Chapter 2062: Reincarnation

"It's so quiet...""I wonder if Mr. Bazun'an has found the Heavenly Realm...""But indeed, with Xu Xiaoshou gone, the Time Realm feels much safer."

Amidst the chaotic and fragmented Time Realm, Kong Yuhen, immersed in the Dao, silently surveyed this world. Although the carefree tea-drinking days at the Pavilion of Ancient and Modern Sorrows were no more, being alone in the Time Realm, far from the clamor of battle, was still a kind of enjoyment.

"I wonder what the state of the Sacred God Continent is," he mused. "But since Xu Xiaoshou has passed the thirty-two lightning tribulation arrays, he should have few rivals among the Ancestral Gods of Zero. The flames of war shouldn't spread to the Time Realm."

A paradise! This was how Kong Yuhen defined the Pavilion of Ancient and Modern Sorrows, and now, the Time Realm. He didn't need to do anything more; he would either wait for Xu Xiaoshou to finish everything, or for Bazun'an to return with the new Heavenly Realm, and then the dust would settle.

"Ugh!" A sharp pain suddenly pierced his mind. Kong Yuhen slightly solidified his true form from the Dao.

"Not again..." His brows furrowed. He knew this was a sign of his power being gradually overdrawn. Similar pains had occurred intermittently over the years, at least once a month, each lasting one or two weeks. Although Xu Xiaoshou had helped a great deal, providing several precious drops of life elixir, it was still insufficient to sustain such a vast Time Realm. Those few drops of nourishment had long since been depleted.

"Hmm?" But soon, Kong Yuhen realized something was wrong. This pain came suddenly and wasn't a mere spasm; instead, it intensified with time. It felt as if someone had forcibly plunged into his spiritual world, forming needles that pricked him. Before long, Kong Yuhen was drenched in sweat from the pain.

"No..." "This doesn't seem to be power depletion..." He painfully extended his hand, finally noticing the "lesions" on his body. His right hand had, at some point, swollen with numerous nodules, his veins turned green, and his entire arm became incredibly slender, like a plant's tendril.

Hissing sounds emerged. Not only his right hand, but his left hand too. Even his feet and torso began to deform. With tearing sounds, the humanoid Kong Yuhen quickly transformed into a slender plant, only his head barely retaining its human shape.

But... "Itch!" "So itchy!" His face seemed to be covered in dense rashes, and the intense urge to scratch them could not be satisfied because his arms had become soft and weak.

Space served as a mirror. Kong Yuhen's eyes widened as he looked forward, his pupils trembling. In the mirror, there was no "human" left; he had completely transformed into a plant. His face, though not covered in bloody rashes, was densely packed with black sunflower seeds, a sight that sent shivers down his spine.

"I've... turned into a sunflower?" His brain felt as if it were splitting, and his spirit was racked with spasms of pain. Kong Yuhen whispered hoarsely, but he couldn't endure the agony of the transformation. In a daze, he saw his reflection in the spatial mirror shatter into countless presences.

There was the sunflower version of himself, Huang Quan wearing a Yama mask, the cold-blooded scholar with dark and chilling eyes, the brawny, square-faced man...

The mirrored space expanded infinitely in his hallucination. Rows upon rows of Kong Yuhen evolved into existence, making it impossible to distinguish the true self in that instant, his consciousness completely plunged into chaos.

Just then, a twisted, sinister laugh echoed in his mind: "They took me away, so you'll have to be this Ancestor's ghost-beast host!" That voice... The Medicine Ancestor, Shennong Baicao?!

His thoughts violently churned, and Kong Yuhen could no longer control himself or his power, as his myriad selves overlapped and converged into one. A giant tumor replaced the sunflower-like Kong Yuhen. Bloody tearing sounds erupted from the top, and half a body emerged, strikingly bearing the withered, wrinkled face of the Medicine Ancestor, Shennong Baicao.

"The Time Realm is mine!" Shennong Baicao's upper body pulled out from the bloody tumor with great effort, then manifested his hands, raising them from his sides. At this point, he could finally do a bit more, but he frowned and let out a cold laugh:

"No need to struggle," he scoffed. "This Ancestor's eons-long plan is such that even if the Time Ancestor's true body were to personally arrive, he would be powerless to resist. Moreover, your recovery is incomplete; at best, you are merely a collective of the Time Ancestor's avatars."

