"Long Aotian!"
When Tianyi woke up, he did so in an explosive fashion.
Literally.
The ground tens of meters around him disintegrated due to the sheer amount of true qi of chaos that Tianyi released. Tianyi's eyes were incredibly sharp as if he was still experiencing the Dragon Emperor's attack. But when he looked around, he saw that he was no longer in the Chaos Refining Formation or any formation at all.
"Junior Sister, Elder Meng! Are you alright?" Tianyi asked with worry when he saw them at the circumference of the area of destruction.
Thankfully for Tianyi, Elder Meng was able to bring Daoyi out of Tianyi's sudden attack. But the same could not be said for the Lei Clan members. Out of the five Daoyi captured, another one died so only three remained alive now.
Then Tianyi noticed the unconscious Lei Jingye. His eyes were filled with murderous intent. Without even thinking about it, he unleashed a strike at Lei Jingye. The attack struck the golden armor and dissipated, but as a result, Lei Jingye awoke.
His face was a near-perfect reflection of Tianyi's murderous expression, with the only difference being the two's eyes. "Xi Longyi!"
Lei Jingye's reaction momentarily stunned Tianyi before cold wrath flashed across his face. With a stony expression, Tianyi walked to Lei Jingye and kicked him to the ground. Using the bottom of his shoes, Tianyi smeared Lei Jingye's face into the sand. "Long Aotian, Long Aotian, you were called the strongest expert in the world, don't you think that this little act of yours is besmirching your once glorious name? How low you have fallen?"
"Who the fuck is Long Aotian!? Xi Longyi, I'll tell you right now! Don't think your little tricks will convince me! You tricked Yi'er into going against me, and you're the one who caused my spiritual core to be shattered, don't think this is OVER!" Lei Jingye finally managed to say after angling his mouth away from the sand. Still, he still had gotten a mouthful of sand so he was spitting it out as he yelled at Tianyi.
Tianyi was about to ridicule him even more but stopped when he glanced at Elder Meng. "Elder Meng, are you able to soul search him? I suspect him to be lying and having vital information."
Elder Meng shook her head. "His soul is too weak. The only reason he is still alive is that the immortal artifact is maintaining his life. Without it, he would have died weeks ago when you were unconscious. Even the weakest soul probe would dissipate his soul at his current state."
Tianyi frowned at Elder Meng's explanation. Weak? He shivered as he recalled the pain that the Dragon Emperor afflicted onto him. It was an insidious technique, one that bypassed Tianyi's soul-protecting measures. That technique used pain as a medium to inflict damage to the soul. Unless one couldn't feel pain, the technique was incredibly hard to defend against.
"Senior Brother, what exactly happened? Why are you calling him Long Aotian?" Daoyi also came forward and asked. Tianyi's agitated state reminded Daoyi of a cornered animal, like a porcupine with all its quill erected.
Tianyi shared a glance with Elder Meng. After a brief moment of hesitation, he decided to share the information with Daoyi. It wasn't exactly a major secret that concerned the fate of the world. Those that reached a certain realm would eventually learn of it. Back in the past, when there were more Dragon Emperor clones, many nascent soul grandmasters of the sect knew of the secret. "Long Aotian is the name of the Dragon Emperor, over a thousand years ago..."
When Tianyi finished explaining the intricacies of the Dragon Emperor's existence and his connection to himself and Lei Jingye, Daoyi had a shocked expression. "Even if you wrote a book about it, there shouldn't be such a wild plot, should there?"
"Some same reality is stranger than fiction." Hearing Tianyi's words, Daoyi nodded in agreement.
But the one with the greatest shock was Lei Jingye. As a cultivator from a clan that only had a single nascent soul grandmaster as their strongest expert, Lei Jingye would never be able to hear such information even as a nascent soul grandmaster. There would only be a slight chance if he became a Unity Realm venerable.
'"Impossible! You're lying!" Compared to the shock of losing his cultivation, the truth of him being the Dragon Emperor's soul fragment clone had an even bigger effect on his soul, causing it to almost dissipate from the mental blow.
Tianyi sneered. Perhaps, Lei Jingye was special compared to the other Dragon Emperor's clones. But that didn't change reality. "How laughable. If you are Long Aotian, I must praise you for your acting skills. If you had such skills, you should've continued acting until the end instead of letting your dick think for you. And if you are Lei Jingye, you are even more laughable!"
"Lei Jingye, you proclaim hatred against Xi Longyi. But after you regressed through time, Xi Longyi no longer exists since I am here. Or, to be more specific, the Dragon Emperor couldn't take over my body in this timeline. In the end, the Dragon Emperor decided to possess your body instead. You, who hated Xi Longyi, became Xi Longyi's method of revival. Tell me, is it laughable or not?" Tianyi derided. He had already stopped stepping on Lei Jingye, but that didn't prevent him from kicking Lei Jingye's body away like a rag doll.
