Ye Xiwen panted without pause, but the wounds on his body were healing at an astonishing speed. He knew this was the final stage of crossing the divine tribulation.
He had to sever his own past and future, thereby truly ceasing to exist within the Three Realms or the Five Elements, transcending the restraints of the Heavenly Dao and breaking free of its control over his lifespan, thus truly reaching the realm of immortality and indestructibility.
As long as one was alive, one remained under the control of the Heavenly Dao and possessed a finite lifespan. Some lives lasted long, others short, but regardless of length, none could escape the Heavenly Dao's governance. But once one advanced into immortality, it became different. From then on, one leaped beyond the Three Realms and outside the Five Elements. Even the Heavenly Dao could no longer control them—they were truly free.
This Time River represented his lifespan, the long road from a person's birth until death. It was especially long for martial artists. Ordinary mortal lives, no matter how they struggled, could never break free from this Time River. In the end, like ten thousand rivers surging into the boundless sea, they would return to death.
Proving the Dao meant leaping out of this River of Destiny and onto the shore. Then, no matter how turbulent the River of Destiny became, unless someone pushed them back in, life and death would no longer have much to do with an expert who had proven the Dao.
It was also the most dangerous step, the one most vulnerable to exploitation. Those countless phantoms all had to be slain. If they could not be completely killed, flaws might remain. Never mind failing to attain a boundless lifespan—if someone captured one of those phantoms, it could even