Shennong Baicao laughed heartily, his laughter filled with self-satisfaction and contentment, yet also deep hatred and resentment. Clearly, having been cornered to that extent on the Sacred God Continent, with both the Rivers of Life and Samsara plundered, and nearly dying, it was a fate no one could accept.

"Die!" Fortunately, he had prepared. The Medicine Ancestor unleashed all this hatred upon Kong Yuhen. He pressed his hands down with full force, as if to crush Kong Yuhen's remaining will, completely seizing the Dao of Time and Space.

The Time Realm space suddenly rippled. No unusual sounds exploded. After Kong Yuhen's consciousness collapsed, he did not vanish but instead transformed into thousands of Kong Yuhens, bursting forth from the bloody tumor.

The Medicine Ancestor narrowed his eyes, feeling it was somewhat troublesome. The Time Ancestor's decline, manifesting in countless avatars, was naturally a good thing for an Ancestral God seeking to seize his Dao. However, Shennong Baicao's current state was even weaker than Chong Yin's previously; he couldn't even completely crush the will of Kong Yuhen, a mere collective of the Time Ancestor's avatars. A single strike, instead of destroying him, caused countless avatars to burst forth.

"Damn it!" he cursed. "Damn Xu Xiaoshou for plundering my eighteen pools of life elixir! And even more, I resent Sheng Xin's Blood Demon Life-Reversal Art, which forced me into such a desperate situation that he actually seized the Dao of this Ancestor directly!"

The Medicine Ancestor was not disheartened. Having escaped with a feigned death technique and reborn like a cicada shedding its skin, using the Life Flower he had prepared long ago as a backup plan, how could he be trapped by such a minor obstacle?

"I can't stay here anymore," he declared. "Sheng Xin might be forced into a corner at any moment and have to come in. I can't afford to waste time battling Kong Yuhen; I must leave quickly." He unceremoniously gathered all the Kong Yuhens, collecting them within the bloody tumor, completely confining them.

Once his limbs had fully formed, he manipulated the host body like a ghost-beast, ceaselessly unleashing the Dao of Time and Space, intending to escape to the vicinity of the Time Realm passage.

"First, I'll go back a thousand years," he decided. "A thousand years ago, Chong Yin hadn't yet recovered, and Sheng Xin hadn't become one with his three bodies. However, I can subtly manipulate the three locations—the Primordial Mother Coffin, the Sword Tower, and the Imperial Realm of Cold Palace—to influence Sheng Xin's present state through the past, weakening him. At the very least, this will force him not to pursue me into the Time Realm, and not to annihilate me completely!"

He acted on the thought immediately. Manipulating Kong Yuhen's body, Shennong Baicao took a step, and beneath his feet, the River of Time and Space manifested. As for whether escaping a thousand years into the past would weaken his control over the present Time Realm, or even cause its collapse... these were no longer concerns for Shennong Baicao.

Self-preservation was paramount! If not now, when would he run?

"Go!" "Going where?" As the power of time and space surged, a burst of laughter erupted beside his ear. Shennong Baicao's thoughts reeled violently. For a brief moment, he couldn't even control the power of the Great Dao, and he looked to the side in disbelief.

Beside him, the Blood Demon's power surged, clearly coalescing into Sheng Xin's figure, who was now gathering strength for a palm strike, hurtling straight towards him.

"Impossible!" Shennong Baicao shrieked in terror. With a ruthless palm strike, Sheng Xin blasted his head apart. The Time Realm rippled intensely. Visibly, even the immortal power represented by the Life Flower rapidly declined under the corrupting influence of the Blood Demon Life-Reversal Art. The chill of death descended!

Shennong Baicao still couldn't believe how Sheng Xin had arrived so quickly. "This is impossible..." he muttered. "The flow of time in the Time Realm is different from the Sacred God Continent. Even if he entered the Time Realm just moments after me there, I should have been at least several days ahead here..."

Amidst his turbulent thoughts, Sheng Xin had already transformed into a streak of light and, without ceremony, injected himself into Kong Yuhen's body, laughing wildly: "You can't understand it, can you? Shennong Baicao, you've forgotten that Kong Yuhen was originally within this Ancestor's grasp. Before dealing with you and Xu Xiaoshou, would this Ancestor not guard against your Life Flower, or not leave an avatar in the Time Realm in advance? What's more, your True Stele of Origin hasn't fully condensed yet; you can only bully a frog in a well like Xu Xiaoshou. Do you think this Ancestor couldn't see what tricks you were trying to pull?"

