Bound by the traditional decorum dictating that men and women should not touch, Chen Dahai and Chen Huohai did not touch Su Wanniang after treating Chen Asheng; instead, they examined her directly using their spiritual power.
In less than a few minutes, a wisp of translucent, dark purple aura was drawn out of Su Wanniang's body by Chen Dahai.
This power was exceedingly faint. It nearly dissipated the moment it was extracted, but Chen Dahai promptly locked down the surrounding space, managing to preserve the weak wisp of aura.
"This is..."
Chen Dahai could sense the ominous foreboding contained within this wisp of aura, but having never encountered such a thing before, he could not identify what it truly was for the moment.
"So evil... No, this is calamity itself!" Chen Huohai could also feel its dreadfulness and spoke with a furrowed brow.
The two brothers exchanged a look. Chen Huohai ventured a guess: "Could this be the legendary demonic qi? Or malevolent energy?"
"Hard to say. But we must find out where this aura came from. If the world were ever shrouded in such energy, I fear... countless lives would be plunged into misery," Chen Dahai said gravely.
Chen Huohai nodded. The two then studied the wisp of aura for a while longer, but constrained by their limited horizons, neither could ultimately discern what it was.
Still, though they did not know what it was, they were certain it boded no good. In the end, after some experimentation, Chen Dahai sealed the aura onto a stone.
Even so, the stone turned eerie, radiating an unsettling aura that suggested terrible misfortune would befall whoever carried it.
Chen Dahai and Chen Huohai grew increasingly solemn. Casting aside other concerns, they simply stimulated Chen Asheng with their spiritual power to forcibly rouse him, then began questioning him about where the aura had come from—or rather, why Su Wanniang carried it.
***
Meanwhile, on the other end.
While the two brothers investigated the origin of this aura, countless light-years outside their world atop a colossal boulder, Quan Juehua opened his hand. Dozens of worlds shattered one after another, wisps of Calamity Origin coalescing into his palm to be refined in an instant.
In truth, he had barely done anything. With the Calamity Origin he currently possessed, calamitous qi arose naturally wherever he went, causing many worlds to collapse on their own without him even lifting a hand.
Having absorbed this batch of Calamity Origin, the Origin Seed within his body immediately sprouted more rootlets and branches.
This was effectively the embryonic form of the Abyss. If he failed his Origin Return, he would be completely devoured by the Origin Seed, transforming into a gargantuan Abyss.
If he succeeded, the Origin Seed would become part of his body, ultimately making him an Origin Returner.
"Huh?"
"That world... what remarkably pure power!"
Quan Juehua's mastery over power had long reached the state of effortless control at will.
At that moment, he detected a disharmony arising from a certain world. Because every world differed in size and nature, each possessed distinct rules and capacity.
Furthermore, different worlds were born in different ways.
Some worlds were products of gathered energy; some resulted from the collision of matter; some were born of certain karma; and others were created under the influence of 'Omni-Being particles' from Between Being and Non-Being.
There were far too many origins to count. To describe each one would take trillions of words; indeed, for many worlds' modes of genesis, human language lacked the words to describe the reason for their coming into being at all.
Quan Juehua had once studied this, allowing him to keenly detect that a certain world was out of harmony.
This disharmony stemmed from the fact that it shouldn't contain such massive energy. It was like a dumpling—thin skin with generous filling was normal, and thick skin with sparse filling was normal too.
Yet a dumpling wrapper was only so large. It couldn't possibly wrap a ball of meat filling the size of a basketball. To wrap a basketball-sized mound of meat filling, one would inevitably need a sufficiently large wrapper.
An ordinary-sized dumpling wrapper certainly couldn't contain that much filling.
And now, Quan Juehua saw an ordinary-sized dumpling wrapper encasing a basketball-sized meat filling. How could that not be bizarre?
Thus, he steered the boulder beneath him to drift slowly toward that world. As he moved, many worlds that had only been mildly influenced by his presence immediately began to accelerate toward annihilation.
In theory, the closer a world was to him, the faster it collapsed, while farther worlds broke down more slowly.
Looking at that world, his expression gradually turned solemn. The energy was not excessively immense, but it was pure beyond imagination—and faintly, he could actually sense a slight hint of danger.
"Heheheh, found it at last."
Quan Juehua suddenly broke into a smile. He had no fear of danger. Lately, the Mighty Ones across the heavens and myriad worlds had been hiding from him, leaving him so bored he had almost resorted to trampling on slightly larger ants.
Now that a halfway decent opponent had finally appeared, he could thoroughly dispel the boredom and tedium festering within him.
Instantly, the boulder beneath him stopped moving. Though his influence upon that world had already deepened, he immediately reined it back to keep the world from collapsing prematurely.
Next, he plucked a strand of hair and projected his consciousness onto it. In the blink of an eye, the hair transformed into an avatar and flew rapidly toward that world, slipping inside just a few breaths later.
***
Neither knew a single thing.
Chen Dahai and Chen Huohai both fell silent.
Neither Chen Asheng nor Su Wanniang had any idea what was going on.
After all, Su Wanniang had simply been at home minding her own business when she suddenly collapsed. She hadn't visited any strange places or crossed paths with any figures from the martial world.
"This matter... is peculiar indeed."
In an instant, Chen Dahai extended his awareness toward Su Wanniang's home, inspecting it inside and out.
Just as Su Wanniang said, everything seemed to have happened without rhyme or reason, baffling the mind. Had it not been for Chen Dahai and Chen Huohai, Chen Asheng would likely have believed she died of illness right up until her death.
While Chen Dahai and Chen Huohai were discussing this in hushed tones, both suddenly stopped and looked toward the heavens beyond.
This world was not large. Just as Quan Juehua thought, it was a Minor Thousand World no larger than a dumpling, capable of holding only a single small galaxy.
Chen Dahai and Chen Huohai had always believed that beyond the heavens lay the immortal realm.
Yet because they did not know how strong they were, and held great reverence for the immortal realm, they had simply kept their heads down and cultivated, completely unaware of what truly existed beyond the heavens.
Yet at this moment, an indescribable sensation gripped them both.
Mother World was crying out for help!
A Heavenly Demon was descending!
The two brothers hesitated for a second. In the end, they summoned their courage and carefully extended their spiritual power toward the sky. Previously, they had touched the cloud layer at most and never explored any higher.
Now, however, both decided to press onward.
Once their spiritual power breached the atmosphere, they immediately perceived the vast expanse of outer space. Filled with astonishment, both continued to spread their spiritual power outward, venturing toward a greater and vaster world.
Chapter 736