"Many thanks for Senior's advice."
Lu Yang nodded, then once again activated the [City Rampart Earth] simulated by the [Divine Firmament Thunder]. Another ring upon it cracked open.
The second chance!
The scattered iridescent light converged back into one after the ring shattered, once again blooming with blinding white light that enveloped Lu Yang's body within it.
"Go."
In the next second, Lu Yang's figure vanished into the karmic gateway opened by [Perfected Lord Brilliant World Joyous Light], surging upstream against the massive karma.
And after sending Lu Yang off, [Perfected Lord Brilliant World Joyous Light] lowered his head. The originally compassionate smile on his face gradually faded, his eyes turning indifferent: "The world truly produces talents in every generation... Primordial Saint, you stand too high. It's better you step down a bit; only then can everyone feel at ease."
But right at this moment, a sudden anomaly occurred!
"Hm!"
[Perfected Lord Brilliant World Joyous Light]'s expression abruptly changed. A gaze was descending out of thin air upon the karmic gateway he had just opened!
Enveloped in the blinding white light, Lu Yang stood with his hands behind his back. Right now, he was standing in an illusory place that resembled a river, the sound of rushing water echoing in his ears.
'This is a karmic thread.'
'The karmic thread of the World Honored One's Dao attainment. Back when the World Honored One attained the Dao five thousand years ago, it was exactly this karmic thread that reversed the history of the entire light sea.'
The largest-scale altering of causes and shifting of effects in history caused the corresponding history to be completely discarded, thrown out of the real history, and ultimately becoming this torrent of time. By hiding himself in this place, all anomalous fluctuations from tracing back karma would be masked by the torrent of time, not revealing the slightest trace.
Like a single spray of surf in a river.
Soon, Lu Yang saw his destination—roughly seventy thousand years before the present time, the time pointed out by [Perfected Lord Brilliant World Joyous Light].
However, right at this moment.
Rumble!
The originally surging, endless torrent of time abruptly fell into stagnation. This was solely because, upon that [Paramita], a calm gaze was looking over from afar!
Merely a gaze was enough to bring the torrent of time to a standstill, and it also caused Lu Yang's action of heading towards the karmic scene of seventy thousand years ago to abruptly halt... He couldn't move at this time! After all, the karma of the entire torrent of time was locked. If he moved, he would be exposing himself!
'Where is the World Honored One? World Honored One, save me!'
As if echoing Lu Yang's inner cry for help, in the next second, a vast, mighty power abruptly propagated from both the source and the end of the torrent of time.
The source was in the past—[First-generation Master of Myriad Treasures Peak]!
The end was in the future—[Deep Bliss Pure Land World Honored One]!
Both ends were absolute Nascent Soul Dao Lords. Together, they maintained the stability of this torrent of time, instantly breaking the gaze lock from [Paramita].
This was the foundation of the World Honored One's Dao attainment; naturally, he couldn't allow anyone to interfere. Not even the Ancestor of the Saint Sect. The torrent of time thus resumed its flow.
But almost simultaneously—
"Heh..."
Faint to the point of being almost inaudible, a light chuckle seemed to drift over from a very distant place. Following that, Lu Yang's vision was instantly cast in a layer of shadow.
It was a hand!
The palm wasn't clear; clearly, it wasn't the Dao Lord's true body, but more like a manifestation of a single thought. Yet its mighty power wasn't weak in the slightest as it brazenly slapped down toward the great karmic net!
In an instant, Lu Yang's expression drastically changed. The World Honored One's torrent of time was his home turf, and the Ancestor of the Saint Sect couldn't forcibly tamper with it. However, the great karmic net was different. Stirred by the giant hand of the Ancestor of the Saint Sect, the originally stable and orderly great karmic net suddenly plunged into chaos!
'Not good!'
What made Lu Yang pale wasn't just the Ancestor of the Saint Sect making a move. More importantly, the karmic scene the other party attacked and disrupted was exactly his destination!
Seventy thousand years ago!
'My goal of finding the [Yellow Springs Road] has been exposed!?'
How was it exposed?
