Chapter 2608: Ten Thousand Ages Return to One, a Thousand Years Have Passed in the World
The Truth Heart merged with his physical body and saint soul. Zhang Ruochen felt that his current body was several times stronger than his former demigod body. He had completely shed his mortal shell, escaped the mire, and emerged renewed.
The blood of humans and the blood of the Undying Blood Clan still existed, but they had also merged with the chaotic qi, no longer clashing with each other, completely unified into one.
The Sacred Dao rules remained and had further advanced, reaching thirty-six billion paths, a perfect number. Among them, fist, palm, metal, wood, water, fire, earth, time, and space—these nine paths—occupied the vast majority.
However, his spiritual power had not improved much, which puzzled Zhang Ruochen greatly.
Logically, having endured unprecedented tempering of his spirit within the Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram, his spiritual power should have surged. Unfortunately, it remained at the sixty-ninth rank.
...
On the River of Time.
Zhang Ruochen sat cross-legged in the palm of Xumi Saint Monk, drifting downstream.
A strange thing happened.
He discovered that if he deliberately mobilized his Sacred Intent and entered a state of self-forgetfulness, he could faintly see scenes from various eras.
"The First-Rank Sacred Intent is truly profound. It seems to have infinite wonders, requiring me to spend millennia or even eons to study and discover."
Zhang Ruochen even pondered whether, with this Sacred Intent, he could gain the ability to "know all the past and comprehend all things in heaven and earth."
His deduction ability should surpass the Path of Fate without issue.
His learning ability should easily exceed that of cultivators of the Path of Origin.
"Snap!"
A cracking sound jolted Zhang Ruochen from his deep contemplation.
A fissure appeared on the corpse of Xumi Saint Monk.
Not only that, but a layer of gray mist covered the skin of the corpse.
"How could this happen? The corpse of a Buddha should be immortal for ten thousand ages. Why is it cracking? Why is it beginning to decay?"
Soon, Zhang Ruochen understood the reason. Crossing the River of Time indeed came at a tremendous cost, and even the body of a Buddha could not withstand it.
It was precisely because of Xumi Saint Monk's protection that the power of time had not affected Zhang Ruochen.
When the Saint Monk had instructed Zhang Ruochen to return immediately if the Xumi Temple was destroyed, he might have known that his own corpse had limited endurance. If an accident occurred, it might be impossible to return to the original time point.
Once the Saint Monk's corpse completely collapsed, it would be like losing the "boat."
With Zhang Ruochen's current cultivation level, he would likely be crushed into particles by space again.
This time, without the Truth Heart and the Saint Monk's corpse, it would be far more difficult for him to recondense his physical body. Restoring his cultivation was utterly out of the question.
It was very possible that the First-Rank Sacred Intent he had just cultivated would also be annihilated along with his death.
Zhang Ruochen had weathered countless storms on the River of Time, so he was not overly panicked. He calmly considered countermeasures.
There were only two options:
Either speed up the return, or enhance the stability of the "boat."
"What I can do now is break through to the Thousand Questions Realm and use the Dao Domain to stabilize Master's remains, struggling to hold on until the departure time point."
Having finally cultivated a First-Rank Sacred Intent, Zhang Ruochen did not want to die on the River of Time.
To break through from the Hundred Shackles Realm to the Thousand Questions Realm required "Dao Transformation."
So-called "Dao Transformation" meant using the Sacred Dao rules one had cultivated to evolve one's own Dao. For some, it was a weapon; for others, an intent; for others, a soul; and for some, a world.
What the mind conceives, the Dao manifests.
The more perfect the state of mind, the more perfect the Dao.
The entire cultivation of the Thousand Questions Realm was about continuously perfecting one's inner self and one's Dao.
The Dao would manifest in the form of a Dao Domain.
At this point, the Dao Domain condensed was different from the Dao Domain cultivated in the Saint King Realm.
The Dao Domain cultivated in the Saint King Realm was merely a prototype, a field, invisible to the naked eye. The Dao Domain of a Thousand Questions Realm Great Saint would manifest in different forms, becoming truly visible.
With Zhang Ruochen's current cultivation, to transform the Dao, to condense a Dao Domain, and to break through to the Thousand Questions Realm was something he could achieve with a single thought.
Zhang Ruochen calmly uttered two words: "Dao Transformation."
"Whoosh!"
A single thought became the Dao.
Light radiated from his body, chaotic mist swirled, and a vast universe manifested around him, enveloping even the remains of Xumi Saint Monk.
The scene that appeared was very similar to the Truth Realm Form "Boundless Universe."
This Dao Domain indeed contained the Truth Realm Form "Boundless Universe," but it also contained the Space True Domain, the Virtual Time Domain, and various other Sacred Daos.
Zhang Ruochen's Dao Domain continuously evolved, presenting scenes such as a singularity erupting, primordial chaos, nebular light and mist, a wild continent, celestial stars, the River of Time... endlessly transforming, infinitely varied.
This was not a fixed Dao Domain!
It was a Dao Domain that constantly transformed, a Dao Domain blessed by time, encompassing all phenomena, containing past and present within it.
Yes!
That was it—past and present.
Zhang Ruochen named it: "Ten Thousand Ages Return to One."
The Ten Thousand Ages Return to One Dao Domain.
With the support of this Dao Domain, Zhang Ruochen finally returned to the departure time point just as Xumi Saint Monk's corpse was on the verge of collapse. He found himself sitting cross-legged opposite the Saint Monk's remains.
The world was utterly silent.
The sound of the River of Time flowing could no longer be heard.
