Chapter 5: Across the River of Time

Luo Yan cast a glance at the four individuals. They were all among the more talented descendants of the Luo family, aged eighteen or nineteen, and stood at the Divine Bridge realm. While they were far from being true prodigies, they could be considered minor geniuses within the Southern Region.

"Since this is our first meeting, I don't have much on me. This notebook contains some of my insights from the Wheel and Sea realm to the Dao Palace realm. The five of you should take it and study it well; it will be of great help in raising your cultivation. If you encounter anything you don't understand, feel free to ask me, and I will share what I know." Luo Yan produced a yellowed notebook; these were things his predecessor had prepared for the younger generation of the Luo family.

It contained insights into the four great secret realms—Wheel and Sea, Dao Palace, Four Extremities, and Dragon Transformation—as well as the Sendai realm. With the exception of the King realm, which followed the three slashes of the Dao in Sendai, every realm had corresponding notes. His predecessor had been very diligent.

Luo Tianlin, Luo Youyou, Luo Tianyuan, Luo Qing, and Luo Huaimu all gazed at the book with burning eyes. The Wheel and Sea insights of a Saint were a priceless treasure.

"Many thanks, Ancestor!" the five said in unison.

That evening, Luo Zongqi returned to the Luo family via a teleportation array and informed the elders that the Ancestor was still alive. Upon hearing the news, everyone was unable to sit still and immediately prepared to depart for Mo City, the site of the Ancestor's former seclusion, to seek an audience.

"It is truly Heaven blessing our Luo family! To think the Ancestor is still alive! This is wonderful; our family is saved!" exclaimed a Luo elder at the Four Extremities realm.

"Is the Ancestor truly still alive?" the head of the Luo family asked, his voice trembling.

"It is absolute truth! However, the Ancestor is not in a good state. His health is extremely poor, with at most three hundred years of lifespan remaining. Even his memory has been damaged, and he has forgotten many things. This return is to seek an Undying Immortal Medicine to prolong his life."

Hearing the news brought back by Luo Zongqi, the group was shocked. Was the Ancestor's condition truly so dire? Had he reached a point where he could only sustain himself with an Undying Immortal Medicine? The Ancestor commanded the most forbidden power of time in the world; logically, he should have possessed an incredibly long lifespan. Yet, as his cultivation increased, he had been eroded by time, causing his lifespan to diminish.

"I have returned under the Ancestor's orders to retrieve the Mirror of Time. The Ancestor intends to attempt its repair," Luo Zongqi continued.

"The Mirror of Time is the Ancestor's natal divine weapon; it must naturally return to his hands." No one had any objections to this.

A venerable elder suddenly asked, "Third Elder, did the Ancestor say anything regarding the matter of Xian'er?"

Luo Yixian was a descendant of his lineage and the possessor of the Chaotic Origin Divine Body, who held the promise of becoming the next Ancestor Luo Yan.

At these words, the hall fell silent. This was their greatest concern; if the Ancestor did not intervene, the matter was nearly unsolvable, and the Luo family would face total annihilation.

"The Ancestor will visit the Yaoguang Sacred Land in the coming days," Luo Zongqi replied without concealment.

Upon hearing this, the heavy burden in their hearts finally lifted. Their Ancestor was a Saint! In this age of the end of the Dharma, let alone Saints, even peerless Kings were rarely seen, and at most, some fossils at the Great Power level still walked the earth. A mere elder of the Yaoguang Sacred Land—or even the entire Sacred Land itself—would be nothing to fear.

"Third Elder, do not keep the Ancestor waiting!" The family head handed the Mirror of Time, which had shattered into hundreds of pieces, to Luo Zongqi.

...

Luo Yan stared at the hundreds of fragments, using his divine abilities to piece them into a complete mirror, then casting a secret technique to fix them in place so they would not shatter again.

