Neuvillette, Authority Revealed! Forbidden Art: Eternal Fragrance of Ten Thousand Generations! Exposed!

The words on the Golden Ranking List gradually faded away.

In their place, a vast scene slowly unfolded.

It was no still image, but a play of shifting light and shadow—a projection of history that had truly taken place.

Everyone held their breath.

They knew the Golden Ranking List was showing the two terrifying powers it had labeled "forbidden."

The scene showed a desolate wasteland, barren beyond measure.

A thousand miles of yellow sand stretched away, not a blade of grass in sight. Only weathered rocks stood like tombstones.

A tall, slender figure appeared at the edge of the scene.

His face was indistinct.

All that could be seen was his flowing silver hair and his luxurious, deep-blue robe, like the sea.

In his hands, he held a weighty tome called the Grand Ceremony of Eternal Flow.

He made no unnecessary movements. He merely turned a page.

Whoosh—

The sound of the page turning overlapped with a sudden tide-like roar that rang out between heaven and earth.

Clear springs welled up from the parched yellow sand.

Then the sun, moon, and stars in the scene began spinning wildly.

Day and night passed so quickly that they blurred into alternating bands of black and white.

As time rushed by in a dizzying torrent, the springs joined to form a river, which surged into the sea.

The dry rocks eroded into soil beneath the passage of time.

Seeds sprouted. Towering trees burst from the ground, only to wither and collapse in an instant, becoming spring mud that nourished the next generation of forest.

In the space of only a few breaths,

the barren expanse of yellow sand stretching for thousands of miles had vanished completely.

In its place lay a vast ocean, stretching as far as the eye could see, and a lush primeval forest along its shores.

Vicissitudes of Life.

Those four words were no longer a lifeless idiom in a book. They were a divine miracle unfolding before their eyes, enough to make their scalps tingle.

With a single thought, he had transformed heaven and earth.

This was Neuvillette's power.

If Vicissitudes of Life had been awe-inspiring in its sheer scale, then the scene that followed struck terror into the depths of the soul.

The scene shifted.

The viewpoint moved to a prosperous ancient city, its name unknown.

The deep-blue figure still hovered silently above the city.

A translucent, pale-blue barrier, like an enormous inverted bowl, enclosed the entire city.

Beyond the barrier, the wind was calm and the clouds drifted peacefully. Everything went on as usual.

Within it, however, time ran wild like a galloping horse, completely out of control.

People watched helplessly as the city's buildings weathered, eroded, and collapsed before their eyes.

The living beings within the city—the bewildered people, birds, and beasts—experienced birth, aging, sickness, and death in an incredibly short span of time.

Babies grew up in an instant, young people turned gray-haired in the blink of an eye, and the elderly became bones.

One generation died, and a new one was born amid the ruins, only to experience the same cycle, accelerated ten thousandfold.

Outside, only an instant had passed.

Within the barrier, ten thousand years had already flowed by.

Only the figure hovering in the air remained utterly unmoved amid the raging torrent of time.

Not even the faintest trace of age could mark him.

Even the hem of his robe had not faded beneath time's relentless wash.

This was the forbidden art, Eternal Fragrance of Ten Thousand Generations.

This was eternity.

When the scene had completely faded and the Golden Ranking List had returned to stillness,

Douluo Continent sank into a prolonged silence.

This silence lasted longer than any that had come before, and weighed heavier than all the others.

Outside Jialing Pass.

Tang San stared fixedly at the sky, now calm once more.

His chest heaved violently, and his tightly clenched fists had gone slack.

The sting of his nails digging into his palms could not rouse him from his overwhelming sense of defeat.

He had lost.

He had lost completely.

When he had faced Furina's Radiance of Still Waters, he had still been able to entertain the thought that he could take her place.

But now, faced with the Grand Ceremony of Eternal Flow, which commanded time and space and embodied absolute law,

the pride in his heart melted away like the last snow beneath the blazing sun.

"Why..."

Tang San's voice was low.

"Why can one faction possess two Supreme Divine Artifacts?"

"And why are they ranked first and second?"

He couldn't understand.

He was a dual god, the chosen one. He had endured countless hardships to reach where he was today.

The Seagod Trident and the Asura Demon Sword—he had risked his life to obtain them both.

But what about Neuvillette?

He had never even heard of him undergoing a divine trial, let alone slaying some astonishing Soul Beast.

Yet he had casually produced two treasures powerful enough to crush the entire Divine Realm.

Why?

Envy sank its fangs into Tang San's heart like a poisonous snake.

If Neuvillette had merely been a little stronger, Tang San would have found a way to surpass him.

But the gulf between them seemed like a chasm between heaven and earth, and Tang San was nearly losing the courage to even try to catch up.

"Ah..."

Just then,

a heavy sigh sounded beside Tang San.

Tang San stiffly turned his head.

Yu Xiaogang stood with his hands behind his back, gazing up toward Skywater City. His usually rigid, stern face was remarkably calm.

He showed none of Tang San's despair, nor any of the fear gripping the others.

Even his eyes, so often tinged with melancholy, held a glimmer of what looked like "wisdom."

"Teacher..."

Tang San called to him, his voice tinged with helplessness.

Yu Xiaogang lowered his gaze and looked at his most prized pupil.

He shook his head gently, as though even if the sky came crashing down, he could still find a flaw in its logic.

"Xiao San, you've lost your composure."

Yu Xiaogang's voice was quiet, yet carried a curious power to soothe.

"Envy and fear will cloud your eyes and keep you from seeing the true nature of things."

Tang San gave a bitter smile.

"The true nature of things? Teacher, does it matter when faced with absolute power?"

"That power even touches the domain of time... I don't know how I could ever defeat him."

Yu Xiaogang did not argue. Instead, he set off at a slow pace in front of the tent.

"Think carefully."

"From Furina's Blade of Still Waters and Judgment to Neuvillette's Grand Ceremony of Eternal Flow..."

"What do these three top-ranked artifacts have in common?"

Tang San froze, then answered instinctively:

"They... all have something to do with water."

"Exactly."

Yu Xiaogang stopped, his eyes flashing.

"Water attributes. Powers involving Judgment, law, time, and the sea."

"Is there any place on Douluo Continent that perfectly matches all these traits?"

Yu Xiaogang answered before Tang San could.

"Only Skywater City."

"And it can only be Skywater City."

Yu Xiaogang turned around, his gaze fixed intently on Tang San.

"Do you remember the statue we saw in the center of Skywater City when I took you there to travel, a long time ago?"