Within the Primordial Great Restriction, hidden in the depths of a mysterious, unfathomable place, there actually existed a River of Space and Time!
Yang Kai could hardly believe his eyes. He almost suspected he was hallucinating.
But upon closer inspection, there was no doubt—this was indeed a River of Space and Time.
Amid his shock, a question immediately surged in his heart.
Whose River of Space and Time was this?
But in the very next instant, he already had the answer.
Since this place was a contingency left behind by Mu, then this River of Space and Time must undoubtedly be hers.
Mu had actually been able to condense a River of Space and Time as well? Didn't that mean she had achieved mastery in all Three Thousand Great Daos?
Moreover, judging by the scale and volume of this river, Mu's attainments in the Three Thousand Great Daos were undoubtedly far greater than his own.
After a brief moment of shock, infinite admiration welled up in Yang Kai's heart.
As expected of the strongest among the ten Martial Ancestors!
From Cang and Wu Kuang's reverence for Mu, Yang Kai hadn't been able to sense all that much. But standing before such a River of Space and Time, he finally grasped the true might of those who came before.
He had originally believed his own River of Space and Time was unique throughout all of history. Now it seemed he had merely been picking up scraps.
Soon, Yang Kai grew puzzled again.
The reason he had been able to condense a River of Space and Time was mainly due to the inspiration of the Endless River within the Universe Furnace, which had manifested the power of his own Three Thousand Great Daos.
If Mu could do the same, did that mean she too had once entered the Universe Furnace and seen that Endless River?
Regardless of whether that was the case, this tacit understanding—spanning millions of years—to tread the same martial path as a predecessor still filled Yang Kai with quiet joy.
Ever since learning the secrets of the Creation Realm from Cang, he had been contemplating his own future.
The Opening Heaven path was divided into nine grades, but even if one ascended to the ninth grade, so what? Mo had been born alongside Heaven and Earth, incomparably powerful. To slay Mo and completely eliminate this threat, the ninth grade would never be enough. To achieve that, one would need to transcend beyond the ninth grade entirely.
But where was the way forward? How could one break through past the ninth grade? No one could provide an answer.
It could be said that the martial path, following in the footsteps of predecessors to this point, had already reached its dead end.
To achieve a breakthrough, one had to hack through thorns and brambles alone, carving out a new road at the very end of where those who came before had stopped.
Yang Kai had never had much of a clue about this—until, within the Universe Furnace, he had condensed his own River of Space and Time.
He harbored a vague feeling that this wondrous river, gathering the power of the Three Thousand Great Daos, might hold the key to a new path.
But surveying the entirety of the current human race, there was simply no one who could discuss the Dao with him.
Until this moment—until he saw another River of Space and Time in this mysterious, unfathomable place!
This was the River of Space and Time left behind by Mu. As the strongest of the ten Martial Ancestors, even after falling tens of thousands of years ago, the contingencies she left behind could still force Mo into slumber, their aftereffects enduring across the ages.
Mu, from a million years past, must have been exploring the mysteries beyond the ninth grade as well.
If before, Yang Kai had possessed only ten percent confidence in his theory that the River of Space and Time was the key to breaking through the ninth grade, then now he had thirty percent!
Because without realizing it, he had walked the same path as Mu.
Only, before the results were in, he had no way of knowing whether this path led to greater peaks of the martial way—or whether it was simply a dead end.
A multitude of thoughts churned through his mind like lightning, and in the midst of them Yang Kai suddenly realized that this River of Space and Time differed from his own not merely in scale. There were far more differences beyond that.
Between those rolling waves, countless wondrous images flashed by and vanished. They flowed with tremendous speed, appearing bizarre and kaleidoscopic—so that even Yang Kai could not examine them clearly.
Just as he extended his divine sense to get a better look, a colossal wave suddenly surged up from within the River of Space and Time. The wave rolled out of the river like a tsunami, crashing straight toward Yang Kai.
Yang Kai instinctively wanted to dodge, but after a moment's hesitation, he ultimately stood his ground.
The wave crashed down, swallowing Yang Kai's figure. When the turbulence settled, he had vanished without a trace.
...
The world spun, and then a sensation of weightlessness overtook him, as if he were plummeting from a tremendous height.
Yang Kai hurriedly circulated what power he could to stabilize his body.
In the next instant, his face changed drastically.
His own power had become incomparably weak in that single moment. His Small Universe was still there, but he had lost all connection to it and could not access its heaven-and-earth might.
Only a trickle of spiritual energy remained within his meridians and flesh.
Yang Kai scrambled in a panic, able only to slightly slow his descent—he could not stabilize himself at all.
Looking down, a lush, verdant jungle came into view below, rapidly expanding in his field of vision.
A cold despair gripped Yang Kai's heart. Was he going to become the first ninth-grade cultivator to fall to his death?
He had been careless. He had assumed that since Mu had left the River of Space and Time as a contingency, it must have concealed some mysterious method. So when that wave crashed down, he had neither dodged nor resisted, wanting to explore within. Never had he imagined that being swallowed by the wave would send him tumbling into such a bizarre place.