Yuan's Ascension

Chapter 690: Completion, Spacetime Labyrinth (1)

"Direct combat?" Kou Lei shook his head, sighing. "Unless the power gap is truly absurd, where one could be eliminated in a single move, the combination of Time and Space is the mightiest. At least in the aspect of self-preservation, it's truly unparalleled."

Wu Yuan smiled lightly, offering no further explanation.

Indeed! Greater Laws like Metal, Wood, Water, and Wind, while each having their specialties, were fundamentally the basis for the genesis and evolution of all things. In a sense, they shared a common origin, with minimal differences between them.

Only the Greater Laws of Space and Time are different. They were the cornerstones of all Laws and Daos, the primordial source of everything in heaven and earth. Naturally, their powers were the most exceptional.

If one were to rank the fifteen Greater Laws, Time would be first, and Space second.

Next were the six special Greater Laws, each with unique aspects. For instance, when the Law of Life was cultivated to profound levels, one’s vitality could reach inconceivable heights.

Following that were the seven common Greater Laws.

For that Li Xuan to possess such power, he must have the mana of a Sixth Tribulation High Immortal. Wu Yuan thought to himself. His Dao comprehension should have reached the level of an Astral Lord.

Only then could he unleash power equivalent to a fourth-stage Archimmortal.

Take Zhuo Haiyue, for example. In terms of Dao comprehension, she was similarly approaching the Astral Lord level, but limited by her inferior mana, her overall strength didn't even match a first-stage Archimmortal.

As for Kou Lei, his direct combat prowess was comparable to a third-stage Archimmortal.

Thus, in a head-on confrontation, His Highness Li Xuan, accompanied by two Seventh Tribulation Archimmortals, completely overwhelmed Zhuo Haiyue and Kou Lei, who could only flee for their lives.

As for Wu Yuan?

Applying only the profundities of Space and Time, My power is merely equivalent to a Fifth Tribulation High Immortal in direct combat. Wu Yuan shook his head slightly.

His mana was only at the Earth Immortal level and he had yet to crystallize the True Intent of the Law of Time. Also, he had merely reached the second-level True Intent stage of the Law of Space. How strong could he be in direct confrontation?

Yet by relying on the special nature of the two Greater Laws of Time and Space, as long as Wu Yuan detected the danger a moment in advance, he could escape immediately from any enemy and secure his survival. Forget about Seventh or Eighth Tribulation Archimmortals, even an Astral Lord would fail to capture or land attacks on him unless they unleashed their attack instantaneously at close range.

Of course, if Wu Yuan were carrying the Genesis Divine Pillar, his strength would naturally be a different matter entirely once he unleashed his full power.

After a brief rest, the team continued on. Just like before, Zhuo Haiyue and Kou Lei joined forces to advance through the Frost Mist Sea, while Wu Yuan, situated in the Fragmentary Spatial Layer, scouted the path forward with caution.

The three sped towards the Snow Devil Cave at full speed.

...

In a patch of space over a billion li away from Wu Yuan and his teammates, several figures gathered atop a glacier.

"Your Highness, we couldn't find any information," the black-robed man said respectfully. "I just accessed the immortal voidrealm and searched our Hundred Mysteries Palace's intelligence database. There's no information on these three among the geniuses of the nine major factions."

Everyone listened silently. Among those present were the two Archimmortals who had joined the battle, and two additional Archimmortals.

"Hmph!" The silver-skinned Li Xuan snorted coldly. "An Earth Immortal skilled in Space and Time, another Earth Immortal with Dao comprehension approaching mine, and a High Deity who can unleash Archimmortal-level power... Any one of them would be renowned in any faction.

Especially those two Earth Immortals - the entire Dao Realm might struggle to produce even one in an era.

Such a combination, and you're telling me there's not a trace of them in the intelligence database?" His Highness Li Xuan questioned coldly, feeling quite irritated.

His status was extremely high, and he would become an Astral Lord as soon as he completed his Tribulations. He had extended his cultivation period at the High Immortal level on purpose, ensuring that when he advanced, his power would far surpass that of ordinary Archimmortals, allowing him to dominate them with ease.

But encountering several monstrous prodigies during a routine hunt naturally worried him, and he wanted to investigate the backgrounds of his opponents thoroughly.

The Archimmortals didn't dare to make a sound, especially the two Archimmortals who hadn't participated in the battle. Even now, they could hardly believe that their lord, already ranked in the top ten among the Hundred Mysteries Palace's lords, had somehow encountered two Earth Immortals whose talents seemed to eclipse his by hundreds, if not thousands, of times.

The Hundred Mysteries Palace might never have produced a single equivalent genius in its entire history.

"Your Highness, besides the nine major factions of the Dao Realm, there's only one other place," the black-robed man said in a low voice. "The Spacetime Island... Those three are very likely imprint bearers from the Spacetime Island, here to carry out a spacetime mission."

"This could also explain why that High Deity, despite having fallen once, still insisted on venturing here again. It’s likely to complete his spacetime mission," the black-robed man said.

"Oh? You make a good point!" Li Xuan's eyes lit up. "They must be members of the Spacetime Island. The Spacetime Island is directly under the Dao Master's command, but he has never interfered with the life and death of its imprint bearers.

Hmm, according to the intelligence, these imprint bearers all come from beyond the Dao Realm, stay for a hundred thousand years at most, and absolutely won't complete their Tribulations... They won't pose much threat to me."

