pertwk Chapter 74 Return!
Chapter 74 Return!
"Ding!"
"The one-year period has ended, and the countdown to the arrival has ended."
"Regression procedure, initiating!"
The moment the cold, robotic notification sound rang in my mind.
On the shore of the East China Sea, atop an isolated island.
Lin Yuan, dressed in a long black robe, stood with his hands behind his back and slowly raised his head.
In his sight, this vast and boundless world of "Investiture of the Gods" underwent a terrifying transformation in that instant!
There is no absolute stillness in the universe; the so-called freezing of time is nothing more than an absurd illusion of mortal, low-dimensional beings.
At this moment, the great river of time that has flowed through the ages and never ceased to flow was violently shaken by this supreme power that transcends boundaries!
"Splash—"
The river of time was forcibly torn apart at this moment, splitting into countless parallel imaginary tributaries!
The entire world, following these parallel tributaries, suddenly slid down and entered a relatively static state of "parallel stagnation".
The gale stopped in mid-air.
The surging waves hung suspended on the sea surface.
The Void Returning Realm Thunder Frog squatting at Lin Yuan's feet had its mouth wide open, and its long tongue had just wrapped around a spirit butterfly.
But at the instant the parallel tributary splits, the Thunder Frog's clear, foolish eyes suddenly widened.
It watched helplessly as its master's physical body remained standing in the same spot, but that strange wisp of divine soul transformed into a stream of light, instantly drawn away by an irresistible force, soaring straight into the heavens!
"Quack?"
The Thunder Frog's brain was completely unable to comprehend such a phenomenon that transcended dimensions.
It could only remain in the position of sticking out its tongue, forcibly anchored along with this world in this parallel imaginary time tributary, trapped in a long wait.
……
At the same time.
Jin'ao Island, inside the Three Immortals Cave.
The three goddesses, Yunxiao, Qiongxiao, and Bixiao, were sitting cross-legged, discussing Taoism with their eyes closed.
Suddenly, a look of surprise flashed across Lady Yunxiao's beautiful face, and she abruptly opened her eyes.
"Such domineering and powerful laws..."
Lady Yunxiao slightly raised her delicate hand, trying to deduce the source of this fluctuation, only to find that the secrets of heaven had already been severed by a force that did not belong to this world.
Even a quasi-saint's cultivation level could only feel a vague sense of unease and premonition in the face of such a powerful force that could sever parallel timelines.
Bixiao and Qiongxiao were also filled with doubt and surprise.
Such a method, capable of forcibly splitting even time, is simply unheard of!
……
And in the deepest part of Jin'ao Island.
In Biyou Palace.
The Tongtian Sect Leader sat upright on the Biyou bed, with the Qingping Sword lying across his lap.
He was not affected by the split of this parallel branch. The sage survives countless eons, transcends the Three Realms, and is not within the Five Elements.
Slowly opening his eyes that seemed to pierce through eternity, he looked at a small island, the very place where Lin Yuan's soul had departed.
As he watched those countless parallel imaginary branches spread through the underlying structure of the primordial world, a smile slowly crept onto the lips of the Tongtian Sect Leader.
"interesting."
"It's absolutely hilarious."
The Tongtian Sect Leader stroked his long beard and let out a soft sigh.
"The world is full of wonders."
……
at the same time.
Chaoge City, Meridian Gate Execution Ground.
Under the blazing sun, crowds thronged the area.
Chu Tianhe, a general of the Shang Dynasty, had his proud golden chainmail armor stripped off. Covered in blood and with disheveled hair, he knelt on the execution platform.
Behind him, the slash, a symbol of shame, was stuck.
"cut!"
At the executioner's command, the execution warrant was thrown to the ground.
The burly executioner raised his large, ghost-headed cleaver, aimed it at Chu Tianhe's neck, and brought it down hard.
The blade tore through the air, producing a piercing whistling sound.
Chu Tianhe closed his eyes in despair, tears and snot streaming down his face.
"I'm not reconciled... I, Chu Tianhe, am a chosen one of heaven, how can I die under the blade of this NPC?!"
"Your Majesty, I am innocent!"
At that critical moment, the sharp blade was less than half an inch away from Chu Tianhe's neck skin, and had even severed a single hair from his body.
"Buzz—"
The parallel timeline suddenly split apart!
