Before this, Lin Xun had never once thought of refining a Divine Rank law. Such power was unimaginably precious and rare, possessed only by the twelve Eternal Divine Clans of the Ninth Heaven Domain in the Eternal True Realm.

Though he himself now possessed the Divine Rank law Absolute Beginning, he had never considered refining it. He had simply never imagined that his own Immortal law would undergo such subtle yet profound changes through the refinement of Divine Rank law power.

The black Eternal law he had just refined, though left behind by a true Eternal being, could still be considered a Divine Rank law. Of course, it was a fragment that had been severely damaged.

“The upheaval in the depths of the Return Dominion...clearly involves more than one treasure tied to the power of the Eternal Realm. If I can gather enough Eternal law on this trip, it may be enough to refine my Immortal law to an unprecedented height. At that point, breaking through to the Eternal Stage would no longer carry any flaws.

“Though this is dangerous, as long as I have the Gate of Exile, gathering them should not be difficult...”

With these thoughts in mind, Lin Xun rose to his feet and hastened toward the exit of the Realm of Exile.

Shua!

Moments later, his figure reappeared within the Return Dominion. Glancing at the Gate of Exile, he saw that it still retained enough power to persist for a time. With a casual thought, the Gate of Exile that was like a wisp of light expanded, transforming into a three-foot-high gate that hovered before him.

Then he charged deeper into the Return Dominion. The surging, violent currents of vitality were terrifying. Even Lin Xun was forced to unleash his true strength just to continue forward.

However, with the Gate of Exile before him, the raging waves of energy were swallowed up without a trace. Lin Xun immediately felt a sense of ease, and his speed increased dramatically.

It was as if a bottomless abyss had opened in front of him. No matter how violently the currents of vitality surged toward him, they were all devoured the instant they touched the gate. With the path cleared, how could his advance possibly be slow?

“Kill!”

Before long, a deafening war cry tore through the raging storm of vitality, sending a violent tremor through Lin Xun’s mind. From the depths of the churning, sea-like torrent, an incomplete, mangled corpse burst forth.

Its lower body was gone and its head was missing. Only half of a torso and two arms remained, dripping with dark, congealed blood. Despite that, it radiated a boundlessly terrifying Eternal dao light, dense with murderous intent.

That aura alone was enough to annihilate any being beneath the Eternal Realm, including Immortals. In fact, the moment Lin Xun’s gaze fell upon it, a fatal sense of danger seized him. He had no doubt that, if he tried to face that thing head-on, death would be inevitable.

But now...

His eyes flickered toward the Gate of Exile hovering in front of him. Gritting his teeth, he charged straight toward the grotesque corpse.

“Kill!”

The blood-soaked remnant lunged forward, its arms swinging as the heavens seemed to collapse and the earth split apart. The void shattered and azure divine flames erupted and condensed into colossal wheels of destruction, roaring toward Lin Xun.

His spirit and mind trembled violently, and his skin burned as if pierced by countless needles. The overwhelming sense of danger nearly crushed his breath from his lungs. It was far too powerful! Compared with this, even the Will Dharma Forms of Eternal beings were not worth mentioning.

Boom!

Despite that, he did not retreat. Instead, he stepped forward with the Gate of Exile. With a deafening roar, the azure divine flames and the bloodstained corpse itself were completely swallowed by the gate.

Almost at the same moment, the Gate of Exile, battered by the impact, exploded as well, bursting apart into a rain of radiant light. The backlash smashed into Lin Xun, making him stumble as his blood and qi roiled violently within him. Pain surged through his chest, and he nearly coughed up blood.

He raised his head, shock written across his eyes. “This corpse has been dead for countless ages, stripped of mind and awareness, yet it can still release such terrifying power. Is this the true power that belongs only to the Eternal Realm?”

He had, of course, seen Eternal existences before, and had even witnessed their splendor in battle. However, he had never once crossed blades with one himself. Now, having personally faced the pale, skeletal hand and blood-soaked corpse, he at last understood just how unfathomably powerful the Eternal Stage truly was.

No matter how heaven-defying his own strength was, he stood no chance against them! Fortunately, he had the Gate of Exile. Otherwise, he would have long been forced to turn back and retreat from the perilous depths of the Return Dominion.

Hu—Lin Xun let out a long, turbid breath, then clenched his teeth and activated the Gate of Exile once more.

This time, he did not immediately enter the Realm of Exile to investigate the Eternal law left behind after the bloodstained corpse was obliterated. Instead, he pressed on deeper into the Return Dominion. Once he had gathered enough ‘prey,’ he would refine them all at once.

As Lin Xun ventured farther, he encountered increasingly bizarre and horrifying remnants, such as broken fragments of Eternal weapons, blood-soaked and tattered garments, and shattered armor riddled with holes and cracks...

All of them exuded a lingering, ancient aura of eternity. Unfortunately, these objects had been lost for countless ages, their spirituality had long since vanished, and their damage was so severe that they practically had no use. In addition to these, Lin Xun also came across severed limbs that clearly belonged to figures of the Eternal Stage.

