"Just a mere projection, and you think you can kill me?"
Watching that blue figure in the sky, arrogant beyond measure, you curled your lips in mockery.
Faced with Tang San's devastating divine skill, you didn't panic in the slightest.
Because everything was going according to your script.
The opening you'd deliberately left was bait to lure that lofty God King into striking!
"Sea God's Light, purge all evil!"
Tang San's voice boomed like thunder. A dazzling golden radiance descended from the heavens, instantly engulfing the spot where you and Du Busi stood.
Just before destruction arrived—
King Crimson, Time Erasure!
The world faded once more, entering the crimson domain that belonged to you alone.
In this erased time, Tang San's killing blow played out in slow motion. You easily sidestepped it, and even had time to use "Epitaph" to fully analyze and record the energy fluctuations of Tang San's projection.
You held back the urge to counterattack.
Although you were now fully capable of erasing this projection, it would be meaningless.
The rules of the Divine Realm prevented Tang San's true body from descending. If you alerted him now, you'd only put him on guard.
The one you wanted to kill was his true body!
"Teacher, let's go."
Just as Time Erasure was about to end, you grabbed Du Busi and tore through the spatial barrier, stepping straight into the mysterious River of Time!
Boom—!
Outside, time resumed its flow.
Tang San's attack slammed into the earth. Within a hundred miles, the land was instantly reduced to scorched wasteland, and a terrifying shock wave swept across the entire battlefield of the Clear Sky Sect.
When the dust settled, no one remained.
"Hmph. Reduced to dust and bones?"
Tang San looked at the empty ruins, a hint of contempt flashing in his eyes.
In his view, mortals were ultimately just mortals. Faced with the power of the gods, they could only be reduced to ashes.
He didn't give it another thought. Grabbing the gravely wounded Er Ming, he turned into a streak of golden light and returned to the Divine Realm.
The Divine Realm, Sea God Temple.
Tang San confidently set out to heal Er Ming.
But the next moment, his expression changed.
No matter how much divine power he poured in, Er Ming's wounds not only failed to heal—they kept getting worse!
This wasn't ordinary physical damage. It was the decay of time!
Er Ming's vitality was ebbing away at a bizarre speed, as if he'd endured ten thousand years of erosion in an instant.
"What... what kind of power is this?!"
Even Tang San, a God King, felt utterly helpless. Time could not be reversed. It was the highest law of the universe, one even he could not defy.
In the end, he could only watch as Er Ming drew his last breath in agony. His body crumbled into a pile of dry bones and scattered in the wind.
Meanwhile, within the River of Time.
Light shimmered in every color. There was no up or down, no east or west—only endless fragments of time flowing all around.
One day outside was one year here!
Through the mist of the River of Time, you watched coldly as events unfolded in the Divine Realm and Er Ming met his gruesome end.
"Tsk. What a pity."
You shook your head. There wasn't a trace of compassion in your eyes, only pure regret.
"That was a Million-Year Soul Ring and Spirit Bone... If I'd absorbed them, my strength would've surged even further."
"But no matter. Tang San, next time we meet, you'll be the one to die..."
You turned away and sat cross-legged, beginning a long and frenzied cultivation.
The day you emerged from the River of Time would be the day the Divine Realm ran red with blood!
In the blink of an eye, perhaps only an instant had passed outside, while you had spent a full ten years cultivating in the River of Time.
Those ten years transformed you from the ground up!
Under the relentless wash of the vast River of Time, the three Soul Cores within you underwent a qualitative leap, completely transforming into brilliant Divine Cores!
Your Martial Soul, "King Crimson," had absorbed an endless flow of temporal laws. Breaking through the limits of mortality, it evolved into a true Super Divine Artifact!
Though you hadn't formally ascended to the Divine Realm, your combat strength now surpassed that of a First-Level God!
Even if the five lofty God Kings of the Divine Realm appeared before you, you were confident that the terrifying burst of power from "Time Erasure" and "King Crimson" could kill them in an instant!
Invincibility—how lonely it was!
The moment you released your Martial Soul, the entire River of Time trembled.
With the power of the River of Time, you filled in the remaining Soul Rings. More than that, you truly elevated your Soul Ring Configuration!
King Crimson: nine-colored, nine-colored, nine-colored... Ten nine-colored, ten-million-year Soul Rings in all!
Epitaph: likewise, ten nine-colored, ten-million-year Soul Rings!
Twenty ten-million-year divine Soul Rings! Each radiated a terrifying divine might powerful enough to crush the void!