The entire execution ground's timeline was forcibly anchored at that moment.
The executioner's狰狞 face, the numb expressions of the onlookers, and even the drop of dew about to fall from the blade all froze in mid-air.
Chu Tianhe felt a terrifying suction force coming from above his head.
"Whoosh!"
His soul was forcibly extracted from this battered body.
The moment his soul ascended into the sky, Chu Tianhe looked down at the ghost-headed blade hanging around his neck, feeling the terror of being on the brink of life and death.
Then, a surge of elation at surviving a catastrophe filled his soul.
"Hahaha, I survived! I finally made it through!"
"Back on Earth, I, Chu Tianhe, will still be the young master of a prestigious family!"
"You tyrannical rulers of the Shang Dynasty, you bunch of barbarians! Once my Chu family deciphers the method to descend into this secret realm, I will lead my mecha army to raze your Chaoge City to the ground and avenge the humiliation I suffered today!!!"
……
It wasn't just Chu Tianhe.
In this vast and boundless world of Investiture of the Gods, those "seeds of immortal destiny" hidden in famous mountains and rivers, in the marketplace and in the imperial court, have also ushered in their own destined moment.
Inside a secluded ancient cave on the border of Xiqi.
A resolute-looking young man named Lu Cheng was sitting cross-legged in the center of an ancient sword formation.
A wisp of the remnant soul of an ancient sword immortal floated before him.
As the suction force of return descended, Lu Cheng suddenly opened his eyes, his soul uncontrollably dissipating outwards.
"Disciple Lu Cheng, this is the power of cross-dimensional attraction."
The remnant soul of the sword immortal let out a long sigh, looking at Lu Cheng's gradually fading soul with eyes full of reluctance.
"I have been struggling to survive in this jade slip for tens of thousands of years. Fortunately, I have a genius like you with a strong will and perseverance."
"Go back to your world."
"Remember my teachings: the sword is sharp, but a tree that stands out in the forest will be felled by the wind. Never draw your sword lightly unless you are absolutely certain of a kill!"
"I will never forget your great kindness, Master."
Lu Cheng's soul bowed deeply in mid-air, then transformed into a stream of light and soared into the sky.
Meanwhile, deep in another desolate desert.
A young man named Bai Lang, leaning on a fire poker, disguised himself as a deaf and mute refugee and trudged along with difficulty.
In his arms, he held a rusty ancient bronze mirror.
This is an ancient treasure that he risked his life to retrieve from a rift in a parallel timeline.
"Only by pursuing the ultimate truth can one achieve success from beginning to end!"
Feeling the suction force pulling his soul away, Bai Lang showed no panic whatsoever, but instead remained incredibly calm.
"This ancient mirror can conceal the secrets of heaven. Back on Earth, it's my greatest trump card. No one can outwit me!"
The ancient bronze mirror in his arms was slightly warm, emitting a faint blue light that tightly enveloped Bai Lang's soul, escorting him into the vast return passage.
……
This moment.
Tens of thousands of explorers' souls rose from all directions of the Investiture of the Gods world, like a meteor shower flowing against the current.
Finally, they all converged on that river of time that stretched across the gap between the realms!
"Boom!!"
This is the end of dimensions, the final resting place of time.
The River of Time is not real water, but a terrifying torrent formed by the convergence of countless historical fragments, the laws of the Great Dao, and the turbulent currents of spacetime.
There is no direction, no gravity here.
There was only a terrifying sense of pressure, enough to tear even a Great Luo Golden Immortal to pieces.
The ordinary explorers' souls let out mournful screams as soon as they entered the river of time.
Faced with such immense power in a higher dimension, their fragile souls and spirits were like duckweed struggling in a raging storm, in danger of being crushed into dust and turning into idiots at any moment.
however.
Amidst the myriad wailing souls, one figure stood out as remarkably composed.
It was Lin Yuan!
Lin Yuan's soul stood with his hands behind his back in the river of time, and even though he was just a soul, he still maintained that calm and composed demeanor.
Deep within his soul, the fragment of the Eastern Emperor Bell, obtained from the great karma of Nezha, was emitting an ancient and desolate chime.
"when--"
A single bell tolls, as if the sound of the deepest silence is the most profound.
A layer of pale golden absolute domain quietly expanded, centered on Lin Yuan's divine soul!
