Chapter 2838 Fourth Stage of Innate Talent

Time flowed quietly. In the blink of an eye, a month had passed. One day, Lin Xun stepped out from the Gate of Exile, his brow furrowed.

For the past month, he had entered the Realm of Exile almost every day, yet he had gained next to nothing. Standing still in contemplation, he let out a soft sigh.

Ultimately, the Gate of Exile could only be opened for far too short a time...only seven and a half minutes. That limit shackled his every move. Up to now, he had managed to explore no more than a hundred thousand miles within that mysterious realm. If he went any further, there simply wouldn’t be time to return.

“This won’t do,” he murmured.

Drawing in a deep breath, he made up his mind. From his day onward, he would once again deduce the profound mysteries of the Gate of Exile. No matter what, he had to extend its duration! He sat down cross-legged and began to meditate.

Years drifted by like mist. By the sixth year of Lin Xun’s confinement...

Within his quiet dwelling, he sat in deep mediation. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open, brilliant light flashing within them. After years of unceasing deduction, he had finally unraveled every secret of the Gate of Exile. There was nothing left he did not understand.

“Let’s begin.” Drawing a steady breath, he circulated his cultivation.

Buzz!

The void trembled. Ripples of power spread outward as a space-time rift bloomed into existence, and a one foot Gate of Exile materialized before him. As Lin Xun extended a hand, the Gate of Exile began to contract, rippling like a lake struck by a stone. Within seconds, it shrank to the size of a palm fan, a clenched fist, a copper coin...

Until at last, it shrank into a single, almost illusory speck of light! It gleamed like the edge of a sword, dazzling beyond comparison. The aura of time that flowed from it carried a sharpness that seemed to pierce straight into the soul.

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Lin Xun watched in silence. Time trickled by. The speck of light showed no sign of fading.

Fifteen minutes passed. Thirty minutes. An hour...

Only then did the speck of light finally dim, before bursting apart with a soft boom into a brilliant rain of radiance that drifted through the air.

An entire hour! That was eight times longer than before! A surge of irrepressible joy welled up in Lin Xun’s heart.

After a quick calculation, he realized that sustaining the Gate of Exile at this level roughly consumed thirty percent of his cultivation. It was a heavy toll, but well worth it, as the gate could now be opened for an entire hour.

Suppressing his excitement, he crossed his legs once more, meditating until every trace of energy was restored. Only then did he activate the Gate of Exile again. With a flash, his figure turned into a streak of light and vanished into the gate.

The familiar vast gray world unfolded before his eyes. Without wasting a breath, he soared forward at full speed. A few minutes later, a hundred thousand miles had passed beneath him.

Once, this was his limit. Now, it was only the beginning. He pressed onward, his spirit sense sweeping across heaven and earth, probing everything within reach. Then, a quarter of an hour after entering the Realm of Exile.

He suddenly halted mid-flight. A look of utter astonishment flickered across his face. In the far distance, a white waterfall cascaded from the hazy heavens, plunging into a vast ravine like a snow-white dragon of ice. It was none other than a waterfall of time!

That blinding cascade was nothing but the power of time itself, dazzling, ethereal, and boundless. To one side of the waterfall hung a vast black mountain, suspended beneath the heavens, wreathed in obscure power as it endured the endless baptism of the waterfall of time.

Divine Magnetic Mountain! The moment Lin Xun recognized it, emotion welled up in his chest. He drew a steady breath and advanced toward it. With every step he took, he could keenly sense the distortion of time deepening. The nearer he drew to the waterfall hanging between heaven and earth, the slower the current of time became.

By the time he reached the mountain, the flow of time had nearly come to a complete halt. It was as if the very thread of time had been stretched to its limit. Here, a single day might pass, while in the outside world, barely a quarter of an hour slipped away!

Without question, the Principle of Time had warped before this waterfall.

Lin Xun released his spirit sense. The instant it brushed against the white torrent, a violent shock tore through his mind. In the next breath, endless waves of dao mysteries flooded his mind-sea like a roaring tide.

Taken by surprise, he gathered his will, steadying his turbulent thoughts. Then, a burning pulse flared within his chest. His Origin Aeth Artery trembled, like a volcano stirring after countless years of silence.

Could it be...another innate power awakening?

The thought barely formed before Lin Xun instinctively sat down cross-legged and entered meditation.

Boom!

An instant later, his Origin Aeth Artery erupted like a volcano. Obscure yet terrifying temporal power burst forth, condensing into a pillar of white light that speared into the heavens.

In that moment, the distant waterfall of time hanging between heaven and earth shuddered as if in response. Endless filaments of time burst from its depths, drawn by an unseen force, cascading over Lin Xun and bathing him in shimmering light.

Then came a scene beyond belief—Lin Xun’s form began to flicker and shift... a youth, an aged elder, a child, and a man in his prime...

The transformations repeated endlessly until even his outline blurred and became distorted. The torrent of temporal power flooded into his Origin Aeth Artery, which had become a bottomless abyss, devouring everything with ravenous greed.

