Chapter 2368: The Crown

The Peaceful Town transformed peach talisman hidden within his body, and the hedge wall set by the Heavenly Dao quietly disappeared.

Hua la la, the sound of sea waves echoed.

Everything in the present world became concrete.

Jiang Wang did not immediately rise.

Those severed dreams were pushed back by the sea waves.

For a moment, he was willing to sleep in the sea.

This battle was truly too difficult.

Heaven tilted one world, offering almost no chance to breathe. Just now, he had consecutively battled four great martial arts grandmasters, and in his high-spirited state, he was almost swallowed by the Heavenly Dao on the spot. Wu Xun even determined he wouldn't wake up, yet he opened his eyes. And then there was the long seeking. Enduring the immense pressure of the Heavenly Dao, traveling through various domains, seeking the path across ten thousand li... finally winning the opportunity for battle.

Merely standing in front of Heavenly Human Jiang Wang was already the occurrence of a miracle!

Although the present world had only passed through the interval of the fifth watch's night, in the heart prison, True Self Jiang Wang and Heavenly Human Jiang Wang had fought fiercely for a long time, exhausting their full strength. Time was uncountable, and also immeasurable by time.

After sealing the innate eternal golden sovereign, he completely gave up the Heavenly Dao path.

Of course, outside the Heavenly Human path, he once again created the history of the Cave True limit. From this, he saw his own absolute peak path.

He was originally meant to walk a path different from Heavenly Human, yet stronger. Now he had already walked it out.

But the process of climbing up was also the process of bidding farewell to what was left behind. Suddenly looking back, the sky was so high, some people would forever be unseen.

One breath, two breaths.

Good, enough rest.

Jiang Wang came back to his senses, seriously familiarizing himself with his own body. He let his body slowly float up, just as he had slowly sunk earlier. His straight and powerful Dao body, in this process, gradually recovered its alert posture, able to enter battle anytime, anywhere.

The moment he stepped on the sea surface, Cao Ji, wearing a helmet and armor and hanging high in the air, looked over alertly: "Jiang Wang?"

"Duke Zhu, it is I." Jiang Wang pursed his lips.

Just a light lift of his eyes, and the sky star tower hidden.

Lacking stars to contend with it, the sun was more brilliant. One disk hung in the sky, reflected as one disk on the sea surface.

Between the sunrise in heaven and sea, Jiang Wang's jade crown bound his hair, and his long boots trod water, a third kind of dazzling.

Cao Ji looked at such Jiang Wang deeply, as if to discern whether he was the "True Self" or the "Heavenly Human," finally taking out that food box from his bosom: "This piece of pastry you sent, I haven't eaten—still need it?"

"It was useless then, it's useless now." Jiang Wang said: "But the taste is very good."

"Um... it is not bad!" Cao Ji had already eaten it.

Jiang Wang gazed far into heaven and sea: "Duke Zhu, have wine?"

"No drinking in the army." Cao Ji said.

But he flipped his hand again and summoned, not knowing from where, a cup and a pot, which directly flew to Jiang Wang: "However, you have already resigned, not in the army."

The wine pot was a crane-mouth pot, with a curved neck and fine spout.

The wine cup was white porcelain, the wine was seven parts full, and the wine liquid was amber-colored.

Good wine.

Jiang Wang raised his cup: "Today I drink the come-what-may wine!"

One gulp and empty.

Then he lifted the wine pot and poured this pot of wine, sprinkling it into the great sea.

The amber-colored wine liquid rolled and floated in the seawater, like a clump of stubborn cloud shadow, lingering and not leaving... but it would ultimately dissipate in the sea.

Jiang Wang threw away the empty wine pot and wine cup, letting them, one big and one small, float like boats on the sea.

People in the world, how like these boats!

He turned his body and walked towards the direction of God Continent.

The sea wind blew his green clothes, vaguely carrying an immortal intent.

"This wine is very strong, drinking hastily is easy to get drunk." Cao Ji asked from behind: "May I know what evening it is tonight?"

Jiang Wang walked forward: "I am very sober. Now is my time."

"Where will Real Person Jiang go?" Cao Ji asked again.

Jiang Wang did not turn back, only lifted one hand, knotting his thumb and little finger into a ring, and bringing his index finger, middle finger, and ring finger together as one vertical board, thereby knotting a seal, as if a crown, placed on his own head: "A Real Person should crown himself."

Time moved forward.

Chop Rain Commander Tian Anping, covering his own neck, swayed unsteadily forward.

He always pushed time forward.

This was his second time walking out of the Ghost Face Fish sea domain; the previous time was a fierce journey of killing intent to seek Lou Yue, this time was a lone journey far away on the verge of death.

He was of course unwilling to die, but living meaninglessly was also meaningless.

Just like this moment, he felt no torment or pain, he only felt satisfied and interesting.

Blood overflowed from his finger seams, among which was a sticky feeling, making this pair of hands as if born with blood webs between the fingers.

