“The sword?”
The white-robed man’s scalp tingled. His strength surpassed the figures in the first two paintings.
So when faced with Lin Yuan’s strike, he wasn’t so slow that he couldn’t even react before being cleaved and sent back into the painting.
He reacted, and in an instant mounted a defense—runes blossomed across the void.
The runes he condensed were incomparably heavy, infused with boundless radiance.
But they were useless.
Before that black-and-white blade light that split heaven and earth, Yin and Yang, every rune was severed.
In a blink—
The black-white sword light arrived before the white-robed man.
He sighed softly and closed his eyes.
Swish—
Right after—
Like the two figures in the earlier paintings, his form collapsed.
But unlike the golden-armored youth and the bewitching woman, his shattered form did not return to the painting.
It recondensed once more.
“Hm?”
Lin Yuan looked at the white-robed man, unable to hide his surprise.
That strike, while not his absolute strongest killing move, was still an all-out blow.
An all-out strike in his normal state.
By Lin Yuan’s estimate, even ten or a hundred Abyssal Dragons couldn’t withstand it.
And the strike was infused with the Dao of Chaos Yin-Yang Tai Chi, bearing infinite power of annihilation—one cut to sever body, soul, and mind, leaving at least that true body beyond recovery.
In Lin Yuan’s understanding, if he cultivated his Dao of Chaos Yin-Yang Tai Chi to the third level, it would encompass causality; enemies slain by that Dao would, under causal pull, have even their true-body lifesaving methods implicated.
Simply put, anyone below the thirteenth rank would be like ants before Lin Yuan, with no lifesaving means at all.
“Don’t overthink it.”
“You’ve already passed.”
The white-robed man looked at Lin Yuan, seeming to sense his thoughts, and said, “I’ve recondensed by borrowing the painting’s power. Without it, under that sword of yours, I should have been completely erased.”
He studied Lin Yuan carefully.
As the most perfect and powerful lifeform painted by Lord Wu Shan, he had never been crushed head-on by anyone since his birth.
Not even those eternal children.
Lord Wu Shan had opened many trial spaces; since the great upheaval, many powerhouses had come to be tested—among them some eternal children, and some Heaven’s Chosen born under the threat of demon calamity.
But even the few who passed did so by staking everything to force their way past him into the entrance.
Someone like Lin Yuan, who directly erased him with a single sword—and in an instant—had simply never appeared.
He had never imagined that one day, facing a being beneath an Eternal Lord, he would be so helpless. Even Source Demons couldn’t do this.
“Thank you for letting me through.”
Lin Yuan understood at once.
He nodded slightly to the white-robed man.
He had to admit, this white-robed man was the strongest lifeform below the thirteenth rank Lin Yuan had encountered so far.
Even that Abyssal Dragon in the First Source World paled before him.
Unfortunately for him, he met Lin Yuan.
A thousand years ago, Lin Yuan’s strength had already surpassed the Abyssal Dragon, not inferior to this white-robed man as he was now.
Let alone after another thousand years of cultivation—his grasp of rules and means had advanced greatly, and he had opened ten billion particle worlds.
And these ten billion particle worlds had been reforged by Infinite Void, granting Lin Yuan a terrifying boost.
Since arriving in this Source World, Lin Yuan had gathered every resource, abandoned nurturing his two Primordial Spirits, and focused solely on opening particle worlds—proof of how much this approach elevated him.
“There’s no ‘letting you through.’”
The white-robed man shook his head. “I’m not your match—by a long shot.”
He admitted it frankly.
The gap was too great.
After that one sword cut down the golden-armored youth of the first painting and the bewitching woman of the second, it still erased him.
That meant he couldn’t even stop the residual force of that strike.
“Among the six who have passed the trial, you’re the strongest—likely the most powerful lifeform beneath an Eternal Lord. I hope you can fulfill Lord Wu Shan’s hopes and completely sweep away the demon calamity.”
He looked at Lin Yuan, thoughts unreadable, then his form collapsed and returned to the painting.
He had only borrowed the painting’s power to recondense to take a look at what kind of being could crush him with one sword.
Nothing more.
“Completely sweep away the demon calamity?”
Lin Yuan did not respond.
From what the golden figure had said—
The purpose of opening many trial spaces was to cultivate a new Eternal Lord.
In other words, to sweep away the demon calamity, one had to become the new Eternal Lord.
And as for becoming an Eternal Lord… although, in the future timeline the six Founders of the First Source World saw, Lin Yuan was almost certain to reach the thirteenth rank, without absolute certainty, he still felt no solid footing.
