“Colossal core pillar?”
Lin Yuan gazed at the towering pillar before him, subtle ripples stirring in his heart.
The last time he was here, this colossal core pillar had just emerged.
Back then, he was thrilled yet anxious, worried he wouldn’t be able to protect it.
And indeed, even though he had refined the pillar in just a tenth of a breath…
Fuxu Heavenly Sovereign had arrived shortly after and snatched it away with a single slap.
But now—
Lin Yuan once again stood before the colossal core pillar.
This time, unlike before, there was not the slightest hint of anxiety or fear.
“Fuxu Heavenly Sovereign.”
Lin Yuan quietly observed the core pillar for a moment before suddenly speaking. “Haven’t you watched enough?”
Whoosh!
As soon as he finished speaking,
A figure in a dark robe materialized—
It was Fuxu Heavenly Sovereign.
Lin Yuan glanced at him without any surprise.
In truth, the moment Vuyun Heavenly Sovereign fell, Lin Yuan had already sensed Fuxu’s presence. From that point on, this strongest Heavenly Sovereign had been silently observing him.
Even as the other Ultimate Heavenly Sovereigns fell one after another, Fuxu did not interfere.
And when the five top-tier Heavenly Sovereigns launched a desperate combined attack, choosing death over retreat, it was likely not only for Grand Ancient Void’s honor—
But also because Fuxu had ordered it from the shadows.
“Remarkable.”
Fuxu Heavenly Sovereign looked at Lin Yuan solemnly, his tone tinged with admiration.
He had indeed arrived long ago and refrained from making a move—
Because he wanted to observe Lin Yuan’s true strength and methods.
As for the eleven fallen Grand Ancient Void Sovereigns? They had only lost their battle bodies, not their true selves.
And if those eleven battle bodies served to test Lin Yuan’s capabilities, it had been well worth it for Fuxu.
“Your strength comes from the chaos power path you’ve cultivated? A path that surpasses thirteenth-rank inheritances? Incredible, truly incredible.”
Even Fuxu couldn’t hide the turbulence in his voice.
Normally, someone like him, a strongest Heavenly Sovereign, rose to power by mastering one or more thirteenth-rank secret arts.
As for chaos power paths? They were secondary—not comparable to true thirteenth-rank power.
But Lin Yuan had reversed this.
Or perhaps not reversed, exactly.
Fuxu had sensed that Lin Yuan was cultivating a thirteenth-rank secret art, but the power it granted him seemed no greater than that of the chaos power path he had forged himself.
“In the study of thirteenth-rank secret arts, I’m still not your equal.”
Lin Yuan smiled at Fuxu.
Fuxu did not reply.
“This colossal core pillar—I was the first to refine it. Don’t you think it’s time to return it?” Lin Yuan said.
This was the entire reason he had come here: to reclaim the pillar.
Of course, if Fuxu’s strength had far surpassed what Lin Yuan could handle, he wouldn’t insist.
“Return it?”
Fuxu fell silent.
If it had been any other top-tier Heavenly Sovereign, he wouldn’t have even bothered to answer.
But Lin Yuan?
Though he didn’t know Lin Yuan’s full strength, he knew for certain he was now at the level of the strongest Heavenly Sovereigns. In fact, Fuxu himself felt a pressure when facing him.
“I can return it.”
Fuxu looked straight at Lin Yuan and said,
“As long as Milky Way Heavenly Sovereign… can take one strike from me.”
He didn’t want to fight to the death over a core pillar.
There was still a long time before the battle for the treasure land concluded. If he used up his trump cards now against Lin Yuan, what would he have left to face the other ancient Kingdoms’ trump cards?
So, he proposed a single move.
“Alright.”
Lin Yuan nodded slightly.
Although he also wanted to fight Fuxu, he understood that now was not the time.
With his current cultivation speed, he would likely grow even stronger before the final phase of the treasure land conflict. By then, he could sweep through the entire battlefield with ease.
As for now?
This was just an attempt to see if he could reclaim the core pillar. If not, it wouldn’t matter much.
At the same time—
Across the treasure land, many Ultimate Heavenly Sovereigns also sensed the space-time fluctuations coming from the direction of the Grand Ancient Void–occupied colossal core pillar.
“What’s going on?”
“Why is there fighting over there?”
One after another, Sovereigns of various ancient Kingdoms looked toward the source. They could sense vast tracts of space-time collapsing, even the Dao itself twisting—they didn’t dare get close.
This was the kind of devastation only a top-tier Heavenly Sovereign battle could cause.
“Who would dare attack the colossal core pillar now?”
Everyone was baffled. That pillar had already been refined by Fuxu Heavenly Sovereign. Any move against it was equivalent to moving against Fuxu himself.
That wasn’t something just any Kingdom could do.
Even in the final phase of the treasure land conflict, when all ancient Kingdoms brought out their trump cards, it would still take a coalition to challenge Grand Ancient Void’s dominance.
