When Tianyi entered the Immortal Realm, if it could even be called that, he had recalled his third clone, Donghai Longzi. To Tianyi, Donghai Longzi's current level of strength was completely useless, and the battle experience accumulated no longer had much effect on Tianyi.
So Tianyi planned on turning him into an immortal level expert too, but unlike Ba Shifang, Tianyi didn't plan on turning him into an immortal but a true demon. Since he couldn't get a dragon mount and Dandan was too much of a disappointment, why not turn his clone into a true dragon?
Not that Tianyi planned to use Donghai Longzi as a mount. Using your own clone as a mount was too weird. Still, his resolve had only increased when he heard of the Buzhou Immortal Sect's future plans and secret information from Sect Master Xia. The one in his timeline and not the Silent Lightning Timeline.
'Perhaps I should change it to Undying Lightning Timeline since he seems to have the tenacity of a damn cockroach!'
Still, it looked like his plans could move ahead of schedule thanks to Xi Longyi. He couldn't infiltrate the Divine Beast Pseudo System, well, not without leaving Donghai Longzi stuck in this timeline at least.
The golden saber resting on Donghai Longzi's lap started to tremble as if shivering in fear, but it was for naught as its golden light began to flicker. Slowly, its light lost its luster as ten golden drops of blood floated away from the blade.
The immortal rank saber artifact's golden light had vanished completely. It still held the rank of an immortal rank artifact, but its rank had dropped from a top-tier immortal monarch rank to a low-tier true immortal rank.
The saber still had the potential to evolve and even reach the immortal emperor rank, but Tianyi had no interest, so he stored it for now.
Next, Tianyi directed his attention to the sea of stars. His body wasn't present personally, but his intent filled the Nine Heavens Universe. There, Dandan was cozily swimming through the stars, but he suddenly stopped as if sensing danger.
'This is for all the times you beat me up and drained my blood.'
Dandan's body froze as if shackled by an invisible prison. It cried out in defiance, but that was all it could do. A slit appeared on its scaled hide as blood leaked from that wound. Finally, when it seemed as if Dandan had shrunk by thirty percent, Tianyi stopped.
He whimpered pitifully as if in grievance, but Tianyi was unmoved. The clouds of immortal qi of primordial chaos gathered around him like little puppies for him to absorb. Dandan flailed a few more times before recognizing the fact that he could not get back the blood drained from him and settled down to absorb the immortal qi. Albeit in a downtrodden mood.
Dandan's blood flew to Eight Heaven and merged with the gold blood drops hovering above Donghai Longzi, staining them black with a gold sheen.
Donghai Longzi closed his eyes as the blood encased him in a sphere three meters in diameter. Soon, numerous other materials such as bone, scales, herbs, and essence flowed into the black sphere with a golden hue. As time passed, the sphere started to condense until it was in an egg shape.
Unlike Daoyi's divine avatar, the gestation period didn't take long as the egg quickly grew scales and, under the time acceleration, started to hatch soon after.
Crack
Crack
Crack
Hot-white eyes that resembled white dwarfs peered out of the crack. Soon, it disappeared as the crack enlarged, and a small serpentine body flew out. The newborn creature had a reptilian visage, two long whiskers, a pair of antlers, four limbs, and black scales that glittered like the sea of stars.
Compared to the size of the egg it came out of, the newborn dragon was pitifully small, not even reaching the length of half a meter. It looked so weak, so defenseless, that it would surely fall from the heavenly tribulation gathering above it.
However, everything in the Nine Heavens Universe was under Tianyi's influence. That meant the heavenly tribulation heralding the birth of a true demon would not kill or harm Donghai Longzi unless it were his intent.
As the first bolt of tribulation lightning descended, Donghai Longzi didn't dodge and allowed the bolt to strike him. The lightning arced and shrouded his entire body, but aside from the numbing sensation, no pain could be seen on the black dragon's face.
It took a fair amount of time for the lightning shroud to disappear, and stranger still, the second bolt of tribulation lightning did not descend until the first completely disappeared. Rather than testing the subject, the heavenly tribulation appeared to be giving a free pass to the tester.
"Take all the time you need, I have time." It seemed to say.
And take his time, he did. Donghai Longzi used each and every bolt of tribulation lightning to temper his demonic flesh, raising it to its absolute limit. When the nine hundredth and ninety-ninth bolt of tribulation lightning disappeared, his body had grown to ninety-nine meters long.
A black flash of light later, the immense dragon disappeared, and in his place, a man in his early twenties appeared. He had long black hair darker than night, a black robe with embroidering of stars, and a glowing white coronet tying up his hair.
Donghai Longzi's new appearance bore half a resemblance to the Dragon Emperor while the other half resembled Ba Shifang, a perfect mixture of the two features.
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He didn't do anything and returned to the position where his egg had been. He waved his hand and collected the egg to refine into a companion artifact later. He couldn't turn it into a lifebound artifact or a dragon pearl, but since it would be created from his egg, it would be close enough.
For now, Donghai Longzi sat in a lotus position and waited. Not much longer, Tianyi's Past Incarnation appeared and threw a small orb to him. It was the Dragon Emperor Pearl and then disappeared.
Donghai Longzi held the Dragon Emperor Pearl to his eye. Despite its name, it was not actually the dragon pearl of a dragon emperor, a dragon at the level of an immortal sovereign. Instead, it housed the soul of Xi Longyi, the Dragon Emperor's backhand.
The name was entirely Tianyi's malicious intent.
