opening. What met his eyes was not the expected pile of bones or energy turbulence, but a... strange sight.

He found himself in a massive circular hall that seemed to be constructed from a kind of black jade. The hall’s ceiling was high, embedded with countless strange crystals emitting a soft white light like stars in the night sky, illuminating the space. The air was fresh, without a trace of Devilish Qi or the Concept of deathly silence; instead, a pure, ancient, and divine strange energy flowed through it.

The walls of the hall were smooth as mirrors, carved with countless complex and profound murals depicting the sun, moon, stars, mountains, rivers, flowers, birds, fish, and insects, as well as some patterns he could not understand, filled with the Concept of life and creation—a stark contrast to the destructive style of the Nirvana Demon Palace.

Where was this place? He had clearly jumped into the abyss beneath the Nirvana Demon Palace; how could he have arrived at such a location?

He struggled to sit up, only to find his entire body in excruciating pain. His Meridians felt as if they were snapped, his Chaos Gang Qi was nearly depleted, and even moving a finger was extremely difficult. The surge of power from the Fusion with the ancestral rune fragment had been completely exhausted after the continuous fierce battles and the devastation of the spatial turbulence, even damaging his foundation.

He painfully inspected his internal condition, which was dire. The chaos primordial fetus within his Qi Sea was dim and lusterless, with tiny cracks even appearing on its surface. The fused chaos ancestral talisman also had its light restrained, floating quietly as if in self-repair. Although the injury to his left leg had been mostly healed by the power of Origin, it now throbbed with waves of aching pain.

Severely injured and in critical condition.

Enduring the dizziness, he scanned the hall. The hall was vast and empty; besides himself, there was nothing. Only in the very center of the hall stood a lotus-shaped altar about the height of a person, carved from pure, flawless white jade. The altar was empty.

This place seemed to be a forgotten ancient ruin, completely out of place with the Demon Abyss and the Nirvana Demon Palace.

Just as doubts were multiplying in his heart, a gentle, kind voice—one that seemed capable of soothing all pain and anxiety—sounded directly in the depths of his Soul without warning:

”Lost traveler... you have finally come...”

Ye Chen’s heart shook violently! This voice was not heard through his ears but acted directly upon his Soul! He snapped his gaze toward the lotus altar; the source of the voice seemed to be right there!

”Who is it?!” He tried to respond with a Divine Thought, only to find he was too weak to even condense one.

”Do not be alarmed, child...” the gentle voice sounded again, carrying a hint of faint exhaustion and the passage of time. ”I am a lingering wisp of Divine Thought in this place. You may call me... the ’Order Keeper’.”

Order Keeper? A Divine Thought?

Ye Chen’s vigilance did not diminish. In this eerie place, any existence could harbor ill intentions.

”Where is this place? Why have you brought me here?” he asked in his mind, struggling to focus.

”This place... is a fragment of the ’Order Temple’, which fell into this crevice of the Demon Abyss untold eons ago.” The Order Keeper’s voice was filled with reminiscence and sorrow. ”As for bringing you here... it was not my will, but rather the aura of the ’Source of Chaos’ within your body resonating with the residual Power of Order in the temple, drawing you here from the spatial turbulence.”

Source of Chaos? Does it mean the chaos ancestral talisman? Order Temple?

Thoughts whirled through Ye Chen’s mind. Chaos and order sounded like two opposing forces.

”Are you... friend or foe?” He asked the most crucial question.

”Friend or foe?” The Order Keeper seemed to chuckle, a sound full of desolation. ”To the current me, friend or foe has long been meaningless. I am merely a lingering obsession about to dissipate, guarding the last traces of the temple, waiting for a... slim hope.”

The voice paused before continuing, ”Child, you possess the Source of Chaos, yet it is not pure destruction and disorder... within your power, there are traits of ’Judgment’ and ’definition’. This is very peculiar... perhaps, this is the silver lining in the darkness...”

Ye Chen remained silent, silently circulating the Chaos Myriad Transformation Art, attempting to absorb the pure energy carrying the aura of order around him to recover from his injuries. However, he soon discovered that although this energy was pure, it faintly repelled his Chaos Gang Qi, making it difficult to directly absorb and transform.

”Do not waste your efforts.” The Order Keeper seemed to see through his actions. ”order and Chaos generate and overcome each other. To you, the energy here is like poison. However...”

The voice carried a hint of guidance: ”Chaos gives birth to all things; it should naturally accommodate order. If you can discern the mysteries within, perhaps you can use this to... temper your Chaos Origin, making it even more flawless.”

Comprehend? Accommodate?

Ye Chen’s heart stirred. He recalled his previous experience of devouring the Nirvana Shadow energy and refining the rules of death. The essence of the chaos ancestral talisman seemed to be the accommodation, evolution, and governance of all Laws. This Power of Order, though opposite to Chaos, was ultimately a type of Law of heaven and earth!

