Ancestor of Time

The Great Xia Immortal Dynasty, the Weiyang Palace.

The entire magnificent palace was enveloped in a suffocating pressure.

Beneath the resplendent, golden ceiling, dense purple qi lingered, almost solidified—the unique True Dragon Qi of the Great Xia imperial clan.

Yet deep within this purple qi, a symbol of supreme authority, there stirred a crimson undercurrent, chaotic and violent.

The Female Emperor Wu Lingxiao sat cross-legged at the heart of the Nine Dragons Spirit-Gathering Array, frantically channeling the Great Xia imperial clan's supreme technique, the True Dragon Overlord Art.

Her luxurious Nine-Chapter Ritual Robe was slightly disheveled, and strands of her once-elaborate imperial bun had come loose, clinging to her sweat-beaded, exquisitely beautiful cheeks.

Her countenance—once cold and commanding, renowned across the eight realms and forcing countless vassals to bow in submission—was now violently contorted with extreme agony.

"Pfft!"

Suddenly, Wu Lingxiao's eyes snapped open, and a gush of crimson blood erupted uncontrollably from her mouth, splattering onto the jade desk carved from top-grade immortal crystal before her—a shocking and stark warning.

This was the precursor to a cultivation deviation.

She gasped heavily, her full chest heaving intensely. Those phoenix eyes, ordinarily imperious and ruthless, were now filled with fragility, regret, and an unfathomable longing.

"Ye Xuan..."

Wu Lingxiao reached out a bloodstained jade-like finger, trembling as she gently stroked the empty air, as if standing before her was that gentle, white-robed man with his warm smile.

Her voice was hoarse beyond recognition, thick with tears and bitterness, echoing through the empty Weiyang Palace.

"My Consort Xuan... where are you? I... I truly know I was wrong..."

Memories, like blades steeped in poison, sliced away at the iron-willed female emperor's heart bit by bit.

If only she hadn't been unfaithful back then, if only she had kept her promise to him...

Then right now, that infinitely tender man would still be lying in her arms, gazing at her with those beautiful, loving eyes.

"Ye Xuan... I would trade this vast empire for just one more glance from you..."

Wu Lingxiao closed her eyes in anguish, letting tears wash the bloodstains from her cheeks.

Just as this remorse was about to reignite her inner demons, a sudden change occurred!

An exceedingly subtle wave—yet one that transcended all things in heaven and earth—suddenly rippled out from the depths of the Weiyang Palace.

Wu Lingxiao's eyes flew open, her expression shifting dramatically.

This power was not spiritual energy, nor immortal essence, nor even the True Dragon Qi of the Great Xia dynasty's national fortune!

It came from the distant primordial era, carrying a terrifying allure that seemed to forcibly tear the soul from the body.

Before the Empress of Great Xia could mount any defensive reaction, the space around her suddenly twisted like water ripples.

"What is this?" Wu Lingxiao shouted sharply, erupting with the full force of her late-stage Mahayana cultivation to stabilize herself.

Yet against this power, her resistance was as laughable as a mayfly trying to topple a tree.

In the next instant, a flash of golden light blazed within the Weiyang Palace. Wu Lingxiao's figure vanished without a trace, leaving behind only a pool of shocking blood.

When Wu Lingxiao opened her eyes again, the scene around her had undergone a world-changing transformation.

There were no golden palaces, no supreme spirit-gathering arrays.

She found herself in a dim, desolate gray space tinged with deathly stillness. The air was thick with an ancientness beyond measure; every gust of wind carried the rustling sound of time slipping away.

Wu Lingxiao gasped sharply.

As the Empress of Great Xia, how could she not recognize this place?

"The imperial forbidden ground... the deepest, most absolute taboo zone of the Great Xia Immortal Dynasty..." she murmured, her beautiful eyes shimmering with disbelief.

This was the final resting place entered only by past Great Xia emperors before their passing, said to conceal the earth-shaking secrets of the dynasty's founding immortal ancestor.

Even she, the current Female Emperor, was absolutely forbidden to set foot here unless the empire faced annihilation.

How had she gotten in?

As Wu Lingxiao hesitated in shock, an overwhelming, irresistible instinct tugged at her steps, compelling her deeper into the mist.

