The sanguine wind of the Chaos Rift, carrying embers of karma-fire, snapped at the robes of Xuan and his companions with ragged force. Having just obliterated the Devouring Crucible, they pressed onward to the Wheel of Ten Thousand Kalpas—realm of the Elder Consciousness. From afar, the colossal bronze wheel loomed in the chaos. Its thirty-six spokes crawled with Cinnabar Fate Scripts, while at its hub, the Cinderfire Stele breathed out azure karma-flames. Each rotation drew forth the mournful wails of countless captive spirits.
Zhu Li walked at their head, holding the Starfire Lantern. Its flame suddenly flickered violently, its sallow light illuminating Cinnabar Fate Slips drifting in the fog ahead. "Careful," she warned, "this mist corrodes True Spirit. These slips bind past-life sins." Xuan activated his Chaos Dao Body, a diamond-shaped pattern forming with his brow's Golden Fissure Sigil. Before his eyes, glowing green characters materialized on the slips:
*"Xuan. Your 3,700th cycle. Still you rebel against Heaven's Mandate?"*
His pupils constricted—The Elder Consciousness was spying on his Saṃsāra path.
Xing Tian's Sky-Cleaving Axe slammed into the mist-wall, chaotic blades shredding a dozen slips. Yet more surged forth like leaves. "Damn these things! Trickier than blood-fiends!" The chaotic-clay head at his neck flared crimson, his axe strikes spraying green sparks with each blow. Zhu Li swiftly formed hand-seals. "*Stellar Flare: World-Illumination!*" Solar brilliance erupted from the lantern. Where its gold light touched, the slips ignited, revealing bloody micro-scripts beneath:
*"SAṂSĀRA IS HEAVEN'S GIFT. OBLIVION GRANTS ETERNITY."*
Xuan seized the opening to expand his divine sense toward the Kalpa platform—and gasped. A deluge of alien memories flooded his mind: He saw himself in past cycles as a Primeval Mirror-Guard, an Ancient Blood-Acolyte, an Elder Ritual-Priest—each life serving the Three Archaic Laws. "Are these... the Saṃsāra memories the Elder erased?" Horror dawned. The Elder Consciousness had entangled his True Spirit within the cycles, weaponizing fabricated lives to erode his will to resist.
Pushing through the mist, they reached the core. Before them stood the thousand-zhang Cinderfire Stele etched in dense Oblivion Glyphs. Countless souls knelt vacantly before it, eyes vacant as karma-flames scoured their consciousness. Xuan suddenly spotted faint Primordial Glyphs at the stele's base. "Zhu Li! Aim the Lantern here! It's Pangu's memory-seal from before Creation!" The Starfire Lantern dissolved into a stream of light and merged with the foundation.
*CRACK!*
The stele convulsed. The Oblivion Glyphs flowed backward. The azure karma-flames dimmed to translucency, revealing a vision sealed within: Pangu battling the nascent Triune Consciousness. A weary echo resonated:
*"My Path is not walked alone...* The Triune are not Creation's dawn—they are fragments of My Resolve. Only a Chaos Dao Body... can shatter this Wheel..."
Suddenly, the void ripped open. The Saṃsāra Matriarch descended upon a wheel of fire. From her sleeves, she unleashed a blizzard of Oblivion Soul-Moths, wings shimmering with captive souls' past and future lives. "*Seed of Chaotic Defilement!*" Her voice resonated with chill underworld depths. "*To profane the Elder's sanctuary... SUFFER YOUR OWN MEMORIES!*"
The moths' wings stirred a tsunami in Xuan's mind-sea:
First Cycle: Executing a chrysalis-breaking Zhu Li with icy precision.Second Cycle: As a Blood-River Hierophant, presenting Xing Tian's severed head to the Patriarch.Third Cycle...
These forged memories stabbed his True Spirit like poisoned daggers.
"*XUAN!*" Zhu Li's voice pierced the storm. The Starfire Lantern was now blazing at his brow. "*Look at ME! All lies! TRUE memory lives HERE—*" She pressed fingertips to her heart, where light pulsed in sync with his Golden Fissure Sigil.
Xuan jolted awake. His own hand was locked around Zhu Li's throat. Yet in her eyes, he saw reflections never in the Saṃsāra visions: Their first meeting in the Rift Immortal Alliance.Fighting back-to-back in Flawless Heaven-Citadel.Witnessing rebirth amid the Crucible ruins.
"Yes... This is real..." He released her. Golden chains manifested from his sigil, shattering the false memories.
Enraged, the Matriarch hurled her ultimate curse—Cinnabar Origin: Kalpa-Slip. Blood-scarlet runes spelled XUAN upon its surface.