He no longer tried to absorb it by force. Instead, he relaxed his mind, attempting to perceive and understand the essence of this order energy flowing through the surrounding space. It was a power of rules, stability, balance, and creation—starkly different from the disorder, evolution, and silence of Chaos, yet seemingly two sides of the same coin.

He guided a tiny wisp of order energy, cautiously bringing it close to the dim chaos ancestral talisman in his Qi Sea.

Initially, the two were like fire and water, repelling each other violently. But under Ye Chen’s powerful willpower and the supreme essence of the chaos ancestral talisman, that wisp of order energy was actually slowly accommodated and decomposed by the talisman, eventually turning into the most primordial rule fragments and merging into the talisman!

Although the process was extremely slow and consumed a vast amount of energy, Ye Chen clearly felt that after merging this wisp of order rules, the light of the chaos ancestral talisman seemed to solidify slightly. The tiny cracks caused by the forced Fusion and overexertion also healed a bit faster! Even his understanding of ’Chaos’ gained a reference point in ’order’, becoming more comprehensive!

It worked!

Ye Chen’s spirits lifted. Ignoring the exhaustion of his Divine Soul, he began to more intently guide and refine the surrounding order energy. Though the efficiency was low, with every wisp refined, his injuries improved a bit, and his understanding of the Dao of Chaos deepened.

”Very good... very good...” The Order Keeper’s voice carried a hint of gratification. ”That you could achieve this step has far exceeded my expectations... perhaps, you truly can carry that hope...”

”Hope? What hope?” Ye Chen asked in his mind.

The Order Keeper was silent for a moment, its voice becoming incredibly solemn: ”To stop... the final ’return to silence’...”

”return to silence?”

”The Universe is born and destroyed; Reincarnation never ends. Chaos evolves into all things, and all things shall eventually return to silence. This is the cycle of the Great Dao.” The Order Keeper’s voice carried a deep sense of helplessness. ”However, there is a force accelerating this process, attempting to make all things prematurely fall into an eternal, lifeless silence... That is not a natural end, but... complete extinction. The Nirvana Demon Palace is one of its tentacles in this realm...”

A storm surged in Ye Chen’s heart. He recalled the despairing Concept of silence in the Nirvana Demon Palace and the terrifying will awakening in its depths. Could that be the promoter of the ’return to silence’?

”We of the ’Order Temple’ once dedicated ourselves to maintaining the balance of the Universe and delaying the return to silence, but... we failed. The temple was destroyed, and we have nearly completely dissipated...” The Order Keeper’s voice grew increasingly faint. ”Child, you possess the Source of Chaos, yet you have walked a different path... Your ’Judgment’ might define new rules, and your ’accommodation’ might fuse opposing forces... Find the source accelerating the return to silence and stop it... This is my, and the countless deceased’s, final... request...”

Its voice gradually became inaudible, and the soft white light on the lotus altar also began to dim rapidly.

”Order Keeper?” Ye Chen called out in his mind, but there was no further response.

That lingering wisp of Divine Thought seemed to have exhausted its last bit of strength through the communication with him and had completely dissipated.

In the hall, only Ye Chen remained, along with the surrounding pure but difficult-to-absorb order energy.

He lay on the cold floor, digesting the shocking information contained in the Order Keeper’s words. return to silence? Accelerated annihilation? The dying wish of the Order Temple?

All of this seemed very far away from him. His current goal was still to recover his strength and find a way to leave the Demon Abyss.

But the Order Keeper’s words were like a seed planted in his heart. The mission of the chaos ancestral talisman seemed far more significant than he had imagined.

He composed his mind, no longer thinking about those distant matters, and focused all his efforts on guiding the order energy to repair his damaged primordial fetus and ancestral talisman, and to restore his depleted Protective Aura.

Time flowed quietly in this forgotten fragment of the temple.

After an unknown amount of time, when Ye Chen had refined the last wisp of order energy he could draw upon, his injuries were about thirty percent recovered, and his Protective Aura had also partially restored. Suddenly, he felt a certain spot on the wall carved with the sun, moon, and stars glow faintly with a soft light.

A faint spatial fluctuation emanated from there.

There... seemed to be an exit?

Ye Chen struggled to his feet. Though still weak, he had at least regained the ability to move. He walked to that wall and reached out to touch the glowing pattern.

*Hum...*

The pattern flared with light, and a portal composed of soft white light, just large enough for one person to pass through, slowly emerged on the wall.

Where would the gate lead?

Was it a path to life leading out of the Demon Abyss, or another dead end?

Ye Chen took a deep breath and, without any hesitation, stepped into the light gate.

No matter what lay ahead, he had to keep moving forward.