There was a skull with a hole pierced cleanly between the eyebrow, its flesh rotted and corroded, its features twisted into something ferocious and grotesque. There were also eyeballs stained and mottled with filth, and skulls whose crowns had been worn down almost to nothing.

Not a single one of them was intact. Lin Xun could not help but feel that, long ago, a cataclysmic battle between Eternal beings had erupted beneath the Return Dominion, leaving behind countless severed limbs and shattered remains. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Just the thought of it sent a chill crawling down his spine. Even so, he collected every fragment, every broken piece of bone and flesh that came from an Eternal existence, drawing them all into the Gate of Exile.

When the power of the Gate of Exile finally ran dry and dissipated once more, Lin Xun had gathered nine such pieces of ‘prey.’

“Can’t go any farther for now...I must recover first.”

He came to a halt. Barely thirty percent of his cultivation remained. If he unleashed the Gate of Exile again, he would be completely drained. This time, he activated the Seal of Temporal Restriction, condensing a restriction barrier amid the violent, surging tides of vitality.

Then, he sat down cross-legged, took out several precious elixirs, and began to recover.

Rumble!

Vast, tumultuous waves of vitality surged up unceasingly from the depths, battering the array and making the Seal of Temporal Restriction tremble repeatedly. Under normal circumstances, the seal could last for half a month.

Here, it would probably only hold for three days at most. However, this was more than enough. Lin Xun possessed boundless stores of rare medicines and divine elixirs. In barely half a day, his cultivation had been completely restored.

“Its a pity that two innate divine powers can’t be activated at the same time, or else they would clash...” Lin Xun sighed.

If that was possible, he could use the Gate of Exile to continuously draw in the remains, collect the Eternal law left behind after they were refined by the Corpse Severing Millstones, and then refine that power himself while sheltered within the Seal of Temporal Restriction.

Unfortunately, this was clearly impossible. Left with no other choice, he withdrew the power of the Seal of Temporal Restriction, and once again summoned the Gate of Exile. He decided to press on until he had gathered enough ‘prey’ and then refine the Eternal laws left behind by them.

......

Following that, he advanced. Whenever the power of the Gate of Exile neared depletion, he immediately stopped and activated the Seal of Temporal Restriction to restore his strength... It became a cycle, repeating itself again and again.

Along the way, he encountered more and more shattered objects that still exuded the aura of eternity, but he ignored them all. He focused solely on gathering the severed remains left behind by Eternal beings.

Even so, the harvest was far from small. In a single day, dozens of such ‘prey’ were swallowed by the Gate of Exile. Of course, this also meant the constant depletion of Lin Xun’s strength, and the continuous consumption of elixirs to restore it.

“By now, I’ve already traveled at least a hundred miles...so why haven’t I reached the end?”

After a long while, Lin Xun’s brow furrowed in a frown. He had come to the depths of the Return Dominion to investigate the source of the upheaval, but even now, the path ahead was still drowned in surging ocean-like waves of turbulent vitality, with no end in sight.

“Oh well...I’ll just treat this as a trip to ‘collect corpses’...” he muttered, shaking his head as he pressed on.

Half a day later, just as Lin Xun had fully restored his strength and was about to withdraw the Seal of Temporal Restriction, his expression suddenly changed. In the far distance, a colossal outline flickered into view, like an immense door spanning between heaven and earth, but it was quickly drowned within the endless white tides of vitality, making it impossible to see clearly.

Even so, Lin Xun’s heart lurched violently. Without hesitation, he withdrew the Seal of Temporal Restriction, unleashed the Gate of Exile and shot toward it.

As he drew closer, a colossal gateway came into view, towering into the sky and spanning the horizon itself. It was so vast it defied imagination. It was just like the legendary Gate of Heaven!

From that enormous gateway, boundless white tides of vitality surged forth, spreading across heaven and earth. The spectacle was both awe-inspiring and terrifying.

“So that’s it...The power that brought upheaval to the Return Dominion clearly originates from this enormous, mysterious gateway...” Lin Xun murmured, his eyes gleaming.

At the same time, he noticed that as vast ocean-like waves of vitality poured out, countless fragments were also swept out from within the enormous gateway. Shattered divine fragments, broken artifacts, severed limbs, torn arms, and scattered remnants of corpses... Every single one of them exuded an unmistakable, chilling aura of eternity.

It was as though beyond that sky-piercing gateway lay a world of tombs, a vast burial ground for countless Eternal beings. This was undeniably eerie and unsettling. Because the vast, surging vitality that had caused the upheaval in the Return Dominion also originated from that very same gateway.

On one side surged boundless vitality and on the other lay the remnants of death. Both were issued from the same source, forming a stark and unsettling contrast that would make anyone’s heart tremble with unease.

At this moment, even Lin Xun hesitated. Should he enter that mysterious, colossal gateway and see what lay beyond?