Chapter 759 – The Bonsai of Time, Evil God Ping'an, and the Return of the Northern Dipper - Part 1

Hall of Life

A dim, misty blue glow drifted through the air.

Two figures moved deeper into the vast, maze-like entrance.

The jingle of colliding beads echoed eerily in the empty corridor. Not long after, a heavy, urgent thumping sound rang out from the distance, like a giant hammering out a rhythm on a war drum.

Then, at the far end of the dim blue passageway, two grotesque creatures emerged. They were bloody red, as if their skins had been peeled off.

The moment these flayed monstrosities saw the approaching figures, they let out strange, inhuman howls and lunged forward.

It was as if a sea of blood surged into the air, weaving a foul, iron-scented mist that obscured their forms completely. In their place rolled two towering crimson clouds, each more than ten feet wide, radiating killing intent in every direction.

Even the most powerful elites of the mortal world would’ve had to unleash their trump cards just to survive such an encounter.

But in the very next instant, without any warning, one of the red clouds burst apart, exploding into a spray of flesh and blood that splattered against the pitch-black walls.

The other cloud suddenly stopped, frozen mid-air, revealing the creature trapped within.

“Blood fiends,” Li Yuan said calmly. “Stronger than before, though.”

He and Yan Yu’s soul fragment approached without haste.

The blood fiend was completely immobilized, suspended mid-air as if crushed by an invisible force. It was like an ant caught in someone’s palm, writhing helplessly, utterly incapable of escape.

Li Yuan studied it for a moment and said, “They really are remnants of the ancient gods. They cultivated only the heavenly seal, not the human seal. Once the spiritual energy was severed, it was like yanking the ladder out from under them. They fell straight down, their souls extinguished. But their flesh, still charged with residual power, regressed to their most primal instincts.”

Having seen through the truth, Li Yuan resumed walking. As he passed, he casually squeezed his fingers.

With a muffled crack, the floating blood fiend was crushed into nothing, ground to dust under a massive force.

The two continued deeper into the Hall of Life. As always, it was infested with blood fiends.

They were stronger than before, perhaps, but still far too weak to catch Li Yuan’s attention.

What once made even seasoned cultivators hesitate and flee now fell before him like insects.

After a few more steps, Li Yuan reached into the void and pulled out a small jade bottle. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed it behind him.

This was no ordinary bottle. Forged over the years as a world sealing armament, it contained a miniature world inside.

The moment the bottle landed near the hall’s entrance, its inner world expanded and sealed the doorway.

From now on, any blood fiend trying to escape the Hall of Life would find itself trapped in the bottle’s world, not loose in the Ancestral Land.

Only then did Li Yuan feel at ease and press deeper into the hall.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

In this place, there was no distinction between day and night.

Li Yuan didn’t tire, but Yan Yu’s soul fragment still needed rest. So they slowed, found a recessed alcove barely big enough for two or three people, and sat down against the wall.

Yan Yu’s soul fragment pulled a blanket from her treasure orb and laid it across the cold floor before settling in. Then she took out some water and sesame cakes and started to eat.

Halfway through chewing, she waved a half-eaten cake at Li Yuan and puffed out her cheeks, mumbling, “Wanna bite?”

Li Yuan chuckled as he watched the adorable version of Yan Yu and shook his head.

Yan Yu's soul fragment ignored him and continued eating.

Meanwhile, Li Yuan turned his gaze to the corridors on either side. It was empty and quiet, with ghostly blue light rippling faintly across the walls. From time to time, the sound of footsteps echoed from deep within.

A sudden thought struck him. He patted the gourd hanging at his waist and said, “Yan Yu, what do you think would happen if instead of killing those blood fiends, I tossed them into the Mountain Sea World?”

Yan Yu blinked, eyes darting to the gourd with a hint of apprehension.

The monsters inside that thing were far more terrifying than anything they’d seen so far in the Hall of Life. The only reason it remained obedient was because it was in Li Yuan’s hands. If it ever left him, the small world inside the gourd might not be able to contain its own horrors.

And now he wanted to feed it blood fiends?

Wasn’t that basically tossing meat to a starving tiger, helping it grow even stronger?

“You can keep it under control?” she asked cautiously.

Li Yuan nodded without hesitation.

“Well then, feed it,” Yan Yu said. “The main body’s goal has always been to create a never-before-seen lifeform. The stronger, the better. As for everything else...that can wait until it’s finished. If feeding it blood fiends will make the baby stronger, then go for it.”

“

Baby...

?”

“Mhm,” she nodded solemnly. “Since it’s something we’re nurturing from scratch, a unique lifeform never seen before, of course it’s a baby.”

“Alright then...” Li Yuan didn’t seem to mind the new term.

Then her curiosity got the better of her. “By the way, what does the baby look like now? Can you show me, its loving mother?”

Li Yuan replied, “If it so much as glanced at you, you’d be in for a rough time. Even I can’t observe it from the outside. I have to actually enter the Mountain Sea World to see it.”

Seeing her disappointed expression, he added, “I can describe it, at least. Humanoid face, serpent body, whole body glowing red. It has two vertical pupils, one black, one white.”

Yan Yu’s eyes lit up with recognition. “Wait, is that the thing I snatched from the Eastern Sea that day? It actually survived? It

won

?”

She sounded surprised. “I remember the other creatures being pretty strong too. How did it beat them?”

“It only just reached the peak of second rank,” Li Yuan said, “but it’s begun to grasp a trace of time-based power.”

“Time?” Her expression shifted to disbelief.

Li Yuan nodded. “It only flashes to life under extreme danger, just a brief spark of insight, but even that was enough to devour the rest of its rivals.”

