All Substitutes

It’s a good tradition for Chen Xia to start with a bang.

At this very moment, he is in the Immortal Realm, using this primordial land as a foundation and his own body as a vessel to forcibly seize the identity of the Way of Heaven above him, becoming the Way of Heaven of the All Heavens World.

It’s a bit like putting the wrong hat on the wrong head, but Chen Xia can do it nonetheless.

The Martial Emperor nods. “That’s interesting.”

Boom!

In an instant, he flashes forward, landing a punch covered in pure martial energy directly on Chen Xia’s head. The golden martial energy explodes, spreading from Chen Xia’s head and tearing through the void behind him, causing the space to crack and waver.

Chen Xia bends down and sidesteps, appearing a thousand meters away. His hair is a bit disheveled, so it’s not quite accurate to say he came out unscathed.

He didn’t try to take the Martial Emperor’s blow head-on. Instead, he used the Time Dao to dilute it, spreading the fully powered strike across various timelines to be absorbed by other versions of himself, while he only had to endure the aftershock.

The Martial Emperor shakes his fist, also surprised by Chen Xia’s divine abilities. He glances at the Way of Heaven above and then frowns at Chen Xia.

“With this, you’ll really be taking on both the Way of Heaven and me.”

“Bring it on,” Chen Xia replies nonchalantly, beckoning him forward.

The Martial Emperor’s body glows with golden martial energy, as if a divine being had descended. His aura is even more terrifying than when he fought the Heaven-Suppressing Man, signaling that he’s now unleashing his true power.

With a single step and a powerful charge:

Boom!

Dozens of realms beyond the Immortal Realm tremble simultaneously. Great Emperors within those realms are horrified, sensing a massive disruption coming from the Immortal Realm. They dare not pry further and hurriedly set up defenses to protect their own realms.

Among those who feel this disturbance the most keenly are the Five Paths Great Emperors. They know this clash involves the Martial Emperor and recognize that it’s Chen Xia who is fighting him.

So, they can’t help but marvel. Has Chen Xia really grown strong enough to match the Martial Emperor in just under ten thousand years?

The Martial Emperor is a veteran of tens of thousands of years, while Chen Xia has only been cultivating for a fraction of that time. Yet, in such a short period, he has already risen to become one of the most powerful beings in the world.

“Turbulent times breed heroes, and Chen Xia is undoubtedly the greatest hero of our age.”

“Behind his rise, while the Heaven-Suppressing Man’s guidance played a role, Chen Xia’s own combat ability, fortune, and luck were also crucial. Will he become the leading supreme being of the next generation, or will he be just another mound of dust in the annals of history?”

No one knows, so all they can do is wait and see.

Such a level of confrontation is beyond their ability to interfere, or rather, they simply aren’t at the stage where they can participate.

Boom!

Another fierce collision shakes the Immortal Realm. The Way of Heaven begins to show its fury, unleashing its might upon Chen Xia, the entity that dares to wrest away its status.

Now, three sides are locked in battle within the Immortal Realm:

The Way of Heaven hunting Chen Xia, the Martial Emperor fighting Chen Xia, and occasionally, the Martial Emperor throwing a punch at the Way of Heaven, which retaliates in kind.

It’s chaos, plain and simple.

Chen Xia, in a bid to burn himself out, erases the False Heavenly Dao, entering a state where he fights both the Way of Heaven and the Martial Emperor. Not only does he have to endure the battle, but he also has to withstand the backlash from his own body. His blood boils like rivers flowing through countless star realms.

The All Heavens World becomes his consciousness, the countless realms form his mind’s lake.

He is the sword of all sword practitioners, the progenitor of all dragonkind, the pinnacle of the thunder Dao, and a complete section of the River of Time.

As Chen Xia ponders this, he takes another hit from the Martial Emperor, his body plummeting straight down to the ground of the Immortal Realm. His consciousness is dry, his blood no longer flowing. Lying in the crater he created, he stares blankly at the sky.

The Martial Emperor glances at him but doesn’t bother further. Instead, he turns to clash with the Way of Heaven.

The False Heavenly Dao reasserts itself, and Chen Xia begins to lose clarity. His mind blurs, and in an instant, he thinks of many things:

The grievances and entanglements of the past, the chess players who move their pieces first, the arguments where insult automatically extends to mothers…

So many things.

He’s no longer sure of anything. Weak and dried out, he lies still, as if awaiting his final moments.

Then, suddenly, Chen Xia remembers: He is the Five Paths Great Emperor.

Time Dao, Way of the Sword, Ancestral Dragon, Thunder Dao, and False Heavenly Dao.

Among these five Great Daos, the one he uses the best, the one he understands the deepest, and the one that is truly the most powerful, isn’t the False Heavenly Dao.

It’s the Time Dao.

It’s the tens of thousands of years of past experiences and life-and-death separations.

At the bottom of the pit where he fell, a seed sprouts, right behind him. Though insignificant, it is glowing.

It radiates a light that spans from ancient times to the present.

The flow of time slows, yet the seed grows incredibly fast, becoming a gray-white tree that takes root across the entire Immortal Realm, using this primordial land to bear its weight.

Chen Xia leans against this gray-white tree, leaning against the entirety of his life.

The tree grows, branches out, blossoms, and bears fruit.

All of this happens within a very short span of time, as if Chen Xia had just experienced a lifetime’s worth of insights in an instant.

In the sky above, the clash between the Martial Emperor and the Way of Heaven intensifies, shaking the entire All Heavens World. The Martial Emperor doesn’t necessarily need Chen Xia’s help; he just needs Chen Xia to use the False Heavenly Dao to disrupt the true Way of Heaven.

Once that’s achieved, the Martial Emperor can unleash his full power against the Way of Heaven. If he can destroy the Way of Heaven, he’ll have fulfilled his decades-long obsession, and afterward, whether he lives or dies won’t matter.

So, no one pays attention to the changes within the pit of the Immortal Realm, nor do they notice the gray-white tree rapidly growing. Amidst the chaos, a second entity capable of bearing the River of Time emerges.

The giant tree.

In the blink of an eye, the gray-white tree has grown to the size of an entire province, its canopy dense, its fruits plentiful. Time is etched upon it. It’s unclear whether Chen Xia has created a new Dao.

Standing beneath the shadow of the Time Tree, outside of time itself, Chen Xia exhales a breath of turbid air. His battered body barely stands upright. Shaking off his exhaustion, his pale face shows a firm resolve. With only the Time Dao, he sacrifices an unknown number of future years of his life essence to feed the giant tree. Raising his hand and gently placing it down, he utters three familiar yet new words:

“Future Law.”

No past, only stand-ins.