It was as if nothing had happened. Zhang Ruochen felt he had only experienced a very long, very long dream.
Now, the dream had ended.
In the great hall, Buddha light shone brilliantly. The six Buddha statues still stood on the altar. The Saint Monk's remains, which had disappeared, still sat opposite him. Nothing had changed.
Just as Zhang Ruochen thought it had all been a grand dream—
"Hiss, hiss."
Opposite him, the Saint Monk's remains turned into grains of golden sand.
The entire Xumi Temple rapidly faded, turned into a shadow, and then vanished into the universe.
Everything disappeared, leaving only Zhang Ruochen sitting cross-legged in the void, his body radiating chaotic light. The various wonders of the Ten Thousand Ages Return to One Dao Domain manifested and transformed around him.
The grains of golden Buddha sand turned into specks of light and dissipated into the void.
Among the golden Buddha sand, Zhang Ruochen found eight Sarira. He cupped them in his hands, and tears streamed down his face like a spring.
It was not a dream after all. The Saint Monk had completely vanished from the world, leaving only eight Buddha Relics.
The scene of the Saint Monk sitting alone in front of the dilapidated Kunlun Realm, blocking the gods of the Hell Realm, reappeared in Zhang Ruochen's mind.
The words "Until Hell is empty, I vow not to become a Buddha" echoed in his ears.
An unknown amount of time passed before Zhang Ruochen composed himself. He found that the Abyssal Ancient Sword, the Sundial, the Mountain-Hiding Demon Mirror, the Ten-Thousand-Curse Heavenly Bead, and other vessels had reappeared on his person.
The Qiankun Realm had also reappeared in his Qi Sea.
He had indeed returned to reality, to the original time point.
Carefully recalling his actions, observations, and encounters during this journey back in time, the more he thought about it, the more unreal it seemed—more unreal than a dream. That feeling was very unpleasant.
Reality was better. At least reality made him feel like he was still a person of flesh and blood.
Zhang Ruochen put away the Ten Thousand Ages Return to One Dao Domain. Just as he stood up, he heard a familiar call: "Chen... Ruochen, is that you? It really is you! You're alive? Great! What happened? Chen, what's wrong with you?"
It was Gong Nanfeng.
Zhang Ruochen saw Gong Nanfeng's figure, took a step, and appeared before him. His eyes immediately showed a strange expression. "How did you end up like this?"
Gong Nanfeng was now skin and bones. His hair was over ten meters long, and his beard covered his entire face, making him look like a long-haired monkey, quite comical.
"Of course, from hunger! Luckily, a peach tree grew outside the Xumi Temple, or I would have starved to death before you came out. But it's been better these past few hundred years. My cultivation has greatly increased, and I no longer have a necessary need for food." Gong Nanfeng said with some emotion.
"The peach tree... Grandmaster must have used some means to make it grow."
Zhang Ruochen thought to himself, nodding slightly. Suddenly, he realized something, and his face changed drastically. "What did you just say? A few hundred years? What do you mean, a few hundred years?"
Gong Nanfeng touched his jet-black hair, which was like a waterfall, and said bitterly, "I don't know how it happened, but I couldn't find a way out of here. Otherwise, I wouldn't have waited here for a thousand years. To be honest, when you didn't come out in the first year, I thought you had died in the temple. Chen, how could you have stayed in the temple for a thousand years? You seem... different somehow..."
Gong Nanfeng kept talking, but after Zhang Ruochen heard the words "a thousand years," he could no longer hear anything else.
"A thousand years? How could a thousand years have passed?"
"I clearly returned to the original time point. Why has a thousand years still passed? It can't be wrong. Absolutely impossible."
Zhang Ruochen stared intently at Gong Nanfeng and found that this guy's cultivation had actually reached the peak of the Ten Thousand Deaths One Life Realm.
He was an artifact spirit.
How could an artifact spirit cultivate so fast?
"Tell me quickly, you're joking, right? You were always at the peak of the Ten Thousand Deaths One Life Realm, weren't you? You've been lying to me all along?" Zhang Ruochen grabbed Gong Nanfeng's shoulders, staring at him with desperate eyes.
Gong Nanfeng was startled and nodded woodenly. "That's right, I am indeed at the peak of the Ten Thousand Deaths One Life Realm now. Although you've made very little progress in this thousand years and I've surpassed you in realm, don't be discouraged! Chen, calm down first."
"Calm down? How do you expect me to calm down?"
Zhang Ruochen rushed back to where he had been sitting. The Xumi Temple had long since disappeared. The space was no longer pitch black but filled with stars.
Zhang Ruochen could not accept this fact. He took out the Abyssal Ancient Sword and found that it had already reached the level of a Seven-Yuan Monarch Sacred Artifact, and its sword spirit had also reached the Great Saint Realm.
It was only one step away from transforming into a Supreme Sacred Artifact.
From the Qiankun Realm, he summoned the Grand Minister of Works and the Second Minister of Works.
The two monks had been cultivating beside the Sky-Connecting Divine Tree for this thousand years. They had actually reached the Supreme Realm, entering the demigod level. It was almost heaven-defying!
The sword spirit, the Grand Minister of Works, and the Second Minister of Works all told him: "It is now a thousand years later."
Zhang Ruochen's divine eyes were dull. He took out the Space-Time Secret Scripture, intending to release Shang Xia and Shang Yue, who were sealed inside, only to find that they had long since escaped and been captured by the Sky-Connecting Divine Tree into the Qiankun Realm.
Now, even they had cultivated to the Supreme Realm.
With a thousand years of accumulation, they possessed over ten trillion Sacred Dao rules and were also demigods.