"*THIS SLIP CASTS YOU INTO ENDLESS SAṂSĀRA! NO CHRYSALIS SHALL EVER FREE YOU!*"
Xuan merely smiled. His brow-sigil erupted into a vertical pupil—the Fissure-Gold Gaze: Heavenly Mandate Shatter, awakened during the Blazing Heaven Corpus battle. Within the fabric of the Kalpa-Slip, his gaze locked onto a near-invisible fracture—Pangu's Hesitation Flaw, etched at Creation's dawn.
"So... the Elder's Law is imperfect after all." He snatched the slip. His Chaos Dao Body devoured its karma-flames. "*See this flaw? Pangu's final gift to those who come after.*"
Cracks spider-webbed the Matriarch's form. She watched in horror as Xuan reforged the Kalpa-Slip into a Soul-Remembrance Slip, its script now reading:
*"MEMORIES ARE STARFIRE. UNQUENCHABLE."*
"Now," Xuan declared, soaring sword-borne towards the colossal Wheel, "*I rewrite Saṃsāra.*"
His *Triune Manifestation Fusion Art* surged:
Left Arm (Frost Gauntlet) → Froze the Wheel's relentless spin. Right Arm (Blood-Edge Claw) → Ripped open seams in the Bronze Disk. Brow-Sigil (Karmic Beacon) → Illuminated the Wheel's core: the Cinnabar Fate-Nexus.
Zhu Li seized the moment: "*Starfire: Ten-Thousand Awakenings!*" Lantern-light became luminous chains linking every captive soul. "*AWAKE! YOUR MEMORIES WERE NEVER HEAVEN'S TO ROB!*"
Agony wracked the Wheel. Souls clutched their heads as deep seals shattered.
One remembered: A Primeval Mirror-Artisan, secretly carving imperfect star-charts into walls. Another recalled: An Ancient Herb-Refiner, condemned to Kalpas for refusing carnivorous cultivation. Countless more saw: Within their True Spirits, a sigil identical to Xuan's Golden Fissure pulsed faintly.
"We... all carry Chaos' seed..." A white-haired cultivator wept, touching the stele. Oblivion Glyphs crumbled away, revealing a network of Soul-Trace Glyphs beneath.
Xuan poured his core strength into the Bronze Disk, etching a new Law into its surface:
*"ALL SAṂSĀRA TRAVELERS KEEP ONE WISP OF TRUE SPIRIT. MEMORIES OF TEN CYCLES SHALL NOT PERISH."*
As the final glyph settled, the azure karma-fire transmuted into clear Soul-Remembrance Flames, turning their purifying light upon the Matriarch.
"*NO! MY WHEEL IS—*" Her shriek dissolved under the dual assault of Starlight and Chaos, leaving only a venomous echo: "*We await... in Chaos' Reflection...*"
Aftermath: The Wheel of Ten Thousand Kalpas transformed.
Spokes shed their Oblivion Glyphs, becoming swirling galaxies. The Cinderfire Stele breathed gentle radiance over the souls.
Xing Tian pointed to the Wheel's heart, where clusters of translucent Chrysalis-Spirits hovered. "Are those... the freed spirits of chrysalis-breakers?" Zhu Li nodded, the lantern's light gently embracing them. "Saṃsāra is no longer oblivion's cage, but rebirth bearing past-life resolve." She turned to Xuan, an unreadable light in her eyes. "While awakening them... I heard their chorus—'Thank you, for the courage to remember pain.'"
Xuan gazed into the chaos. Newly freed souls, bearing rekindled True Spirits, flew towards the rifts, each emblazoned with an Indelible Starlight Imprint. He knew the Elder's Law was remade, but the Triune would not relent. "Next stop: Primeval's Silvershroud Firmament," he declared, the Soul-Remembrance Slip clutched tight. "*We'll make Heaven's Decree hear the people's voice.*"
Xing Tian roared with laughter, his axe a silver blur. "About damn time I cracked a few flawless skulls!" Zhu Li shook her head, yet couldn't help a smile. As the Kalpas' old flames faded, Soul-Remembrance Fire ignited in every liberated spirit. Forgotten memories, suppressed choices – all became motes of starlight, converging into a beacon within the chaos.
Standing atop the transformed Wheel, Xuan understood: the freedom he sought was never merely shattering Laws. It was granting every being the courage to choose, to remember, and to fight for their own fate. As he turned, Zhu Li stood transfixed before the Cinderfire Stele. The Primordial Glyphs had clarified, revealing a small, startling phrase:
*"Chaos Dao-Heart, born from the chrysalis-break"*
— an earth-shattering secret of his origin, awaiting revelation behind the Mirror-Veils of Silvershroud.