Cannot loosen ah.

The sword scar left on the wound was too sharp, not a too wide sword wound, it was already a "Dao" wound. He must seriously confront it to prevent his own Dao principles from collapsing further.

After undoing the evil shackles, he did not truly fight.

Instead, he used his fully liberated state, all to handle his own injuries.

Seeing the wound about to stop bleeding, his interlaced hands locking his neck, each divided out two fingers, probed into the wound, tearing outwards!

A rather narrow sword wound was thereby widened, tearing long, from the collarbone all the way open to the chin, fresh blood hua hua flowed!

The sticky blood, instead, seemed to put a pair of blood gloves on him and drape a blood garment. The original color could not be seen, already bright red overlaying dark red.

He swayed unsteadily as he walked.

Dissecting oneself was also the process of further understanding oneself. Healing oneself meant needing to make up for past insufficiencies. Keeping the wound was to better feel Jiang Wang's sword.

The sea wind blew in his face.

When people are weak, the wind is also more fierce. Like a knife scraping, it sharply struck his eyelids.

He only indifferently opened his eyes, calmly gazed at everything, welcoming everything happening in the world every moment.

If his eyes could not be poked blind, he would always gaze.

Until a certain moment, he vaguely stumbled, and when he struggled to stand firm, everything before his eyes was already different. As if fallen into some mysterious place, before his eyes was a stretch of flying eaves and high buildings, immortal qi dense, becoming more vague towards the distance.

But there was no sense of any real existence.

Myriad images born on the sea, not knowing what place's mirage it was.

Tian Anping was even weak to this point, yet his vision was not lost. Of course, he did not care about real or false.

Someone treats it as real, then it is not false.

He stood firm outside the gate tower, did not go in, so silently for a long time, until a phantom figure walked out from the depths of the mirage—

This venerable seemed gathered from virtual light, his face brilliant and impossible to look at directly. His body was in this place. It also seemed not in this place.

"Tsk tsk, not lightly injured ah." That person said.

Tian Anping covered his throat, his voice condensed in the air: "All sides so restrain, this war's opportunity, hard to meet in a thousand years. You all one heart wait for a chaotic world, how is it that when the opportunity came, you didn't grasp it?"

The person in the mirage said: "Before you exerted force, perhaps you should have reminded us."

Tian Anping's voice said: "Opportunity cannot be lost, time does not come again. If everything must wait for me to remind first, you all cannot keep up by half a step, this cooperation is instead unnecessary. You all already have no forward road, no need to call me to step on this doomed-to-sink broken ship."

The person in the mirage retorted: "When were you ever on my ship?"

Tian Anping took a step forward, stepping exactly on the boundary between the mirage and the real sea surface, his long hair flying up.

"Do you care about a sinking ship?" The person in the mirage asked.

"I care about the time I wasted." Tian Anping said.

"Not bad! The world still has things you care about." The person in the mirage said.

Tian Anping suddenly gripped the wound on his neck tightly! His fingertips ignited black flames, sewing the wound.

The person in the mirage spoke again: "I have thought about it again and again, now is still not the time."

"Present world, the pattern is already set. Overlords on all sides, their roots are solid and long, plundering all sunlight, rain, and dew. Only when one colossal giant among them falls, will you all have space to break through the soil." Tian Anping's voice said: "If not for hegemon countries mutually attacking, the world in great chaos, you all wait ten thousand years, and you will not wait for the time."

The person in the mirage lightly laughed: "Hard for you, injured like this, still considering for us."

Tian Anping's words were characters, jumping in the air, emitting sound: "The opportunity I created. Not grasping it is your matter. Right?"

The person in the mirage said: "Right."

Tian Anping said: "Now you all should pay the matching price for this opportunity."

"You said very reasonable, I came precisely for this." The person in the mirage smiled: "What do you want?"

Tian Anping lifted his eyes, as if thinking: "Appearing here under Cao Ji's eyes, for you, is an easy thing?"

"Not too difficult." The person in the mirage's tone was composed: "He is after all a military family cultivator, relying on the army."

Tian Anping said: "I thought of a very good gift."

"First, I want to remind you—" The person in the mirage said: "If this war opens, the harvests you can seize from it will be immeasurable. In other words, this opportunity, you do not give all of it to us. You need our power to make the war inevitably happen, only we stopped. Ha! Or say, rein in at the brink?"

Tian Anping looked at the mirage without ripples: "I don't speak that kind of reasoning of yours."

The person in the mirage laughed ha ha: "Then you say! What gift do you want?"

"Kill Cao Ji." Tian Anping said.

The mirage shook, almost collapsing. The person in the mirage, as if only a pair of 幽幽 eyes remained, this pair of eyes stared at Tian Anping: "This joke is not funny."

Tian Anping was expressionless: "Really not bad. You actually think I am a person who will joke."

