Chapter 552: Space-Time Channel

The Sage of Time appeared remarkably youthful, of an age comparable to Lu Yang. Among the five ancient immortals, the Immortal Fairy ranked first in terms of vitality, while the Sage of Time held the second position.

His innate origin and foundation far surpassed those of other immortals.

Stepping into the celestial realm, the Sage of Time caught sight of the scattered Gomoku pieces upon the chessboard. His eyelids twitched, and a sudden urge to flip the board overcame him.

"You three are truly something, leaving me alone to endure such torment while you wander off here to enjoy peace and comfort."

Suddenly, he sensed an anomaly within the realm, detecting a particular aura of the Immortal Fairy that originated from the future. A sharp intake of cold air escaped his lips as a wave of lingering dread washed over him.

"Fortunately, I did not bring ███ along. Immortals of the past and future gazing at each other across countless ages is something that has never occurred in history. Especially for ███, who commands ████, I fear a grand annihilation would erupt the moment they met, overturning both the past and the future!"

Even the Sage of Time could not say for certain what would happen if two instances of the Immortal Fairy were to meet. What he spoke of was a high-probability disaster, yet there remained a chance they might coexist peacefully, chatting and laughing together.

But who would dare gamble on such a possibility?

A resonant grand annihilation—if they lost that wager, everyone would be utterly finished.

The Sage of Time bit his fingertip, allowing golden blood to flow from the wound. Closing his eyes, he used the celestial blood to draw an immortal eye between his brows.

The third eye opened, its golden gaze hollow and vacant, resembling that of a blind man. In truth, this was because the gaze of this third eye rested not upon the present, but upon the future.

Vaguely, he could discern a graceful silhouette standing within this very celestial realm in an unimaginably distant future, yet he could not even make out her countenance clearly.

"There is severe interference!"

"Hmm? Who is this?"

He perceived another individual standing beside the Immortal Fairy, but this person was far too weak, lacking the qualification to appear before him across time and space.

He could sense that the person standing nearby wore a small fragment of Building Wood upon their chest, which was a part of his own body.

"My future self trusts him deeply, granting him a piece of Building Wood as a token?"

"Or is it that my future self has been sealed, forcing this young cultivator to seek out the Immortal Fairy?"

The Sage of Time frowned, harboring these conjectures silently within his mind.

"How is it? What did ███ say?" the Sage of the Nine Heavens asked hurriedly.

The Sage of Time shook his head. "It will not do. The Immortal Eye of Space-Time alone is insufficient."

The Immortal Eye of Space-Time was a celestial eye he had forged using the Fruit of Time to observe the past, present, and future, an instrument that had never failed him. He had not expected it to prove inadequate this time.

"Is the distance too great, or is there something intervening that causes this interference?"

Without further hesitation, the Sage of Time summoned forth the Fruit of Time.

The Fruit of Time, interwoven with endless laws of space and time, manifested and swayed gently up and down, as though floating upon an ocean of time, sending forth ripples through the ages.

"Do not look."

An instant before the Fruit of Time revealed itself, the Immortal Fairy shielded Lu Yang's eyes.

The Fruit of Time represented the ultimate form of the laws of space and time. Let alone Lu Yang, who was merely in the Golden Core stage, even a cultivator of the Tribulation Transmutation stage would suffer mental derangement and lose their sanity upon catching a single glimpse, falling into a state of utter muddleheadedness under its influence.

The Fruit of Time contained far too much; a cultivator could not withstand such a massive deluge of information, and their spiritual terrace would collapse under a wash of data of this magnitude.

With the assistance of the Dao Fruit, the Sage of Time finally beheld the face of the Immortal Fairy clearly. The Sage of Ying Heaven and the other two also witnessed her through the newly established passage of time.

Before the Sage of Time could rejoice, cold sweat broke out across his forehead, and he shouted aloud, "Unbalanced! The space-time passage is failing to hold!"

Among everyone present, his perception was the most profound. Some entity was severing the time passage between himself and the Immortal Fairy—no, more accurately, something was isolating the era he inhabited from its connection to the future!

What could it be!

"███, what do you wish to say!"

The Immortal Fairy also realized the peril of the situation and spoke in haste, "I was assassinated by someone..."

Rumble—

The passage shattered. Under the influence of an inexplicable force, the space-time channel burst apart, severing the connection between both sides.

The Sage of Time staggered back two paces, supported by the Sage of Ying Heaven and the Sage of the Qilin.

"Are you alright?"

The Sage of Time shook his head, calming his breath as he circulated the Fruit of Time, restoring his entire physical state within the blink of an eye. "It is no great matter."

Furthermore, now was not the time to worry over his physical well-being.

He glanced around the circle and spoke coldly, "You all heard clearly what Immortal just said, did you not?"

"Assassinated by someone... what kind of joke is this? This is an impossible occurrence!" The Sage of the Qilin crushed a chess piece, his eyes filled with absolute disbelief.

"Among the five of us, Immortal is the most difficult to kill. Anyone can utter her name at random and she will be resurrected. Who could possess the means to slay her?"

Yet the truth lay before them; they had to believe it even if they doubted it. Though the Immortal Fairy enjoyed jests, she would never joke about a matter such as this.

They had once thought that the Immortal Fairy had encountered trouble in the future and required their aid, but they had assumed at most that she was sealed and needed them to break the confinement.

Never did they imagine that the Immortal Fairy would be murdered.

If resurrection were a simple matter, the Immortal Fairy certainly would not have mentioned this affair. This implied that in the future, she had not only fallen, but was entirely unable to return to life!

"Did you not hear? It was an assassination, meaning there might be some method beyond our imagination that prevents her resurrection." The Sage of Ying Heaven tapped his finger against the table.

"Assassinated by someone, without naming the culprit—does this mean even Immortal does not know who the killer is?"

The four of them pondered whether the Immortal Fairy knew the killer was among them and had withheld the information out of concern that leaking it here would cause strife.

They quickly dismissed this possibility. Given their trust in the Immortal Fairy, whoever she accused would be suspected without hesitation; the three of them would have swarmed forward, and could they fail to subdue a single culprit?

That was impossible.

Someone had assassinated the Immortal Fairy, and she did not even know the identity of the perpetrator.

"How far is Immortal from us?" the Sage of Ying Heaven inquired. Once the timeframe was determined, many arrangements could be made.

"It cannot be ascertained. The passage shattered too quickly for verification, but it is certain to be a matter of at least ten thousand years into the future."

"Why did the space-time passage shatter?" The Sage of the Nine Heavens frowned. Had the channel remained, they could have gathered more information; at the very least, knowing the time would have been beneficial.

The face of the Sage of Time turned ashen. "There are two reasons. First, time and space possess a self-correcting nature; future information cannot be transmitted to the past, as it creates space-time chaos. With my Fruit of Time, this is a difficulty, but not an insurmountable one; it can be overcome. The critical point is the second reason."

"Something has interfered with the stability of space and time, severing our connection to the future where Immortal resides!"

"What object could be more potent than your Fruit of Time?"

The Sage of Time snorted coldly, dissatisfied with the remark from the Sage of the Qilin. "It is not that it is more potent than my Fruit of Time, but rather that I expended my Dao Fruit to resolve the self-correcting nature of space and time, leaving me with no energy to contend with that entity!"

"What manner of thing could it be, to also affect space and time?"

"I do not know, but for something to clash head-on with my Fruit of Time, it can only be another Dao Fruit!"

"There remains one most critical question: why did we not resurrect Immortal in the future?"