Just a Sheng Xin avatar? But one that had been ambushed in the Time Realm early on, waiting for his final self-inflicted trap?

"No—" Even his final move had been anticipated; Shennong Baicao was utterly desperate. He had only managed to escape with a wisp of his consciousness, having abandoned even the power of the Twin Rivers of the Great Dao. If caught, he would have no power to resist whatsoever!

"Bid this world a complete farewell!" As the Blood Demon's power entered his body, the defiling force, like vast heavenly might, suppressed him. Shennong Baicao became like a solitary boat on a boundless ocean. A single great wave engulfed him, annihilating him in an instant.

"No—" The scream from within Kong Yuhen's body lasted only halfway before abruptly stopping. He opened his eyes once more, a flash of Blood Demon power passing through them, and a cold, indifferent smile played on his lips.

He flexed his hands. Without even needing to seize the Dao directly, he temporarily gained control of the Dao of Time and Space through the combined forms of the Medicine Ancestor's ghost-beast and Kong Yuhen's host body. This ambush was a resounding success. By using the Medicine Ancestor's ghost-beast host, he had avoided a direct confrontation with the Time Ancestor, and now he only needed to wait for his true body to enter the Time Realm to begin seizing the Dao.

"Don't worry, I'll help you seize the Time Ancestor's Dao," Sheng Xin's avatar murmured to himself. "Your Dao of Life and Dao of Samsara will eventually fall into this Ancestor's hands as well. None of you will escape."

The Sheng Xin avatar muttered to himself silently, familiarizing himself with the power of time and space while waiting in quiet anticipation. Before long, a ripple of power emanated from the Time Realm passage, and the Blood Demon's power surged forth intensely.

"It's over," he declared. The Sheng Xin avatar manipulated the host body, sealing the inner and outer entrances of the Time Realm passage from within using the Heaven and Earth Seal. Then, he controlled his hands, embracing the arrival of his true body.

Boom! The Blood Demon's power completely enveloped him. Inside the Time Realm, the true body and the avatar converged, completing the final step. Sheng Xin successfully sealed the Time Realm passage and, as desired, subdued all of Kong Yuhen's avatars, laughing heartily.

"Flawless strategy?" He clenched his fists, looking towards the Sacred God Continent outside the Time Realm passage, a sneer playing on his lips: "Once this Ancestor uses the Dao of Time and Space to remove the after-effects of the Blood Demon Life-Reversal Art, Xu Xiaoshou, Dao Qiongcang, none of you will escape!"

"The Time Realm passage is sealed!" With a crash, Xu Xiaoshou ran headfirst into something. Stunned, he looked at the Time Realm passage above the North Sea. After a brief moment of bewilderment, he realized it was the familiar scent of the Heaven and Earth Seal.

Moreover, this time Sheng Xin had the Blood Demon Life-Reversal Art enhancing him. And with Sheng Xin inside the Time Realm and himself outside, without even a Gou Wuyue present, it seemed completely impossible to break open the passage.

"What?!" Dao Qiongcang's terrified shriek came through the Telepathy Art. He had already arrived in the Apricot Realm and was beginning to handle the aftermath of the Blood Demon Catastrophe, never expecting that the first-hand news Xu Xiaoshou brought would be even more like a nightmare than the catastrophe itself.

"Blast it apart!" Dao Qiongcang provided the answer. At this point, there was no other way."Easier said than done!" Xu Xiaoshou furiously retorted: "What needs to be broken isn't just a passage; it connects to the entire Time Realm. Sheng Xin's Blood Demon Life-Reversal Art is still active, and if he has already initially seized Kong Yuhen, with that power augmentation, the Time Realm's resilience would be no less than that of the Late-Dharma Heavenly Kingdom!"

"But with the Late-Dharma Heavenly Kingdom, you were dealing with Sheng Xin's eons of accumulation, preventing him from reforming the Divine Court. The Time Realm is singular; even if Sheng Xin seizes Kong Yuhen's Dao, he won't be able to fully digest it or condense it in a short period of time." Dao Qiongcang's thoughts were incredibly clear.

