Chapter 83: Two Foxes

The Foundation Establishment cultivators present were all stunned by his words. Read novels daily, super useful — ttks. tw awaits you.

Even Tiankui of the Golden Core stage can hardly look after himself — what tail is this Chen Zhao putting on, pretending to be some big shot?

Liu Yicheng's gaze grew even more vicious. Even if he truly had a killing move, at this point it was to the death — he'd cut down Chen Zhao first!

The long blade in his hand suddenly took flight, slicing through several li of distance to unleash a dazzling arc of saber light that closed in on the tip of Chen Zhao's nose!

Three inches. Two inches. One inch...

Just as the villain was about to be beheaded.

The saber light abruptly halted before his nose, like a wondrous melody cut short.

What was going on?

No matter how he urged it on, he couldn't so much as harm a single hair on Chen Zhao's head!

Liu Yicheng's heart clenched, yet he could no longer turn his head to look around. He saw Xu Jing frozen in the air before him, spell after spell suspended in that single instant!

Sound and temperature vanished entirely.

Even the thoughts in his mind began to slow. The last thing he saw was the door of a small cabin slowly opening.

A middle-aged man pressed a hand to his chest and smiled, his face kindly.

Liu Yicheng had seen this man in a portrait before — terror seized his heart.

Lin Yutang!

The tribulation clouds had long since vanished, and he had broken through to act. The sect had long ago confirmed through Secret Technique that this man was dead beyond a doubt — so why was he so full of vigor?

Could it be...

The scene before Liu Yicheng's eyes suddenly darkened, and the suspicion in his heart grew ever stronger.

This Lin Yutang — had he broken through?

"Many thanks, young friend, for luring the enemy with your own body."

The man nodded approvingly at Chen Zhao, his voice transmitted across the distance.

With a light sweep of his wide sleeves, in the blink of an eye every one of the invaders burst into a mist of blood.

The two had been in contact before. The latter, on the pretext of picking up a bargain within the sect, had turned in a Tribulation-Dispelling Talisman — which "happened" to catch his eye.

This object had long been absent from the world, and others did not recognize it. But he, as the master of a sect, had once seen it in the sect's ancient records.

The so-called Dispelling of Tribulation was not about skipping the tribulation, but about hiding the tribulation lightning within heaven and earth, dispersing it into all the surrounding things.

Even breathing or drinking tea would carry the sensation of undergoing tribulation.

Although one would fall into extreme weakness, from the outside the tribulation process was entirely invisible, and even upon failure one would not immediately perish and vanish from the Dao — one would still retain the strength to fight.

So he had feigned helplessly breaking through, used the period of weakness to play dead, lured the foreign enemies to sally out in full force, and then cut off the trouble at its root.

It happened that Chen Zhao's tribulation let him weather his own ordeal completely, leaving him time to stabilize his cultivation — counterattacking Ban Ruo would be child's play.

Of course, Lin Yutang also had his own faint suspicions, but since circumstances favored him, he refrained from interfering further.

All cultivators above Golden Core shared a common understanding.

One must never kill a person of great fortune, and if one happens to gain a harvest across realms, one should be all the more cautious.

The karmic ties here were weighty — one could not rashly intervene.

Lin Yutang gazed deeply downward. The young man in his snow-white robe looked rather like he had back in the day.

"The Dao of Time is a secret of the Nascent Soul. How much you can comprehend depends entirely on your fortune, young friend."

His words ended there, and he turned and flew toward Han Hu.

The time-stop could last as long as three days, encompassing Han Hu and the middle layer of Fulong Mountain — there was no need to worry too much about this place.

Chen Zhao cupped his hands in a bow from afar, unable to help but sigh inwardly at the caprice of fortune.

A few years before, he had discerned that the Spirit Qi of this world was changing, that the Sect Master might undergo tribulation, and had set about planning this matter.

Who would have thought the Sect Master would play along with him in such a performance.

Hurting the enemy a thousand while damaging oneself eight hundred — was this done deliberately by that man?

He shook his head and stopped thinking about it.

Taking advantage of the moment, he glanced at his palm.

【Today's Divination · Balanced】: You aided Lin Yutang's breakthrough. Taking advantage of the time-stop, you open Xin Tong's Storage Bag......

The divination text cut off abruptly; the Divination was obscure and hard to read, yet it had calculated that the Sect Master would successfully undergo tribulation and cast time-stop.

Precisely because of this, Chen Zhao dared to act.

