Chapter 1260 Time Mark & ChronoSpirit
"Well, this was more enjoyable than I antic.i.p.ated," Wu Hong said as she stood up. w.a.n.g Wei"s eyes were the most focused he"s ever been in his life. Sadly, there was a mist around her body that even his fate eyes could not penetrate.
"d.a.m.n it," he cursed, but his face remained unchanged. "It"s not like I haven"t seen it before."
A robe appeared around Wu Hong as she fixed her hair.
"Leaving already?"
"I have something to do," she nodded. Wu Hong then looked at w.a.n.g Wei. "You should be careful. Even if destiny is on your side, you should not treat these people carelessly. No matter what, they are Paragons, and that alone makes them a threat."
"I do take them seriously."
"Then, why haven"t you protected your Time Mark or established a [ChronoSpirit]? Have you done so for your subordinate? You practice Time Dao, so there should be no issue."
w.a.n.g Wei frowned. Time Mark and Chrono Spirits are essential for battles between Paragons; to be precise, battles between Boundless and Inextinguishable Paragons. These two ent.i.ties are complicated to kill.
One has too many ways to revive themselves, while the other is unkillable unless you weaken their will. However, body refiners are essentially s.a.d.i.s.ts who temper their will by pus.h.i.+ng their bodies to the extreme, making their willpower terrifying beyond comprehension.
Given the survivability of these creatures, there should be a ton of them — especially since they have an infinite lifespan. Unfortunately, that is not entirely true. There is a quick and efficient way to kill these creatures: kill their weak past selves.
The restraint of the River of Time is at an all-time low for Paragons, so dealing with each other or weak ent.i.ties from the Eternal Path is the best way to deal with them.
However, things also become complicated when it comes to messing with time — especially in Source Chaos Worlds. Any changes to time from these worlds can have b.u.t.terfly effects on the primary River of Time that runs through the entire Chaos Universe.
As such, Paragons had to be clever in how they went about erasing someone from the past. Firstly, they must isolate their enemy"s timeline from the River of Fate through their Time Mark before killing them. The process was like scooping one drop of water from an ocean before destroying that drop to prevent it from influencing the entire ocean.
To protect themselves, Paragons will refine ChronoSpirits — an ent.i.ty that hides their marks and protects their timeline. In the early stages of the development of this world, it was common for someone to secretly discover a Paragon"s Time Mark and kill them before they could react. Then, the concept of ChronoSpirit was invented by someone before spreading and becoming part of Paragon"s must-do list.
"I never plan to meet these parasites before protecting myself," w.a.n.g Wei thought. He knew it was easier for someone of higher cultivation to detect someone else"s Time Mark, so he had already been protected by his mark with [Past Buddha Self]. As for his ChronoSpirit, he planned to refine it after he entered the Taboo Realm and acquired Paragon Strength.
"My Time Mark is protected, and I plan to refine the spirit later on when I"m stronger," w.a.n.g Wei explained.
"It"s not good enough," Wu Hong shook her head. She raised her hand to condense two talismans. "This is my experience on the matter. Take this seriously since it involves your life." w.a.n.g Wei received the talisman, and before he could do a preliminary check, she had disappeared, leaving a few last words:
"We"ll meet again once the celebration starts."
w.a.n.g Wei smiled: "I"m glad to see she"s still a little drama queen."
He may not have detected how fate was guiding him to meet Wu Hong in this place, but there is no chance she did not detect it. Yet, she did not hide, leave, or send him away. Instead, she waited and even wanted to take him by surprise to see how he would react.
w.a.n.g Wei focused and read the information in the talisman. His happiness soon dissipated. "She was right. My method of hiding my mark was truly insufficient." With a brief introduction, w.a.n.g Wei realized his methods were shoddy even to the weakest Paragon.
w.a.n.g Wei sighed. He had just wholly adapted to how Empyreans fought and felt confident that his current techniques would be sufficient against Paragons once he entered the Taboo Battle Realm. However, Wu Hong"s warning reminded him that Paragon Battles were another dimension of complexity.
