One of the children bore a seventy-percent resemblance to the present-day Ji Haiyue, and Qin Tian's Eye of Time opened behind him.
Beneath the Void Mirror, a Great Power sat cross-legged, warm and approachable, explaining the mysteries of cultivation to the children and expounding the closely guarded secret of the Desolate Ancient Ji Family—the Void Ancient Scripture.
In this setting, the Great Power recited the Void Ancient Scripture aloud, every word a pearl of wisdom, unfathomably profound. Its supreme mysteries resonated with the Void Mirror and shook heaven and earth, making it easier for the children to comprehend the scripture.
The scripture contained only ten thousand words or so, and Qin Tian soon committed a volume of the Void Ancient Scripture to memory.
Once the lesson ended, Ji Haiyue and the others departed, leaving only the siblings Ji Haoyue and Ji Ziyue.
"Only the Sea of Bitterness realm? That's enough!"
As Ji Haiyue departed, the Eye of Time also reached its limit.
"I've finished learning the scripture. Now... it's time to end this fight!" Qin Tian's expression turned solemn. Countless symbols of immortal light flashed in his eyes as he stepped through the air toward his opponent.
"Borrow the power of the future to slay the enemy of the present!"
Rumble!
Qin Tian's aura suddenly swelled. The increase was slight, but it was enough to upset the balance.
"Metal, wood, water, fire, earth!"
Qin Tian spread his palm. Five arcane formation diagrams flew out of his Bitter Sea and imprinted themselves upon space, drawing upon the power of the five elements between heaven and earth. As the fundamental elements that made up the world, the qi of the five elements existed everywhere, in greater or lesser quantities.
Now, Qin Tian stirred those five elemental foundations of heaven and earth, reversing their natural order.
The creative power that originally built the world transformed into destruction that would annihilate it.
"Earth, wood, water, fire, metal!"
"Reverse Five-Elements Divine Needles!"
The five elemental Dao diagrams collapsed, transforming into five-colored divine needles as the destructive aspect of the Dao descended. Faced with that destructive power, Ji Haiyue could not resist, even as he drove the ancient mirror with all his strength.
The five-colored world-destroying needles blasted the ancient mirror away. Ji Haiyue escaped disaster only because an inexplicable power protected him.
After defeating Ji Haiyue, Qin Tian sensed danger.
"Damn it, some old bastard is fighting dirty!"
He hurriedly stepped back. Within his Bitter Sea, the primordial purple qi flame bound by three formation diagrams stood ready to unleash. The Profound Jade Platform he had prepared earlier lit up, and Void Shift carried him far from the scene.
"I lost?!"
Only Ji Haiyue remained, kneeling on the mountain with disbelief written across his face.
"Should we kill him, or...?"
Two white-haired elders appeared behind Ji Haiyue, mysterious and unfathomable, without the slightest fluctuation of power. Clearly, their Void Art had reached the pinnacle of mastery.
They were Ji Haiyue's protectors, and the source of the danger Qin Tian had sensed.
"He's a decent opponent. Leave him for Haoyue."
"It's time he tasted blood!"
The elder who had spoken first nodded with a smile. "Yes, indeed. What's so impressive about defeating Haiyue? Haoyue can do it too, and far more easily."
"Let that mud-legged peasant see the might of our Ji Family's Divine King Body."
The elder glanced at Ji Haiyue. "Hmph. Having Haoyue kill that mud-legged peasant will wash away some of this disgrace!"
"Send word out. They may capture that mud-legged peasant and seize his source, but they must not kill him. He is a target of the Desolate Ancient Ji Family. Only our family may kill him."
That single command shook the entire Eastern Wasteland and stunned countless people. How unlucky did someone have to be to find himself in the sights of two supreme forces?
"A single Ji Family disciple forced me to use almost every trick I had."
"What if the Divine King Body came in person?" Qin Tian's heart sank slightly. Ji Haoyue could be considered a touchstone for the path to becoming an emperor. Anyone who could defeat him was essentially qualified to set foot upon that path.
Anyone who could beat him until his Dao heart crumbled would be worthy of standing alongside the likes of Di Tian and the Divine Sovereign.
If Qin Tian faced Ji Haoyue now and held nothing back, he might win, but he would probably end up half-crippled himself.
