Before the Ink Clan's invasion, the Three Thousand Worlds had been a tapestry of splendor—each Great Domain possessed its own charm, and one domain after another was linked to the next through Domain Gates, forming an immensely complex yet fully interconnected greater world.
The Human Race had thrived and survived within this greater world for countless years, ultimately becoming its undisputed masters.
But beyond this greater world lay the Ink Battlefield, the front line where humanity's great strongholds had, for generations, upheld the will of their predecessors and waged war against the Ink Clan.
The Ink Battlefield was nearly boundless, stretching on without end.
The deepest point the Human Race had ever reached was the location of the Primordial Heaven Grand Restriction.
Yang Kai had likely gone even farther. Back then, when pursued by the Ink Clan's King Master, he had fled deep into the void, eventually taking shelter within a great oceanic Heavenly Phenomenon.
What lay beyond the Primordial Heaven Grand Restriction?
What lay beyond that oceanic Heavenly Phenomenon?
Where was the end of heaven and earth?
Yang Kai had once pondered these questions, but such questions, in the end, had no answers.
Until today—a certain act of his had allowed him to glimpse the true body of the Qiankun Furnace and finally find the answer.
The end of heaven and earth was Chaos!
Or rather, heaven and earth had no end, for Chaos itself was formless and disorderly.
If the Three Thousand Worlds together with the Ink Battlefield constituted a single whole, then beyond that whole should lie an infinite expanse of Chaos, wrapping around it on all sides.
The Qiankun Furnace's great eruption had transformed portions of that Chaos into part of heaven and earth, expanding the world's original expanse and adding to its vastness.
Realizing this, Yang Kai let out a wry laugh. No wonder no one had ever been able to find the Qiankun Furnace's true body. The thing truly existed, yet it resided at the very end of heaven and earth—who would have thought to come looking for it here?
And even if one found it, then what?
Yang Kai had previously considered whether, upon locating the Qiankun Furnace's true body, there might be a chance to refine it. But judging from what he now saw, that notion was entirely impossible to achieve.
A treasure of this caliber was simply beyond the control of mortal hands. It was the origin from which heaven and earth were born, the wellspring of all creation. Rather than thinking about refining such a thing, it would be far more practical to figure out how to kill Ink.
Just as Yang Kai's thoughts churned, the Qiankun Furnace, hurtling through the void, underwent another change.
From some unseen source, a tremendous suction force surged outward from within the furnace. In an instant, all the Chaos in the surrounding void was devoured by the Qiankun Furnace.
The colossal furnace, grand as a Heavenly Phenomenon in its own right, transformed into something like a bottomless pit, with Chaos flowing into it ceaselessly and vanishing without a trace. Meanwhile, everything it had previously spewed forth—whether the nascent Qiankun Worlds, or the various Heavenly Phenomena, or even the intangible Power of the Myriad Daos—remained entirely unaffected.
This devouring grew more violent with the passage of time, and the mouth of the Qiankun Furnace presented a visible vortex of enormous scale, swallowing vast quantities of Chaos like a leviathan.
Watching this scene from afar, Yang Kai felt a sense of clarity settle over him. It was not especially surprising.
Back in the furnace world, Yang Kai had already noticed that the endless river running through the entire realm, as well as the Qiankun Furnace's nine great Dao evolutions, had all been enacting the secret of how Chaos becomes the Myriad Daos.
When he had entered the Qiankun Furnace, that world had been thick with dense Chaos. It was precisely within such a Chaos-saturated environment that the various extraordinary landforms—and even the Chaos Spirit Race—had been born.
Where had the Chaos inside the Qiankun Furnace come from?
It came from here!
The Qiankun Furnace resided at the end of heaven and earth, devouring Chaos and filling itself. Once it reached its limit, it would transform that Chaos into the Power of the Myriad Daos.
When the Chaos devoured by the Qiankun Furnace reached that limit, the Qiankun Furnace would reveal itself to the world!
When all the Chaos inside the Qiankun Furnace had fully evolved into the Power of the Myriad Daos or some other force, the furnace would close, and everything within would be spewed outward, expanding the end of heaven and earth once more.
This was a cycle, repeating itself over and over…
It could be said that every corner of heaven and earth the Human Race had ever explored—and every place it had not—had all been carved out by the Qiankun Furnace through one cycle after another.
This process had continued for countless years and would perhaps continue still, until Chaos was entirely annihilated and heaven and earth finally reached their end.
Such a panorama, stretching across all of history—how magnificent and awe-inspiring it was. Compared to it, the war between the Human Race and the Ink Clan seemed almost trivial.
Yang Kai followed the Qiankun Furnace, watching in silent contemplation as his heart surged with emotion.
It was only after a long time that he suddenly came to a halt.
There was no need to follow any further. He had witnessed the Qiankun Furnace's entire process of expanding heaven and earth, understood the origin of the world's creation, and seen one full cycle of the Qiankun Furnace's devouring and eruption. Many of the questions that had lingered in his heart now had their answers.
Yet, no matter how many times one beheld such a panorama, it remained utterly breathtaking.