Another day pa.s.sed, summer left and autumn arrived. Leaves whistled down to the ground as the heavens and the earth were filled with a scene of withering.
Chen Xi was still walking forward tirelessly with an unrestrained disposition, and he finally stopped moving when autumn pa.s.sed to welcome winter.
When he turned around again, the scene before his eyes instantaneously changed.
It was still that expanse of peach trees that were in full bloom while the plants in the surroundings were luxuriant, and the spring sun and warm breeze were intoxicating. It was spring again.
On the other hand, the place where Chen Xi stood was surprisingly the place he’d stood when he’d just entered the Realm of Time. Everywhere that met his eye was a picturesque scene of spring, and it was just like the scene he’d seen earlier.
While I kept moving forward, time continued without end, and when I suddenly turned around, the scene had returned to how it was at the beginning… The changes of time really are the most difficult to figure out. Chen Xi stared blankly for a long time while the scene within his eyes swiftly changed between spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The scene changed without end, and it overlapped endlessly.
This sort of change occurred between night and day, and it was revealed in the changes in the landscape and scenery. They were either filled with exuberant vitality, flouris.h.i.+ng to the extreme, rustling and withering, or deathly silent and desolate…
The blossoming of the peach blossoms, the blooming of summer lotuses, the falling of autumn leaves, and the withering of plants in the winter… All of it was filled with the traces of time.
During the ancient times, there was a saying — beauty fades in an instant.
At this moment in Chen Xi’s heart, the changes of the seasons, the rotation between day and night, the growth and withering of all things, and even the pa.s.sage of time all surged into Chen Xi’s heart.
After that, he started to close his eyes and entered into deep contemplation. He released his mind and allowed it to soar amongst the changes he saw at this instant, and he sensed the shapeless traces of time that filled the surroundings.
Where was time?
It was everywhere!
Life, death, sickness, age, the changes in all things, the repet.i.tion of growth and withering… Everything contained the traces of time.
Thus, there was no need to capture time before Chen Xi could sense it, yet his consciousness was unable to reach it, causing him to be unable to comprehend it.
However, Chen Xi wasn’t anxious because comprehending the Dao required comprehension.
Comprehension means to comprehend and feel with the heart.
To put it in a simpler manner, Dao comprehension was the perception one’s heart had towards the Dao. If the heart perceived, then the Dao belonged to one, and this was comprehension.
Chen Xi Dao Heart gradually returned to silence, and his heart was focused and clear. His entire mind and body were immersed within his search for the strands of the energy of time.
The heavens, the earth, and everything in the surroundings seemed to have become motionless.
At the same time, Chen Xi had forgotten about the heavens and the earth, and it was even to the extent that he’d forgotten time and himself.
Amidst this strange and profound state, his entire body suddenly fell into a boundless abyss of time. His consciousness, strength, and even spirit, energy, essence, and life… Everything was being swiftly washed away!
Since the ancient times until now, countless extraordinary figures had obtained nothing from their comprehension of time, yet their hair turned gray before they transformed into ash.
The reason was that time was a supreme force of the Heaven Dao. Once one came into contact with it, then if one was unable to comprehend it, one would suffer backlash from the energy of time, so it was extremely dangerous.
Chen Xi had obtained enlightenment about all of this since the moment he sensed the strands of the trace of time, but there was just no turning back now.
A boundless abyss of time lay before him. If he could comprehend it, then he would attain the Temporal Grand Dao, yet if he failed, then his lifespan and life was bound to be washed away in the abyss of time…
In other words, Chen Xi had encountered the threshold of the energy of time at this moment, and his comprehension had just begun!
…
Outside the Realm of Time.
Hua Jiankong stood there silently while his extremely deep and profound eyes seemed to be able to see through everything within the Realm of Time.
At the instant Chen Xi started to come into contact with the energy of time, his eyes suddenly narrowed before erupting with a divine glow. “What shocking comprehension ability!”
But right after that, Hua Jiankong couldn’t help but feel slightly anxious in his heart.
Existences at his cultivation realm had long since grasped the energy of time, so he was naturally clearly aware that Chen Xi’s comprehension of the energy of time had just begun, and this process was definitely extremely dangerous.
Because it was the energy of time!
In an instant, it could make one change from an exuberant state to a weak state, and then cause one’s lifespan to dry up before peris.h.i.+ng. Yet it was also able to allow one to instantly return to one’s state in the past and lose everything one possessed right now!
In other words, time was terrifying because when it extended boundlessly, it was capable of exhausting the lifespan of an immortal, and when it backtracked, it could transform a supreme expert back to an infant state!
These two types of terrifying forces were called ‘Boundless Time’ and ‘Time Backtrack.’
For example, Immortal Kings were able to instantly and completely exhaust the lifespan of a person with a single thought, and they could also make a person age in reverse to an infant state. However, in this way, the strength and cultivation that person possessed would be ripped away, and it would be like an expert had returned to the starting point of the path towards the Grand Dao!
This obviously showed exactly how terrifying the energy of time was.
However, if two Immortal Kings were going against each other, then because they had both grasped the energy of time, it would instead be impossible for one to suffer such a miserable outcome.
“He really is extraordinary. It has only been a few days of time, yet he has already come into contact with the threshold of the energy of time.” Right when Hua Jiankong was slightly anxious in his heart, a warm voice suddenly resounded by his ears. He swiftly raised his head and saw that the Dean of Dao Emperor Academy, Meng Xinghe, was suddenly standing by his side.
“Master.” Hua Jiankong cupped his fists and bowed.
