Old Master, Times Have Changed - Chapter 695 (Patreon)

Chapter 695: Meeting Again

This was the “Heaven-Deceiving Substitute Form, World-Seizing Method.”

As the name implied, it was a method capable of deceiving the Heaven’s Will of the Taiyi Realm.

A portion of Yuan’s true body had already been refined by the Taiyi Realm, melted into the world’s underlying foundation.

And any native living being who cultivated this method would become a “false body” within it.

Not only could they ignore the ritual cultivation system’s harsh requirements, they could also sense that portion of Yuan that had been refined into the world’s foundation—and turn it into their own strength.

Deceive the heavens, substitute a form, and use the Dharma of an outsider from another world to steal the world’s foundation.

For an individual living being, gaining even the tiniest thread of a world’s foundation was an unimaginable blessing and fortune.

In the end, these “heaven-deceiving” cultivators would become pseudo “Children of Fate,” similar to the Dongming Sacred Lord—an infinitely weakened version.

And as the source who spread the method, he too could, in the process, use these “pseudo Children of Fate” to gradually establish a connection with the “himself” that had been sealed away.

The “false bodies” would deceive the heavens, substitute forms, and steal the world’s foundation.

And he would use those “false bodies” to scheme for the Taiyi Realm itself—and reclaim everything that belonged to him.

That was Yuan’s ultimate purpose in piecing together the “Heaven-Deceiving Substitute Form, World-Seizing Method”—

Borrow the false to ascend into the true!

“The seeds have already been planted. Now we just wait for the harvest…”

Yuan murmured softly, his gaze never leaving the arena.

At this moment, the battle inside had already ended.

An old man, burly and hard-featured, drenched in blood yet still holding his head high, knelt on one knee.

Time had carved deep lines into his face, but in his golden pupils there still burned a fanatical light—like a male lion sprinting across the grasslands in pursuit of prey.

“Come! My son! Cut off my head! Achieve your glory!”

Yes, he had lost.

But at the edge of life and death, he still clung to a sick, obsessive pursuit of “strength.”

To die at the hands of someone stronger—this was the pursuit of his entire life!

What was more, the one who would take his head was his own son!

Opposite him, a blond, powerfully built man raised a greatsword high. Veins like coiling dragons snaked across his thick muscles, and the same feverish zeal overflowed from his brilliant golden eyes.

In the stands, countless spectators screamed themselves hoarse.

Some even wept openly, thrilled that they could witness such a rare scene.

Hummm!

Several beams of light descended from the sky, tearing scorching, distorted traces through the air.

They landed among the seats, enveloping those who had been chosen, completing their initial ritual, breaking past the limits of their life level, and stepping into the first gate of “the extraordinary.”

That’s right.

The arena itself was a ritual.

In this frenzy, every living being’s emotions climbed to the peak. As long as the trajectory of one’s soul was bright enough, it could draw the world’s gaze.

The blond man suddenly swung his sword down.

Bzz—bzz!

The air ripped into a chain of explosive booms. A visible gale of sword-wind swept across the arena floor; its mere aftershock crushed several spectators on both sides into clouds of blood mist.

The sharp edge of the blade swirled with a dense, extraordinary power, bursting into a dazzling brilliance.

The old man kneeling on one knee shrank his pupils. The zeal in his eyes dimmed, and as he sensed life about to drain away, a trace of fear finally flashed through him, impossible to suppress.

Death.

Right in front of him.

In that instant, he suddenly wavered—however slightly—toward the “strength” he had pursued all his life.

The remaining extraordinary power in his body also showed faint signs of fading, stirred by the instability of his conviction.

Seated on the high dais, the founder of Mingsi Sacred City caught that moment with sharp sensitivity, and disappointment flickered in her eyes.

If he could have held to his belief even at the brink of death, he might have taken another step forward and gained the power to change the ending…

Bored, she rose to her feet, turned, and transformed into a streak of light that vanished.

And in the very instant before she left, a head—its eyes still dazed—rose high into the air, while the headless, heroic body crashed heavily to the ground.

A roar erupted from the stands, even more frenzied than before.

…

…

In the stands, Yuan frowned as he watched the entire process.

In the end, he even rubbed his brow.

“What a pathological world. Everything has gone off the rails.”

He had fought Xu before, and for a time he’d even held the advantage.

So he knew clearly what a “orthodox” ritual cultivation system was supposed to be.

Yet even the most heretical “Gui Xu” lineage among the Ten Great Ritual Lineages had never felt as extreme as the rituals of this world.

The path Taiyi Realm extraordinary cultivators walked would, in Xu’s world, be unquestionably a “wicked path.”

That included the Kongji Sacred Lord and the orderly-side extraordinary cultivators of this world!

