đź“– Chapter 1235 - Thank You
As Patriarch Nine Daos laughed loudly, the aura of the water element appeared on his body. The Dao he cultivated was the Dao of Ice, which was derived from the Dao of Water. Thus, as his Dao aura erupted outward, the cultivators affected by Wang Baole’s wood seed all trembled, as if the wood element in their bodies was being disrupted.
Meanwhile, the piercing blue ice spear flew through the darkness, carrying with it an endless power of water. Even the sun slowly rising above Wang Baole’s head couldn’t stop it, because… at this moment, all the cultivators of the five sects, the Star Domain Realm experts, the remaining patriarchs, and the five Dao manifestations all burst out with their maximum strength regardless of cost.
Their power turned into countless binding threads that swamped Wang Baole’s location, restraining his surroundings, shackling his body, and chaining his soul.
For a moment, Wang Baole couldn’t move. But as he watched the spear of ice drilling straight toward his forehead, his expression remained completely calm. Looking at the water droplet between Patriarch Nine Daos’ brows, he even chuckled.
“Actually, I lied. I just came here to take a look at the thing I needed.” Wang Baole smiled widely. Just before the ice spear arrived, his surroundings seemed to turn into water, and his body turned into a droplet, stirring up layers of ripples.
Reflected Time was suddenly unleashed!
The blue spear, as well as the bindings around Wang Baole, all froze in an instant. Now, there was only the flow of time, rolling backward through the rippling water.
“As long as I’ve seen it, it’s already mine.” Wang Baole’s voice seemed to echo from the river of time. He had indeed been lying earlier.
Obviously, Wang Baole knew about the connection between the Water Dao and Wood Dao, and he also knew that there would definitely be numerous layers of traps here. Why would he come here so impulsively? Thus, although he had said that he would destroy the Nine Provinces Dao in order to provoke Patriarch Nine Daos into coming out… he really didn’t care at all whether the Nine Provinces Dao was destroyed or not. The only thing he cared about was the water element supreme treasure.
In order to grab an object from the river of time, he couldn’t just rely on divination. He had to see it with his own eyes and memorize its aura. Then, he could use Mirror Flower to pick it out from the past.
Battles between Almighties and battles between cultivators were completely different… Looking at it from the perspective of cultivation, perhaps Patriarch Nine Daos was Universe Realm inside his sect, but in terms of mentality, he was still stuck in the Star Domain Realm.
But Wang Baole was different. His mentality had already reached an unfathomable level. Between himself and Patriarch Nine Daos, there was a huge difference in their cognition of the universe.
When it came to battles between Almighties, this difference in cognition could determine everything.
For example, the current situation was exactly like this… Water births wood, wood subdues earth, the generative and destructive interactions of the five elements? None of that mattered. When the level of cognition was different, the level of battle was different as well. Patriarch Nine Daos was fighting on the physical level, while Wang Baole… was already fighting on a different plane of existence.
The place was the same, in the Left Dao Holy Region, in the Nine Provinces Galaxy, outside the Nine Provinces Dao headquarters.
However… the time was different. It was as if there was an invisible river of time, and Wang Baole was walking against the current.
Each step took him a hundred years into the past. His body didn’t actually move at all as he walked. Instead, the world around him changed, transforming again and again.
Even Wang Baole didn’t remember how many steps he had taken, how many times he had used Reflected Time to push himself further in the past. But finally… in a certain time period, he sensed a familiar aura.
This aura was extremely weak. It could be said that if Wang Baole hadn’t seen the mark between Patriarch Nine Daos’ brows with his own eyes, then he wouldn’t have noticed it at all no matter how he calculated.
“This is it.” As Wang Baole muttered quietly, he stopped in his steps, looking down from the river of time at the scenery of a world countless years in the past. A small group of cultivators had just returned to the Nine Provinces Dao headquarters after an excursion to the outside world.
Behind them was an enormous block of ice. The block of ice was mysterious and profound, and couldn’t be placed into storage pouches. Thus, these people could only wrap it in chains and drag it back behind them.
The ice was light blue and crystal clear, and inside it… was a person’s body.
It was a middle-aged man wearing a suit of armor. There was no aura of life on him; he was already a corpse. No one knew his identity, and his origin was obviously difficult to determine. But in any case, it was clear that there was something extraordinary about him.
However, Wang Baole didn’t even look at the corpse of the middle-aged man. The only thing he was paying attention to was the block of ice the man was sealed in.
“There it is…” Wang Baole smiled slightly and lifted his right hand, making a grasping motion from the river of time. Suddenly, the image below him distorted, and the ice block disappeared, taken away by an unseen hand before any of the cultivators could react.
Wang Baole didn’t bother with the corpse inside. In the river of time, the gigantic ice block suddenly appeared in his hand. However, it instantly started melting, melting so rapidly that before more than a few breaths of time passed, the only thing left in Wang Baole’s hand was a crystalline droplet the size of a fingernail.
Lowering his head, Wang Baole stared at the droplet of ice in his hand. After a while, a thoughtful expression appeared on his face.
“It’s like a teardrop.”
Murmuring quietly, Wang Baole started walking again. In the next moment… as he stepped out of the river of time, a boom reverberated, and a whistling sound rang out from right in front of him.
It was the sound of… the blue ice spear arriving!
At this moment, Wang Baole had returned from the river of time back to the present. The bindings from the cultivators all around him still existed, and the blue spear was about to strike, but Wang Baole’s expression remained as calm as ever. In contrast… Patriarch Nine Daos’ eyes abruptly widened.
“You… what did you do!?” Patriarch Nine Daos’ expression changed drastically. His body trembled, and a mouthful of blood spurted out of his mouth. He quickly raised his right hand to touch the center of his brows.
The water droplet mark that had originally been there… was still there, but it had faded quite a bit.
Moreover, an identical aura was radiating from Wang Baole’s right hand. With the arrival of the blue spear, this aura suddenly rose in intensity, and in an instant… the spear changed trajectory, shooting into Wang Baole’s hand and fusing into the ice droplet in his palm.
The tear-shaped blue ice instantly began shining with dazzling light.
Meanwhile, the mark between Patriarch Nine Daos’ brows became dimmer and dimmer. His complexion was completely pale, and he looked at Wang Baole as if he had seen a ghost. The fluctuations of his cultivation base were noticeably weaker, and he subconsciously stepped backward. At the same time, Wang Baole, holding the ice droplet in his hand, took a step forward.
In the next moment, he disappeared on the spot. When he reappeared… he was already in the Nine Provinces Dao headquarters, right in front of the retreating Patriarch Nine Daos.
“Wang Baole, you…” Patriarch Nine Daos was extremely panicked. He wanted to speak, but at that moment… without the slightest chance to resist, he watched helplessly as Wang Baole’s left hand suddenly struck the center of his brows.
Patriarch Nine Daos felt a boom echo through his mind, followed by Wang Baole’s voice, speaking the last word he would ever hear.
"Thank you."