Lin Yuan entered the seventh level of time-space with no hindrance whatsoever. Once the many flashes of insight accumulated, he immediately grasped the essence of the seventh level of time-space.
His foundations were overwhelming to begin with, and then he had the special cultivation environment of the Immortal Realm as well as the Immortal Source—a condensed manifestation of the Immortal Realm’s origin—to aid him. All these layers of support added up.
Of course, among all his assets, the most critical factor was Lin Yuan’s Unrivaled Insight. Without that to unify everything, strengthening each of those conditions or environments tenfold would have been meaningless.
In this Immortal Realm, think of the Dao Ancestor’s personal disciples. Which of them does not have a more advantageous cultivation setting and better resources than Lin Yuan—some can even directly enter the origin of the Immortal Realm to train.
Yet, to this day, not one of the Dao Ancestor’s disciples has reached seventh-level time-space insight. Indeed, even the Dao Ancestor himself has never touched upon the seventh level of time-space.
“So that’s how it is.”
Lin Yuan’s expression cleared with understanding. Once his time-space insight reached the seventh level, his perception of time and space felt fully alive. It wasn’t that time-space came to life; it had always been alive and ever-changing—he simply hadn’t previously perceived or observed it.
“Time and space—so this is time-space!”
Lin Yuan’s gaze stretched far. Within his vision, no facet of the Immortal Realm’s time and space could hide. More than that, the time-space of the Abyss of Demons was just as transparent to him.
“So in fact, the Immortal Realm and the Abyss of Demons are parts of the very same world—only, with opposite foundational rules, they appear visibly distinct.” Lin Yuan realized in a flash.
Previously, he’d assumed the Abyss of Demons was some other layer of space in the Immortal Realm. In reality, the Abyss of Demons is also part of the Immortal Realm’s primary space, and from the Abyss of Demons’ perspective, the Immortal Realm might not even dominate. They stand on equal footing, with no main-versus-secondary distinction.
“Huh?”
“The subordinate worlds of the Immortal Realm?”
Letting his gaze roam through the endless powers of time-space, Lin Yuan looked beyond the Immortal Realm. The plane on which the Immortal Realm rests stands supreme—at the pinnacle of this dimension. But beneath it lie 3,333 other worlds that float in and out of being.
Among these 3,333 worlds is the Spirit Realm, where Lin Yuan once descended. And each of those 3,333 worlds has over a million lesser worlds beneath it; the Immortal World is found among those.
“Three thousand three hundred thirty-three… that number again?”
Lin Yuan pondered for a moment before withdrawing his focus. With his current mastery of time-space, if he wished, he could descend upon any of those worlds in this dimension. Yet there’s little point. A lower-tier world might not even be capable of containing Lin Yuan.
For instance, the Immortal World he once visited likely wouldn’t measure up even to the size of Lin Yuan’s inner world, so what difference would it make if he entered it again?
“What’s my current strength…”
Lin Yuan examined himself. According to the knowledge left behind by His Majesty the Mysterious Sovereign and the Devil Jade Tower’s master, one normally needed to be a rank-twelve to reach seventh-level time-space.
A select few top-tier rank-twelve Path-Clearing experts might also achieve it. In other words, by virtue of his time-space insight alone, Lin Yuan has now surpassed most rank-twelve Path-Clearing cultivators.
Although he is no match for a rank-twelve evolvers in a direct power struggle, he can fully rely on his time-space comprehension to “toy with” those rank-twelve evolvers.
It’s akin to the Mysterious Emperor’s secret realm. Even though it sits in the deepest folds of time-space in the main universe, reappearing every few hundred thousand years, no rank-twelve evolver can ever lock onto its exact coordinates. That is the tyranny of rule-based suppression from another angle.
“So this is the seventh level of time-space.”
Lin Yuan’s mind raced. For nearly all life-forms, attaining seventh-level time-space is more difficult than striving for the Ultimate rank, as the vast majority of rank-twelve Path-Clearing cultivators haven’t reached that stage of time-space comprehension.
“And now…”
With just a thought, Lin Yuan’s true body, Primordial Spirit, and various avatars all blended into the depths of time-space. Even a rank-twelve would fail to sense a trace of them unless Lin Yuan chose to reveal himself. Put simply, Lin Yuan now stands at a higher dimensional vantage point; as long as the rank-twelve Ultimate’s rule comprehension remains below a certain threshold, it cannot detect him.
“Oh? So time-space can be used this way, too?”
Lin Yuan kept exploring the changes in himself. Having reached the seventh level of time-space insight, the vastness of time-space seemed to morph before his eyes—countless previously inscrutable mysteries now fell neatly into place.
While Lin Yuan continued his closed-door training to adapt to seventh-level time-space, matters outside his dwelling advanced swiftly. The City Lord of Cangwu Immortal City and its top-ranking officials had already assembled. Their faces betrayed anxiety and unease.
Once they noticed that Lin Yuan’s dwelling was starkly out of sync with its surroundings, they hypothesized that its owner might be connected to whoever wiped out the fiends beyond the city walls.
Following a brief exchange, the City Lord and high-level powers—rather than restore Cangwu Immortal City, which lay half in ruins—immediately rushed over to visit Lin Yuan.