"My predecessor was truly a monster!" Only after holding the mirror did Luo Yan understand why, despite mastering the laws of time and reaching the peak of the Quasi-Emperor realm, his lifespan had withered away so rapidly. He had attempted to emulate the Dragon-Patterned Tripod of the Yaoguang Sacred Land, seeking to forge an Extreme Dao Imperial Weapon without needing to prove his path as an Emperor.

But an Imperial Weapon was not so easily forged. He had only succeeded halfway before suffering a backlash, which ultimately cost him his lifespan. In a sense, the Mirror of Time had indeed become an Extreme Dao Imperial Weapon, yet it remained incomplete. Luo Yan surmised that by merging the hundreds of fragments into one, the mirror would ascend to the level of an Extreme Dao Imperial Weapon.

If he could repair it, holding an Extreme Dao Imperial Weapon with his peak Quasi-Emperor cultivation would make him the equal of a contemporary Great Emperor. With this, even the terrifying beings at the Supreme level who had survived from the primordial era within the forbidden zones of life could be suppressed, and he would have the power to contend even with a Great Emperor.

"To repair the Mirror of Time, I need to steal the origin of time from the River of Time. However, this is exceptionally dangerous; a moment of carelessness would result in being lost in the river forever!" Intercepting the origin of time was an act defying the heavens; even the Great Emperors of old dared not easily set foot upon the River of Time.

But Luo Yan mastered the laws of time and had deep insights into the power of time; even if he were lost, he had ways to find his way back.

Luo Yan channeled his time arts, injecting them into the mirror. A beam of light shot out, and the entire room changed in an instant. Looking down, Luo Yan found himself like a lonely boat, cradling the mirror in one hand as he walked upon the River of Time. Before this vast river, Luo Yan appeared as insignificant as duckweed, yet this duckweed could withstand the erosion of the ages. He pushed his own power of time to the limit, constantly neutralizing the temporal decay of the river.

"The origin of time is hidden in every segment of the river; to intercept it, I must head upstream!" Luo Yan said, his body radiating endless temporal power as he moved against the current. The Mirror of Time also released its laws, working with him to resist the erosion of the river.

Ten years, a hundred, three hundred, five hundred...

Luo Yan continued to ascend, as the fragments of time and history in the river continuously flowed backward.

"Found it!" Luo Yan stared fixedly at a streak of white light ahead. It was a complete origin of time, radiating infinite laws of time that swirled around it, saturating this section of the river.

Luo Yan did not want much—only a third. It was not that he did not want it all, but that he could not. If he were to take the entire origin, he would be noticed by the consciousness of the River of Time and be erased.

Luo Yan controlled the mirror, sending it flying toward the origin. A beam of light shot from the mirror, cutting the origin in two like a divine blade. Luo Yan struck instantly, sealing the smaller portion and clutching it in his hand, preventing its escape.

The origin thrashed in his grip, seemingly trying to break free. Luo Yan gave it no chance, driving it directly into the Mirror of Time.

At that moment, a monstrous surge rose from upstream, threatening to swallow him.

"No!"

Luo Yan cried out. It was a tide of time; to be swept into it would mean being cast into the turbulent currents of history! To encounter a tide of time on his very first foray into the river—his luck was truly abysmal!

Luo Yan immediately utilized the Mirror of Time to cast a protective shroud, shielding himself from the laws of the tide. The tide of time might be unsolvable for others, but not for him.

"As long as the mirror holds, I will surely survive this surge!" Luo Yan was confident.

*Hum—*

A massive sound echoed. He saw the mirror above his head growing dim to the naked eye.

"It's over! The mirror is falling into a slumber!" Luo Yan realized the danger.

He was instantly swallowed by the giant wave. He channeled his laws to protect himself, but without the mirror as a medium, resisting the great power of the River of Time with his physical body alone was a grave disadvantage.

He would have to wait for the mirror to wake from its slumber before he could set foot on the river again to return. Yet, Luo Yan could no longer be certain to which era the tide would cast him—it could be a hundred years ago, a thousand, or perhaps even ten thousand.