The early morning was cold, but it wasn't just the usual cold of the Western Region.
There was something more in the breeze blowing between the mountains—an invisible weight, a feeling that the sky wasn't completely closed. The clouds moved too slowly, as if trapped in a dream, and the stars shone with an abnormal clarity, as if the firmament were closer to the ground than it should be.
Han Feng walked silently through a narrow valley, covered in ancient rocks and dry trees. His steps were light, but his mind was restless. The encounter with that figure who smiled naturally—as if the whole world were a chessboard—still echoed in his chest. It hadn't been a battle. It hadn't been a chase. And yet, the pressure of that moment had been more suffocating than fighting an entire elder of the Heavenly Corpse Sect.
Fang Yuan.
Even though he hadn't said his name directly, Han Feng knew. It wasn't knowledge from rumors or stories. It was instinct. It was perception. It was the clear feeling of being in the presence of someone who carried neither kindness nor hatred, but only purpose, calculation, and a will to survive at any cost.
And that, for Han Feng, was the most dangerous kind of enemy.
The wind blew again, and he paused for a moment. His gaze swept across the dark horizon, and the surrounding silence seemed deeper than before. There were no nocturnal birds. There were no beasts. Even common insects seemed to have disappeared. It was as if all life in that region had sensed the omen and instinctively fled, like ants abandoning a land before the poisonous rain.
Han Feng closed his eyes for a moment and felt the inside of his own body.
The golden seal on his chest pulsed slowly, almost lazily, but there was something strange about it. It seemed… attentive. As if the seal were not just a mark, but a mechanism that observed, recorded, and responded. The red flame within him was calmer now, but still burned, hidden, like a compressed sun. The Celestial Diagram…
The Celestial Diagram trembled.
Not violently.
Not like before.
But steadily.
As if an invisible thread were being pulled from afar, and each tug made the diagram respond with small vibrations, like a musical instrument resonating when someone plucks a distant string.
Han Feng slowly opened his eyes, his gaze growing cold.
—It's becoming more frequent…
He knew it wasn't a coincidence. It wasn't cultivation instability. It was an external reaction. A resonance. And that meant the process of universes colliding was approaching another critical point.
He walked for a few more hours until he found a shallow cave, hidden between two rock formations. There, he sat, sealing the entrance with a simple formation. He didn't need anything grand—just time to breathe and reorganize his mind. The world was moving too fast, and even someone like him needed to maintain control before events engulfed him.
When the cave became dark and silent, Han Feng finally allowed himself to relax his shoulders.
But in the next instant…
The golden seal pulsed.
And the Celestial Diagram responded.
A slight pain shot through Han Feng's chest, and the red flame stirred as if it had been awakened.
He frowned.
The spiritual energy outside… had changed.
It wasn't just denser or weaker.
It was as if it had been touched by another law.
Han Feng slowly stood up and left the cave.
The sky was different.
The firmament, which should have been stable, shimmered like the surface of a lake. For a moment, he saw the stars distort, as if pulled to the other side. A crack appeared—thin, silent—and there was no thunder, no explosion, no noise.
Just a feeling.
As if the world had held its breath.
Han Feng stared at that crack.
It was small, but too deep. Inside it was a red glow and a golden darkness mixed, as if two skies were overlapping for an instant. The pressure coming from there wasn't enough to crush him, but it was enough to make his blood move slower.
And then…
He felt it.
He didn't see it.
He felt it.
A gaze.
A gaze too distant to be called a "near presence," yet too real to be ignored.
As if someone, in another universe, had turned their eyes to that rift and, through it, perceived the Gu world.
Han Feng didn't move.
His breathing remained calm.
But inside, his mind was sharper than ever.
The gaze carried no emotion.
It was cold.
Indifferent.
Like the gaze of someone who has seen countless lives extinguished.
And yet… it was heavy.
As if carrying an entire sea of karma.
Han Feng didn't know the name of that being.
But he knew what he represented.
A cultivator from the other side.
A cultivator so tall that, even without crossing over, his mere attention made the sky of this world tremble.
The rift swayed.
And, for a fraction of a second, Han Feng saw an outline.
Just a distant silhouette.
A man.
Long hair.
Eyes that seemed to hold death and silence.
And behind him, something resembling an infinite world.
Han Feng narrowed his eyes.
— So you're watching too…
The silhouette didn't move.
It didn't speak.
But the gaze grew sharper.
And then it disappeared, as if the universe itself had closed the curtains before the contact became too dangerous.
The crack closed.
The sky returned to normal.
But the feeling remained, like an invisible weight on the soul.
Han Feng stood still for a while, until the wind began to blow again.
Only then did he take a deep breath and turn around.
That gaze… it wasn't Fang Yuan's.
It was different.
Fang Yuan watched like a predator.
That gaze watched like a law.
Han Feng clenched his fists.
— Wang Lin…
He didn't know why that name appeared in his mind, but it did. Perhaps it was the red flame. Perhaps it was the golden seal. Perhaps it was destiny itself pushing names and threads into his consciousness. But one thing was certain: someone in the other universe was beginning to sense the Gu World.
And Fang Yuan had already sensed the other side.
This meant that the two monsters were awakening.
And he was among them.
Han Feng walked back into the valley, but before reaching the cave, he felt the Celestial Diagram vibrate again. This time, the vibration didn't come from outside.
It came from within.
As if the diagram was trying to "draw" something new.
Han Feng stopped.
He closed his eyes.
And he plunged his consciousness into the very sea of primordial essence.
The Celestial Diagram was there.
A vast and complex pattern, like a living constellation slowly spinning within it. But now, small golden lines began to appear on the edges of the diagram, like traces that hadn't existed before. They appeared and disappeared, as if the diagram were trying to adapt to something larger than itself.
Han Feng felt a chill.
Those golden lines…
they weren't Gu.
They weren't ordinary primordial essence.
They were something like condensed laws.
As if the merging of universes was slowly allowing the Celestial Diagram to capture fragments of the Dao from the other world.
Han Feng opened his eyes, and his gaze deepened.
"If this continues… my diagram will change."
He didn't know if it was evolution or destruction.
But he knew he couldn't ignore it.
He needed answers.
And to get answers, he needed information, treasures, and security.
The Western Region was becoming too dangerous.
Sects were moving.
Ruins were emerging.
And monsters from the other side were beginning to sense the world.
Han Feng took a deep breath and looked at the horizon.
The direction was clear.
He needed to get away.
But not to run away.
To grow.
The Central Region.
The heart of the Gu World.
The place where truly ancient sects existed, where resources and inheritances were countless, where even Rank 6 and Rank 7 could appear. If he remained in the Western Region, he would be crushed by the first wave. But if he went to the Central Region and continued to rise silently…
Perhaps, when the final collision arrived, he would no longer be just a piece.
Perhaps he could become a player.
Han Feng took a step forward.
And then another.
His black robe moved with the wind, and his purple eyes gleamed under the moonlight.
But at that very instant…
somewhere far away, far beyond the Gu World, a man with cold eyes opened his eyes in meditation.
His face showed no emotion.
But his hand moved slightly.
It was as if he had felt a strange thread touch his karma.
And, on the other side of the void…
a young man with a calm expression and a gentle smile observed the sky, as if reading an invisible book.
He didn't need to cross over yet.
He didn't need to act yet.
He simply smiled, like someone who already knew the ending would be interesting.
Because, even without the merging happening…
the two worlds were already seeing each other.
And that meant that destiny had truly begun to turn.