Chapter 2857: Timeline

Chapter 2857: The Time Immortal

Crack! Crack!

On the sacrificial altar, the bones emitted a series of crackling sounds that made everyone’s hearts churn with unease.

Ye Chen was reshaping his physical body, a process that was extremely slow, taking a full half-month. It wasn’t that his recovery power lacked dominance; rather, there was a force counteracting the reshaping energy.

In this explosion, the scars on his primordial spirit had expanded by another inch. Even through his flesh, one could see his true form, with that crack appearing eerily terrifying.

“More haste, less speed.”

Nan Ming Yu Shu murmured softly, her face full of worry.

“It’s fine.”

Ye Chen smiled, wiping the fresh blood from the corner of his mouth. He understood the principle of more haste, less speed all too well. He had already slowed his pace to the minimum; otherwise, he would be exploding every day. Time was hard to comprehend, and his dao wounds were hard to heal.

On the fourth day, he sat cross-legged again, one eye a samsara eye and the other a spatial eye. One evolved time, the other created space, as he painstakingly searched for a balance point in the void. Honestly, it was like searching for a needle in the sea.

The Underworld Emperor watched with growing impatience, but there was nothing he could do. He could pass on his insights about time to Ye Chen, but that might not be beneficial. That balance point had to be found by Ye Chen himself, through repeated and brutal trials.

After all, a quasi-emperor and an emperor were entirely different.

“The historical trajectory has changed.”

Dao Zu gazed into the vast expanse, also an expert in deduction, but at this moment, he was as blind as anyone else. Future events were full of changes and variables; even he couldn’t calculate them, and not even an emperor could reverse them.

For instance, if Ye Chen had advanced without the trans-temporal absolute kill, he would surely have achieved great success, and Wutian Jianzun would have become an emperor. With one emperor and one great success holy body, the myriad heavens would have two supreme beings, enough to handle any emperor dao changes.

Unfortunately, the changes came abruptly and involved endless variables. Ye Chen achieving great success might not have led to so many deaths, but because of the trans-temporal absolute kill, it was hard to say. In the years to come, the myriad heavens might again become a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

Time quietly passed.

In the blink of an eye, three months had gone by.

During these three months, the black hole remained eerily silent, with no celestial demons or fiend demons appearing. The quiet was almost suffocating.

Yet, this very silence brought a sense of oppression.

In the shadows, the Black Robed Emperor must be plotting.

Indeed, he hadn’t stopped for a single day, running all over the black hole, summoning celestial demons and fiend demons. In three months, the forces he had gathered were already enormously vast, even greater than the first time.

But he hadn’t stopped; he was still summoning, striving to call forth all the demon soldiers and generals in the black hole to seize the sacrificial altar in one fell swoop.

In these three months, Ye Chen had exploded another three or five times. The last time, he had nearly been completely destroyed, and even now, he hadn’t fully reshaped his physical body. The scars on his primordial spirit had grown even larger.

It wasn’t until two months later that he barely managed to reshape his physical body.

“Take it easy.”

King Chu Jiang walked over with his hands clasped behind his back, speaking earnestly.

Ye Chen didn’t reply, but a hint of enlightenment flickered in his eyes. These explosions weren’t just misfortunes; they were also opportunities. Although he hadn’t comprehended time, he had gained a deeper understanding of time and space, which was greatly beneficial for grasping time.

He didn’t know how many times it had been, but he closed his eyes again.

This time, he didn’t sit cross-legged; he stood like a statue.

After a long while, he finally moved, one hand grasping space and the other holding time. He gently swept his arms in a slow motion, almost like performing taiji. Using space as yin and time as yang, even though his eyes were closed, his gaze was evolving them—space becoming qian and time becoming kun—as he sought to comprehend time through this method.

“Not bad, quite insightful.”

The Underworld Emperor said leisurely. He had tried this method in the past and gained some insights from it.

On the sacrificial altar, the crowd of quasi-emperors were all watching. He was performing taiji, but comprehending time. Ye Chen might be taking a new path, but whether it would work was still unknown.

Ye Chen practiced like this for another three months without stopping. Day after day, it was the same few movements—sometimes slow, sometimes extremely fast. If he were an ordinary person, he would surely become a taiji master. That aura, those gestures, were impossible for most to imitate.

These three months were truly peaceful, with no celestial demons or fiend demons in sight, and no explosions from Ye Chen. He spent the entire time performing taiji, never once attempting to weave time and space together.

However, the eyes of all the quasi-emperors present had become a bit deeper. From Ye Chen, they sensed an unusual aura—perhaps the laws of time or the order of space. the two hadn’t fused, yet there were inexplicable time fluctuations, a fleeting power that none of the quasi-emperors had ever touched before.

“Time to get to work.”

Just as they were watching, Yan Huang suddenly spoke.

At his words, all the quasi-emperors turned their attention, already detecting the scent of demonic energy.

The black hole, silent for several months, echoed with booming sounds once more. From the dark depths, four vast oceans surged forward, filled with celestial demons and fiend demons. The formation was even larger than before, and even they couldn’t help but change their expressions slightly. Clearly, the Black Robed Emperor had been relentless these past few months.

“Kill! Kill for me!”

The Black Robed Emperor’s figure wasn’t visible, only his shrill roar echoed, its source untraceable—or perhaps he had learned his lesson and wasn’t in this part of the black hole, instead using emperor dao curses to drive the celestial demons and fiend demons.

Kill!

Compelled by the curses, the celestial demons and fiend demons had no choice but to attack, surrounding the sacrificial altar like madmen, wave after wave, charging fearlessly.

