Chapter 1 The Squeak

Squeak!

Ye Chuxiao pushed open the cell door. Ying Shu, who was in the neighboring cell, sensed his arrival and was frantically urging her Heart Core, banging on the door, requesting contact.

Due to the recent turbulent changes, Ying Shu had learned some information through various channels, but not much. This, instead, made her feel uneasy.

Therefore, she did not want to stay in this rotten dungeon for even a moment longer.

After the Yuan Zhi Sect's power in the capital suffered heavy losses in the last disturbance, Ye Chuxiao was the only one who could release her from the dungeon in the short term.

Even though Ye Chuxiao had nominally lost control of the Ministry of Justice's dungeon.

But precisely because of this, Ye Chuxiao could act even more boldly and recklessly in the dungeon.

Ye Chuxiao blocked Ying Shu's call request and mobilized more of his will to suppress all abnormalities of the Heart Core.

Another exchange with Ying Shu was necessary, but not now; the timing was not quite right.

He needed to make Ying Shu genuinely feel that if she continued like this, her only path was to wait for death. Only then would she soften in the following negotiations and actively let Ye Chuxiao seize more initiative.

In essence, Ye Chuxiao was waiting for Ying Shu to choose the moment to go all-in.

Those who still had trump cards and other opportunities often would not choose to go all-in.

The dungeon where Tang Sudong had been imprisoned had actually been repaired.

When Tang Sudong pushed Yan Po out of the dungeon with a palm strike, the cell that held him had also collapsed.

However, this did not prevent Ye Chuxiao from coming to search for clues.

Yan Po's prison break and Tang Sudong's sacrifice to the Dao were sequential events.

In other words, even if this cell was a product of restoration, it still carried Tang Sudong's last moments.

Avoiding the spirit scan of the Town Prison Divine Artifact, Ye Chuxiao's domain enveloped the cell.

Every detail and every trace within the cell was clear in Ye Chuxiao's eyes.

However, it was just an ordinary cell.

Even though some of the stones in the cell seemed to record the text of certain inherited cultivation methods, it was still... ordinary.

After all, the Ministry of Justice's dungeon had imprisoned many important criminals, some of whom had been prominent figures for a time.

It was normal for these guys to carve some of their signature skills on the bricks of the Ministry of Justice's dungeon for various reasons.

However, it was difficult to determine whether these things were truly left for future generations to inherit or deliberately distorted and tampered with for the purpose of retaliating against society.

Ye Chuxiao also remembered that the Ministry of Justice's dungeon used to have a business of opening boxes and selling stone bricks, which had become a small sensation in the Divine Capital City.

Later, most parts of the dungeon completed basic replacements, and this business lost its source of fresh water and died down.

"Did he really willingly choose to die like this?" Ye Chuxiao asked himself. If he were Tang Sudong, he would never have chosen this path.

An Intent Realm cultivator was already at the pinnacle of millions of living beings.

And the Wu Ding Realm cultivators were often born gathering the luck of a realm, and many worlds did not always have Wu Ding cultivators stationed there.

Would such an existence completely abandon themselves in order to create an opportunity for others?

People who stood at a lower level were often more willing to simply believe in some kind of great sentiment, while those who thought they had climbed to a high place, having seen too many ghosts and backroom deals along the way, were unwilling to believe that some great emotion truly existed in the world.

Ye Chuxiao didn't know what kind of mood he should use to continue deducing.

Should he use a dark psychology to speculate that there was another purpose?

Or should he continue to believe that this was a selfless dedication and sacrifice?

When he was an ordinary prison guard, he had no doubts.

But now, he was also a great Intent Realm cultivator, but he had long lost his initial purity.

He stared intently at the golden clock that had come with him through the transmigration.

Since his cultivation had improved, Ye Chuxiao had hardly used the time rewind function, and mostly used it as a prop for refining and using Dao Rhymes.

The golden clock contained many Dao Rhyme auras.

These auras were just fragments of Dao Rhymes that had been used, far less important than the Dao Rhymes themselves.

And obviously, there was no Dao Rhyme aura left by Tang Sudong in many of the auras.

Even the aura left by Yan Po had already been used up by Ye Chuxiao.

In the early days, Ye Chuxiao's swordsmanship was able to improve so quickly, thanks to Yan Po's 'guidance'.

"Since Dao Rhyme is better than aura, then why can't Dao Rhyme itself do what Dao Rhyme aura can do?"

"Is it because it hasn't been contaminated with the host's aura?" Ye Chuxiao thought.

Originally, Ye Chuxiao was just questioning, but unexpectedly, the golden clock had a new change and reaction that it had not had in a long time.

