Chapter 2109 - Your Past Incarnation

The Abyssal Ruins were shrouded in fog. Everything was in complete darkness.

As that thin man’s voice rang out, the Lingyu Dao Monarch’s expression shifted dramatically, and his whole body quivered uncontrollably.

This revelation came as a complete shock!

The distant darkness was similarly in uproar. The terrifying existences consigned to the darkness were obviously startled too.

“Your Eminence, you...” The Lingyu Dao Monarch gaped in disbelief. “You’re that swordsman’s... reincarnation?”

There was no doubt about it. This revelation was far too shocking. Even a Primordial Ancestral God like him found it difficult to accept.

“That’s right.” The man turned around and gently stroked that bronze coffin. He said calmly, “I didn’t tell you earlier because there was no need, but... at this point, refusing to tell you would seem like pettiness on my part.”

“How... How is this possible...?” The Lingyu Dao Monarch froze in place, his expression shifting erratically.

Way back when, when that swordsman walked the Path of the Ancient Gods, he visited the Abyssal Ruin and consigned all of them to the endless darkness. These terrifying existences saw him as their greatest, most hated foe!

Who could have imagined that the person who’d watched over this place in the long years following reincarnation’s disappearance, the one they honored as “His Eminence,” would be the reincarnation of that swordsman?

Deathly silence fell over the darkness. It was obvious that the terrifying beings trapped there were struggling to remain calm.

“Reincarnation disappeared, the spacetime of the past, present, and future is in turmoil, and a dark age of upheaval is upon us. Tell me... what in this world is truly impossible?” said the man. He slowly returned to his chair and leaned back, rubbing his forehead as he closed his eyes in repose.

“You tricked us!” Suddenly, an infuriated shout resounded from the darkness. “We saw you as one of us, or we would never have taken you for our leader. You’ve been tricking us this entire time!”

“Tricking you?” The man’s eyes were already shut. He said flatly, “How am I any different from you? Haven’t I been trapped here all this time, too? The only difference is that I remained clear-headed while all of you lay as dormant as corpses in their crypts.”

His voice was suddenly dignified and indifferent. “Furthermore, it was I who gave you the opportunity to reawaken and emerge from dormancy amidst the endless darkness.”

His voice was like the ringing of a bell. It resounded throughout the Abyssal Ruin, and for a long time, no one dared to respond.

“I told you a long time ago that the Abyssal Ruin is like a graveyard, and that you are the dead consigned to the darkness, while I... am like the guardian of the crypt. I’ve been watching over you all this time,” said the man, his voice low and solemn. “More importantly, even though I am that swordsman’s reincarnation, I... am different from him...”

Here, the man let out a soft sigh, and his expression filled with melancholy and a nigh indiscernible hint of hatred.

“Your Eminence, all we want to know is, do you still intend to make the grand ambition you shared with us back then a reality?” said a soft, feminine voice.

“Of course,” said the man without missing a beat. “I’ll be sure to bring you out of the Path of the Ancient Gods to live again!”

Here, he glanced at the Lingyu Dao Monarch. “But first, we have to resolve the problem of Su Yi.”

The Lingyu Dao Monarch’s heart shook. “What are your orders, Your Eminence?”

The man took a mottled black jade disc from his sleeves and drew his fingertip across it.

Kcch!

Strange, inscrutable light surged forth, and nine figures appeared: seven men and two women.

𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Three were in the Great Profound Stage, but the other six had already achieved divinity!

“These are a few good seedlings I trained. Bring them to the Celestial Trials,” ordered the man.

“Got it!” The Lingyu Dao Monarch nodded his assent, then led the nine of them away. Before long, they’d disappeared from view.

A voice emanated from the darkness. “Your Eminence, will sending those little fellows really be enough?”

“My first incarnation left the Nine Great Celestial Trials here. Only those beneath the Master God level can participate,” the man said casually. “If not even the nine of them can cut it, it will mean that no one in the Path of the Ancient Gods can compete with Su Yi in the Celestial Trials.”

Countless withered and destroyed epoch civilizations were buried in the Abyssal Ruin. The man who’d watched over this place all that time, like the guardian of a crypt, had seen it happen with his own eyes.

He’d found these nine good seedlings in the buried Epoch civilizations. Every last one of them was a blessed son or daughter of fortune. Their foundations, spirit roots, and talent were all unquestionably unparalleled!

Every one of them had one area in which they were invincible and unsurpassed by anyone of the same cultivation level in any epoch, past or present.

Some were Heaven’s Chosen, unique, heaven-defying monsters, the proudest experts of their respective epoch civilizations. Others controlled taboo powers of the Grand Dao.

But all of them were unquestionably the “main characters” of their epochs of origin!

The man had searched over a hundred long-buried epoch civilizations, one by one, to uncover the nine of them. Moreover, he’d paid an utterly enormous price to save them from their lost epochs of origin!

