Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Chapter 842: Time

With the wave of a finger, a beautiful maiden was transformed into an ugly peasant woman with pronounced cheeks, protruding lips, and a flattish nose.

Drawing back his finger, Tang Jie was still dissatisfied, so he also made Ice Phoenix's skin rough and jaundiced. Only then did he draw his hand back in satisfaction and fly off.

After a few moments, Ice Phoenix cried out in anger, "Tang Jie, what sort of awful thing did you turn me into?"

Tang Jie smugly congratulated himself, considering this revenge for her previous treachery. He threw his head back and roared in laughter, after which he waved his hand and transformed Yiyi, but keeping her beautiful, and then himself into an elegant scholar. Taking Yiyi by the hand, he flew off, ignoring Ice Phoenix.

Ice Phoenix stomped her feet in anger, but there was nothing she could do but follow.

Now that he had changed appearance and had Ice Phoenix obediently following him, Tang Jie found himself in no rush to head to the West Bull Divine State.

This was because he realized that rushing off to the West Bull Divine State to free Ice Phoenix from her demonhood was a mistake from the beginning. It was precisely because he was in such a rush to help Ice Phoenix that she had been able to cause so much trouble.

Sometimes, that was just how things were. The more you thought for someone's sake, the less they appreciated your kindness, perhaps even thought you were being malicious.

Placing oneself on the balance wasn't conducting good business.

Thus, Tang Jie was no longer in a rush and decided to casually stroll about.

The abundant lands of the Vast Wilderness Continent were full of scenic sights.

Tang Jie was a hick from the countryside that was the Rosecloud Domain, entering the wider world for the first time, so he couldn't help but be dazzled. Thus, he and Yiyi had a grand old time playing around.

But Ice Phoenix wasn't as happy.

This was because Tang Jie had made her too ugly. If Tang Jie and Yiyi were the golden boy and jade girl, Ice Phoenix was that coarse maidservant that accompanied them.

Tang Jie expressed that he was very satisfied by this.

When he was free, Tang Jie digested the knowledge of the Dao of Time he had gained from Xin Tianchou.

Of course, he didn't intend to learn Xin Tianchou's Dao Arts. Dao Arts belonged to the individuals, but he had his own Dao Will, and one could take a different path in understanding the Great Dao and end up at the same destination.

No matter how the Dao Arts changed, the Great Dao was always there, ever constant.

It was like a pipe spewing out a mist. No matter where each individual water drop went, they all came from the same source.

Tang Jie already had one drop, the Dao Will of Time he had comprehended before, delayed attacks.

And now, he had memorized another Time Dao Art, the second drop of water.

When the first drop of water appeared, Tang Jie saw that fuzzy timeline, saw the countless versions of himself on that line.

When the second drop appeared, this timeline grew clearer.

It was unnoticeable at first, but with every additional day of study and exploration, recalling the traces left by the Dao of Time as Xin Tianchou used Origin Return, the changes became more and more obvious.

As before, Tang Jie was standing in the center of the timeline. Behind was the past, and in front of him was the future.

These countless Tang Jies spread across this line were all doing various things.

Tang Jie could clearly see his past, and he could see a blurred future.

The past was very clear, but it was an impassable wall that could never be crossed.

The future was very blurry, and it was thin as a cicada's wing, difficult to tread upon.

Thus, one could trace back the past but not revisit it, and while one could touch the future, it was difficult to fathom it.

Tang Jie's delayed attacks were established on the principle that the future could be touched.

But Xin Tianchou's Origin Return was established on revisiting the past. To put it simply, he had broken through that limit, pushing aside that wall behind him, allowing the him standing on the timeline to step backward.

When he took a step back, he returned to that point in time, achieving the goal of Origin Return.

The more steps he took backward, the further back into the past he went.

But this took large amounts of Time power.

Tang Jie now knew how to reverse his own time. Once he comprehended enough Dao Wills, entered the Dao, and accumulated enough Time power, he could break the wall of Time and revisit the past.

Then, operating on the same principle, so long as he entered the Dao and accumulated enough Time power, he could see into the future.

Seeing through that blurry and ethereal future was essentially a sort of prophecy.

There was another Great Dao with the power of prophecy: Fate.

But Fate's prophecies were based on analyzing intersecting characters and events, whereas Time's prophecies directly saw how a certain object's future developed. While the Dao of Fate's prophecies had something to back them up, the Dao of Time was completely unreasonable.

But for this reason, the Dao of Fate's prophecies could be inaccurate, the future it saw altered through influencing the Fates of other objects. The Dao of Time's prophecies were much more accurate.

Although the Dao of Time's future was unchangeable, it did not extend on forever. It allowed only a limited future rather than letting one see an object's Fate until its end.

This was the difference between the prophecies of Fate and Time.

The future of the Dao of Fate could go extremely far, being able to conjecture ten thousand years into the future if one had enough Fate power. But this prophecy could change, and most of the time, the prophecies of Fate only ended up revealing a tiny hint of the future.

For example, the Elemental Simulation Formation had prophesied that Tang Jie would die under Immortal Ji Yao's finger, but all it had been correct about was the existence of the finger.

This was what defined a prophecy of Fate.

The Dao of Time was the exact opposite. The difficulty in breaking through the Dao of Time meant that people would only ever be able to see a limited future, perhaps a second or only a few seconds. However, it was bound to be true. Of course, this wasn't impossible to change, but there was no transcending time unless one could see through it.

Besides returning to the past and seeing the future, the Dao of Time could also have other effects.

Standing at the center of the timeline, gazing forward.

Tang Jie closed his eyes.

He stopped using his eyes to see, and instead focused his Divine Soul, using his Divine Will and mind to comprehend the power of this Great Dao.

Time washed past him, a vast and deep ocean slowly flowing around him.

And then that scene from before appeared.

Time began to accelerate, whisking away his life force with it.

This was the scariest thing about the Dao of Time. Every attempt to comprehend it came at the cost of one's lifespan.

The last time he comprehended it, he had lost several decades of lifespan, and in exchange, he had gotten the ability to delay his attacks and a basic understanding of the Great Dao.

But this time, Tang Jie wanted more, so he needed to endure more power, and lose more.

The timeline began to move faster and faster, and what had been an endless road turned into a roaring river, its raging waters washing away year after year of Tang Jie's life.

But still Tang Jie stood there, unmoving.

In the sea of his mind, his Divine Soul rapidly grasped the flow of Time.

Dao Runes were condensing, and Dao Wills were emerging.

Tang Jie's body was rapidly changing.

He was aging and withering, but at the same time, his understanding of time, the Dao Wills, was growing stronger and stronger.

All of this was like what had happened in the Beast Garden all those years ago.

The only difference was that Tang Jie now had Deification cultivation and an Immortal Spirit Body.

Every white hair represented one year, and every wrinkle represented ten.

But Tang Jie didn't care, sacrificing his life to continue comprehending.

Finally!

Boom!

Something seemed to explode in his mind, and a massive Dao Rune appeared in his body and branded itself in the very depths of his body, in the Sea of Cognition, on the center of his forehead.

He had entered the Dao!

He drew back his mind.

He went from the river of Time back to reality.

He opened his eyes and saw the bored Yiyi in the distance standing up and shouting, "Big Brother!"

She excitedly ran over.

Tang Jie smiled and waved his hand.

And then Yiyi discovered to her consternation that everything around her had slowed down.

No matter how she ran, she couldn't reach Tang Jie's side.