On the Void Battlefield, Han Yi watched as the black counter on his retina finally jumped to '10' after he slaughtered a particularly tough-skinned Giant Beast. Suddenly, time around him accelerated—this time, even faster than the previous temporal reversal.
In the fleeting images that flashed before him, he saw countless terrifying entities locked in brutal combat. Among them was the Blue-Eyed Six-Armed being, which had nearly killed him with a single glance earlier. But within these rapidly shifting visions, Han Yi glimpsed the Blue-Eyed Six-Armed being itself being slain by an even more powerful entity.
In less than a breath, the surrounding void transformed back into the desolate ruins of a battlefield, littered with countless corpses that had remained unchanged since ancient times, bearing silent witness to the ferocity of that long-ago battle.
He also noticed that the black counter on his retina had quietly vanished during the acceleration of time.
As the surrounding space stabilized, Han Yi sensed a force enveloping him, pushing him out of this realm and pulling him toward a higher space. He offered no resistance, allowing the force to act upon him.
However...
Unbeknownst to him, the force that transported him from this space also erased all his memories of it.
In the next moment, the space shifted, and Han Yi found himself in a chaotic realm. The rules of this Chaos Space differed from those of the outer realm.
A flicker of confusion crossed Han Yi's face. He felt as if his mind had suddenly emptied. But before he could ponder it further, the surrounding space transformed again, and he stood before the Witch Tower.
Behind him were the tightly shut gates of the tower. Before him stood eight figures: six were prominent Mountain Lords overseeing the Mountain Lord Competition, and the other two were cultivators who had passed the assessment before Han Yi.
Mountain Lord Wangxi, whom he had met before, beckoned to Han Yi. "Gather here first. You're the third cultivator to reach the third floor of the Witch Tower."
Without hesitation, Han Yi flew forward and landed behind the eight figures.
His eyes remained filled with confusion. He had lost all his memories of what happened after entering the Witch Tower.
It was as if he had just charged into the tower, but now he was back at its entrance. The only difference was that the gate to the first floor, which had been open before, was now tightly shut.
Han Yi knew he had lost his memories because of the innate sense of the Dao Realm. With his memory severed, he naturally felt the absence.
It was like how a normal person, even after waking up and forgetting the contents of a dream, still knows they had a dream.
Beside Han Yi, a Daoist asked in a low voice, "Fellow Daoist, have you also lost all your memories of what happened after entering the Witch Tower?"
Han Yi turned to look. When he had glanced at the eight figures earlier, he had already discerned that the two Dao Realm cultivators who had left the Witch Tower before him were one at the Dao Fruit Tier and the other at the First Step of the Dao Realm, like himself.
The one asking him now was the Dao Fruit Tier cultivator.
In his memory, this Dao Fruit Tier cultivator had indeed charged through the Witch Tower's gates ahead of him, and his speed was indeed superior.
Han Yi noticed the "also" in the other's question. That meant this Fellow Daoist must be in the same situation as him.
"Exactly. I only remember rushing through the gate and then suddenly appearing outside the Witch Tower. But I know I must have experienced something inside; those memories have simply vanished."
"Fellow Daoist, do you know what's happening?" the Dao Fruit Tier cultivator asked.
Han Yi countered with a question of his own.
The Fellow Daoist shook his head. "It's the same for me as it is for you. The other Fellow Daoist experienced the same thing. We managed to clear the second level of the Witch Tower and reach the third, but all our memories of that period have vanished."
"Logically, even a being at the Dao Harmonization Realm should be incapable of tampering with our memories. Only a Heavenly Venerable possesses such formidable power."
"This enigmatic Witch Tower is truly bizarre, ensnaring us so subtly."
With those words, the Dao Fruit Realm cultivator fell silent.
Meanwhile, Han Yi's expression suddenly changed. Neither the Dao Fruit Realm cultivator nor the External Dao, Harmonization with the Dao cultivators standing before him seemed to notice his shift in demeanor, assuming it was merely a reaction to the Dao Fruit Realm's words.
Only Han Yi knew the true cause: faint red characters had suddenly appeared in his field of vision, covering the entire Proficiency Panel in a dense, shifting array. This phenomenon had occurred once before, when he first crossed over and gained access to the Proficiency system.
Though millennia had passed, he could never forget that initial revelation of the Proficiency Panel during his transmigration.
He instinctively glanced at the other Dao Realm cultivators around him, but found nothing unusual.
Just then, another Dao Realm cultivator appeared before the Witch Tower's gates. Han Yi watched as this newcomer materialized in a unique way: not by walking through the entrance, but as a beam of light shot out from the gray doors. The light condensed, and a figure materialized at the threshold.
This teleportation method was remarkably subtle. Even with Han Yi's discerning eyes, he couldn't discern its underlying principle.
