Vast, magnificent cities stood open, completely empty and silent within, not a single figure moving, as if sealed away for millennia.

Void City was one of the major trading hubs of the Boundless Void Sea, usually garrisoned by tens of millions of warriors from various races. Countless powerful experts frequented the area, and numerous battleships appeared daily.

Yet now, the entirety of the Land of the Void lay as if dead, frighteningly still.

Deep within the firmament, several inky black caverns slowly contracted. Countless divine bodies of mighty experts, resembling chunks of flesh, choked those black holes as the holes gradually vanished.

Above Void City’s skyline, many battleships and war chariots still hung motionless. Tragically, not a single trace of life remained inside the chariots.

Time sped by in a flash.

On one such day, a battleship belonging to the Medicine and Artifact Alliance approached from afar and settled above Void City.

A severe-looking man stood on the bow of the vessel, hands clasped behind his back, gazing upon the utterly desolate city. He was shaken to his core and urgently transmitted the news of what he found.

The fact that tens of millions of beings in Void City had mysteriously vanished spread with lightning speed, echoing into every corner of the Star Sea, throwing countless races into terror.

The Stellar River was currently enduring its most turbulent period; an entire era might be concluding because of these events.

At the core territories of the Dark Demon Race and the Ancient Demon Race, Han Tian, Xi Luo, and Mandis each led their forces, battering the sealing barrier that those two races had established over tens of thousands of years, intent on breaking through.

Many powerful races aligned with the Profound Heaven Race, the White Bone Race, and the Phantom Race received transmissions from above. They swiftly gathered their combat strength and launched assaults on adjacent domains.

For example, the Sky Eye Race—Mashisha, Evelyn, and others—received precise intelligence from Judy, instructing them to seize the opportunity to invade the nearby Lan Yi Star Domain, or perhaps the closer Tuke Star Domain. Both domains originally belonged to the Soul Race, and previously, the two sides had maintained strictly separate spheres of influence.

Now, due to the conflict among the Seven Races, the sharp decline in the Soul Race’s influence, and Judy’s orders, the Sky Eye Race assembled all their strength and formally embarked on the path of aggression, uniting with several minor races dependent on the Profound Heaven Race to begin slaughtering neighboring populations.

The war of the Seven Races was not confined to the seven entities alone; the myriad races affiliated with them were all drawn into the fight because of their patrons' actions.

Across the boundless Star Sea, the endless Boundless Void Sea, countless domains, and innumerable races were already engaged in combat—slaughter, invasion, and intense racial warfare. Unceasing barrage of deadly fire spread to every remote corner of the universe, sweeping nearly every race into its vortex!

In this era, the Stellar Sea boiled due to the shock of this war. Many stars perished. Some domains suffered eternal ruin and might eventually explode.

Death, slaughter, extermination, and mutually destructive battles played out in every single domain.

The vast, limitless cosmos was destined to be thrown into upheaval by this, destined to see countless powerful beings fall along with their stars, their legacies erased.

...

In a gloomy, cold, and utterly silent place, an infinite abyss lay below, and a hazy void stretched above.

The suns, moons, and stars seemed to fall like raindrops from the gray nothingness above, plunging into this cold, dead, bizarre land. Many shattered domains, resembling ruptured spheres at first glance, also perished from the heavens, crashing down into this realm.

Here, there were seas of multicolored clouds and magnificent swirls of vapor, but the most numerous features were abyss-like pools of deep water—deep pools scattered throughout the cloud seas, clustered together, chunk by chunk, countless in number, impossible to count.

The suns, moons, and stars falling from the void above would all sink into those abysses. Even massive domains, upon shattering, would descend and fall into those innumerable depths.

This place was called the Endless Abyss—the lowest space of the universe, the very bottom of the Boundless Void Sea, a realm rumored that no living being could ever set foot upon.

When heaven and earth are extinguished and the universe collapses, the suns and stars will fall here, into the Endless Abyss.

Now, because of the brutal fighting across the Star Sea, many life-bearing stars had exploded, and numerous domains had been torn apart. The shattered remnants of those stars and moons constantly sank, passing through the infinite, endless void darkness, descending here to submerge into those giant, pool-like abysses.

Each abyss, situated within the vast cloud sea, held an interior of eternal stillness, painfully cold and utterly devoid of any sign of life.

A vague silhouette quietly coalesced, slowly manifesting within the Endless Abyss.

It was a middle-aged Human Race man with white hair flowing to his shoulders, his eyes as deep and haunting as the abyss, possessing an ancient look. Dressed in a simple, shining silver robe, he walked upon the void above one of the abysses, occasionally looking up at the falling celestial bodies. He murmured to himself, "Soon. It won't be long before the conditions for opening are met..."

He was Solon, one of the Ten Great Domain Ancestors! He was a member of the Human Race and the true master operating behind the scenes of the Medicine and Artifact Alliance. He stood at the Third Heaven of the Domain Ancestor realm—the apex existence of this era!