Meng Xinghe was the same as always. His face was young like the face of a young man, yet his eyes surged with the aura of time and experience. His entire body was like an expanse of a boundless starry sky, and as he stood there casually, it caused others to be unable to help but feel like they had to look up to him.
“Jiankong, how long do you think Chen Xi will need to comprehend the energy of time?” Meng Xinghe smiled as he asked.
Hua Jiankong thought for a moment and said, “I can’t say for certain.”
He really didn’t dare guess rashly because through the understanding he’d obtained in the recent years, he was entirely unable to judge Chen Xi based on convention.
This fellow was too extraordinary, and every single thing he did exceeded the expectations of all. Under such circ.u.mstances, how could Hua Jiankong dare make a guess?
Meng Xinghe smiled, and he seemed to really understand Hua Jiankong’s thought as he said, “I originally intended to meet him after he fully grasped the Dao Emperor’s inheritance. Unfortunately, time isn’t with me, and I have no choice but to make some preparations in advance.”
Hua Jiankong was shocked in his heart. Time isn’t with Master? Could it be that some sort of major incident is about to occur in the three dimensions again?
However, Meng Xinghe didn’t speak any further about this, and he just instructed. “Regardless of whether Chen Xi is able to advance into the Half-step Immortal King Realm within a hundred years of time, you must bring him to come see me.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he turned around and left.
Hua Jiankong on the other hand was stunned on the spot. Within a hundred years of time? Why? Could it be that the upheaval of the three dimensions will be erupting ahead of time one hundred years from now?
When he thought up to here, his eyes couldn’t help but narrow.
…
The Realm of Time.
The shapeless energy of time enveloped Chen Xi, and his vitality and lifespan seemed to have elapsed by a thousand years at this moment.
His long hair fell to the ground and grew madly without end while his face gradually matured, and it carried the aura of experience. As a Saint Immortal, his appearance could remain young forever, yet it was utterly impossible to conceal under the rapid loss of lifespan.
His hair started to change from black to grey, and then to white…
His skin started to be branded with wrinkles from age, and his face gradually aged as well.
All of this was because the energy of time had flowed throughout his body in that instant, and it washed away his lifespan and vitality at an extremely terrifying speed.
Immortals are said to have a lifespan equivalent to the lifespan of the heavens, yet they weren’t eternal in the end. There was similarly a limit. Even though Chen Xi had cultivated for less than a thousand years until now, relying on his cultivation at the Saint Immortal Realm, it was still sufficient for his lifespan to allow him to exist without any worry for a few hundred thousand to over a million years of time.
However, if his lifespan elapsed at this current speed, then his lifespan would probably be completely exhausted in less than a hundred years, and he would wither and die!
This was why the energy of time was terrifying.
If Chen Xi was unable to comprehend its profundity, then his path of cultivation would probably stop here as well.
However, Chen Xi seemed as if he didn’t notice this at all.
The energy of time was surging, his white hair fluttered and dropped while his face aged. He was like a statue that was being corroded in the wind. He sat silently in meditation yet was unable to obstruct the corrosion of time.
Just like this, an entire twenty years of time had pa.s.sed.
Twenty years of time was like a snap of the finger to ordinary immortals, yet to Chen Xi who was comprehending the energy of time, it caused almost half of his lifespan to be washed away!
At this moment, his hair was snow white while his face was still handsome, yet it was enveloped with a layer of thick aura of age and experience. If someone familiar were to see Chen Xi at this moment, they would probably not dare believe the scene before their eyes.
However, even if twenty years had pa.s.sed, Chen Xi still seemed as if he didn’t notice the changes in him at all, and he comprehended in silence.
“Twenty years have pa.s.sed. Why hasn’t there been any movement from him at all?” Outside the Realm of Time, Hua Jiankong frowned. He recalled the time he comprehended the Temporal Laws all those years ago, and he’d only exhausted ten years of time to comprehend a strand of the energy of time, Time Layer.
Even though Time Layer was only a branch of the supreme Temporal Grand Dao, it was like the Shadow of Time that Yun Fusheng possessed. It wasn’t the complete Temporal Grand Dao, yet he was considered to have stepped through the threshold of the Temporal Grand Dao.
Yet Chen Xi has actually exhausted twenty years of time and still showed no signs of movement until now. This caused Hua Jiankong to be unable to help but have a slightly bad feeling in his heart.
After all, in his understanding, Chen Xi was a peerless genius, yet it just so happened that Chen Xi seemed to have encountered a problem while comprehending the energy of time and showed no signs of progress. So Hua Jiankong couldn’t help but be worried.
“Could it be that he was a bit too impatient?” Hua Jiankong’s brows knit together even more tightly. He was clearly aware that Chen Xi had just advanced into the Saint Immortal Realm a few years ago, and Chen Xi had just established his own Saint Dao Law before trying to comprehend the energy of time.
If it was an ordinary Saint Immortal, that Saint Immortal would probably not try to hastily charge into the Half-step Immortal King Realm at all. Yet it just so happened then Chen Xi had done this.
Now, when he thought about it carefully, Hua Jiankong had no choice but to doubt whether Chen Xi’s choice to hastily comprehend the energy of time was right or wrong.
“Hmm?” Right at this moment, Hua Jiankong’s pupils suddenly constructed. He sensed to his surprise that Chen Xi’s figure within the Realm of Time was suddenly enveloped by a shapeless vortex of time!
The vortex was shapeless, yet it was filled with the profundities of time. As it revolved, it revealed a gorgeous glow that was translucent like gla.s.s. It was the traces of time, and it seemed material!