"Impossible, impossible, impossible! You are lying!" The mad glint in Lei Jingye's eyes intensified, completely aware of his body being kicked. His eyes glazed over as if he could no longer differentiate his delusions and reality. "You are Xi Longyi. Stop spouting lies. I refuse to believe them! A scheme, this must your scheme torment me! That's right! You know you can't kill me because I will just go back into time, so you want to break my spirit instead. That's why you controlled Yi'er and set up this play. I'm right, aren't I? Hahahaha!!!"
Daoyi looked away. She didn't have much of a connection to Lei Jingye, much less the relationship Lei Jingye wished for. But that didn't prevent her from closing her eye and looking away. It was discomforting to see a man drowning in rejection of reality. He was like a lunatic.
"Have you gone off long enough?" Tianyi coldly said as he held his hand behind his back and kicked off enough sand to stuff Lei Jingye's mouth, causing him to choke. Although it was painful, it helped him regain lucidity.
Lei Jingye glared defiantly at Tianyi and spat his saliva at Tianyi's face. The saliva didn't travel far before freezing in midair and reversing into Lei Jingye's throat, causing him to cough and hack even more. Let the spit hit him? Are you kidding? Tianyi wouldn't tolerate such a disgusting thing to touch his robes much less his face. He rather enjoyed reading how a character would spit at a character he didn't like, but when it really happened, he just found it disgusting.
Daoyi frowned when she saw this. Tianyi seemed unnaturally cruel today as if he was venting. From smearing Lei Jingye's face into the sand to kicking the sand into his mouth, all of Tianyi's actions seemed especially petty and nonsensical. Her eyes widened when she spotted Tianyi's handing shaking behind his back.
"I'll pretend you are Lei Jingye since you are so convincing," Tianyi said, his expression stony but the mockery was evident. "Tell me, where did you meet the Dragon Emperor? Perhaps he introduced himself as someone else. He should be a bodiless soul that you met. Unless he managed to cling onto you without you noticing."
There was some acknowledgment in Lei Jingye's eyes, but he kept his mouth firmly shut. All the information he learned today was shattered his understanding of the world, but there was one thing Lei Jingye knew, that he wouldn't give anything to his archenemy. Tianyi's stony expression grew even colder. He wasn't in a patient mood at all.
"Look over there," Tianyi pointed at where the Lei Clan members were, but Lei Jingye looked in the opposite direction just to spite Tianyi. Tianyi's mood plummeted even more. Using his spiritual sense, he forced Lei Jingye to look at the three remaining Lei Clan members.
"Father!" Lei Jingye cried out. A terrible premonition began to sink into his stomach.
"You shouldn't need me to say what would happen if you don't answer, right?" Tianyi said his words were unnaturally calm, but the chill within them could not be mistaken.
"Hmpf, you call yourself Xi Tianyi, but how are your actions different than Xi Longyi, who you claim not to be?" Lei Jingye said, not willing to appear weak in front of Tianyi.
Tianyi didn't say anything. Actions speak louder than words, after all. Under the disbelieving eyes of Lei Jingye, his father, Lei De's, arm separated from his body and disintegrated.
"ARGGGHH!!" A scream of pain escaped Lei De's lips as he was shocked awake.
"This is the third time I'll ask you. If you fail to answer, your father's little life will disappear." Tianyi said, his voice emotionless. But that lack of emotion caused Lei Jingye's heart to sink into his stomach.
Just as Tianyi's eyes began to look towards Lei De once more, Lei Jingye finally spoke. "Stop! I'll speak, I'll speak!" His hatred-filled eyes focused on Tianyi as if engraving the face to memory. "I don't know if he was the Dragon Emperor or not, but I met an immortal's soul who called himself the Heaven Surpassing Great Saint after escaping Jingany City."
Jingyan City? Didn't that mean that Lei Jingye met the Dragon Emperor when he was still in the Qi Gathering Realm? Yet the Dragon Emperor failed to possess his body then, how laughable.
Daoyi watched as Tianyi continued to interrogate Lei Jingye. There was something about Tianyi's current state that frightened Daoyi. Like he was a frightened ferocious beast that could lash out at any moment.
"What's wrong with Senior Brother?" Daoyi asked Elder Meng after stopping Lei De's bleeding stump. Lei De had wanted to ask questions, but Daoyi silenced him.
"Young Master's emotion is currently extremely agitated. If I am correct, he is lashing out to mask his fear of death." Elder Meng said, her brows were furrowed in worry.
"Fear of death?" Daoyi asked and looked at Tianyi. "It doesn't seem like it. Hasn't Senior Brother experienced near-death experiences before?"
"I do not know. There should be at least one instance, but Young Master didn't have such a change in behavior at that time. Something must have been different. Right now, there is no problem. But if Young Master's attitude deteriorates, then the issue will become big. It might reach the point of cultivation deviation or the formation of an inner devil. Hopefully, Young Master can overcome this." Elder Meng said, a hint of worry in her voice.
When Tianyi finished interrogating Lei Jingye, the group brought the Lei Clan members, including Lei Jingye, to the grotto entrance. Lei Jingye made a fuss during the journey, but after Tianyi threatened to kill his father, he no longer dared to speak.
Daoyi couldn't blame Lei Jingye for making a fuss this time. If she were being carried by her hair, she would make a fuss too.
