The Ten Thousand Treasures Cauldron's hum gradually subsided, its brilliance completely withdrawn, now floating anciently in Li Mu's palm. The Star Core Marrow had been firmly sealed within it, with only a gentle, Deep Blue blue glow circulating inside the cauldron.
With a thought, the Ten Thousand Treasures Cauldron transformed into a stream of light and settled into Li Mu's palm.
“Pop!” The spiritual artifact, Little Treasure's phantom, immediately emerged from the cauldron lid, shimmering with a greenish-gold spiritual light, carrying both lingering fear and immense adoration: “Ma… Master! You are too amazing! That thing just now was so terrifying, and you actually… ate it?!”
Li Mu “hmm-ed” in response, his fingertip caressing the warm body of the cauldron.
Little Treasure leaned closer to Li Mu, his eyes full of the Star Core, and said pitifully: “Master, what are you going to use this Star Core for refining? Can you use it to increase Little Treasure's artifact essence? If it's refined, the Treasure Cauldron will be able to advance very quickly!”
“Dream on!” Li Mu frowned slightly, glaring coldly at Little Treasure.
Little Treasure's spiritual body suddenly shrunk, like a startled rabbit, and with a “whoosh,” it instantly retreated back into the cauldron, no longer daring to utter another word.
Li Mu ignored it, flipping his hand to put away the Ten Thousand Treasures Cauldron, his gaze turning to Xue'er, who had been quietly guarding him by his side.
“Let's go,”
Li Mu said with a smile, “We're going to find the next Dao-bearing item.”
Xue'er nodded lightly, reactivating the Star Map Formation Plate, which formed a vast Star Domain. Li Mu, meanwhile, controlled the Starship, driving it to continue speeding through the vast Star Domain.
After an unknown period, the Starship carved a brilliant stream of light through the boundless Void Realm, passing through one Star Domain after another, each shimmering with various spiritual lights.
Li Mu stood at the bow of the ship, his eyes slightly closed, his Divine Thought, as vast as an abyss, spread out in all directions like an invisible tide.
Wherever his Divine Thought reached, billions of stars were like grains of sand in the Ganges, and all sorts of information, such as the breath of life, the pulsation of Spiritual Veins, and the subtle ripples of Law, flowed into his Sea of Consciousness like trickling streams.
Li Mu patiently filtered through them, searching for the unique Dao rhythm belonging to the next “Dao-bearing item.”
Suddenly, his Divine Thought touched an extremely peculiar area.
It was a vast but dead silent Star Domain. It wasn't the usual darkness of the Universe, but rather a… complete “emptiness,” without the shimmering brilliance of stars, without the surging tides of Spiritual Qi, and not even the dust trails disturbed by asteroid belts. It was like a huge, greedy wound embedded in the vibrant tapestry of the Universe, devouring all surrounding energy and light.
Li Mu's Divine Thought seemed to sink into a swamp here, and his perception became unusually difficult and sluggish.
The core of this Star Domain was an absolute spiritual vacuum, where any form of energy entering it would vanish instantly, like a clay ox entering the sea.
Li Mu's powerful Chaos Divine Thought forcibly penetrated this suffocating “emptiness” barrier, arduously probing towards the core area, finally locking onto a planet suspended alone in the center of this dead zone.
This planet was much smaller than ordinary stars, its surface presenting a chillingly desolate color, like a giant skeleton completely drained of all life force, with no atmosphere, no oceans, no trace of geological activity whatsoever, only bottomless fissures covering the entire celestial body, like grotesque scars.
And it was precisely near the equator of this dead planet, at the edge of one of the largest fissures, seemingly leading directly to the planet's core, that Li Mu's Divine Thought captured the target of his search—
A vine!
It was not a plant in the usual sense, but rather seemed to be composed of some solidified, flowing dark matter. The vine itself was incredibly thick, like a pillar supporting the sky, its surface covered with twisted, gnarled Dao patterns of ancient charm.
The vine presented a deep, ink-like green, almost black, and its tip was not branches, leaves, or flowers, but extended into countless more slender, living-tentacle-like bifurcations, deeply rooted into the Star Core, with a portion also piercing into the Void Realm of space.
The entire vine emitted a Law fluctuation that made one's Soul tremble—‘Devour.’ In the area where it was rooted, space was twisted, and light was deflected around it, forming a vortex that was difficult to discern with the naked eye but truly existed, constantly collapsing inward.
The dead silence of this planet, the spiritual vacuum of this Star Domain, its source was precisely this vine! It greedily and endlessly devoured all reachable Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, stellar essence, and even… the life force of the Universe itself!
The Spirit Devouring Sky Vine, a nine-tier demonic vine that controlled the Devouring Dao Law.
Li Mu slowly opened his eyes, the deep pupils reflecting the phantom of the dead planet and the terrifying spiritual vine that reached through Heaven and Earth. A slight curve appeared at the corner of his mouth, a mix of excitement at finding his prey and admiration for the profound wonders of the Great Dao's creation.
