Time Law

The divine abilities of a Saint were unfathomably profound. Ordinary people could ascend to the heavens in a single step by comprehending just one of them. Meng Chen had comprehended nine at once; the extent of his advancement was easy to imagine.

Thus, only a thousand years into Yuanshi Tianzun's lecture on the Dao, Meng Chen's cultivation broke through.

Meng Chen's understanding of the Dao had always far surpassed his cultivation. Theory always came before practice. If he had not wanted to become a Saint's disciple and secure a place within the establishment, his cultivation would never have stopped at this level.

The Golden Immortal Realm was divided into five stages of cultivation.

The first step of the Golden Immortal Realm was to comprehend the Law of Immortality and transform one's physical body and primordial spirit into laws.

After mastering the power of laws, an immortal could open an inner heaven within their body. Through the power of that inner heaven, they could comprehend the mysteries of space and thus grasp the Law of Space.

The second step of the Golden Immortal Realm was to combine the Dao Foundation with the primordial spirit and cultivate a World Seed. Once the World Seed took shape, the inner heaven within the body would undergo a transformation and evolve into a Small Chiliocosm.

The essence of a world was spacetime. A Golden Immortal who possessed a Small Chiliocosm had to begin comprehending the Time Law.

Once a Golden Immortal comprehended the Time Law, they could combine it with the Law of Space, allowing the Small Chiliocosm to advance further and rise into a Middle Thousand Worlds.

At that point, one entered the third step of the Golden Immortal Realm.

The third step of the Golden Immortal Realm was the endpoint for the overwhelming majority of Golden Immortals. To advance to the fourth step, one had to comprehend the Law of Destiny. To comprehend the Law of Destiny, one's consciousness had to enter the River of Fate and locate one's Spacetime Anchor Point within it.

This step was simply too difficult. Since ancient times, countless outstanding figures had fallen here.

The Spacetime Anchor Point in the River of Fate was the Foundation of Existence for living beings. Only by possessing a Spacetime Anchor Point could one exist in the present world.

When those undying, indestructible Great Luo Golden Immortals fell, they had not truly fallen. Rather, their Spacetime Anchor Points had been destroyed by external forces. Rejected by the laws of heaven and earth, they could no longer remain in the present world and could only wait in the depths of the Eternal Calamity Land for their Spacetime Anchor Points to recover.

The final stage of the Golden Immortal Realm was to stand upon one's Spacetime Anchor Point, comprehend one's Alternate Selves across past and future, and stabilize and converge one's own timeline.

When a Golden Immortal could permanently fix their Spacetime Anchor Point upon a particular moment in time, they had successfully broken through into the Grand Golden Immortal Realm.

Before entering the Chan Sect, Meng Chen's cultivation had remained at the first step of the Golden Immortal Realm.

To cultivate to the Golden Immortal Second Step, he needed to combine his Dao Foundation with his primordial spirit. If his Dao Foundation did not contain Xuanmen mana, then even if he joined the Xuanmen, he could not become a direct disciple.

Zhao Gongming, Yunxiao, and others were like this.

Their potential, cultivation, and strength were no weaker than Wuyun Xian's and the others'. However, their Dao Foundations were impure, so they could only remain in the outer sect as outer disciples.

After receiving the Xuanmen Daoist arts taught by Yuanshi Tianzun, Meng Chen could use the Xuanmen Daoist arts as his foundation, condense a World Seed, and advance to the Golden Immortal Second Step.

His long accumulation finally erupted. Meng Chen's reserves were simply too profound.

The moment he began his breakthrough, the Mana Golden Flowers in the void surged toward him in unison. Every moment, a million Mana Golden Flowers entered Meng Chen's body.

One had to know that Yuanshi Tianzun had condensed these Mana Golden Flowers with a Saint's power to aid his disciples' cultivation. Every single Mana Golden Flower was equivalent to the entirety of a peak Mystic Immortal's mana.

His disciples were all Golden Immortals. Yuanshi Tianzun could not possibly condense Mana Golden Flowers containing the mana of peak Golden Immortals, much less Grand Golden Immortals. That would not be helping his disciples; it would be murdering them.

Yuanshi Tianzun calmly glanced at Meng Chen, waved his hand, and increased his supply of spiritual energy.

Though Meng Chen's foundation was deep, it still fell far short when compared to the mighty figures in his circle. Thus, Yuanshi Tianzun did not find it surprising. He merely hoped that Meng Chen could strengthen his reserves in future cultivation. Only then would he have a chance of becoming a Saint.

Meng Chen, who was in the midst of breaking through, felt incomparably exhilarated. His breakthrough had come as naturally as water flowing into a channel.

Rumble!

Accompanied by a world-creating explosion, the inner heaven within his body detonated, then expanded wildly and spread without restraint.

Clear qi rose to become the heavens, while turbid qi sank to become the earth. The All-Encompassing Stars evolved, mountains and rivers were born, and all kinds of living beings were conceived.

Even a Small Chiliocosm was a four-dimensional Small Chiliocosm. It had no concept of spatial size; space within it was infinitely vast.

With a thought, Meng Chen grasped the time within the Small Chiliocosm in his hand. In the next instant, all manner of mysteries related to time flowed into his mind.

Boom!

At once, the flow of time around Meng Chen changed, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, sometimes abundant and sometimes scarce.

A world itself contained the power of time. By using World Force, Meng Chen could effortlessly accelerate, slow, extract, or replenish time.

However, he had yet to comprehend the Time Law.

Using the power of time and comprehending the Time Law were two different things. A law was not the use of power, but the modification and definition of power.

Everyone could use addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, but not everyone could grasp the law of mathematical causality.

"Have you broken through? Very good!"

Seeing Meng Chen break through successfully, a trace of satisfied laughter appeared on Yuanshi Tianzun's face. Yet in the next moment, Meng Chen's skin turned crystalline, gleaming with the radiance of time.

"The Time Law!?"

Yuanshi Tianzun was deeply astonished. Meng Chen had only just advanced to the Golden Immortal Second Step, yet he had already comprehended the Time Law. Was that not absurd?

Yet reality was indeed that absurd.

A soaring immortal radiance rose from Meng Chen's head, and a River of Time flowed from his body, filled with one shadow after another.

These shadows traveled through past and future. They bore the same face, but their mana and cultivation differed.

They were Meng Chen of the past and future.

"T-the Time Law... He really comprehended the Time Law?"

Yuanshi Tianzun could no longer bring himself to look directly at this disciple. One breakthrough would have been one thing, but Meng Chen had broken through again and again.

He could sense it with perfect clarity: among the Chan Sect and Jie Sect, Meng Chen was the only one who had broken through.

Meng Chen had previously decided that he would use absolute cultivation to suppress his fellow disciples. He had not meant suppressing any one fellow disciple, but suppressing all of them by himself.

He dared think this because he had the confidence to do so.

In truth, before becoming a disciple, he had already comprehended most of the Time Law. He had only lacked the step of opening a Small Chiliocosm to fully comprehend it.

No one had stipulated that cultivation had to proceed step by step. If he comprehended the Time Law first and then raised his cultivation, would that violate some heavenly law?

More importantly, Meng Chen's primordial spirit was innately compatible with the laws of heaven and earth. Others had to exhaust their minds and spirits to comprehend laws, while he only needed to put in a little effort.

After Yuanshi Tianzun understood the cause and effect, Meng Chen began breaking through once more. With a thought, his consciousness entered the River of Fate.