Qin Tian's gaze hardened. "My strength really is still too lacking."
"I have to find a way to surpass myself. Compared with special constitutions like divine bodies, a mortal body is still somewhat frail!"
"Qin Tian" rode a streak of rainbow light, racing between the cliffs as mountains and emerald-green screens swept rapidly past him.
Just then, a roar came from the horizon. "Look, it's the Yaoguang Holy Land's mining slave! Don't let him escape!"
An enormous hand stretched across the sky. Vast fluctuations of divine power surged, making it hard to breathe, as though a Primordial Divine Mountain were crashing down or space itself were collapsing. Its divine might was unfathomable!
Merely extending that hand and releasing fluctuations of divine power made the earth groan and tremble. Rocks disintegrated, ground to dust in an instant beneath that irresistible divine power!
"This is fucking ridiculous. Why are there so many of them?!"
Sensing the powerful binding force around him, "Qin Tian" sighed helplessly and gave up resisting.
A silvery-white glow spread over him as he reverted to the form of a paper effigy. Beneath the enormous hand's crushing pressure, he shattered into countless scraps of paper that drifted away.
"Damn it, another one of these bizarre paper effigies! They're almost identical to a real person. There's no way to tell them apart!"
The Dragon Transformation Cultivator leading the group gritted his teeth. Qin Tian was frustrated by the number of people pursuing him.
The cultivator was equally furious. How could a mere Other Shore cultivator be so difficult to catch, slippery as a loach? He had caught these paper effigies more than a dozen times, yet not one had been the real body.
"Keep chasing! We must get our hands on that million jin of source!" At the Dragon Transformation Cultivator's command, the cultivators behind him transformed into countless streaks of light and scattered in every direction.
Ji Haiyue had delayed Qin Tian, and their battle had exposed his whereabouts. Far too many people had come to hunt him down.
Even Half-Step Great Powers of the Immortal Platform realm had crossed regions just to obtain that million jin of source.
Although source was useless to Immortal Platform cultivators, which of them did not have a few juniors?
To an Immortal Platform cultivator, a million jin of source was no small sum either. Earning it simply by catching an Other Shore cultivator was practically getting it for free.
That was what everyone had thought at first.
But... who could have imagined that a mere Other Shore cultivator would be so hard to catch? He was like a loach; they could not find his real body at all.
Qin Tian was overwhelmed too. With so many cultivators hunting him, he would have been caught long ago if he had not used his time secret art to create shadows of time and form paper effigies.
Qin Tian hid within space, sensing the movements of the paper effigies in every direction.
Qin Tian sighed. "Another paper effigy destroyed!"
Qin Tian took out another paper effigy and fed a measure of divine power into it. Then a silvery-white glow rose in his left eye, transforming into a silver Heavenly Blade, traces of time flowing over its surface.
The silver Heavenly Blade slowly rose. Like fate, like time, unstoppable and inevitable, it slowly cut into Qin Tian, taking a shadow from the flow of time and placing it upon the paper effigy. A silvery-white glow flashed, and the effigy expanded as though inflated. It landed on the ground, and another Qin Tian appeared.
"Run southeast," Qin Tian ordered.
The paper-effigy Qin Tian nodded, mounted a divine rainbow, and sped through the clouds, wandering among the mountains and admiring the scenery of the Eastern Wasteland.
Over the years, he had stayed in the Northern Region mining, surrounded by endless desolation that left him depressed.
But before the paper-effigy Qin Tian could admire the scenery for long, someone spotted him.
Someone shouted, "That million is over there!"
That one shout attracted at least fifty more cultivators.
The paper-effigy Qin Tian helplessly pressed a hand to his forehead. "Just how many people are chasing me?!"
Still, it did not matter. After all, he was only a clone. If he was caught, so be it.
While everyone went off to chase the paper-effigy clone.
Qin Tian made a feint in the east and struck in the west, stealthily returning to the Fire Domain. Just as he reached its vicinity, his extraordinary eyesight caught a streak of rainbow light descending in the distance, and he hurriedly stopped.
The rainbow light faded, revealing the figure within: a plump Daoist with a ruddy face, grinning broadly, his mouthful of dazzling white teeth especially eye-catching.
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