Chapter 274 Chess Piece
The clear starlight fell, sprinkling between heaven and earth. The Heavenly Emperor, dressed in black with strands of gold woven into his black hair, stood calmly between heaven and earth, even barefoot. He would occasionally dip his feet into the flowing Milky Way, but at this moment, it was clear he had appeared here without even having time to change into his battle attire.

The earth cracked open, and the master of the Nine Underworlds also appeared. Zhujiu Yin wore a gray robe, his face obscured by a gray mist, only his eyes deep and solemn.

Old Man Buzhou Mountain was on the other side, the mountain surrounded by surging water currents, representing the power of the water god Gonggong.

The powerful beings of the Qing Shi were all present.

This was an area far from the human realm, far from the Great Wilderness main world. An entire world had already been swallowed beneath their feet. The ultimate yin energy and the ultimate yang energy swirled and intertwined here, evolving into a spectacle comparable to the universe. The black portion resembled a surging river flowing through hell, sweeping across this place with a gale-force wind, while the pure white side was composed of strands of energy-condensed threads.

Each of these threads was finer than the delicate hair at a beauty's temples.

But the power contained within was enough to pierce through the earth's crust in an instant, tear apart a planet, and shatter a star like an egg. The molten lava flowing inside would erupt in an instant, drenching the earth, oceans, and cities covered in spiderweb cracks. This was a world-destroying power, the source of the world's yin and yang in motion.

"A sign of one of the great tribulations, the doom of heaven and earth. Yin and yang lose their order, and then heaven and earth lose their order, the sun and moon lose their constancy."

"The world is collapsing towards this point of yin-yang imbalance, until it is finally destroyed."

Zhujiu Yin's voice was deep and calm, like someone uninvolved, as if what he was talking about was not the great tribulation that weighed heavily on the hearts of all gods and sages, but merely a common sight. His serpentine eyes swept around and said, "This was not triggered; it was something that was already happening here."

"Someone just applied a little trick to detonate it in advance, apparently intending to draw us away."

"This is a yang conspiracy."

The enormous shadow that loomed over everyone's hearts like dark clouds, the great tribulation that filled people with fear, finally revealed a brief glimpse at this moment. It was like a grand firework finally erupting, occupying the entire sky, a spectacle that no one could ignore, a spectacle that filled people's hearts with fear.

"A sign of yin and yang losing order. There's no way to enter. We can only wait for it to end on its own."

Zhujiu Yin frowned. "Di Jun, do you have a solution?"

The Heavenly Emperor, his black hair falling and his expression cold, said, "I do."

"But this sign of yin-yang imbalance will also detonate in advance."

Zhujiu Yin's brow rose slightly. He glanced at the Heavenly Emperor without saying much. If Wei Yuan were here, he would probably couldn't help but complain, "You want to just blow this thing up and then go in yourself, right? You're definitely thinking that, aren't you?"

Old Man Buzhou Mountain stroked his beard and said, "In this situation, it seems only Fuxi can handle it, right?"

"His fundamental authority lies in yin and yang. Reversing the Yin Yang Divine Prison Heavenly Tribulation was originally a top-notch path of slaughter, and it's similar to the signs of this disaster. If he were here, he should be able to easily tear apart this rudimentary yin-yang cycle, and then go inside to see what exactly happened."

"But, where is that kid?!"

The old man widened his eyes and looked around, discovering that even Wu Zhiqi, who had just advanced to the Dao Fruit level, had rushed here from the human realm with his weapon in hand, but that scoundrel snake, who claimed to be seriously injured but whose true strength no one knew, had not shown his face at all.

His expression froze.

This little scoundrel really hasn't changed at all. He's really unreliable.

When something happens, he runs faster than anyone else!

Then he noticed that everyone was looking at him. Buzhou Mountain coughed and stroked his beard with a solemn expression. "However, it seems that Fuxi is not here. But it doesn't matter. A Yuan wields cause and effect, reversing the effect with the cause, interfering with the future. Even across this yin-yang tribulation, he can still glimpse what's happening inside..."

His gaze swept left and right.

And the other person who could possibly determine what was happening inside, Wei Yuan, the master of cause and effect, was also not here.

The old man widened his eyes, his lips twitching.

Finally, he couldn't help but curse, "Like uncle, like nephew!"

So alike!

Inherited the ancestral skill of slacking off and shirking responsibility, huh!

That Fuxi sensed in advance that something might require him to put in effort, so he slipped away early.

He even locked Nuwa up, preventing her from participating in these matters.

Why did you slip away too, kid?

You don't learn the good things, but you learn the bad things faster than anyone else!

The signs of the world's destruction, just as the gods had predicted tens of thousands of years ago, were happening. The yin and yang, representing the foundation of the world, began to rotate, converge, and collide, bringing about huge tides of Yuan Qi. This was the most perfect pattern and painting in the world, the most perfect circle, inhaling and exhaling, rising and falling. But at this moment, a slight discord appeared in this perfect change.

A thousand-mile dike is destroyed by an ant hole.

This strand of discord will gradually expand and spread, like a boulder thrown into a calm lake. The ripples and waves that rise will sweep across all worlds in an instant.

All the worlds and laws that exist based on the Tao of yin and yang will collapse in a chain reaction, like dominoes, after the initial change. It was like a boulder rolling down from an infinitely high mountain peak, and the ultimate goal was the collapse of the world.

Of course, this was only a sign for now, like the fuse before the fireworks rise. But no one knew when the real tribulation would appear, destroying everything that was known.