It was impossible to tell how much time had passed. At last, a sharp, tearing pain ripped through his chest, forcing a groan from his lips

Soon, the agony faded, and the Origin Aeth Artery that had erupted like a volcano sank once more into silence. Lin Xun opened his eyes. Far away, the waterfall of time poured endlessly from the heavens, a boundless veil of white.

Everything had returned to how it was before. However, within Lin Xun’s mind, countless new insights were quietly taking shape. Almost without thinking, he extended both hands, weaving intricate seals in the air. His slender fingers moved and intertwined, drawing streams of temporal power that coiled around the forming seals.

In one swift motion, Lin Xun flung his hands apart, cleaving through the void before him.

Buzz!

A mysterious force surged into being, like a barrier spanning heaven and earth, woven from countless filaments of temporal power. It was a mysterious and unfathomable restriction barrier!

A surge of indescribable joy and excitement welled up within Lin Xun.

Seal of Temporal Restriction! This was the fourth stage of his innate talent! Its might lay in the word ‘restriction.’ When this divine power was unleashed, the temporal principals of heaven and earth were drawn forth, forming a restriction barrier!

This realization stirred a memory in Lin Xun. Outside the Flowing Light Forbidden Realm in the Fortune Dominion lay a temporal restriction. Long ago, the Eternal Night Divine Emperor, gravely wounded in a great calamity, had relied on a temporal restriction barrier to halt the pursuit of a group of powerful foes, sealing herself within the Eternity Coffin. Countless ages passed, yet no one had ever broken that barrier of time.

Now, Lin Xun finally understood. What the Eternal Night Divine Emperor had once displayed was this very fourth stage of innate divine power: the ability to forcibly draw upon the Principles of Time, weaving them into a barrier of restriction that not even countless ages could break!

Realizing this, Lin Xun trembled inwardly.

A barrier woven from time itself. Among all the eternal beings in this world, how many could truly shatter such a power?

However, he also understood that his newly awakened power was still far from the level of the Eternal Night Divine Emperor. The Seal of Temporal Restriction he had forged was destined, for now, to be limited in strength. However, in time, as he unraveled its mysteries one by one, its power would surely grow stronger!

Lin Xun exhaled a long breath and slowly rose to his feet.

He now understood that this waterfall of time cascading from the heavens was known as the Flow of Time, which was the embodiment of the Principle of Time themselves. When he cast the Seal of Temporal Restriction here, he could draw upon the power of the Flow of Time, unleashing a power beyond imagination!

Huh?

Suddenly, a thought struck him.

How long have I been inside the Gate of Exile?

He swiftly calculated, then exhaled in relief. The Principle of Time near the Flow of Time had slowed to an extreme. Here, a single day was equivalent to less than a quarter of an hour in the outside world.

However, Lin Xun also noticed that this temporal power was not constant, but would shift ever so subtly from time to time.

This realization stirred a faint unease in him. If the Principle of Time here were to suddenly accelerate, the consequences could be disastrous.

Without hesitation, he drew a deep breath, swept his sleeve, enveloping the towering Divine Magnetic Divine Mountain in a surge of power, then sealed it into the Limitless Abyss Sword Cauldron before retracing his path back.

......

In his dwelling, his figure appeared out of thin air. Relief washed through him, followed by a surge of unrestrained joy.

He had been confined for six years. His cultivation realm had advanced little, but the insights he had gained far surpassed his progress in cultivation! He had pushed the Gate of Exile to its absolute limit. Now, he was able to compress it to the size of a speck of light, or expand it to an unimaginable scale. If unleashed in battle, its power would be beyond imagination.

Within the Gate of Exile lay endless mysteries, such as the Corpse Severing Millstones, the Treasure Drop Cliff, and the Flow of Time. Each embodied a distinct principle: The Principle of Annihilation, the Principle of Treasure Drop, and the Principle of Time!

When he one day stepped into the Eternal Stage, how could he possibly fear being unable to comprehend and command the mysteries of such principles?

His greatest gain, however, was undoubtedly the awakening of the fourth stage of his innate divine power! If he could wield the Seal of Temporal Restriction to perfection, then even in the face of utter catastrophe, he could rely on its power to resist and neutralize disaster.

“Six years have passed. Only three years of confinement remain. During this time, I must completely refine the Limitless Abyss Sword Cauldron,” he murmured.

He now possessed the Seal of Temporal Restriction, the Divine Magnetic Mountain, and access to the Realm of Exile, from which he could draw forth the endless temporal power from the Flow of Time.

With these, he could refine Divine Magnetic Iron and brand them with the power of time, thus transforming the Limitless Abyss Sword Cauldron into a forbidden weapon imbued with the power of time!

Let’s begin!

Lin Xun busied himself within his dwelling. Though six years had passed under confinement, he never once felt boredom. On the contrary, he was completely absorbed in his cultivation. Even if his punishment was lifted now and he was free to leave, he would likely be reluctant to do so...

In the years that followed, he shut himself off from the world, immersing wholly in cultivation. Before he knew it, the ninth year of his confinement had quietly arrived.