Old Master, Times Have Changed - Chapter 696 (Patreon)

Chapter 696: Why Not Just Call Reinforcements?

At the first sight of that scene, Yuan instinctively suspected it was a fabrication—an image kneaded together by the Heaven’s Will of the Taiyi Realm to lure him out.

But as a Soul Transformation realm existence who could see through to the true nature of things, he quickly realized what he was seeing was not false.

Moreover, the refinement of the Taiyi Realm had never touched his consciousness. It was simply impossible for it to know about Wanzhu and Mingyu’s existence.

Which meant Wanzhu and Mingyu had actually appeared in the Taiyi Realm…

Why would they appear in the Taiyi Realm?

Was it because…

Of him?

“Yuan?!”

The two who were fleeing also sensed that gaze. With a sliver of their mind tracing it back, they immediately saw Yuan standing in the desert, looking toward them from afar.

It really was Yuan?!

Senior Huo actually let Yuan go that easily?

There was no time to think. Ning Wanzhu directly offered up the jade token that contained Soul Transformation realm power, engraved with two vertical marks.

Zheng—!

Just like before.

Along with a strange chime, a pure, flawless white radiance sprang forth from the unseen depths. The instant it appeared, it surged into the high heavens, freezing everything.

Whether it was the vast shadow coiling in the sky, formed from “Disorder” and “Chaos,” or that heavy, violent will that seemed to stand above all things—

Under that pure, flawless white radiance, all of it was swept away.

Not only that. The Tai Yi Continent and the Thirty-Six Higher Heavens, the Seventy-Two Lower Heavens—

Even the entire Taiyi Realm and the surrounding worlds were locked solid under that pure, flawless white light.

Even the several “chains” that the Taiyi Realm had condensed through suppression and bound around the two of them shattered inch by inch.

“Go!”

Having personally witnessed the Taiyi Realm absorb Soul Transformation realm power before, the moment they broke free of the realm’s suppression, the two immediately tore through the void and fled from the Kongji Ruins, rushing toward Yuan’s location.

Only a pinpoint of Soul Transformation realm power remained hanging high in the sky, sealing everything, freezing everything.

But not long after…

As the World’s light within the Taiyi realm-domain began to flow once more, the immeasurable worlds shifted and swapped their nodes.

The ritual that could absorb and refine Soul Transformation realm power started up again—just like the one that had run in the Dongming Sacred Domain before.

Under the combined effect of the immeasurable worlds, that point of Soul Transformation realm power, bright as skylight, gradually dimmed—gnawed away, bit by bit, and absorbed…

Everything resumed flowing.

And above the Kongji Ruins, that terrifying shadow coiling in the high heavens began to withdraw. In the end, it condensed into a young man of ordinary human size, with dark-violet pupils and features three parts similar to Yuan’s.

“As expected, they weren’t that easy to catch…”

Dongming Sacred Lord stared in the direction the two had fled, a strange light flickering in his eyes.

He wanted to borrow the power of the Taiyi Realm again, to lock onto their position the way he had before.

Soundless and unseen, a torrent seemed to surge in the depths of the world.

The world’s will moved with his gaze, looking down into every corner of existence.

But in the end, all he saw were a few blurry, warped images, mixed with traces of “scorching” left behind by a higher-tier power.

“An influence from True God power…”

The strange light in Dongming Sacred Lord’s eyes dimmed.

Using the ritual, the Taiyi Realm truly could absorb power on the True God level.

But the overwhelming majority of the world’s strength had to be used to suppress and seal the True God pressed beneath the deepest layer of the world.

So the traces left behind by higher-tier power would take a fair amount of time to “heal” naturally.

During that period, even he—one who bore the “Dongming Heavenly Mandate”—would find it hard to precisely locate the two outsiders.

What a pity.

This round of arrangements had been aimed more at the Kongji Sacred Domain.

Who would’ve thought they would come out of the Kongji Sacred Domain so quickly, causing many plans to fail.

Still, since they were already out…

Next, he could directly lay down arrangements on them themselves, striving to lure out that thread of True God will that had regained some clarity…

“Dongming.”

A calm voice cut through his thoughts.

Before he could react, a blazing, sacred power had already surged out of the Kongji Sacred Domain, erupting over the entire region.

Booming flames!

The holy power that burned everything poured down, transforming into streams of pale-gold sacred fire that directly incinerated the ritual tracks hidden in the void—twisted and winding—to nothing.

In the span of a heartbeat, the many rituals Dongming Sacred Lord had painstakingly arranged for the Kongji Sacred Domain were completely destroyed.

A pure, towering sacred silhouette manifested—identical in appearance to Kongji Sacred Lord—like it held up the heavens.

