"Afraid of you? No way!"
You sneered, pushed Di Qiu'er away as she tried to stop the fight, and stepped forward, unleashing your full aura!
You could go toe-to-toe with the Deep Sea Demon Emperor. What was one mere black dragon to you?
Boom!
The battle erupted!
The Black Dragon Sword in Di Tian's hand unleashed the ultimate powers of darkness and space with every strike.
As for you, King Crimson moved like your shadow, while Epitaph anticipated every move!
The two of you clashed furiously in the sky above the Lake of Life, shattering space and sending the lake waters surging upward!
"Dragon God Claw!"
Frustrated by his inability to gain the upper hand, Di Tian flew into a rage and unleashed the divine skill that even Limit Douluos couldn't withstand!
A gigantic phantom dragon claw descended, radiating divine power as if it would crush the entire world.
"Time Erasure!"
Your expression turned manic as you pushed King Crimson to its limit, forcibly erasing the second in which the Dragon God Claw struck!
Hundreds of exchanges later.
Your clothes were slightly rumpled, but your breathing remained steady.
Across from you, Di Tian withdrew his Dragon God Claw. The Killing Intent in his eyes gradually faded, replaced by an incredulous gravity.
A draw!
A human not yet twenty had fought the Beast God head-on and held his own!
"Human, you've won."
Di Tian gave you a long look. He was deeply displeased, but had to admit—
You were worthy of standing beside the Auspicious Beast, and the Star Dou Great Forest was justified in offering you its protection.
Though he was extremely unhappy with you for running off with the Auspicious Beast and trying to break through in the core region, he made no move to drive you away.
As the strongest being of the age, the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King had his own pride.
If he was to win, he would do so honorably. Stabbing someone in the back while they were breaking through? He would never stoop so low!
You chose a spot with excellent feng shui and sat cross-legged.
On your left was Di Qiu'er, transformed into human form and breathtakingly beautiful. On your right stood Du Busi, fiercely protective of you.
With these two guarding you, you focused your mind and began to challenge the theoretical forbidden zone of Soul Masters—the Third Soul Core!
By conventional wisdom, Dual Soul Cores were already the limit for humans. But you intended to defy convention and, in a mortal body, stand shoulder to shoulder with the gods!
Three months passed in the blink of an eye.
Throughout those three months, the energy inside you surged like a volcano on the verge of eruption. Each pulse shattered the surrounding space.
At last, a faint crack rang out, as if it came from the depths of your soul—
The Third Soul Core was complete!
The three cores resonated, their power flowing endlessly!
Your Soul Power surged like a river bursting its banks, instantly breaking through the bottleneck at level 98 and reaching the Limit Douluo's peak at level 99!
Seventeen years old! Three Soul Cores! A Limit Douluo!
Looking at you, your aura now as unfathomable as the ocean, Du Busi gaped. For a long time, he couldn't manage to get out a single complete sentence.
"Am I... am I dreaming? Or has the world gone mad?"
The cultivation knowledge he had always been so proud of had been utterly crushed before you.
But you could no longer sense the shock of the outside world.
The moment the Third Soul Core took shape, an irresistible force drew your consciousness away from your body and into an unfathomable dimension.
Before your eyes flowed a boundless silver river, with neither source nor end.
The River of Time!
Here, you saw the past and the future, and the birth and destruction of countless parallel worlds.
You realized that what flowed in this river was not water, but the purest source of time!
Like a withered sponge tossed into the ocean, you began greedily absorbing this power of time.
You remained seated for half a year.
When you opened your eyes again, galaxies seemed to revolve in your gaze, as though you could see a thousand years in a single glance.
Your Second Martial Soul, Epitaph, had undergone a fundamental transformation.
It was no longer merely a Martial Soul or a Soul Skill. It had condensed into a physical form: a book of time and space, radiating an ancient, weathered aura as it floated at your side.
Divine Artifact—Epitaph!
Now, you no longer merely foresaw the future. You... wrote it!
As your strength increased, your Second Martial Soul, Epitaph, finally awakened its true ultimate ability—Erasure of Causality!
The destinies of all beings recorded in Epitaph—whether mortal, Soul Beast, or exalted god—would be reflected in your River of Time.
You could enter that river, sever their causal threads, and erase their past or future entirely!
The price: each use cost you some of your lifespan to fill the causal void. The more often you used it, the heavier the burden of causality became.
Sound like a steep price? No!
The most broken part was that the life force of anyone erased would be absorbed by the River of Time and returned to you! That meant that as long as you killed someone powerful enough, you wouldn't just avoid losing years off your life—you would live even longer!
This was true, no-injury god-slaying!
As for causality?
A phrase suddenly surfaced in your mind.
Let all the causes and effects of the world fall upon me!
The time had come. You felt it was time to settle a few old scores.
You said goodbye to the reluctant Di Qiu'er, who had transformed from the Auspicious Beast, and left the Star Dou Great Forest with Du Busi, heading straight for the secluded grounds of the Clear Sky Sect.
Your targets: Da Ming (Niu Tian) and Er Ming (Tai Tan)!
Using Epitaph to pinpoint him, you easily located Da Ming.
At the top of Clear Sky Castle.
Da Ming seemed to sense your arrival. He stood with his hands behind his back, his expression grave. As a divine official, his instincts told him that you meant trouble.
But before he could react, the scene around him changed in an instant.
Clear Sky Castle vanished. The sea of clouds vanished.
In their place was a hazy, empty space. There was no sky or ground, only a mysterious river flowing ceaselessly, without making a sound.
The River of Time!
"Enough with your tricks!"
Da Ming snorted and was just about to reach out and touch the strange water when your figure appeared out of thin air.
"Die!"
Da Ming didn't hesitate. The pressure of a divine-level powerhouse burst forth, and he charged at you like a streak of blue lightning!
You stood motionless, a trace of pity curving your lips.
Just as Da Ming had made it halfway, an image appeared in the empty space before him.
It showed the Star Dou Great Forest ten thousand years ago—and him, in his Sky Azure Bull Python form!
"This is... my past?" Da Ming's pupils contracted as an inexplicable chill rose in his heart.
In the image, another you appeared out of nowhere.
King Crimson materialized. Without any fancy movements, he simply struck with an unadorned knife-hand and instantly pierced the heart of the Sky Azure Bull Python!
The image shattered.
In reality, Da Ming's charge came to an abrupt halt.
He looked down in horror and saw a huge hole in his chest. No blood flowed; his body was crumbling like wind-eroded sand, bit by bit.
"You... you severed my... past?!"
Da Ming's voice brimmed with despair and disbelief. His past was dead; the present version of him was now a tree without roots, water without a source.
You walked up to him and gently touched his forehead with one finger.
"Goodbye."
Crash!
Da Ming's body shattered completely, becoming countless specks of light that merged into the River of Time beneath your feet.
At the same time, an immense vitality surged into your body, instantly replenishing the hundred years of lifespan you had spent—and even making you look a little younger.
Thus fell Niu Tian, the divine official and sect master of the Clear Sky Sect!
Before you continue