Crack.
Simultaneously, the wrists of each Sage cracked. They had all been fully participating in this battle with all of their might. Even with such a brief battle, the Karmic Shackles had been half filled.
The cracks stopped all of the Sages in their tracks. The cracks began to travel up their wrists and crack their entire body.
Even Ying Xiong could hardly resist using all of his power. They had no time to focus on Ye Li.
Ye Li appeared behind a Sage while he was distracted, quickly stripping his Karma. He was able to do so for two more Sage before the effects of the Karmic Shackles disappeared, and so did Ye Li.
Ying Xiong looked around panting. The Painting on his back began to fully shine, but Ye Li had left.
Winning against 33 Sages was never part of the plan. With someone like Ying Xiong here, it was impossible.
Instead, it had merely been a way of attracting all of the Sages of the Cosmic Sect away from his true target. The three Sages he had stripped of Karma were a lucky gain.
Ye Li left the scene, and using a pre planned teleportation array, arrived not too far from his true target. He walked forward. There were no longer any guards here as all gods and above had returned to the Cosmic Sect. Nobody below that level would be sent to guard here.
Ye Li looked forward. He saw his target clearly.
There had been two options. One had been Earth, the oldest planet with the greatest Karma in the universe, besides maybe the universe itself.
However, through reading Karma, he learned that a powerful being known as the Buddha lived on Earth. He was able to guess that the Budhha was not a cultivator either, even if other cultivators believed him to simply have a unique technique or training method.
This is what remained. An unnamed place with unknown origins. However, it had existed longer than almost anything in the universe and its Karma was abundant.
Since he was not in a hurry, Ye Li shot out a Karma spiral, not to strip, but read Karma.
Far above it all, Zhou Fan looked down, unsure of how to react. Ye Li stood in front of the Manor, frozen in time to this day. Ying Xiong had been able to guess that this was related to Zhou Fan and had a few Sages nearby at all times.
The Manor represented a time of emotional instability in Zhou Fan's path, a time when he was unsure of things.
However, ever since abandoning his identity as human, he had no longer felt attached to the Manor and had not returned.
But would he let Ye Li strip its Karma? He was not sure.
Ye Li investigated the Manor. However, when his Karma got too close, it seemed to be frozen, unable to move. It could only disperse.
There wasn't some path creator's power here, but the level difference stopped the Karma from doing anything. It was like if Ye Li at the level of a True God tried to strip Ying Xiong's Karma.
However, after a few tries, Ye Li found that he could wrap around it and have his Karma slowly grind away at the defense in place.
The Sages of the Cosmic Sect would not be returning any time soon. As for Bad Karma #3 and #4, they had traveled back to the Fog Qi Domain.
After a year, Ye Li's Karma entered the Manor. When the Karma Spiral entered, it slowed down due to the stopped time, but the stopped time was not able to fully affect it.
Ye Li saw past the defenses and looked into the Manor. Inside were animals.
Ye Li was confused. What exactly was going on in here?
His Karma Spiral slowly moved and entered the Chicken. Ye Li began to read the Karma of the chicken, which was quite short, abnormally short.
He saw a being from the past. It was a cultivator, but none that Ye Li had ever known of.
Zhou Fan looked down from above. To save the animals, or to abandon his past emotions?
The thought only took a moment.
"Only children choose. I want it all."
He pointed down. Ye Li, not gaining anything from the Karma he had read, was about to strip the Karma of the Chicken, which was abnormally vast for a being frozen in time. It was even greater than a Sage.
Suddenly, the sky cracked. It was not a sky like the blue sky on a planet, or even space. The sky that cracked was that of the entire universe, a barely visible giant finger fell down. The entire universe saw this barely visible finger. Even in Mini Universes, space seemed to fold and show the scene.
The power of this finger was incomprehensible. There were fully realized path creators watching, but even they understood at this moment that they were not the strongest path creator.
Yoha watched in awe as his teacher took action. Yhwh watched in amazement. The Buddha looked on curiously. The God of Death stood still in shock. Ying Xiong sighed, long understanding the vast difference between him and Zhou Fan.
And Ye Li felt the power concentrated on him. It was as if the universe was collapsing on him.
Suddenly, something clicked. The figure he had seen when looking at the Qi beings' Karma and the figure he saw in the Chickens' memories seemed to line up.
The Giant finger silenced the universe as it fell, hitting the Manor. The Manor cracked, and everything within it was sent flying.
"We had a good time back then. Go out and live your own lives. Don't worry, they will be fulfilling."
The animals, now not frozen in time, heard these words before shooting out to random spots within the universe. With their cultivation, they would be able to survive even in space.
Ye Li stood rooted in fear as the finger dispersed, never touching him. He didn't even know what to think.
It seemed as if all of the oldest history in the universe was connected to this being. He needed to know who this was, and to start, he only thought of one target.
Ying Xiong.