Chapter 1782 - 145: The Transcendence of the True Spirit—Stepping Into the River of Time! (Part 2)

Because his foundation was far too deep, his fleshly body and physique were already extremely strong.

On such a high baseline, if one wished to gain a clearly perceptible improvement, then that improvement was bound to be immense.

All kinds of thoughts flashed through his mind; he looked again at the panel, at the column for source points.

[Source Points]: 199.2

"What a pity, still a little short of breaking through the two-hundred mark!" he murmured under his breath.

He felt slightly regretful, but was not discouraged.

For his gains today were already not small.

Five kinds of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures had tempered his physique and nourished his vitality, and on top of that came the growth of his spirit and will.

This half day’s progress in cultivation could rival a year or half a year of others’ bitter cultivation, or even more.

Afterward, he lifted his head to look toward the horizon.

The sun had long since passed its zenith and was gradually tilting west.

He glanced once, then withdrew his gaze and roused his heart spirit a little.

"Now that source points are plentiful, it’s time to continue the breakthrough of the Spirit Platform True-Self Illumination Method!"

"The Experience Value of the Spirit Platform True-Self Illumination Method has reached Perfection. With the accumulation of source points I now possess, I can perform another Break Limit, allowing my spiritual power to surge again."

"According to my current cultivation and observation efficiency, at most a bit more than a day will be enough for the Experience Value progress to reach Perfection."

Thoughts turned in his heart; once he made his decision, he no longer delayed.

He once more sat down cross-legged, let his heart spirit sink into the Spirit Platform, and again immersed himself in cultivation.

Upon the waterside pavilion, that figure once more sank into silence, melding as one with heaven and earth.

The chirping of insects and birds by the lakeside gradually fell quiet, as though even this stretch of heaven and earth was unwilling to disturb this Cultivator who was walking toward a higher realm.

That night.

He interrupted his cultivation and returned home to eat dinner.

Deep into the night.

Within Lin Qingyi’s courtyard, a gentle, lingering hum once again slowly rose.

...

The next day at dusk, a red sun slowly sank into the surface of the lake.

On the lake’s surface were reflected ten thousand golden scales.

Time flowed on.

The red sun continued slowly sinking.

When the final trace of afterglow completely sank into the lake, heaven and earth fell into the stillness of dusk.

On the waterside pavilion, Jiang Ning sat cross-legged like stone, a faint, hazy radiance emanating from his whole body.

That radiance brought not the slightest brightness to the surroundings, yet even across the lake, across lush trees, across layered buildings, one could still sense the presence of his figure.

Within the Spirit Platform, that Primordial Spirit sat upright in the void; countless fragments of True Spirit, like white points of light, emerged one after another out of thin air in the depths of the Spirit Platform, then converged into his Primordial Spirit like a hundred rivers returning to the sea.

With each one that merged, the clear radiance enshrouding the Primordial Spirit grew that much more concrete, and the aura about his entire body became that much more transcendent.

At last, a certain moment arrived.

His mind looked at the Experience Value whose progress had already reached Perfection, and his heart-mind stirred sharply.

In an instant.

Source points poured down like a flood.

Boom!!

Within the Spirit Platform, a roar resounded, as though an invisible barrier had shattered in an instant.

A vast and boundless spiritual power erupted from the depths of his Primordial Spirit, surging like a tide to sweep across the entire Spirit Platform Space.

Within the Spirit Platform, that silver flower fully bloomed at this moment, radiance bursting forth in ten thousand beams, illuminating the entire Spirit Platform as though it were broad daylight.

Then, one petal... two petals...

Two petals slowly increased, slowly unfolded, condensing the illusory into the real, appearing upon that silver flower.

In a single instant, the flower bloomed with nine leaves, becoming nine petals.

In that moment, Jiang Ning’s consciousness was also being elevated without limit, as though it had broken free of the shackles of flesh, broken free of the restraints of space, and shot straight into an indescribable dimension.

He saw a river.

It was not a river in the ordinary sense, but a long river woven from endless time, boundless causality, from the past, the present, and the future.

The river waters surged, flowing without cease; every crest of spray was a single instant, every ripple a segment of majestic historical trace.

In the river waters floated and sank countless light-and-shadows; those were the fragments of all living beings, mingling past and future.

