NOVPUBOu Shangtian tried his hand.
From a distance, he gazed at the mountain peaks ahead, and in a mere moment of bewilderment, he found himself at the summit.
"So fast!?" The instigator, Ou Shangtian, couldn’t help but be startled in his heart.
Under the dual enhancement of the Flowing Light Armor and the Colored Jade Hollow Glare, his speed had reached an unbelievable level.
Despite such flamboyant display, emitting Seven-Colored Radiance all over his body while flying rapidly through the sky, not a single cultivator in Jiushan Province was able to detect him.
Even the Unity-Path guardians of the Alliance of Thousands of Immortals were no exception.
Ou Shangtian began with caution but gradually relaxed once he was sure no one could sense him.
Even a sense of elation at being able to do as he pleased began to emerge in his heart.
"How thrilling, truly thrilling!"
In the vast Jiushan Province, he had already flown back and forth several times with just a breath’s effort. The sensation of speed was intoxicating.
At the same time, some confusion arose in his heart, "Just by flying non-stop like this, can I draw out that stone tablet?"
"Could it be that mystical? I’m moving so fast; is it possible he can’t find me?"
"Should I slow down a bit to try?"
Just as Ou Shangtian’s thoughts began to wander, a sudden sense of inexplicable crisis emerged from deep within.
A scene abruptly surfaced in his Spirit Consciousness.
Heaven and Earth suddenly darkened.
As though shackled by something invisible, no matter how he tried to escape, he couldn’t break free from the dark range enveloping him.
In despair, his body could only slowly slide towards the center of the darkness.
...
"!"
Ou Shangtian’s heart was violently shaken.
He knew this was the spontaneous warning from another congenital strange object accompanying the Kun-Qian Skeletal Hand: the Book of Thousand Deaths.
"What the hell is this? The stone tablet?"
The forecasted scene caused Ou Shangtian’s hair to stand on end, and he decisively activated an Array Crown Explosion he had prepared for a long time.
In the blink of an eye, countless Array Techniques were set up, protecting Ou Shangtian in the center.
Only then did the illusory landscape from the Book of Thousand Deaths slowly fade away.
But the sense of crisis in Ou Shangtian’s heart did not subside because, as the array setter, he could clearly sense that the hundreds of thousands of Arrays he had placed were disappearing at an incomprehensible speed.
But from beginning to end, he never saw the one breaking the arrays. It was like something was silently devouring them.
With the horror in his heart intensifying, Ou Shangtian took advantage of the protective arrays still in effect and threw out several more Array Crowns.
Layers of arrays unfolded one after another, and a vague shadow could not help but slowly materialize.
Ou Shangtian, however, dared not linger long.
"Leyline!"
He shouted silently in his heart and shot straight from the sky into the earth below.
In an instant, he vanished from sight.
The myriad arrays he left behind strangely compressed into physical pages resembling those of a book, all slowly drifting toward the figure that had abruptly appeared.
The figure gradually revealed its true appearance, resembling a scholar, with a conspicuous stone tablet on his back.
As he received each page and finished reading it, the pages disappeared from his hands, the light flickering, and then seemed to be engraved onto the stone tablet.
The scholar did not rush to chase after the fleeing Ou Shangtian, but instead methodically read through all the pages in his hands.
The calm expression on his face gradually turned into a frown.
"When did the Xuanhuang World develop Arrays to such an extent?"
"That light of the world..."
"Could it be an outsider?"
With all the pages disappearing, the scholar looked in the direction of Ou Shangtian’s sensed location.
"Such rapid speed. To even have the aid of a Leyline Ancient Tree..."
The scholar sorted through the most recent records on the stone tablet.
He found no relevant entries.
"More and more outer state regions, and the stone tablet, which claims to know everything, is ultimately proving to be not as infallible as it once was."
"Wuyou, what you said was right. There is nothing eternal. Neither are Immortals, nor is the power we, the prideful dwellers of the Immortal Realm, possess."
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Although the matter clearly exuded an air of conspiracy, as if it was attempting to lure him in,
Stone Tablet felt not the slightest hint of fear in his heart.
Instead, his curiosity grew.
