The Eighteenth Layer

The Gatekeeper only managed to deflect his blade for an instant. In that brief moment, Ye Muxuan used the Law of Time as his foundation and completed a block, a rising slash, a chop, and a cut!

His blade deflected the masked Gatekeeper's War Blade. He turned his blade upward, then chopped down, splitting the masked Gatekeeper's body. The tip came to rest against the Origin Bead and gave it a slight tap!

The Origin Bead shuddered, and cracks appeared. Then it split apart and shattered!

With a single slash, the Origin Bead shattered, and the World Lord died!

He had cleared the Sixteenth Layer!

He had caught up with the top tier of the Primordial Secret Realm, and had even reached the middle-to-lower ranks of the Primal Secret Realm!

The Law of Time was one of the universe's two fundamental laws, alongside the Space Laws. In theory, once someone earned the Law of Time's recognition, they could pass the Eighteenth Layer. The Law of Time had three major branches: Time Reversal, Time Stasis, and Time Acceleration. Comprehending any one of them would allow someone to clear the Twentieth Layer of the Heavenly Bridge. For geniuses, comprehending all three separately was not difficult. But without perfectly combining them into one, forming the complete Law of Time, they would still be stuck at the Twentieth Layer. If they could unite the three into one, they could become a Time Venerable and even clear the Twenty-first Layer.

The human experts who were Peak King Level now, such as Heavenly Feather King and King Lishuo, had comprehended all three branches of the Law of Time. Meanwhile, King Zhenyan and King Qianyu had comprehended the three major branches of the Space Laws. These Peak King Level and Limit King Level experts had all cleared the Twentieth Layer, but without uniting the three branches, they remained stuck at the final hurdle and could not become Venerables!

Ye Muxuan lowered his blade and looked at the Gatekeeper, whose eyes beneath the mask still held a trace of bewilderment. He murmured, "Actually, I could have cleared this two thousand years ago."

The masked Gatekeeper's body once again dissolved into a mass of mist, wisps of it merging into the darkness in the distance. A path appeared before Ye Muxuan.

The Jinghong Chaos Stele had nine diagrams. Comprehending the first three allowed one to clear the Ninth Layer. Comprehending the first six allowed one to clear the Eighteenth Layer. The seventh diagram contained the complete Law of Time; as long as one comprehended it, one could clear the Twenty-first Layer!

In his first year in Chaos City, when he first studied the Chaos Stele, the first four diagrams of the Jinghong Chaos Stele held no secrets from him. He had used that to clear the Thirteenth Layer. Though he was confident he could clear the Fourteenth or even the Fifteenth Layer, he had not tried to advance further. A mere hundred years later, the first five diagrams held no secrets from him either, and he had used that to clear the Fourteenth Layer! Or rather, he had drawn on Floating Light and Shadow Sweep, and studied Miscellaneous Theories of Clear Shadows in detail. In just a hundred years, he had comprehended and absorbed the first five diagrams. Yet, under Heavenly Feather King's guidance, he still spent over three thousand years studying the sixth diagram. By the first millennium, he had comprehended most of it, and used that to clear the Fifteenth Layer.

That was also when the teacher behind Heavenly Feather King came to take him as a nominal disciple!

White Phoenix Palace Master!

This powerful woman had looked after him when he first arrived in Chaos City. He had always been grateful to her, and now she had become his teacher!

Now, two thousand years later, with senior brother Heavenly Feather King's guidance, he had nearly finished comprehending the sixth diagram. He couldn't say that it held no secrets from him at all, nor had he mastered it as thoroughly as the first five diagrams. But he could say that he was only a step away from mastering it completely!

For the Seventeenth Layer, he still chose a Fighter. This time, the Gatekeeper's Law Comprehension represented the level of a Peak Marquis!

Even so, Ye Muxuan remained completely unruffled. His Combat Secret Technique had already reached the level of a barely adequate King Rank, and his Law Comprehension was no weaker. Naturally, he felt little pressure. Unlike his swift, decisive victory on the Sixteenth Layer, this time he traded over a hundred blows with the Gatekeeper. Only after fully grasping the secret technique's artistic conception that the Gatekeeper conveyed did he finally pass!

He cleared the Seventeenth Layer! He had left the top tier of the Primordial Secret Realm behind and entered the upper tier of the Primal Secret Realm!

The Eighteenth Layer!

"Choose your opponent: Fighter, Spirit Controller, or Illusionist. Choose one and defeat them to pass." A voice came from within a mass of dark clouds.

"I choose..." The battle on the Eighteenth Layer no longer took place on the ground, but in the starry sky. Ye Muxuan stood among the stars, closed his eyes, then opened them. His voice was calm, strong, and firm. "...Fighter!"

After the Chaos True Spirit had perfectly repaired the flaws in his soul, his soul was flawless, and he had perfect control over his body. His consciousness and will had long since reached Peak King Level. Even Heavenly Feather King had praised him for it back then. There was no longer any doubt that he would become an Immortal.

So, in theory, choosing an Illusionist as his opponent would give him a better chance of passing the Eighteenth Layer.

But Ye Muxuan still chose a Fighter!

His comprehension of the Time Origin Law ran deep. He had studied all three branches, and was now only a hair's breadth away from earning the Time Origin Law's recognition. He had even made it more than halfway through the branch of Time Stasis. He wanted to clear the Eighteenth Layer, and the prospect of gaining permanent residence in Chaos City was also a powerful enticement. But more than that, he wanted a formidable opponent. He hoped the pressure of battle would push his mastery of the Time Origin Law to a new level!

Wisps of mist seeped out and took the form of a burly, masked man clad in black armor. A hoarse, aged voice came from beneath the mask. "A new World Lord from the Outer Battlefield, and you've reached me in just three thousand years. Your prospects are boundless!"

"Please, instruct me!" Ye Muxuan raised a hand and saluted.

The next instant, he swung his blade in a slash!

Facing the opponent on the Eighteenth Layer, Ye Muxuan seized the initiative!

Wind Severing!

The burly, masked elder raised a hand in response to the move. A War Blade leaped into it. He rubbed its hilt, then abruptly pointed its tip at Ye Muxuan. A cold glint flashed in his eyes as he softly uttered a single word: "Chaos!"

The Gatekeeper of the Eighteenth Layer of the Jinghong Chaos Stele had already earned the Time Origin Law's recognition. His comprehension of the Time Origin Law could certainly be called "well-versed." With the simple word "Chaos," he used the Law of Time to empower himself, then used the temporal field around him to affect his opponent!

Ye Muxuan's blade came down, but his wrist trembled for an instant, throwing off the strike! Not only did his Wind Severing Secret Technique fail outright because its Law Secret Patterns had not formed, greatly reducing its power, but the tip of his blade also missed the Gatekeeper by several meters!

It wasn't Time Stasis, Time Reversal, or Time Acceleration. Instead, it was a disordered temporal field created by blending all three branches together! He used his comprehension of the Law of Time to disturb the temporal field around him!

Ye Muxuan's eyes lit up!