Across the River of Time

Luo Yan glanced at the four of them. They were among the more talented members of the Luo Family, eighteen or nineteen years old and already in the Divine Bridge Realm.

They fell far short of true prodigies, but in the Southern Region, they still counted as minor talents.

"This is our first meeting, and I don't have much on me. This notebook contains some of my insights from the Sea of Bitterness Realm to the Dao Palace Realm. The five of you should take it and study it carefully. It will be a great help in advancing your cultivation! If there's anything you don't understand, you can come ask me. I'll explain whatever I know." Luo Yan took out a yellowed notebook. His body's original owner had prepared these for the Luo Family's younger generation.

They contained insights into the four great secret realms-Sea of Bitterness, Dao Palace, Four Extremes, and Dragon Transformation-as well as the Immortal Platform Secret Realm.

Except for the King Realm after Severing the Dao at the third level of Immortal Platform, every realm had its own corresponding notebook of insights. The original owner had put considerable care into them.

The eyes of Luo Tianlin, Luo Youyou, Luo Tianyuan, Luo Qing, and Luo Huaimu instantly burned with excitement. A Saint's insights into the Sea of Bitterness Realm were a priceless treasure!

"Thank you, Ancestor!" the five said in unison.

That night, Luo Zongqi returned to the Luo Family through a Teleportation Array and told the clan elders that their ancestor was still alive.

Upon hearing that their ancestor still lived, none of them could sit still. They immediately wanted to set out for Mo City, where he had once cultivated in seclusion, to seek an audience with him.

"Heaven truly watches over our Luo Family! To think our ancestor is still alive! Wonderful! Our Luo Family is saved!" said a Luo Family elder in the Four Extremes Realm.

"Is the ancestor truly still alive?" the Luo Family Head asked, his voice trembling.

"Without a doubt! But the ancestor isn't in good condition at present. His body is in terrible shape, and he has no more than three hundred years left to live! Even his memory has been damaged, and there are many things he no longer remembers! He has emerged from seclusion to seek an Immortal Medicine to extend his lifespan."

The news Luo Zongqi brought back shocked everyone. Was their ancestor's condition that terrible? Had he reached the point where only an Immortal Medicine could sustain him?

Their ancestor wielded time divine power, the most forbidden power in the world. By all rights, he should have enjoyed an immense lifespan. Yet as his cultivation rose, time had instead eroded him, drastically shortening his life.

"I returned on the ancestor's orders to take the Time Mirror with me. He intends to attempt to repair it," Luo Zongqi continued.

"The Time Mirror is the ancestor's life-bound divine weapon. Naturally, it should return to his hands." No one objected.

A highly respected clan elder suddenly asked, "Third Elder, did the ancestor say how he intends to handle Xian'er's matter?"

Luo Yixian was a descendant of his branch, the bearer of the Chaos Origin Divine Body who had the potential to become the next Ancestor Luo Yan.

At those words, the entire gathering fell silent. This was their greatest concern now. Without their ancestor's intervention, the matter was virtually impossible to resolve, and the Luo Family would face a calamity that drowned them all.

"The ancestor will pay a visit to the Yaoguang Holy Land in the coming days," Luo Zongqi said, concealing nothing.

Hearing this, everyone finally felt the great stone weighing on their hearts drop away.

Their Luo Family's ancestor was a Saint! In this age of declining cultivation, even peerless Kings scarcely appeared, let alone Saints. At most, a few living fossils in the Mighty Figure Realm still walked the world. What did a mere elder of the Yaoguang Holy Land amount to? Even against the entire holy land, their ancestor would have nothing to fear!

"Third Elder, don't keep the ancestor waiting!" The Luo Family Head handed Luo Zongqi the Time Mirror, which had shattered into over a hundred fragments.

Luo Yan stared at the hundred-odd fragments, then used a divine ability to piece them into a complete mirror. He applied a secret art to hold them together and keep them from breaking apart.

"The original owner really was a monster!" Only upon receiving the mirror did Luo Yan understand why the original owner's lifespan had dwindled so rapidly despite his mastery of time law and his cultivation at the peak of the Quasi-Emperor Realm.

