Normally, a true immortal should never travel in the Vast Void, as they were likely to run out of qi before reaching another realm, much less an injured immortal. Only immortal monarchs had the prerequisite power to traverse the void, though it was still dangerous. However, Tianyi did not have that problem. His connection to the Nine Heavens Universe supplied him with an infinite amount of qi, and his mastery over spacetime increased his travel speed dramatically.
Tianyi’s body flew toward the boundary of the unranked realm and slipped through without causing a ripple. Upon entering the Vast Void, he stilled.
He originally thought it was a misconception and because he was in an unranked realm. Now that he entered the Vast Void, he was sure that his senses did not deceive him. The restriction on his Nine Heavens Universe had weakened and the Vast Void was not as stable as the prime timeline.
Although the Vast Void is said to contain nothing, it is still much more habitable than the True Nothingness beyond the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System. Naturally, something must keep the system stable for it to be habitable. And that something was the Heavenly Dao. For the Vast Void to be less stable compared to the prime timeline, then it meant that the Heavenly Dao had weakened.
This was a manifestation of the weakening timeline. Once too many timelines split off, the Heavenly Dao would have to spread itself out thin. The more timelines, the faster the weakening. When the Heavenly Dao lost its power in the split timeline, then the timeline would disappear, pruned. The energy used to maintain and support it would be fed back into the prime and other timelines.
Tianyi knew that timelines would eventually be pruned, but not the process. Now he knew. He didn’t expect that he would be able to exert more power in the split timelines than in the prime timeline.
Now, he needed to find out whether the worldly laws would be easier to comprehend in the split timeline. The waning Heavenly Dao didn’t just mean that the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System would be weakening, but also that the worldly laws would become incomplete. After all, the Heavenly Dao was, in essence, the source of all worldly laws.
He shook his head. Right now, it wasn’t the time to ponder, but to investigate. Tianyi’s target was naturally the Primordial Realm. Only by entering the realm he was most familiar with could he learn how advanced the timeline was.
Tianyi didn’t find the Primordial Realm. Or rather, he found its predecessor. It was only natural. After all, he was the one who transformed the Huang Realm into the Primordial Realm, and reincarnators like himself did not appear in split timelines.
When he entered the Huang Realm, no one noticed. After visiting various locations in the Heaven Continent, Tianyi couldn’t help but sigh. The world with Xiyi talismans and one without was as different as heaven and earth.
Thanks to the ease of dissemination of information, a good deal of knowledge that was hard to learn became common. Of course, cultivation methods and secret techniques were strictly kept confidential, but non-unique knowledge was no longer restricted by the upper class. Without restricting the spread of knowledge, society advanced by leaps and bounds.
It hadn’t advanced to the extent of the modern era, and it may never reach that point. Part of the reason people on Earth advanced to such a state was because of their powerful souls. Anyone born on Earth that reincarnated into the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System would be a genius at comprehending the myriad laws.
Society changed, and the only thing the upper class could use to restrict the common people was resources. The friction between the common people and the rulers was a conflict that would never cease. When the common people overthrew the rulers, they would become the new rulers and a new common people would be born.
This only applied to mortal countries. For the greater cultivation world, strength still reigned supreme. Reason and logic meant little if one had absolute power.
Tianyi only spent a few days in the mortal world. After the novelty wore off, he moved toward the Buzhou Immortal Sect. Once he reached the Mortal Severance Gate, he immediately noticed something amiss.
Although the Buzhou Immortal Sect seemed full of holes and immortals could sneak in everywhere, there was actually an undetectable guardian formation protecting it. The only entrance was the Mortal Severance Gate. If invaders tried to sneak in, they would find themselves lost and eventually moving away from the sect. If they instead tried to brute force their way in, the guardian formation will change from passive to active and attack.
But now, Tianyi could sense that something crucial was missing. That was not to say the formation didn’t work. It absolutely did and could repel immortal emperors, but sovereigns? At most lasting tens of attacks. Tens of attacks sounded a lot, but it was not long in a battle between immortals.
He could already guess what was missing. The Immortal Court and the Immortal Court Spirit should have already disappeared from this world.
Upon thinking about the Immortal Court, Tianyi couldn’t help but recall the destruction of the Huang Realm in the Silent Lightning Timeline he visited. It was ultimately for his sake and the future of the Huang Realm was destined to be a tragedy, but he was still the reason why the Immortal Court Spirit destroyed the Huang Realm.
Suppressing his sullenness, Tianyi slipped in. If the Immortal Court Spirit was present, he would have to be more careful slipping in. Even if he was at his peak, he couldn’t guarantee to be able to get in without arousing the Immortal Court Spirit’s attention. That said, it wasn’t only his mastery over spacetime that gave him this confidence. His familiarity with the Buzhou Immortal Sect’s guardian formation also boosted his chances.
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When Tianyi sensed no change in the formation, he knew that he had succeeded. Of course, there was always a chance that someone noticed him, but he didn’t think the chances were high.
Elder Xia Meng should still be a sect master at this point and an immortal monarch. As for the Concealed Emperor, Tianyi didn’t think he would be in this timeline. As someone who constantly stayed in the dilapidated Immortal Court, his identity should not be simple. His mother, Mengfei, had become an immortal sovereign, meaning that she had merged with all her alternate selves.
That only left Grand Elder Voidink. She did not major in the Law of Space or the Law of Time, and Tianyi had the confidence to evade her detection.
After entering, the first place Tianyi searched was naturally Jade Peak. But when he entered, he discovered that it was completely empty. Even if Jade Peak Palace was left unattended for decades or even centuries, not a hint of dust would mar it. However, it could not hide the fact that no one lived in it for millennia.