It lifted a hand and grabbed at Dongming Sacred Lord.

Golden flames roared. With that single strike, the sacred will sealed the ten directions above and below, forbidding all space and destiny!

Even the “concept” of the Kongji Ruins became chaotic in that moment, then began to be rearranged according to Kongji Sacred Lord’s will.

Facing that overwhelmingly mighty blow, Dongming Sacred Lord merely raised an eyebrow.

He hadn’t expected Kongji Sacred Lord to act at this timing.

Caught off guard, he had let many arrangements be ruined in one shot…

But it didn’t matter.

Since those two outsiders had already left the Kongji Sacred Domain, those arrangements were useless anyway.

If they were destroyed, so be it.

At this critical juncture, he only wanted to eliminate that thread of True God intent that had woken up.

Kongji Sacred Lord…

Dongming Sacred Lord didn’t want to clash with her at a time like this.

With that thought, he gave the descending sacred hand a flat look, and his whole body scattered into countless shadows.

Even though Kongji Sacred Lord’s manifested shadow annihilated many streams of shadow, quite a few still broke through the seal of pale-gold flames and escaped.

…

After a long time.

The flowing flames dispersed, and Kongji Sacred Lord—wearing a long dress—appeared above the Kongji Ruins.

Specks of pale-gold light flickered around her as the remnants of broken ritual tracks continued to fade.

She looked into the distance, sensing the two prismatic crystals on Ning Wanzhu and Mingyu.

“May your journey go smoothly…”

After that soft blessing, she lowered her gaze to the ruined Kongji Ruins below, and an inexplicable emotion surfaced in her eyes.

…

…

Elsewhere.

After repeatedly tearing through the void, Ning Wanzhu and Mingyu finally found Yuan.

Wary that Dongming Sacred Lord might trace them, Yuan hadn’t stayed where he was. After he realized Ning Wanzhu and Mingyu were rushing toward him, he left the Tai Yi Continent and went straight to one of the Thirty-Six Higher Heavens: Xuji Heaven.

In a barren, lifeless wasteland.

Yuan sat on a severely wind-eroded boulder, glancing into the distance from time to time, looking unsettled.

Seeing Wanzhu and Mingyu under these circumstances was something he had never anticipated.

So after the initial shock came panic.

He didn’t know how to face Ning Wanzhu and Mingyu—especially in a situation this terrible.

In Yuan’s original plan, he would return to his homeland, settle everything, and only then return to the Tai Xuan Realm to meet them again.

But things didn’t go according to plan…

Just as his thoughts churned, the space before him suddenly rippled with faint, delicate waves.

Two blurred human outlines rapidly solidified from illusion into reality, finally appearing before him.

“Yuan?”

Ning Wanzhu’s voice trembled.

She understood perfectly that being able to meet Yuan now had everything to do with Senior Huo.

But when the moment truly arrived, her heart still couldn’t help turning sour.

Mingyu pressed her lips together. She didn’t call Yuan’s name like Ning Wanzhu did, but the redness in her eyes showed the feelings surging within.

Yuan opened his mouth.

He wanted to say something.

But at the moment of meeting, he discovered that any words felt exceptionally pale.

In the end, all that remained on his lips was a simple sentence—

“Long time no see, Mingyu, Wanzhu.”

The three of them looked at one another in silence, and for a time no one spoke.

Only after a long while did their emotions settle somewhat.

“You… why are you here?” Yuan looked at them.

With things like this, reminiscing clearly wasn’t appropriate.

They needed to sort out the threads quickly and shake off this horrible situation.

“Sword Ancestor discovered some worlds you once stayed in within the Chaos Sea, and told us about them,” Ning Wanzhu explained.

Sword Ancestor…

That was the fellow townsman he’d met in the Tai Xuan Realm?

“After we heard, we thought maybe we could try looking for you in the Chaos Sea,” Mingyu added. “So we participated in the expansion deployment of the Ascension Web.”

The Ascension Web?

What was that?

“After finishing the Ascension Web connection node deployment for the Second·Xunyuan Realm-Domain, when we were headed to the Third realm-domain to build the next connection node, we discovered the Taiyi Realm…”

Hearing that, Yuan couldn’t help interrupting:

“Wait—this Second·Xunyuan Realm-Domain…?”

“As Ascension Web deployment envoys, we have the right to name realm-domains.”

Saying this, Mingyu looked a little embarrassed.

…

A whole realm-domain…

He could only hope that so-called Second·Xunyuan Realm-Domain wasn’t too huge, or this would be unbearably awkward.

“Then what? Keep going.”

Now wasn’t the time to fuss over small things. The most important thing was figuring out why the two of them had appeared in the Taiyi Realm.

One second later.

