Chapter 2069 - You’ve Finally Returned

The River Lord’s jeers left the crowd’s expressions a bit unsightly. They knew that this was just his personality, but that didn’t mean they accepted it!

But in the end, all of them swallowed their anger and said nothing. They had no choice but to endure!

Su Yi, meanwhile, opened his right hand.

Weng!

The Epoch Spark lit up with a flowing rain of chaos light, instantly forming a unique connection to the spacetime portal. The crowd watched as the entrance opened, bit by bit, revealing a path into endless darkness!

“Is there really nothing else you’d like to say to me first?” Su Yi turned to look at the River Lord.

The River Lord mulled it over, then said, “The Path of the Ancient Gods is a gathering point for the greatest, most dazzling existences of the past. There, those long-vanished elites live on! They’re no illusions, either. They truly exist there!

“Right, the Nine Great Celestial Trials are the most dangerous of all, but it’s only by overcoming them that you can find the greatest chance at divinity in the Path of the Ancient Gods.

“Remember this: no matter what happens, you must return within one year. Otherwise, you’ll be lost to the past forever, never to return. Even your mastery of reincarnation will do you no good!”

“Also, the Path of the Ancient Gods is home to a few strange lifeforms who broke taboos, and a few long-lost Taboo Treasures. If you run into them, you must be careful.

“....” Su Yi had originally just planned on exchanging pleasantries with the River Lord. He hadn’t expected any real information.

Who’d have thought that once the old man god started, he wouldn’t be able to stop?

Furthermore, the nearby Master Gods, rulers of forbidden zones, and their subordinates were paying close attention. It seemed they wanted nothing more than for the River Lord to continue. The more he said, the better!

“Oh, there’s one more thing. You control the Epoch Spark, so after you enter the Path of the Ancient God, the top powerhouses there are sure to target you. I urge you to travel in secret and avoid attention. Keep a low profile, and ideally, take on a new identity,” said the River Lord.

“Also, after you enter the Path of the Ancient Gods, all of you will appear in the City of the Beginning. Once you’re there, you’ll naturally know how best to challenge the Path of the Ancient Gods, but you must take care. Whatever you do, don’t offend the rulers of the City of the Beginning.”

When Su Yi saw that the old man was about to continue, he called out, “Stop!”

The River Lord licked his lips as if he’d yet to get his fill. “You’re the one who wanted me to talk, aren’t you? So why are you so impatient?”

The others looked displeased, too. These were secrets of the Path of the Ancient Gods. Who didn’t want to learn more about them?

Yet now, Su Yi had gone and ruined it.

“It’ll be more interesting if I explore it for myself,” said Su Yi. “That’s the fundamental nature of striving for the Grand Dao. If I did everything with your instructions in mind, it’d be far too dull.”

The River Lord froze, stunned, then laughed and stuck up his thumb. “Well said! You really are...”

But he clamped his jaw shut before he could finish the sentence.

Su Yi gazed intently at him. He dared say with certainty that the old hooligan knew his origins, and furthermore, that he’d reincarnated many times over. It even seemed entirely possible that the River Lord and his first incarnation were old friends!

The reason he suspected this was simple. The River Lord had been waiting for his arrival for a long, long time.

So long that when he met Su Yi’s fifth incarnation, Li Fuyou, he’d already been waiting a long time.

But Li Fuyou hadn’t mastered reincarnation, and thus, the River Lord couldn’t bring him to the Tower of Ancient Evils.

But Su Yi was different. His mastery of reincarnation had earned the River Lord’s approval, and he’d entered the Tower of Ancient Evils, where he received the Epoch Spark, challenged the Abundance of Heaven Chessboard his first incarnation had left for him, and met with Gongye Futu’s Dao Imprint!

All of this proved that there was a connection between the River Lord and his first incarnation.

But if the River Lord didn’t want to discuss it, Su Yi naturally wouldn’t push. When the day came that he regained the memories of all of his past lives, he’d naturally learn the truth in full.

“Farewell.” Su Yi turned and walked toward the spacetime portal.

“Wait!” The River Lord hurriedly called out to him, then passed him a black jade slip. “Hold onto this. That way, you won’t get lost!”

All eyes were instantly on the jade slip in Su Yi’s hands, their expressions highly varied.

𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Su Yi put the slip away. His expression didn’t shift, but inwardly, he was cursing the old bastard’s ineptitude.

How can you slip me something like this in public? Are you trying to entice my enemies?

The River Lord coughed awkwardly, as if seeing through Su Yi’s thoughts. “It’s nothing but a trinket. Even if someone steals it, it’ll do you no real harm.”

The crowd’s expressions only grew even stranger. There was no doubt about it; the more desperate the River Lord was to diminish his gift, the more it seemed like he was hiding something.

Su Yi almost couldn’t resist the urge to pummel the old man, but in the end, he said nothing. He simply turned and vanished into the spacetime portal.

Luo Xuanji followed immediately after. A rain of light scattered, and the two of them vanished.

“Do you want to go play too?” The River Lord fixed his cold gaze on the Master Gods and rulers of the forbidden zones.

“We’re just avatars of will. We cannot possibly pass through the spacetime portal.” The Dipankara Buddha shook his head.

“Oh,” said the River Lord. “Go ahead and die, then. It’ll reduce how much information gets out.”