No matter how the raging waves of time crash against us, no matter how the turbulent currents of the years tear us apart.
Before this absolute domain supported by the fragments of the Eastern Emperor Bell, everything vanishes into nothingness.
Calm and tranquil, impervious to all laws!
Lin Yuan has always been a steady person. Even though he possesses such a supreme treasure that can reverse time and space, he never flaunts it. He simply silently conceals the golden light, hiding among thousands of divine souls and going with the flow.
"What a magnificent sight..."
Lin Yuan mustered his courage and slowly opened his eyes, which contained the essence of the Golden Crow True Fire and the Water Element Dragon Pearl, and looked into the depths of the River of Time.
In that single glance, the world has changed dramatically, and the sky has remained unchanged for eternity!
With the protection of the fragments of the Eastern Emperor Bell, his Dao Integration Realm vision pierced through the mists of time, allowing him to see the earth-shattering past of this primordial world that had been sealed away.
Ahead lay endless chaos and nothingness.
That was before Pangu separated heaven and earth.
Three thousand chaotic gods and demons, whose size was beyond description, were roaring and fighting in that hazy void!
Each god or demon represents an ultimate law of the Dao.
There are demon gods with three heads and six arms, spewing world-destroying black flames. There are giant serpents with bodies stretching for billions of miles, coiled around temporal storms.
With a mere gesture, they can destroy countless smaller worlds.
And in the center of these three thousand gods and demons.
A towering giant, bare-chested and muscular, resembling the embodiment of the Great Dao, wields a chaotic giant axe that exudes the sharpness of creation!
Pangu, the Great God!
"kill!"
Pangu roared, and the axe light shattered the endless void, carrying the ultimate peak of the Great Dao of Power, and fiercely slashed into the horde of gods and demons.
Limbs and severed arms flew wildly in the chaos, and the filthy blood of gods and demons poured down like a torrential rain, transforming into the mountains and rivers of the primordial world.
The brutal battle that destroyed the world and ushered in a new era stirred Lin Yuan's heart and made his blood boil.
This is the true pinnacle of power!
The scene changes.
The torrent of time carried Lin Yuan across countless cycles.
He witnessed the [Dragon-Han First Calamity] that shattered the primordial land!
Above the sky, the ancestral dragon, tens of thousands of feet long, let out a mournful roar, tearing apart the thunderclouds.
At the highest point of the heavens, the fiery phoenix cried out in anguish, its feathers transforming into a rain of fire that scorched the earth.
On that boundless land, the First Qilin, riding on auspicious clouds, let out a desperate roar and clashed with the vast armies of dragons and phoenixes.
The three races fought for supremacy, causing immense suffering and devastation.
Countless ancient powerful beings perished in this great calamity. The tragedy and desolation were so overwhelming that even a great demon like Lin Yuan, who had cultivated an unparalleled Dao body, felt a sense of suffocation.
Followed by.
Time flows on once again.
Lin Yuan saw an ancient palace floating outside the Thirty-Three Heavens, surrounded by purple mist and exuding endless majesty of the Heavenly Dao.
Zixiao Palace!
The palace gates opened wide, and the chanting of the Great Dao resounded throughout the entire primordial world.
Inside the Purple Cloud Palace, three thousand mortals sat upright, listening to the Dao Ancestor Hongjun, who was in harmony with the Heavenly Dao, expounding the supreme Dao on the high platform.
The Three Pure Ones, Nuwa, Jieyin, Zhunti, Zhenyuanzi, Hongyun...
These sages and powerful beings who would later command the winds and rains and rise to great heights in this vast world were all completely absorbed in the Dao Ancestor's sermon.
Those epic scenes that shook the soul allowed Lin Yuan's understanding of "Tao" to be elevated to a fever pitch at that moment.
however.
Just as Lin Yuan was immersed in this magnificent and unprecedented scene.
A sudden change has occurred!
On the edge of a section of the river of time.
On a massive, long-dead, decaying fragment of a star.
There sat an ancient being sitting cross-legged, radiating an aura of destruction!
It is unknown whether this is a surviving god or demon who barely survived in some great calamity, or an unparalleled being lost in the long river of time.
He was shrouded in a black mist, obscuring his face; only a pair of eyes, like black holes, were visible.
This god-demon was originally asleep with its eyes closed.
But in the instant Lin Yuan's soul passed by, he suddenly opened his eyes!
