The power of the Four Seasons was a divine ability comprehended by the Time Emperor. Once unleashed, the four seasons cycled in succession, transforming vast oceans into mulberry fields — a force rooted in the Law of Time, fundamentally different from the Law of Space that Yang Kai had comprehended.
But the Law of Time, like the Law of Space, was an extraordinarily esoteric and supremely difficult force to grasp. Any warrior who could achieve even a measure of mastery over such a power would attain extraordinary heights.
Yang Kai had previously assumed that what the Time Emperor wielded was merely the Four Seasons divine ability, but now it seemed he had been sorely mistaken. What that emperor had truly grasped was the essence of the Time Law itself, long since transcending the mere concept of four seasons.
That Emperor's Severing Pill was at minimum a treasure refined during the Time Emperor's peak at the Third-Order Emperor Realm. A single strike from the pill was equivalent to a blow from the Time Emperor himself at the Third-Order Emperor Realm — even a true Third-Order Emperor could not survive such an attack.
The Law of Time could make one experience the passage of immense stretches of time in an instant. If it struck a living being, would it not cause the force of time to wash over them, aging them in a heartbeat?
He himself was proof of it. In that brief moment, he had felt as though he had undergone years of Cultivation, breaking through from the Second-Order Dao Source Realm to the Third-Order in a single leap. It was a genuine accumulation of time — though in reality it had been but the span of a breath, in Yang Kai's consciousness, years had passed.
Yang Kai could scarcely imagine how powerful the Time Emperor had been at the height of his strength.
As these thoughts churned, a sudden rush of excitement surged through him.
Back in the Four Seasons Land, he had obtained three beads — the Spring Bead, the Summer Bead, and the Autumn Bead. By his reasoning at the time, there should have been a Winter Bead as well, but the trials in the Four Seasons Land had ended too abruptly, and he had never discovered where the Winter Bead lay, much less how to find it.
Now, it seemed, all three beads carried a trace of the power of time. If he could gather all four Season Beads, perhaps he could recreate the Time Emperor's divine ability and obtain the Time Emperor's inheritance!
The Time Emperor's inheritance was nothing like the Heaven Devouring Emperor's. That Heaven Devouring Art was something Yang Kai dared not Cultivate himself — after obtaining it, he had handed it off to the Dharma Avatar to handle, and the proven correct. As the Dharma Avatar had reported, while the Heaven Devouring Art was indeed incomparably powerful, its aftereffects were equally severe. Had the Dharma Avatar's body not been specially constituted, able to refine all manner of impurities and purge negative influences, it would long since have been consumed by the art's corrosive nature.
But the Time Emperor's inheritance, if obtained, would benefit Yang Kai beyond measure. To comprehend the Law of Time, to wield the power of the Four Seasons — with that, Yang Kai could reach higher realms in far less time. Under the Law of Time, a single year of his Cultivation might equal a decade or even a century of another's!
Yang Kai's heart blazed with fervor.
But the moment he thought of the Winter Bead's whereabouts being a complete mystery, it was as though a bucket of ice water had been dumped over him, chilling him to the bone.
There was no telling when the Four Seasons Land would reopen. And even if it did, his cultivation would surely have far surpassed the Dao Source Realm by then, making it impossible for him to enter once more.
In other words, he would likely never find the Winter Bead in this lifetime, never gather the full power of the Four Seasons, and never recreate the Time Emperor's divine ability.
"Master, that thing isn't dead yet!" Liu Yan's startled cry suddenly rang out beside Yang Kai's ear.
"Impossible!" Yang Kai snapped back to awareness.
In this battle, he had deployed the Annihilation Thunder Pearl and the Emperor's Severing Pill — both trump cards used at once — and the Dharma Avatar had wielded the Demonic Battle Axe. Even a true Third-Order Emperor would have been reduced to dust under such an onslaught. No matter how powerful a zombie puppet might be, it could not possibly still be alive.
So when he heard Liu Yan's words, he didn't believe it for an instant.
But when he raised his gaze and looked ahead, Yang Kai froze in shock.
Not far away, the battered zombie puppet had at some point assumed a cross-legged posture. Perhaps as a consequence of the Time Force, its already desiccated, moistureless body had turned an ashen, chalky white — like flour. As Yang Kai watched, chunks of flesh were continuously sloughing off its remains, crumbling into ash before they ever touched the ground. In no time, it had been reduced to a half-skeletal state, exposing row upon row of stark white bones.
The power of the Time Force was truly formidable. Before this, despite exhausting every means at his disposal, only the Annihilation Thunder Pearl had managed to wound the zombie puppet. But the Emperor's Severing Pill had utterly ravaged its physical body like this. This was not merely the result of raw power — it was the influence of Law. The Time Force had flowed silently over the puppet, subjecting it to the passage of millions of years. No matter how resilient the body, without sustenance, it would eventually crumble.
Yang Kai could clearly see that the various spirit arrays within the zombie puppet's body had dimmed simultaneously, no longer capable of functioning.
But Liu Yan was right — the creature was somehow still alive. Those twin eyes, green as ghostly flames, continued to flicker erratically, as though trapped in some desperate struggle. From its throat came occasional low, guttural growls.
A chill crawled up Yang Kai's spine. He raised his guard, wary that the zombie puppet might unleash one final, desperate attack.
He could tell that even if the puppet wasn't dead, it had reached the very end of its tether. If he simply stalled for a short while, the thing would inevitably perish on its own.
So Yang Kai didn't rush to leave. Having just broken through to the Third-Order Dao Source Realm, his Source Power had fully regenerated and his wounds had completely healed. Even if the zombie puppet made some last-ditch move, he was confident he could dodge it.
Yang Kai remained motionless. Liu Yan stood silently at his side in a protective stance, her beautiful eyes sharp with vigilance.
All at once, the zombie puppet's two eyes flickered violently for several moments. A hoarse, agonized roar tore from its throat as though it were fighting against something with every last shred of will. Soon, the green eyes stabilized, and the puppet's savage, horrifying expression gradually softened.
Within those eyes, like ghostly fire, a glimmer of sentience suddenly flickered to life. It turned its head in a daze, scanning its surroundings blankly. When its gaze landed on Yang Kai, it fixed there and did not look away.