They had no other choice. If Lin Yuan indeed had ties to that terrifying being who acted against the fiends, the first priority was to figure out that being’s intentions and what they might want.
Clearly, that being hadn’t intervened for no reason at all. Without understanding these details, how could the top leaders possibly sleep at night, let alone reestablish order?
“City Lord.”
Acting as the “steward” of this cave dwelling, Yun Zhenzi opened the doors and came out. Once, if he had been confronted with the City Lord and so many top-tier powerhouses at once—people he’d barely dared to look up to a million years ago—he would have been quite tense.
Even among Jade Immortals, power disparity looms large. In earlier ages, Yun Zhenzi might have counted as strong among ordinary Jade Immortals, but he was by no means comparable to the top echelon. And these people were not just any Jade Immortals; their backgrounds and statuses left Yun Zhenzi’s in the dust.
But now?
Recalling the way Lin Yuan had casually pinned down a skyful of fiends, Yun Zhenzi stood straight-backed and neither servile nor overbearing.
“What brings you all here?” he asked.
“Is Master Yun Zhenzi here? We’d like to meet him.” The City Lord exchanged glances with the others, then spoke up. (Remember, they still think Lin Yuan is Yun Zhenzi)
“My master is in closed-door cultivation,” Yun Zhenzi answered succinctly.
This was precisely what Lin Yuan had instructed beforehand: if anyone came seeking him, simply explain that he’s in seclusion—unless something happened that threatened the entire Immortal City.
“In seclusion?”
The City Lord hesitated. Several other big names, likewise, felt a chill in their hearts. In seclusion at a time like this? Cangwu Immortal City had just survived near-annihilation. Every immortal here, including all the top Jade Immortals like the City Lord, had nearly been devoured by countless fiends.
Under such circumstances—escaping from a tiger’s jaws—who would possibly be in the mood for seclusion? Besides, the situation around the city’s perimeter remained unclear. More fiends could arrive any moment, yet someone was calmly shutting themselves away?
But apparently, that was exactly what Lin Yuan was doing.
This response from Yun Zhenzi immediately made the City Lord and the others think a thousand things at once. If, before arriving, they’d only guessed that the owner of this A-grade dwelling might be connected with the mysterious being who destroyed those fiends, giving it maybe a forty or fifty percent chance, then after hearing he was in seclusion now of all times, those odds jumped to seventy or eighty percent.
Because it was far too odd to do so unless the fiends had never been a concern in the first place—which would indeed match up with the mysterious individual who’d obliterated them.
“Do you know if your master has any idea who took action against the fiends outside?” The City Lord took a breath, choosing his words carefully.
“Who took action?” Yun Zhenzi echoed, looking momentarily uncertain. Of course he knew. It had been Lin Yuan himself—he just raised a hand, and the horde was gone. But Lin Yuan never expressly told him to keep it secret. Nor did he give him permission to reveal it. Hence, Yun Zhenzi’s hesitation.
“I’ll go ask my master,” he said finally.
“Ask your master!” The City Lord and the rest felt another jolt inside. Yun Zhenzi did not reply that he was ignorant—he said he’d ask the master. That implies that not only the dwelling’s owner but even this steward knows who acted against the fiends. He merely needs to check whether it can be shared.
“All right. Please go ask,” the City Lord said, forcing a friendly smile. The others did likewise. They now harbored an even more startling speculation. The dwelling’s owner might not just be associated with that fearsome being—he could be that being himself.
Elsewhere in the Immortal Realm…
Here, all was dark and deep, suffused with pitch-black demonic energy. Endless fiends were born here, killing and dying incessantly. This was the Abyss of Demons, source of all fiends and slumbering place of the Abyss of Demons Progenitor.
In the abyssal depths, a colossal consciousness was slowly awakening. One careless ripple of its aura begot uncountable fiends, which slaughtered and devoured each other until, in the end, Fiend Emperors emerged.
“Hm?”
“One of my children has died?”
All at once, that mighty consciousness seemed to sense something. Infinite demonic energy converged to form a supreme throne, upon which a figure manifested and took his seat.
He was the Abyss of Demons Progenitor. Normally, he didn’t care about ordinary fiends—countless of them perish every moment within the Abyss of Demons, to say nothing of those that invade the Immortal Realm.
But a Fiend Emperor? A Fiend Emperor can be called the Progenitor’s incarnation—one of his “children.” Within the confines of the Abyss of Demons, such a Fiend Emperor is effectively immortal, nourished and guarded by the entire Abyss. Its death would shock the Progenitor from his slumber.
“Who was it that killed my child?”
The Abyss of Demons Progenitor’s eyes gleamed black as he traced a vague feeling in the void, attempting to reproduce the final memories of that lost Fiend Emperor.
“So it happened there?”
Before him, the last experiences of the six deceased Fiend Emperors played out like a projection.
“I’ve found it.”
The Progenitor faintly locked onto a spot. Yet the moment he tried to confirm the precise coordinates, he noticed that space-time shifted like a heavy mist. The location he locked onto split into two, then four, then eight, seemingly existing in every slice of time and space while also not existing anywhere.
“What…?”
A look of bewilderment crossed the Abyss of Demons Progenitor’s face.
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