Yan Zaizen's rush didn't cease. His speed was unimaginable as he flashed through the boundless world. By his side, Yri, rippling with the essence of time, stayed quietly to his left. Her grey eyes held a trace of solemness.
"I sense celestial power," Yri abruptly commented. Yan Zaizen's amber-gold eyes shifted with flickering light. Celestial power? Those words were not to be taken lightly.
Yri paused momentarily. She closed her eyes and felt the world within time, the future and present. A moment later, her eyelids trembled. "It's strong and vast." Her words elicited a frown from Yan Zaizen.
She continued, "Strong as in above me and vast as in numerous." As she clarified, she opened her eyes. Yan Zaizen's frown didn't relax. In fact, it became deeper.
"A Celestial Army is hunting us?" He asked.
Yri nodded.
Taking a deep breath, he felt his heart experience an unfathomable calmness. "The plan doesn't change." Saying this, he reached out towards Yri. She unhesitantly grabbed his hand, feeling his immense power and warmth. Her body felt the infusion of pure, high-level heavenly might that radiated her time aura.
Her eyes flashed with confusion. "My celestial time power?" Yan Zaizen was currently infusing her body with his heavenly might, but it perfectly mimicked her celestial essence power, its resonance being no lower than her own. This allowed her to easily refine this power. Abruptly, the speed at which they traveled was multiplied.
A stretch of time seemed to be interacted with, controlled, and shifted through. Yan Zaizen and Yri had transformed into rivers of time that were just glittering rays of grey. Before long, it was as if they teleported to a distance of hundreds of thousands of miles. Flickering shadows of thousands of figures occurred in all directions in a blink of an eye before vanishing.
When they regained their normal forms, Yan Zaizen breathing was somewhat labored. He turned to look behind him.
Yri's expression was ashen pale like death. Her beautiful countenance was marred by incredible exhaustion. Yet her eyes contained notable shock. "You...you…" her words were caught in her throat. They had just created thousands of time remnants to search for a path to escape, whilst simultaneously venturing a vast distance.
This was unbelievable. This exceeded her capabilities as a Ninth Phase Celestial Monarch, and entered the domain of a Celestial Sovereign of Time. While she could create remnants of herself, they were more illusory than real. To interact with time in different timelines was nearly impossible, yet Yan Zaizen achieved it.
Yan Zaizen didn't bother with her surprise. His frown grew deeper as he realized that escaping wasn't possible. His original intentions were to find a spatial gateway to escape, but those following him knew of this and devised methods to prevent his escape, such as the spatial lock or destroying the gates via long distance interference. He had tried to overwrite this and even escape their influence, but his speed was never sufficient.
Simply put, he shifted into the future and found only failure. How unfortunate.
Yri gripped his hands tightly. She realized why Yan Zaizen wanted to resonate with her cultivation base. The Heavenly Laws have limits, but Celestials cultivate their own laws, and thus could press beyond those limits. Her exhaustion was a clear sign of overdrafting her celestial essence.
"Yan Zaizen…" she whispered. She had traveled through time with him, experiencing a thousand different avenues and knew they all led to failure. While she was determined and obsessive enough to risk her life, she was still scared of dying.
Yan Zaizen faced Yri and saw that faint hint of fear in her eyes. He wearily smiled, "I've dragged you down. That being said in this place, I won't die, and neither will you. Not today." His tone was firm, bitingly powerful, and contained an imperial certainty within.
He turned back towards his pursuing enemies. He could feel their approach with the throbbing of his heart and tingling in his soul.
Yri clenched his hand tighter. Before she knew it, she felt her body weaken via a power transmitted through that warm hand. An abrupt sensation of weakness and sleepiness drenched her thoughts.
"You…" She wanted to say something, but her body was taken elsewhere. She found herself next to a light. This light contained Yan Zaizen's life aura. This was Yan Linzen, the one Yri had created for the trial!
She reached out for a moment, but soon lapsed into an unconscious state.
Yan Zaizen had placed Yri into the Meteor Ring, for her own sake. In comparison to strength, she was currently too weak. Not to mention, he overdrafted her celestial essence to perform a difficult temporal search.