That's true! The problem is, to shatter the Time Realm, now under the control of the Blood Demon Life-Reversal Art, wouldn't be a matter of just one or two pools of energy. It would probably require another punch of fifty million charge points, wouldn't it? But if I expend this second punch on the Time Realm, I won't have much left in reserve. If I encounter Sheng Xin again later, and he still has tricks up his sleeve...

At the thought of this, Xu Xiaoshou's head began to ache again. A centipede dies but never falls stiff; why is Sheng Xin so troublesome?

"Xu Xiaoshou, the Blood Demon's power is invading my Divine Court," Dao Qiongcang's voice echoed through the Telepathy Art. His condition was not optimistic. Fighting Sheng Xin was easy, but maintaining a stalemate with the Blood Demon's power meant his own condition was worsening by the moment. He didn't have much time left to hold out!

As long as Sheng Xin wasn't dead, the Blood Demon's power here couldn't be erased. Dao Qiongcang could only grit his teeth and endure. Even if the Black Memory Mark was powerful, how many more days could it hold out? Once his condition fell below the critical threshold, even if Xu Xiaoshou shattered the Time Realm, what then? When Sheng Xin returned, he would only need to choose to possess him immediately...

"At that time, what you'll face will be Sheng Xin, possessing the Dao of Memory and Zero!" Dao Qiongcang stated calmly.

Useless Dao Qiongcang! Xu Xiaoshou cursed silently, yet he dared not delay. He began sacrificing the boundless energy within his inner world to charge his Passive Punch.

He used three pools to survive the Ancestral God Extinguishing Dharma Tribulation. He used five pools to unleash the first Passive Punch. He used one pool to exert all his power against the Blood Demon's force and forcefully seize the Dao of Life. Of the eighteen pools of life elixir power, only nine remained now.

If he used five more of the nine, only four would be left, which was nowhere near enough! The fortunate thing amidst the misfortune was that one of the Passive Punch's evolutionary effects allowed it to retain half its power after a strike, using the backlash: "Passive Punch (Charge Value: 26,923,120.31)."

Calculating based on ten million charge points per pool of life elixir, he would have to conserve. This time, he would only use three pools of life elixir! Begin charging!

Xu Xiaoshou steeled himself, suppressing the trepidation he felt for the impending intense pain. He raised his right arm high, as boundless energy furiously poured into it: "Passive Punch (Charge Value: 34,738,384.58)." "Passive Punch (Charge Value: 45,823,675.91)."

On the other side, Dao Qiongcang clearly couldn't wait a moment longer and could no longer remain calm: "Hurry!" "Faster! Don't forget, the flow of time is different. One breath for you here could be a month for Sheng Xin in the Time Realm. But if he acts without regard for consequences, draining the pond to catch the fish, one breath could equal a year or even ten years. And with the Blood Demon Life-Reversal Art, Sheng Xin has no future anyway; would he care about the consequences?"

"Blah, blah, blah, are you the only smart one? The only one who can calculate?" "Shut your mouth!" Xu Xiaoshou retorted angrily and without hesitation. He was already charging as fast as possible. This thing didn't just appear out of thin air. If this wasn't enough, then "you do it if you can!"

"Xu Xiaoshou..." "Shut up!" "That's not what I meant..." "I'm doing my best, shut up!"

In the Apricot Realm, Dao Qiongcang fell silent for a moment. He had already gathered most of the Apricot Realm's inhabitants into the Black Memory Mark. At this moment, his mount, Zero, had already dulled in luster. Affected by the Blood Demon Life-Reversal Art, even the Fallen Realm Heavenly Crystal began to degrade in quality. Moreover, within his Divine Court, the Black River of Memory had also begun to show traces of blood, with the Blood Demon's power influencing it everywhere.

It wasn't that Dao Qiongcang didn't want to shut up. It was that at this moment, not only was Zero sounding an alarm, but he himself had an ominous premonition. It was the feeling of death!

"My Xu, I still have to say this: if you shatter the Time Realm, Sheng Xin will most likely choose to possess me. If that happens, I might not be able to hold out..."

"Then endure it!" "There's also a possibility that he has already used the power of the Time Realm to flee to another plane." "He won't escape, I promise you!"