Before the crowd could grasp what he was saying...

Boom!

The River Lord struck like lightning, destroying every last divine avatar of will here. Crisp and direct as could be.

When the gods of various camps saw this, they broke out in cold sweats, and they subconsciously retreated.

“Don’t be afraid. So long as you enter the Path of the Ancient Gods, I’ll have no reason to attack you,” the River Lord said with a laugh, his expression suddenly incomparably warm and benevolent.

There was no getting around it; the River Lord changed his tune with shocking speed. He was capricious and unpredictable. No one could guess what he’d do next.

“Do you mean that, Senior?” someone finally worked up the courage to ask.

The River Lord laughed. “I don’t waste my spittle on lies. Besides, every fiber of my being disdains making trouble for juniors like you. Why lower my status and dirty my hands by attacking you?”

“...”

“Go on, be quick about it. Don’t force me to send you on your way personally,” said the River Lord, waving his hands impatiently.

The gods of various camps no longer dared to hesitate. Each ran faster than the one before, as if terrified that the River Lord would change his mind again. Before long, all of them vanished into the spacetime portal.

Meanwhile, numerous figures coursed through the Kingdom of Lasting Light, swarming toward the portal from all sides.

“Hurry! The Path of the Ancient Gods has already opened! We have to seize every available moment and rush inside!”

“Rumor has it that the Path of the Ancient Gods holds more than just opportunities to achieve divinity. It also contains all manner of good fortune!”

“Fortune like this might not come even once in a million years! Even if all I do is go in and look around, living all this time will have been worth it!”

......When he heard these conversations, the River Lord couldn’t help but look nostalgic, as if he’d recalled something in the distant past.

This wasn’t the first time the Path of the Ancient Gods had opened. It had opened three times before this, a long, long time ago.

But all of that changed when the natural order of reincarnation vanished from the River of Epochs.

The Path of the Ancient Gods went dormant, and the spacetime power of the past, present, and future contorted and fell into disarray. Everything began a gradual march toward withering and collapse.

“Fortunately, he’s come back. The world might soon enter a legendary dark age, but so long as he’s here, he’ll be a torch to cast away the darkness!” murmured the River Lord. “I hope that a year from now, when I see him next, he’ll already be a god of the sword!”

Then, his aged frame vanished in a puff of smoke.

On that day, the Path of the Ancient Gods re-entered the world, and the ringing of a bell resounded throughout the River of Epochs. Everyone heard it, and everyone took action!

......

The spacetime path was as dark as chaos itself. Beams of colorful, resplendent light shot about all over the place.

Rapid, flowing streaks of spacetime power!

Those who walked this path stepped into endless spacetime, and they found themselves carried uncontrollably through it.

Suddenly——

Boom!

A massive impact rang out. Time and space shook violently, as if under attack by something external.

Su Yi suddenly raised his head. An unbelievable scene played out before him.

An enormous throne made entirely out of bone appeared across an endless distance of time and space, standing amidst the void.

A handsome youth sat upright atop it, his clothing whiter than snow. He had a crown on his head, and his eyes blazed like twin suns. It seemed as if his gaze could penetrate all the secrets of the nine heavens and ten earths.

When Su Yi looked over, the young man on the bone throne smiled. His lips parted, and he said, “When the Dharma declined in the Age of the Dharma Terminus, legends were plunged into darkness. I’ve been waiting a long, long, long time for you, Fellow Daoist, but you’ve finally returned!”

With that, he threw back his head and laughed with the utmost delight.

A moment later, both he and his skeletal throne vanished.

Su Yi frowned, suddenly uncertain.

Who is that? It seems he’s been waiting for me all this time, and that my return has delighted him.

But just as he’d begun to ponder this, a sigh rang out. Su Yi felt a piercing pain in his soul, followed by a skull-splitting headache!

He felt as if a knife were splitting him in two. Endless agony coursed through his entire body, and his awareness was under a terrifying attack.

Moments later, the Sword of the Nine Hells quivered and neutralized this terrifying attack on his soul.

Su Yi instantly came back to his senses, but his expression darkened.

He wasn’t sure when, but a woman had appeared in a distant stretch of void. Her whole body was shrouded in fog and a colorful rain of light, and she sat alone on a worn-out tripod cauldron.

Chaos qi billowed out of the cauldron, dense and mysterious. It ground away the power of time and crushed the power of space, and it seemed eternal and indestructible!

The woman on the cauldron spoke up, her voice solemn, cold, and clear.

“You’ve returned, but it’s too late. The power of reincarnation has been for too long. Those you once suppressed have started to awaken amidst the endless darkness. One day, they’ll rebuild themselves within the natural order of the present day, just as I have. Their powers of the Grand Dao will blanket the heavens, and they’ll strive for a true, Eternal Dao!”

The woman gazed intently at the distant Su Yi. “You... don’t have much time left!”

With that, she turned and rode off, still seated on her cauldron. In a flash, she’d vanished into the endless void.

Su Yi furrowed his brow, his expression shifting and uncertain.

In the end, he just shook his head.

Yet another chatterbox.

A moment later, Su Yi was stunned.

He wasn’t sure when it had begun, but he’d just discovered that his progress along this path through time and space had slowed considerably, as if a giant invisible hand were pulling him backward!