What was the Past Corpse?
It fused everything from one's past into one, transforming it into a Three Corpses incarnation that represented the body existing in the past.
The Past Corpse was born in the past to begin with, so there was no question of whether it could be destroyed. As long as Chu Yuan himself remained alive, a single thought would bring forth endless shifting pasts. It could not be fully severed, could not be completely slain, and would remain eternally indestructible!
Thus, even if this current Past Corpse was accidentally destroyed, as long as Chu Yuan remained alive, he could pull another Past Corpse from the past at any moment, without the slightest consequence!
As the saying went, the past was already the past, an established fact. Even if someone changed it, it would not affect their present self. This was vastly different from the Primordial World's Technique of Severing the Three Corpses!
Although the Primordial World's Technique of Severing the Three Corpses had all sorts of variations, once all three corpse incarnations were destroyed, it would ultimately affect the Quasi-Saint's cultivation realm and directly cause it to fall!
Even Saints, if their Three Corpses incarnations were destroyed, would not fall in realm, but they would still suffer grievous injuries!
But for Chu Yuan, hehe... even if someone destroyed a thousand or ten thousand of his Past Corpses, he would still eat and drink as usual, without the slightest problem!
The Past Corpse was only theoretically immortal and indestructible. In reality, it could still die. Although beings at the Immortal King level could cross the River of Time to attack, they mainly acted upon the "present." Attacking the "past" could easily bring about immense karmic repercussions.
But upon reaching the Quasi-Immortal Emperor realm, there was no such concern. They could cross the River of Time at any moment and strike at the "past"!
Therefore, while Immortal Kings could do nothing to a Past Corpse, Quasi-Immortal Emperors could certainly destroy it!
No matter how many past selves one had, a Quasi-Immortal Emperor could see through them all at a glance!
That was when the Future Corpse became necessary!
In Chu Yuan's conception, the Past Corpse was the aggregate of everything from his past, born in the past. The Future Corpse, then, represented his boundless future—Chu Yuan's hopes and expectations for the future.
By the same principle, just like the Past Corpse, as long as the main body remained, even if the Future Corpse was destroyed, a single thought would allow a new Future Corpse to step from the future into the present!
As long as Chu Yuan himself remained, there would be a future and endless possibilities!
Even though Quasi-Immortal Emperors could step into the River of Time, trace back to the past or travel to the future, and even forcefully act without fearing karmic backlash, they still mainly operated at the nodes of the "present" or the "past." As for the "future," they could not lock onto and erase an enemy in the future, because the future was constantly changing. Perhaps an insect farting somewhere could directly cause the future to change drastically!
Otherwise, Emperor Huang, Shi Hao would never have appeared in Perfect World...
Yet the Future Corpse was likewise only theoretically immortal and indestructible. Against an Immortal Emperor, it was still useless. After all, Immortal Emperors had truly transcended the River of Time. With a single glance, they could see through ancient times, the present, and the future, easily lock onto an enemy at some point in the future, and erase them at the source. It was a true dimensionality-reduction strike, a deus ex machina!
Thus, in Chu Yuan's conception, the Present Corpse, which truly connected the Past Corpse and Future Corpse, was of utmost importance!
The Past Corpse represented everything in the past, and the Future Corpse represented everything in the future. The Present Corpse represented everything in the present. It was no different from his main body, equivalent to another him, yet not him!
The Present Corpse was his Dao, his law, his everything, all that belonged to him. It was him, yet not him; it was the past, yet not the past; it was the future, yet not the future. For the present was the present. The present was the endpoint of the past and the beginning of the future—the most profound and mysterious existence!
As long as the "present" existed, looking back revealed infinite "pasts," while looking ahead revealed endless "futures." This was the single most important point in Chu Yuan's new Three Corpses System!
In theory, once a Present Corpse was severed, it could likewise sever a Past Corpse and Future Corpse, and could even sever a new Present Corpse. That new Present Corpse could then sever new Past and Future Corpses, as well as an even newer Present Corpse, creating an infinite nesting cycle!
Even in Chu Yuan's design, should his main body die, the Present Corpse was still his Dao, his law, his everything, and all that belonged to him. Thus, the Present Corpse was himself, while the new self could sever another Present Corpse with a thought and continue the nesting cycle!
In online game terms, the Present Corpse was a resurrection token that could be copied infinitely, stacked infinitely, had an extremely short cooldown, and could never truly be used up!
As he carefully recalled the new Technique of Severing the Three Corpses he had designed, Chu Yuan could not help sighing once more. The greatest cheat in his life was not the Innate Flawless Chaos Body that outsiders believed it to be, but his heaven-defying comprehension, known only to himself!
In truth, Chu Yuan knew very well that while the Innate Flawless Chaos Body had helped him greatly in reaching this point, his heaven-defying comprehension was his greatest contributor. It was an absurdly powerful cheat that allowed one to grow at the fastest possible speed!
Learn it once and master it; master it and perfect it; perfect it and innovate upon it, reaching greater heights and even producing countless transformations, all at the pinnacle of attainment!
Theoretically, as long as one could imagine the effect they wanted, they could gradually deduce the "cause" through the "result." It was a universal cheat!
Defying the laws and standing above all Daos—this was true heaven-defying comprehension!
The saying went, "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration." What truly mattered was the latter half!
"But that one percent of inspiration is the most important—more important even than that ninety-nine percent of perspiration."
And his heaven-defying comprehension infinitely magnified that one percent of inspiration, turning it into endless inspiration!!!
Yet even with heaven-defying comprehension, Chu Yuan had still paid an enormous price and spent a vast amount of time improving the corpse-severing technique. After all, he had built this thing bit by bit from nothing, and it was a corpse-severing technique clearly oriented toward the top-tier, even mythic-level, Primordial World cultivation system!
In fact, if he had not been tinkering with the new Technique of Severing the Three Corpses, Chu Yuan might have entered the Quasi-Immortal Emperor realm two hundred thousand years earlier!
"There is a problem now, though."
Chu Yuan sighed, his face carrying a trace of helplessness.
It had taken him two hundred thousand years to truly sever the Past Corpse. He had also gained some insight into the Future Corpse, and it would not take much longer before he could sever it as well. The problem lay with the Present Corpse.
It is me, yet not me. Damn it, what the hell was I thinking when I came up with such a profound and mysterious thing for myself to sever...?
"Ancient Ancestor Chu Yuan, Chu Yang requests an audience!"
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