What kind of Soul Ring Configuration was that for a Soul Master? It was practically the configuration of a God of Creation!
Du Busi watched you from the side, his expression shifting from shock at first to numbness now.
"Monster... This kid isn't even human anymore..."
He muttered to himself, feeling as if his entire worldview had shattered.
Of course, as someone who'd benefited from the saying "when one person attains the Dao, even their pets ascend," Du Busi hadn't been idle these ten years, either.
Bathed in the afterglow of the River of Time, his body and Soul Power had undergone an unprecedented tempering.
He was no longer the Limit Douluo at level 99. He was now a genuine demigod!
Feeling power surge within him like an ocean, Du Busi clenched his fists and grinned savagely.
"Limit Douluo? Mu En? Long Xiaoyao?"
"Hmph! I could smash them to pieces with one punch now!"
Everything was ready. All that remained was the final push.
Watching your strength soar, Du Busi could no longer contain his fighting spirit!
The sect master of the Body Sect now resembled an unparalleled ferocious weapon drawn from its sheath, radiating a suffocating Killing Intent.
Du Busi rubbed his hands together, itching to storm the Sea God Pavilion and drag that old geezer Mu En out for a beating.
But faced with Du Busi's fervor, you remained remarkably calm and gently shook your head.
"Although I have Divine Cores now and have been elevated, I'm still one final step away from true invincibility."
"One final step?"
Du Busi was stunned. With your current setup, what more could you possibly need?
You raised your head, your gaze piercing layers of clouds as if fixed on the ethereal River of Time.
You would rely on the River of Time to create your own godhood!
You spoke those four words softly, but to Du Busi, they rang like thunder from the heavens!
Create your own godhood?!
Madness! This was sheer madness!
Since ancient times, the path to godhood had meant seeking a god's legacy and inheriting a godhood through divine trials.
But creating your own godhood meant starting from nothing, forging your own path beyond the laws of heaven and earth!
"Inheriting someone else's godhood means living under their thumb, bound by their rules."
A defiant smile curled your lips, and ambition blazed in your eyes.
Now that you had King Crimson and Epitaph, and could glimpse the past and the future, why couldn't you control time?
You would draw upon the most mysterious and irreversible force in existence—the River of Time—and condense a divine core of your own!
You wouldn't become an inheritor of the God of Time. You would become the master of time!
At that moment, your presence changed.
It was no longer the fluctuation of Soul Power, but an incomparably profound "force," as if it stood above all living beings.
Du Busi looked at the seventeen-year-old standing before him, his throat suddenly dry.
He'd thought he'd already given this disciple plenty of credit. He hadn't expected the boy's ambition to be to pierce a hole in the heavens!
Deep in the mountains, time lost all meaning; winter passed without a sense of the years.
You secluded yourself for a full hundred years.
To the outside world, a century had brought earth-shaking changes. To you, immersed in an ocean of laws, it had passed in the blink of an eye.
On this day, a massive rift split open above the River of Time without warning.
There was no tribulation thunder, no dark clouds.
Only a surging river, its source and end nowhere to be seen, flowed out of the void.
It was the River of Time!
You had finally taken that last step!
You didn't rely on the Divine Realm or inherit an old god's power.
Making yourself the crucible and the laws of time your fuel, you forced open a brand-new path within the rules of the universe!
Self-Created Godhood!
You still looked like a youth, but your eyes seemed to contain the birth and death of billions upon billions of stars.
Du Busi stood trembling in the distance.
Though he was already a demigod, looking at you left him gasping, like an ant staring up at the sky!
It wasn't suppression by Soul Power. It was the absolute crushing superiority of a higher level of life!
"D-Disciple?" Du Busi's voice was hoarse. He didn't even dare look you in the eye.
You smiled faintly as your aura flowed around you.
Your "Epitaph" and "King Crimson" Martial Souls had completely fused, becoming a sacred phantom beyond the power of words to describe.
Then twelve rings of light slowly appeared behind you.
They were no longer Soul Rings, but Divine Rings formed from pure temporal laws!
Within each Divine Ring flowed what seemed to be a miniature River of Time, recording the past, present, and future.
Twelve rings! Beyond the God Kings!
The godhood you created was called the God of Creation!
To control time was to control the origin and end of everything.
You looked up at the firmament, your gaze seeming to pierce the barriers between planes and reach the lofty Divine Realm.
"A hundred years have passed. It's time to leave seclusion and settle all accounts."
Your voice was quiet, yet the entire River of Time trembled with it.
Before you continue