And as this sign of a great disaster briefly drew the attention of all the gods,

a lurking schemer was also secretly active. But neither the Dao Fruit experts outside, nor the Lord of Guixu, who had exposed the signs of the great tribulation in advance to attract the gods' attention, had imagined that the Primal Heavenly Lord, who should have been outside at this time, was actually inside.

The huge yin-yang cycle seemed to absorb all the Yuan Qi, and seemed to exhale all the Yuan Qi.

Zhuque, or rather, Wei Yuan, stood before this massive cycle that seemed to lay the foundation for all things, as small as an ant before Mount Buzhou. Silken strands of incomparably pure yin and yang Qi swirled and surrounded him, flowing past him. Pure, vast, one gives rise to two, two gives rise to three, and three gives rise to all things.

That one was the origin before the creation of the world.

After the creation, it had already dissipated.

And now, before Wei Yuan's eyes, seemed to be the root of the world, the beginning of all the world's laws and changes.

"…damn it."

"Too damn much."

Wei Yuan felt a sense of unease.

He was too close to this core.

This was the cornerstone of the world's Great Tao. If the Supreme Old Lord was truly the foundation for the existence of all things, then the massive and magnificent existence before him was that foundation, but this foundation appeared before him as an unprecedented spectacle, rather than a personified god.

And whether it was cause and effect, or destiny, or the Great Tao of Heaven and Earth, they were all part of the world's foundation.

When the world's foundation itself changed, it also meant that interference began to occur in the existence of the Dao Fruit.

It was as if countless information turbulences were interfering with the [Dao Fruit authority], which was enough to control the underlying logic of the entire world, concentrating all the feedback from all Dao Fruits on one thing. This was the world itself crying for help, like a drowning person frantically reaching out to grab the last straw. This was the instinct of all things.

Wei Yuan suddenly understood why the gods were so sure that there was a great tribulation in the world.

Standing before this terrifying phenomenon, the feeling that the tribulation was imminent and that all things were about to be annihilated was almost slapping him in the face. And at this moment, Wei Yuan suddenly remembered when he first met Zhujiu Yin, when Zhujiu Yin explained what a god was: only by having obligations and covenants with all things in the world could one be called a god.

And preventing the annihilation and collapse of the world was also something that powerful beings at the Dao Fruit level had to do.

The things fed back from the existence of the Dao Fruit made Wei Yuan unable to control his attention, focusing on this and unable to care about anything else.

"I didn't expect it. I really didn't expect the Lord of Guixu to be so insane."

"Damn, he's really a lunatic!"

Wei Yuan's mind was buzzing at first, and then he suddenly realized something very important.

"Was this intentional, or just a coincidence? With such a huge force, prying the root of the world, even at the Dao Fruit level, apart from that snake scum Fuxi having some possibility of completing it, it would be difficult for others to do such a thing, at least not in this way. So it's even more impossible for the Lord of Guixu."

"In other words, at least in this matter, it couldn't have been intentional."

"But he may not be able to send all the walkers participating in the Lord of Guixu's advancement ceremony here using the great formation!"

"If it's a coincidence, then the luck of this coincidence is too outrageous..."

"But if it's not a coincidence..."

Wei Yuan's expression froze slightly.

Divert the tiger from the mountain!

With such a big commotion, coupled with the fact that it was a major event related to the Great Tribulation, Wei Yuan believed that neither Di Jun nor Zhujiu Yin would turn a blind eye. Compared to the signs of the Great Tribulation, the mere advancement ceremony of the Lord of Guixu was not worth mentioning at all. Even the feedback given by the Dao Fruit itself was like this.

This meant that all the Dao Fruit experts would be briefly attracted.

No one would be able to detect the Lord of Guixu's actions in the first instance.

What does He want to do?!!

Guixu was vast and mixed, with Canglong and Jue being from Kunlun, as well as Xuanwu, and many other powerful beings who absolutely did not submit to the Lord of Guixu. And with Zhujiu Yin's personality, how could he not have arranged his own hidden agents in a place like Guixu? And what the Lord of Guixu was going to do next would directly attract the attention of Dao Fruit experts.

What does he want to do?

Wei Yuan's rationality began to frantically remind him of some lurking danger. He pulled his gaze away from the huge and magnificent yin-yang changes before him, but the Dao Fruit of cause and effect was entangled by this thing, attracted to it. This was the world's instinct for the rules that constituted one of the world's cornerstones.

The Dao Fruit of cause and effect was suppressed greatly in the presence of the world's origin, that is, the concept of [two give rise to three, and three give rise to all things].

The Lord of Guixu did not have the qualifications and power to control such a spectacle. He was just cleverly using this opportunity. Wei Yuan exhaled. He moved his gaze away from the front, the abnormality of the Dao Fruit of cause and effect was suppressed. He closed his eyes, and the sword mark between Wei Yuan's eyebrows suddenly lit up. An invisible, sharp aura spread around him, naturally surging, forcing away the special nature of the yin and yang Qi.

To abandon the Tao after attaining it is the Great Tao.

Unfortunately—

I have never been a simple cause and effect.

Wei Yuan's right hand landed on the Qingping Sword.

A red rope hung from his right wrist, with a bronze thumb ring dangling down, gently tapping the scabbard.

The Dao Fruit could not operate naturally for the time being, so the Supreme Old Lord's body rotated, and the sword Qi was sharp and exposed, even more so than in the past.

His own physique was refined in the 'Eight Trigrams Furnace of Heaven and Earth', and was smooth and perfect.

Power, swordsmanship.

Wei Yuan turned and left this place where [the Dao Fruit realm could not be ignored].

At this moment, his aura changed, just like when he killed the Lord of Guixu in the past.

But compared to the past, it was even heavier and more domineering.