Lu Yang had no time to overthink. He gritted his teeth, activated his karmic light, and rode the waves of the torrent of time to rapidly plummet toward the great karmic net below.
The situation left no room for hesitation. Because along with the Ancestor of the Saint Sect's disturbance, the great karmic net fell completely into chaos, forming a massive vortex. Many karmic threads from different eras were mixed in. If he plunged into the vortex early enough, he might still be able to get close to the karmic scene from seventy thousand years ago.
The later he was, the more likely he would be swept into other eras!
For example, he had locked onto seventy thousand years ago, but once the vortex formed, he might end up going to seven thousand years ago, or even seven hundred years ago.
That would be a waste of an opportunity.
Therefore, Lu Yang didn't dare to hesitate. Before the vortex could fully form, he dropped directly toward the karmic scene of seventy thousand years ago, and the torrent of time vibrated along with him.
And then he heard—
"Found you."
Clang—!
A melodious bell toll broke the silence of the early morning. The sound of sutra chanting for morning lessons echoed in the temple. Lu Yang opened his eyes, only feeling a chill on his head.
His expression was very devout, without the slightest change. His lips were pressed tightly shut, covering his slightly trembling teeth. All his panic was instantly suppressed deep into his heart, not revealing a single trace. He simply followed the people beside him in chanting sutras. Even so, the chill in his heart lingered, refusing to dissipate.
'Found me?'
'Impossible! Absolutely impossible!'
Lu Yang absolutely refused to believe that the Ancestor of the Saint Sect had already found him. After all, if he had truly been found, he would have already entered the restarting phase by now.
But the Ancestor of the Saint Sect must have discovered something.
'Was it a probe?'
Lu Yang reviewed the anomaly from just now, gaining some realization in his heart: 'The Ancestor of the Saint Sect probably hadn't confirmed my target was the Netherworld at the very beginning.'
'He shot the arrow first, then drew the bullseye!'
'Because I had been to the [Mark of Fulfilling Virtue], it's possible I obtained the blueprints for the Netherworld!'
Even though the karma was masked by the World Honored One, and the Ancestor of the Saint Sect might not know the exact truth, he simply assumed someone was going to strike at the Netherworld, so he intervened to stop it!
'This situation is not good.'
The chill in Lu Yang's heart grew deeper: 'Although I have the cover of the torrent of time, my arrival still caused an anomalous change in karmic fluctuations.'
The principle was very simple:
The original great karmic net was stable and orderly. The torrent of time was also a straight line. The two didn't intersect and had no connection.
So even if the Ancestor of the Saint Sect stirred the great karmic net, it wouldn't have any impact on the World Honored One's torrent of time. After all, the torrent of time was karma that had been severed from the real history and subsequently discarded. However, Lu Yang couldn't stay in the torrent of time forever; he had to go to the real history.
Therefore, the torrent of time had to interact with the great karmic net for a single instant.
Normally, no problem would be seen, because both the great karmic net and the torrent of time tended toward stability—but now, the Ancestor of the Saint Sect had disrupted the karma.
So, to interact with the great karmic net, the torrent of time was also forced to fall into disorder for an instant.
This was wrong!
'The moment the Ancestor of the Saint Sect saw the originally constant torrent of time follow suit and become disordered; he probably already understood my target was seventy thousand years ago...'
A ripple of emotion flashed in Lu Yang's eyes.
Panic, fear, thought—finally returning to calmness.
This was not good news for him, because it meant the Ancestor of the Saint Sect had already locked onto the search scope. He was getting closer to being exposed.
Previously, if the Ancestor of the Saint Sect wanted to find him, he would have had to search the entire great karmic net and review all of history. Clearly, this was impossible to do. But now, to find him, the Ancestor of the Saint Sect only needed to search the history of seventy thousand years ago. It was more than just a few times easier!
'That old immortal bastard won't let this go easily.'
'He'll definitely make another move.'
All negative emotions were decisively severed by Lu Yang. At the juncture of life and death, his impassioned emotions instead overpowered his distracting thoughts, making his thinking even clearer.
'Altering causes and shifting effects is secondary.'
'First and foremost, I must blend in under the Ancestor of the Saint Sect's search and survive!'
(End of Chapter)