A wisp of Dao Rhyme that Ye Chuxiao had stored in it directly dissipated and disappeared, and Ye Chuxiao keenly realized that he had entered the state of 'time walking'.

In this state, he could not interfere with reality... even if he tried to drive the domain, he could not have any influence on reality.

He could not shake a grain of sand or a speck of dust in different time and space.

"It's really strange, the Fortune Ship swallowed the Dao Rhyme and can easily anchor time and space, seemingly not worrying about the problem of time and space backlash at all."

"And the golden clock also swallowed the Dao Rhyme, but it can only let me be a ghost in the cracks of time."

"What's the difference between the two? Or is it that the priority of the golden clock is indeed not as good as the Fortune Ship?"

"However... this golden clock will change its function and effect according to my needs and thoughts, which seems to indicate that it still has a lot of potential to be tapped, but I don't know where the limit is." Ye Chuxiao floated out of the cell like a ghost, wandered around the dungeon, and confirmed that he had rewound the time.

"It's about three months ago, which means that freely consuming a wisp of ownerless Dao Rhyme can turn the pointer of time back three months."

"Why is it three months?"

"Not a simple month, or a year?" Ye Chuxiao didn't understand, and the golden clock in this regard seemed to be not as good as ordinary artifacts. It seemed to have no spirit, only simple function prompts.

If Ye Chuxiao didn't actively trigger it, then some functions would never be revealed to Ye Chuxiao.

Of course, any function requires Dao Rhyme as the core consumption.

There is no such thing as free.

Ye Chuxiao, in a sense, was more like a 'consumer' rather than the controller of the golden clock.

Obtaining the golden clock only meant that he had the qualification to trade with it.

Wisp after wisp of Dao Rhyme was consumed.

And time, also quickly reversed around Ye Chuxiao.

Night and day were just a brief moment, and there was no interval between years, like turning the pages of a book.

When Ye Chuxiao consumed the eighteenth wisp of Dao Rhyme, he finally saw Tang Sudong's figure in the cell.

The old man who sacrificed all of himself to the Heavenly Dao in exchange for twenty or thirty years of complete Great Dao, stood there straight, even the dark cage seemed to be an endless starry sky to him.

Ye Chuxiao looked at Tang Sudong, carefully observing the other party, trying to perceive his aura and explore his secrets.

However, Tang Sudong turned around, then looked in Ye Chuxiao's direction... and smiled.

The smile seemed to release fatigue and gain liberation.

!

!

Ye Chuxiao immediately felt cold sweat break out all over his body.

This was really seeing a ghost!

Did Tang Sudong see him?

Or... was it just a coincidence?

Did Tang Sudong happen to be looking at something else?

"It seems that you and I are very destined, young friend... if you don't mind, sit down and chat with me, this old man?" Tang Sudong waved his hand, and tables, chairs, and tea appeared out of thin air in the originally empty cell.

Ye Chuxiao collected his emotions, sat down as he was told, and tried to touch the teacup, but found that the touch was real... he actually held the teacup in his hand.

It was like two different points in time, quietly and silently connecting at this moment due to some accident.

"Is this something that a Wu Ding Realm cultivator can do?"

"This... how can it be so mystical?" Ye Chuxiao's heart was full of questions.

He himself was already at the peak Intent Realm, and in theory, there was only one layer between Intent Realm and Wu Ding Realm.

For Intent Realm cultivators, shaking mountains and rivers, and moving mountains to fill the sea were very difficult things, but Wu Ding Realm cultivators had already reached the point of playing with time?

This was too exaggerated!

Wasn't that equal to directly entering the realm of Da Luo Jinxian from the Tribulation Transcending stage?

Who set the realm division, calling this only one layer apart?

Ye Chuxiao had too many doubts and incomprehension, but when it came to his mouth, he didn't know where to start.

The surprise that Tang Sudong brought him was truly too great.

"How did you see me?" Ye Chuxiao sorted out his emotions, poured the tea in his cup into his mouth, and asked.

The tea was warm and fragrant, although it was ordinary tea, it was refreshing and allowed Ye Chuxiao to gradually calm down.

No matter what kind of secrets there were.

As long as Tang Sudong was willing to solve his doubts, then he could unravel the questions step by step.

"It's just a choice, it's not as difficult as you think." Tang Sudong said softly, and also sat down opposite Ye Chuxiao, looking at him with a smile in his eyes.

Seeming to see that Ye Chuxiao was not quite 'convinced', Tang Sudong thoughtfully added: "The me you see is not the real me at that time. Sacrificing to the Dao is a... very decisive self-destruction. Both the past and the future are offered, and only in this way... can we intercept the one that has escaped."

