Chapter 2164: Two Old Friends Awaken

A living being, a living being slumbering within time.

This being had slumbered within time for countless years, deceiving many powerful members of the Phoenix Immortal Clan, deceiving many powerful members of the avian immortal clans, and even deceiving the True Immortal Daughter!

This was truly inconceivable.

Even if the True Immortal Daughter had not carefully scrutinized, even mere karmic ties or shifts in the Dao's laws should have subtly stirred her awareness—she was one with the Dao, exquisitely perceptive; no eighth-realm Supreme Sovereign, nor even a Pretender Emperor, could normally evade her detection within her domain.

Yet this very fact had occurred.

"In this boundless starry sky, within this river of ages, how many secrets still lie beyond my knowledge…"

Jiang Ding murmured.

Hum!

Between his thoughts, a faint, translucent membrane of Annihilation Law—like a droplet—appeared over the chirping sparrow, forming a watery film that enveloped it, severing its connection to the outside world and blocking all karmic and lawful scrutiny.

This step carried risk, for it now interfered with external matter.

Yet, at the moment when the True Phoenix Daughter had devoted most of her divine soul's computational power to searching and investigating disturbances in the Dao across the True Phoenix star domains, this risk was minimal.

If disaster struck, it was fate—nothing to be said about it.

This membrane of Annihilation Law, enveloping the sparrow, pierced through layer upon layer of space, laws, and karma, finally breaking through the very concept of time with the supreme speed and sharpness of the Annihilation Dao, returning to the past.

Boom!

Like a dreamlike bubble popping.

Everything in that space shattered like bubbles, warping and undulating in swirling, multicolored chaos; time surged wildly—sometimes reversing, revealing past eras; sometimes accelerating, glimpsing future timelines—transformations beyond description.

It was like the primordial chaos before the opening of heaven, where time had no meaning.

How long passed, no one knew.

At last, the chaotic space stabilized. A pitch-black coffin slowly emerged from within it, spreading thick, ferocious, bloody miasma in all directions.

"Oh?"

Jiang Ding raised an eyebrow slightly, his gaze falling upon the coffin.

The coffin was entirely black, covered in a network of crimson lines—crisscrossing like blood vessels—with crimson fluid flowing within them, appearing ferocious and terrifying, unmistakably an ultimate evil of demonic cultivation.

Jiang Ding's third eye relaxed.

He had no intention of standing on some moral high ground to judge—this star domain was not under the jurisdiction of his Master Tushan Code; whatever occurred here deserved no condemnation.

Still, one must admit—this fellow cultivator was indeed refined.

The hatred and resentment within these blood-vessel coffin walls were almost entirely from non-human blood and malice, accumulated in quantities vast enough to rival the lifeblood of countless great worlds—yet how had this single human gathered it all within a star domain ruled by divine and demonic beast clans?

His journey must have been filled with heart-stopping trials.

These events must have occurred before the True Phoenix Daughter's emergence—otherwise, he would have been dead.

Clang!

Jiang Ding flicked his finger; a blade of sword qi slashed through, cleaving a clean wound into the blood-vessel coffin, instantly shattering all its seals.

Black mist rose, and countless skulls, vengeful ghosts, and malevolent spirits appeared and vanished in an instant.

These methods could obliterate an eighth-realm Supreme Sovereign in a flash, and even a Pretender Emperor might be gravely wounded if caught unawares—his lineage and techniques were extraordinary.

Yet beneath this single blade of sword qi, they dissolved like illusions, producing no stir at all.

All the blood-vessel networks on the coffin peeled away; the black lid slowly opened, revealing within a young man of noble and radiant countenance—a cultivated immortal gentleman, as if he had just awakened from an immeasurable slumber.

Jiang Ding watched in silence.

The noble-faced youth's eyelids trembled slightly, then slowly opened.

His eyes were initially hazy—he had slept too long; his soul was stiff, unable to function.

After a long while, a spark of light flickered in his dantian; thoughts like lightning streaked through his mind, slowly restoring a sliver of cognition; his blurred vision gradually sharpened.

He saw—a young man in blue robes, quietly watching him.

The youth wore a long sword at his waist, his gaze cold and detached, radiating an unmistakable aura of transcendence—as if a celestial immortal had descended from the ninth heavens, ready at any moment to ascend and become a spirit.

The noble-faced youth's pupils instinctively contracted.

In that instant, his dantian was violently stimulated—lightning and sparks surged through it a thousandfold, ten thousandfold faster, swiftly restoring most of his reason.

"I pay homage—"

"Canghai Tianjun!"

The noble-faced youth, Great Love Supreme Sovereign, ignored the pain of his newly awakened body and bowed deeply.

Jiang Ding's eyes flickered slightly.

Canghai Tianjun.

That title had not been spoken in countless years.

It belonged to a distant past, when he himself was still Nascent Soul or even Golden Core—a title only those from that bygone era would use, like "old squad leader" or "old company commander," carrying a different kind of emotion.

"Great Love, my friend—it has been a long time."

Jiang Ding's gaze softened slightly.

He nodded slightly in return, then spoke before the other could answer: "You have slept too long—no need for such formalities. Rest and recover."

His tone was gentle enough.

After all, Great Love Supreme Sovereign had not violated the Master Tushan Code, had not infringed upon his interests—so there was no hostile stance, even if he held great secrets or fortunes.

But that did not matter.

As long as he had not broken the Master Tushan Code, that was enough.

"Yes, Canghai Tianjun."

Great Love Supreme Sovereign exhaled in relief, retracting the carefully prepared explanation he had rehearsed.

He did not ask why.

He felt no curiosity.

Even uninterested in you.

The other party's reputation and stance are indeed as ever; the choice made back then was not wrong.

Great Love Supreme sat cross-legged, taking out spirit stones to restore his own stiff meridians and divine soul; his sleeping body began to recover bit by bit.

"Since you are here, Daoist Friend,"

"then Daoist Friend Han should be here as well."

Jiang Ding Zi spoke to himself.

He quickly locked onto the target through karmic bonds: a vine in a Minor Thousand World. Dark green tendrils coiled around a tree the size of a bowl; this vine had already passed through three springs and autumns, and was expected to die naturally in another six springs and autumns, or perhaps perish from external force.

It looked like an utterly ordinary vine.

It was not that Great Sun Sword Immortal Han's perception far exceeded True Phoenix Zi's; rather, this was something the other party had deliberately left for him to see before falling into slumber tens of thousands of years ago, hoping someone in the future would awaken him.

"Daoist Friend Han,"

"Daoist Friend Han has actually walked the path of the Six Realms of Reincarnation; this Lord had thought it was the Great Dao of Taiyi Taiyi Qingmu..."

Jiang Ding sighed lightly.

(End of this chapter)