"Why didn"t the sect remind me?" w.a.n.g Wei said with gritted teeth, trying to blame someone. Since ascending to the upper dimension, he kept making small mistakes, but they were all errors that could easily end his life and cultivation journey. w.a.n.g Wei exhaled to calm down.
He knew there was no point in blaming them since he was the one who refused to receive their complete help. The information they provided them warned him of Paragon"s ability. Additionally, they probably figured he would lay low for countless yuan epochs to cultivate in the shadow, and only after becoming a Paragon would he start dealing with these parasites.
"Success can easily breed arrogance, and arrogance is the bane of success," w.a.n.g Wei thought as he exhaled. He frowned as he realized something:
"Her tone when she warned me…it was like the danger I"m going to face was not the far future but something coming soon. Does she know something?" Countless thoughts flashed in his mind.
"Could it be that whatever major event that is going to happen involves one of the parasites? It would make sense why I could not detect anything."
w.a.n.g Wei previously thought he failed because Heavenly Dao was involved since so many people with great destinies were present, and possibly because of Xun Junyao"s perfect aura that protected her. However, it could be those things and the fact that a Paragon will appear in this event.
"But how can one of them show up in this place? Can they just leave the battlefield unattended? Or are they just sending a clone or projection?" w.a.n.g Wei frowned. With Xun Junyao"s appeal, he would not be surprised if one of these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds sneaks in to see her.
"I need to prepare." w.a.n.g Wei immediately contacted w.a.n.g Qi and the others, ordering them to prepare for a possible battle. He also activated his Spirit Particle in the Fate Changing Hall, sending a message to all the members to prepare for the possibility of a World Cla.s.s Mission, which was semi-mandatory.
According to the hall"s rules, everyone would be aware of the mission but could still choose not to partic.i.p.ate. However, the benefits of such a mission usually offered triple the reward, at a minimum. Of course, it is also stated clearly that such a mission was also generally extremely difficult, hence the increased incentive. Since the hall started, this would be the first World Cla.s.s Mission.
"I should also prepare some talismans to protect my men"s Time Marks, as she said," w.a.n.g Wei thought. He began to comprehend the talisman"s contents to prepare while enjoying this bath. w.a.n.g Wei lost track of time, and it wasn"t until he felt a rush of energy that traveled through his body that he woke up.
"Hmm? I"ve completed the initial stage of Body-Will Fusion." He sensed everybody happening in his body. "Now, I only need to pa.s.s the Flesh Tribulation, and I can enter the Fourth Heaven and the Middle Stage. Hopefully, I won"t have a bottleneck." The effect of the hot spring was better than he had imagined.
Now that the spring no longer had any effect on him, w.a.n.g Wei left. He was in an excellent mood. His second first encounter with his future wife went well despite the initial awkwardness; she gave him a present, and he made progress in his cultivation. With such an excellent mood, he searched again for hot springs to help him. He discovered one that gave a 10% blessing in cultivating the soul and used it.
By the time he finished, it was time for his meeting with Xu s.h.i.+ and Lin Fan, so w.a.n.g Wei left. Their meeting was in a private booth in the best restaurant at the center location. The restaurant was called Beauty Palate, and w.a.n.g Wei suspected it was one of Xun Junyao"s many industries.
By the time he arrived, they were already waiting.
"I thought we were friends," w.a.n.g Wei said as soon as he entered the room.
"We are," Xu s.h.i.+ said, her expression showing she was confused by these words.
"Then, why are you telling Xiao Tiandi about my business?"
"Oh, that," Xu s.h.i.+ replied. "He came to see me, and his master is friends with our master, so I had to say something." Xu s.h.i.+ was clever and knew w.a.n.g Wei did not mind what she did. However, she immediately revealed small but significant information about Emperor Kong and Xun Junyao to appease him.
"And I did not say anything that wasn"t semi-public."
"Is that so," w.a.n.g Wei nodded. He had suspicions about some connection between these two, but it was good to have confirmation. "In that case, it"s fine."
The three sat down and started their reunion.