Chapter 3255: Breaking Two Stops in One Moment
"I cannot be as great as you. I only know that whether following heaven or defying it, one must not extinguish the emotions in their heart. Being as heartless as you are, are you truly still yourself? You are nothing more than a puppet of heaven and earth walking a path of extremism. Is your killing path cultivated for yourself?"
Zhang Ruochen's will was firm, unaffected by his words. Activating the Yin Yang Eighteen Formations, he said, "Heaven and earth want all living beings to die, so you become heaven and earth's blade. But heaven and earth are heartless, while I have feelings. I only want to be myself! It is not necessary to undergo the baptism of a calamity of quantities to open a new world. As long as I am strong enough, I can reshape the universe."
The Yin Yang Eighteen Formations pressed down.
"You will never understand true great good and great evil!"
Xuan Yi spoke no more. His killing aura spread outward, and with one hand, he propped up eighteen Space Divine Arrays.
The look in his eyes when he regarded Zhang Ruochen was like looking at a dead man.
Within the world Xuan Yi had propped up, death qi filled everything. Suddenly, a wisp of life qi, like a spark, was born within the death qi.
"This..." A strange look appeared in Xuan Yi's eyes.
The life qi grew thicker and thicker, intertwining with the death qi.
On the ground, stone powder flew up, forming palm-sized vortices that swirled within the life qi and death qi.
A joyful expression appeared in Zhang Ruochen's eyes. He murmured, "Life and death reversal... it has reversed!"
He knew that Huang Tian had long reached the realm of "between life and death," able to control the life and death of many things in the world, and naturally, to a certain extent, could control his own life and death. Now that life and death had reversed, he was about to return from death.
The death rules of this world carried his spiritual will and indestructible divine soul. As the rules converged, grains of stone powder coalesced into a faint human shape.
At the same time, the flow of time grew slower and slower, undergoing a bizarre change, as if it were about to flow backward.
It was the Death Esoterica and Life Esoterica affecting the time rules, attempting to reverse time.
What was happening before his eyes was somewhat beyond the understanding of Zhang Ruochen and Xuan Yi. Life and death were influencing the changes in time and space, causing the rules of heaven and earth to become chaotic.
"If time can be reversed..."
Zhang Ruochen instinctively felt this was impossible, but remembering that this was the Calamity of Quantities Temple, a completely independent space, and that a spiritual power master with a perfect heavenly circle had even set up means to isolate the temple from heaven and earth, just like the Xumi Temple that once sailed on the River of Time...
The impossible might become possible.
"I'll help you!"
Zhang Ruochen pressed his palms together. A vast number of absolute self-time imprints erupted from his body, merging with the virtual time domain.
Instantly, time in this area approached absolute stillness.
Time is positive.
Virtual time is negative.
Legend has it that the combination of absolute self-time and virtual time can achieve time reversal within a certain area. However, Zhang Ruochen's mastery of time had not yet reached that level. He was merely lending a hand to Huang Tian, who was reversing life and death.
"Yin Yang reversal, time and space inverted."
Zhang Ruochen raised his hands above his head. The Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram appeared, spinning in reverse. The Wuji Divine Dao reversed Yin and Yang. The space here was directly flipped.
Time stopped completely, but still could not break through the critical point.
Stone powder and life qi continuously merged, and the physical body grew more solid. But the divine source remained like a scattered pile of sand floating in midair, suppressed by the rules of heaven and earth, unable to recondense.
"I'm sorry, Xiu Chen."
Zhang Ruochen took out the Time Divine Liquid he had collected from the Eternal Divine Temple and scattered it like rain.
This Time Divine Liquid was refined by Xiu Chen Heavenly God over many years using petals of the Time Flower. It contained the divine sources, divine blood, and divine souls of dozens of false gods, prepared for refining a divine source.
Zhang Ruochen had kept it all along, intending to return it to Xiu Chen someday.
But now...
Anyway, it had already become the artifact spirit of the Sundial, making it much easier to cross the Eon Calamity. It probably wouldn't mind this.
The Time Divine Liquid fell and burned in space.
Thus, driven by the forces of life and death, Yin and Yang, absolute self-time, and virtual time, time inside the Calamity of Quantities Temple began to reverse bit by bit.
Xuan Yi had also cultivated the Way of Time. The "Corpse of Time" divine ability was a culmination of the Way of Time.
He used Time Rule Divine Marks to resist the erosion of time, not exposing himself to the space where time was reversing. He watched as Huang Tian's divine body slowly recondensed and his divine source gradually coalesced.
Even in the reversed time, Xuan Yi moved forward slowly, walking toward Zhang Ruochen.
He understood that although Huang Tian's reversal of life and death was bizarre and beyond the understanding of those below the Infinite Realm, as long as he killed Zhang Ruochen, time would return to normal. Even if Huang Tian came back to life, his divine source would not be able to recondense.
After an unknown amount of time, Xuan Yi finally arrived before Zhang Ruochen and pointed a finger at his brow.
Zhang Ruochen was not afraid. Instead, he revealed a smile.
Xuan Yi sensed something was wrong and looked toward Huang Tian. He saw that, at some point, the Earth Cauldron was floating above Huang Tian's head. The source power erupting from the Earth Cauldron was helping him recondense his divine source.
A large amount of blood qi surged out from the cauldron, continuously absorbed by Huang Tian.
"Time and space, reshape!" Zhang Ruochen shouted.
The time and space that had been reversed instantly flipped back, returning to normal.
The time that had flowed backward immediately resumed its forward direction, like a boat going upstream that had lost its power and was now carried downstream. Moreover, the power of heaven and earth pressed down, accelerating the flow of time, so that the time inside the Calamity of Quantities Temple quickly caught up with the time outside.