Seeing this scene before his eyes, in that very moment, his heart naturally obtained much knowledge.

As though countless people were explaining to him, expounding to him, he naturally came to know many, many things about the existence of this long river.

In that moment, he knew that he had truly beheld the true face of the river of time that ancient books repeatedly recorded.

No longer a phantom projection, not a reflection of spiritual perception, but the river of time itself that truly exists in a higher dimension!

He stood within the river, stood within the dim waters.

All around were golden sand grains as numerous as billions of stars.

Looking at the golden sand grains around him that were relatively still to him, lying on the same level, mutually non-interfering.

A great terror, a great crisis arose in his heart.

He knew that at this moment, so long as he moved even a little, he would break this state.

This state of being relatively still, relatively parallel, mutually non-interfering with the golden sand grains in the river.

He would be struck by the golden sand grains, be impacted.

It would be unavoidable!

For the golden sand grains mixed within the river waters were as numerous as the stars of heaven, counted in the billions and billions.

So long as he moved, collision would be inevitable.

He knew that if they so much as brushed him, with his current self he would surely perish in an instant, his True Spirit scattering, merging into the river of time, to go and reincarnate once more.

Although he had never tried it himself, nor seen it, he did not doubt this feeling in his heart in the slightest.

Because after he came here, after he appeared here, all sorts of information naturally surfaced in his mind.

He stood within the river of time, looking at everything around him, watching the bubbles that rose in the water; countless scenes flashed before his eyes.

Those were things happening right now in some place, in each and every land.

The golden sand grains around him rose and sank like billions of stars; he did not dare act rashly.

That was not a power he could withstand at his current level.

Any collision would lead to only one outcome.

The True Spirit would scatter, body perish and Dao vanish, all past things rendered void.

He carefully sensed everything around him; he knew this was something that a mortal in his lifetime could never experience.

The river of time recorded in ancient texts.

The origin of heaven and earth, the origin of the world— the meaning of all that exists today is due to the existence of this river of time.

At this moment, he and everything around him were in a state of relative stillness.

After a long time.

He felt a wave of fatigue; his spirit gave a sudden sway, and in an instant it was as though he had fallen from the clouds of the Ninth Heaven.

His consciousness rapidly recoiled; the vast, boundless river of time before his eyes receded like the tide, the golden sand grains and the billions of light-and-shadows blurred in his vision and then dispersed.

He snapped his eyes open.

What entered his sight was the familiar waterside pavilion of the Li River Palace; the final trace of dusk at the horizon had already sunk into the lake, replaced by a crescent moon hanging in the sky. Silvery-white moonlight spilled through the eaves of the pavilion, casting mottled light and shadow upon his body.

Hu——

He slowly exhaled a long breath of impure energy, feeling the Spirit Platform clearer than ever before; his spirit spread out like a tide, covering the whole island, and even crossed the lake’s surface to touch the guards and palace staff patrolling in the distance.

Then it covered the entire Royal Capital, and spread toward the outer regions.

Official roads, post stations, ancient forests, high mountains, rivers, cities...

Each appeared one by one within his spiritual world.

"So this is the Spiritual Realm after the seventh Break Limit?" he murmured softly, his gaze then falling upon the panel.

[Skill]: Spirit Platform True-Self Illumination Method (Seven times limit-breaking 6/80000) (trait: True Self Only [deep gold], True Spirit Perception [deep purple], Three Elements Unification [light gold], Precognition [deep purple], Spiritual Wisdom [deep purple])

[True Self Only]: Former lives and past all exist only in the present; the True Spirit is undimmed, the True Spirit is undying, the true self is only one.

At this moment, as he read the description on the panel, there was a pensive look in his eyes.

In his mind surfaced the scene from just now.

That utterly real river of time, those golden sand grains that had filled him with boundless dread.

"Was what just happened all because of the elevation of this trait? Or was it a hallucination of my heart?"

Such thoughts flashed through his mind.

Then he slowly closed his eyes, sensing himself.

From the depths of his heart surged a kind of indescribable fatigue.

That fatigue came from his innermost depths; it was something he had never experienced before.

After a long time.

He opened his eyes; in his gaze was nothing but deep exhaustion.

Yet within that exhaustion was an inexpressible excitement.

For at this moment, he could be certain that everything just now had not been his hallucination.

That was an experience he had personally undergone just now; it was his past.