People had seven emotions and six desires; all living beings came in countless forms.

Every living being was complex and many-sided. Cultivating to understand one’s own heart did not mean erasing the rest of oneself.

As he thought—

A strand of purple radiance slipped from Yuan’s fingertips, flowing like sand down the stands and spreading outward.

In moments it reached the front rows and seeped into the center of the arena.

The purple radiance became a great net, covering—so subtly it was nearly impossible to detect—the spectators who had just been caught in the collateral damage, and…

That old man whose head had been taken by his own son.

At the very least, at the moment he faced the choice between life and death, he developed a longing to live.

After walking through life-and-death once, his thoughts probably wouldn’t remain as extreme as before.

So Yuan was willing to give him a chance.

“Hah…”

Withdrawing his hand, Yuan shifted his gaze away from the arena and looked over the fanatical crowd around him.

A son killing his father, and not a single person felt anything was wrong…

Changing a world like this was going to be a special kind of trouble.

“Good thing this wasn’t something that could be solved overnight.”

The “false bodies” cultivating the “Heaven-Deceiving Substitute Form, World-Seizing Method” would need time to seize the world’s foundation.

He would need time to establish a connection with his sealed “self.”

And “borrowing the false to ascend into the true” to reclaim everything would also require a great deal of planning and arrangement.

Even after taking back everything that was his, he would still need to find a way to use the spiritual scar formed by burning spirituality to revive Yin Ling.

As for finding a road home…

That would likely be postponed indefinitely.

…

…

“The false bodies borrow the method to steal the world. The true self borrows the false to ascend into the true…”

High above the Taiyi Realm, cut off from the world, Huo stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze fixed on the arena of Mingsi Sacred City.

More precisely, it was fixed on Yuan, seated in a corner of the stands.

“Not bad, not bad. This ‘Heaven-Deceiving Substitute Form, World-Seizing Method’ really is the optimal solution for the current situation.”

In Yuan’s present state, being able to reach this step was already impressive.

“Too bad the thinking is still naive…”

Many things in this world will happen regardless of how well you do.

You think you’ve considered everything, think you can do it perfectly, think you can bear every consequence…

“Heh.”

Huo let out a self-mocking laugh.

Then his fingers flicked.

An indistinct “change” spread outward, radiating from the sealed highest place and stretching across the entire world.

Deceive the heavens, substitute a form…

In other worlds it might work, but in this one…

That old thing didn’t rest easy even after death. To steal rashly would invite contamination upon oneself.

He only wanted Yuan to “wake up,” not to ruin his path.

Behind him, a pale-silver sphere that was playing cards with Yin Ling shuddered, and the cards floating before it almost fell.

These past few days, it had seen all sorts of complicated expressions appear on the face of this Lord of Wandering Thoughts and Doubts more than once.

Would it be silenced later?!

Across from it, Yin Ling was still frowning in deep thought.

In the end, it was just a “spirit” that hadn’t seen much of the world. Before the will of a world, it was still far too green.

…

…

In the blink of an eye, another three days passed.

Yuan had already left Mingsi Sacred City and was wandering across the Tai Yi Continent.

Aside from granting the “Heaven-Deceiving Substitute Form, World-Seizing Method” to some living beings in the city, he changed nothing.

He wanted to change this world, but he also understood his current predicament.

The seeds of the “false bodies” had only just been planted. He himself was only a sliver of awakened intent—there was no chance he could confront an entire Taiyi Realm head-on.

Lying low and growing strong, waiting for the “false bodies” to mature, was the true way.

So he traveled the Tai Yi Continent, selecting suitable living beings and teaching them the “Heaven-Deceiving Substitute Form, World-Seizing Method.”

Although the Dongming Sacred Lord was anxious, facing a Yuan who was determined to hide, he truly had no good options.

With no choice, he began preparing to attack the Kongji Sacred Domain.

After all, if he wanted to threaten with those two outsiders, he had to force them out of the Kongji Sacred Domain first!

Fortunately, he had recovered his identity as a “Child of Fate” by now. With the “Heaven’s Will” assisting at his side, arranging the corresponding rituals wouldn’t take too long.

If the treasury hadn’t been cleaned out, the ritual setup would have progressed even faster…

Mm…

Thanks to interference from some higher-level power.

The Dongming Sacred Lord did not realize that he could have done what he did before—use the safety of the One Hundred and Eight Heavens to force the Kongji Sacred Lord to leave the Kongji Sacred Domain.

…

…

Kongji Sacred Domain.

At long last, it welcomed a bright sunny day.

Outside the city.

