Somewhere in the North Extreme, a razor-cold wind howled, wrapped in chaotic qi. The temperature alone could freeze a Dao Lord to death. Few beings ever passed through this stretch of void. Suddenly a space-time corridor opened, and the Calamity-Ferrying Boat shot out. Lin Moyu emerged, his body shrouded in a peculiar aura that masked his original presence. The aura resembled that of the North Extreme; even powerhouses native to the North Extreme would struggle to tell the difference. With it, others would take Lin for a local lifeform.
The aura came from the Causality-Seeking Ring. While within the space-time corridor, Lin had used the ring to "plant fruit" for himself, veiling his aura. He suspected the avatar from before belonged either to a Quasi-Supreme or a Supreme. Whoever it was, so long as he remained in the North Extreme he would be hard-pressed to evade their tracking unless he changed his aura. Other methods felt unreliable; only the ring offered the highest safety. So he decided on the spot and planted the fruit. By the time he exited the corridor, his aura had changed drastically. Not only that—his appearance had changed too: he put away his human looks, lengthened his ears, and let a faint layer of scales cover his skin, adopting traits of giant-beast races—features common among North Extreme beings—making it easier to hide.
He swept his gaze around. The void was barren. Picking a direction at random, he flew on while Little Tree probed the distance to fix their bearings. The coldest zone of the North Extreme was its center; the farther out you went, the warmer it became. By sampling temperature changes across regions, they could roughly gauge their distance from the center; then, by comparing temperature gradients in different directions, they could estimate their position within the North Extreme.
After some work, Lin determined he was in the southeast sector of the North Extreme—"southeast" relative to the center, closer to the East Extreme and the Central Domain. He then refined his position using the locations of the grand arrays the Calamity Supreme had placed in the North Extreme.
With his bearings set, he considered the next step. "They know I intend to refine the array, and planted an avatar inside the boundary array's region. Then near the array the Calamity Supreme set in the North Extreme, they'll certainly have people in place as well—very likely more avatars. They clearly don't want to kill me—likely out of fear of the Calamity Supreme and his peers—but they also won't allow me to refine the array. To break the blockade I have only two options: force my way through, or infiltrate. If I can think of both, so can they; they'll have countermeasures. Either path will be hard—but there's no better option."
The Calamity Supreme's array lay near the North Extreme's center. Lin decided to go scout it first. He'd been caught off guard before; this time he would be the one in the dark, turning from prey into hunter. He trusted he could solve it—that confidence was part of his Dao-heart.
Gold light flashed and Xiaopeng flew out. Lin sat on Xiaopeng's back, becoming a golden streak toward the center. Xiaopeng was so fast he was scarcely slower than teleportation. In a blink they had crossed billions of miles; the chaotic qi of the route streamed backward in their view. Lin sensed several North-Extreme-specific Daos, waves of chill pouring into his body.
Soon he saw a teleport array floating alone in the void, with no one around it. Bringing Xiaopeng close, he studied it. The construction was extremely simple, with only one function: send people out. It was strictly one-way—send, not receive—and the destination was fixed.
"Interesting."
They continued on. After half a day's flight he found another, the same setup: single-direction, fixed destination. Along the way he saw several similar arrays. He realized these arrays formed a one-way route: in the North Extreme, if you wanted to reach certain places, other than flying yourself you had to take this one-way hopscotch; you might have to loop a huge arc to get where you were going, and there was no helping it. Whoever laid these arrays was a bit… lazy. But the North Extreme folk seemed not to mind—they'd never thought to change it.
Between extremes there were clear differences. The North Extreme lagged the West Extreme, which lagged the Central Domain—but all of them, aside from the South Extreme which he hadn't visited, were better than the East Extreme. The East Extreme didn't even have teleport arrays; you had to fly everywhere. Thus, in the East Extreme, aside from races with space talents, anyone below Peak Chaos had almost no way to travel far—unless they paid Chaos gold to hire a space-talent race to carry them. Perhaps that was simply the East Extreme's way of getting around—odd, but interesting.
After array upon array and more than ten days of Xiaopeng's full-speed flight, they neared the center of the North Extreme. A gigantic snowflake came into view, like a continent, covered with countless structures—bold and austere, pure white like carved ice, perfectly fitting the North Extreme's aesthetic. From afar, Lin saw numerous soul-flames on the snowflake.
"Looks like a city… no, more likely a species' settlement."
Unlike the Central Domain, the North Extreme had no network of cities—only "clan grounds," which they called species settlements. Thanks to the North Extreme Supreme's efforts, the beings here were exceptionally united. Each race's grounds were open to outsiders; over time, grounds became settlements, and in any given race's territory you might find many other races living together in harmony. The scene struck Lin as novel—almost unbelievable.
"Let's take a look." The thought welled up—an impulse of inspiration. At this realm, he acted the moment such notions arose; they never appeared for no reason. He guided Xiaopeng toward the snowflake. A million miles out, he put Xiaopeng away and flew alone. The Causality-Seeking Ring had already altered his aura; he looked like a native North Extreme being. No one challenged him, even as he stepped onto the snowflake. Traffic wasn't heavy, but passersby were common enough that no one found him odd.
Inside, wind and snow raged. Giant beasts of all sizes lounged on the ground, enjoying the storm; others hid in their dwellings, clearly disliking the weather. The houses varied—some like castles, some like caves, some just pits dug in the ground. Different North Extreme races lived together, seemingly at peace, without conflict. Lin even spotted several younglings of different races playing together.
"This runs a bit counter to common sense," Lin murmured, eyes lifting to the distance where something caught his attention—and his brow slowly furrowed. "What is that?"
