Hell's assassins were brimming with fighting spirit.
-Restore Hell's glory, starting by trampling over the Sacred Body's bones!
Feng Jiu left in high spirits. His outsourcing had been a resounding success.
Hell was, after all, a formidable assassin organization. Push them hard enough, and they could even produce a Killing Saint. Against a mere mighty cultivator with a Sacred Body, how could they lose?
No matter how you looked at it, the disparity in strength was overwhelming. A Saint against a mighty cultivator-the advantage was theirs!
What?
The Sacred Body could turn the tables and kill them?
Then bring Ye Fan here!
"Yes, there won't be any problems..."
Feng Jiu returned to his cave abode and quietly ran through his calculations. Victory was assured. All he needed to do was wait for Hell to complete the mission, then sit back and reap the rewards when the young man who had placed the order came to pay the balance.
That payment was astonishing. The agreed amount had been a large soup bowl's worth of immortal tear green gold; only a fist-sized portion had been taken as the deposit.
"A large soup bowl's worth of immortal tear green gold... It's nowhere near enough to forge a truly substantial weapon, but if I'm economical with it, I can still make do."
Feng Jiu pictured his wonderful future. "It'll also make up for what I lacked when I first set out on the path of cultivation-the regret of not having immortal gold to forge my sole weapon..."
His early cultivation had been far from ideal.
After all, he had merely been a Killer Seed, one who had yet to distinguish himself.
In fact, this was the norm for the vast majority of cultivators in the world, even disciples of Extreme Dao Holy Lands and descendants of peerless imperial clans...
Unless their background defied the heavens, with everything prepared for them from birth.
Still, this hardly counted as a major problem.
After all, even the creator of this world's Secret Realm Method, that Heavenly Emperor Huang who had stood alone across the ages, had only truly forged the weapons bound to his life and soul, the weapons with which he fought throughout his life, after entering the Immortal Dao Domain. He had gathered countless peerless immortal treasures, cast a pool, and forged a sword-the lightning pool and imperial sword-with which to wage war against the ominous.
A good meal was worth waiting for. Anything would do as a stopgap in the early stages.
Still, the news of a Sacred Body gave Feng Jiu food for thought. He considered the future imperial path. The universe was vast, with no shortage of physiques or races blessed with powerful bodies. Perhaps he needed a blade devoted purely to killing, one that would push its ability to pierce defenses to the limit.
Paired with the unrivaled Nine Secrets: Xing, it would embody the truth that among all the world's divine abilities, speed alone could not be overcome!
"If I can set foot in the domain of time..." Feng Jiu mused. "Hmm, I should be quite talented in that area, shouldn't I?"
He smiled faintly, and a wisp of hazy fragrance quietly rippled through his soul.
That fragrance came from a wondrous immortal flower. Though the young lotus had only just shown its pointed tip, in an instant it blurred the years and overturned time. The faint fragrance it released was an entire life reset!
In a daze, there seemed to be a torrent of light like the rivers and seas of the Primordial World, like the starry rivers of the universe pouring down. It was heaven and earth, time, reincarnation, the changing ages, the succession that had endured since antiquity, the ceaseless alternation and unfolding of laws-and at last, it pressed the restart button!
Feng Jiu's life in this world played out again, returning to the very beginning of his cultivation so he could relive those years.
Flowers could bloom again, and people could be young once more!
Of course, perhaps because the Myriad Tribulation Reincarnation Lotus was still too weak, this replayed life was confined to Feng Jiu himself. He could hardly interact with the outside world, so it could not be called true "rebirth."
Perhaps when the Myriad Tribulation Reincarnation Lotus bloomed and astounded the world, the entire Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, or even a vast expanse of heavens, could have their so-called ancient histories reset. Hundreds of millions of years could be reversed, and every regret could be easily undone!
But that was far too distant.
"Reflecting all the heavens... That has nothing to do with me."
"Used in the present, though, it's immensely helpful for exploring time..."
