[Limit-Breaking Had No Limit, an Unexpected Turn, the [Spacetime Token] Unleashed Its Power, [Rewind]]

[You took stock of how efficiently various items could charge the [Spacetime Token]:]

[[Ancient Relics] provided one percent, [a Foundation Establishment cultivator's jade bone] provided two percent, while that precious [Heaven and Earth Wonder] had provided a full thirty percent in one go!]

[The difference in efficiency was enormous.]

[Moreover, because this [Heaven and Earth Wonder] had spent years inside the [Secret Realm], cut off from [Heaven and Earth],]

[Its [Dao Resonance] had become somewhat incomplete. Had it been intact, it should have provided at least forty percent charge, perhaps even more!]

[The [Spacetime Token] was now seventy percent charged. Only the final thirty percent remained,]

[Before it could activate again and connect to the [Supreme Dao Immortal Venerable] in the past—Lin Feng!]

[Under the circumstances, perhaps he was the only one who could help you. If this transmigrator senior cared for his juniors, he might even bestow some other spiritual treasures upon you then.]

[But first, you had to finish charging the [Spacetime Token].]

[Yet this point in time also closely coincided with the moment foretold in the prophecy of your death revealed by the boy Mo Wuyou from the future]

[—"[Qi Refining Perfection ＜Ninth Limit-Breaking＞], dead beneath the Chen Family's old locust tree."]

[An invisible sense of urgency seized you by the throat.]

[You had considered attempting to break through to [Foundation Establishment].]

[But breaking through to Foundation Establishment required condensing a [Life-Bound Divine Ability]. This process had to draw upon the laws of the outside world and could not be performed within a sealed Secret Realm.]

[You knew powerful enemies lurked on every side outside, and you had already become a target for numerous beings. You did not dare set foot outside the Secret Realm lightly.]

[After weighing it over and over, you decided not to take the risk for now. Your priority was to accumulate energy for the [Spacetime Token], striving to connect with Lin Feng again and seek guidance or a turning point.]

[Age 131]: [To your surprise, you discovered that even after reaching [Qi Refining Perfection, Ninth Limit-Breaking], you could still continue condensing [primordial qi]!]

[The process had simply become exceedingly slow and difficult.]

[Since breaking through to the ninth level half a year earlier, you had cultivated day and night without rest at a hundred thousand times the normal efficiency, yet had condensed only a third of a new strand of [primordial qi].]

[You strongly suspected that the so-called "Ninth Limit-Breaking" was not the true limit,]

[But rather that the tenth Limit-Breaking and those beyond required an astronomical accumulation of [Dao Attainment], far exceeding the sum of all previous levels, making them almost impossible for anyone to attain.]

[This could not help reminding you once more of the ancient legend Chen Qingyan had mentioned]

[—[Ten-thousandfold limit-breaking].]

[Perhaps it was not an empty tale. Its conditions were simply so harsh as to inspire despair.]

[That year, you found ten [Ancient Relics] in the Secret Realm, bringing the [Spacetime Token]'s charge to eighty percent.]

[Age 132]: [You were just a hair's breadth away from fully condensing that tenth strand of [primordial qi].]

[At the same time, the [Spacetime Token]'s charge had reached ninety percent.]

[With victory in sight, you prayed constantly that nothing else would go wrong.]

[Yet the very thing you feared came to pass.]

[Just as you devoted your full attention to the final push, the entire Secret Realm began shaking violently without warning!]

[This was no ordinary upheaval of earth and mountains. The structure of space itself had begun to collapse and vanish!]

[An unimaginable, immense power, far beyond your understanding, was forcibly crushing and tearing apart this independent space from outside.]

[Your expression instantly grew graver than ever.]

[The level of this power was too high. You could not accurately determine whether it came from a [Golden Core Powerhouse] or... a [Nascent Soul True Lord]?!]

[You instinctively gripped the [Supreme Limitless Dharma Seal], and the thought of using your final [Rewind] flashed through your mind.]

[This was your only—and strongest—life-saving trump card.]

[But at this decisive moment between life and death, your will seemed to sink into a mire, giving rise to a profoundly unnatural [hesitation]!]

[In that lightning-quick instant of hesitation, a vast, majestic invocation, imbued with boundless compassion and authority,]

[Pierced straight through the collapsing barriers of the Secret Realm like thunder from the nine heavens, resounding in the depths of your soul:]

["Amitabha! Benefactor, it has been a long time!"]

[That voice! You would never forget it!]

[It belonged to the Ancient Buddha who had attacked you in the temple west of the [Myriad Beasts Mountain Range]—that [Golden Core Powerhouse]!]

[Damn it! you roared inwardly.]

[With your present strength of will and decisiveness, such inexplicable hesitation should never have arisen at a moment of life and death!]

[Some higher-level being must have been secretly influencing your mind!]

[Yet you clearly carried the [Heavenly Secret Creation Jade Butterfly], a [Heavenly Venerable Spirit Treasure] capable of concealing heavenly secrets and protecting your mind!]

[How could you still have fallen victim?]

[Unless... unless the [True Lord] backing this Ancient Buddha]

[Was so inconceivably powerful that he might even have exceeded Lin Feng's expectations, leaving a gap in this [Supreme Treasure]'s protection?!]

[Boundless despair swallowed you in an instant.]

[Unable to move, a powerful enemy descending upon you, your trump card disrupted before it could activate... everything seemed set in stone.]

[Yet—]

[At the very instant the [Ancient Buddha]'s enormous golden palm was about to crush you along with the shattered Secret Realm!]

[The [Damaged Spacetime Token] against your chest seemed to sense its host's desperate brush with death and spontaneously erupted with an unprecedentedly brilliant light!]

[Waves of incomparably substantial spacetime fluctuations spread instantly, like mercury spilling across the ground!]

[Crack—]

[It was as though something had been forcibly frozen and reversed.]

[Drawn by this spontaneously activated power of spacetime, the [Supreme Limitless Dharma Seal] in your hand resonated in response!]

[Its first ability, [Rewind]—without any conscious activation from you, it was triggered by the [Spacetime Token]'s power and activated on its own!]

[You felt the collapsing scene around you race backward like a film playing in reverse. Torn fragments of space knit themselves back together, and annihilated matter condensed anew...]

[The Ancient Buddha's majestic invocation and terrifying golden palm swiftly receded like the tide, blurred, and finally vanished completely...]

[All perception sank into a chaotic swirl of flowing, iridescent light.]

[When your consciousness regained clarity, the scene around you had stabilized.]

[To your astonishment, you discovered that you were standing inside the Secret Realm, and time...]

[Seemed to have returned to more than a hundred years earlier, to that [starting point] shortly after Chen Qingyan's departure, when you had been preparing to begin your long seclusion!]

[Your final [Rewind] had been used up.]

[But thanks to it, you had narrowly escaped a [Golden Core Powerhouse]'s certain death trap.]