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

The emperor dao killing arrays on the sacrificial altar activated simultaneously, firing beams of emperor dao divine light in an instant.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

The celestial demons and fiend demons fell in droves, their dark blood stained with demonic light, splattering across the black hole. Still, they pressed on relentlessly. Compared to the quasi-emperors of the myriad heavens, they feared the emperor dao curses more. If they couldn’t take the sacrificial altar, they would die anyway.

It was fortunate that the Black Lotus Female Emperor and the Fiend Demon Great Emperor were already dead; if they saw this scene, they would surely curse the Black Robed Emperor. You bastard, these aren’t your own people—do you have no heart? Why don’t you come yourself!

Boom! Bang! Boom!

The battle raged fiercely.

The Black Robed Emperor, hidden in the shadows, had bloodshot emperor eyes. He hadn’t realized until now just how infuriating it was! He had worked tirelessly to summon celestial demons and fiend demons, but the myriad heavens hadn’t been idle either; they had brought in reinforcements, fortifying the sacrificial altar like an iron fortress. Wave after wave of cannon fodder hadn’t even stirred a ripple.

The facts proved that the celestial demons and fiend demons he had summoned still weren’t enough. At this rate, forget taking the sacrificial altar—they might end up wiped out completely. There was no way around it; the enemy had too many top fighters.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

Dark blood flowers bloomed in the darkness.

Even the Underworld Emperor and Dao Zu couldn’t bear to watch anymore.

The scene was like the quasi-emperors of the myriad heavens holding machine guns, while the celestial demons and fiend demons charged with cold weapons, throwing their lives away. Their courage was admirable, but their fate was tragic—whatever went in was mowed down, and not a single one reached the sacrificial altar. This wasn’t a war; it was a one-sided slaughter.

Amid the booming sounds, Ye Chen’s furrowed brows in the sacrificial altar array relaxed slightly.

“The moment time and space fuse is time.”

For the first time in months, he opened his eyes, a look of enlightenment in them. He had been going down the wrong path, thinking too far ahead. There was a natural balance point in the void, but for him now, the priority was time itself. Healing his dao wounds was the most urgent task.

Glancing around, he immediately sat cross-legged, channeling the laws of time and evolving the order of space, making them collide moment by moment. He wove them into a line—a time line that could stitch together the cracks in his wounds.

Under his guidance, the time line made its first stitch. The sensation was peculiar, somewhere between pain and a tingle, but he knew his dao wounds were slowly healing. The process was agonizingly slow, yet it was only a matter of time—perhaps three to five years, or eight to ten. He could wait.

“That’s the way.”

The Underworld Emperor chuckled, pulling out a wine flask. What Ye Chen needed wasn’t to comprehend the time laws; it was to find time first. Only by finding time could he qualify to comprehend the time immortal laws. Finding it would be enough to heal his dao wounds.

Dao Zu said nothing, his emperor eyes deep and profound.

In theory, Ye Chen should have been doomed from the trans-temporal absolute kill. The reason he survived wasn’t due to his own formidable foundation but because someone in the future had likely mitigated the kill’s power for him.

In plain terms, Ye Chen had only endured a faint aftershock of the absolute kill, and even that had been neutralized.

Otherwise, how could he use the time line to mend his wounds? If the absolute kill had retained even a trace of its power, he might not die, but he’d never heal—unless he fully mastered the time laws, not just found time.

This was evident in the Black Robed Emperor’s bloody example; after ten thousand years, he still couldn’t restore his dao roots and life source because he had faced the full force of the wheel of reincarnation’s annihilation. The nature of their injuries was fundamentally different.

Sizzle! Sizzle!

Amid the booms, faint sizzling sounds came from Ye Chen, from his primordial spirit. The time wound, under the stitching of the time line, emitted wisps of green smoke. Once sewn, the wound gradually healed.

“Run? Where do you think you’re going?”

The quasi-emperors of the myriad heavens shouted resoundingly, with more than half charging out of the sacrificial altar.

Indeed, the celestial demons and fiend demons were retreating in disarray, scattering in all directions. It was the Black Robed Emperor who had ordered the withdrawal. He had thought this lineup was sufficient, but embarrassingly, the myriad heavens had reinforced as well, and it still wasn’t enough to match them.

The booming sounds lingered for a full nine days before fading.

The quasi-emperors returned, having fought to their heart’s content.

The quasi-emperors guarding the sacrificial altar had already surrounded Ye Chen, each narrowing their eyes and staring at his primordial spirit. Vaguely, they could see a faint, ethereal thread—thinner than a hair by millions of times—stitching his dao wounds.

“Time line?”

Tian Lao stroked his beard, asking tentatively.

“It has the aura of time; he’s found it.”

Di Ji smiled, her eyes filled with shock—shock at Ye Chen’s talent and his methods. He had truly found time and could even control the time line to mend his own time dao wounds.

“In that case, it’s just a matter of time.”

Lao Jun laughed, genuinely stunned by Ye Chen today.

No sooner had he spoken than he was sent flying—it was Ye Chen’s doing, or rather, because of someone next to him who was also trying to comprehend time.

It was Zao Hua Shen Wang, truly outstanding and versed in some aspects of time and space mysteries. Imitating Ye Chen, he held space in one hand and time in the other, clapping them together—and disaster struck. Not only was half of his own body blown apart, but Lao Jun was also caught in the blast. He had faced celestial demons and fiend demons in battle without injury, yet now he was left dazed and bewildered.