"Entering the Immortal Path?"
There was no surprise among the many figures before the Bronze Immortal Hall.
At the end of the Primordial Era, before the three Celestial Emperors led the Celestial Kings and Mortal Immortals into the Immortal Path, they had deliberately left behind the Bronze Immortal Hall—not only to maintain the stability of the Great Desolation Source World, but also to serve as a reception point for newly ascended Mortal Immortals of later generations to enter the Immortal Path.
Completely bridging the world at the end of the Immortal Path with the Great Desolation Source World was as difficult as reaching the heavens. With each new Mortal Immortal, the odds increased just a bit.
Twenty thousand years ago, Lin Yuan pushed through one forbidden zone after another, displaying strength worthy of a supreme emperor at his foundation.
At that time, the many figures in the Bronze Immortal Hall were still uncertain whether Lin Yuan had become a Mortal Immortal.
But eight thousand years ago, Lin Yuan approached them himself and nearly shattered the Bronze Immortal Hall.
It was undeniable proof that he had already surpassed the realm of Mortal Immortals.
Back then, the figures in the Bronze Immortal Hall had asked Lin Yuan whether he intended to enter the Immortal Path.
His response was simply, "No rush."
"The Immortal Path..."
Lin Yuan's eyes were deep as he gazed into the depths of layered time and space.
Now that he had absorbed the Undying Substance to its limit, remaining in the Great Desolation Source World held little meaning.
It was time to explore the Immortal Path, which had drawn countless Mortal Immortals, Celestial Kings, and even Celestial Emperors.
To attract so many time beings to forge ahead one after another, the Immortal Path's value clearly went far beyond turning the Great Desolation Source World into an unprecedented sacred land of cultivation.
It must also hold irreplaceable significance for time beings themselves.
"Any timeline involving the Immortal Path becomes obscure and twisted, making it difficult to observe."
Lin Yuan mused silently. Over the past twenty thousand years, he had tried more than once to observe the timelines related to the Immortal Path.
The intelligence he gathered was far from complete.
Yet even these fragmented pieces of information stirred his heart with excitement.
The world at the end of the Immortal Path offered immense fortune for Time Lords.
"Lord Tianyuan, the Bronze Immortal Hall seals the entrance to the Immortal Path. To enter, it requires power at the level of a Mortal Immortal to break through," the leading figure before the Bronze Immortal Hall said softly.
This was the basic threshold for entering the Immortal Path.
Without reaching the level of a Mortal Immortal, even if one found the Bronze Immortal Hall and the entrance to the Immortal Path, they would still be helpless.
In fact, without being a Mortal Immortal, even entering the Immortal Path would be of little help in bridging the world at its end.
"I know."
Lin Yuan nodded.
He had long since understood the many details regarding entering the Immortal Path.
Before arriving, he had also made thorough preparations in the Great Desolation Source World to ensure that the human race would not become targets for the foreign races again due to his disappearance.
After twenty thousand years, with Lin Yuan's intentional cultivation and guidance...
Though the human race had not produced another Great Emperor, many unique quasi-emperors with strength comparable to a Great Emperor had emerged.
Coupled with Lin Yuan's earlier purges of many foreign races and forbidden zones, all sovereign rulers who bore grudges against the human race were long dead.
The status of the human race in the Great Desolation Source World was unshakable. Even with Lin Yuan entering the Immortal Path, nothing would change.
Simply put, the human race now, even without Lin Yuan, could still overlook the entire Great Desolation Source World.
"Hmm."
The many figures in front of the Bronze Immortal Hall all stepped aside.
Boom!
The Bronze Immortal Hall began to tremble and slowly moved in another direction.
In the spot where the hall had originally stood, a distorted void gradually became visible.
This was the entrance connecting to the Immortal Path.
In the Primordial Era, the three Celestial Emperors had looked into the past and future.
Only then did they discover traces of the Immortal Path here—the very source of the Undying Substance in the world.
Before this, even beings as mighty as Celestial Emperors could draw the Undying Substance but could never locate its source.
Lin Yuan quietly gazed at the distorted void.
Then he stretched out his hand.
And struck forward.
Heaven and earth roared, and the Dao twisted.
This palm strike of Lin Yuan's was casually thrown, yet even so, the force it unleashed was on par with the peak of a Mortal Immortal, nearing an Celestial King's blow.
From where Lin Yuan stood, time and space rapidly dissolved, as if the heavens and earth were being recreated.
Lin Yuan did not conceal his breaking of the Immortal Path's entrance—the terrifying force spread rapidly across the entire Great Desolation Source World.
"This kind of power?"
In a hidden corner of the realm, a disheveled man suddenly looked up at the sky. "The Immortal Path—that's the aura of the Immortal Path being broken open. Another Mortal Immortal is entering it?"
The stronger the being, the more deeply they sensed the shockwave of the Immortal Path being breached. Especially those at the level of a Great Emperor—they could detect the Undying Substance and naturally also sense the fluctuations of its source.
