Chapter 311: Again, them?

Gu Yuan sat cross-legged at the center of the altar.

The Myriad Dao Time Light Lamp hovered three feet before him.

On the surface of the bronze ancient lamp, the traces of time, worn and mottled, slowly drifted under the impetus of spiritual power.

One thousand and twenty-four points of light lit up in succession in Gu Yuan's sea-of-consciousness star map.

Those were the Heavenly Dao fragments scattered across the forty-nine major cities of Heavenly Pivot Source Realm, countless abandoned mines, and the corners of slums.

The incomplete world will, to save itself, flung these fate‑bearing "Remolding Terminals" like a net toward the lower‑rank beings.

Gu Yuan extended a thread of divine sense.

Within his dantian, the perfect great world turned slowly.

The World Tree's branches unfurled, chaotic qi flowing out along the meridians to mingle with the causal law of the Myriad Dao Time Light Lamp.

The higher law of the inner world, following those faint causal traces, spread throughout the Heavenly Pivot Source Realm.

Heavenly Pivot Eleven City, underground air‑raid shelter.

Tie Tu stood on high, looking down at the commoners practicing the Reverse Spirit Technique below.

His gaze swept over several especially conspicuous youths in the crowd.

On those few people surged an aura of fortune far beyond that of ordinary folk.

In that very breath.

The semi‑transparent light curtains displaying various novice missions on those youths' retinas all froze at once.

The existing mechanical prompt sound cut off abruptly.

A line of emotionless dark‑gold text forcibly overlaid their terminal interface: 【Lower‑level permissions have been seized. The terminal is now linked to the Gu Clan Immortal Sect Total Network. Defiers will be erased.】

This was not an isolated case.

From Core City One to Frontier City Forty‑Nine, every host chosen by the Heavenly Dao received the same decree in that breath.

Gu Yuan sat within the meteorite, orderly gathering the authority of this heaven and earth.

As the one thousand and twenty‑four Heavenly Dao fragments were forcibly bound by him under the inner world's laws, the incomplete world will of Heavenly Pivot Source Realm effectively handed over control to him.

Gu Yuan opened his eyes.

That method, the Myriad Worlds Pulling Displacement Method, peeled from the memory of the Heavenly Source Ancestor, now presented itself before him in its fullest context.

Gu Yuan dissected the logic of this technique word by word.

Interestingly, the core pattern of this technique bears a deep imprint of the Heavenly Dao's origin.

This runs contrary to reason.

The instinct of the world will is to reproduce and to maintain the planet's ecological balance.

While the core demand of the Myriad Worlds Pulling Displacement Method is to drain a planet's vein energy and transmute it into fuel to propel the world through cosmic leap.

Such a practice is tantamount to making a person bleed themselves dry to run an endless marathon.

Heavenly Dao would never actively produce a method tantamount to suicide.

Gu Yuan lifted the Myriad Dao Time Light Lamp with one hand.

At the wick, a cluster of invisible flame leapt.

The phantom of the River of Time unfurled above the altar.

Gu Yuan wished to trace back to the source.

He wanted to see where this technique, which had nearly ruined the Heavenly Pivot Source Realm, actually came from.

One thousand years.

Three thousand years.

Five thousand years.

The markings of time rewound rapidly in Gu Yuan's eyes. The conglomerates' mechanical legions turned back into sword‑wielding cultivators, and the metal conduits of the Milky Way Great Array degenerated into primitive spirit veins.

Traced back to ten thousand years ago.

Heavenly Pivot Source Realm was still an ordinary low‑grade cultivation planet, with no mechanical ascension and no monopoly of spiritual energy.

From a high‑dimensional viewpoint, the cosmic wall at the utmost heights of the firmament had been forcibly bored through from outside.

A figure cloaked head‑to‑toe in black robes stepped into the atmosphere.

The black‑robed figure startled no native beings. He hovered in the clouds, looking down upon the four caves richest in spiritual energy.

Inside the caves, four young cultivators were in seclusion — these later became the four great conglomerate patriarchs.

"Test Site 1044: development too slow, immortal‑dao progress too fast — this would give rise to an immortal realm, even an immortal king." The black‑robed figure muttered to himself, his voice masked by sorcery, revealing neither age nor gender.

