After just a hundred years, Joe Di once again saw a massive stone platform, but this time, he did not step onto it.
He chose not to ascend the stone platform to save time. Moreover, the cultivators who could reach this place were clearly much stronger than those on the first platform, so it was wise to remain cautious. Additionally, waiting for the next Stellar Tier on the platform was difficult, but waiting while on the Stellar Tier itself seemed much easier.
The appearance of this stone platform further confirmed Joe Di's judgment. He hadn't gone the wrong way—according to the cultivators on the previous platform, encountering a Celestial Knot was extremely rare. Sometimes, a cultivator might climb the Stellar Stairway for a million years without seeing one. Yet, in just a hundred years, he had come across another Celestial Knot, proving he was on the right path.
Knowing he was on the correct path, Joe Di's confidence grew even stronger.
Hundreds of years passed one after another, and for Joe Di, this had almost become a routine. Every hundred years, he would encounter a Celestial Knot. By the fifth Celestial Knot, Joe Di began to suspect he was circling within the Stellar Stairway. Each Celestial Knot he passed seemed to be the very first one he had encountered.
From the surge of confidence in choosing the right path, Joe Di now felt a trace of uncertainty, beginning to doubt whether his choice was truly correct.
Even so, Joe Di resisted the urge to enter the Celestial Knot. He decided that if he saw another Celestial Knot after the next hundred years, he would go up and see for himself whether he was truly going in circles.
Several more decades passed, and during his climb up the Stellar Tiers, Joe Di finally encountered a tier fused from at least dozens of colors—a Prismatic Ascension Step.
Could this Prismatic Ascension Step be the end? After all, he had spent nearly a thousand years within the Stellar Stairway and had never encountered a tier like this before.
Regardless of whether it was or not, Joe Di didn't hesitate for a moment and charged straight ahead.
Crack! Just as Joe Di reached halfway, a colored spatial arrow tore through the void and struck the armor of Voidmount.
Based on previous experience, such a spatial arrow would at most pierce Voidmount’s armor. So Joe Di was not overly worried and continued at full speed toward the Prismatic Ascension Step. Even if this was his first encounter with a colored spatial arrow, so what!
Boom! Crack!
Joe Di felt a force explode against his body, like a Third Step powerhouse self-destructing right beside him. The terrifying Way Resonance ripped through him, shattering Voidmount’s armor into countless fragments.
Joe Di was shocked—Voidmount was an innate treasure! Even if it was not of the highest grade, it was still innate.
How could an innate treasure not withstand a single spatial arrow? To be destroyed instantly—just how powerful was this arrow?
But Joe Di knew this was not the time to dwell on it. If he delayed and the World Tome was also torn apart, he would be doomed. He casually tossed the shattered fragments of Voidmount into the Ninth World, not slowing his pace at all.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Several more spatial arrows ripped through the air, striking the World Tome. Joe Di clearly heard the sound of paper being torn.
Joe Di’s heart sank—the World Tome was different from Voidmount. Voidmount was expendable, but the World Tome was a treasure he could never afford to lose.
Just as Joe Di thought this, he felt as if his sea of consciousness was about to be torn open. He spat out a mouthful of blood.
His cultivation plummeted, and his Way Resonance became chaotic.
Joe Di knew he’d been struck by a time blade in his Purple Palace Dao Foundation. Even if he was torn to pieces, he couldn’t afford to care about anything else. Activating Divine Sense Shift, Joe Di nearly teleported onto the Prismatic Ascension Step.
What relieved Joe Di was that after his last Divine Sense Shift, he was spared from further spatial arrows or time blades. Sometimes, luck truly is part of one’s strength. For his final leap, fortune favored him.
Walking through the void between the Stellar Tiers, Joe Di realized Lawstride was no match for Divine Sense Shift. This taught him a lesson: in the boundless universe, strength is always relative.
Even after landing on the Stellar Tier, Joe Di felt no sense of security. Voidmount had been torn apart by spatial arrows—how was he supposed to continue? Not only that, several pages of the World Tome were ripped, though thankfully the damage wasn’t severe and had already been repaired.
"Hmm?" Joe Di’s gaze froze as he looked ahead.
Ahead, the rules surged, and the sensation of crossing between Stellar Tiers vanished.
Had he crossed the Stellar Stairway?
As Joe Di was still pondering, a series of small steps formed from condensed Way Resonance appeared before him. The top of the staircase led somewhere unknown—neither divine sense nor sight could reach it.
Joe Di had no choice but to step onto the Way Resonance staircase. The moment he did, he realized these steps were formed from his own Way Resonance.
Could it be that while crossing the Stellar Stairway, his Way Resonance was recorded and now had condensed into a new miniature Stellar Stairway to carry him onward? Regardless, he had to keep moving.
When Joe Di reached the forty-ninth step, the space around him suddenly emptied. He was astonished to find himself in a realm of pure chaos. This was true chaos—Joe Di could sense no cosmic laws at all. He even doubted his previous assumptions; in the universe, everything should be governed by laws, and if you can’t sense them, it’s only because you haven’t discovered them yet. But here, it seemed truly impossible to perceive any laws.
Looking back, the Way Resonance staircase had vanished.
Even if Joe Di were clueless, he knew he had left the Stellar Stairway and, at the same time, departed from the Five Elements Universe.
Unsure where to go, Joe Di saw dozens of swirling vortex channels appear before him. Each was made of a single color, just like the colored boulders he'd seen while climbing the Stellar Tiers.
Which colored channel should he choose this time? Should he look for one that matched his Way Resonance?
Joe Di swept his divine sense across the channels, but it couldn't penetrate the swirling vortexes. All he could do was observe their colors with his eyes.
Aside from these colored channels, everything else was pure chaos. This chaos wasn't void, nor starlight, nor the outer universe. To be precise, it felt like an undeveloped space.
Joe Di hesitated in place for a full hour. In the end, he chose none of the colored vortex channels and instead sped off into the vast, boundless chaotic space. If you don’t understand something, it’s best not to touch it for now.
Several days later, Joe Di swept his divine sense again, but the dozens of colored vortex channels were nowhere to be seen. The space around him grew ever more chaotic, and even using Divine Sense Shift, the distance he could traverse shrank with each attempt.
Joe Di switched to Lawstride. Though he couldn’t grasp the laws within the chaos, his cultivation was the Path of Rules, so he could use his own laws to move swiftly.
Months passed, and the chaotic aura of Joe Di’s surroundings grew heavier. Even with his own laws, it was hard to move forward.
Joe Di simply stopped and began to heal his wounds. In this place, he was unlikely to be disturbed.
Soon, Joe Di discovered that healing in this chaotic space was more effective than anywhere else. In three months, even his wounded sea of consciousness had fully recovered.
Once healed, Joe Di’s speed increased greatly.
Ten years later, Joe Di’s expression grew darker. He felt as if he’d returned to the endless climb between Stellar Tiers. At least on the Stellar Stairway, he had a goal.
Here, he had no goal, no direction, not even space—no space, and not even color.
There was nothing—if anything existed, it was infinite, boundless chaos. No matter how far he went, no matter where he turned, all was chaos.