Chapter 554 - 513: A 30-Year Dream

Chapter 554: Chapter 513: A 30-Year Dream

In the Star Palace Secret Realm, a thick fog suddenly rose around the Tower Temple, shrouding it from view.

After the Four-Winged Spring and Autumn Cicada died, its body changed with every passing moment.

Just as Bai Zichen sat down, he saw the half-green, half-gray insect body turn into flowing sand, impossible to grasp.

The grains of sand slipped through his fingers. The Spiritual Qi in the temple shifted, and the air grew thick.

It felt as if he were enveloped in a ball of water as a mysterious power descended upon the Tower Temple.

Bai Zichen felt an irresistible wave of drowsiness, a sleepiness he hadn’t experienced since Entering the Dao.

’My Celestial Might Star Bone hasn’t activated, which means this isn’t an attack aimed at my Primordial Spirit... There’s no malice. It’s just the Power of Time leaking out as the Spring and Autumn Cicada decomposes.’

His True Essence vanished without a trace, and any energy he tried to muster dissipated instantly. Unable to support himself any longer, he staggered and collapsed.

But his thoughts remained clear, and his perspective kept rising, allowing him to see his own body lying on the ground.

’Is my Primordial Spirit leaving my body? No, it doesn’t feel like it. It’s more like I’m watching the world from another dimension.’

Bai Zichen looked at his unconscious self on the ground and reached out to touch it, but his hand passed straight through, like trying to scoop the moon from water.

However, the fragments of the Spring and Autumn Cicada on the ground shimmered with white light, and he was able to grab them.

RUSH!

RUSH!

The heavy sound of surging waves boomed with tremendous force. The River of Time had suddenly appeared, with no beginning or end in sight.

Bai Zichen had a moment of realization. The Relic of the Four-Winged Spring and Autumn Cicada contained the Spirit Insect’s source essence.

A Tier Two relic had directly shortened the Hidden Sword period for his Qing Emperor Longevity Sword, whereas the Relic of the Four-Winged Spring and Autumn Cicada had transformed into the River of Time.

He walked along the River of Time in a peculiar state, unattached to the world, unaware of what was before or behind, and unable to feel the passage of time at all.

It was a feeling similar to when he burned his Time Ring Body Nascent Soul phenomenon, a sensation of truly touching the Great Dao True Intent. It felt like he could execute any Time Divine Power effortlessly.

The River of Time stretched forward, vast and empty, with no one in sight.

Bai Zichen took two steps forward, then suddenly looked back. Standing behind him in the River of Time were numerous figures, each with a different bearing.

There was the magnanimous and kind-hearted Bai Jiu’an, stroking the head of a bright, delicate-featured child.

There was Liang Yu, strict in his enforcement of the law, who had treated Bai Zichen like a nephew, now passing away in meditation with a smile.

There was the selfless Ancestor Yangg, dedicated solely to the continuation of the Qingfeng Dao Lineage, exhausting himself with worry for the sect’s future on Lake Heart Island.

...

These figures, all of whom had left a deep impression on Bai Zichen during his two hundred-plus years of growth, stood in different segments of the River of Time, their actions startlingly lifelike.

The other, more numerous figures were himself from different periods in time.

The nameless boy from the Ink Bamboo Bai Family, the new Inner Sect Disciple of Qingfeng, the promising Foundation Establishment Seed, the Swordsmanship genius with astonishing talent, the one with the Nascent Soul Form watched by the entire sect...

...until he had finally left his peers far behind, surpassed his elders, and become the second Nascent Soul True Monarch in the history of the Qingfeng Sect.

These past selves seemed to be mere imprints in time—chatting and laughing, cultivating, practicing the sword, engaging in Combat—unaware that someone was watching them.

’So I’ve come this far. My uncle’s wishes, Master Liang’s high hopes... have I fulfilled them?’

Staring at all the moments along his Cultivation path, Bai Zichen was momentarily lost in a daze.

After he began Entering the Dao, these two had undoubtedly helped him the most and had the greatest influence on him.

What Bai Jiu’an had wanted was for his branch of the family to produce a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, to become a notable expert in Black Mountain.

In this, Bai Zichen had long since succeeded, far exceeding that wish.

His goals had long since changed to Longevity and Vision, to eternal life, to Ascension to the Upper Realm.

Liang Yu’s life goals, on a small scale, were to maintain the glory of the Law Enforcement Hall; on a grander scale, to restore the sect’s prestige.

Under the leadership of two monstrously talented cultivators, Ge Cang and Bai Zichen, the Qingfeng Sect annihilated their mortal enemy, the Ghost Spirits, and took control of Hejian County.

They elevated the sect’s status, brought glory to Liang Country, and carved out a place for themselves in the entire Northern Domain.

No matter how you looked at it, when Liang Yu met the ancestors of the Law Enforcement Hall in the afterlife, he could proudly boast of having discovered such a disciple.

Although Bai Zichen had never spent a single day as the Hall Master of the Law Enforcement Hall, within the hall, all disciples regarded Ancestor Bai as a True Monarch who had risen from their ranks.

’As long as I am here, I will never let my uncle’s line of descent be broken... And one day, I will make the Qingfeng Sect a Super Sect in the Cultivation Realm, a place revered by all. If the Taibai Sword Sect could, by its own power during its thousand-year peak, shift the center of the Cultivation Realm from the Central Domain to Sword Mountain in the Western Realm, then so can I.’

As his gaze swept over one naive and immature version of himself after another, Bai Zichen’s expression grew increasingly firm and cold. He cast aside the sense of complacency that had come with his long lifespan after reaching the Nascent Soul realm.

’A thousand-year lifespan, and only twenty percent of it has passed. That is indeed a long time... However, the world is ever-changing, and the will of heaven is unpredictable. Just like in this war between the two races, who could have known that the situation between the Human-Demon Races would reverse in an instant? To ascend to the peak and seek the Great Dao while also protecting the people and things I cherish... there is a natural conflict between the two.’

’But I want it all. And I will not hesitate, even if it means paying the price.’

For the highest-level Cultivators, the Demon Race’s rampage and the Human Race’s great calamity were not without solutions.

For instance, when the Ancient Celestial Demons brought disaster to the world, many Sects relocated into Grotto Heavens and sealed themselves off.

By hiding in those small worlds within the void, they could escape the world and survive.

This was also true during the Middle Ancient period, when a Demon Emperor threw the world into chaos and went on a global slaughter; many factions did the same.

But the Demon Emperor’s actions grew excessive. He was tyrannical even within the Demon Race, frequently killing other demons to take their cores and use them as Blood Food. In the end, several Major Sects joined forces with the remaining Divinity Transformation Demon Lords to trap the Demon Emperor in a Desolate Land in the Outer Sea, besieging him for years before they finally managed to kill him.