Really Senior, Let Me Enter the River of Time

Originally, Chen Yi thought Senior Cui Changsheng was trying to bail—sending him off to explore was just a way to shirk responsibility! But he never expected the elder to be this generous.

The so-called "exploration" actually meant sending him back to the past to witness everything firsthand?!

The River of Time!

It was a place Chen Yi had yearned for, yet could never find a way to enter. He had even planned to wait for Xu Jinghong to break through to the Golden Immortal realm and have him escort him inside. But as they say, plans never survive contact with reality.

"For real, Senior?!" Chen Yi pressed eagerly. "You can really send me into the River of Time?!"

Cui Changsheng gave a slight nod. "This is precisely why I left behind the Celestial Robe Stele. Though, I must admit, I’m quite curious—how is it that you can’t sense the River of Time at all?"

Chen Yi was equally puzzled. "Honestly, I don’t get it either. I’ve studied the Dao of Time—not to mastery, but enough to grasp the basics. I can accelerate or slow time, and combined with my proficiency in spatial manipulation, I can even reverse time and space to a limited extent!"

"But reversing time and space drains too much energy. At most, I can rewind seven days, and the exhaustion takes years to recover from. It’s just not worth it, so I only use it in critical moments."

"Given that I can reverse time, why can’t I sense the River of Time?"

Cui Changsheng fell silent for a long while, as if digesting this absurdity, before murmuring, "If you’ve reversed time, shouldn’t all the energy you expended be restored?"

Chen Yi’s expression turned odd. "I wish! But how can I reverse time without expending energy? It’s not like reloading a save file..."

The elder’s words reminded him of a film from his past life—one featuring a sneaky bastard who could reverse time.

"You ask if my mana’s enough? Buddy, if I’ve reversed time, my mana bar’s obviously full!"

"Cooldown? What cooldown? I just reloaded—there is no cooldown!"

As much as Chen Yi wanted to be that broken, he simply couldn’t.

"Your twisted path baffles me, but let me make this clear." Cui Changsheng’s divine projection flickered slightly as he explained:

"The River of Time is a manifestation of the Great Dao—omnipresent yet untraceable. It reflects all realms, its countless tributaries encompassing every law and existence, ultimately converging into the Sea of Infinite Possibilities. This sea represents boundless futures, but it also means the River of Time is ever-expanding. Even a Celestial Emperor venturing into the Sea risks being lost forever, forced to observe from the shore and pluck only the most favorable threads of fate to weave their schemes..."

"While Golden Immortals can enter the solidified tributaries of the River—traveling upstream to witness the past or downstream to glimpse the future—none can reverse the torrential flow of time, not even within a single branch. Not even a Celestial Emperor could withstand the crushing weight of temporal force!"

"And yet, Chen Yi... how in the heavens did you manage to reverse time? This is something even a Celestial Emperor can’t accomplish. You’re a freak of nature!"

"Uh..." After a moment’s thought, Chen Yi offered a plausible excuse: "Maybe because I’m a heretic cultivator? What’s impossible for orthodox cultivators might not be for us, right?"

Cui Changsheng: "..."

Damn, he’s got a point.

Indeed, this guy was never normal to begin with. He shared eerie similarities with that abomination ‘Wu,’ the one who defied cosmic order and wreaked havoc in the immortal realms.

But ‘Wu’ had been born broken—a being of limitless potential shackled by innate flaws.

Chen Yi, however...

He started out normal. His early growth was textbook, just an exceptionally talented prodigy. But after cheating death during his first tribulation, he’d gone completely off the rails, sprinting headlong into madness.

As the saying goes: "Born twisted can be fixed; mid-journey insanity is hopeless."

"You’re right. Heretics walk their own path—logic doesn’t apply. I was foolish to impose my understanding on you. Stay true to yourself; don’t let my words sway you."

Cui Changsheng spoke earnestly. He’d realized his mistake—trying to fit Chen Yi into conventional wisdom would only hinder him. Better to let the anomaly forge his own way.

After all, the orthodox path led only to the peak of Celestial Emperor. To surpass that, let alone shake the foundations of the immortal realms?

One had to take the road less traveled.

Chen Yi, keep walking this crooked path!

"Come. I’ll send you into the River of Time. Your external avatar possesses the power of a Taiyi Realm cultivator—that should suffice to reach ten thousand years into the past. But remember: do not attempt to cross the divine realm’s tributary into the immortal realm’s main flow. Otherwise—"

Mid-sentence, Cui Changsheng paused, then added with strange amusement:

"Actually, never mind. You’ve got spare bodies to burn. Losing one or two won’t matter. Still, try not to waste them. Otherwise, you’d have to send another avatar here, and I can’t guarantee your current one will maintain its connection to your true self once inside the River."

"If it’s destroyed, this wisp of my divine sense won’t be able to send you in again. As you know, my true form is still being hunted—I’ve no energy to spare."

Chen Yi nodded obediently. "Don’t worry, Elder. I’m the epitome of caution—no reckless moves, only calculated actions."

"...I’ll take your word for it." Cui Changsheng sighed.

The next instant—

Blinding radiance swallowed everything.

Meanwhile, outside the Celestial Robe Stele, within the jade palace...

Chen Yi’s four-star Chaos avatar—standing before the divine realm’s Heavenly Key (currently in the form of a mature woman)—tossed nine unactivated Chaos Orbs into the air. They formed a necklace that looped perfectly around Ye Ancai’s neck.

"HAHAHA!!!"

"No pain! NO PAIN AT ALL!!!"

"THIS IS THE BEST!!!"

Ye Ancai was still rolling around in the Rootless Waters, his body thoroughly boiled, his handsome face twisted in agony. The dignified True Immortal now resembled a raving lunatic, howling and splashing like a child.

Chen Yi shook his head in mild disgust.

Still, since he’d brought the guy here, he couldn’t just let him die. The Chaos Orb necklace would serve as a protective charm.

With this safety net in place, Chen Yi turned his attention to observing how Cui Changsheng opened the passage to the River of Time.

Honestly? He couldn’t make sense of it.

Time and space around him contorted, as if aligning to some esoteric frequency—yet the patterns seemed erratic, devoid of logic.

Finally, the distortions coalesced into a vortex. The Celestial Robe Stele levitated and vanished into it. Understanding the cue, Chen Yi promptly squeezed himself in.