Seeking the Flying Sword Path

Qin Yun could sense his master"s concern for him, but he had been doing his best at gaining insights into Dao of the Heavenly Cycles.

"Master, please forgive me for acting willfully." Qin Yun was extremely respectful.

"You are just too stubborn," said the Heavenly Lord of Numinous Treasure coldly. "For your homeworld, you destroyed your future and became an Itinerant Immortal! You have destroyed your path to becoming a Skyimmortal and Golden Immortal. In the end, you did manage to save your homeworld. You"ve sacrificed enough, do you actually… want to destroy your chances of transcending the Itinerant Immortal tribulations as well? How much time do you have left for cultivation? Two hundred years have been wasted just like this! Perhaps, your final transcendence of the Itinerant Immortal tribulations could be short of that one to two hundred years! No amount of treasures can be exchanged for that time."

Qin Yun fell silent.

"Although your Sword Dao has some similarities with the Dao of the Heavenly Cycles in its early stages, the fundamentals are highly disparate," added the Heavenly Lord of Numinous Treasure. "Even if you were to drown yourself in cultivation, you will still not be able to succeed in two millennia if two centuries has failed you."

"My Dao of the Heavenly Cycles has reached the pinnacle Skyimmortal realm. It feels like all I need is a little boost to succeed," said Qin Yun.

"Just a little boost from the pinnacle Skyimmortal realm? How long would that take?" asked the Heavenly Lord of Numinous Treasure. "Do you dare tell me? How many people in all of the Three Realms are stuck at the pinnacle Skyimmortal realm"s bottleneck?"

Qin Yun quietly listened to his master"s tirade.

The Heavenly Lord of Numinous Treasure added, "Mortal child, all you need to do is set up a powerful array to make the Great Chang world impregnable. The fiends will not be able to break through the Great Chang world"s array formation even if they wish to. After all, Star Destruction is dead! To protect the Great Chang world, all it would take is two to three Connate Numinous treasures. You previously destroyed your future to save your homeworld. Wouldn"t it be enough to waste another two or three Connate Numinous treasures to make your homeworld impregnable? How much more do you want to sacrifice for this Small World?

"What I"m most afraid is that, even after you waste ten thousand years, it would all end up being for naught!" said the Heavenly Lord of Numinous Treasure.

"Five hundred years!"

Qin Yun finally spoke out as he looked at his master. "Please let me act willfully once more. If I fail after spending five hundred years, I"ll allow my Essence Soul to break through after setting up an array for my homeworld."

However, he thought to himself, "I have already reached the pinnacle Skyimmortal bottleneck of the Dao of the Heavenly Cycles. If I fail to break through in the next three centuries, I might never be able to make the breakthrough even with three millennia or even ten thousand years."

The Heavenly Lord of Numinous Treasure nodded. "Good luck then."

With that said, he dissipated away.

Qin Yun stood there and watched in silence.

"Brother Yun." Yi Xiao walked over and held Qin Yun"s hand.

Qin Yun smiled as he held his wife"s hand.

******

Regardless of what the world thought of him, Qin Yun continued focusing on the Dao of the Heavenly Cycles.

In his chamber.

After imbibing a drop of Samsara Dew, he felt slightly inebriated. However, in this state, Qin Yun had a feeling. He looked at the eighteen flying stars around him. Each star"s trajectory was abstruse and magical. They constantly crossed each other"s path like the motion of celestial bodies. Ideas kept coming to his mind.

"Thirteen stars are too complicated.

"Eight?

"Too many.

"Seven stars are probably sufficient."

As Qin Yun pondered, he muttered to himself, constantly inferring with his fingers.

Suddenly, Qin Yun"s eyes lit up. A bright light bloomed at his fingertips as it flew around him. Seven beams of light transformed into seven stars! There were lines connecting the seven stars and as they slowly flew, the lines that connected them taking on a mystical essence.

Qin Yun felt more and more delighted as he watched the evolutions of the seven stellar lines.

"Hahaha. Hahaha…" Qin Yun roared with excited laughter.

"Time to leave."

He waved his hand and stored away the Eighteen Flying Stars before leaving his chamber quickly.

It was already winter outside and the area was clad in fresh snow. Yi Xiao was sitting inside a pavilion, leisurely drawing a talisman.

"Sou!"

A figure suddenly appeared beside Yi Xiao.

Yi Xiao turned her head in shock and saw Qin Yun happily grab her shoulders, saying hurriedly, "I succeeded, I"ve finally succeeded."

"You succeeded?" Yi Xiao beamed with delight as well.

"Yes, I used the Great Dao contained within the Eighteen Flying Stars as a foundation. I removed the unnecessary portions and only studied the parts that are meant for inference," said Qin Yun in excitement. "I constantly simplified it to seek the core traits of inference in the Eighteen Flying Stars. Finally, I came up with a Seven Stars Art. Although it"s not a Great Dao, in terms of inference, it has the might of a Great Dao.

"Up until now, I was trapped at the pinnacle Skyimmortal realm. This breakthrough has been a great uplift for me. With such a huge improvement, it would definitely be simple to delve into the entire Great Chang world"s past." Qin Yun was filled with confidence.

Qin Yun wasn"t unrealistically optimistic.

With the Eighteen Flying Stars in hand, he had been studying the mysteries contained within the Connate Numinous treasure. Naturally, the difficulty had been drastically reduced. Furthermore, he had only sought to figure out the inference mysteries within. Now, he had succeeded in coming up with the Seven Stars Art.

