Chapter 1117: A Direction for the Eighth Extreme

Time doesn’t just speed up, reverse, or stop. It has more profound functions....

Xu Qing looked out at the majestic desert. He was already able to use some of the power of time. But the moment he had gained enlightenment of the substructure of the place, he was shaken to the core by a whole host of new thoughts.

Time can be macroscopic. In other words, it can be viewed from the perspective of an entire star ring. On the other hand... time also exists within every living being, on a much smaller scale.

The River of Time exists everywhere. And yet, it’s not fixed. It can be affected by outside forces or can be transformed in other ways. As for this desert, it shows how time can be split.

The enlightenment within Xu Qing grew clearer.

The movement of an individual grain of sand forms one timeline. But atop that one particular timeline will be a second grain of sand. The first grain and the second grain have the same substructure, but different timelines.

The interactions cause more timelines, leading to mass chaos, and in the end, this desert. In order to combine them all back into one, you would have to travel within time, but also be outside of time and independent. In that way, you could gain control.

His eyes glittered brightly.

Unfortunately, I’m not currently capable of doing that. The most I could do would be to cause disorder in time. That type of disorder sown into time, and the resulting transformations, are fundamentally... different fates? Every new timeline will result in a new grain of sand. The momentum of that grain of sand doesn’t have anything to do with the previous grain. It’s on its own path.

Xu Qing thought to the godly authority of fate that his god clone had, and gradually, a fantastic sensation began to build up within him. That was because he was coming to realize that cultivator authority and godly authority were basically different approaches that led to the same outcome.

That said, they do have subtle differences. My godly authority of fate works by using a carving knife to cut new threads of fate, bringing them to the forefront, and making them the dominant aspect. But splitting time involves provoking transformations to a whole bunch of different timelines belonging to the same object....

In order to gain deeper enlightenment of this, I’m going to need to go back to Revered Ancient and reunite my immortal body with my god clone. As for right now....

Xu Qing’s eyes gleamed with mysterious light as he considered how he could use the ability to split time when in combat.

With that, he produced some holy fardark nectar and took a drink. He had already consumed two bottles of the nectar today, making this his third. As the effects of the nectar spread through him, Xu Qing’s mind raced.

I could use it on myself, and with each movement I made, even the beating of my heart, I could form different timelines. Though I wouldn’t be able to combine them, I could use my sundials to unleash the power in explosive bursts. It would create a chaotic sea of time!

Any who entered that chaotic sea would sustain the effects of time. They would be hit by countless timelines, causing them to either die or go insane! If I did the same thing to an enemy... the result would be the same! Their every movement would create chaotic timelines. As more built up, and they failed to control the transformations, then they would be stricken by mass chaos!

It would be like being gazed upon by a god, causing their flesh and blood to become independent entities. Not even an Imperial Sovereign would be able to easily deal with a divine ability like that!

Xu Qing’s eyes turned cold.

Enter the sea and find bitterness. Experience tribulation. Time comes to cease. It is... Infinite Timelessness!

Xu Qing performed a double-handed incantation gesture to tap into his power and send it out into the desert. Then, he focused all of his thoughts, forming his will, gathering his dao, and sending all of that into his seventh extreme.

Having accomplished that, his thoughts continued to wander. The power of the holy fardark nectar was still active, causing his unusual powers of understanding to be even more astonishing.

There must be some other ways to use the ability to split time. I just need to think more about it. For example... can I combine it with spatial power?

Thoughts were spinning within his head.

New timelines, plus the space attached to that independent timeline... would create something the same as my essence, but also different. A different... fate?

Xu Qing struggled to control his breathing as he realized he was on the verge of grasping something new.

Put precisely, wouldn’t that be called... space-time? Would that be a space-time created by me? Countless aspects of space-time. Countless versions of me....

Heart pounding, Xu Qing looked up and started doing some experimenting.

Three days passed.

He was still engrossed in the seeking of enlightenment, and of delving into methods of combining space and time. As his thoughts meandered, he made deductions and reached practical conclusions. But unfortunately, everything he tried resulted in failure.

Eventually, he changed tactics and started focusing on the chaotic timelines, using his spatial abilities to form a box to keep the timelines in. It was slow going. That didn’t bother Xu Qing. He was fully immersed in what he was doing.

However... Yunmen Qianfan was increasingly shaken as she watched Xu Qing work on his cultivation. She had a Void Returning cultivation base, and would only be able to break through to Smoldering God with the right destined opportunity. But as a conclave member of her clan, she was quite knowledgeable.

That said, she hadn’t dealt much with Imperial Sovereigns. Therefore, the sight of Xu Qing working on his cultivation left her stunned deeply. It was like a tempest that built within her as Xu Qing gained enlightenment of the desert.

During the first few days, she realized that the grains of sand that surrounded them were starting to glitter. Eventually, the surrounding desert came to look like a scintillating starry sky. She was understandably taken aback.

Next, the grains of sand started vibrating. She even noticed some of the sand starting to float up into the air. It was a dreamlike sensation that left her heart pounding. Yet that was like nothing compared to what happened next.