"Who is it? That Tianyuan Great Emperor?"
The disheveled man couldn't help but wonder. Twenty thousand years ago, when the Tianyuan Great Emperor dominated his era, he had once felt a trace of that emperor's presence from afar.
He never expected the man to be a Mortal Immortal.
"A Mortal Immortal..."
The man sighed inwardly. He had existed since the Primordial Era, yet to this day had not grasped a breakthrough to the Mortal Immortal realm.
The greatest barrier to becoming a Mortal Immortal was breaking through the cycle of time.
Supreme Emperors absorbed massive amounts of Undying Substance and lived countless lifetimes, all in preparation for breaking free of time's loop.
"A Mortal Immortal? Our Great Desolation Source World has produced a Mortal Immortal?"
"It's the Tianyuan Great Emperor—he's breaking open the Immortal Path!"
One by one, the sovereigns across the Great Desolation Source World felt something and were utterly shaken.
The sovereigns still alive generally bore no hostility toward the human race, and most had encountered Lin Yuan. Thus, the moment they sensed the Immortal Path being opened, they knew it was Tianyuan Great Emperor.
"Terrifying..."
"Thank goodness I never acted against the human race."
"Who would've thought Tianyuan Great Emperor was a Mortal Immortal?"
The sovereigns' thoughts surged. Twenty thousand years ago, when the Tianyuan Great Emperor swept through all opposition, he was judged to be a Supreme Emperor.
As for being a Mortal Immortal?
While Supreme Emperors could rival Mortal Immortals to some extent, they ultimately were not the same.
Even if some sovereigns speculated that Tianyuan might have reached that level, it had never been confirmed.
Outside Tianyuan Imperial Palace.
Dozens, even hundreds of figures who had been stuck outside the palace now felt the terrifying shockwave of the Immortal Path being broken open.
"Tianyuan Great Emperor... is already a Mortal Immortal?"
The black-haired youth felt a strange sense of shock. First, he had experienced the blow of failing to step past even the first of the thirty-three steps outside the imperial palace.
Now, he discovered that the Tianyuan Great Emperor he had aspired to surpass had already exceeded the realm of Emperors. The heart he had just barely calmed was once again thrown into turmoil.
And not just him—
The dozens or hundreds of other figures present felt similarly.
All of them were quasi-emperors born in the past twenty thousand years, each with unique physiques or powerful bloodlines capable of rivaling ordinary sovereigns.
For them, the Emperor realm was still something they could look up to and potentially touch.
But Mortal Immortal?
Countless emperors had been born throughout history—how many of them had ever truly become Mortal Immortals?
Lin Yuan withdrew his right hand and looked at the now-completely torn distorted void.
An irregular void passage had appeared, linking to a mysterious time-space—that was the Immortal Path.
"I'm going in first."
Lin Yuan looked at the entrance to the Immortal Path, swept his gaze across the many figures before the Bronze Immortal Hall, and stepped forward, vanishing.
"Lord Tianyuan has entered?"
The Bronze Immortal Hall slowly returned to its original position. The expressions of those standing outside the hall were tinged with complex emotion.
Since the Tianyuan Great Emperor had revealed his true strength, only twenty thousand years had passed—but in that time, he had left an indelible mark on their hearts.
Inside the entrance of the Immortal Path.
An invisible aura pervaded the air. Even a single strand of it was enough to severely wound or obliterate an emperor-level being.
"This is the Immortal Path?"
Lin Yuan observed his surroundings. Where he stood, space-time in every direction was incomparably stable, and the approaching invisible aura quickly became docile.
"This is the Great Collapse Force of this source world?"
Lin Yuan thought to himself. The invisible aura that filled the surroundings was precisely the Great Collapse Force.
This level of force usually only appeared in dimensional spaces about to enter Great Collapse.
When that moment came, all beings and things would be destroyed under the tide of this force. Even time beings could only retreat from such a dimension to escape.
Remaining forcefully would result in even time beings being unable to withstand the corrosion—their physical bodies would collapse and be annihilated.
"This source world hasn't yet entered collapse, yet it's already filled with this level of Great Collapse Force?"
Lin Yuan pondered. Perhaps this was the unique nature of the depths of the Immortal Path—and the very reason so many time beings sought to explore it.
"Great Collapse Force."
Lin Yuan studied the strands of destructive power.
In his mind, bursts of inspiration emerged.
[Your insight is Unrivaled. Observing the Great Collapse Force has improved your understanding of the Destruction Dao of the Chaos Origin.]
[Your insight is Unrivaled. Observing the Great Collapse Force, you've comprehended the Destruction Dao of the Chaos Origin.]
The Destruction Dao of the Chaos Origin was one of the foundational origin Daos across infinite dimensional planes, vastly superior to the individual Chaos Origins of Yin or Yang.
It was an extremely lethal origin Dao that governed the destruction of entire dimensional spaces.
Lin Yuan had already accumulated great knowledge in the Destruction Dao. The natural universe collapses of chaotic voids were a nascent form of dimensional collapse.
