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Chapter 648: The Long Years
🕑 Added 2025-10-17 13:00:29 +0000 UTCTianyi strolled through a busy commercial street with Daoyi, hand-in-hand. The business didn’t resemble a cultivator’s preferred ground, but rather a bustling mortal city.
Still, make no mistake. All the people on this street were cultivators in the Core Formation Realm or above.
The advent of the Xiyi Talisman showed the mortals in the Three Thousand Immortal Realms that cultivators weren’t saintly beings of no desire. They too felt happiness, sadness, jealousy, and the other emotions that plagued mortals. That didn’t mean cultivators and mortals could coexist together.
It might be fine at the lower levels, but the disparity in dynamics between mortals and cultivators made the drift between the two sides destined. Just like a Core Formation master would always be on edge in front of a true immortal who could decide their fate with a flip of their palm, a mortal would always feel this pressure.
Tianyi paused in his steps. “I didn’t expect to see them here.”
In order to enjoy the moment and not spoil anything, Tianyi had increasingly stopped using his divine sense to scan his surroundings—especially around Daoyi.
At the other end of the street were Yan Nie and his wife, Yun Xialan. It seemed like they had the same idea as Tianyi.
The two groups merged into one and booked a room in the city’s most popular teahouse.
“I didn’t think we’d meet here. What were the chances?” Yan Nie joked.
“Bigger than you think. This is one of the few cultivator cities that resemble a mortal’s,” Tianyi said. “The chances aren’t as small as you think, but speaking of which—you’ve changed a bit. Physically and mentally, I mean.”
Once a cultivator stepped into the Immortal Realm, they often froze their appearance. That didn’t mean their appearances wouldn’t change. Such changes were often brought about by a change in mindset.
Yan Nie had shed the outward confidence he had in his youth. Instead, he opted for a calm and subdued confidence buried under a slumbering sea. He still kept the same appearance of a man, but the locks by his temples had turned gray.
Yun Xialan had also changed. She no longer let her hair flow down her back like a maiden but tied it up, making her resemble a matriarch of a noble family.
“You, on the other hand, haven’t changed one bit,” Yan Nie said, looking at Tianyi, who appeared almost no different from the first time they met.
“Hey, I’ve grown since our first meeting,” Tianyi said.
Yan Nie laughed. “Well, I’ll admit that. You used to be so…” He paused, trying to find the right word. “Unfocused? I’ll go with it for now. You’re very terrifying when you’re focused.”
“Really? I don’t feel it. If possible, I want to be more terrifying,” Tianyi said, picking up his teacup. “What about you? Why haven’t you stepped into the Divine Realm?”
“I meant it when I said you were terrifying,” Yan Nie said. “Not even Ba Shifang, who follows the principles of the Five Phases, detected my comprehension of the Divine Law of Fire. That means you have already mastered the Law of Fire to the divine level.”
Tianyi did not deny Yan Nie’s words. “Ba Shifang is on the cusp of reaching the divine level for the Law of Fire, the Law of Water, the Law of Earth, the Law of Wood, and the Law of Metal. He’s just missing a stroke of epiphany or chance. Unfortunately, if he continues, it seems he won’t have a chance to enter the Divine Realm with the Law of Five Phases.”
Yan Nie nodded in agreement.
“Are you planning to raise the mastery of your Law of Fire before forming the divine world?” Tianyi asked. “After all, changing the divine world after it has already formed will take a long time.”
His fellow reincarnator nodded. “I do have this plan. Ideally, it would be best if I could master the other four elemental laws first, but mastering two more at the divine level is also acceptable. I have taken half a foot into the Divine Realm. My soul is countless times more powerful, so it should be easier.”
Tianyi didn’t deter Yan Nie. He knew that everyone had their own path. Fusing a system with his spacetime realm conduit allowed him to make many breakthroughs, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t break through on his own. The conquered system simply accelerated the rate. “Then I wish you luck. If you ever get stuck, you can try comprehending in the Nine Heavens Universe. I’ll open a unique space for you.”
Yan Nie clicked his tongue. “I think I underestimated how monstrous you are.”
“It’s not as much as you think. I stumbled across a good fortune,” Tianyi said. Then again, he had yet to find another system to use the World Fusion Method on.
“You’re making me regret focusing on raising my comprehension of the five elemental laws. I have an impulse to create a divine world now and adventure through the True Nothingness,” Yan Nie said instead. “Enough. Let’s change the topic. Otherwise, I might just do it.”
Tianyi knew Yan Nie was just joking, but he still followed along. “How’s the Cloud Duchess? Has she regained her strength from before the war against the Numinous Sword Sect?”
Yun Xialan gave a reserved smile. “Thanks to the Heavenly Immortal Court, Master has fully recovered. But she feels that her strength is still too weak and is working on improving her strength and preventing the tragedy from recurring.”
“What about you?” Tianyi asked. “Although you’ve become a divinity of faith, you aren’t as bound as the Cloud Duchess. It’s not impossible to shed the title and strive to become an immortal sovereign.”
As for the Divine Realm, Tianyi didn’t think it was possible for Yun Xialan. It was not that he underestimated her talent. Rather, even if she had ten times the talent, the chances of her reaching the Divine Realm were almost zero.
“I know my own talent,” Yun Xialan said. “Rather than working hard to become a shorter-lived immortal sovereign, I’d rather stay a divinity of faith and spend more days with Brother Nie.”