"Have you found Empyrean Lord Kuifu"s avatar?" asked Yi Xiao.

"I"ll do it now," said Qin Yun with a smile as he immediately took his wife"s hand.

Swoosh.

The both of them underwent Void Transference and came high into the sky. They looked down upon the cities, mountains, villages, lakes, and rivers… They seemed to be wearing a glistening silver attire of snow.

"The river of time." Qin Yun"s will covered the entirety of the Great Chang world as he tore through the barriers of time and immersed himself into the river of time.

Every person would leave their mark from the moment they were born into this world.

Qin Yun could clearly see these marks.

And Qin Yun was not just probing one person, but all the living beings in the Great Chang world at the same time. That even included beasts! Every instant, countless beings would die as well as be born. Therefore, Qin Yun"s probes were constantly changing. It took a huge toll on his Dharmic powers and Essence Soul.

However, Qin Yun moved his left fingers and began inferring with the Seven Stars Art.

The art of inference could garner details or superficial aspects, allowing him to figure out the crux of an issue.

Instantly, Qin Yun felt a lot more relaxed.

"Whoosh~"

Amid the river of time, Qin Yun constantly swam upstream in search of the past.

The past had already happened, so the marks left behind were clear.

He probed as he went against the flow… A hundred years, two hundred years… He forged ahead against time for he knew that Kuifu"s avatar had come to the Great Chang world to learn the secret before he abducted his wife.

Countless beings were probed by Qin Yun. He saw them age backwards. An elder slowly turned middle-aged, a teenager, a child, a toddler, a crying baby, before returning to their mother"s womb. His mother in her youth, her mother as a teenager, and when she was a child…

Time flowed backward.

He returned to more than two centuries ago where Qin Yun transcended the tribulations to become an Itinerant Immortal before killing Star Destruction.

Further back, Qin Yun saved his wife and found his daughter in the Skywolf world.

Further back, Qin Yun formed the foundations of his Sword Dao after dreaming a hundred years.

Further back, Qin Yun married Yi Xiao in the immortal cave abode.

Further back, at mid-autumn, the couple kissed under the bright moon over the river.

Further back, Qin Yun risked his life to slay the county governor.

Further back, Qin Yun and Yi Xiao joined forces to kill Water G.o.d.

Further back, Qin Yun traveled the world alone at the age of fifteen.

Further back, Qin Yun practiced his sword daily, becoming the strongest youth in Grand Dominance County.

Further back, his younger sister was taken away by demons in the village. His father was heavily injured while Qin Yun wept…

Further back, Qin Yun, Qin An, and Qin Hongxiang were together. The two elder brothers were running in the village while their sister chased after them with her tiny feet. "Eldest Brother, Second Brother, wait for me." Their father led the villagers in a patrol as he watched over with a chuckle.

…

As he watched time flow backward, Qin Yun did not realize that his eyes had moistened.

"Sis." Qin Yun muttered.

Time continued rewinding.

Soon, Qin Yun came to a point before he and his siblings were born.

As he continued forward, Qin Liehu and Changlan turned young. Qin Liehu was also trained by his father in his youth.

…

He constantly forged forward.

"Found it."

With the Seven Stars Art"s aid, Qin Yun instantly locked onto a figure. Although the figure was well-hidden, Qin Yun"s strength allowed him to instantly determine that it was Empyrean Lord Kuifu.

"Skyfiend Kuifu"s avatar." Qin Yun recognized him at a glance.

"Hahaha… The Heavens are helping me. The Heavens are helping me." The figure laughed out loud underground.

Qin Yun went further ahead to probe.

The avatar flew backwards as he moved out from underground, tearing through the obstruction of lava as he continued flying backwards.

"This is Stellar Stone. This…" Kuifu was reeling in excitement underground. He circled an area to do a probe. "It"s a thousand feet long? A thousand-foot-long Stellar Stone. How is this possible? Heavens! Hahaha, I"m about to soar! I, Kuifu, will be soaring to prominence! I have to keep this a secret. Definitely. I cannot tell anyone. I have to think of a method to secretly occupy this Great Chang world. I will bide my time and succeed the moment I strike!"

Kuifu"s avatar spoke in excitement.

"Thousand-foot-long Stellar Stone?" When Qin Yun discovered what Kuifu"s avatar was saying amid the river of time, he could not help but be alarmed.

However, as a Connate Wonder, a Stellar Stone naturally had confounding properties. Even in the river of time, Qin Yun had no means to discover its traces.

However, Kuifu was circling an area muttering to himself. It probably meant that the Stellar Stone was there!

Qin Yun continued his inference backward in time.

He only did so until Kuifu"s avatar descended into the Great Chang world.

"From the looks of it, the reason is this Stellar Stone." Qin Yun stopped his probe.

"Brother Yun, have you figured it out?" asked Yi Xiao.

"I need to go someplace to verify my theory." Qin Yun held her hand. "Let"s go."

Swoosh.

As he now knew the location, Qin Yun directly tore through the void with his wife.

In the deep depths of a volcano, Qin Yu and Yi Xiao appeared. Their bodies were ethereal and the magma posed no obstruction to them.

Something that looked like a gray mountain appeared in front of them. It was lined with runic patterns that suffused stellar light. It made the mountain appear dreamy like a divine mountain.

"What a huge Stellar Stone." Although Qin Yun had already known about it, he was still stunned when he saw it with his own eyes.