Xu Xiaoshou's eyes were bloodshot, and destructive fluctuations were already billowing from his right fist. This was no empty boast! He had once entered the Primordial Mother Coffin world as a Renowned Ancestor, observing Sheng Xin's three-in-one fusion and secretly leaving a mark. Sheng Xin still carried the Primordial Mother Coffin at this moment. As long as he wouldn't part with it, Xu Xiaoshou could pull him out from even the depths of time and space and blast him with a single punch!

"Furthermore, if the Time Realm shatters, Bazun'an won't be able to return either," Dao Qiongcang's voice weakened.

"So I shouldn't punch? We should just wait for Bazun'an to return together?" Dao Qiongcang was instantly startled, repeatedly saying no. That wasn't what he meant at all. If Xu Xiaoshou gave up, what would become of them? They might as well all wait for death!

Bazun'an... won't be able to return? Xu Xiaoshou, however, felt no concern about this. He could even see Ancestor Nuo in the black rotating disk and summon him through an Intent Dao connection. As long as Bazun'an could grow to the level of Ancestor Nuo, meeting him through the River of Swordsmanship and guiding him home was not entirely impossible.

Therefore, the top priority was still to shatter the Time Realm...

"Oh, right, there's another possibility!" "Why are you spouting so much nonsense?" "I hope I'm just being overly worried, but do you remember? Sheng Xin seized the Dao of the River of Samsara. If it wasn't a coincidental choice between two options, but intentional, and combined with his choice to enter the Time Realm—which was formed with the blessings of the Pavilion of Ancient and Modern Sorrows and the Six Ancient Gates—then, among those Six Ancient Gates, there's one called the Gate of Samsara..."

Whatever Dao Qiongcang was babbling, Xu Xiaoshou could no longer hear. He only knew that this punch could not be held back. Not only would it shatter the Time Realm, but it would also leave Sheng Xin battered and bruised, ensuring the energy from the three pools of life elixir would achieve its intended effect.

"Passive Punch (Charge Value: 58,328,472.33)." "Sheng Xin, where do you think you're going!"

"Three hundred years..." In the Time Realm, Sheng Xin opened his eyes, a trace of helplessness showing in them. Draining the pond to catch the fish, he used the Time Realm's unique properties to delay the negative effects of the Blood Demon Life-Reversal Art and accelerate his comprehension speed.

In three breaths of time, before the Blood Demon Life-Reversal Art had even concluded, Sheng Xin had comprehended the Dao for three hundred years. He spent one hundred years digesting seventy percent of the Dao of Arts and the Dao of Samsara. Then, another hundred years to gain preliminary control over the more complex Dao of Space and Dao of Time.

But after all, these were all seized Daos. No matter what, he couldn't advance further and evolve them into the Sea of Samsara or the Sea of Time and Space.

The only thing worth celebrating was that he had indeed, through painstaking effort and the concepts of the Dao of Arts, figured out a method to merge the Dao of Samsara and the Dao of Time and Space, cultivating a technique that allowed his true body to personally visit the past and influence the future.

"The Gate of Samsara." With a touch of his hand, relying on the Time Realm's Pavilion of Ancient and Modern Sorrows and the Six Ancient Gates that emerged, Sheng Xin pointed towards the Gate of Samsara, one of them.

Within the gate, temporal scenes flickered, revealing secrets he had never glimpsed before. Most of them were about Xu Xiaoshou: his past life, present life, and future.

"Indeed, you are not a Renowned Ancestor, but a soul returning to a borrowed body..." The Blood Demon's power surged. Sheng Xin, treading on the River of Samsara and the River of Time, formed a hand seal, merging the two rivers.

He struck the Gate of Samsara before him with a palm. The world within the gate collapsed, then quickly reassembled, forming a temporal samsara vortex leading to an unknown destination.

From beginning to end, Sheng Xin had no intention of avoiding battle. Xu Xiaoshou had his youthful ambition, his rampant audacity. Sheng Xin, too, had the dignity of an Ancestral God of Zero. The appearance of Bazun'an was surprising enough; in his eyes, he could not tolerate even one more grain of sand. And this time...

Sheng Xin's face was frosty as he stepped into the temporal samsara vortex within the gate, his figure completely vanishing from the Time Realm. "In the past, I'll kill your future; in your previous life, I'll sever your current one. Let's see how you transcend this time."