After reaching the thirteenth rank and becoming a time being, Lin Yuan felt the vastness of the Chaos Origin's Destruction Dao even more deeply.
Now, entering the Immortal Path and feeling the force of the Great Collapse at close range, he was moved—and the qualitative change born from quantitative accumulation allowed him to comprehend the Destruction Dao naturally.
The Destruction Dao of the Chaos Origin was a thirteenth-rank, second-stage comprehension—equivalent to the Chaos Origin's Tao of Tai Chi.
However, the Destruction Dao was a naturally existing origin Dao across dimensions, while the Tao of Tai Chi was a personal Dao Lin Yuan had pioneered himself.
This was why Lin Yuan was able to first comprehend the Destruction Dao—he had a complete reference in the form of the Great Collapse Force. It was far easier than groping blindly in the dark to create the Tao of Tai Chi from scratch.
Still, no matter how easy, it was a second-stage thirteenth-rank technique.
"Didn't expect entering the Immortal Path to have this kind of benefit."
A smile spread across Lin Yuan's face. Without a doubt, the Destruction Dao was a second-stage thirteenth-rank technique.
Comprehending such an origin Dao meant his strength had grown significantly once again.
"This counts as the first second-stage technique I've mastered?"
Lin Yuan mused.
Even before arriving in this source world, he could already rival thirteenth-rank, second-stage time beings.
But that parity had come entirely from his deep foundation—his accumulated depth far exceeded the first stage.
In terms of techniques, though, he was still at the first-stage level.
"Time to go deeper."
Lin Yuan didn't linger and began heading toward the depths of the Immortal Path.
The Celestial Kings and Mortal Immortals who had entered during the Primordial Era should by now be close to the Immortal Path's end.
That was evident from the faint traces of aura left around him—residual presence from those ancient Mortal Immortals and Celestial Kings.
In the Immortal Path filled with Great Collapse Force, normal time beings would inevitably have their movement slowed and would have to constantly resist the destructive power.
But for Lin Yuan, who had now comprehended the Destruction Dao of the Chaos Origin, the Great Collapse Force was like water to a fish—not only harmless, but even helpful.
At the end of the Immortal Path—
Mist filled the space, infused with strands of Great Collapse Force.
In the distance stood a new world, fully condensed from an aura that opposed the Great Collapse.
This world seemed illusory, clearly not yet fully formed. Yet even so, the faint presence it exuded drove Mortal Immortals to obsession.
However...
The closer one got to that illusory world, the more Great Collapse Force one had to endure. Even Celestial Kings could not remain too close for long.
"Marvelous, truly marvelous," a white-haired Celestial King muttered, immersed in observing the illusory world. Beside him sat two other Celestial Kings.
"A pity—we could gain far more if we could actually enter that world," the Celestial King on the left whispered, eyes filled with longing.
"Enter? Even Celestial Emperors can't do that," said the one on the right, shaking his head. That world was protected by the source of the Great Desolation Source World, and even Celestial Emperors dared not confront that head-on.
"Hmm?" Suddenly, the white-haired Celestial King's expression shifted as he looked toward the beginning of the Immortal Path.
"A new Mortal Immortal has entered."
At those words—
The other two Celestial Kings also turned to look.
Having dwelled on the Immortal Path for endless ages, they were intimately attuned to any changes in its aura.
Nothing escaped their perception.
"The Immortal Path is filled with Great Collapse Force. A newly ascended Mortal Immortal might not adapt well. Should we send someone to receive him?"
The Celestial King on the left spoke.
A new Mortal Immortal from the Great Desolation Source World was considered a junior by their standards, and they valued him accordingly.
"I'll go."
A nearby Mortal Immortal stepped forward.
Having spent so many years within the Immortal Path, he had long since grasped methods to resist the Great Collapse Force. Compared to a newcomer, he was far more at ease.
"Alright—"
The white-haired Celestial King was just about to nod.
Then his expression suddenly changed.
He stared toward the beginning of the Immortal Path.
The Celestial Kings on both sides noticed it too.
Their faces showed disbelief.
"Shall I head out now, then?" the Mortal Immortal asked, preparing to go.
"No need."
The white-haired Celestial King fell silent for several breaths, then shook his head.
"No need?"
The Mortal Immortal looked confused.
They weren't going to meet the new Mortal Immortal?
Were they expecting him to endure the endless Great Collapse Force and come alone?
Was this a test?
The Mortal Immortal's thoughts spun, guessing this might be the case.
"He's already arrived."
The white-haired Celestial King stood, facing the start of the Immortal Path.
"Already… arrived?"
The Mortal Immortal was stunned.
The next moment—
Under the gaze of every Mortal Immortal and Celestial King present—
From the beginning of the Immortal Path, where Great Collapse Force pervaded endlessly, a figure walked forward. The destructive power that could erode even a Mortal Immortal's flesh and soul merely swirled gently around his body, oddly obedient.
...