She did not know how long she walked through the gray haze before abruptly halting.

Before her stood a colossal cliff—towering into the clouds, seemingly supporting the very heavens themselves.

The cliff face was a strange bluish-gray, carved with a lifelike, billion-mile-long divine dragon. Yet its scales were not solid; they were countless independent worlds, constantly birthing, dying, and evolving through ages of change.

Standing before this dragon-shaped stone cliff, Wu Lingxiao felt as insignificant as a speck of dust.

At that moment, a voice—ethereal, ancient, as if drifting from the end of the river of time—thundered from within the cliff:

"Wu Lingxiao, I have been waiting for you for a long time."

The voice was a woman's, calm as still water, yet carrying a pressure that looked down upon all living things.

Suppressing her shock, Wu Lingxiao instinctively unleashed her imperial authority, snapping coldly, "Who are you? How dare you ignore the Great Xia dynasty's national fortune array and forcibly detain me here?!"

"Who am I?"

A faint, disdainful laugh echoed from within the cliff. Abruptly, the surface of the divine dragon cliff, carved with billions of worlds, began to ripple like water.

A slender female silhouette, shrouded in fragments of endless time, slowly emerged from the stone wall.

Her face was featureless, hidden behind a flowing veil of time's river. Yet merely by standing there, the aura she exuded caused Wu Lingxiao's knees to weaken and even the spiritual energy within her to halt.

"I am the Time Dao Ancestor."

Wu Lingxiao's pupils contracted sharply as she sucked in a breath of cold air.

The Dao Ancestor!

That was a forbidden existence who wielded the fundamental Dao of heaven and earth, nearly indestructible through endless kalpas!

Why would a supreme being with such an exaggerated title deign to descend into the Great Xia imperial forbidden ground?

"Why have you appeared in this forbidden ground?" Wu Lingxiao asked warily.

"Naturally, for you."

Amidst another ripple, the ancient dragon on the cliff face faded away.

The figure of a woman, cloaked in a silver river of time, walked fully out from the stone wall. Her features were indistinct, but the solitude and coldness that spanned the ages made even a Female Emperor like Wu Lingxiao feel inferior.

The Time Dao Ancestor gazed at Wu Lingxiao silently, seeing through the deepest, most shameful secret of her soul: "I know that at this moment, your heart is filled with boundless regret for the reckless deeds you once committed. You are going mad over a man."

"But what if... I gave you a chance to change things?"

Wu Lingxiao was startled, then smiled bitterly: "The past is already settled. How could something that has already happened be changed?"

She suddenly thought of something, lifting her head sharply to stare at the Time Dao Ancestor before her, her voice trembling with extreme agitation: "Could it be... you can reverse time and space?"

“Indeed.” Time Dao Ancestor gave a slight nod, his tone carrying an arrogant condescension as if bestowing a favor. “I can grant you the ‘Time Dao Body.’ It is one of the nine supreme immortal physiques in the world. Once you possess the Time Dao Body, you will be immune to the backlash of the Heavenly Dao, able to wander through the river of time, return to the past, and alter everything that has ever happened.”

Wu Lingxiao was utterly stunned.

After a brief, deathly silence, a tidal wave of ecstasy overwhelmed her reason, drowning her judgment. She stepped forward recklessly, her eyes reddening. “If that’s the case… I can go back to before it all happened! I can change the truth of my betrayal, I can restrain myself! As long as everything starts over, Ye Xuan will return to my side, and he will still be my beloved Consort Xuan!”

Watching Wu Lingxiao lost in this obsessed and dazed delusion, a sneer crept across Time Dao Ancestor’s face.

“Wu Lingxiao, you are celebrating too soon. I have crossed the river of time to bestow this Dao Body upon you, not to fulfill your pathetic love story.” Time Dao Ancestor coldly cut her off. “I have come to kill Ye Xuan.”

Wu Lingxiao’s expression shifted dramatically, the wild joy frozen on her face. Then her eyes turned ferocious, like those of an enraged lioness. “You want me to help you kill Ye Xuan?”

“Yes.”

“You’re dreaming!” Wu Lingxiao roared with fury, a sovereign’s sword aura coalescing in her hand. “He is my untouchable treasure, my eternal love through every lifetime! Anyone who dares to harm him must first step over my corpse!”