From this fact alone, Tianyi knew that his mother had likely disappeared for a long time—well, a long time for him. He just needed an exact time.
When Tianyi walked out, he stilled. “I wonder what the Dragon Emperor is named in this timeline. I haven’t heard anything about him in the prime timeline, but I suspect he is recuperating somewhere, maybe in the Buddhist Pure Lands? Should I try to infiltrate them? The problem is that I know nothing about their location.”
Tianyi shook his head. Rather than a futile attempt at investigating the Buddhists, he should sneak into the Numinous Sword Sect. Although the Immortal Court Spirit could communicate across timelines, he was limited by his location. And few people could travel to different timelines. According to the records, only the most powerful sovereigns and divinities could accomplish this feat.
“That’s actually not a bad idea,” Tianyi muttered. He still remembered where he got the Kunlun Mirror from. It was a disciple from the Numinous Sword Sect. As long as he grabbed it again, he could strengthen the one in his mother’s possession.
“Wait, Is the Broken Primordial World still there?” Tianyi thought to himself. He shook his head. Now that he had a lot more assurance and was not in danger of being trapped forever, he could do a lot of things in this timeline.
Just as Tianyi wanted to leave, he spotted a team of cultivators going up the mountain. Curious, he teleported next to them and eavesdropped.
“Is the Buzhou Immortal Sect going to lose a mountain peak just like this?” a nascent soul grandmaster asked with a sigh. “The Jade Peak has existed with the sect since its founding. Now, it’s going to be abolished?”
“When Grand Elder Xi was here, how glorious it was,” a soul nourishing grandmaster said. “However, Grand Elder Xi mysteriously disappeared thousands of years ago and her prodigal son ruined everything.”
Upon the soul nourishing grandmaster’s words, the team all sported dark and indignant faces.
Tianyi naturally guessed who they were talking about. He scratched his head. Although he knew that the Dragon Emperor was a different person, they still possessed the same identity on the surface.
“That damn Xi Longtian. If he wasn’t Grand Elder Xi’s son, how could the sect tolerate him for so long? Great, just because of him, he tarnished the sect’s reputation and now all the sects are unfriendly toward us. More first-rate sects have joined the Anti-Heaven Alliance. Even the Eight Pillar Sect dares to openly bare its fangs against us now.”
The soul nourishing grandmaster nodded in agreement. “Thankfully, the Mortal Continent disappeared. Otherwise, the Cultivator Alliance would only add fuel to the fire.”
Tianyi paused at this. Shouldn’t the Saintly Scholar School have replaced the Cultivator Alliance on the Mortal Continent by now? And what did they mean disappear”? How could an entire continent just disappear?
He paused as a name flashed in his mind. Confucius, the founder of the Saintly Scholar School.
Tianyi spread his senses and sucked in a cold breath. He had thought the Huang Realm was smaller than he remembered, but he chalked it up to himself remembering wrong. Now that he specifically sensed it, a third of the Huang Realm had disappeared, along with the Mortal Continent!
The most terrifying part was that there was no damage to the Huang Realm at all. Everything still functioned perfectly, as if a third of the Huang Realm had always never existed. Splitting a realm, even if done with care, would result in aftereffects.
Even Tianyi could not claim to have a such an ability, even if he had ten thousand years to devote solely to it
When Confucius split the Mortal Continent and formed the Virtuous Realm in the prime timeline, did he actually also absorb chunks of the Huang Realm from other timelines? This feat far exceeded Tianyi’s ability to travel to other timelines. It even exceeded a divinity’s ability.
Of course, this was just a hypothesis at this time. He would have to visit other timelines to see if the Huang Realm had also shrunk.
Just who was Confucius? Was he a divinity that mastered the Law of Time or the Law of Spacetime? A survivor of the primordial era?
Tianyi originally thought that the Primordial Realm was the strongest of the three immortal-rank realms, but it seemed he severely miscalculated. No, he had to tell the Immortal Court Spirit.
His conduit in the prime timeline’s Primordial Realm entered the Broken Heaven Valley. Moments later, Tianyi had a strange expression on his face.
The Immortal Court Spirit only told him that he didn’t need to worry about it. It seemed that the court spirit already knew.
Tianyi wanted to ask more questions, but since the Immortal Court Spirit didn’t want to tell him, he could only stop. It made him wonder just what trump cards the Immortal Court had to be so unfazed. More importantly, just how deep the waters went.
Before he could think for too long, the team’s conversation broke him out of his thoughts.
“Alright, enough!” the leader, a unity venerable, admonished. “We’re here to seal Jade Peak off and take away Jade Peak Palace. Don’t slack off or you’ll make Elder Nine Thunders displeased.”
Upon mentioning Elder Nine Thunders, all the cultivators showed excited expressions. It was full of respect and yearning.
“Elder Nine Thunders is amazing, a role model for us all. Although both he and that Xi Longtian are known as the twin stars of the Buzhou Immortal Sect, that Xi Longtian is too despicable!” a soul nourishing grandmaster said with gritted teeth.
Another cultivator agreed. “Yeah! Both of them became true immortals after a few hundred years of cultivation. I don’t know about that Xi Longtian, but I heard Elder Nine Thunders has already reached the peak of the Seamless Immortal Realm!”
‘Nine Thunders? It sounds close to my title of Nine Heavens.’ Tianyi thought. He didn’t have any dissatisfaction toward this Elder Nine Thunders. After all, he knew how powerful the Dragon Emperor’s aggro skill was. ‘I wonder who he is.’