His mood improved considerably, no longer worried. No matter how monstrous their talent, how strong could they be with only tens of thousands of years of cultivation? Moreover, without completing their Tribulations, they naturally couldn't threaten him.

At worst, he could retreat to the Hundred Mysteries Palace headquarters. Even an Astral Monarch wouldn't dare intrude into it.

"We've been roaming the Frost Mist Sea for so long, yet our hunting efficiency is dismal," His Highness Li Xuan's gaze swept over the four Archimmortals. "Let's go to the Snow Devil Cave and try our luck there."

"Understood," the Archimmortals responded.

The Frost Mist Sea was vast and boundless, leading to many perilous regions. Many immortal cultivators and even Archimmortals passed through it.

The Snow Devil Cave, being even more dangerous, occasionally nurtured wondrous treasures over the long ages.

...

Wu Yuan, Kou Lei, and Zhuo Haiyue's group spent nearly two more days traversing the remaining tens of billions of li of the Frost Mist Sea.

Though there were many dangers, and they encountered other immortal cultivators along the way, both sides merely sensed each other from afar before passing by. No battles ensued.

With Wu Yuan's constant guidance from the higher spatial dimension, and following Kou Lei's directions, the three finally saw an endless expanse of glaciers amidst the blustering snow storms.

Glaciers! Endless, sprawling glaciers! More precisely, they had arrived in a world of ice composed of numerous layers of ice sheets, where each ice sheet was of immeasurable thickness – perhaps tens of billions or even hundreds of billions of li.. Due to the intersection and overlapping of spacetime, it was impossible to investigate in detail.

Enormous crevasses were a common sight within ice sheets, each hundreds of thousands or millions of li wide. They acted like passageways, each one unfathomably deep.

"We've arrived at the Snow Devil Cave," Kou Lei said in a low voice, gazing at the distant ice sheet. "This is also the second stage of our mission, and it will be even more challenging."

Wu Yuan and Zhuo Haiyue nodded slightly. They were all already aware of this.

The Frost Mist Sea was dangerous, but with Wu Yuan's presence, it could be said that apart from the earlier encounter with His Highness Li Xuan's ambush, other dangers were within a controllable range.

But the Snow Devil Cave was different. This was a place at least ten times more dangerous than the Frost Mist Sea. It harbored numerous perils, the most famous being the snow devils, followed by glacier collapse, spacetime traps etc.

Snow devils were creatures naturally born of the Snow Devil Cave, living in groups. The weakest had the strength of a First Tribulation High Immortal, while the strongest rivaled peak Astral Lords in power.

They had extremely low intelligence, or rather, they only possessed some battle instincts. Compared to living beings, they were more akin to puppets.

But most crucially, snow devils were truly undying beings. In the past, some formidable powerhouses killed large numbers of snow devils, but even when their bodies were crushed to dust, they would gradually recover until fully restored to their original state, given enough time. It was incredibly mysterious.

Moreover, the snow devils seemed able to communicate with each other. If someone encountered a snow devil and engaged it in battle, unable to break away quickly, more and more snow devils would rush over as time passed, eventually wearing the opponent down to death.

So, when facing snow devils, there was only one path - flee! Quickly break away!

"For us, the most dangerous aspect of the Snow Devil Cave is that it stabilizes spatial fluctuations, making it impossible to enter higher spatial dimensions," Kou Lei shook his head. "Otherwise, with Daoist Ming Jian leading the way, what dangers would there be?"

Wu Yuan nodded slightly.

Indeed, while traversing within the Snow Devil Cave, he wouldn't be able to enter the Fragmentary Spatial Layer, thus losing a powerful trump card.

In actual fact, many special regions could impact higher spatial dimensions. For instance, the lairs of many powerful beings and celestial arrays would specifically seal higher spatial dimensions.

Of course, with sufficient ability, such as advancing to the Dao Field stage of the Qiankun Dao, or reaching the seventh-level True Intent stage of the Law of Space which enabled one to enter the Turbulent Spatial Layer, one could ignore such spatial suppression.

In simple terms, all so-called spatial seals had their limits. As long as one had enough strength, all such seals could be broken.

"From now on, I can only play a minor role, so we will mainly have to depend on Haiyue," Wu Yuan smiled. "With her instantaneous burst speed at light speed, we should be able to break away from the snow devils as long as we don't encounter Astral Lord-level ones."

"Astral Lord-level snow devils are extremely rare," Kou Lei said. "We only need to advance three trillion li, then we can leave the Snow Devil Cave along one of the branch crevasse passages and enter the Core Region. Then your mission will be complete.”

"Mm," Wu Yuan and Zhuo Haiyue both nodded.

The entire Snow Devil Cave stretched for over ten trillion li, growing more dangerous the deeper one went. The first three trillion li? Not too dangerous.

"Let's go!" The three transformed into streaks of light, arbitrarily choosing a crevasse millions of li wide, and plunged in.

Invisible lightning spread out for hundreds of thousands of li - this was Zhuo Haiyue's domain.

Whoosh! Simultaneously, an invisible force rippled outward – this was Wu Yuan's perception of Space. Although spatial fluctuations were sealed, Space itself could not be sealed.

Space was right there.

I’m unable to enter higher spatial dimensions, but the impact on my perception of spatial fluctuations is not significant. Wu Yuan remained calm inwardly.