With one step, he had already reached the spot where Ou Shangtian had stood moments before.
However, it seemed Ou Shangtian had anticipated this and had already slipped into the Leylines a step earlier.
The roaring rush of the Leyline’s flow was so thunderous that even Stone Tablet struggled to find an ant’s trace within it.
But Stone Tablet was not in a hurry, knowing the other would surely appear again. Thus, he simply waited in place.
"How interesting. It seems that the person behind the scenes knows a bit about me."
There was no irritation from being played; instead, a faint smile appeared on Stone Tablet’s face.
In this manner, Stone Tablet was gradually drawn to a tranquil Taoist Temple nestled within the mountains.
Ou Shangtian no longer fled but respectfully stood behind a towering figure.
Stone Tablet’s gaze shifted from Ou Shangtian to this figure.
After observing for a moment, the smile finally vanished from the corner of Stone Tablet’s mouth,
Replaced by a touch of bafflement and gravity.
The person before him felt somewhat familiar, yet also emitted a sense of crisis warning.
"Cannot sense the aura of Unity-Path, not of the Immortal Realm? Or perhaps, like me, follows the Ancient Law of Immortality?" Stone Tablet conjectured quietly.
"Why stand there, isn’t it tiring? Come in and have a seat." After a moment of confrontation, Li Ping took the initiative to speak.
In just one sentence, the tension of drawn swords was broken.
It did not seem like a meeting of enemies but rather a greeting between old friends who had not seen each other for years.
A sense of strangeness arose in Stone Tablet’s heart.
Nevertheless, he simply responded with a soft, "Alright."
Following Li Ping into the Taoist Temple below.
Passing through the temple, Li Ping did not stop but continued to a pond behind it.
"How long has it been since you’ve carried that stone slab on your back?" Li Ping inquired.
Stone Tablet was slightly taken aback, but he did not hide the truth and answered, "Thirty-six thousand nine hundred and forty-two years."
"Thirty-six thousand nine hundred and forty-two years," Li Ping repeated the number.
"It sounds like a long time. But it’s only just over thirty-six thousand years. Insignificant compared to the lifespan of the Xuanhuang World. Not to mention the Star Sea beyond the Xuanhuang World," Li Ping said with some emotion.
Stone Tablet echoed his sentiment, "Yes, thirty-six thousand years, gone in the blink of an eye. To Heaven and Earth itself, perhaps it’s not worth mentioning. But for an ordinary person like me, it’s indeed a bit long."
"Ordinary person..." Ou Shangtian couldn’t help but mutter softly at this time.
Li Ping chuckled, "Shang Tian, don’t be rude. The senior is correct; he is indeed just an ordinary person."
Ou Shangtian dared not defy the Emperor and hastily bowed to Stone Tablet to apologize.
Yet Stone Tablet didn’t take it to heart and instead fixed his gaze on Li Ping: "You... seem to know a lot about me?"
Li Ping did not admit it, "It’s just that, I have some empathy, that’s all."
"I too am just an ordinary person, albeit one who has taken on a destined mission."
Upon hearing these words, Ou Shangtian bowed even lower, careful not to show the slightest hint of an anomaly.
Stone Tablet though appeared pensive, continuously sizing up Li Ping.
That tall stature was different from that of a typical cultivator.
The few strands of aura entwining him were also exceptionally mysterious, compelling Stone Tablet to not underestimate him.
"What purpose did you have in bringing me here, fellow Daoist? Surely it’s not just to have a simple chat?" Eventually, Stone Tablet asked, cutting through the awkwardness between them.
"I am here to help you find release," Li Ping stated gravely.
This forthright declaration made Ou Shangtian lift his head, excitement flashing in his eyes.
Stone Tablet’s eyes narrowed, and he became guarded.
"It seems, fellow Daoist, that you’ve misunderstood me. I truly wish to help you find release," Li Ping’s tone carried a hint of disappointment.
The Faceless Saint Emperor gestured around him.
"Could it be, fellow Daoist hasn’t noticed anything amiss here?"
Upon hearing this, Stone Tablet shifted his attention from the Faceless Saint Emperor to his surroundings.
After a full circle, his gaze finally settled on the calm, small pond.
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