"Young Master, what happened to you!?" Su Bojing, who felt Tianyi approached and went to greet him, shouted in surprise.
"Huh?" Tianyi said. He looked down at himself. He had already healed himself, and his clothes weren't damaged at all, so what did Su Bojing mean?
"No, not that. Young Master suddenly grew a few years. You look older." Su Bojing clarified.
"Do I?" Tianyi looked at Daoyi and Elder Meng. "Do I look older?"
Daoyi nodded. "I didn't notice before, but thinking back to your appearance forty-nine days ago, Senior Brother does look older."
"Wait, I was unconsciousness for forty-nine days!?" Tianyi thought he was out for a week at most.
"Indeed. During this time, your martial body was unstable. As it recovered, your body began to mature." Elder Meng supplemented.
Tianyi closed his eyes and checked his body. His inner cosmos had indeed grown larger, and his nascent souls were at the peak of the Glass Nascent Soul Stage. Was this the so-called fortune amidst misfortune?
But Tianyi couldn't be happy about this. He waved his hand at Su Bojing. "I don't want to talk about it. Go watch over the prisoners while I see how mother is doing."
Just as Tianyi was about to walk into the entrance, he froze. If Su Bojing was surprised at his appearance, wouldn't his mother even be more surprised? Although she said that her concentration would be on refining the divine artifact, that didn't mean that she wouldn't be aware of her surroundings. What if her refinement failed because she was worried and shocked once she saw his current appearance?
"Young Master, back so soon?" Su Bojing said in surprise.
Tianyi shook his head. "I didn't go in. My current appearance might shock my mother. Junior Sister, can you check on mother's condition?"
Daoyi agreed, and only after Daoyi came out did Tianyi sigh in relief. Since everything had settled, Tianyi calmed himself down and began to cultivate. That brush with death was too frightening for him.
His first brush with death against a cultivator was the then Monarch Soulfish, but the difference between the two was so great that Tianyi could only discern his consciousness grow muddle for a moment. Not like his battle against the Dragon Emperor. Although pain dominated his mind, he could still sense the scythe of the grim reaper nearing him. It was not a mental or physically feeling, but an intuition.
A complicated emotion appeared in Tianyi's eyes. If it weren't for the Three Pure True Self Visualization Technique protecting him at the last moment, it was likely he would have died. On the one hand, it was erasing his past but protecting his current self. Tianyi didn't know how to approach the matter.
Forget it. Tianyi thought as he just stuffed the matter of the Three Pure True Self Visualization Technique into the back of his mind. He was close to entering the Crystal Nascent Soul Stage, and he can think about it after he broke through.
As for Lei Jingye. Tianyi was only half sure that he wasn't the Dragon Emperor pretending to be stupid. After possessing someone, the possessor should have a chance to learn all of the possessed's memories. And if he really was Lei Jingye, Tianyi didn't know why the Dragon Emperor didn't just exterminate his soul.
Tianyi gritted his teeth as he thought about the Dragon Emperor. He knew it was foolish to compare himself to a former immortal emperor, but he had absolute confidence in never losing against someone in the same realm as him, much less losing his life. That experience made Tianyi realize how foolish he was to believe in his invincibility.
He planned on forking Lei Jingye to the Buzhou Immortal Sect and explain what had happened. At the very least, if he can't deal with the Dragon Emperor, the sect should be able to. And maybe he can be clarified as to the truth behind the time travel.
Days later, Elder Meng glanced over at Tianyi, who was sitting in a lotus position. Daoyi soon glanced over as well, and it was Su Bojing who was the last to notice.
Inside Tianyi's cosmos, the five nascent souls were shining brilliantly, making it hard to look at them directly. Their body had resembled a preciously cut diamond. A single ray of light that entered would be reflected millions of times. Tianyi had officially entered the Crystal Nascent Soul Stage.
The only difference between a crystal nascent soul of the late Nascent Soul Realm, and a diamond nascent soul of the peak Nascent Soul Realm, was the perfection of the Nascent Soul. The cultivator must continually refine his Nascent Soul until it is like a diamond cut to perfection by a master jeweler.
"C-congratulations, Young Master." Su Bojing felt as if he was seeing a dream. He could still recall the day he came to congratulate Tianyi on his ascension to the Nascent Soul Realm, and now not even ten years later, Tianyi was already in the late Nascent Soul Realm, while he was still in the same spot.
"Congratulations, Senior Brother," Daoyi said with a smile. There was a sense of urgency in her. Tianyi had just entered the mid Nascent Soul Realm right before her Core Formation Heavenly Tribulation. But now, she had yet to enter the Polished Core Stage, but Tianyi already improved so much. She had to work harder. Luckily, it seemed that her minor wind tribulation would come soon. Until then, she had to prepare so as to prevent any mishaps.
"Thank you," Tianyi said calmly. He would've been quite happy before. But now, after his battle with the Dragon Emperor, an improvement by a minor realm was nothing worth celebrating about. He was still too weak. If he can't even protect himself, how can he even discover why he had appeared in the Huang Realm?