A jade slip glowing with faint light slipped from the black‑robed figure's sleeve.

The jade slip pierced the clouds and landed precisely in the valley where the four cultivators' caves meet.

The black‑robed figure turned and walked toward the rift in the cosmic wall, leaving the cold order: "Add a catalyst to these worms, so that later generations go astray from the root, preventing the birth of an immortal king."

The scene froze here.

Gu Yuan withdrew his gaze; the phantom of the Myriad Dao Time Light Lamp dissipated.

The truth was laid bare.

The Heavenly Source Ancestor proclaimed himself a hero, scheming for three thousand years, believing himself the player of the board.

Jin Gang, Xing Hui, and Gui Xu, seeking longevity, embarked on the dead‑end path of mechanical ascension.

The Milky Way Great Array they prided themselves on, the displacement technique they treasured, were nothing but fodder casually tossed to them by others.

This routine is nothing new.

From the Profound Heaven Continent to the Twilight Divine Realm, it's the same.

Gu Yuan tapped his knee with a finger.

To treat an entire perfect world as a testing ground, and to casually pass down a method capable of altering a planet's course……

This handiwork…

He seemed to have already chosen someone in his heart.

At the edge of the altar, Gu Xuan Ce was crouched on the ground dismantling the formation plate left behind by the Heavenly Source Old Ancestor.

After hearing Gu Yuan's retelling of time regression, the formation master of the Primordial Immortal Realm rolled his eyes extremely rudely.

"I said, these natives who can't even lay a basic Spirit Gathering Array without holes, how could they possibly create such a high-level formation involving cosmic leap?" Gu Xuan Ce kicked aside a discarded metal plate.

Just then.

In the deep space outside the meteorite, an extremely muffled crashing sound rang out.

It was not the physical echo of meteorites colliding.

That was the cosmic barrier outside the Heavenly Pivot Source Realm, currently enduring a violent breach beyond limits.

Gu Yuan stood up.

"Uncle Xuan Ce, put away the formation plate." Gu Yuan smoothed his snowy-white robes.

Gu Xuan Ce swiftly swept all the parts on the ground into his storage ring.

He sensed the pressure seeping in from the depths of the starry sky.

Two half-step Immortal King-level auras crossed the spatial rift without restraint and stepped into the asteroid belt.

The newcomers wore wide black robes, with low hat brims that covered most of their faces.

Under the pressure of the two, the surrounding shattered meteorites didn't even go through the process of exploding; they turned directly into fine powder.

"True Immortals have passed; confirming their early extinction, no Immortal King will be born," said the black-robed figure on the left.

The black-robed figure on the right held a dark-red Compass in hand.

The Compass's needle spun wildly.

"There's a variable."

The black-robed figure on the right halted, saying, "Control of the Star River Great Array has been usurped."

Both turned their heads simultaneously, locking their gazes onto the massive meteorite where Gu Yuan stood.

"Uncle Xuan Ce, go to the core of the Great Array. Fully engage all defense mechanisms of the Star River Great Array," Gu Yuan said.

Gu Yuan issued the order, "Leave this to me."

Gu Xuan Ce did not boast.

He was only an early-stage True Immortal; facing two half-step Immortal Kings, a direct confrontation would gain him no advantage.

He retreated, blending into the shadows inside the meteorite, to take over the core of the Great Array.

Gu Yuan raised his right hand.

Myriad Paths Time Lamp hovered in his palm.

Earlier, in the Myriad Medicines Grand World, the Myriad Medicines Divine Monarch seized the body of the Twilight Immortal King.

Gu Yuan had once used the Time Lamp to extract that pure aura of the Apocalyptic Dao from within the Twilight Immortal King's body.

Decay, decline, the Daoist aura of the setting sun.

Gu Yuan's heart stirred slightly.

That unique aura belonging to the Twilight Immortal King, like an invisible cloak, enveloped Gu Yuan's body.

His originally pure and clear immortal true essence was completely concealed.

Gu Yuan stepped forward.

The meteorite's stone walls automatically parted before him.

He stepped into the starry sky, directly facing the two black-robed figures.