Feng Jiu savored the mysteries of time's arising and dissolution. It was as though he had transcended himself and opened an instance of his own life to examine from outside; yet it was also as though he had truly been reborn and was walking his old path once more.
He began the cultivation he knew inside and out all over again, setting sail from the initial opening of his Bitter Sea.
He opened the Sea of Bitterness, stirred the Life Spring, and crossed to the far shore; awakened his five organs, formed his Dao Palaces, had his Departed Self recite scripture and his Dao Self comprehend the Dao; tempered his four limbs, letting the Four Extremes reach the heavens; underwent nine stages of Dragon Transformation, the true dragon's nine changes; his Immortal Platform became clear and pure, shining brilliantly...
Divine power surged like a sea of stars, fully unfolding the profound truths of the ancient scripture passed down by the Heavenly Court Organization. A Quasi-Emperor had poured a lifetime of effort into creating that scripture, and it already contained countless reflections and explorations concerning the domain of time.
When Feng Jiu incorporated his insights into Nine Secrets: Xing, it was like painting the pupils onto a dragon and bringing it to life. The scripture suddenly gained a "spirit," faintly beginning to sublime, as though on the verge of transformation.
Rumble!
A strange phenomenon abruptly took shape. A long, illusory, transparent river seemed to surge forth, winding around Feng Jiu's body, both real and unreal!
Within that river, fragments of time seemed to dance, while the light of passing years shimmered.
As the river appeared, Feng Jiu's Sea of Bitterness burned. His Bitter Sea and Wheel of Life transformed into each other, one wearing life away, the other extending it, leaving clearly visible marks. This was a true depiction of the years cutting down prodigies like a blade: each mark was a year, carved onto the Wheel of Life.
Throughout a mortal's life, the Wheel of Life steadily dried up. Every year, time left another mark upon it, like a tree's growth rings. By the time a person reached old age, the Wheel of Life was covered in the scars of passing years. That was when their allotted lifespan ended.
Cultivators set foot on the path of life's evolution, strengthening their Wheels of Life and greatly increasing their capacity... Yet without the nourishment of longevity substance, the marks of passing years would still remain clear.
Now, however, within Feng Jiu's body, those marks seemed to come alive. They still existed, and their number remained unchanged-however many there should have been, that was how many there were. But they rearranged themselves, forming an "S" one moment and a "B" the next... Through countless transformations, they finally evolved naturally into an unfathomably profound rune!
This rune crystallized Feng Jiu's understanding of time. Every mark the years had left on his Wheel of Life became one of its strokes, ultimately forming a complete whole that instantly filled his Sea of Bitterness with an astonishing aura of passing years!
When that aura surged to its peak, Feng Jiu... he collapsed!
The years cut down prodigies like a blade. The strokes changed, the rune fell into disorder, and everything collapsed at once. The illusory river of time flowed backward and engulfed him, exhausting his lifespan in an instant and bringing him to the end of his life. He... died of old age.
There was a reason the world regarded the domain of time as forbidden.
Even many figures at the pinnacle of the Dao could only frown, with no good means of countering it. They could only sever their own cultivation and seal themselves in divine source, clinging to their last breaths.
Feng Jiu's attempt to comprehend the Dao had failed, and he had fallen on the spot. Nothing could have been more normal.
...But
One Feng Jiu fell, and thousands upon thousands of Feng Jius stood up!
"Reincarnation, activate!"
With a low cry, everything reset. Time flowed backward, and a wisp of fragrance rippled out
, reversing this instance that belonged to him alone!
"This is where the problem occurred... My understanding of time went astray, so the rune formed from the corresponding strokes had an unstable foundation, ultimately causing a backlash..."
Feng Jiu reappeared. "Good thing I have the Myriad Tribulation Reincarnation Lotus. Otherwise, this domain of time really isn't something a person can play around with..."
"I can fail countless times. As long as I succeed once, that's enough..."
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