Chapter 363

Chapter 363: The River of Time

The corners of the Immortal Kings’ mouths twitched.

"No wonder he came from Heaven’s Secret Pavilion. Such confidence, few could match it," sighed Ancestor of the Ji Clan.

Whether in terms of written strength or the forces backing him, no one present could compare to Ye Xu.

Boom!

Ye Xu activated his divine abilities, enveloping the Chaotic Demon God’s corpse with the domain of creation and taking away its massive demon body. The onlookers’ eyes gleamed green with greed, but no one dared to strike.

After finishing this, Ye Xu strode away proudly.

"Since there is a Chaotic Demon God corpse here, there must be more," an Immortal King said solemnly. "Dear friends, Void Tomb is the burial ground of the Chaotic Demon Gods."

Hearing these words, everyone’s eyes lit up.

Everyone flew deeper in.

As expected, the farther they ventured, the more floating objects appeared in the chaotic void, mostly fragments of Chaotic Demon Gods’ weapons. Strangely, not a single Chaotic Demon God corpse was found.

"Hahaha…"

An Immortal King threw his head back and laughed heartily as he scooped out a piece of celestial gold from the chaos, a prime treasure for forging Immortal Venerable treasures.

"Hand it over!"

At that moment, a divine ability exploded fiercely, a blade light tore through the chaos, splitting that Immortal King in half. The celestial gold fell into a shadowy figure’s grasp, who swiftly fled.

The same scene repeated itself everywhere.

Even a broken Chaotic Demon God’s weapon was a formidable treasure, capable of forging divine weapons and immensely valuable. Naturally, it tempted the Immortal Kings to plot covert killings.

"Strange," Ye Xu frowned slightly. "How could this Void Tomb have only one Chaotic Demon God corpse?"

But this was a burial ground for Chaotic Demon Gods!

"After their fall, their residual power and obsessions formed this chaotic Secret Realm, so where are their corpses?"

More than one person doubted this.

Moreover, the Void Tomb appeared boundless, without end.

Boom!

Suddenly, an explosion erupted deeper within, shaking the chaotic void and triggering another wave of the original chaotic storm. Many Immortal Kings hastily cast spells to evade.

Ye Xu’s gaze shifted, and he pierced through the original chaotic storm, heading straight toward the explosion’s origin.

Traversing the storm, the scene underwent a great change.

A vast, majestic river came into view, formed of condensed chaos. Yet its water was clear and brilliant, with countless scenes flickering wondrously within its flow.

"Great Dao of Time?" Ye Xu’s expression wavered slightly as he sensed the power of the Great Dao of Time.

Could this river be the legendary River of Time?

Countless scenes danced, making it difficult to distinguish past, present, and future.

"How can there be a river here?" Following Ye Xu, more Immortal Kings descended upon the River of Time. The instant they saw it, all were stunned.

"The legendary River of Time? Can we see the past, present, and future?" Dao King spoke solemnly.

Li Ruoshui shook her head. “This is just a legend. No one can prove it.”

The Great Dao of Time was one of the supreme Great Daos, transcending chaos itself, which was why it could exist within the Void Tomb.

In all the realms, scarcely any could master the Great Dao of Time.

“Is that the scene of the creation of the heavens?”

Suddenly, the river swelled. Images surfaced in the river of time—boundless chaos, vast emptiness. A divine being holding a massive axe awoke from a dream.

He swung the divine axe and cleaved the void, giving birth to Pure Energy and Turbid Energy. The Pure Energy ascended, while the Turbid Energy descended, forming Heaven and Earth.

But the very next moment, countless Chaotic Demon Gods surged from all directions, clashing fiercely with the Axe-Wielding Divine Being.

Blood soaked the chaos, turning the air thick with carnage.

“This is indeed the creation of the heavens,” Bai Muyue stated solemnly.

“If that’s the case, then where we stand must be the lower reaches of the river of time.”

The lower reaches recorded the past.

“To say this is truly the river of time remains debatable,” rumbled a cultivator whose face was crisscrossed with scars, draped in a black robe and exuding the aura of a Peak Immortal King. His eyes gleamed with menace. “Send one person to test it, and we’ll have our answer.”

His gaze swept coldly over the assembled Immortal Kings.

“You! It’s your turn!”

The Black-robed Immortal King let out a chilling laugh. In one swift motion, he seized the fabric of reality itself and lunged at an early-stage Immortal King cultivator.

“Senior, spare my life!”

That Immortal King was powerless to resist, swiftly captured and suppressed by the Black-robed Immortal King.

The onlookers around them collectively released breaths they didn’t realize they were holding.

As long as the dead wasn’t them, it hardly mattered.

Whoosh!

The Black-robed Immortal King hurled his captive into the river of time. Instantly, streams of Symbols surged from the river’s surface. The power of the Great Dao of Time enveloped the early-stage Immortal King.

“Arghh!”

The Immortal King screamed. Before everyone’s eyes, his cultivation and his grasp of the Dao began vanishing at a visible speed.

Within moments, his power plummeted from the Immortal King realm to the true immortal realm, then further into the Emperor Venerable Realm. His body rapidly regressed—from old to middle-aged, to youth, to adolescence…

Within half a quarter-hour, he shrank to a dragon’s egg, bobbing amidst the river’s currents until it dissolved into nothingness.

He had been a dragon-type Immortal King.

“Holy sht!”

Dozens of Immortal Kings recoiled in terror, their pupils shrinking to pinpricks.

The Black-robed Immortal King smiled faintly. “Well? Now we know.”

For a moment, total silence fell. Each face reflected wildly different emotions.

This was indeed the river of time. And they stood unquestionably within its lower reaches.

But then—would the upper reaches of this river show them images of the future?

At this moment, countless minds were stirred.

The Immortal Realm would soon collapse, with myriad realms crumbling—an unprecedented cosmic catastrophe. All living beings were but specks of dust within this great calamity. To glimpse the future would mean seizing the chance to overturn the situation and alter one’s fate.

Or even…

To ascend the highest throne!

Dao King’s breath grew fervent.

The path of the ancient Heavenly Emperor was all he had ever sought in life; it was his ultimate ambition.

"To the source! Quickly!"

Immortal Kings surged upstream along the river, racing toward its source.

Ye Xu paid no mind.

Had they remained ignorant of the future, they might have escaped alive. But knowing it? None would ever let them leave the Void Tomb whole.

Who would willingly share such knowledge?

Those who had dealt with Heaven’s Secret Pavilion understood this best.

"Master," Dao King stared at Li Ruoshui intently, "we cannot go. Our strength is too weak. Witnessing the future at the source would bring disaster, not fortune."

"You speak sense," Li Ruoshui frowned deeply. "Yet we must go."

"Our Founder plotted for years. To catch even a glimpse of fate’s path is vital for the Taihao Heavenly Sect—and for the Founder. The future of our sect hinges on this."

"As you command," Dao King yielded, inwardly cursing Li Ruoshui’s overestimation.

Streams of immortal light, countless Immortal Kings, flew upstream.

"Teacher," Han Daokong grinned with eerie satisfaction, watching the procession of masters from the shadows, "they took the bait."

The Green Lotus Demon Emperor, imperial robes flowing, stood with hands clasped behind his back.

"Inevitable."

He spoke lightly. "Greed is in the heart of man. The stronger they become, the greedier they grow."

Not even a mighty Heavenly Emperor could resist the temptation of transcendence once the obsession took root.

How could a gathering of Immortal Kings, neither here nor there, hope to be immune?

"The day we walk beneath the sky again approaches." The Green Lotus Demon Emperor sighed with feeling.

They had waited far too long for this reckoning.