"You and I are both passers-by in this time and space. If you hadn't stirred up the waves of time, I wouldn't have been born in response to fate."

"Fortunately, I have you, so I can get out of the gambling table and breathe easily."

After saying that, Tang Sudong winked at Ye Chuxiao, also drank tea, and showed a nostalgic expression.

Tang Sudong's explanation was not complete. Ye Chuxiao understood that there were parts that were hidden, related to the specific concepts and abilities of the Wu Ding Realm. Tang Sudong didn't tell him in order to avoid 'leaking secrets', thereby affecting his future.

Although the explanation was not complete, Ye Chuxiao barely understood.

Tang Sudong's sacrifice to the Dao was not directly at the cost of simple death or the scattering of his soul.

Instead, he used his past, present, and future existence itself as a bargaining chip to gamble against the heavens.

Ye Chuxiao's consumption of Dao Rhyme to rewind time was to directly pull Tang Sudong off the gambling table first.

So, the Tang Sudong that Ye Chuxiao saw was not actually the Tang Sudong before the sacrifice to the Dao, but the Tang Sudong after the sacrifice to the Dao?

"So, the reason why Wu Ding Realm cultivators maintain the completeness of the Great Dao for varying lengths of time when they sacrifice to the Dao is because they have different amounts of bargaining chips?"

"Or is it because of some external reasons that lead to differences in the results of the gamble?"

Ye Chuxiao thought for a while and asked, "Do you... still exist?"

Tang Sudong shook his head: "For now, I exist. As far as the time and space you are truly in is concerned, I only have a thought. However, the length of life, whether I exist or not, is not simply about the survival of the physical body. As long as the sparks I have sown are still burning, and the ideas I insist on are still being promoted, then spiritually, I have already existed forever."

"I have already said that Wu Ding Realm is a choice."

"And choices are diverse!"

"The immortality of the individual and the immortality of the spirit are both results."

Ye Chuxiao concentrated and thought, but did not continue to delve into this topic.

"What about Xiao Chi?" Ye Chuxiao asked.

He wanted to know if Tang Sudong knew about Xiao Chi or not.

If he did, did he leave any arrangements behind?

Tang Sudong tapped his fingers on the table, as if he was considering and weighing.

He hesitated for a long time, even until the tea in Ye Chuxiao's cup had cooled down, before he slowly said, "I know!"

A simple "I know" made the many doubts swirling in Ye Chuxiao's heart even more chaotic.

Ye Chuxiao could tell that Tang Sudong's "I know" referred not to after his sacrifice to the Dao, but before his sacrifice to the Dao.

Tang Sudong and Xiao Chi, these two Wu Ding Realm existences, were not without true encounters.

Instead, they knew of each other's existence.

If that was the case, then why was Tang Sudong still willing?

"Wait! Tang Sudong's hesitation just now..."

"I was wrong. Combining what Tang Sudong said earlier, from a certain perspective... why wouldn't he be willing?"

"If Tang Sudong and Xiao Chi were like-minded, then why wouldn't he be willing?"

"After all, Tang Sudong can only buy twenty or thirty years of time, so what about after those twenty or thirty years?"

"If the world is refined by Xiao Chi in its complete form, then does this complete state mean that it can continue infinitely?"

Ye Chuxiao keenly grasped the key.

This was also the gain from going to the palace and simulating the 'Xiao Chi personality'.

If it were before, Ye Chuxiao would have instinctively substituted Xiao Chi into Jin Buyi's personality, and he would not have been able to understand this kind of thing.

Because Jin Buyi did not have that kind of personal charisma that was worth Tang Sudong paving the way for him.

"He didn't want to say it... but he said it."

"Why did Tang Sudong change his mind?"

"Because Xiao Chi made him hesitate?"

"Because the real Xiao Chi might not be as good as Tang Sudong expected?" Ye Chuxiao wondered.

If there was a problem, Ye Chuxiao had to bring it up.

So he directly asked, "Why did you change your mind?"

Tang Sudong rubbed his eyebrows and reluctantly said, "Young man, you are really sharp!"

"I hesitate because of... uncertainty."

"I trust him, but that doesn't mean I can trust all of him, and I also know that he was originally released for me, a deliberately released part."

"I'm not sure if my choice will lead the world to a worse ending."

"So fortunately... I still met you and had the opportunity to make up for my mistakes."

Tang Sudong looked at Ye Chuxiao with a smile, waiting for Ye Chuxiao's answer.