Fishing in the River of Time

Jiang Che smiled.

Staring at the surging river of time before him—vast and thunderous—he had more or less figured out the reason.

"Boom—"

The river of time stretched endlessly, nearly impossible to trace to its source. Within its mighty currents, faint shadows of countless powerful cultivators could be glimpsed, yet all dissolved into bubbles.

The power of time could extinguish everything.

The river of time was even more mysterious and treacherous than the river of fate. Even the slightest interference could trigger a terrifying butterfly effect.

In the Nine Heavens, there were actually many prodigies who cultivated the Dao of time. Some formidable formation masters had even developed immortal formations capable of compressing time, allowing the flow of time within the formation to be many times faster—or slower—than the outside world.

The time-formation rented through Jiang Che’s system was even more terrifying: the flow of time inside could be a hundred times faster than in reality!

But such tricks with time were merely the most basic applications of the time Dao.

After all, they were about applying it on a small scale, to oneself. The true Dao of time... meant stepping into the river of time itself, swimming through it, or even moving upstream to change cause and fate.

Of course, unless one had achieved true transcendence—no one dared do such a thing. Not even a peerless Immortal Emperor could survive it!

Even Yu Wan'er's father, Yu Chuan, was not a transcender. As powerful as Yu Chuan was, his status was insufficient—he had nearly been crippled by Jiang Che with a single item card.

...

And just then, a mechanical voice sounded in Jiang Che’s ear.

[Beep! The ultimate quest has been triggered: Transcendence.]

[Quest Requirement: Collect 100 trillion system points to complete the system upgrade, enabling your ultimate transcendence. Upon upgrade, all system functions and permissions will be unlocked, including 'Mythical-Grade Item Cards' and 'Zero-Cost Purchase' permission. Keep working hard, young man!]

The system’s voice rang in Jiang Che’s ears.

"Huh?" Jiang Che was stunned.

"How many points?"

[100 trillion.]

Jiang Che’s vision went dark. "Exploiter!

What a ruthless exploiter!!!"

He had scammed so many people—squeezed nearly every drop from the entire Nine Heavens and myriad realms—and only earned a little over 600 billion points. And now this bastard system wanted a hundred trillion???

"A hundred trillion? Even the Bank of Heaven and Earth wouldn’t take that much. Am I supposed to burn that for you, you piece of junk?"

Jiang Che grumbled bitterly.

He thought he himself was already pretty shameless, but this little system was even worse. After he’d enjoyed being dominant for so long, now it wanted him to work?

Work? No way. That was never happening...

"Wait, what does 'Zero-Cost Purchase' mean?" Jiang Che asked.

[After completing the ultimate upgrade, the system will unlock all permissions. All treasures in the system mall will be yours for free—no points needed.]

Jiang Che: "..."

Whether it was zero-cost or whatever, he would have already earned a hundred trillion points by then. Why would he even need zero-cost?

Jiang Che sighed. The system still had to be upgraded, though. As powerful as he was now—almost invincible—there was still the mysterious organization of Travelers lurking in the shadows. At his current level, if he encountered a Traveler, he might end up in a mutual-destruction scenario. So he needed to keep developing, stacking up until he was perfectly geared before he went out to show off again.

"Where the hell am I supposed to get a hundred trillion?"

He had squeezed 600 billion by scouring the entire Nine Heavens and tens of thousands of realms, scamming countless high-level immortals. A hundred trillion would mean...

Wait!

Jiang Che’s gaze suddenly turned to the river of time above the sky.

"I see!"

It dawned on him. If he were to step onto the river of time and travel upstream, back to the era of the ancient Heavenly Court or even further—to the primordial age—he could probably amass a huge number of system points by his usual scamming methods. After all, time stretched so far back.

If he went upstream, he definitely wouldn’t let his two little disciples, Ji Qingyi and Mo Shangxian, off the hook. Whether cause came before effect, or effect before cause... it seemed he truly was the Demon Ancestor.

Once he stepped onto the river of time and went against the current, he would inevitably cross paths with Ji Qingyi and Mo Shangxian. With his nature—like how he mercilessly scammed Tian Chan—he would definitely exploit these two girls too. That was an endless vicious cycle.

Under the influence of time, no matter what, he would eventually go upstream.

"Hehe..." Jiang Che smiled eerily, rubbing his hands together.

"Since they already hate me anyway, I might as well really teach my two little disciples a lesson—and earn some points on the side?"

A demonic grin spread across Jiang Che’s face. He always acted on impulse—he had driven the righteous leader Tian Chan to corruption through sheer torment. What else couldn't he do?

Then, calm and nonchalant, he stepped into the river of time.

[Beep! Host has died. Reviving...]

The moment Jiang Che set foot in the river, the surging currents of time ground him to dust. A second later, he was back, fully healed.

He walked leisurely upstream, his body breaking apart and reforming with every step, yet he kept moving toward the end of time.

The river of time in the Nine Heavens was vast beyond measure, its end nowhere in sight.

Jiang Che summoned a small boat from the system and sat cross-legged inside it, drifting quietly upstream against the current.

"I wonder if there are fish in this river of time?" Jiang Che wondered idly. Then, he pulled out a fishing rod from his pocket, sat at the bow of the boat, and began fishing.

Even if eons passed inside the river of time, in reality only an instant would have gone by. He had plenty of time.

...

The waters churned. Jiang Che held the fishing rod, looking almost as if he were angling for the heavens themselves.

A faint golden glow radiated from his body—the effect of a perfect barrier card.

He didn’t want to keep dying and reviving. That would waste too many cards.

Better to just use an invincible barrier card. The supreme-grade barrier card provided a full month of invulnerability, which was just right.

"What?!"

Just as Jiang Che was about to yawn from boredom, his rod jerked!

"Holy crap! There really are fish?" Jiang Che's eyes widened as he stared at the hook, then yanked it up with all his might.

A fish with black-and-white yin-yang coloration was pulled out, radiating an aura of primordial energy.

[Yin-Yang Cosmic Fish: A fish that roams at the ends of the cosmos. It is an ultimate nourishing treasure, equivalent to a Dao-level delicacy...]

Jiang Che licked his lips. He was a little hungry, after all.

Even though he was on the verge of transcendence and his immortal foundation was at the Immortal Emperor level, Jiang Che still hadn’t achieved true fasting.

"Bang!!!"

The yin-yang fish thrashed wildly in Jiang Che’s hand, struggling fiercely—then broke his fishing rod clean off!

Jiang Che's fishing rod was a Six-Calamity Immortal Artifact, yet the aura emanating from these Yin-Yang fish had actually reached the level of a Five-Calamity Immortal Venerable?