Chapter 707: Chapter 82: I Was Once a Sinful Immortal, Celestial Emperor’s Path Formation Map
Kong Xuan ascended along the moonlight, and soon reached into Ming Yue.
Within this Ming Yue, there was a courtyard where the moonlight refracted down, casting long shadows on the ground, giving a feeling of immortals from beyond the heavens.
In the courtyard stood a pavilion, outside of which a few sparse laurel trees bloomed.
A woman reclined on a Cloud Bed, with half a foot of cloud light above her head, like a lamp, with translucent purity, supporting a head within.
Hearing Kong Xuan’s footsteps, the bead curtain in front of her Cloud Bed parted, releasing a clear aura. Kong Xuan, dressed in a bright red Taoist Robe, approached effortlessly.
"Greetings, predecessor."
Kong Xuan stopped in front of the Cloud Bed, carefully observing the woman before him, and respectfully greeted her.
"No need for formalities, please sit!"
In Chang’e’s eyes, the moonlight was about three feet, brilliantly bright, without any superfluous words, and she directly set down a jade pedestal.
This pedestal seemed like jade, like stone, yet it had wood grains, very peculiar, carved with the image of a bright moon illuminating the river, rising high, shining all around.
After thanking her, Kong Xuan did not decline and directly sat down.
As soon as he sat, he felt a difference; a faint mist rose from the jade pedestal, dense yet not dispersing, accumulating to three feet thick, and then operating with an inexplicable trajectory, making the entire world before him completely different.
At this moment, he seemed to have transcended beyond the Three Realms, not bound by the Five Elements, aloof from the Long River of fate, overlooking the beings of the Three Realms.
Everything within the Three Realms transformed into a painting.
The painting unfolded, the Ninth Layer Heaven, the Central Capital of the Divine State, the Eighteenth Layer of the Netherworld; the Tao Rhyme naturally formed, and all living things competed to exist.
In a daze, he realized that at some unknown moment, he had arrived here in his true form, the divine technique incarnation merged into his body, the two becoming one.
Lu Chengfeng was completely stunned, "What is this?"
As he turned to look again, where was the courtyard? Only broken walls remained all around, wild grasses flourishing, and under a decaying laurel tree rolled a head, impossibly decayed across countless ages.
He gazed around in confusion, seeing only chaos all around, deep and vast, with endless Chaos Storms raging, forming terrifying vortices that devoured everything, drowning everything, filling one with a chilling coldness that seemed to seep from the bones.
How similar was this scene to the Chaos Celestial Abyss?
At this moment, a strange light rose from the decaying head, curved like the moon, brilliantly bright, vaguely depicting a woman’s visage, with characters appearing and fading.
In the midst of the bright light, the woman’s voice spoke softly, "Just as you see, the heavens and earth are merely a painting, the fates of all beings nothing more than an abandoned segment of time."
Lu Chengfeng froze, as though a thunderclap exploded in his mind, yet filled with incomprehension and disbelief, "You’re saying that the entire Three Realms are within this painting."
Chang’e paused, sighing slightly, and said, "To be precise, this painting carries a past segment of time."
He couldn’t help but frown, "I ask the elder to speak plainly."
A hint of seriousness appeared on Chang’e’s serene jade-like face; she lifted her delicate eyebrows and said, "You should have seen the depiction of the Three Realms’ future for ten thousand years. And with your cultivation in the Path of Time, you should understand that at this moment, the Three Realms contain no time."
Lu Chengfeng furrowed his brow, speaking in a low voice, "Indeed, this has always been my doubt. With my current Tao Cultivation and cultivation levels, I could never reverse time."
"Time is essentially the river of the endless fates of all beings. The river’s direction can be predicted, but it is not the actual future. The more powerful the being, the more they can influence the river’s course."
"Therefore, the future is uncertain, the Great Emperor has no future; their fate is only in their hands."
"But even when I was in the mundane world, I saw the future ten thousand years of two Great Emperors."
"Moreover, within the entire Three Realms, there is no time, only I have comprehended time. Yet through various clues, I can confirm that in ancient times, numerous Immortals and Buddhas could comprehend time."
"I ask the elder to enlighten me on why all this is so?"
Chang’e’s expression was calm, her words like gold and stone, "It’s very simple, because the so-called Three Realms are merely a painting. Some significant figure, using Supreme Techniques and Supreme Divine Techniques, severed ten thousand years of a past time and space, imprinting it within the painting."
"This painting forms its own time and space, seemingly no different from the real Three Realms, but it is rootless and soulless, forming a wheel of time and space, wherein every ten thousand years, everything once again reincarnates."
"The future ten thousand years you saw back then was exactly the fate trajectory that this painting will evolve into."
"For ten thousand years, everything will reenact the script from that past time and space. When the Celestial Emperor ascends, the final catastrophe of the Three Realms ensues, all beings return to the void, chaos is reenacted, and a new heaven opens, ushering once again into the Shenxiao calendar of ten thousand years."
"Reincarnation upon reincarnation, from the Shenxiao of ten thousand years to the Celestial Emperor’s ascension, endless reincarnation, ceaseless and unending."
"Therefore, no beings within this world in the painting can comprehend time, as they are merely imprints within the wheel of time."
Lu Chengfeng’s mind went blank. He had contemplated many possibilities, but never could he have imagined such a result.
"You mean to say, the Three Realms are fake, everyone is fake, everything is fake?"
He felt his mind was on the brink of collapse; what Chang’e said was too startling, as if everything he had experienced was merely an illusion.
"This is impossible!!" Lu Chengfeng’s words were firm, "Are you telling me I’ve been living in a dream all along?"
"Yes, and yet no." Chang’e gently shook her head, a veil of cloud mist and moonlight swirling around her, making her figure even more ethereal.