"Pfft!"
Zhang Ruochen was backlashed by time. He spat out a mouthful of blood. In an instant, his hair turned white, and his body became withered and thin like dead wood. He had lost an unknown amount of lifespan.
Back then, Xumi Saint Monk had used the power of the Buddha to reverse time and send Zhang Ruochen to the Primordial Beginning, paying the price with his life.
Naturally, Zhang Ruochen would also pay a price for helping Huang Tian reverse time.
"Xuan Yi!"
A loud roar rang out. Huang Tian instantly crossed ten zhang and appeared above and behind Xuan Yi.
Xuan Yi sensed a great crisis. He had no choice but to abandon Zhang Ruochen and turn back to strike a palm, colliding with the palm seal Huang Tian had sent out.
"Boom!"
The two divine powers clashed.
Behind Huang Tian, the Qiankun Wheel Disk appeared, and the Great Derivation Divine Light blazed fiercely.
Xuan Yi's body radiated divine glow of ten thousand colors, brilliant and dazzling.
A vine descended from the sky, wrapping around Zhang Ruochen and pulling him into a Space Divine Array.
"Master!"
Mo Yin approached with concern.
"It's nothing. I've suffered worse injuries than this."
Zhang Ruochen took a deep breath. Blood qi circulated within his body. Instantly, his white hair turned black, and his withered form became full again, restoring his youth.
But he was very weak.
Zhang Ruochen swallowed three divine pills in succession before looking down.
Huang Tian, who had reversed life and death and returned, had broken through the Body Stop realm. His physical body had reached forty percent of the Infinite Realm, and it was still continuously strengthening, absorbing all kinds of power from the Calamity of Quantities Temple.
Of course, Zhang Ruochen was pained. To help Huang Tian, he had paid a heavy price this time.
The Time Divine Liquid had all been absorbed by him.
Even most of the blood qi and divine soul of the Calamity of Quantities target that had been refined in the Earth Cauldron had been given to Huang Tian.
He could only console himself that when he had reversed life and death back then, Huang Tian had also helped a great deal.
Moreover, this reversal of time was not entirely without benefit. At least, it had elevated Zhang Ruochen's understanding of time to a new level. As long as he found enough Time Esoterica and Darkness Esoterica, Zhang Ruochen was confident he could condense the Great Yin in a short time.
During his many years of seclusion in the Heavenly Venerable's tomb, Zhang Ruochen had not only been cultivating the Fist Path but also actively preparing to condense the Great Yin and Great Sun.
His Way of Time, Way of Space, Way of Darkness, and Way of Light had all reached a sufficient height.
Today's reversal of time had finally allowed Zhang Ruochen to understand how to condense the Great Yin.
To condense the Great Yin, one uses the Way of Time and the Way of Darkness, but one must use virtual time as a guide, rather than directly using time power to condense it.
However, Zhang Ruochen's foundation in the Way of Time and Way of Darkness was still insufficient. To condense the Great Yin, he would need the assistance of esoterica. Without esoterica, he would need to cultivate for at least another ten thousand years before having a chance to succeed.
...
In the blink of an eye, Huang Tian's physical strength had reached fifty percent of the Infinite Realm. Although he was still at a disadvantage in his clash with Xuan Yi, he was no longer completely powerless to fight back as before.
The two exchanged blows, their speed reaching the extreme, using all kinds of wondrous techniques with ease.
"Boom! Rumble!"
They shattered three Space Divine Arrays and moved toward Zhang Ruochen and Mo Yin's direction.
Zhang Ruochen had recovered some strength and was preparing to take control of the Yin Yang Eighteen Formations... fifteen formations. A turning point had arrived in today's battle.
Wait a minute!
Zhang Ruochen noticed that Xuan Yi was not coming toward him, but retreating toward the door of the Calamity of Quantities Temple.
Why was that?
Xuan Yi clearly had the upper hand. Why did he seem intent on retreating?
Could it be because he felt he could no longer kill Zhang Ruochen and Huang Tian today, and staying any longer was pointless?
Thinking about it, Xuan Yi had probably never encountered opponents as hard to kill as Zhang Ruochen and Huang Tian. Their vitality was tenacious, their spiritual will indestructible, and no matter how severe their injuries, they could recover quickly.
If he continued fighting, and Xuanyuan Lian and the others arrived, he would lose his chance to retreat.
But Zhang Ruochen soon realized he was wrong. Xuan Yi was not retreating because he couldn't kill them, but because Huang Tian's state was very strange. His physical body was continuously and steadily strengthening.
Not only his physical body, but his divine soul was also soaring rapidly. In less than a quarter of an hour, he had reached the Soul Stop realm.
And then...
With a roar from Huang Tian, his divine soul surged outward like ocean waves.
He had broken through the Soul Stop realm!
Zhang Ruochen's scalp tingled. He exclaimed directly, "Breaking two stops in one moment!"
Xuan Yi's face was as heavy as frost. Watching Huang Tian swing his sword toward him, for the first time, he did not dare to catch it with his bare hands. Instead, he raised the Bright Mirror Platform like a shield to block.
"Boom!"
Huang Tian's sword struck the Bright Mirror Platform. Dark Force and Buddha light clashed. In the end, Xuan Yi could not activate the Bright Mirror Platform. It was struck down by the Dark Divine Sword, crashing to the ground and shaking the Calamity of Quantities Temple.
Xuan Yi was sent flying backward. With a loud bang, he slammed heavily into the temple's main door. His posture remained upright, and his gaze was sharp, but divine blood dripped from the corner of his mouth. Both his arms were covered in blood, and more than a dozen bloody sword marks appeared on his god-armor-like skin.