His figure swayed, and he landed atop the clouds.

Another tower-ship Flying Boat came into view. Xin Tong and Xiao Bai were both aboard, and at this moment were also frozen in place.

"Circumstances are urgent, so I'll commandeer this first."

He patted his Storage Bag, and a jet-black lotus seed flew out for no reason. Within it, faintly, there was a guiding breath — pointing straight at Ling Tian!

This object had been obtained at the pool in the ruins, and before the cabin at Ling Tian there was likewise a pool, leading straight to a waterfall.

He recalled a scene from the ruins.

That moment then was exactly like this moment now!

Before the cabin.

Chen Zhao's heart burned with eagerness as he held up the jet-black lotus seed for a look.

In the water there truly was a small, pure-white bead, identical in size to the one in his hand, yet almost without substance — like a phantom.

Divine sense could not catch it; only when holding the withered lotus seed in hand could one see it.

Chen Zhao reached out to scoop it up.

But the instant his fingertip touched the small bead—

It suddenly shook violently, broke through the time-stop, and flew straight into Chen Zhao's brow!

So fast, he couldn't even see a afterimage.

The next breath.

His spiritual sense sharply trembled, his mind churned like a storm-tossed sea!

After Foundation Establishment, cultivators can condense their spiritual sense at the third eye, opening the spiritual sea.

The vaster the spiritual sea, the stronger the spiritual sense—so strong it can be projected to kill.

Alas, Chen Zhao had just achieved Foundation Establishment and had not yet opened his spiritual sea when the small bead violently tore open a gap and forcibly surged in.

Others open their spiritual sea by channeling water; his was a meteor colliding with Earth!

In an instant.

His brain felt as if hacked by knives and axes, pain so sharp he crushed his own teeth.

Chen Zhao gasped sharply, immediately turned inward—and saw the small bead crash into the void, where a golden gate slowly opened.

Heavy, glorious.

Through the crack, countless images flashed wildly—past lives, present lives—revealing to him the mystery of the womb.

A Taoist fishing amid clouds, a swordsman slashing a dragon in fury, even scenes from his own college entrance exam.

Water surged over the gate's edge, boundless and endless.

Chen Zhao froze in surprise.

"Do others see this when they open their spiritual sea?"

He looked up—the small bead hung high in the heavens, blazing like a great sun, rising and falling.

"It seems not."

With his spiritual sea now open, his spiritual sense strength firmly surpassed Xu Jing's—far from ordinary, let alone this tiny bead.

"I just wonder what use it has—don't tell me it's only going to give me headaches."

Chen Zhao endured the agony, held still for a long while—but still saw no change.

Must I wait for it to blossom and bear fruit?

He dared not move; if this thing went out of control and shattered his spiritual sea, it would be a catastrophic loss.

"Come to think of it, I once divined the fate of Ling Tian—it was a 'Ping'…"

Yet now I've truly gained something—what does this mean?

Out of curiosity.

Chen Zhao silently invoked the Ling Tian fate and cast another divination.

"Bad."

There is no fate here anymore—so the 'Ping' from before must have referred to this small bead.

He raised an eyebrow, flipped his palm, and summoned the Divination Tube.

【Today's Divination·Great Auspicious】: You aided Lin Yutang's breakthrough; during the pause in time, you received a mysterious lotus seed.

Chen Zhao's expression eased slightly.

"Though I don't know exactly what this lotus seed is."

At least it's a Great Auspicious sign—it can't be bad.

This matter is settled. He sat cross-legged, meditating on the Dao of Time.

……

He did not know how much time had passed.

"With the Linglong Body's enhancement, I've indeed grasped a little of its essence."

Chen Zhao rose from the crowd, murmuring to himself.

Since the golden gate opened, a clarity had stirred within him.

With his current mastery, within the time-stopped range, he could move two breaths longer than Liu Yicheng and the others.

Two breaths.

Though useless against Nascent Soul elders, in battles with peers, it would let him flee a hundred li—or strike a decisive blow.

If a Dharma Battle coincided with a Nascent Soul's time stop, it would be truly effective.

With this thought.

He breathed in, restored his Qi, and prepared to meditate further.

Yet beside his ear came the roar of water—a furious surge rose from Han Hu and slammed straight into the mountain peak.

Boom!

The sound erupted—and the mountain crumbled.

Chen Zhao's eyes sharpened; he turned his head to look.

Could Lin Yutang be in trouble?