Crystal-clear palace pillars lined both sides, flashing rainbow light beneath the sun. Even the figures sealed within—dressed in magnificent golden robes and wearing crown-like coronets—seemed to have their vitality grow a little stronger.

“Be careful in everything.”

The Kongji Sacred Lord handed over two prisms, pale blue on the outside and pure white at the core.

During this period, she had researched the Third Supreme Authority—

Or rather, the Abyss Ruins Realm—more deeply, and had already absorbed part of its traits into her own system.

These prisms were the product of those newly added traits, and their ability to break through blockades was stronger.

“Through the traces Dongming left in the Abyss Ruins Realm, I can sense that the injuries he suffered before have already recovered.”

Her tone carried solemnity.

Those were injuries inflicted by a higher-level power…

And Dongming recovered that quickly!

If she had suffered injuries of the same degree, she definitely wouldn’t have recovered so fast.

Obviously, the Heaven’s Will of the Taiyi Realm had intervened.

Ning Wanzhu and Mingyu put away the prisms the Kongji Sacred Lord gave them.

“Mm. We’ll be careful.”

The two of them ultimately couldn’t hold back.

After all, Yuan—or something connected to Yuan—was very likely in Chongxiao Heaven. That alone was enough to make them leave the Kongji Sacred Domain and head to Chongxiao Heaven to investigate.

If it weren’t already clear that the Dongming Sacred Lord was this world’s “Child of Fate,” and if they didn’t also know the Heaven’s Will of the Taiyi Realm was unfriendly to outsiders—meaning they needed preparations to avoid being intercepted on the way…

They would have rushed to “Chongxiao Heaven” the instant they noticed something was off.

“Kongji, you should be careful too.”

“Don’t worry.”

If the Heaven’s Will of the Taiyi Realm could strike native living beings without restriction, then back then, the Dongming Sacred Lord wouldn’t have needed to threaten her with the survival of the One Hundred and Eight Heavens.

Clearly, the “Heaven’s Will” was limited in how it could act against natives.

Then Ning Wanzhu and Mingyu rose into the air.

Once they reached a certain height, they turned into two streaks of light and shot out beyond the Kongji Sacred Domain.

In the blink of an eye they reached the boundary of the space where the Kongji Sacred Domain was located. As the sky-curtain rippled faintly, the two passed through the spatial boundary and entered the Tai Yi Continent.

…

…

Kongji Ruins.

As before, this was the first place that appeared when leaving the Kongji Sacred Domain.

Above the shattered ruins, the vivid multicolored light that had once stretched nearly a thousand kilometers was gone.

In its place was a dark purple light-tide with strong corrosive properties. The living beings and extraordinary cultivators that had mutated under high-density energy corrosion had long since vanished.

Within a thousand kilometers, there was not the slightest trace of life.

Before, Ning Wanzhu and Mingyu had briefly clashed with the Dongming Sacred Lord nearby.

And the power the Dongming Sacred Lord left behind had once again changed the environment here, wiping out the twisted ecology that had been born under high-density energy corrosion.

“If we can come back this time, we’ll clean up the residual power here,” Ning Wanzhu said.

Mingyu: “…”

What do you mean “if we can come back this time”?

That sounds really unlucky!

The next second, Ning Wanzhu’s expression changed as if she had sensed something.

“Go!”

She grabbed Mingyu and shot away into the distance at top speed.

Back in the Dongming Sacred Domain, when the Dongming Sacred Lord was injured by the power of Dongzhen, she had used the Lingyin Heart Codex to observe his mind.

Just now—

In what felt like a one-in-a-billionth instant of slackening, she once again felt the mental fluctuations of the Dongming Sacred Lord nearby.

“Hehehe! I didn’t expect you’d come out on your own…”

Amid the cold laughter, a shadow formed of “Disorder” and “Chaos” appeared. Heavy, violent, an intent like it towered above everything—an overwhelming will descended with a roar.

A formless suppression from the world surged in from all directions, turning into chains that wrapped around Ning Wanzhu and Mingyu as they tried to flee.

This time, the Dongming Sacred Lord directly invoked the power of the Taiyi Realm to suppress the two of them.

In a ten-millionth of an instant, the omnipresent suppression dragged their escape speed down to the level of an ordinary Dao-reaching cultivator.

A speed he could catch effortlessly.

But the Dongming Sacred Lord wasn’t in a hurry to strike.

Dark purple light rose into the sky, projecting everything happening near the Kongji Ruins across the Tai Yi Continent and all parts of the One Hundred and Eight Heavens.

The moment the two women were about to activate the prisms given by the Kongji Sacred Lord, they immediately felt a familiar gaze.

Crossing countless mountains, arriving right before them.

Surprise, confusion…

But more than anything—

Guilt.

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