What she noticed... was that everything around Xu Qing was rippling and becoming blurry, almost in layers. And then, though she wasn’t sure if she was seeing things or not, she was almost sure she saw countless versions of Xu Qing.

In the blink of an eye, the seemingly illusory vision vanished, and she found herself dizzy and shaking. The world was spinning around her. Even more shocking to her, she felt like she was rapidly shifting back and forth from being ancient, to being an infant, to being normal. The sensation continued, making it feel like she was living different lives all at the same time. She felt sorrow, joy, love, and hatred all at the same time.

Just as all of those emotions hit her, Xu Qing noticed what was happening. He quickly performed an incantation gesture, and a gentle force swept out and covered her, preventing the effects from reaching her. Had he not done that, she would have withered up into a skeleton.

The things that had just played out left Yunmen Qianfan absolutely shaken to the core.

Not even the patriarch makes me feel like this....

Gasping for breath, Yunmen Qianfan backed away from Xu Qing. She didn’t dare to stay too close to him. She felt reverence, and at the same time, a strong sense of safety. As of that moment, she was convinced that divinations had been completely and utterly accurate. She had no idea if the other clan members who were part of this mission were alive. But she was sure that she would be fine.

That said, she was also getting the feeling that, after what just happened, her divination skills had improved.

Is Senior Firedark working on some sort of cultivation that connects to the dao of divination?

She continued to sit cross-legged some distance away, carefully trying to get as much information as she could from what she could sense.

Another two days passed.

The entire desert was now shining brightly. Innumerable grains of sand were floating into the air and spinning around like a tempest and causing intense rumbling sounds.

***

Someone was approaching the desert. It was a woman clad in a black gown and carrying a long black spear. She was pretty, but her gaze was fiendish, and she emanated a cold aura.

She stopped short on the desert border. Then, after a long moment passed, she stepped inside. However, after taking only one step, she stopped moving. A moment later she took a step back. As she stood there, she seemed almost like a mountain of ice, so cold that the surrounding energy solidified.

Any living things that got too close to her would be devoured by the frigid energy. However, that state only lasted for a short time before she returned to normal.

A grave expression overtook her face.

The Desert of Time.... The authority of time. No wonder the conclave elder and those vassals all died so strangely. And now it makes sense that they sent me to deal with this Yunmen Clan vassal. He’s not just an Imperial Sovereign. He seems to be a mid Imperial Sovereign!

He must have been hiding out in the Yunmen Clan all along in the hopes of getting the secret key....

The woman stood there silently. She was considered a top chosen in the Diling Dynasty. On top of that, she had an Immortal Capital permission medallion. As someone who had come out on top of countless battles in her life, she was more knowledgeable than ninety-nine percent of the people in the Diling Dynasty. What was more, she was confident that she could best any enemy in the same level as herself.

But right now... her expression was grave, and she was feeling an increasingly strong sense of danger. The step she had just taken into the desert imparted a sensation of death.

I’m not strong enough to beat this guy.

Another long moment passed, whereupon she took a deep breath and backed away. After taking three steps, she stopped moving, and her face fell. She now realized that she had waited too long to back away.

She had stood inside the desert for too long, during which time her heart, her mind, and even her physical body had been too active. Most importantly, she just should not have stepped into the desert, not even one step. Before she even realized what was happening, numerous timelines had appeared on her body. And then, when she stepped back, she ended up surrounded by distortions, blurriness, and overlapping versions of herself.

She was an Imperial Sovereign, and thus, was no simpleton. The moment she realized something unusual was happening, she instantly activated her cultivation base. Without an instant of hesitation, she even resorted to detonating her clan’s secret treasure, all while unleashing her authority in explosive fashion.

In a flash, an actual mountain of ice appeared with her in the middle, spreading out in all directions outside the desert. It sealed everything inside, freezing it, including her and time!

A few days later, the ice mountain was still there. The tempest in the desert had died down, and everything was back to normal.

***

Xu Qing opened his eyes. He didn’t glance at the distant ice mountain. He simply sighed as a result of his enlightenment. After all of his experimentation, he had only come to prove that, thanks to his own lack of understanding, he could not combine space and time.

However, at least I have a direction to pursue for my eighth extreme!

Taking a deep breath, he waved his hand, causing the desert to seethe. Countless grains of sand trembled, and numerous timelines intersected, creating a dazzling, multi-colored display. A dazzling road appeared in front of Xu Qing.

“Come on, let’s go,” he said to Yunmen Qianfan, standing.

Yunmen Qianfan had just noticed the ice mountain, and had spotted the woman sealed inside. She recognized her.

“Senior, that woman... she tried to seal time, but she failed. She’s not dead yet, but she’s very close. Uh, what about... the thing she has on her?” Yunmen Qianfan blinked a few times.

Xu Qing shook his head but said nothing. The sea of infinite timelessness sealing the ice mountain had been instigated by him. However, he had no way to undo it. Anyone who entered it would be stuck inside. Of course, Xu Qing didn’t want that information spreading.

He took a step forward onto the dazzling road. As he did, he crossed time and crossed the desert. When he reappeared... he was in front of an ancient teleportation portal. Yunmen Qianfan followed meekly.