“Xue'er, I found it!”
Li Mu looked at Xue'er, who was searching for a special Star Domain, and prompted with a smile.
“So fast! In which direction is it?!” Xue'er's eyes lit up as she looked at the Star Map on the Formation Plate and asked.
“Here!”
Li Mu reached out and pointed at the Star Map, indicating a deep dark area.
“This? There's nothing here…” Xue'er was slightly startled, a bit puzzled.
“You'll know when we get there!” Li Mu smiled mysteriously, and with that, he maneuvered the Starship to change direction, speeding towards the Star position where the Spirit Devouring Sky Vine was located.
Suddenly, a Chaos vortex, condensed from Chaos Power, opened ahead. The Starship plunged into it, and the vortex disappeared, with the Starship vanishing along with it.
As soon as the Starship emerged from the Chaos vortex, it was seized by a chilling suction, as if it had fallen into an invisible, muddy abyss. The sight before Xue'er made her instantly gasp, her crystalline pupils contracting violently in shock.
This was no ordinary starry sky, but a 'Spiritual Desolation Graveyard' so dead silent it made one's Soul tremble.
There was no starlight, no dust, and even the subtle hum of the cosmic background radiation had vanished without a trace. As far as the eye could see, there was only an all-consuming, thick, impenetrable absolute darkness, as if a large chunk of the Universe had been forcibly gouged out here, leaving a greedy and despairing wound.
Only the faint light emitted by the Starship's protective shield, like a flickering candle in the wind, stubbornly resisted in this boundless “emptiness,” illuminating the outline of the desolate, dead planet ahead—the star rooted and drained by the Spirit Devouring Sky Vine.
“Wow! What a terrifying place, Li Dage, where is this, and why is my Origin flowing away so severely?!” Xue'er's voice carried an almost imperceptible tremble.
Xue'er clearly felt her demonic power, and even deeper, her life Origin, being frantically torn and pulled away by an invisible, incomparably overbearing force!
Her body seemed to be gradually becoming transparent and dissipating. The sense of emptiness originating from her life core being plundered instantly turned Xue'er's face pale, and even her Demon Emperor body couldn't help but tremble slightly, a sense of powerlessness from the Soul level.
“The Spirit Devouring Sky Vine's Domain, a Jedi of devouring all things.” Li Mu calmly introduced, his eyes already becoming incredibly sharp, like a hawk staring intently at its prey, reminding her, “Xue'er, just concentrate!”
Before he finished speaking, an indescribable Chaos Divine Light suddenly erupted from around Li Mu!
“Buzz—!”
A seemingly thin, yet immensely profound, vast gray light screen, containing the primordial weight of the Universe, burst forth from Li Mu!
This light screen was not a simple barrier; it was more like a flowing projection of a Chaos ocean, pregnant with infinite possibilities.
Upon the light screen, countless intricate and abstruse primordial Dao patterns flowed and manifested like living entities, demonstrating the ultimate truths of earth, fire, water, wind, Yin and Yang, Five Elements, and the rotation of space and time.
An ancient, primordial aura, capable of encompassing all things yet also annihilating them, permeated the area, instantly engulfing the entire Starship.
Li Dage's Chaotic Dao Domain!
Xue'er was slightly stunned, only to feel the terrifying suction that had been madly tearing at her Origin suddenly vanish!
It was as if a dam, isolating a doomsday flood, had instantly been erected; the omnipresent and pervasive Law of Devouring, upon colliding with the light screen flowing with Chaos Dao patterns, was like a raging torrent crashing against a millennia-old, unmoving reef.
It was forcibly twisted, deflected, and even partially assimilated, and the power of devouring completely disappeared!
However, Xue'er could still feel the suffocating devouring pressure from outside, like billions of tons of weight pressing on the Dao Domain light screen, emitting a dull hum.
The Dao Domain's radiance also rippled violently like water, yet it remained completely effective, ultimately being firmly resisted on the outside.
"Phew..."
Xue'er let out a long breath, a trace of color returning to her pale face, as she looked with lingering fear at the pure darkness outside the Dao Domain.
"So terrifying, this power is too overbearing; just being in this Star Domain almost..."
Xue'er looked at Li Mu's back, her eyes filled with worship and dependence.
If Li Dage hadn't timely activated this Chaotic Dao Domain containing the supreme Law, she probably wouldn't have lasted a hundred breaths.
Li Mu did not turn back; his profound gaze penetrated the Dao Domain light screen, firmly locked onto the massive rift at the equator of that desolate planet.
There, the towering dark green giant vine was clearly visible!
It seemed to have also sensed the intrusion of outsiders, especially Li Mu's powerful Divine Thought and the unique aura of the Chaotic Dao Domain.
"Roar!"
It was not a sound, but a Law roar that directly vibrated at the Soul level, filled with endless greed and ferocity!
The dormant giant vine suddenly trembled!
