Mingyin floated in the air, holding both his current Life and Death Artifact and its future counterpart."It
seems my future self was unable to hold on to this artifact," Mingyin muttered to himself
.Suddenly, Mingyin appeared, taking both artifacts into his hands. As soon as he held them, they landed gently inside his inner realm.
This shocked Mingyin. Previously, if an artifact's rank was too high or its size too large, a barrier would reject it. Now, his realm welcomed them without resistance.Mingyin suspected this change was due to his deep connection with the laws of life and death.
He could still access the other realm, where he saw all his past, reincarnated selves floating in a vast sea. He knew he could use them to create illusion clones and survive future battles, but he chose not to linger on the thought.
Looking down, he stared at the sprawling labyrinth below, now completely covered by thick roots and soil. He let out a brief sigh."
Right now, I must return to the mortal world," Mingyin thought. "But I cannot return with my current strength. The laws of the mortal world will forcefully compress my cultivation
."Anything above the mortal state would normally vanish upon entry.
Mingyin considered replacing his cultivation entirely, but doing so would cause fatal internal injuries. It was too risky.
He immediately scrapped the idea. He reminded himself that his body had already survived the torturous agonies of stopped time."
My survival has nothing to do with my cultivation level," he realized. "It is because I am a lost soul.
My body can endure powers far greater than my own. If that is true, then my physical cultivation can safely drop."Suddenly, a screen or a realization hit him: his Transgressor cultivation had officially fallen to the Apex Mortal state.
Mingyin understood why. When his evil future self died, that version's power died with him. Still, if Mingyin entered the mortal world now, he would easily remain the strongest entity there.
However, his dream of raising the entire mortal world up into the Nine Heavens would be slim. Even with his powers reduced, his future self still possessed the core essence of an Eighth Heavenly being, which meant his raw cultivation rank had still to fall.
He came up with a plan. If he entered the mortal world using a specific artifact, he might have a small chance of maintaining his cultivation at the Sage Artist Stage Four.
The artifact was a round, glowing stone. It belonged to at least the Seventh Heaven, and his future self had poured all of his remaining soul energy into it. Sadly, like the artifact he previously used to stop time, this stone could only be used once.
Activating that previous Eighth Heavenly time-stop artifact had cost 100% of his future self's cultivation.
His future self had also hidden small remnants of Seventh Heavenly soul energy inside various objects across the realm, masking them with a unique texture.Mingyin realized his alternative selves had hidden multiple soul energy caches throughout the realm in past timelines, but those had all been found and drained.
Now, he only held a single red key, engraved with an Egyptian-like eye and encircled by a ring of flame.Suddenly, the key released a surge of soul energy
. It poured into the air, forming tiny suns that flew straight into Mingyin's stomach and settled into his soul realm. Inside his soul, a small, clear pond glowed, reflecting the light of the mysterious artifact.Mingyin took a deep breath.
"The reason I choose this path is because I am Mingyin. I will always change my decisions and defy my destiny. If I stay in the Nine Heavens, I will regret it for the rest of my life.
I will never be able to bring the mortal world up to my level. I made a promise to myself across countless regressions. I will not forget the despair of the mud I crawled through. I am the lotus that rises from it."The only reason he could not simply lift the mortal world right now was due to a cosmic restriction:
Eighth Heavenly beings were strictly forbidden from entering it. If they touched the mortal boundary, they would instantly die."
There are things left behind in the mortal world that I must bring to the Nine Heavens," Mingyin murmured. "Things hidden away. Why they are not in the Eighth Heaven, I do not know. But I know I will succeed. This tiny goal will lead to my final destiny, and history will follow."
Suddenly, Mingyin appeared outside the barrier of the mortal world. He was shocked by how bizarre and beautiful it looked. Thick clouds blanketed the realm from every angle, glowing with multi-coloured light.
Countless pale beams of light rose into the air, forming a protective barrier before exploding like silent fireworks.In his hand, he held a bitter-looking butterfly floating just above his palm.
The creature was known as:[Return to Life in a Doom]
This butterfly allowed Mingyin to teleport anywhere he wished, though he could not manifest a place that did not exist."
If I go now, I should position myself in the Empire Continent," Mingyin planned. "But I desperately need my Sovereignty Path to utilize the Dao Paths.
I still possess the inner realm of the Sovereignty Path, but I can only perceive the Vision Path
. It seems I only hold fragments of it now."Mingyin activated the butterfly. An otherworldly light swallowed him whole, engulfing his entire body."
I can always return to my inner realm once I reach the Apex Rank again," he thought as the light intensified. "For now, I must stay in the Region Continent. There is still unfinished business there."Mingyin smiled.
The entities Anguished and Odin Shin were still out there; they were not dead yet. He also hadn't found any of the stone creatures he had encountered before, nor did he know what had ultimately killed his evil future self. For now, he would seek answers to mortal questions.
The mysteries of the immortals would have to wait.With a final flash, his body dissolved into the air. He vanished, stepping into a realm that was fully prepared to break him.
Xia Yun's DiscoveryFar away, Xia Yun cut through the sky. His wings, which looked as though they were carved from cracked stone, flapped heavily as he dived down into a strange, unknown realm.He surveyed his surroundings and was met with a horrifying sight: a vast, diabolical sea of blood. Massive crimson waves crashed into the air before being swept away.
Xia Yun remained indifferent to the gruesome scenery, flying straight ahead like an arrow. However, as he flew deeper, a sudden sight sent a chill down his spine.Lying in the sea of blood was the corpse of a gargantuan skeletal dragon.
The crimson waves couldn't even budge its massive weight. What terrified Xia Yun the most was its sheer scale—the dragon was so long that its lower half vanished past the horizon.
Xia Yun activated a unique vision technique in his eyes to analyze the skeleton. While his calculations weren't as perfectly accurate as Mingyin's, he estimated the creature was at least one hundred million feet tall. It was a shocking height—longer than the diameter of Earth itself, though not equal to the Earth's total mass and volume.
Suddenly, Xia Yun stopped dead in his tracks.
He noticed a massive crater blasted into the dragon's skull. Inside that crater lay a hideous, terrifying creature: the corpse of future Mingyin
. Even though this version of Mingyin was only about six hundred feet tall, the sight was haunting.Xia Yun's first instinct was to turn around and run. He would have fled instantly, if not for his intense curiosity.
The mystery was too grand to leave unsolved. Yielding to the curiosity that kills the cat, he flapped his wings and landed near Mingyin's corpse, eager to uncover the truth.What he saw next completely shattered the mind of an immortal who had stood above countless legends.
The event unfolding from a distance was unavoidable.A colossal hand materialized in the sky. Its size completely dwarfed the hundred-million-foot dragon.Xia Yun gasped, unable to believe his eyes. '
Can a terrifying giant of this scale exist outside the Nine Heavens? No... that thing is longer, stronger, and far beyond terrifying. What is that?
'"A fragment of fate!"
A sharp, unknown voice echoed through the realm, sounding like thousands of steel blades grinding against one another.With a casual flick of its monstrous finger, the giant entity struck Xia Yun directly in the chest.
The sheer impact tore the air apart, sending Xia Yun flying backward like a cannonball.
The force crushed his eyes, and pieces of his stone-like flesh flaked off into the void.
Seven of his ribs snapped like twigs as he hurtled toward the massive dragon corpse.
He collided violently against one of the beast's ribs. Under normal gravity, it would have taken him eight hours to fall to the bottom of the dragon's massive ribcage. But because of the devastating,
kinetic power behind that single finger flick, he crashed to the bottom in a split second, leaving a web of massive cracks across the entire wall of the ancient bone cage.