A Glimmer in the Abyss
The Forbidden Abyss Ruins stretched endlessly before Ye Ling like a wound carved deep into the body of the mortal world. The very air shimmered with distortion, an oppressive spiritual pressure that would have flattened lesser cultivators into the dust. Chaotic currents of void energy danced between shattered spires of black crystal and crumbling ancient monoliths, whispering forgotten truths to those who dared step into the depths.
Ye Ling sat cross-legged within the shelter of a half-collapsed temple, thousands of kilometers deep inside the ruins. Despite the madness of the environment, the area he'd chosen pulsed with a strange stillness—a dead zone in the chaos. Before him floated a single petal of the Void World Sacred Lotus, gleaming with boundless mystic light. Mythic-Tier. Something so valuable that even immortals would kill for it, yet here it was, gently spinning like a calm eye within a storm.
Moments ago, he had refined the petal. The energy within had torn through his meridians, threatening to rupture his flesh, but his Primordial Dao Physique had endured. Not only endured—it had transformed. His Divine Formation Realm cultivation now teetered on the edge of transcendence, a breath away from the legendary Void Formation Realm.
But Ye Ling didn't rush.
With a wave of his hand, he activated his Breakthrough Barrier, a system reward designed to suppress all outward signs of a realm breakthrough. No auras would leak. No heavenly tribulations would descend. Not even the Will of Heaven could peer through the veil shrouding him. The changes happening within his body were cataclysmic—his dantian distorting, spiritual sea expanding, a void nucleus forming at his core—but from the outside, he was as silent as a stone.
Just then, he opened his eyes. Faint noise echoed across the distant ruins. To ordinary cultivators, it might seem like the flutter of wind or the crackling of ancient energy fields, but to Ye Ling, it was clear as day. Movement. Cultivators. Dozens of them.
He stood up and, with a subtle thought, extended his divine sense.
Across the blackened plains and warped rock towers, a group of nearly twenty figures was trudging through the ruins. Their steps were weary, and their spiritual signatures flickered with instability. Despite their condition, they maintained a tight formation, their eyes constantly scanning the surroundings.
At the center of their group was a young woman.
Ye Ling's gaze sharpened.
She was… breathtaking. Even from hundreds of kilometers away, through divine sense alone, her beauty radiated with an ethereal quality. Dressed in flowing robes embroidered with starlight silver and adorned with a crescent-shaped hairpin, she exuded the aura of someone noble, aloof, and untouchably powerful. Her features were delicate yet fierce, her expression calm but laced with a biting intelligence.
She could not have been more than 200 years old—a mere flicker of time in the cultivation world. And yet, she had already reached the Nascent Soul 8th Stage. A feat that would shake the foundations of the mortal world, and even turn heads in the lower realms of the Immortal World.
Around her moved several Nascent Soul cultivators, all of whom wore armor reminiscent of royal guards—though cracked, dented, and scorched from recent battle. Their breathing was shallow. Their movements were sluggish. They had clearly survived a brush with death.
At the rear of the group walked a solitary figure in dark gray armor, distinct from the others. His presence was heavier, more focused. Though he tried to mask it, Ye Ling easily discerned that he was a Divine Formation Realm cultivator—1st Stage, and badly injured. His left arm hung limp, and blood leaked from beneath his armor with every step.
Still, his eyes burned with vigilance. He was no guard. He was a protector, a true cultivator assigned to keep the young princess alive at all costs.
And she was indeed a princess. Even without being told, Ye Ling could feel it. Her every gesture, every motion, exuded grace and quiet authority. Someone born not only into power but forged by it.
The group was moving cautiously, their speed slightly faster than what Qi Condensation cultivators could manage, slowed by exhaustion and the oppressive aura of the ruins. Their path was winding, calculated—to avoid disturbing something.
Something dangerous.
"Interesting," Ye Ling murmured.
The shrine he'd discovered—the still place where he refined the lotus—was in their path. At their current pace, they would arrive in two or three days.
Ye Ling didn't move. Instead, he returned to his meditation, focusing inward.
The Void World Sacred Lotus' power surged through his spiritual sea. With practiced calm, he directed it toward the formation of his void core. The energy didn't resist. It welcomed him, flowed through him, and shaped itself to his will.
Boom.
His body shook—internally only, hidden from all perception.
His meridians expanded. His dantian collapsed into a singularity. A void was born.
He had stepped into the Void Formation Realm.
There was no thunder. No lightning. No howling winds or trembling mountains.
From the outside, Ye Ling sat still as a stone. But within, a storm of cosmic proportions had raged and been conquered.
He stood slowly, eyes glowing with new clarity. Every cell in his body pulsed with boundless strength. His spiritual sense now covered hundreds of kilometers more than before. His divine sense could pierce through illusions, formations, even weak karma threads.
He was now truly untouchable in the mortal world.
Ye Ling looked toward the approaching group again.
The princess and her guards were inching closer, now less than two days away.
For now, he decided to observe. Something about the girl… intrigued him. Her potential, her cultivation, her air of regality—she wasn't an ordinary genius.
And in the Forbidden Abyss Ruins, no one entered by accident.
Especially not someone like her.
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Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events are purely imaginary or used fictitiously.