Unlike Tianyi or Ba Shifang, Donghai Longzi had yet to master a worldly law, hence was only a true dragon at the moment. Unlike other races or immortals, the dragon equivalent of the Pathfinding Immortal Realm was a true dragon, Seamless Immortal Realm was a dragon lord, Extremity Immortal Realm was a dragon king, and Origin Immortal Realm was a dragon emperor.
He planned to comprehend the Law of Destruction Xi Longyi had just comprehended to become a dragon lord. As for how much torture Xi Longyi's soul would undergo, that was not his concern. Who knows, maybe he could extract some useful information during the process.
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Tianyi sat on his immortal boat with Daoyi as it cruised through the air above the Endless Seas. After Sect Master Xia 'saved' him, he decided to leave Heaven Continent.
He sighed.
"Are you still upset at Sect Master Xia's actions?" Daoyi asked.
Tianyi nodded. "Every one of his actions is not out of character for him. He probably either already learned that Xi Longyi was the Dragon Emperor or such a trouble-attracting disciple lost his allure when Mother disappeared, but being on the end of his schemes does not feel good at all."
He took a sip of tea and continued. "Logically, I know this is what our Sect Master Xia would do, but my heart can't accept it."
"I think you should have at least pretended to accept his help. Our biggest hope to return to our timeline lies in the Buzhou Immortal Sect after all," Daoyi said.
Tianyi waved his hand. "I know. I just don't want to see him right now."
"Is that why we're leaving the Heaven Continent? Where are we going anyway?"
"I wanted to check out the Mortal Continent. Unlike our timeline, there's no Saintly Scholar School that suddenly appeared and overtook the Cultivator Alliance. Is it another variable or the influence of reincarnator like us? Dong Chifan's master is a suspected reincarnator, so it's possible for reincarnators like us to arrive far earlier than we did," Tianyi said.
"You suspect the founder of the Saintly Scholar School to be a reincarnator?" Daoyi asked.
"I don't know," Tianyi said. "If Lao Tzu really was a reincarnator, then why didn't he search for other reincarnators? Or show any other signs. Just him using the name Lao Tzu is really suspicious, so I don't know."
"You're going to search for him?"
"Pfff, hell no," Tianyi immediately said. "That's suicide. Okay, well not really for me. I'm going against a man who defeated the Cultivator Alliance by his lonesome. Sect Master Xia also thinks that he's not really an immortal emperor but stronger. He's the biggest enemy of the sect, not the Eight Pillar Sect."
"I just want to search for some clues. Although it's not exactly the same, timelines are mirrors of each other, so I should be able to search for some clues," Tianyi said. "If I can't find any, I'll probably try Earth Continent in preparation for the future war. After that, I'll start badgering Sect Master Xia for a method."
"Unless you do something outlandish again," Daoyi added.
"Hey, this wasn't my fault. How the hell would I know that that damn Emperor Soulfish would have something that could send me to another timeline. Or, that he would use it? I couldn't even threaten his life, that bastard really overreacted," Tianyi complained.
"What about Lei Jingye? I'm surprised you didn't chase after him," Daoyi said.
"A bit too late now," Tianyi said
"Then why are you grinning like that? Honestly, it's very creepy."
Tianyi's smile left his face. "That's a bit too much, don't you think? But to answer your question, I simply gave him some trouble, say, like spreading the word that he has a divine artifact. Hmpf, I want to see how much the Five Element Sect will be able to protect him, especially after I severed a portion of Monarch Fiveseal's comprehension."
"You're terrible."
"Thank you."
Tianyi and Daoyi reached Mortal Continent after some time. They began to visit all the thirteen major cities of the Cultivator Alliance, named after the zodiac. Of note was the fact that the capital and central city of the Cultivator was Ouroborous City.
"Why Ouroborous City? If there is a thirteenth zodiac, shouldn't it have been a cat? Ouroborous isn't even Chinese!" Tianyi had complained.
Still, after two years and touring seven cities, they still haven't discovered anything out of the ordinary. "Isn't this just a vacation at this rate?" Daoyi had said, to which Tianyi had no response.
Although Tianyi enjoyed it, he was beginning to feel a sense of anxiety. He constantly thought about what was happening during the main timeline. Thanks to his connection with Ba Shifang, he could still get bits of information, but those updates were few and far between.
At the very least, the vacation wasn't meaningless. He was comprehending the Law of Death, Law of Destruction, and five element concepts from Monarch Fiveseal.
However, on their way to the eighth city, Tianyi's senses captured a familiar figure, causing him to abandon his plans. He immediately hid the immortal boat behind folded space and followed behind.
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Qiu, otherwise known as Monarch Soulfish, cursed as he quickly fled. Behind him, two immortal monarchs of the Cultivator Alliance chased after him.
"Stop, you damn thief!"
"It was our mistake not to wipe all the descendants of Begonia tower. We'll rectify that today!"
Monarch Soulfish gritted his teeth as he cast a glance back. Monarch Flamedog was originally an ordinary immortal that did not stand out. Well, except for one thing, and that he was deathly loyal to the Cultivator Alliance. Many dark and dirty deeds carried out by the hegemonic force were done with his hand.
The second was Monarch Yearox. Just from his name alone, one could discover his aspirations to master the Law of Time, but unfortunately, he couldn't and used another worldly law to enter the Seamless Immortal Realm, becoming an eternal regret for the immortal.
Both of them were monarchs with far more experience than him, but Monarch Soulfish didn't give up. He unleashed a technique that caused a torrent of red fishes to swarm them, almost like a tidal wave.
Monarch Flamedog and Yearox easily destroyed them, but the duo paused when they realized that they would enter an illusion whenever they destroyed, slowing down their process. Using this slight lapse, Monarch Soulfish increased his fleeing speed, unaware of a greater predator eyeing him.