Snowflakes—petal after petal—danced in the air. Lin noticed a few were… special. Mixed into the gale, they looked like the rest, yet never fell, never drifted far—only circled within a precise zone. They were well hidden; without careful scrutiny you'd miss them. And beyond that, they emitted a strange aura that made observers overlook them. If not for his razor-keen soul, he would have missed them too.
"Do you see those few flakes?" he asked.
Little Tree shook his head. "Which ones does Master mean?"
Chaoszi was even more baffled. "Aren't there snowflakes everywhere?"
They hadn't noticed anything amiss. Their souls were sharp, but still not quite on Lin's level. He focused his attention on the special flakes, letting Little Tree and Chaoszi "see" them through his perception. Even so, it took them a while to notice the oddity.
"These are indeed special," Chaoszi whispered. "I don't recall ever seeing their like… and yet they feel familiar."
"I feel the same," Little Tree said. "If I'm not mistaken, they've had their shape altered—they didn't used to be like this."
Altered shape… not their original form. If only Chaoszi felt that way it might mean nothing, but Little Tree agreed—so it almost certainly tied back to some entity from their era.
A thrill ran through Lin. If these were connected to a being from that time, perhaps he could gain another top-tier material to reinforce his domain's foundation.
To Lin's eyes, the flakes glimmered faintly—light only he could see. Their peculiar aura spread like invisible smoke, borne by the storm across the whole "continent." Lin rose slowly, flying toward them so calmly that no one took notice; to others he was just another figure moving through the snowfall.
He reached out, and with ease plucked the flakes from the air. In his palm they weren't cold at all—rather, faintly warm and smooth. Definitely not normal snow.
Certain he was on the right track, he willed his soul-force into them, kindling soul-flame to refine them. As he refined, the flakes changed—turning into a transparent bead no larger than a fingernail. Then, with a soft pop, the bead shattered into dust and vanished.
At that instant, the wind and snow stopped. Lin's face changed. In the moment the bead broke, he sensed a strand of will—weak, but clearly caught. Its owner was identical to the will of the one who had hurled icebergs at him earlier.
"Not good. I've been made!"
Without thinking, Lin stepped out of the snowflake "continent." Xiaopeng appeared and carried him away in a streak of gold. From bead-shatter to Lin's departure took less than half a second.
As he fled, he decisively produced the Causality-Seeking Ring. "No cause—only fruit; change the aura; none can track." Backlash slammed him—cracks crawled across his body and through his soul—but neither shattered. At his current level of body and soul, so long as the "fruit" he planted wasn't too outrageous, he could withstand the recoil. The planting succeeded; the power of causality descended, and his aura changed yet again—completely different from before.
Lin fled far. Back on the snowflake, something shifted: the continent was vast, and there had been many of those special flakes; Lin had removed only a tiny portion, affecting only a small area. Everywhere else the blizzard raged on; only this one patch fell calm. The many beings that had been resting within it awoke together and looked ahead—seeing a non-clansman. Their formerly gentle gazes hardened; killing intent surged. Roars rose, and giant beasts began to strike. In a heartbeat the area dissolved into chaos—beast against beast—while countless weaker beings died where they lay. In the distance, under continuing snow, no one moved at all; when they stirred, they merely glanced over, adjusted their pose, and went back to sleep.
It was a strange sight: one zone locked in a frenzied melee while the rest of the continent lounged lazily, disinclined to act.
A slit opened in the void. The North Extreme Supreme descended—blue clothes, blue hair. He frowned slightly and tossed a bead; it turned into snow as it fell. The snowfall resumed, and the battle ceased abruptly. A moment before they'd been killing one another; the next, they were brothers again.
The North Extreme Supreme gazed into the void. He clearly hadn't found Lin's trail. Softly he said, "So you are still within the North Extreme. You do know how to make trouble. See to your own safety—and don't ruin what I'm doing. Otherwise, no matter how dangerous it is, I'll have to send you away."
His voice faded; he stepped once and vanished.
Gold light flowed. After flying billions of miles in one go, Lin finally exhaled. He hadn't looked too closely at the person who had used icebergs to drive him off earlier; this time he had seen clearly. He could now be certain: the owner of that strand of will was a Supreme—the North Extreme Supreme. It was he who was meddling with Lin.
Lin knew that to confront the North Extreme Supreme head-on would be suicide. Even if the Supreme didn't intend to kill him, he would never break that blockade. But he could not abandon the Calamity Supreme's array. He would need another way. There had to be one. His thoughts turned, and a rough plan began to form—though it needed refinement.
Just then Little Tree said quietly, "I finally know what that was."
Chaoszi chimed in, "I know too—it was a Still-Spirit Pearl."
"And not only a Still-Spirit Pearl," Little Tree added, "but an Illusion-Spirit Pearl as well."
"What are the Still-Spirit Pearl and Illusion-Spirit Pearl?" Lin asked.
"They're among several spirit pearls the world birthed at the same time back then," Little Tree said. "Besides the Mind-Confounding Pearl, there were others—these two among them. Neither of these developed a will of their own—or rather, before they could, someone obtained them; even if they had, it would have been erased."
"I remember that the Still-Spirit Pearl and the Illusion-Spirit Pearl weren't acquired by the same person," Chaoszi said. "Never thought they'd end up in the hands of one man now."
Between the two of them, they described the pearls' functions, and Lin basically understood. A chill crept up his spine. The North Extreme was deeper water than he'd imagined. What the North Extreme Supreme was doing went far beyond his expectations—Lin even felt there were other schemes at work behind him.