Clearly.
Gu Qingfeng was right. Da Xing the Mad Monk, this old bald donkey, was indeed hiding his true strength, and he was hiding it even deeper than Gu Qingfeng had imagined. Even as the Li Palace was about to explode, this old bald donkey didn't unleash any powerful creation. He simply pressed his palms together, and the distorted, blurry Buddha light instantly blazed with a dazzling radiance. Moreover, Da Xing the Mad Monk himself stood firm as a rock within the vortex.
This couldn't help but astonish Gu Qingfeng. Even he couldn't guarantee he could stand firm within this ever-changing Li Palace Vortex.
At this moment, Gu Qingfeng didn't have the leisure to ponder just how powerful Da Xing the Mad Monk's true strength was, because the entire Li Palace seemed to have gone out of control, changing and spinning wildly. The sky was filled with flickering Original Sin light, erupting Breath of Original Sin everywhere, and the endless void spaces were constantly exploding.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The sounds were unceasing.
The Li Palace's rotation cracked open fissure after fissure.
Boom!—A deafening roar echoed as the Li Palace's rotation began to teeter precariously!
Boom!—Crack!
One fissure after another burst open in succession, and the Li Palace began to twist and blur!
"Kid Gu...
Pull this old monk out, damn it...
Quick!"
Da Xing the Mad Monk's voice came through. Gu Qingfeng immediately turned to look, but he couldn't see Da Xing the Mad Monk's figure. He scanned the surroundings and even released his divine sense to probe, but found nothing.
Gu Qingfeng didn't continue searching. The Li Palace was already in utter chaos now. Forget that Gu Qingfeng didn't want to search for Da Xing the Mad Monk; even if he wanted to, he might not be able to find him. The Li Palace could explode and disintegrate at any moment.
Sure enough.
A thunderous boom echoed. Gu Qingfeng felt an overwhelming force sweeping over him, giving him the sensation that Heaven and Earth had exploded. And then...
there was no 'and then'...
It was as if everything had fallen silent.
When Gu Qingfeng regained his senses, he found himself inexplicably transported to a place that was both familiar and strange, seemingly reminiscent yet mysteriously eerie.
The familiarity came from this place also being filled with the Breath of Original Sin, and it was even denser and purer than the Breath of Original Sin in the previous Li Palace.
Beneath his feet were flowers, grass, and trees. Looking out, there were also mountains and rivers.
The flowers were resplendent.
The grass was emerald green.
The trees were towering giants.
The mountains were rugged, the rivers magnificent.
At first glance, Gu Qingfeng thought he had returned to the Mortal Realm of the Great Wasteland.
But then, he realized this was not the Mortal Realm of the Great Wasteland. It seemed more like ruins from the Desolate Ancient Era.
Because everything his eyes could see—whether flowers, grass, trees, mountains, or rivers—was static, like a landscape painting, devoid of any vitality, lifeless and still.
He knew that the floating ruins from the Desolate Ancient Era within the Li Palace Void were exactly like this.
Could it be that this was truly a ruin from the Desolate Ancient Era?
Yes.
It was a ruin from the Desolate Ancient Era, but not just one. It seemed the entire World was a ruin from the Desolate Ancient Era, as if he had traveled through time back to the Desolate Ancient Era.
Could he have truly traveled through time back to the Desolate Ancient Era?
That probably wasn't possible.
Gu Qingfeng clearly remembered that when the Li Palace Vortex changed, numerous ruins from the Desolate Ancient Era fused together. Perhaps this Desolate Ancient World was formed from the fusion of many such ruins.
The question was:
What place was this?
Was it still the Li Palace?
No!
Probably not.
Gu Qingfeng had witnessed the Li Palace explode and disintegrate. This place likely couldn't be the Li Palace.
But if it wasn't the Li Palace, then where was it?
The Nine Palaces of the Desolate Ancient Era were birthed by the Primordial Black Hole. If the Nine Palaces exploded and disintegrated, could this place be inside the Primordial Black Hole?
As Gu Qingfeng took a step forward, he released his divine sense to probe. This probing was no trivial matter; he immediately halted, his expression shifting slightly, his brow furrowing. Because when he released his divine sense just now, he actually couldn't detect the existence of Space.
Gu Qingfeng thought it might be a mistake and probed more carefully. Indeed, he couldn't sense the existence of Space at all.
"How could this be?"
Gu Qingfeng was deeply shocked. Having lived for so many years, this was the first time he had encountered such a bizarre thing.
Based on his understanding of Space, he believed Space was omnipresent.
A Heaven and Earth, a celestial domain, a World, a secret realm—all were Space, and within them contained countless large and small spaces. A mountain, a river, a tree, a flower, even a grain of sand, a speck of dust—each was a Space.
Just as the Buddhist saying goes: a single flower is a World, a single leaf is a Tathagata.
The only difference was that different Spaces had different Laws. The World of a flower had the Laws of flowers; the World of grass had the Laws of grass. Just as a secret realm had its own Laws, Heaven and Earth had the Laws of Heaven and Earth.
For flowers and grass, the forest was their Beyond Heaven. For the forest, the mountains were their Beyond Heaven. For the mountains, the World was their Beyond Heaven. For the World, the celestial domain was their Beyond Heaven. For the celestial domain, Heaven and Earth was their Beyond Heaven. And for Heaven and Earth, the Endless Sea of the Wasteland Ruins was their Beyond Heaven.
The Endless Sea of the Wasteland Ruins was a Space, and it contained endless spaces.
The Primordial Black Hole was a Space, and it also contained endless spaces.
Even the Nine Palaces of the Desolate Ancient Era was a Space, still containing endless spaces.
Even though the Space of the Nine Palaces of the Desolate Ancient Era contained infinite mysteries and was constantly changing, Gu Qingfeng could still clearly sense the Space of the Nine Palaces.
However.
After arriving here, he couldn't sense any Space at all.
This completely shattered Gu Qingfeng's understanding and exceeded his imagination. He simply didn't know, nor could he imagine, what kind of place would have no Space.
If there was no Space, then this place fundamentally couldn't exist. In other words, as long as something existed, there must be Space.
He knew that even dreams had Space, albeit a spiritual Space, but it was still Space. Not just dreams—even a single thought would form a conceptual Space within one's consciousness.
Suddenly.
Two words surfaced in Gu Qingfeng's heart, and he murmured, "Could this be an illusion?"
He shook his head. He was certain this was not an illusion; it was real.
But if it was a real existence, why was there no Space?
Could it be that the Space here was too profound, and with his current comprehension of Space, he simply couldn't sense its existence?
That also seemed unlikely!
No matter how profound a Space was, it couldn't possibly have not even the slightest fluctuation, could it?
As long as there was Space, there would be Laws. As long as there were Laws, there would be fluctuations. These so-called fluctuations were actually a kind of Dao Breath, since Space itself belonged to a kind of Dao.
If a Space had no Law fluctuations, then there was only one possibility: the Space's origin was depleted.
And once a Space's origin was depleted, its Laws would cease to operate, the structure of the Space would disintegrate, and then it would form spatial turbulence.