Countless distorted Dao patterns covering its surface suddenly lit up, emitting an even deeper and darker emerald green light.
The countless slender tendrils that had originally plunged into the Star core and Void Realm, like the tentacles of deep-sea behemoths that smelled blood, suddenly rose from all directions!
Their tips pointed towards the Starship suspended in the desolate Void Realm!
At the tip of each tendril, a miniature, continuously collapsing dark vortex condensed, emitting a terrifying devouring power that made one's scalp tingle.
Even the already extremely thin space around it emitted groans of unbearable strain, and light was completely distorted and swallowed.
The core of the entire desolate Star Domain, that absolute Spiritual Qi vacuum, seemed to come alive at this moment, transforming into an invisible, greedy giant mouth, eager to completely chew and devour the Starship, along with the Chaotic light screen, that dared to intrude into its Domain and resist its devouring!
"It found us!" Xue'er's brows furrowed tightly, clearly feeling countless cold, hungry wills, purely born for devouring, coiling around the outside of the Chaotic Dao Domain like venomous snakes, frantically tearing and sucking at the Dao Domain's power.
The ripples of the Dao Domain light screen became even more intense, like a lake surface in a downpour.
However, it remained incredibly stable, unmoving, no matter how the devouring power outside acted upon it!
Li Mu still stood at the bow of the ship, his robes flapping in the invisible devouring storm.
Facing this terrifying sight that could instantly turn ordinary Immortals into withered bones, not only did he show no fear, but the arc of his mouth, indicating the discovery of prey, became even more pronounced, and his eyes burned with pure Battle Intent and the fanaticism of exploration.
"What a Devouring Spiritual Root! Truly overbearing!"
Li Mu let out a low roar, and the Chaos Divine Light around him surged again, as if injecting new vitality into the Dao Domain, resisting the frantic assault of the Devouring Spiritual Heavenly Vine.
"Xue'er, just focus on protecting yourself!
Next, let it see what a Great Dao is!"
Li Mu glanced at Xue'er, then slowly raised his right hand, Chaos Qi swirling between his five fingers, his palm facing downwards, and lightly pressed it towards the desolate star.
"Chaos returns to Origin, Dao evolves without limit!"
With Li Mu's low roar, the Chaotic Dao Domain enveloping the Starship suddenly expanded and deformed!
The gray light screen flowing with primordial Dao patterns was no longer content with mere defense; instead, like an awakened primeval beast, it actively pressed forward towards that greedy dark Devouring Spiritual Dao Domain!
Buzz—Boom!
Two completely opposite yet both touching the Origin of the Great Dao, terrifying powers, fiercely collided in the desolate Void Realm!
Wherever the Chaotic Dao Domain passed, it was not a simple energy annihilation, but a deeper level of "assimilation" and "reconstruction"; that originally overbearing and all-devouring Devouring Spiritual Dao Domain, seemed to have met its nemesis.
The dark green devouring ripples crashed into the vast Chaos, melting like ice and snow, enveloped and decomposed by the Chaos Qi, turning into nourishment for the Chaotic Dao Domain itself!
The primordial Dao patterns flowing in the Chaotic Dao Domain glowed brightly, and their manifestation speed suddenly accelerated, as if analyzing and absorbing the mysteries of the Law of Devouring.
The Chaotic Dao Domain expanded and spread at a visible speed, in turn beginning to devour and compress the Devouring Spiritual Dao Domain of the Devouring Spiritual Heavenly Vine!
That absolutely dark, empty region was forcefully invaded and covered by the vast Chaos; in the desolate Void Realm, gray and dark green colors fiercely clashed and eroded each other, emitting a silent yet Soul-shattering Law roar.
The entire Star Domain instantly shattered and re-formed like fragile glass, forming transient zones of Law vacuum.
The planet where the Devouring Spiritual Heavenly Vine was rooted trembled violently; more bottomless ravines were torn open on the already cracked surface of the planet, and the main body of the vine emitted a silent, furious, and violent shriek!
It felt a fatal threat; it was a higher-level Origin power that was crushing its Foundation!
Countless tendrils piercing into the Void Realm danced wildly, and the dark vortices condensed at their tips instantly swelled a hundredfold!
They no longer merely targeted the Starship, but like countless open, giant mouths leading to the abyss of destruction, they frantically tore at the expanding edge of the Chaotic Dao Domain.
Chii chii chii—!
The edge of the Chaotic Dao Domain was torn with violent ripples, and even small areas were forcibly "bitten off" by the terrifying devouring vortices, turning into pure energy streams absorbed by the tendrils.
The Devouring Spiritual Heavenly Vine attempted to turn Li Mu's Chaotic Dao Domain into its nourishment in the most brutal way!
"Hmph, a dying struggle!" Li Mu's eyes were cold, but the arc of his mouth still held that hint of control over everything.
With a thought, the Dao Origin imprint obtained from the Lord of Nothingness emerged from the Chaos Dao in his Sea of Consciousness. (End of this chapter)
