Chapter 119 - 118: Invincible Li Hao

Chapter 119: Chapter 118: Invincible Li Hao

The delightful surprise caught him completely off guard.

Li Ye quickly figured out how to use Time Immunity.

A one-second Time Acceleration or rewind showed no change. The only difference was with Time Stop.

Previously, during a one-second Time Stop, he would be frozen as well. Its main use was to observe his surroundings and look for openings in his opponent’s techniques during a fight, which was practically useless.

But now when he used Time Stop, only others were frozen. He could move about freely.

Time Immunity had eliminated the side effect of him being affected by his own time abilities.

Li Ye’s heart began to pound.

He hadn’t tested its other functions, but Time Stop alone was enough to take care of the Ninth Elder.

To a normal person, a second is a fleeting moment. But for Li Ye, now at the peak of the Harmonization Realm, one second was more than enough time to kill someone.

In fact, in his last temporal Inference, he had been a hair’s breadth from crushing the Ninth Elder’s Nascent Soul. A single second was enough time to kill the Ninth Elder at least ten times over.

...

"Alliance Leader, shouldn’t we be going?" the Daoist Sect Leader asked, looking at Li Ye, who had suddenly frozen in place.

Normally, whenever Li Ye foresaw the future, it meant the Ninth Elder was about to attack, and he would immediately lead them away.

But this time, because Mao Xiu’s Nascent Soul had been destroyed in the vision, they had already lingered past the point of safety.

"We don’t have to go," Li Ye said, glancing back at the Daoist Sect Leader. "The Ninth Elder is a dead man."

"But in the future we just saw, you clearly failed, Alliance Leader." The Daoist Sect Leader’s panic was plain to see. "Alliance Leader, this isn’t the time to be reckless! We can work on getting stronger. We’ll strike when we’re absolutely certain of victory..."

The people around him had no memory of the three-second experiment Li Ye had just conducted.

They didn’t know what had happened.

"He’s right, Alliance Leader. Don’t be rash." Mao Xiu instantly forgot that he himself had just been killed in the vision and joined in. "We can keep looking into the future. I feel like you’ll be able to kill the Ninth Elder in three more attempts at most. Besides, as we get stronger, maybe we can help..."

"The Ninth Elder also remembers the future. By the time we’re sure we can kill him, he’ll stop chasing us," Li Ye said, surveying the group and habitually trying to win them over. "This world is huge. What if the Ninth Elder finds some place to hide and just waits for my Ascension? Which of you is confident you can handle him then?"

The group fell silent.

"But there’s no need to risk it right now!" the Sword Sect Leader said.

"This is the perfect opportunity. I was actually holding back in that last vision," Li Ye said with a smile, turning toward the direction the Ninth Elder was about to appear from. "He’s a dead man walking."

「A moment later.」

The Ninth Elder appeared in their line of sight.

Seeing Li Hao still standing in the same spot, the Ninth Elder froze for a second.

In his experience, every time Li Ye’s Inference of the future ended in failure, he would arrive to find the place empty.

This time, even though he had resolved to increase his Demon Qi by killing, he had still given chase out of habit.

After all, even though he’d almost been killed in the last vision of the future, he had still been the victor.

But as it turned out, Li Hao and his Wenda Alliance hadn’t fled.

They hadn’t fled in reality!

A thrill of delight instantly filled the Ninth Elder’s heart.

’Hard work pays off,’ he thought. ’I’ve finally caught this slippery rabbit.’

’Wristwatch, here I come.’

He had won in over a dozen temporal Inferences. Even in the last one, where his Nascent Soul was nearly destroyed, he had still won!

This might be his last chance.

Acting on pure instinct, the Ninth Elder didn’t overthink it. He brazenly used a Forbidden Technique and charged toward Li Ye.

Once he was within range of his Puppet Silk, dozens of Puppet Silk threads shot out from his body, snaking toward Li Ye.

He had replayed this scene over a dozen times. He was an expert at it.

...

The Harmonization Realm masters of the Wenda Alliance stared in horror.

Just as the Puppet Silk was about to pierce Li Ye, the Ninth Elder suddenly went limp—a corpse dangling from Li Ye’s hand.

His head had exploded, and a gaping hole had been torn where his Dantian used to be. Clearly, his Nascent Soul had been crushed as well.

The Puppet Silk threads dissolved into the air.

What just happened?

Everyone was dumbfounded. How had the Ninth Elder died?

In the previous temporal Inferences, Li Ye would use a Spatial Technique to perform an Instant Teleportation behind the Ninth Elder and attack him.

This time, there wasn’t even an attack.

The Ninth Elder had just... abruptly turned into a corpse.

The enemy he had failed to kill so many times had just died, so easily.

Staring at the Ninth Elder’s body, held aloft by Li Ye, everyone present felt as if they were trapped in a dream.

...

Ignoring the stunned crowd, Li Ye waved his hand and cast the Eight Gates Locking Talisman, cutting them off from view.

’As expected, Time Stop is the most badass skill of them all.’

’In a timeline where everyone else is frozen, I’m the only one who can move. The strongest enemy becomes a lamb for the slaughter, completely unable to fight back.’

He had never clashed head-on with the Ninth Elder.

Or rather, he had clashed with the Ninth Elder over a dozen times in his memories, and he had never once won.

Now, that same enemy who had rendered him helpless didn’t even know how he had died...

’Okay!’

