As the three wayfarers stepped into the Kaleidoscope Realm, Cang Songzi, perched atop the stone idol’s head, drew in the swirling iridescent mists that wreathed him, until they coalesced and enveloped his nascent soul.

From the statue beneath, tendrils of white lightning spiraled forth, melding with the colorful vapor and binding to his spirit. Slowly, Cang Songzi’s form solidified, a fleshly body re-forming, shimmering with rainbow light and crackling with electricity. A faint lightning scar pulsed within his brow. His eyes snapped open, dark with vengeful intent.

“So, I have been forced to this, by you treacherous curs! I swear, if I do not avenge this, I shall forsake my very being!” With a surge of power, he leaped into the air, becoming a bolt of lightning, tearing through the mists towards the mountains.

“That scoundrel, Lu, wounded by my Seven-Hued Spikes, even if he still draws breath, he teeters on the precipice of oblivion. Though where he hides is a mystery…yet such secrets are mine to command!” Cang Songzi sneered, his right hand beckoning the void. A rift in the aether opened, and from it emerged a luminescent pearl.

“I summon thee, Wayfinder!” Cang Songzi bit his tongue, spitting blood onto the orb. Instantly, it devoured the surrounding kaleidoscopic light and shattered. From its demise arose a majestic power, and a spectral figure flickered into being.

The figure’s features were indistinct, but its eyes were clear as dawn, as if nothing in all of creation could escape its gaze. To meet its stare was to feel one’s soul laid bare, every hidden secret revealed. “Where does he lie?” Cang Songzi demanded.

The shadowy being closed its eyes, and after a long moment, opened them, its gaze settling upon Cang Songzi. A vision slammed into Cang Songzi’s mind, revealing a place. His brow furrowed. “Sima Mo’s hidden grotto! He broke the seals even in his wounded state?” He pondered, then, with a glint of steel in his eyes, he surged forward.

In Sima Mo’s grotto, Wang Lin did not devote himself solely to alchemy. He cleansed the first chamber, weaving potent wards, expanding its borders. Then, he opened his dimensional pouch and released the Mosquito swarm.

The Violet Queen was ever more fearsome, her cold eyes locking onto Wang Lin’s with unwavering resolve, for she knew the plan. She let out a soft, guttural drone. After a moment, Wang Lin gestured, and the Queen was swept into the warded chamber.

“With enough spirit crystals, she will endure,” Wang Lin said, drawing forth the mass of beastial souls he had collected across the Cloud Sea Starfield, and the mutated souls nurtured within the Moro Continent. He tossed them into the chamber. He cast down tens of thousands of spirit crystals, energizing the seals and locking the chamber tight.

“Using the Five Poisons Sect’s method of refining mutated souls, I shall force the Mosquito’s evolution, forging a mightier Queen. Only thus can I command the vast swarms of the Wind Immortal Realm!” Wang Lin’s divine sense spread, perceiving the Violet Queen charging, a storm of ferocity, towards the host of souls, devouring them in ceaseless battle. As the ward matrices pulsed, the spirit crystals dissolved into potent energy, fueling the Queen’s transformation.

Leaving a sliver of his awareness within the chamber, Wang Lin made his way to the furnace of alchemy.

Beside the furnace, Wang Lin sat, manipulating the fires. Two days slipped by. At last, the flames subsided, and a fragrant aroma filled the air.

Wang Lin calmly raised his right hand. The furnace lid blasted off, releasing a surge of vapor, which quickly dissipated, revealing golden ichor floating in the air.

As Wang Lin directed, the liquid flowed towards him, coalescing into three small vials.

He inhaled deeply, glancing at the barriers that shielded the valley. He took one of the vials and drank a sliver of its golden contents. The liquid transformed into a wave of cooling energy, washing over him. He seemed to hear, faintly, the roaring of a beast. Wang Lin closed his eyes, breathing, sensing the beastial soul’s connection to the world.

In this strange trance, time ceased to exist. Wang Lin’s mind was lost, immersed in the search for cosmic laws. He became a savage beast, experiencing the struggles for survival.

As he sought, he tested the edges of his own truth and falsehood. From the fragmented beastial impressions, Wang Lin severed path after path.

The very air around him twisted and changed. The transformation quickened, reality blurred.

At length, Wang Lin raised the vial again, taking another sip, continuing his quest for understanding. The abandoned threads of being accumulated around him.

If he wished, he could seize one of the beastial paths and elevate his cultivation, but his heart would shatter, for those paths were not born of his own understanding.

He sought only to test his truth against the falsehoods of the beast, to glimpse the heavens through their eyes.

He sought the spark of thought that arose from their connection to the world, the seed that drove them to break free from the beastial and take human form!

Time flowed on. The first vial was empty, but his seeking continued. The distortions around him grew, encompassing the entire valley. Any who stepped into that place would lose their minds, for it was saturated with countless abandoned paths to enlightenment.

“Without the false, the true cannot be seen. Without the true, how can there be the false? Truth and falsehood, there is no need to separate them completely…” Wang Lin took the second vial and drained it, his eyes flashing. He closed his eyes and sought again.

Boundless threads of discarded life poured from him, beyond the barrier, circling the valley, twisting the very land.

No mortal eye could see it, but any cultivator of the nascent soul would feel it, sense the boundless cosmic laws.

It appeared to be real, but on closer inspection, it turned out to be false. If one were not careful, they would be lost like a bug stuck in a web.

The twisted paths to enlightenment continued to surge outward, soon encompassing a thousand fathoms, and then contorting the entire heavens and earth.

Inside the valley, Wang Lin had drained the third vial. He forgot everything, and in the boundless heavens, he searched for his own path. He began to hear a faint murmur, which grew louder.

“Mark the stars, imprison the way of Heaven, all must cross endless trials, leave the deep prison, cling to the thought, even before time existed, understand the world, escape the yoke of Heaven, take the path of the living, lock down the fate of the dead, impress the seal of the underworld, those who cannot find the true path will forever sink in the sea of suffering, lost from the path, I offer this to the traveler…”

“Those who cannot find the true path will forever sink in the sea of suffering, lost from the path…” the words echoed inside Wang Lin. The twisted paths outside the valley surged, expanding from a thousand fathoms to ten thousand, then a hundred thousand, and finally encompassing half the Kaleidoscope Realm.

Cang Songzi, a thousand fathoms from Sima Mo’s valley, was pale, staring ahead. He had arrived two days ago. But before he could advance, he had been confronted by the boundless, conflicting laws of the world.

The cosmic threads became a vortex, sucking in everything, drawing it into Wang Lin’s journey.

The path of truth and falsehood was Wang Lin’s second transformation. His search had surpassed even those whose cultivation was greater than his own.

Cang Songzi was bloodless, sitting down, holding himself together. In the distance, countless pale wanderers with blank eyes moved slowly in his direction.

They were not fast, but they covered great distances with each step. They approached and stood, staring ahead in a daze, as if they had found what they had been searching for.

Even further away, the Marked, who dwelled in the mists, all emerged and floated towards Wang Lin’s valley, drawn by the murmuring.

Everything was centered on Wang Lin’s valley. A transformation that would shake the Kaleidoscope Realm was about to unfold. The abandoned threads of being increased, and the entire realm began to twist.

The Lost heard the path and became even more lost, as the threads of their potential were stripped from them.

The Marked all stopped their chanting and closed their eyes, attempting to understand Wang Lin’s path.

Even the Rank Twelve fogbeasts abandoned their forms of mist and shapeshifted into a plethora of unique forms. They let out no roars as they surged over the rainbow sky towards the valley and joined the Marked in witnessing Wang Lin’s transformation.