Chapter 2607: Sitting on Equal Footing with the Heavenly Dao
When Xumi Saint Monk was alive, he controlled a vast amount of Time Essence and Space Essence. Apart from the portion of Time Essence absorbed by the Time Source Pearl, all the essence in Xumi Temple was now burning.
Burning alongside the essence was Xumi Temple itself.
After the Time Essence and Space Essence burned, they returned to heaven and earth.
The wasteland outside the temple, amidst the flames, turned into particles invisible to the naked eye and dissipated. Moreover, the fire spread into the main hall.
Xumi Temple was the site of a Buddha’s nirvana; even a handful of soil from within was priceless. A single brick could be used to comprehend the Dao. Yet now, it could not withstand the compression of space, each instant seeming to burn away thousands of Divine Stones.
Zhang Ruochen had no time to mind the encroaching flames, for the process of merging the Fire Dao Sacred Intent into the Yin-Yang Five Elements Sacred Intent was not going smoothly. The two were highly repulsive and refused to fuse.
Even when Zhang Ruochen forcibly attempted to merge them, the result was extremely unstable, lasting only an instant before exploding apart again.
The moment the Yin-Yang Five Elements Sacred Intent repelled the Fire Dao Sacred Intent, the resulting impact tore Zhang Ruochen’s physical body open with horrifying blood wounds.
“My spiritual power has reached the sixty-ninth rank. In terms of Saint Soul strength and the number of Sacred Dao Rules, since ancient times, no Hundred Shackles Realm Great Saint should be able to compare. I even have the aid of a Buddha’s Buddhist power, plus the enhancement of Time Essence and Space Essence. Yet, I still cannot merge the seven types of Sacred Intent—Yin, Yang, and the Five Elements—into one.”
Zhang Ruochen opened his eyes. Flames danced on the walls of the hall.
A wave of heat rushed toward him, the burning sensation on his face intense beyond measure.
It felt as if space itself were ablaze.
He was calmer than ever before, realizing that if he were in a future time and space, no matter how hard he tried or how得天独厚 his conditions were, he could never cultivate the perfect, complete Yin-Yang Five Elements Sacred Intent.
At this moment, Zhang Ruochen finally believed that since ancient times, no cultivator had ever cultivated an absolutely perfect First-Rank Sacred Intent.
The silent flames consumed all other areas of Xumi Temple, even the four walls of this final hall. The six Buddha statues also burned, turning into void particles.
When embarking on the course of the River of Time, Xumi Saint Monk had said that when Xumi Temple perished, he must return immediately. The path back would use his corpse as a boat.
The elder had not stated the consequences of not returning immediately, but Zhang Ruochen could roughly guess.
The flames were now only a step away from Zhang Ruochen.
Was he to flee back in such a disgraceful manner?
The Saint Monk had paid with his life, a vast amount of Time Essence and Space Essence had burned here, and he had endured countless hardships along the way—was it all to end in failure?
Zhang Ruochen’s face was ashen, his heart filled with extreme unwillingness.
He stared fixedly at the black hole at the end of the River of Time, gritting his teeth with unprecedented determination. “What’s so great about death? To return so spinelessly—how could I face the Saint Monk’s expectations, how could I face my own heart? I’ll fight to the death!”
“Fight to the death!”
“Fight!”
…
Zhang Ruochen suddenly stood up, clasping his hands together.
“Whoosh!”
The incomplete Yin-Yang Five Elements Sacred Intent, formed from six types of Sacred Intent—Fist Dao Sacred Intent, Palm Dao Sacred Intent, Metal Dao Sacred Intent, Water Dao Sacred Intent, Wood Dao Sacred Intent, and Earth Dao Sacred Intent—manifested in the form of a Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram.
The incomplete Yin-Yang Five Elements Sacred Intent collided with the Fire Dao Sacred Intent.
The seven types of Sacred Intent merged into one.
Instantly, the unbalanced, oscillating force erupted again, tearing Zhang Ruochen’s body even more severely, causing pain like being torn apart by seven horses.
Zhang Ruochen planted his legs in a bow stance, his gaze locked on the black hole at the end of the River of Time. Carrying the Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram, he transformed into a streak of light and charged forward.
With his Saint-level cultivation, he could not suppress the repulsive force of the seven types of Sacred Intent.
He needed a fulcrum, or a powerful external force, to help him achieve this balance.
That fulcrum was the singularity before the birth of space and time.
The singularity was the strongest fulcrum in the world, containing the most powerful force in existence.