That was why, before attempting the thirteenth rank, he transmigrated to a second Source World to accumulate more for the breakthrough.
If, like other powerhouses, he had only a sliver of hope to reach the thirteenth rank, he might have just charged ahead—everyone was in the same boat, barefoot and unafraid of those with shoes.
But the higher the odds, the more cautious Lin Yuan became—because he wasn’t barefoot.
Whoosh.
Lin Yuan took a single step
to the very center of heaven and earth, before the little entrance door.
Swoosh! The golden figure appeared, standing beside the small door.
“Congratulations on passing.” The golden figure looked at Lin Yuan, emotions mixed.
Before, whenever someone passed, he would be delighted—that meant Lord Wu Shan’s arrangements were working.
If no one ever passed to claim the inheritance, what would be the point of so many trial spaces? Yet the way Lin Yuan passed shattered his understanding.
Even the commotion when Lin Yuan’s true body descended had been enough to make him raise his estimation.
But a single sword cutting down the figures in all three paintings—especially the last one, the most perfect and strongest life beneath an Eternal Lord in Lord Wu Shan’s reckoning—
If the white-robed man was the most perfect and strongest below an Eternal Lord, then what did that make Lin Yuan? Did this mean Lord Wu Shan was wrong? But a lofty Eternal Lord who had seen myriad future timelines—how could he be wrong?
“I wonder if Lord Wu Shan foresaw this scene…” the golden figure murmured, sighing.
An Eternal Lord could see many future timelines; when Lord Wu Shan set up these trials, he must have looked ahead, perhaps knowing how many would pass over the next eons.
He probably didn’t see Lin Yuan, the golden figure muttered inwardly.
Lin Yuan’s descent into this Source World was via the Gate of Myriad Realms, which transcends all timelines and lies beyond the observation of temporal beings.
In the First Source World, before Lin Yuan descended, the six Founders couldn’t see any future timeline containing him—unable to observe the Gate, they couldn’t predict his arrival.
Only once he truly descended and appeared within that world’s timeline—viewed from the time of his arrival—could timelines featuring Lin Yuan be observed.
As for looking further back, from before his descent—Lin Yuan simply wouldn’t appear.
The same held true in this Source World.
He had been here for over a thousand years, whereas Lord Wu Shan had arranged these trials before the great upheaval; from that vantage into the future, he certainly couldn’t have detected any trace of Lin Yuan, much less this moment of him passing.
Of course—
Only Lin Yuan knew the underlying principle.
To those time beings? They would likely chalk it up to limited power—limited timelines observed—missing those in which Lin Yuan appeared. In reality, unless Lin Yuan had already descended into a given Source World, even observing every timeline of that world would show no trace of him.
“Where is Lord Wu Shan now?” Lin Yuan asked.
Before entering this trial, the golden figure had answered some of his doubts—for instance, that the Demon Gods were not the true source of the demon calamity.
But much of what Lin Yuan wanted to know, the golden figure had been unwilling to say.
“Lord Wu Shan…” The golden figure fell silent, thought for a moment, then said, “Since you’ve passed and carry hope of sweeping away the calamity, many secrets can be told.”
He looked at Lin Yuan.
Lin Yuan listened closely.
“At the time of the great upheaval, when the demon calamity descended, Lord Wu Shan was trapped in a certain space-time,” the golden figure said.
“Trapped in a certain space-time?”
Lin Yuan’s heart jolted.
A thirteenth-rank temporal being—trapped? “Not exactly trapped—Lord Wu Shan chose to be trapped.”
The golden figure considered, then spoke.
“I see.”
Lin Yuan nodded.
A thirteenth-rank temporal being could see future timelines—surely the scene of being trapped as well.
The reason Lord Wu Shan allowed himself to be trapped must have been that, after weighing many timelines, that outcome was the best—so he accepted it.
“Not only Lord Wu Shan—the other Eternal Lords are trapped too. They cannot directly intervene in heaven and earth; they can only influence things through the contingencies they arranged before the upheaval.”
The golden figure continued.
“All the Eternal Lords are trapped? And willingly chose it?”
Lin Yuan’s thoughts raced. What could make them all choose that end? “What trapped them?” Lin Yuan pressed.
“That I truly don’t know.”
The golden figure shook his head.
“But once you become a new Eternal Lord, you’ll surely understand.”
With that, he looked to the small entrance door at his side.
“Since you’ve passed, you can receive Lord Wu Shan’s inheritance.”
As he finished—
The little door pulsed with an invisible wave.
Lin Yuan sank his mind into it, and in a haze, saw a great painting.
An eternal painting that encompassed all beings beneath heaven and the cosmos.
...
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