"what?"
"It's actually an anomaly, a wandering soul that doesn't belong to this river of time?"
The ancient syllables of gods and demons rippled through the river of time.
"Tsk tsk, amazing! Truly amazing!"
"This weak soul, not only was it not torn apart by the turbulent currents of time, but it also exudes the aura of an ancient treasure that even I, the true self, would covet!"
"If I could devour you and seize your destiny, I might be able to reshape my divine and demonic body and reverse this damned cycle of time!"
He sneered and suddenly stood up.
That giant hand reached directly into the river of time.
"Give it to me!"
This crackdown was so massive it could blot out the sky.
Within the palm of your hand, stars rise and fall, and the sun and moon reverse.
He actually intended to pluck stars and seize the moon, forcibly traversing this terrifying river of time to capture Lin Yuan's soul!
That terrifying sense of oppression, even across endless time and space, made Lin Yuan's scalp tingle.
"not good!"
Lin Yuan was startled.
But he did not panic and flee in all directions.
He knew very well that in the face of an existence of this caliber, the more panicked he was, the faster he would die.
He forcibly calmed his mind, tightly confining his Dao Integration Realm divine sense within the absolute domain of the Eastern Emperor Bell fragment.
"No! He can't get here!"
Lin Yuan stared at the enormous hand that seemed to grow infinitely larger.
"This is the river of time. He and I seem so close, yet in reality, we are separated by an insurmountable chasm of billions of years!"
"Though so close, yet worlds apart; unless he is a saint, he absolutely cannot cross this barrier of time!"
really!
Just as Lin Yuan had predicted.
The giant hand of that god or demon slowed down more and more as it probed into the river of time.
The erosive force of time, like countless invisible blades, relentlessly cuts at his divine and demonic body.
"Sizzle! Sizzle!"
On the arm of the god and demon, deep cracks appeared, revealing the bone, and black demonic blood spilled into the long river.
He exerted all his strength, and his fingertips even touched the faint golden light surrounding Lin Yuan's soul.
But that last inch of distance became an insurmountable chasm for him!
The fragment of the Eastern Emperor Bell emitted a distant, resounding boom.
"when--"
A force that suppressed time and space rebounded and blasted back from the fingertips of the gods and demons.
"ah!!!"
The god and demon let out a mournful scream, and the arm that had reached into the long river shattered inch by inch, turning into nothingness.
He pulled back his severed arm in terror, staggered back several steps, and collapsed onto the desolate star, his eyes filled with horror.
"How is this possible... what level of treasure is that?!"
The gods and demons gasped for breath, watching Lin Yuan's soul drift further and further away in the river of time, and finally gave up the pursuit.
He turned his head and looked to his side.
There, a woman appeared, her face lightly veiled, her figure graceful, yet her aura equally ancient and profound.
"Well, it's all fate after all."
The gods and demons sighed.
"How merciless the river of time is! That anomaly is protected by a powerful artifact that suppresses time and space, and does not belong to our era at all."
The masked woman also sighed softly, her beautiful eyes fixed on the direction Lin Yuan had left in.
"This child possesses extraordinary luck and is incredibly patient and persistent."
"Although he does not belong to this era, he has now formed a karmic bond in the long river of time."
The woman stretched out her slender hand and gently fiddled with something in the air.
"A great calamity is coming, and all realms will be unified."
"Perhaps one day in the future, when he sets foot on this land again, you, me, and him will meet again..."
Lin Yuan naturally couldn't hear the whispers between the two at the edge of the river of time.
At this moment, he is following the returning torrent, continuing his journey without any major incidents.
Protected by the absolute domain of the fragments of the Eastern Emperor Bell, he felt as if he were sitting in an indestructible submarine.
along the way.
Occasionally, a few terrifying [Time Beasts] that lived in the crevices of time would smell the aura of the divine soul and open their blood-red maws, trying to approach Lin Yuan.
But they had only just touched that pale golden light shield.
"when!"
The fragments of the Eastern Emperor Bell didn't even require Lin Yuan to deliberately activate them.
It simply rang out a bell instinctively.
A visible ripple of spacetime spread outwards.
Those ancient beasts, powerful enough to tear Nascent Soul cultivators to shreds, didn't even have time to scream before being instantly crushed into dust by this immense power of time and space, becoming nothing more than dust in the river of time.