Chapter 2685 - Shattered in a Single Slap

Xiao Jian really was surprised that Heavenly Sovereign Wen had revealed himself so quickly, but more than that, he was surprised by the middle-aged man accompanying the River Lord.

The old-timers all assumed it was the thin old man who’d intervened to neutralize Heavenly Monarch Xun’s palm strike and save the God Domain.

However, Xiao Jian saw it clearly. The one who’d really neutralized that strike was that tall, stalwart middle-aged man!

Reality proved that the middle-aged man was quite terrifying. When his aura swept outward, he forced the Heavenly Monarchs back.

With just a single step forward, he forced back the Greatest of the Unthroned, the Malevolent Sword Venerate. Then, he sent him flying hundreds of thousands of feet with a slap.

The very picture of ferocity!

Xiao Jian guessed that the middle-aged man wasn’t any weaker than a Heavenly Sovereign, and that was unbelievable. After all, Heavenly Sovereigns had Eternal Thrones. That was what granted them their supreme combat strength.

Yet this middle-aged man wasn’t any weaker than them. There were only two possible explanations for that. Either he had an Eternal Throne too, or he was from the Far Shore of Destiny!

Either way, he was far stronger than the thin old man.

The thin old man was the one who’d turtled up on the River of Epochs for countless years. Xiao Jian had learned of his existence a long time ago.

He knew that his first incarnation’s rusted sword sheath was under the old man’s control, or rather, that it had been.

He even knew that the old man had long since plummeted out of Eternity, and that his situation was dire.

Although the thin old man once boasted that prior to falling from Eternity, he’d almost touched upon the threshold of Heavenly Fate, Xiao Jian had always only half believed it.

After all, who didn’t know how to boast?

Where’d that old-timer find such a capable assistant? He’s really quite something.

Xiao Jian couldn’t help but feel eager.

Heavenly Sovereign Wen was blocking his path. Could the middle-aged man force him back?

Xiao Jian knew that this wasn’t Heavenly Sovereign Wen’s true body, but a Heavenly Sovereign was a Heavenly Sovereign! He was a supreme existence out in this endless spacetime void!

It wasn’t just Xiao Jian. All eyes in the surrounding void were watching.

Millions upon millions of fiery lotuses swayed, filling the space around Heavenly Sovereign Wen. Their firelight was dazzling and resplendent.

He stood there like a ruler, grand and contemptuous.

Earlier, he’d blocked the way ahead and asked where the two of them were rushing to.

Now, the middle-aged man responded expressionlessly, “We’re going to your ancestor’s funeral.”

Even Heavenly Sovereign Wen, a ruler among Eternals, couldn’t help but be stunned. His brow furrowed.

The thin old man couldn’t help but rebuke his companion. “How could you say something like that? His ancestor? What? How could his ancestor possibly be worthy of us rushing like this?”

“....” The crowd didn’t know what to say.

Heavenly Sovereign Wen said calmly, “It doesn’t matter whose funeral you’re rushing to. You’ll have to get through me first.”

“Oh,” said the middle-aged man.

He started to attack, only for the old man to hold him back. “You’ll need your strength later. Leave this one to me.”

The middle-aged man hesitated briefly, but in the end, he nodded reluctantly. “Very well.”

The thin old man smiled.

Heavenly Sovereign Wen couldn’t help but find this amusing.

What hole did these two crawl out of? They couldn’t be more arrogant.

It had been a long, long time since anyone had treated Heavenly Sovereign Wen like this, so long that for a moment, he found it rather novel.

He pointed to himself and laughed. “Come on, then. I’ll give you an opportunity to challenge me. Force me back even once, and I won’t interfere in what happens today any further.”

The thin old man plastered a smile on his face, then said amiably, “In that case, this old man won’t be polite.”

As he spoke, he rolled up his sleeves like a hoodlum, then leaped forward and swung his palm ruthlessly at Heavenly Sovereign Wen.

He had no momentum or majesty to speak of. On the contrary, he seemed ridiculous. The onlookers were all unwittingly flabbergasted, and they barely resisted the urge to laugh.

But a moment later, they were struck dumb.

The countless fiery lotuses suddenly dimmed and withered, as if a windstorm had blown them out.

Heavenly Sovereign Wen, meanwhile, took a ruthless slap to the face. It forced him several thousand feet back.

His eyes widened, and he opened his mouth as if to say something, only for his figure to split into pieces. All that remained was his last bitter sigh.

The thin old man sighed, too, then said, “My apologies. I only just broke through several realms, and I can’t control my own strength yet.”

The middle-aged man glanced coldly at him. “Don’t show off. After all those years of bitter torment, you finally broke through. It wasn’t easy, either. Be careful that you don’t fall out of Eternity again!”

The thin old man grinned at him. “How could I dare to show off? If the boss hadn’t shown me a path to life back then, I could never have reached my current heights...”

His aged face suddenly filled with the vicissitudes of countless years. “It’s a pity, but the boss isn’t here to see this.”

Long ago, the boss rebuked him without the slightest politeness, saying that he’d never amount to anything and that he had no hope of touching the threshold of Heavenly Fate in this lifetime.

His words proved prophetic. After hearing that, the old man no longer had any hope of proving his Dao and entering the Heavenly Fate Realm.

Later, he met with a grand tribulation, falling out of Eternity and becoming the River Lord of the River of Epochs. There, he watched over the alternation of the epochs.

