Chapter 327 - 326: What the Fissure Revealed

For a moment, nobody spoke.

Bai Qingyue approached slowly, her gaze moving from the crater to Lin Yuan.

"You have become even more proficient at using your Dao Fruit."

Lin Yuan turned toward her.

"It is still far from complete."

He looked at the damaged battlefield.

"I can perceive the relationship between the principles more clearly, but I have not yet reached the point where I can control every interaction. If Xie Luo had possessed a more stable foundation or a better understanding of his own weaknesses, the battle might have lasted much longer."

Bai Qingyue smiled.

"You defeated a Demon King who possessed a spatial domain and a dangerous venomous origin. I think you are being rather strict with yourself."

Lin Yuan chuckled.

"Perhaps."

He reached for her hand.

"But there is no harm in examining the shortcomings of a victory. If I stop studying my own techniques merely because I have defeated an opponent, I will eventually become the kind of cultivator who relies on past achievements rather than improving himself."

Bai Qingyue nodded.

She understood what he meant.

A powerful technique could secure victory in one battle, but an opponent in the future might possess a completely different ability. A cultivator who failed to continue learning could easily discover that the strength which once protected him had become insufficient.

Ku Ming walked toward them.

His expression was solemn as he examined Xie Luo’s corpse.

"The power of your Dao Fruit is remarkable, Benefactor Lin. You did not simply combine three principles into a stronger attack. You used them to examine the structure of your opponent’s techniques, identify the points where his abilities depended upon one another, and then exploit those points."

He looked toward Lin Yuan.

"That is a much more profound application than simply increasing the destructive power of a technique."

Lin Yuan nodded.

"That was precisely what I hoped to test."

Ku Ming’s golden eyes moved toward the crater.

"However, this Demon King was clearly not acting alone. His spatial techniques were designed to establish connections with other locations, and the way he attempted to communicate suggests that he had companions searching the Sacred Grounds."

Bai Qingyue’s expression changed.

"His siblings?"

"That is likely," Lin Yuan replied.

He looked toward the eastern horizon.

"The spatial disturbance we detected earlier was not limited to a single coordinate. Several connected points were moving independently. If this Demon King belonged to a group, the others may already be approaching."

Ku Ming frowned.

"Then we should leave this region before they arrive."

Lin Yuan considered the suggestion.

Under ordinary circumstances, retreating would be a reasonable choice. The death of one Demon King would certainly attract the attention of his companions, and there was no guarantee that Lin Yuan could defeat all of them at once without sustaining injuries.

However, he had another consideration.

The spatial coordinates Xie Luo had established were not entirely ordinary.

Before his death, the Demon King had forced a foreign spatial principle into the ancient laws of the Sacred Grounds. Although Lin Yuan had destroyed the connection he intended to use for communication, traces of the spatial structure remained.

Those traces were now visible through the perception of his Dao Fruit.

More importantly, the ancient realm itself had reacted to the intrusion.

The disturbance had not been limited to the immediate battlefield. Several faint fluctuations had traveled through the underlying structure of the Sacred Grounds, suggesting that the ancient laws were connected in ways that extended beyond the visible spatial pockets.

Lin Yuan’s eyes narrowed.

There was something worth understanding here.

He turned toward Ku Ming.

"Master Ku, you said earlier that the Sacred Grounds contain numerous connected spatial pockets. Do you know whether those connections are entirely natural, or were they created by the ancient cultivators who once inhabited this realm?"

Ku Ming was momentarily surprised by the question.

"Why do you ask?"

Lin Yuan pointed toward the place where Xie Luo’s spatial fissure had appeared.

"His technique forced a connection between two locations. When I destroyed it, I noticed that the surrounding laws responded in a manner that was different from an ordinary spatial fluctuation."

He paused.

"The disturbance did not simply disappear. It traveled through the underlying structure of the realm, as though the spatial pockets were connected through a larger circulation."

Ku Ming’s expression grew thoughtful.

"You believe the Sacred Grounds possess a unified spatial foundation?"

"More than that."

Lin Yuan looked toward the ancient mountains.

"The spatial pockets may be separate in their visible positions, but they appear to share a common structure. If that is true, then the damage affecting one region might also influence other regions through the same underlying system."

Ku Ming remained silent for several breaths.

Then he slowly nodded.

"That is possible."

His expression became more serious.

"The ancient records of the Red Skin Monk Clan contain references to the Sacred Grounds, although the details are incomplete. According to those records, as we already know, this realm was once an ancient Dongtian belonging to the Chosen Immortal Clan."

"Their descendants now reside within the Imperial Domain. They do not live in the Sacred Grounds. Their ancestors left this realm during an ancient catastrophe, carrying their surviving people to the Imperial Domain while the damaged ancestral homeland remained behind."

He paused.

"The records do not explain the entire catastrophe, but they suggest that the realm was once far more complete than it is today."

Lin Yuan’s gaze sharpened.

"Then the spatial pockets may not have been created independently."

Ku Ming looked at him.

"Explain your reasoning."

Lin Yuan glanced toward the traces left by Xie Luo.

"If the Sacred Grounds were once a true Dongtian, their spatial structure would have needed to function as a whole. The different regions might have been separated for cultivation or other purposes, but their foundations would still have belonged to the same realm."

He raised his hand, and a faint golden-purple spark appeared above his palm.

"The spatial coordinates Xie Luo used were foreign to this place. Yet when he forced them into the realm, the disturbance traveled through a larger structure. That suggests the existing connections were already present."

He closed his fingers.

"The damage may have changed how those connections function, but it did not erase them completely."

Ku Ming’s eyes widened slightly.

He had studied the ancient records for many years, yet he had never considered the possibility in precisely this manner.

The information contained in the records was fragmented. They mentioned an ancient Dongtian, the Chosen Immortal Clan, and a catastrophe that had forced the ancestors to leave.

But the relationship between those details had remained unclear.

Lin Yuan had taken a small observation from the battle and connected it to the history of the realm.

It was not a complete answer.

Nevertheless, it offered a new direction for investigation.

Bai Qingyue looked toward the surrounding mountains.

"If the spatial structure is connected, could the same be true of the ancient laws?"