“Your Eminence, what if...” someone started to ask.

But before he could finish the question, the man said, “It’s fine even if they lose, because I... am in an undefeatable position!”

......

The Godless Plains.

Heaven’s End Divine Mountain had crumbled. Nothing remained of it but rubble strewn across the plains.

Su Yi stood beneath the dome of heaven, jug of wine in hand as he conversed with Grandmaster Bodhi’s avatar of will.

“As you know, the entirety of the Path of the Ancient Gods is of the past, and only the past. From the perspective of the inhabitants of the present day, the people and objects of the Path of the Ancient Gods have long since ceased to exist,” said Grandmaster Bodhi. “Of course, that includes everyone we saw earlier.”

Su Yi nodded. He knew that the Seven Great Celestial Venerates, the Lingyu Dao Monarch, and the owner of that mysterious voice were all from the long-vanished past.

It was the Epoch Spark that had opened this path to the past!

“Had the power of reincarnation remained, the past would have remained entirely in the past, and no one would be able to see it now. The past could never have appeared in the present day,” said Grandmaster Bodhi. “That’s because the onset of an Epoch Tribulation means the end of an epoch civilization. All of its inhabitants, from the loftiest of gods to the humblest of ants, disappear forever—that is, unless they can step into Eternity.”

“Those lost epoch civilizations are enveloped by the natural order of reincarnation, and ultimately buried in the endless darkness, where they transform into chaos energy and give rise to new epoch civilizations.

“Destruction leads to new life. This is the alternation of reincarnation, an endless, self-perpetuating cycle.

“Take the Epoch Spark you now carry. It’s like chaos in miniature, the seed of a new epoch civilization.”

Grandmaster Bodhi sighed. “It’s just a pity that this chaos epoch’s power of reincarnation has been lost. The River of Epoch has changed, and the Path of the Ancient Gods has changed with it.

“Reincarnation no longer exists, so the natural order of the past, present, and future has withered and collapsed. The space thread of the alternations of the epochs will soon be completely tangled. The entirety of the past, present, and future will appear at once, ushering in a new age of darkness and upheaval.

When Su Yi heard that, his expression said, “Just as I thought.”

He’d long since pieced together various leads to guess just that. Both the mysterious River Lord of the River of Epochs and Gongye Futu had discussed these very secrets.

“The disappearance of the power of reincarnation has granted the experts long consigned to the darkness an opportunity to reawaken and break free,” said Grandmaster Bodhi, his gaze inscrutable. “Many of them have already awakened, and the one behind it all... was you.”

“Me?” said Su Yi, unwittingly stunned.

Grandmaster Bodhi smiled and said warmly, “Strictly speaking, it was one of your past incarnations! Earlier, you were curious about the owner of that mysterious voice, weren’t you? He is one of your past lives!”

Boom!

Su Yi felt as if he’d been struck by lightning. Waves of astonishment coursed through him.

The owner of that mysterious voice had commanded even a Primordial Ancestral God like the Lingyu Dao Monarch, and he’d even stared Grandmaster Bodhi down. He was the true man behind the scenes of today’s incident.

How could Su Yi ever have guessed that he was one of his past incarnations? It was simply too unbelievable. Despite Su Yi’s ironclad will, he was unwittingly astonished, and for a moment, he found it hard to believe.

A long time passed before he cleared his head and said, “Does that mean that that past incarnation was from an epoch not of the present day? And that his epoch of origin has long since vanished into the past?”

“Exactly,” said Grandmaster Bodhi. “The epoch civilization in which he proved his Dao withered and crumbled a long, long time ago.”

Su Yi instantly understood. This past incarnation of his should have vanished a long time ago.

However, the disappearance of the power of reincarnation led to enormous changes in the Path of the Ancient Gods, giving his past incarnation an opportunity to live again!

Su Xuanjun, the Temple Master, Shen Mu, Wang Ye, Li Fuyou, and Yi Daoxuan were all from present-day epochs, but

this

past incarnation was different.

He was from a different, long-vanished epoch civilization. Time and space were misaligned, severing the connection between the past and present!

“The disappearance of the power of reincarnation and the crumbling of the natural order has actually let me encounter one of my past selves here in the Path of the Ancient Gods,” murmured Su Yi. He felt an incomparably complicated mixture of emotions. It was shocking and unexpected, even absurd.

But this was reality!

“So that's why the trap they laid for me was so meticulous. He and I are both reincarnations of the same person. I’m afraid he understands my abilities better than anyone...

“No wonder he realized my intentions for this trip to the Path of the Ancient Gods, and no wonder he knew I was after an unprecedented, unique path to divinity.”

Su Yi sighed. He suddenly had answers to many of his questions. He felt as if the clouds had cleared, letting him see the light of day once more.