The newly arrived Dao Realm cultivator, like Han Yi before him, had a blank, bewildered expression.
While everyone's attention was focused on the Witch Tower's entrance, Han Yi swiftly shifted his gaze back to the characters continuously shifting on his retinal display.
The characters, sensing his focus, seemed to trigger a transformation. They rapidly adjusted, morphing into a script he could understand: the Chaos Script.
This form of display had appeared when Han Yi first awakened his Proficiency Panel after his transmigration.
However, the text displayed this time was entirely different from before, sending a jolt through his heart.
Detected unfamiliar Boundary Force. Detected unfamiliar Boundary Force.
Matching Boundary Force information... Matching complete. Current world: Xishu Chaos Realm.
**Slayed a Xishu Chaos Realm Dao Realm cultivator, acquired 2 Boundary Force points.
**Slayed a Xishu Chaos Realm Dao Realm cultivator, acquired 3 Boundary Force points.
Boundary Force Acquisition in progress... Acquisition failed. Boundary Force reset to zero.
Memory Restoration complete.
Lines of text materialized, but their content left Han Yi utterly bewildered, as he couldn't comprehend them.
Boundary Force, Xishu Chaos Realm, Boundary Force Acquisition, Acquisition failed, Boundary Force reset to zero.
As the final line, Memory Restoration complete, settled into place, a series of images flashed before him. He saw himself on the first level of the Witch Tower, where the rules differed, and he had to rely on the brute force of an Ancient God to walk on air. He saw himself on the second level, surrounded by countless corpses of foreign races, locked in deadly combat with Dao Realm cultivators from opposing factions, even dying twice during those battles.
The images flickered, and the memories that had once been erased began to return.
As realization dawned on Han Yi, he began to piece together the meaning behind the lines of text. The mysterious space within the Witch Tower recorded a battlefield called the Xishu Chaos Realm. There, Han Yi had slain Dao Realm cultivators, attempting to acquire Boundary Force. But because that battlefield existed in a distant past, even the Proficiency Panel had "Acquisition Failed."
In the end, Han Yi could only retrieve the memory, which manifested as Memory Regression.
Could the Chaos Realm be a world composed of a Dao Domain beyond the Nine Great Dao Domains?
But what exactly is this Boundary Force?
Origin? Life Seed? No, if it were a Life Seed, the Panel would have displayed it directly as such, not as Boundary Force.
The layers involved here likely surpass my imagination.
With these thoughts, Han Yi took a deep breath, suppressing the shock within him.
Although this trip to the Witch Tower hadn't yielded any tangible benefits, the text revealed on the Panel had given him a glimpse of a monumental secret—one that might involve a vast world beyond the Nine Great Dao Domains.
He shook his head slightly, looking back at the now-normal Panel, and noticed a new change: a line had appeared above the Life Seed entry.
Boundary Force: 0
!
Although he hadn't successfully acquired any Boundary Force within the Witch Tower, the experience had prompted the Panel to reveal this previously hidden line. It was reminiscent of how the Panel had changed when he first encountered the Life Seed.
He composed himself, hid the panel, and looked up toward the entrance of the Witch Tower. By this time, a fifth Dao Realm cultivator had appeared. He glanced around discreetly and noticed no one was watching him, suggesting that no one had noticed the changes on his panel.
From then on, Han Yi paid no further attention to the panel and simply waited. As time passed, more Dao Realm cultivators appeared, until a ninth arrived. At that point, Mountain Lord Wangxi sent a beam of light toward the Witch Tower. The tower flashed, and over three hundred Dao Realm cultivators materialized en masse before its entrance.
Like the previous cultivators, these newcomers looked puzzled, their expressions shifting with uncertainty.
Seeing that all the Dao Realm cultivators had assembled, Mountain Lord Wangxi addressed them in a clear voice:
"Everyone, whatever experiences you had within the Witch Tower, you will have no memories of them."
"However, this will have no effect whatsoever on you. Rest assured."
"Now, the nine who first entered the third level of the Witch Tower have been identified. They will be teleported out shortly. The rest of you may disperse."
The last group of Dao Realm cultivators appeared before the Witch Tower, though inwardly reluctant. The assessment had been somewhat haphazard, leaving them bewildered; without any memories of what had transpired, they were unsure of what had happened.
Facing Mountain Lord Wangxi, who stood at the peak of Harmonization with the Dao, along with the Sixth Mountain Lord and four other External Dao experts, they dared not act rashly and obediently dispersed.
Next, Mountain Lord Wangxi addressed the remaining nine Dao Realm cultivators, imparting crucial information necessary for becoming a Mountain Lord. The cultivators then posed questions, which Mountain Lord Wangxi answered one by one.
Finally, he instructed an External Dao-level Mountain Lord to lead the nine cultivators through the next phase of the process.