For example:
A cultivator is like a balance scale, with two types of Sacred Intent of different attributes on either end. If the scale is controlled with sufficient precision, balance can be achieved on both ends, allowing the two types of Sacred Intent to merge into one.
But now, Zhang Ruochen’s scale had seven ends.
He was at the center, with the seven types of Sacred Intent at seven different directions. The weights of the Sacred Intents were uneven, both repelling and attracting each other. Under such circumstances, achieving balance was utterly impossible.
Thus, Zhang Ruochen needed an external force to help.
This external force had to contain the seven powers of “Yin-Yang” and “Five Elements,” and it had to be powerful enough.
“With my current cultivation, I can only control the combination of the seven types of Sacred Intent for a single instant. After that instant, they will separate again. That instant is crucial.”
The moment Zhang Ruochen rushed out of Xumi Saint Monk’s palm, the Yin-Yang Five Elements Sacred Intent formed by the combination of the seven types of Sacred Intent manifested, unleashing unparalleled power. It absorbed the burning Space Essence and Time Essence.
The first instant was sustained.
“Boom!”
Entering the second instant, Zhang Ruochen lost all protection. His physical body, Saint Soul, spiritual power thoughts, and Qi Sea were exposed to the impact of the singularity, exploding like a balloon into particles invisible to the naked eye.
Zhang Ruochen was in agony, suffering unprecedented pain, as if his body and Saint Soul had been sliced ten thousand times.
His physical body was gone, but Zhang Ruochen’s consciousness did not disappear. It continued to endure torment like a purgatory.
“Excellent! It actually worked. My judgment was correct—it must be the Origin Essence and Truth Essence protecting my consciousness.” Zhang Ruochen was ecstatic.
Because his consciousness had not vanished, it meant the Yin-Yang Five Elements Sacred Intent had not collapsed. Zhang Ruochen had lasted into the second instant. Surviving to the second instant was already a form of success.
…
At the dawn of time, the power unleashed by the singularity was the strongest force in the world.
The closer one got to the singularity, the stronger that force became.
Zhang Ruochen had initially considered using the singularity’s energy to forcibly merge the Sacred Intents. However, the singularity’s energy was too powerful; even from millions of miles away, it could easily kill a deity.
How could Zhang Ruochen, a Great Saint, withstand it?
Even his Yin-Yang Five Elements Sacred Intent could not endure it.
But in the second instant that the Yin-Yang Five Elements Sacred Intent held, Zhang Ruochen, under the control of his consciousness, made it spin rapidly. In the form of a Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram, it continuously absorbed the Yin-Yang and Five Elements forces of heaven and earth.
The energy contained in the Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram grew stronger and stronger, already surpassing Zhang Ruochen’s own cultivation by ten thousand times, and it continued to increase.
A hundred thousand times, a million times…
Zhang Ruochen’s own power accounted for only an extremely tiny fraction, yet he had to use that tiny bit of power to maintain the balance of the seven forces: Yin, Yang, Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth.
When the Yin force increased, he immediately increased the Yang force.
When the Wood force weakened, he immediately weakened the Metal force.
…
Only by constantly maintaining this balance could the Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram avoid collapsing, and only then could he have a chance to survive.
By the tenth instant, the energy contained in the Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram was sufficient to withstand the compression of space and the refinement of high temperatures.
But the balance began to break. Relying solely on the mutual conversion of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements was no longer enough to sustain it.
Zhang Ruochen had to use the remaining Time Essence and Space Essence within the Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram to absorb time and space power to continue maintaining the balance.
As soon as he began absorbing the power of time, the Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram moved, slowly flying along the River of Time toward the singularity.
This was truly reaching the beginning of the universe’s birth!
The closer to the singularity, the stronger the compression the Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram endured, but the diagram itself also grew stronger, just enough to withstand it.
Thus, the singularity and the Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram—one spewing Yin-Yang, Five Elements, and Time-Space, the other absorbing them—also formed a balance.
Controlling this balance was an even more arduous task for Zhang Ruochen.
Initially, Zhang Ruochen thought the probability of success was one in ten million. Now, he felt it was only one in a billion. Because he was already beginning to falter.
His consciousness grew increasingly blurred.
“Hold on, I must hold on.”
Zhang Ruochen understood that he had already succeeded by more than half. As long as he held on, kept his consciousness from extinguishing, and continued to control the balance of the nine elements—Yin, Yang, Five Elements, Time, and Space—he had a chance of success.
If he failed to hold on now, everything would be lost.
An unknown amount of time passed. The Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram transformed into a single point, overlapping with the singularity.