He walked through the void above the abysses, gazing up at the descent of suns and moons, feeling the passing of life with a look of indifference, muttering to himself alone.

The surface of the abyss where he trod slowly began to transform, manifesting mystical and profound scenes. Within those scenes, members of various races were locked in combat, experts were perishing, soul altars were exploding. These images, like the memories of stars, seemed to silently recount something as they fell into the deep.

He rarely showed himself in the universe. For tens of thousands of years, he had remained stationed here, observing the Gate of Primordial Truth hidden deep within, calculating the exact moment to force it open.

The Gate of Primordial Truth lay deep within the Endless Abyss, in a mystical, strange location, perpetually sealed and closed since the Primordial Era.

Even the beings of the Primordial Era, at the cost of ending their own age, could not breach the Domain Ancestor level to reach the Eternal Ultimate Realm.

The Gate of Primordial Truth remained firmly shut; it had not opened in that age.

Solon had observed this place for tens of thousands of years, painstakingly deducing and searching for a method to unlock the Gate of Primordial Truth. For the sake of opening that gate, he had orchestrated everything!

“Crack!”

He stepped onto one abyss, and that abyss instantly transformed, becoming a clear, limpid lake.

Within the lake, a figure slowly took shape, finally resolving into the image of Zhen Ru...

Zhen Ru was on a cold, dead star in the Boundless Void Sea. From that dead star, she could see many members of the Myriad Forms Race. Their faces were etched with grief, some softly weeping for their fallen kin.

"You deceived me! All my efforts were shattered by that ray of light in the Mystical Rune Pagoda, and I barely managed to escape! My clansmen suffered heavy losses protecting me! I have sacrificed too much for your plan—you must take responsibility for the deaths of my people!" Zhen Ru's chilling voice resonated through the lake, traveling from the depths of the universe to the Endless Abyss.

Solon, with his white hair flowing, remained indifferent, his voice cool. "Your own greed harmed you. I should have warned you merely to provoke the hatred of Candice and Fandler toward him, to make them fight. I did not tell you to kill him. Do you truly believe you could kill him now that he can merge with the Mystical Rune Pagoda?"

Without waiting for Zhen Ru to retort, Solon continued coldly, "I allowed Mandis to cede the Yunmeng Domain to him, allowing him to obtain the Fallen Star River, enabling him to forge the Primordial Body. The point was to keep him alive, to let him live well! He is the most crucial piece of my plan, the key to opening the Gate of Primordial Truth. Until that gate is open, he must remain alive for me!"

"Was Yuan Zu inciting the War of the Seven Races also part of your plan? Now the Seven Races are at war, the Star Sea is in chaos, countless suns and moons are exploding and shattering. This era, which reached the zenith of prosperity, might end because of this! Is this what you desired?!" Zhen Ru roared in anger.

"No era is eternal. The Primordial Era was once immensely powerful, yet it too vanished into the river of history... What does this small matter matter? In my eyes, the end of the Primordial Era held no value, because they never even opened that gate! If our era can conclude at the cost of its ending to open the Gate of Primordial Truth, I deem it worthwhile," Solon asserted firmly.

"The Devourer rages across the Star Sea, slaughtering across the major domains to restore its energy. Its mad consumption is pushing the Star Sea to its breaking point, and its power grows rapidly. If it fully recovers, even if that gate is opened, do you truly believe you can still control the situation?" Zhen Ru demanded.

"The current situation remains within my grasp. Even if the Devourer recovers its peak strength, as long as it cannot take the final step—stepping into the Eternal Ultimate—it remains under my control..." Solon said calmly. He paused, and for the first time, frowned slightly. "The only variable is that Shi Yan. Because I cannot capture his thread of destiny, he will be the first one I erase once he forces the Gate of Primordial Truth open."

"Who is that Shi Yan? What is going on? Why can't even you capture his thread of destiny? You can see the destiny threads of the Devourer and the Desolate, yet you cannot see his?" Zhen Ru gasped in horror.

Solon fell silent. After a long, long moment, he murmured, "For these tens of thousands of years, I have been stationed in the Endless Abyss, observing the Gate of Primordial Truth, watching its slightest changes. Tens of thousands of years passed, and the Gate of Primordial Truth showed no change—everything remained as usual. I nearly gave up..."

Zhen Ru displayed an expression of intense curiosity, listening intently to his tale, desperate to know what had transpired.

"When I was close to despair, on a certain day hundreds of years ago, a ray of soul light actually flew out from inside the Gate of Primordial Truth! That ray of soul light ignored the limitations of space, pierced through the Endless Abyss, crossed countless domains and star systems, stabbed into the Desolate Domain, and descended upon the Continent of Divine Grace in the Desolate Domain. That ray of soul light... was Shi Yan’s original soul!" Solon hissed.

"From—from within the Gate of Primordial Truth, a soul flew out?" Zhen Ru was utterly stunned.

Solon nodded. "After his soul flew out, the Gate of Primordial Truth, which had shown no change for tens of thousands of years, finally began to exhibit subtle transformations..."