But now?
The Sovereigns were stunned. None could figure out which ancient Kingdom had acted.
“That Milky Way Heavenly Sovereign…”
Unlike the confused Thunder, Xuanyin, and Barbarian Ancient Kingdoms, Grand Ancient Void’s eleven Heavenly Sovereigns stared at the pillar with lingering fear.
All their battle bodies had been crushed by Lin Yuan. The power gap had felt like a bottomless chasm. They still hadn’t recovered from the shock.
“Vuyu, that Milky Way…”
Vuyun looked to Vuyu. He had been the first to fall at Lin Yuan’s hands. Though he hadn’t seen more of Lin Yuan’s attacks, that final moment before death had told him enough.
“Milky Way Heavenly Sovereign… has likely stepped into the realm of the strongest Heavenly Sovereigns.”
Vuyu was silent for a moment, then nodded.
The so-called strongest Heavenly Sovereigns—this was Fuxu’s realm. The pinnacle ever reached by any Sovereign in the history of the ancient Kingdoms.
The other top-tier Sovereigns voiced no objections.
If he wasn't a strongest Heavenly Sovereign, could he have crushed all eleven of them?
If he wasn't a strongest Heavenly Sovereign, would Fuxu—who had descended long ago—still refuse to strike?
If he wasn't a strongest Heavenly Sovereign, would he dare stride so boldly into a core pillar refined and held by Grand Ancient Void?
“Strongest Heavenly Sovereign…” Vuyun took a deep breath.
Even in Grand Ancient Void, such figures were extremely rare—only a few per era.
Most Sovereigns never even touched the level of a top-tier, let alone the strongest.
“Is it because of his ancestral bloodline at the Heavenly Sovereign level?” Vudang pondered silently. After hearing that Lin Yuan had reached the peak, all of Vudang’s earlier resentment vanished.
“Now, we can only hope Fuxu can stop him.”
Vuyu sighed, eyes fixed on the pillar.
The other Sovereigns did the same.
“Did Milky Way Heavenly Sovereign really go to the pillar?” In another part of the treasure land, the Liyang Sovereigns looked toward the source of the fluctuations.
Back in the Liyang capital, when Lin Yuan had declared he would reclaim the colossal core pillar, they had chosen to believe him—but still held doubts.
It sounded far too incredible.
A small breakthrough?
Equal to Fuxu?
What kind of joke was that?
Fuxu was a strongest Heavenly Sovereign. That kind of realm wasn’t something you broke into so casually—let alone with just a “minor breakthrough.”
But now, as they felt the intense battle fluctuations coming from the pillar, they were finally convinced that Lin Yuan had been telling the truth.
“Milky Way Heavenly Sovereign… he’s really become a strongest Heavenly Sovereign?” Red Lotus Heavenly Sovereign was still in disbelief. Before entering the treasure land, he had sparred with Lin Yuan, who had shown peak-level strength.
But in just a thousand years inside, he had gone from peak… to strongest?
In front of the pillar—
Fuxu’s gaze deepened. The surrounding space blurred as if reality itself was turning into illusion.
“Suppress.”
His expression grew grave. He struck with full force, raising his right hand and pressing down toward Lin Yuan.
As his palm moved, all of reality—laws, time, matter—turned illusory, vanishing from existence.
“Hm?” Lin Yuan watched carefully, Tai Chi power swirling around him, forming a slow-spinning diagram.
The moment the palm came down, the Tai Chi diagram remained unmoved. Lin Yuan’s expression shifted slightly as he felt his sense of time distorting.
“A technique that affects time perception?”
He recalled the moment he was slapped away by Fuxu before—he had experienced this exact sensation. Back then, he hadn’t even had the chance to resist.
“But to me now…” Lin Yuan’s expression stayed calm.
This technique that tampered with a being’s sense of time was terrifying—intangible and undetectable. Sometimes you wouldn’t even know when you’d been caught.
But it wasn’t without counter.
If time was a river, then living beings were like leaves drifting atop it—helpless in the current.
But if one were a heavy stone at the bottom of the river, then no matter how the water flowed, it could not move the stone.
Lin Yuan’s internal universe was vast beyond measure, his foundation incomparably deep. He was now the stone on the riverbed. No flow of time could sway him.
Whoosh.
Fuxu withdrew his hand, staring deeply at Lin Yuan before turning to leave.
Though he hadn’t used all his methods, that move had been full power—and it hadn’t affected Lin Yuan at all. Fuxu realized he could no longer suppress him.
Unless he used Grand Ancient Void’s trump cards.
But if he used his, Lin Yuan would use his too.
If both used their trump cards, it would be meaningless.
Fuxu had no desire for mutual destruction.
“He left?”
Lin Yuan watched him go without another thought and began refining the colossal core pillar.
In just a moment, the colossal core pillar was once again successfully refined by Lin Yuan.
...
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