Tianyi nodded. Yan Nie’s strength had long eclipsed the Cloud Duchess and Yun Xialan. He had turned his potential into power. Before his success, people would say Yan Nie was unworthy of Yun Xialan. Now, it was the opposite.
“Forget about me. What about you, Sister Daoyi?” Yun Xialan asked. “With your talent, you must have mastered a divine-level law, right?”
Daoyi freely admitted it. “Unfortunately, it was the Law of Life. I thought my first divine law would be the Law of Death.”
“Please. Most of us would be extremely lucky to comprehend a divine law. Disdaining that makes me feel useless,” Yun Xialan said.
“I don’t mean it like that. I’ve been stuck at the cusp of the Divine Law of Death for a long time,” Daoyi said. “If I can’t comprehend the Divine Law of Life-and-Death, I wanted to use the Law of Death to become a divinity and comprehend it later.”
“With Tianyi’s support, you can indeed save a lot of trouble. Although it’s impossible to create a Life-and-Death Divine World after forming a Death Divine World, it’s still possible to get infinitely close,” Yan Nie said.
The two couples spent lunch together and talked a bit more before going their own ways.
“I didn’t expect to meet them here,” Tianyi said.
Daoyi nodded. “It was a rather pleasant surprise.”
Tianyi placed his hand over her shoulder in a half-embrace. “How about touring the other systems and experiencing life and death there to seek inspiration?”
“It’s a good idea. I can’t feel much progress anymore,” Daoyi said. She leaned her head against his shoulder. “What about you? You said your laws have been making rapid progress thanks to the World Fusion Method. Have you mastered the Law of Death?”
“No.”
“If you have the time, you can focus on that,” Daoyi said. “I’ll have my clone comprehend the divine-level Law of Death and use it as a springboard.”
Tianyi nodded. He had already improved the World Fusion Method as much as possible. Further improvements could only be made after he used it on another system. So right now, he was just focusing on mastering as many divine-level laws as possible. After all, the more powerful his divine world, the easier it would be.
Daoyi tilted her head so her eyes connected with his. “What about your disciples?”
“Junfeng and Jinwu will be interested. Xingyun too, but for different reasons.” Both his eldest and second disciples had reached the Origin Immortal Realm, but they were not as talented as Yan Nie. So they were a fair distance away from the peak of the Origin Immortal Realm. In contrast, his fourth disciple, Ming Xingyun, was still an immortal empress. Although she continued to strive for progress, she didn’t have much motivation.
Tianyi could already foresee that her willpower would run out among those in his inner circle. Well, present inner circle. His attendant, Su Bojing, had long returned to heaven and earth. Now, one of his descendants served as the steward for Nine Heavens Peak.
“What about Wutian?”
Tianyi’s lips twitched. “Him? He’s still enamored with playing the Monkey King in his Flower-Fruit Realm.”
Emulating the legendary Victorious Fighting Buddha, Sun Wutian had conquered a higher realm and renamed it the Flower-Fruit Realm after Flower-Fruit Mountain. There, he raised an army of monkey demons.
As Tianyi made plans with Daoyi, another conduit visited Heaven Eminence Palace.
***
Tianyi frowned upon entering. The starry sky curtain did not block him, and his mother sat on the heavenly throne. Her posture remained unchanged even after a hundred thousand years. She truly was like an emotionless machine, unmoving and desireless.
However, Tianyi could sense greater indifference than before. Call him paranoid, but he took it as proof that the Heavenly Dao was whittling away at his mother until nothing but an empty shell was left.
When Tianyi said that he wasn’t terrifying enough to Yan Nie, he meant it. If he were more terrifying, he could destroy the Heavenly Dao—or force it out of his mother’s body at the very least.
Tianyi didn’t know what height of power he had reached. Even among ancient divinities, he was confident that few shared the same breadth of mastery. Yet, all that power meant nothing if he could not free his mother.
He walked closer to the unmoving divinity. With each step he took, he shrank a few centimeters. By the time he reached her, Tianyi’s height had shrunk to one hundred and thirty-three centimeters.
Tianyi had returned to his appearance when he was eight years old. Granted, it was a self-imagined eight-year-old. He had long forgotten what he looked like at that age.
Most people who saw him would never equate him to a real eight-year-old child. His bearing was too noble, his movements graceful, and his aura immense. That said, he still looked like an adorably precocious child.
He bent down and laid his head on Mengfei’s lap. “…Mother.”
Mengfei’s body exuded a gentle warmth and no scent, but Tianyi still couldn’t help but feel a chill. He clenched his hands. Tianyi wanted nothing more than to swear that he would save her, but he didn’t know how much autonomy the Heavenly Dao had. If he said such words, would the Heavenly Dao do its best to suppress him?
Tianyi didn’t want to think too hard right now. He emptied his mind and just savored the world through his senses, cold and indifferent as it may be.
He stilled when he caught sight of two figures standing in the throne hall. “Who!?”
Tianyi returned to his original appearance and guarded in front of Mengfei. One of them was a middle-aged man with skin more tender than a newborn baby. His otherwise perfectly black hair was marred by streaks of white at his temples. A white coat covered the black robes he wore.
The other was a man in the prime of his life. Standing there, he exuded a sword-like aura. No one, not even a mortal, would mistake him for anyone but a sword cultivator.
No, it should be sword divinity, for both he and the middle-aged man were divinities.
Tianyi knew the man and had seen portraits of the middle-aged man. “Bao Ling, Confucius?”