Countless years passed in a flash.

But things were different now. He hadn’t just rebuilt his cultivation base. He’d even achieved repeated breakthroughs in his cultivation!

After his breakthroughs, the middle-aged man entrusted the sword the boss had left in Sword Sovereign City to him. He said that before the boss entered the cycle of reincarnation, he issued a decree.

When the old man stepped into Eternity once more, he’d be qualified to wield that sword!

It was then that the old man finally realized that the boss hadn’t given up on him after all.

It was that sword that helped the old man glean enlightenment into the mysteries of Eternity and point his sword at the secrets of Destiny. With it, he’d broken through once more.

When he thought back to the boss, the old man couldn’t help but feel glum. He wanted nothing more than to show the boss his progress. Even if the boss insulted and chastised him again, he’d accept it gladly.

Meanwhile, the endless void was deathly silent. Everyone stood there in a daze, waves of astonishment coursing through their hearts.

That was a Heavenly Sovereign’s clone! But that old man destroyed it in a single slap!

Who could have imagined such a thing?

When Madam Purple Blue, Meng Tianya, and the other Heavenly Monarchs saw this, they couldn’t help but gasp.

Earlier, they’d tried to block the old man’s path. Had the old man wanted to kill them...

The thought alone was enough to fill their hearts with panic!

Meanwhile, Xiao Jian watched from Five Elements Peak, eyes wide.

That old-timer who turtled up in the River of Epochs for countless years is seriously this ferocious?

He said he was but a step away from the threshold of Heavenly Fate, but he wasn’t bragging. No, he was lying through his teeth!

Xiao Jian couldn’t help but feel as if he’d been lied to.

I was a fool to have believed that geezer had plummeted from Eternity.

He just destroyed a Heavenly Sovereign’s clone in a single slap. How could someone who once failed to even touch the threshold of Heavenly Fate possibly have pulled that off?

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

What an old liar!

Xiao Jian couldn’t help but laugh.

“Big Sister Lin, do you recognize that old man?” Over by Red Pine Mountain’s spacetime fault, A’Cai couldn’t help but ask, “He’s incredible!”

The spearwoman said distractedly, “I’ve never seen him before, and I don’t know him. Is he incredible? Don’t make a fuss over nothing. I’ll be stronger than him one day.”

Her words inadvertently revealed her deep-seated confidence.

But then, she seemed to sense something. She suddenly looked up, gazed into the dome of heaven, and murmured, “Strange. With the Eternal Pact in place, how could anyone have left the All-Profound Dominion...?”

Meanwhile, deep within the void of time and space, a thin and old man and his middle-aged companion were just about to set off, only to sense something and gaze into the distance.

“They’re here,” the middle-aged man said gravely. “They really are a pack of lowlife rulebreakers!”

“You’ve got to be careful this time,” the thin old man said with a frown.

Boom!

A heaven-shaking impact boomed deep within the endless spacetime void. Layers of spacetime barriers tore like paper, ruthlessly ripped to shreds.

The boundless River of Destiny appeared at the far end of the endless spacetime void. No one knew where it began, and no one knew where it ended.

Meanwhile, a burst of laughter arose from the river.

“Are you two the only survivors of Sword Sovereign City? In that case, that swordsman’s reincarnation is doomed to die today!” A leisurely voice rang out, shaking the endless spacetime void.

Countless people were astonished, their scalps numb with fright.

What kind of expert has shown up this time?

Suddenly, another voice, this one soft and feminine, emanated from the River of Destiny. “Dare you two come join us on the River of Destiny? How about we find an unoccupied Eternal Gateway and play together?”

As these voices rang out, every expert hidden in the surrounding void, no matter their strength, felt chills course down their spines and goosebumps rise on their skin, as if an evil eye had locked onto them.

The thin old man and middle-aged man exchanged glances, then simultaneously blurred into beams of light and shot toward the River of Destiny.

Within moments, both of them bore through the fetters of time and space, like unstoppably sharp tapered cones.

Boom! Boom!

The River of Destiny shook, stirring up towering waves.

The two men shot into the churning water. Even the Laws of Destiny and its natural order felt the impact.

This scene astonished the onlookers once more. Everyone who’d come here from the River of Destiny felt their Dao Heart quiver at the sight of it.

The River of Destiny was endlessly vast and swathed in the natural order of Destiny. Countless Eternals were buried beneath its endless flow.

On the River of Destiny, those without Eternal Thrones walked with the utmost caution, as if treading on thin ice. None dared to act casually for fear that the power of the Laws filling the river water would target them.

Who could have imagined that someone would be so bold as to charge right in, stirring up enormous waves?

Much less that there’d be two of them?

“Enough. No one else is to interrupt your current operation. Remember, pluck the Dao Fruit

after

it’s ripened!” said a mellow, benevolent voice, echoing throughout the spacetime void.

The figures who’d appeared on the River of Destiny vanished as this voice arose. There was no longer any sign of them.

The endless void of time and space was utterly silent.

Waves of shock coursed through everyone’s hearts. They struggled to calm down.

Only a tiny handful, those who understood the inside story, knew that this was no unexpected development, but rather, a long-planned mission!

No one else on the River of Destiny would be able to interfere now.

And Su Yi had no cards left to threaten them with!

This Battle for Order would determine the fate of the God Domain, and it would have an enormous impact on the River of Destiny, too.

Now, the time had come for its final act!