Yan Yu’s eyes widened. “That’s just second rank?!”

“Looking at it, I realized that even time has many forms. Pure temporal power is the most terrifying of all, of course. But there are lesser, derivative forms, like day and night, or the four seasons,” Li Yuan explained. “If time is a great river, then things like day and night, or seasons, are like bonsai made from scooped-up river water. This little one can’t control the river. Can’t see its past or future. But it can, on occasion...make a bonsai.”

Anyone else hearing this would’ve been utterly lost.

But Yan Yu’s soul fragment furrowed her brow, thoughtful. “You mean...it can create an environment from a specific moment in time?”

“Exactly,” Li Yuan said. “It can trap other creatures in deep winter...and then take its time devouring them. I still don’t know how it does it.”

“Trap them in

winter

?” Yan Yu echoed. “That sounds... even scarier than your usual trick of sealing people inside pocket worlds. Maybe we

shouldn’t

feed it blood fiends after all...”

“What’s there to be afraid of? That creature is only trapping others in

my

gourd’s version of winter, not the real winter of the Ancestral Land. At the end of the day, it’s still inside my gourd. Even if it learns to wield the four seasons, it’s still manipulating the seasons of

my

world,” Li Yuan said calmly.

“I’ve been thinking...maybe time itself is the key to stepping into the first rank. And this little one, this

baby

, might be the one to show us the way. Could even be useful for you too, Yan Yu. But one thing’s for sure, it can

never

be let out.”

They chatted a bit more.

Then suddenly, Yan Yu’s soul fragment paused. “Wait...the main body’s sending me something.”

Just like how Sheng’er

could deliver messages between herself and her crows across time and space, Yan Yu’s soul fragment was receiving real-time updates from her original self.

After a while, she said, “The main body says she can also create those

bonsai time

environments you mentioned. What’s inside your gourd still leans toward the Earth Soul path.”

Li Yuan nodded. “Makes sense. It

was

forged using the power of the Four Symbols, so the Earth Soul connection is inevitable. But that creature...it's nearly reached the level of a starkin.”

Yan Yu’s soul fragment said, “The main body agrees. She says keep raising it. Maybe, just maybe, it can become the missing piece in the Starkin Path.”

After saying that, she leaned against Li Yuan and dozed off for a while. When she awoke, the two continued their journey.

From that point on, Li Yuan no longer bothered killing the blood fiends they encountered. Instead, he simply popped the cork off the old gourd and sucked them in, feeding them directly to the snake-bodied, human-faced creature inside.

They wandered like this for some time. In a blink, a whole month had passed.

Suddenly, Li Yuan furrowed his brow. “Something’s off.”

“What is it?” Yan Yu asked.

“This place, it’s not the same Hall of Life I came through before.”

“But the main body said it, didn’t she?” Yan Yu replied. “There are multiple branches of the ancient halls. Maybe we just entered through a different one this time.”

Then she paused and frowned. “No...that’s not quite right. The branches of the Hall of Life are constantly shifting. But as long as there’s life inside one, it won’t change. The moment you leave it, though, it begins to shift. If you try to go back, it won’t be the same path anymore.”

But even as she said it, Yan Yu couldn’t recall

where

she’d learned this information.

Li Yuan also suddenly remembered something. “I think...I need to find a specific door. If, after that door, we encounter exactly nine forks in the path, then we’ll be on the road to the final destination. But only one of those nine paths is correct. Choose the wrong one, and there’s no turning back, no second chances. We’ll need to find a way to probe ahead first. Charging in blindly would be suicide.”

He frowned deeper. The strangest part was that this knowledge had also just

appeared

in his mind, like someone had only recently whispered it to him.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

A month later.

They finally came upon a door.

Pushing it open, they found what looked like the same scene as before, filled with blood fiends.

The two of them swept through it, cleaning house, and once again fed the

baby

in the gourd until it was full.

Another two months passed.

Li Yuan and Yan Yu’s soul fragment opened another door. There were still no forks in the path. So, they kept clearing the halls.

Just like that, time flowed by. In the blink of an eye, over half a year had gone.

The two continued wandering through the Hall of Life. If not for Li Yuan’s possession of the voidship, which allowed him to leap out of this place at will, the endless, winding paths alone would’ve been enough to trap them forever. No matter how great a person’s cultivation, if they couldn’t break the maze, they'd die here, lost in this ancient labyrinth.

Through the link between Yan Yu’s soul fragment and her main body, Li Yuan had learned that even if it were the true Yan Yu here in person, she too wouldn’t be able to escape once caught inside this ancient hall.

That gave him new insight into the nature of the

Human Soul

aspect.

Compared to Yan Yu, whose Earth Soul path allowed her to embody and rule the entire Underworld, Li Yuan's own Human Soul was still lacking. And yet, he had the ability to jump freely out of this ancient hall, while she could not. It was one of the many strange quirks that separated the various soul paths from each other.

One day, the surroundings finally changed.

This newly entered side hall was...silent. Not a single blood fiend in sight.

The two stepped inside.

Yan Yu’s soul fragment visibly relaxed. From the lack of blood fiends, it seemed like this was a hall they had already cleared. That was the obvious assumption.

But not long after, Li Yuan’s eyes narrowed. His hand shot out and grabbed Yan Yu’s arm.

She smirked and teased, “My main body always said you’d make a move on me eventually.”

Li Yuan paused, taken aback, then said seriously, “No, it’s not that. Something’s wrong. Seriously wrong. You should head into the voidship for now. I’ll pull you back out once it’s safe.”

Before she could even protest, he had already sealed her away into the vsessel, leaving himself standing alone in the vast, empty hall.