There was a lake in the backyard next to the Qingzhou Academy, where Ye Futian lived.

There was an old tree next to the lake. Ye Futian was sitting under the tree fishing at the moment. When a fish was hooked, Ye Futian would pull the rod, while Xia Qingyuan would take the fishing line and put the caught fish into the bucket.

She was tremendously happy with living such a normal life. Grinning from ear to ear, she said, “This one is bigger than the previous one.”

“It looks like we will be having a feast later,” Ye Futian responded with a smile.

Time slowly passed as Ye Futian continued fishing. Soon, he closed his eyes as if he had fallen asleep.

Xia Qingyuan was sitting and waiting quietly.

…

On the continent far away from the Nine States, there was a hut in a quiet valley surrounded by a snow-capped and uninhabited mountain range. At that time, a sage-like old man was sitting outside the hut and fishing.

It was as if everything in the world was silent here. No one would make a sound.

All of a sudden, the old man frowned a little after sensing something. Following that, another silhouette could be seen fishing in another dimension.

After catching sight of the silhouette, the old man flashed a smile.

“Master.” The silhouette bowed and smiled at him. By now, one would’ve noticed that he was the Master of Four Corner Village. Staring at the other party, he asked, “How long has it been since you returned?”

“It’s been a while,” Ye Futian answered. “My apologies for interrupting you.”

“No worries.” The Master smiled as he peered at Ye Futian.

At that time, Ye Futian looked like an average person. Although his features were stunning as ever, there was no aura exuded from him at all. There was basically no difference between him and a peasant.

Ye Futian had reverted to his original nature. It was as if he was only a speck of dust in this world, one of the living beings that were unremarkable.

“It looks like you’ve reached yet another level now,” the Master commented as he glanced at Ye Futian.

“My purpose of visiting this time is to ask you about something,” Ye Futian uttered.

“Go ahead,” the Master replied with a nod.

“Master, you said that you were once trapped by time. How did you get away from its grasp in the end?” Ye Futian questioned. Ever since his return, he seemed to be doing nothing every day. Yet, he had constantly been meditating.

However, the kind of meditation he was doing at that moment was not the same as before. After all, he had become the Heavenly Path. So, the meditation in the past had no benefit to him at all.

Instead, the battle with the Human Ancestor back then had taught him many things.

Everything in the world would eventually return to its original form.

“Now that you could disregard the dimensional boundaries and show up here, you’ve reached a greater height. You’re in control of the Heavenly Path, yet you could recreate an avatar of yourself. Back then, I could escape from the grasp of the space-time trap only because I had gained enlightenment on the fact that the past was me; the present is me; the future will be me. All the different versions of me are the real me,” the Master explained.

After hearing the Master’s words, Ye Futian was stunned.

The past was me; the present is me; the future will be me.

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In Buddhism, there was a saying that went, “it’s impossible to retain a past thought, to seize a future thought, and even to hold on to a present thought.”

The two might be contradicting, yet they could relate to one another.

“Thank you, Master,” Ye Futian said and bowed.

“Go,” the Master replied and disappeared into thin air as if nothing had happened earlier.

At that time, Ye Futian continued to fish at the lakeside with his eyes closed. He did not budge an inch since the beginning.

Ye Futian had been keeping the Master’s words on replay in his mind. At the same time, another voice could be heard saying, “I am the Heavenly Path; I am who I am.”

All was vanity, yet everything did truly exist.

…

The war in the world intensified as time passed slowly. The scale of the battle continued to increase. The world that had tasted peace for a while would plunge into an imminent war.

A blood-curdling presence turned up in the City of the Ruins that day. The gigantic altar summoned an indestructible force that covered the entire atmosphere.

All the cultivators of Empyrean were blown away when the force showed up in the world, for they knew that their Immortal Sovereign was about to appear.

The war in this world would end when the Immortal Sovereign made its appearance.

The cultivators of Empyrean were stationed in the City of the Ruins. The aura they exuded was extremely formidable. At the peak of the altar, a group of Heavenly Immortals could be seen hovering there, staring at the sky. The leading figure was an Immortal Emperor. His sight seemed to pierce through the void as he lifted his head to look at the sky. Soon, many divine consciousnesses manifested here.

“It looks like you are all here,” the Immortal Emperor stared into the distance and remarked.

Before long, multiple silhouettes presented themselves in the sky all of a sudden. At the greatest height, Ji Wudao’s profile could be seen. Simultaneously, Gu Dongliu and The Buddha appeared in other places, staring in the same direction as they felt a threatening presence.

“The Immortal Sovereign will arrive seven days later. When it happens, you should decide whether to obey or die,” the Immortal Emperor piped. That altar was connected to another universe, summoning an otherworldly force ceaselessly.

With that, the faces in the sky vanished from sight altogether.

Ji Wudao was sitting in a lotus position above the Heavenly Palace of the Heavenly Realm. Opening his eyes, he shot a quick look at the lower plane. His sight pierced through the atmosphere and saw the altar.

Following that, he raised his head, looked into the heavens, and said, “I will surpass him! You will see it!”

…

At the Cao Clan in the city of Qingzhou, the leader of the Cao Clan, Cao Zheng, was sitting in the first seat in the council hall. The remaining people were important figures of the Cao Clan, including Cao Yuan.

They were gathered here to talk about Cao Yuan’s marriage. Previously, he had mentioned his intention to be betrothed to Mr. Hua’s daughter, Hua Nianyu, which moved the hearts of the people. Hence, they were here to discuss the details of this plan.

“I think this plan works,” someone noted. “We’ve got several people in Qingzhou Academy now. I’ve heard that the Chancellor valued Hua Fengliu very much. If we could make this marriage happen, we would finally take control of the entire Qingzhou Academy. Besides, we will have Hua Fengliu as our support. Hua Fengliu has raised many outstanding students in recent years. In the future, they will become pillars and backbones of the city of Qingzhou.”

“Yeah. I seconded that. Cao Yuan is pretty excellent himself. I reckoned Hua Nianyu’s cultivation level should be relatively high. The two of them will be a perfect match,” another person commented.

This matter would benefit the Cao Clan a lot.

“I will not agree to this before finding out Hua Fengliu’s background,” an elderly individual said.

“This is just a proposal. If he were to reject, we could use this opportunity to dig up Hua Fengliu’s background,” someone answered.

After listening to the people’s opinions, Cao Zheng made a decision and declared, “In that case, we shall propose marriage seven days from now!”