He had wanted to emulate the Yaoguang Holy Land's Dragon-Pattern Cauldron and forge an Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon without attaining the Dao of a Great Emperor!

But an Emperor Weapon was not so easily forged. In the end, he had only half succeeded, suffering a backlash that drastically shortened his lifespan.

In a certain sense, the Time Mirror had indeed become an Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon, but it was incomplete. Luo Yan surmised that if he could unite its several hundred shattered pieces, the Time Mirror would ascend to the level of an Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon!

That was why it was only half a success.

If he repaired it, then with his peak Quasi-Emperor cultivation and an Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon in hand, he would rival a living Great Emperor!

That way, he could suppress even the terrifying supreme beings in the Life Forbidden Zones who had survived since before Desolate Antiquity. Even against a Great Emperor, he would have the strength to fight.

"To repair the Time Mirror, I need to steal the origin of time from the River of Time. But that is extraordinarily dangerous. One moment of carelessness, and I could become lost within it!" Seizing the origin of time was an act of defiance against heaven itself. Even an Ancient Great Emperor would not dare tread lightly into the River of Time.

But Luo Yan wielded time law and possessed a profound understanding of the power of time. Even if he became lost, he had ways to find his way back.

Luo Yan activated his time art and channeled it into the Time Mirror. A beam of light shot out, and the entire room changed in an instant.

Luo Yan looked down. He was now like a solitary skiff, walking upon the River of Time with the Time Mirror resting in one hand.

Before this vast river, Luo Yan was as insignificant as a speck of duckweed. Yet that very speck could withstand the grinding erosion of the ages. He pushed his own power of time to its limits, constantly counteracting the erosion of years upon the River of Time.

"The origin of time can be hidden in any stretch of the river. To seize it, I can only head upstream!" As Luo Yan spoke, endless power of time poured from his body, and he traveled against the current. The Time Mirror likewise released its laws, helping him resist the River of Time's erosion.

Ten years, a hundred years, three hundred years, five hundred years...

Luo Yan continued upstream as fragments of time and history within the river receded around him.

"Found it!" Luo Yan fixed his gaze on a streak of white light ahead. It was a complete strand of the origin of time, surrounded by endless time laws that flooded this stretch of the river with the power of time.

Luo Yan did not need much. One-third would suffice.

It was not that he did not want all of it, but that he could not take it. If he took the entire origin, he would draw the attention of the River of Time's consciousness and be erased.

Luo Yan directed the Time Mirror toward the origin. A beam of light shot from the mirror, cleaving the origin of time in two like a divine weapon. Luo Yan acted instantly, imprisoning the smaller portion and reaching out to seize it so that it could not escape.

The origin battered wildly against Luo Yan's hand, seemingly trying to flee.

Luo Yan gave it no opportunity and drove it straight into the Time Mirror.

Just then, a towering wave surged down from upstream, as though intent on swallowing Luo Yan whole.

"This is bad!"

Luo Yan cried out in alarm. This was a time surge. Once caught within it, he would inevitably be hurled into historical turbulence!

He had encountered a time surge on his very first venture into the River of Time. His luck could not have been worse!

Luo Yan immediately used the Time Mirror to cast down temporal light and shelter himself from the power of the laws upon the surge. Others might have no answer to a time surge, but that was not true for him.

"As long as nothing goes wrong with the Time Mirror, I can certainly weather this surge!" Luo Yan was confident.

Buzzz-

A tremendous sound rang out, and the Time Mirror above his head began visibly fading...

I'm doomed! The Time Mirror has fallen dormant! Luo Yan knew things had taken a terrible turn.

The enormous wave swallowed Luo Yan in an instant. He circulated his laws to protect himself. Without the Time Mirror as a medium, resisting the River of Time's immense power with his flesh alone put him at a severe disadvantage.

Only after the Time Mirror awakened from its slumber could he step into the River of Time again and return. For now, however, Luo Yan had no idea what era the surge would send him to. It might be a hundred years ago, a thousand years ago, or even ten thousand years ago.