’Time Immunity is a True Divine Skill.’

’Unfortunately, I need the wristwatch to use Time Stop.’

’If I could master Time Stop myself, and couple it with the Derived Skill from Time Immunity, I could do whatever I wanted in any world.’

If he didn’t know that the two universes were closely linked—likely part of some powerful being’s scheme—Li Ye would have been tempted to take the wristwatch and just stay in this world to rule as a king.

In the end, however, Li Ye suppressed this unrealistic dream. This world’s Path of Ascension had been severed.

If he stayed, he would be well and truly trapped. Besides, the Time Stop ability ultimately belonged to the wristwatch, not him.

Besides, he had only traveled through two worlds and had already mastered a Divine Skill like Time Immunity. ’How powerful must the master of the Demon Suppression Tower be, a being who could suppress all Demon Qi?’

’Manipulating time is probably child’s play for them!’

’Strength!’

’No.’

’Mastering more Derived Skills is the key to my survival.’

He was at the peak of the Harmonization Realm, the pinnacle of combat power in this world, yet he had been completely helpless against the Ninth Elder.

He had fought and lost against the Ninth Elder time and again, but after awakening Time Immunity, he had effortlessly one-shot the powerful foe.

’This proves it. Derived Skills are superior to everything else.’

’Now that I’ve awakened a Derived Skill from Time Immunity, I’ll have nothing to fear when I return, even if I have to hand over the wristwatch.’

’If someone else had the wristwatch and used Time Stop, they wouldn’t be able to trap me.’

’Time Immunity is a useless skill in most situations, but at a critical moment, it can save my life.’

’A skill like this is one you might not always use, but you absolutely cannot be without.’

...

"Li Ye, why were you able to move during the Time Stop?" the wristwatch suddenly asked.

"Can’t everyone?" Li Ye retorted, a sudden idea striking him.

"I don’t know. But I vaguely remember that beings who can move through frozen time are terrifyingly powerful," the wristwatch said after a brief pause. "I’ve lost too many memories."

’I knew it.’

’So there are others who can move through time!’

Li Ye sighed inwardly and said, "I awakened a Derived Skill."

"What?" the wristwatch asked.

"A once-in-a-lifetime blink," Li Ye said, fabricating a skill on the spot. "This blink can break through any barrier, which is why I was able to move during the Time Stop."

The wristwatch was sentient, and he instinctively wanted to keep this Derived Skill a secret, just like the "sacrifice-a-teammate" skill he’d hidden away.

"Is that so?" The wristwatch’s voice was laced with suspicion.

"Why would I lie to you? Do you really think someone at my level is capable of breaking the shackles of time?" Li Ye gave a bitter laugh. "I haven’t even awakened a single time-related Derived Skill."

"My previous Derived Skill was Stars Surrounding the Moon, which probably came from your status as a luxury item. ’The first toast always goes to the wealthy man,’ as they say. You’re a luxury good, after all, so it’s only natural that your wearer would be fawned over."

"But time-related Derived Skills are too hard to awaken."

"Forget it," the wristwatch huffed. "Time-related Divine Abilities are the most difficult to master. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be called Ultimate Divine Abilities."

"Even I only accidentally triggered my time-manipulation abilities because I was damaged."

"You, a mere Mortal, want to control time? The only way that would happen is if you let me parasitize you and turn you into a watch..."

’Aren’t I basically a clock already?’

Li Ye grumbled to himself.

He used to think the Precise Timing Derived Skill was useless, but now he was grateful he had awakened it first.

After all, the description for Time Immunity stated that clocks are not affected by time.

Without Precise Timing, he probably would never have awakened Time Immunity.

Precise Timing was a prerequisite for the next Derived Skill.

’Since I already have the functionality of a clock, does that mean I can awaken other time-related skills too?’

The Ninth Elder was dead. No one in this world could threaten him anymore, and he still had over seven months left...

Li Ye looked at the wristwatch on his arm, his mind racing. If he could awaken just one more time-related skill in the next seven months, he wouldn’t have to worry no matter which world he traveled to.

"What are you thinking?" the wristwatch asked, sensing Li Ye’s gaze.

"I’m thinking about how I can awaken a time-related skill," Li Ye replied honestly.

"..." The wristwatch let out a derisive laugh. "You’d be better off just going to bed. When we get back to Earth, yours truly will be going his separate way. You should work hard and try not to get yourself killed. Maybe then you’ll have the honor of being possessed by me, and I’ll show you what a real Time God can do."

Heh.

Li Ye chuckled to himself. "I hope that day never comes. I quite like being myself."

"It won’t be up to you then," the wristwatch shot back.

"You should worry about yourself, ’bro’," Li Ye said, shaking his head with a smile. "Just make sure the Demon Suppression Tower doesn’t find you when we get back."

"Relax," the wristwatch said dismissively. "Yours truly is destined to become a Time God. For the sake of my grand future, I would never let the Demon Suppression Tower discover me."

Li Ye smiled and ignored it.

The wristwatch was getting high on its own supply, its ego inflated to the point it had forgotten its own pitiful state when they first met.

Unlike the Team Emblem, raising its Attributes wasn’t going to be easy.

Once they left this world, no matter how much Demon Qi it had stored up, it would eventually run out without a source of replenishment.

If another Time Traveler took it and failed to develop a sustainable source of Demon Qi, they would just end up using all it had accumulated.

It wouldn’t even know where to turn to cry...