After learning the full sequence of events through soul-sense from Ning Wanzhu and Mingyu, Yuan fell into thought.

To have a chance at finding him, the two had proactively joined the Ascension Web’s expansion deployment, enduring solitude as they built Ascension Web connection nodes throughout the Chaos Sea.

After completing the second realm-domain’s connection node construction and heading toward the third realm-domain, they discovered the Taiyi Realm through the Ascension Web’s elevated perception.

Combined with the matter of him forging a physical foundation for Yin Ling, they guessed he was very likely in the Taiyi Realm…

“You know Yin Ling?” Yuan blurted out.

“We do,” Ning Wanzhu looked at him. “Ascension Web deployment envoys have high Ascension Web permissions. We can directly extract and filter specific information within worlds. We filtered for it back in the second realm-domain.”

Yuan: …

Did the Ascension Web really have to be this ridiculous?

Mingyu had wanted to say something too, but as she glanced around Yuan, her brows drew together slightly.

“Where is she?”

“…”

Yuan was silent for a while, his gaze dimming.

“To protect this thread of clear will of mine and help it break free, she burned away the remaining spiritual essence she had.”

Huh?

The two froze.

Yin Ling burned away her remaining spiritual essence?

But wasn’t Senior Huo in the Taiyi Realm? How could—

No, wait.

According to rumors, Senior Huo hated non-human races to an extreme. Standing by as Yin Ling’s spiritual essence dissipated would actually be perfectly normal for him.

“After I reclaim everything that belongs to me, I’ll use the traces left behind by her burning spiritual essence to gather her essence back together.”

There was still room to save it.

The dimness in Yuan’s eyes faded. He raised his head again to look at them.

“The situation in the Taiyi Realm is complicated right now…”

From the information he’d received through soul-sense, the two of them had returned to the Tai Xuan Realm to rest after completing the first stage of work on the third realm-domain’s Ascension Web connection node.

During that time, with help from Wanzhu’s master, they had successfully come to the Taiyi Realm.

That was right—there was a huge mismatch with the actual situation.

This was naturally Huo’s handiwork!

Even if Yuan didn’t know that other True Immortals couldn’t project their power outside the Tai Xuan Realm, even if he did know, Huo could still make him “not know.”

And as Yuan thought of this, inspiration struck. He had originally intended to urge the two to leave, but he immediately changed his tune:

“Right—can you notify the Alliance of Righteousness about what’s happening here?”

If you can contact the Tai Xuan Realm at all, only an idiot would slowly use a “fake body” to reconnect with the suppressed true body bit by bit.

Why not just pull in a group of Soul Transformation realm experts from the Alliance of Righteousness and steamroll the Taiyi Realm?

Mingyu shook her head slightly.

“We can, but if they want to come, it’ll probably take a lot of time.”

This was the Taiyi Realm, after all.

For an ordinary Soul Transformation realm cultivator to come here, they’d have to leave from Qingxu, pass through the First·Realm of Earthly Immortals Realm-Domain, the Second·Xunyuan Realm-Domain, and the third realm-domain that hadn’t been integrated into the Ascension Web system yet, before they could reach the Taiyi Realm.

The first and second realm-domains were fine—they were both within the Ascension Web system.

But the third realm-domain wasn’t completed. Just those chaotic concepts alone were troublesome enough.

Yuan, a Soul Transformation realm cultivator who had comprehended the Tai Void and grasped the Dao of space, had still taken fifty years to get from the Tai Xuan Realm to the Taiyi Realm. Other Soul Transformation realm cultivators would only arrive later.

“My master needs to remain stationed at Lingyin Pavilion. Sword Ancestor not only has to maintain the Ascension Web core, but also keep an eye on every Ascension Envoy’s condition, so there’s no spare capacity either,” Ning Wanzhu said.

The two True Immortal seniors in the starry sky could, in theory.

But the problem was they couldn’t find them at all.

And those two True Immortal seniors each had their own duties—neither could move lightly.

As for Senior Daoist Yuanjun…

If you wanted to die under all sorts of disasters, then sure, you could try.

In this moment, the three of them seemed to have forgotten Huo’s existence entirely.

Even when Ning Wanzhu and Mingyu were thinking, they unconsciously ignored Huo.

“If that’s the case…” Yuan frowned.

Calling reinforcements would take too long. With that time, he could already reclaim everything of his with the Deceive Heaven, Substitute Form, Seize the World Method.

“You two leave the Taiyi Realm immediately. I already have a way to take back everything that belongs to me.”

“No need. Didn’t we say it before? We’re only avatars formed from a wisp of Light of Doubt. Even if we fall, it won’t affect our true bodies at all,” Ning Wanzhu explained.

However, when those words fell into Yuan’s ears, they took on a completely different meaning.

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