At that moment, billions of images appeared in Zhang Ruochen’s consciousness—some from the past, some from the future, some from unknown origins…
“Boom.”
The Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram flew out from the singularity, reappearing on the River of Time.
When space was born, it had a diameter of one zhang, and the Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram was also one zhang in size. When the diameter of space expanded to one light-year, the Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram expanded to one light-year.
The Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram merged with the space and time of the universe, growing with the expansion of space and the passage of time.
At first, the Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram was still visible to the naked eye.
But when its diameter exceeded one light-year, it became too faint to observe, blending with the entire universe, spreading across the chaotic time-space, becoming part of the Heavenly Dao, and flying toward the future.
Zhang Ruochen’s consciousness persisted, controlling the ever-growing Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram, chasing after Xumi Saint Monk’s corpse.
When he had flown out from Xumi Saint Monk’s palm, the force unleashed had propelled the corpse toward the future, and it still floated on the River of Time.
In the Primordial Era, the Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram finally caught up with Xumi Saint Monk’s corpse.
The River of Time in the Primordial Era was extremely long—dozens of times longer than the Desolate Ancient, Ancient, Mythical Ancient… Upper Ancient, and Middle Ancient combined.
Zhang Ruochen speculated that the so-called pre-civilizations should all be located in the Primordial Era.
The Primordial Era should have given birth to multiple eras of civilization. However, all those civilizations were destroyed, and the universe returned to a chaotic state, giving rise to the next civilization.
The Primordial Era recorded in the Heavenly Court and Hell was only a small segment of the timeline.
Although Zhang Ruochen had traversed the River of Time, he did not truly understand the Primordial Era or any era in history, because he only occasionally caught a glimpse of fragments.
On the River of Time, all he saw was the river itself.
“It’s the aura of the Heart of Truth.”
Zhang Ruochen’s consciousness now only remained within the Yin-Yang Taiji Diagram, or rather, it remained throughout the entire universe.
Because the Yin-Yang Taiji Diagram was as vast as the universe itself, spread across every corner.
Zhang Ruochen had placed the Heart of Truth on Xumi Saint Monk’s corpse, hoping to use it to absorb his consciousness, Saint Soul, and spiritual power particles, and recondense his physical body.
“The universe is boundless.”
Zhang Ruochen’s consciousness communicated with the Heart of Truth, activating its realm form, and began to absorb various particles.
The Primordial Era was filled with chaotic Qi.
After an unknown amount of time, the Heart of Truth finally absorbed all of Zhang Ruochen’s particles, nurturing them within itself.
At this moment, Zhang Ruochen’s physical body had been fully recondensed—a true innate Yin-Yang Five Elements Chaos Body, as if frozen within the Heart of Truth.
Countless more years passed, and the Heart of Truth merged into his physical body.
By the end of the Desolate Ancient Era, Zhang Ruochen’s physical body finally recovered from its stone-like rigidity, radiating chaotic brilliance from head to toe, like an innate spirit.
Zhang Ruochen stood on Xumi Saint Monk’s palm, gazing at the River of Time, his heart filled with unprecedented exhilaration. He laughed with high spirits: “I, Zhang Ruochen, have finally recondensed my physical body and returned from the beginning of time. Master, I did not disappoint you. I have condensed a First-Rank Sacred Intent.”
Zhang Ruochen’s First-Rank Sacred Intent had indeed succeeded, and as he moved toward the future, it was in a state of continuous enhancement.
As the universe’s space expanded and the River of Time grew longer, the Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram continuously absorbed the power of space and time, maintaining the balance of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements.
In other words, Zhang Ruochen’s Time Sacred Intent was called “Eternal.”
His Space Sacred Intent was called “Infinite.”
As long as space continued to expand and the River of Time continued to flow, Zhang Ruochen’s Sacred Intent balance would not be broken, and it would keep strengthening.
The Sacred Intent grew alongside the universe.
Zhang Ruochen’s Sacred Intent was indeed powerful—powerful enough to sit on equal footing with the Heavenly Dao. But he soon discovered a tragic fact: his control over the Sacred Intent was growing weaker and weaker.
Because the range his spiritual power and Saint Soul could reach was limited.
Unless his spiritual power and Saint Soul could become strong enough to encompass the entire universe, he could not fully control the Sacred Intent.
Furthermore, Zhang Ruochen discovered that the Time-Space Divine Martial Mark on his brow had disappeared. It had not returned with his physical body, whether shattered completely or lost in the Desolate Ancient Era.