Throughout this entire process, Han Yi remained composed. Though his emotions stirred, the changes on his Proficiency Panel had a far greater impact on him.
As the third to emerge, Han Yi was ranked as the ninety-third Mountain Lord, abbreviated as the Ninth-Third Mountain Lord.
On Demon Witch Mountain, each Mountain Lord has the right to claim territory on the mountain's True Form. Some, however, choose to establish their domain in the secret realms and cave heavens connected to the mountain's luminous halo, linking these hidden realms to form their territory.
Some Mountain Lords, deeply immersed in cultivation, only maintained a single Cave Heaven for cultivation and possessed no additional territories.
Regardless of their form, whenever Demon Witch Mountain issued a mission, all Mountain Lords who benefited from its resources were obligated to act and complete the task.
Han Yi, for the time being, had no desire to establish a territory or build a faction. Instead, he claimed a high-grade Cave Heaven as his own.
He planned to cultivate within this Cave Heaven temporarily, awaiting the return of the First Mountain Lord.
Before the Witch Tower, Han Yi had asked Mountain Lord Wangxi about the First Mountain Lord's return. After all, this directly pertained to his purpose for participating in the Mountain Lord Competition—to follow the First Mountain Lord to the Dao God Sect and seek out the Celestial Venerable Suizhu.
Mountain Lord Wangxi's response was that he couldn't determine the exact timing.
Although the First Mountain Lord had sent a message instructing the newly appointed Mountain Lords to accompany him to the Dao God Sect, Heavenly Venerables—especially ancient ones like the Sword Witch Heavenly Venerable—might require centuries of rest for a single nap. Therefore, Mountain Lord Wangxi couldn't predict when the Sword Witch Heavenly Venerable would return.
With this information, Han Yi had no choice but to wait.
Fortunately, Demon Witch Mountain didn't prohibit its Mountain Lords from leaving. Some Mountain Lords hadn't returned to the mountain for one or two Chaos Epochs, yet the soul traces they left behind in the mountain's depths remained intact, preserving their positions.
Han Yi planned that if the Sword Witch Heavenly Venerable hadn't appeared after a hundred years, he would return to the Primordial Great World to prevent any unforeseen changes.
While cultivating in his Cave Heaven, Jiang Xiying visited him several times. She seemed genuinely surprised that Han Yi had become the Ninth-Third Mountain Lord, but his remarkable achievements also greatly benefited her, leaving her equally excited.
During his cultivation, Han Yi also visited the special Secret Realm on Demon Witch Mountain where the Chaos Archives were stored. There, he studied information about the Chaos, including the power dynamics, major figures, Heavenly Venerables, Half-Step Transcendents, and even known Transcendent Realm beings across the Nine Great Dao Domains.
He searched for information about the lands beyond the Chaos—beyond the Nine Great Dao Domains—but found no records whatsoever.
This dashed his hopes of learning about the Xishu Chaos Realm and Boundary Force.
Nevertheless, he remained undeterred.
Without the Proficiency Panel, he wouldn't have known any of this in the first place. This was already an unexpected bonus.
During this time, Han Yi attended several Mountain Lord Conferences on Demon Witch Mountain, where he met numerous Dao Fruits, External Dao practitioners, and even beings at the Dao Harmonization Realm. He also learned of major events involving the Vast Heng Dao Domain and even the Nine Great Dao Domains, greatly broadening his chaotic perspective.
Just as he thought he would spend a century on Demon Witch Mountain in relative tranquility before returning to the Primordial Great World, in his sixty-fifth year as the Ninth-Third Mountain Lord, an extraordinarily powerful aura suddenly erupted from the summit of Demon Witch Mountain.
This aura was so potent that it stirred the very Chaos, causing the Primordial Chaos Qi to churn violently.
It was the aura of a Heavenly Venerable.
Moreover, this was not the aura of the First Mountain Lord, but of a newly ascended Heavenly Venerable.
Han Yi emerged from the Secret Realm and gazed toward the summit of Demon Witch Mountain. Though he couldn't see the peak clearly, he could sense a newly born, magnificent aura.
"The aura of a Heavenly Venerable."
"The Second Mountain Lord, Holy Flame Dao Lord, has ascended to the Heavenly Venerable realm."
He wasn't alone in this realization. Across the Secret Realms and Cave Heavens surrounding Demon Witch Mountain, and even on other parts of its True Form, countless Dao Realm cultivators appeared, looking toward the summit with expressions of shock as they speculated that the Second Mountain Lord had indeed ascended to the Heavenly Venerable realm.
Just then, a more powerful aura, brimming with boundless Sword Dao energy, erupted from the Chaos, causing every Spirit Sword, Immortal Sword, and Dao Sword on Demon Witch Mountain to tremble violently.
Han Yi whirled around, his face lighting up with joy.