Mr. You did not speak. He simply watched the blue-robed swordsman walking away from the arena platform on the Daoyan Arena, his sharpness fully exposed.
When he himself had been at the Martial Spring Realm, he had been far inferior to this young swordsman who possessed Innate Sword Intent.
Or rather, when Mr. You had been a Martial Spring Realm cultivator, he had been inferior to any Ascending to Immortality cultivator in this world, and even inferior to many cultivators who ultimately stopped at the Myriad Transformations Realm.
He was a relatively mediocre cultivator. From the Spirit Connection Realm onward, his path of cultivation had been one stumble after another.
Stumbling into the Myriad Transformations Realm, then stumbling into the Unity Realm.
Then Divine Ability, Dao Union, and finally Ascending to Immortality.
One could say his journey had been filled with twists and turns.
But Mr. You dared to say that as long as he was here, no one—not Tian Su Realman, the first-generation steward of Heavenly Summit Mountain; not True Person Kongmiao, who ascended to immortality in two hundred years; nor Bai Shang Realman, who slashed a bottomless abyss with a single sword strike—would have to obediently step aside.
From the day he ascended to immortality, Fusheng Realman had been the number one Ascending to Immortality cultivator in this world.
The path of cultivation was never about who walked faster.
It was always about who could walk farther.
"But I want to try to defeat him."
Li Haoran's voice came from beside Mr. You.
"Hm?"
Mr. You raised an eyebrow slightly, turning to look at the chief disciple of Kongyuan Mountain, dressed in a pure white daoist robe.
"If I don't give him any opening..."
Li Haoran pondered his own battle strategy.
"Can you defend against Innate Sword Intent without showing any opening?" Mr. You asked.
"I cannot," Li Haoran shook his head.
"But there is always a way for everything."
...
Chaotic Flow of Time.
The handsome young man in a plain white daoist robe drifted through this abstract space entangled with countless threads of cause and effect. His entire figure was caught in a vortex of time, stretched into a twisted, elongated shape.
Yet Chen Yan felt no pain. It was as if his form was naturally meant to be like this.
With the sound of the bell ringing across the heavens, Chen Yan was pulled back from Heavenly Summit Mountain eight thousand years later and thrown once again into the chaotic flow of time.
Then, he did not know how much longer he drifted there.
Would he return to that era eight thousand years ago?
Or had he already completed all his missions in that time?
Chen Yan did not know. But the worst-case scenario he could guess was that his mission to correct the Heavenly Dao Fate was over, and he would drift forever and ever in this chaotic flow of time, which seemed to contain some semblance of order within the chaos.
Perhaps he could activate Immortal Qi to commit suicide.
But based on his current reincarnation save point, the last time he saved was when he returned to Heavenly Summit Mountain eight thousand years later, at the moment of his duel with Ye Xiu.
This meant that even if he killed himself again, he would at most be thrown back into the chaotic flow of time.
He wouldn't be dead-locked again, would he?
A flicker of doubt arose in Chen Yan's heart.
During the time he had drifted in the chaotic flow of time, he had also figured out what exactly the Emptiness Annihilation Art was—
Empty beginning, empty end; annihilate body, annihilate will.
The Emptiness Annihilation Art was closely related to cause and effect, even capable of forcibly influencing changes in causality to a certain extent.
However, the Emptiness Annihilation Art could never transcend the laws of heaven and earth, or rather, the limitations of the origin of Heaven's Dao. To influence changes in causality, one had to bear the corresponding karmic backlash.
Even so, the Emptiness Annihilation Art was still an extremely transcendent technique. After all, even Mr. You could not actively interfere with or disturb changes in causality.
Currently, Chen Yan's understanding of the Emptiness Annihilation Art was quite shallow, and drifting in the chaotic flow of time, he had no basis for practice...
No, that wasn't right.
He did have a basis for practice.
Chen Yan turned his gaze toward the countless interwoven, flickering threads of cause and effect in this chaotic flow of time.
Then, he focused his will.
Chen Yan raised his finger, pointing at a subtle thread of cause and effect in the chaotic flow of time. A strand of extremely fine black light burst from his fingertip. Then, this wisp of darkness began to expand gradually, as if it would tear the chaotic flow of time apart completely.
This was because Chen Yan had used the Emptiness Annihilation Art to interfere with a segment of causality within the chaotic flow of time. The backlash from this interference had begun to affect the flow of time and years itself.
At a certain point in time, the laws of heaven and earth, fixed by causality, began to collapse due to the karmic backlash. This caused gaps to appear between the chaotic flow of time and the heavens and earth of that time point, and these gaps were gradually expanding.
This was the perfect chance to escape the chaotic flow of time!
Realizing this immediately, Chen Yan did not hesitate. He plunged into the black rift torn open among the chaotic flow of time and the countless flickering threads of cause and effect.
...
Just as when Chen Yan had first been devoured by the darkness within Heavenly Summit Palace, in this pitch-black world, there was no passage of time.
Because this place did not belong to the chaotic flow of time. It was more like a gap between time itself.
Last time, when Chen Yan was trapped in this gap between time, it was a sword intent that could cleave through anything that had saved him from the temporal fissure.
Chen Yan could roughly guess what that sword intent represented.
And as for now...
Twelve rings of a bronze bell, representing "the end," sounded. Chen Yan, whose consciousness had been completely frozen in this time-gap without any temporal flow, suddenly jolted awake as if startled.
That existence was staring at him.
Without any hesitation, the moment his consciousness returned, Chen Yan immediately activated the Hidden Immortal Art, trying to conceal his own aura.
If even an Ascending to Immortality cultivator could not detect the Hidden Immortal Art, then what about an existence higher than Ascending to Immortality?
Chen Yan was gambling.
As the gaze of that existence faded, Chen Yan knew he had won his bet.
What exactly did those bronze bell rings represent?
And why twelve rings?
Chen Yan had many questions.
Now, if his entry into this temporal gap was due to him using the Emptiness Annihilation Art to pull at causality and tear apart the laws of heaven and earth at a certain point in time, then...
What if he tried to use the Emptiness Annihilation Art to pull at the karmic backlash within himself to forge new causality?
After obtaining the Emptiness Annihilation Art, the biggest change in Chen Yan was that he could clearly perceive the accumulation of karmic backlash within himself. It was like the countless interwoven threads of cause and effect in the chaotic flow of time—perceptible, but untouchable.
Chen Yan tried to use the Emptiness Annihilation Art to pull at the karmic backlash within himself to create new causality.
This time, a wisp of extremely fine white light burst from his fingertip.
In this endless darkness, when a bright rift appeared before him once more—
Chen Yan knew that his speculation had succeeded.