"I don't quite understand one point—what benefit is there for you in killing Cao Ji?" The person in the mirage asked.

Tian Anping said: "What benefit there is in doing something, that is your way of thinking. Not mine."

"Sounds like saying—Just do good deeds, don't ask about the future!" The person in the mirage said: "Maybe you are a good person!"

"Good person or bad person, also only worldly standards." Tian Anping's voiced characters twisted strangely, as if with some agitation: "Do, or not do?"

The person in the mirage pondered for a moment, then said: "To deceive Cao Ji is easy, to kill Cao Ji is not that simple, even cannot guarantee necessarily succeeding. Even at the moment of heavenly mechanism being confused, this is also a quite dangerous thing. Tian Anping, at least now, I am still not prepared for that degree of danger."

Reaching the absolute peak of Derive Dao already represented the limit of power level in the present world.

To kill an absolute peak strong one usually had a premise, which was "absolute peak not retreating." This kind of opportunity usually occurred on the battlefield.

To hunt an absolute peak strong one wholeheartedly seeking to retreat required not just a chip more power.

Tian Anping was just about to speak, suddenly turned his head!

The force was too great, the action too fierce, so that the neck wound again spurted fresh blood wildly!

He looked at the direction of the distant Ghost Face Fish sea domain.

At this moment, there were four brilliant stars, high suspended in the night sky, and four terrifying star pillars, connecting the sky and penetrating the night, pouring into the sea. The entire near-sea islands were stirred by this, and the near-sea people, without exception, looked up. For the ordinary sea surface, it was a wonder, but for someone like him who had just been driven away, what he saw was naturally Jiang Wang.

He had originally thought Jiang Wang had already sunk, but he was struggling once again in the deep sea of Heavenly Dao.

This time's Dao path locking the sea also meant that an unprecedented struggle was happening.

This made him feel excited!

"You know what is happening over there?" The person in the mirage 幽幽 asked.

Tian Anping did not answer, only stared unblinkingly at that direction, and said: "Change a gift."

He grinned, regardless of whether this action would further tear the wound, and said in a blood-mixed voice: "I want the method of Heavenly Human!"

"Are you sure?" The person in the mirage said: "Even if Jiang Wang, publicly recognized as the most heavenly proud son of his generation, with so many people helping and mobilizing so many resources, still cannot seem to struggle free. He has walked to now, also only in struggling."

At this moment, Tian Anping was not calm, but had a strange excitement: "If he can, then it proves the method exists. If he cannot, this is exactly my challenge."

The person in the mirage was silent for a long time, finally saying: "There is no method in the world that must succeed in becoming Heavenly Human, but there are some paths approaching Heavenly Dao."

"This is enough." Tian Anping said.

During the period of decline in heaven and earth, changes were frequent on all sides.

Down to one village, one town, people's daily lives were chaotic, not knowing when to work, when to rest. Just lay down, the sky was already bright; just crawled up, the sky was dark again. Sudden sunny, sudden rainy heavenly phenomena also made the usual state of life unsustainable.

Common people panicked and could not sit still, many thinking heaven and earth would collapse. Quite a few evil cults and heterodox ways took advantage to rise, greatly propagating the end of dharma, utilizing panic psychology to preach... what "destiny child," "end tribulation saint," innumerable.

These were of course tests of each country's governance level.

And big changes involved true changes in the rules of heaven and earth—these were instead something common people could not touch.

For example, in the northwest snow domain, an aurora wonder appeared, not stopping all day. It was unknown whether this was a change in Heavenly Dao or what hand the current founding emperor of Li Country, who was now contending for hegemony, played again.

For example, above the sky of the southern Fallen Immortal Forest, a ten thousand zhang heavenly rift opened without reason, and there was no trend of healing. There were large groups of cloud qi falling, especially at dusk dyed by the setting sun, as if the sky dome was a wound dripping blood.

Speaking of all human race garrison places, probably only Mirage Realm made people feel the most "normal."

Because it was chaotic at all times, it could not become more chaotic.

White eyebrows and quiet pupils Zhu Biqiong flew in this place.

Mirage Realm was always the first choice trial field for near-sea cultivators; not having been through Mirage Realm was not having tested true gold.

Living in the sea for so many years, it could also be said that she witnessed the illusionary changes in sea order. And this place, Mirage Realm, she often came, often stayed in.

Speaking of which might make people laugh—when master was around, he would personally accompany her to Mirage Realm. Often hiding in the dark, waiting until crisis then jumping out. Because of arbitrarily inserting real person combat power and interfering with Mirage Realm's order, she had even been warned by Tianjing Country.

Which family's cultivator didn't fight alone here? Yet she still needed to hold an umbrella when she went out.

Now it was time for her to hold an umbrella for the sect—but outside, there was a great wind and great snow, and her umbrella was small and broken.

She often thought of her elder sister, but only thought a thought.

Life is like the Mirage Realm.

No up, no down, no left, no right, no direction.

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