He stood tall, amber-gold light wildly suffused his eyes as the Dao of Sovereign Ascension was lit ablaze by his Dao Heart.
"Pinaka…" Yan Zaizen softly muttered. The image of a cyan-colored beauty flashed through his mind. He grew determined. His life had its ups and downs, but true conflict was a rarity. Now, he readied his heart.
"I don't know why they're here, but I know it's to bring harm or even death to me. This is what my instinct is telling me. I trust it, so I won't be naive. Trying to hold a normal discussion is pointless, so I'll be direct: Take the initiative." Calmly regarding his thoughts, he readied his Heavenly Shrine and Paragon Soul.
All sorts of powers and might circulated through his body, amplified further by Dao Energy.
Swoosh!
Over a dozen skyships penetrated the sky and appeared. They were fully activated with all sorts of formations, arrays, and various structural designs. When they arrived, they didn't take a single action onward. However, countless heavenly and soul senses descended.
He ignored them.
Woosh! Woosh!
Two gigantic worldships arrived. They halted their advance as Yan Zaizen stood before them. It was like an ant facing two sky-piercing mountains. The disparity was unimaginable. Yet these two sky-piercing mountains halted before this ant.
Yan Zaizen smiled. He didn't know who they were but it didn't matter. He calmly stood there without a hint of fear or panic.
He took a step forward, his heavenly might quietly seething. Bellowing with power, "I don't know who you are or what you want, but I will give you a choice: Leave at this very moment or stay."
Despite his words not sounding threatening, his calm voice carried his Dao and shook the hearts of all those who heard it. The implication of staying was clear. Yan Zaizen believed in choices. He believed in freewill and taking responsibility for one's own actions.
As long as he made a choice, he would, no, he could never regret it. Even though he saved Ezekiel and lost Pinaka, not one second had passed where he ever regretted this decision. If he was given the opportunity to make this choice again, he would sooner go into that timeline and kill himself before changing it.
Therefore, he gave others choices. Their lives and fates in their hands, something many didn't believe in.
However, despite his words, not a single man, woman, or existence on these skyships retreated. He closed his eyes, the bright amber-gold diminishing a fair amount. He had never looked favorably on killing, but that didn't mean he shied from it.
On one of the skyships, one colored white and green, a middle-aged man stepped on its bow with a calm gaze. He was dressed in jade jewelry with silk robes. His ears were sharp on both ends and he had thin lips. A powerful aura emanated from his body, exceeding the Heavenly Genesis Realm, obviously an elite at the Heavenly Creation Realm.
His voice was effeminate yet gentle, "I am Jade Crestwater, Vice-Lord of the Crestwater Empire. I-"
Abruptly, Yan Zaizen took action. His eyes opened with a ferocious glint as he changed his posture.
His body was turned sideways, legs spread apart, a bow manifested within his hand from heavenly might. An arrow was created, the laws of destruction and spacetime radiated endlessly from it. It was the condensation of the Imperial Law of Spacetime and World Law of Destruction, harnesser and directed by the Mortal Law of Archery.
He remembered the days of old. Tao manned the skyship, Pinaka taught him, and he practiced relentlessly. Rudra's Archery! Those days weren't filled with twists and turns like today. He was filled with a spirit to explore and see the boundless world, his heart naive and free.
He grasped the string comprised of his soul energy, paragon soul energy! He fully nocked the heavenly bow into a half-moon shape, his hand held the bowstring and arrow in a mongolian draw, his head facing the arrow's point, and his breathing steady. There was wisps of amber-gold Dao Energy flowing through the bow.
His entire cultivation base was manifested in this bow and arrow.
"One Arrow, Annihilate All," these were the words Pinaka used to describe Rudra'd Archery. It was peerlessly domineering and mighty. He wished that one day he could let loose an arrow with him and Pinaka as one, to see that day.
Coinciding with his breathing, he softly let loose his power.
Release!
Jade Crestwater's calm gaze and expression changed! This arrow, this intent, it was all focused on him!