“Is it really alright for the ancestor to go alone?” the Willow Ancestor asked anxiously.

“Who said I’m going alone?” Xu Zimo chuckled. “When the time comes, it might be quite lively. People who died, people who shouldn’t exist, and even unrelated people might show up.”

The Willow Ancestor didn’t quite understand what he meant, and Xu Zimo had no intention of elaborating. He only said, “Make your preparations. I’m going to the Great Beyond.”

“You’re leaving right now?” the ancestor asked.

“Right now. I’ll locate the coordinates of the Great Beyond. Since they’ve already set up a grand display to welcome me, how could I not go?” Xu Zimo said with a faint grin.

“What should we do with Yue City?” the patriarch asked.

Xu Zimo looked down. The demonic power of the Infernal-Creation Eternal-Canon and the beats of its war drum had already reduced the entire city to ruins.

“Handle it however you want,” he said. “There’s nothing left anyway.”

“Ancestor, take care,” the Willow Ancestor said, bowing deeply.

Xu Zimo ignored the others. He closed his eyes and sat cross-legged. The token of the Great Beyond floated before him, releasing faint wisps of energy. Xu Zimo took out the Traceless Compass and began his calculations.

He hadn’t used the compass in a long time. The reason was simple. There hadn’t been anything worth searching for. The compass required a trace of energy to lock onto; it couldn’t find something from nothing.

The spirit energy around him surged until it seemed to blanket half the sky. The compass spun faster and faster, as though countless threads of fate were being computed within it.

Across the Absolute God Heaven, every major force focused its attention on Xu Zimo. This was not merely about the shifting balance of power, within it was the method for entering the Great Beyond. Everyone wanted to know what kind of world the Great Beyond truly was, and what it contained.

…

No one knew how much time had passed. Suddenly, a pillar of demonic energy erupted skyward from Xu Zimo’s position, piercing the clouds, blasting through layers of obstruction, and striking the boundary where the Nine Heavens met the Great Beyond.

It wasn’t the true barrier of the Nine Heavens; at best, it was a weak entrance region where the two realms touched. A genuine domain barrier was something that even an Infinite Dao True God might not be able to pierce.

“Found it.” Xu Zimo’s eyes snapped open. Starlight, sun, and moon seemed to whirl within them, holding the mysteries of heaven and earth.

He ascended into the air with Shadow Tyrant in hand and cut toward the depths of the sky. This time, the endless blade aura did not sweep across the world, it plunged straight into the void, tearing at everything in its path.

His first strike boomed, shaking the void-wall but failing to break it. He did not stop. His blade intent grew stronger, carrying the power of the Eight-Fold Sky-Split and countless Primal Dao.

Xu Zimo’s Primal Dao Ocean was nearly infinite; he could use any Primal Dao freely. The Metal Primal Dao cut sharply through the world. The Fire Primal Dao blazed uncontrollably. The Lightning Primal Dao shattered the heavens. The Primal Dao of Space and Time bent and folded all timelines. The slaughter law birthed rivers of white bone.

If one strike couldn’t break it, then ten. If ten failed, then a hundred.

His eyes aligned with his blade as he roared and drove the curved knife deep into the sky’s barrier. Thunderous booms erupted without pause, shaking heaven and earth.

At last, after a long time, the barrier could endure no more. A deafening explosion ripped through the world, louder than thunder by hundreds of times. The blast nearly tore Xu Zimo to pieces, but he activated the Gate of Eternity at the final moment, becoming invincible just long enough to survive.

The void shattered, then immediately began to repair itself. A violent storm burst forth and dragged Xu Zimo into it.

“Quick! Use the Heaven-Reflecting Mirror to track him! Don’t lose his trail!” powerful cultivators shouted from far away. Even from thousands of miles out, they tried to follow him into the Great Beyond.

…

The storm engulfed him. Xu Zimo felt like a piece of drifting weed, powerless before its force. The tempest shredded at him as though ready to tear him into pieces. He quickly pulled out the token, locating a coordinate within the storm. Driving his power through the chaos, he forced a path toward that point.

Thunder roared. Space trembled.

Then, suddenly, the storm vanished.

Xu Zimo felt his body land on solid ground. He opened his eyes.

A new world unfolded before him.

Desert sands pale as snow. The moon curved like a sickle. Yellow dunes stretching to the south; daylight fading in the western sky.

He surveyed his surroundings. This must be the Great Beyond. The land was barren, the sky dim with an aging sunset like a worn, dying elder. The ground beneath him was cracked and withered, no plant or beast could survive.

Even the sky bore long fractures, as if something had once struck it. The world itself should have been able to heal, but here, the scars never closed. This realm seemed forever broken, unchanged for tens of billions of years.

“The Great Beyond…” a quiet sigh came from behind him.

Xu Zimo turned calmly. He didn’t seem surprised.

Standing beside him was Grandpa Dao of the True Martial Sacred Ground, but he no longer looked like a simple elder.

“Perhaps now,” the old man said with a smile, “you should call me Saint Sovereign San Dao.”

“You followed me in,” Xu Zimo said.

“We’ve planned for this moment for hundreds of thousands of years. How could I not witness it myself?” Saint Sovereign San Dao laughed.

He was no longer the ordinary-looking elder from before. Three blades were strapped to his back, and the aura of his blade intent seemed even stronger even than Xu Zimo’s.

“In pure blade mastery, you surpass me,” Xu Zimo said.

“I only cultivate the path of blades. You cultivate too many things,” the Saint replied. “I’m dull by nature, I just want to take a single path all the way to the apex. You, however, want to practice every path under heaven.”

Xu Zimo smiled as well, gazing up at the broken sky of the Great Beyond.

“So,” he said, “are the Ten God-Clans not coming out to welcome us?”