A Pawn's Passage

If it had been only Susanoo-no-Mikoto, then this incarnation would have been doomed without question. But with the incarnations of the other two Great Kami also present, the situation turned.

Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto unleashed his divine abilities once more. A shaft of moonlight manifested from thin air and fell upon Susanoo. Within its glow, time seemed to rewind, and Susanoo gradually returned to his original state.

Qi Xuansu, Zhang Yuelu, Li Changge, and Yao Pei had never seen such a mystical ability, so they were all struck with awe.

Only the Imperial Preceptor saw through it. He scoffed, “A trifling trick.”

Time was like a river, flowing forward without return. Yao Pei’s Staff of Merit and Tsukuyomi’s divine abilities had the same essence. It was like scooping up a handful of water from the river. Compared to the ceaseless flow, the water in one’s hands naturally appeared still.

The limitation was that any pause in time was restricted to a limited area, which was that handful of water. The higher one’s cultivation, the more water one could scoop, and thus the larger the range. Even so, it rarely exceeded the size of a city or a mountain, and it could not last long.

This time, Tsukuyomi attempted to “scoop” the Imperial Preceptor. But the Imperial Preceptor’s cultivation was far too high and beyond his grasp. It was as if an ordinary man had strained his back through overexertion. Tsukuyomi suffered backlash, his body’s radiance flickering unsteadily.

If time were likened to a great river, then even Immortals within it were swimmers. Though skilled, they were still carried by the current. They could pause briefly, hasten or slow their progress, or scoop a handful of water, but they could not swim against the current nor make the river flow backward.

If someone could go against the current and travel back in time, then the hundred-year limit in the mortal realm would mean nothing. For example, one could not just rewind time with future knowledge to defeat their enemy even before any enmities were formed. That was because one person’s existence shaped countless destinies. The cascade of aftereffects that would follow would be unimaginable.

Reversing time entirely was beyond imagination. It was more insane than tampering with the elements to create a new realm, as it involved not just every person past and present, but the world itself. Most people could do nothing against the end of the era, much less create a new realm, so how could one ever hope to reverse time?

It was an impossible feat.

Tsukuyomi’s so-called time reversal seemed miraculous, but it was not a true reversal. He merely plucked Susanoo’s past projection and used it to replace the current, destroyed incarnation. Thus, it looked like he had turned back time.

This method carried two great limitations.

First, Susanoo was currently an incarnation of his true body, so he was illusory and could be replaced. In essence, one incarnation was swapped for another, which then re-established a connection with Susanoo’s true body. Therefore, fundamentally, his true body had never died.

Second, the event had occurred less than a few minutes ago. Thus, Tsukuyomi needed only to retrieve Susanoo’s projection from that short span of time, which was feasible. Any further back would have been beyond his ability.

This was not a true reversal of time but rather a sleight of hand. Hence, the Imperial Preceptor had dismissed it as a mere “trifling trick.”

Preventing such a thing from happening again was simple. The Imperial Preceptor had to kill Tsukuyomi first. After all, no one could lift themselves off the ground by their own hair. Tsukuyomi could never replace his own incarnation.

Himiko-no-Mikoto realized this as well. She immediately expanded her divine kingdom, like the Fruition Realm of Shamans.

In an instant, the Ise-jingu vanished, along with the Daoist invaders and the Tenmon Sect shinkan. The ceiling and surrounding walls dissolved. All that could be seen were the emerald seas rolling beneath one’s feet and the sun and moon hanging high above one’s head. In the distant horizon, endless pavilions shimmered like a mirage. This was a self-contained world separate from the mortal realm.

The Five Immortal lineage seemed distinct yet shared similarities. A Godly Immortal’s divine kingdom resembled the self-made small world of a Heavenly Immortal. The difference was that Heavenly Immortals could move their worlds at will, while Godly Immortals were bound to one place, like the difference between a butterfly and a spider.

The next moment, three towering figures appeared that were vast as mountains, seeming both close at hand and distant at the horizon, like three jade pillars propping up the heavens of this domain.

The central figure was that of a woman, with a blazing sun suspended behind her. She gazed down upon the Imperial Preceptor from her lofty height, eyes alight with intense flames.

Within this Takamagahara divine kingdom, the three incarnations truly became one, sharing fortune and suffering alike, preventing the Imperial Preceptor from striking them down individually.

Through this method, the Three Great Kami achieved an alternative form of descent. Though it could not compare to their full true bodies descending, it at least allowed them to wield the strength of an Immortal.

The Three Ancient Immortals could never imitate this. Pressured by the Daoist Order, they banded together only for survival but remained competitors at heart. Every offering of incense gained by one meant less for the others. With such conflicting motives, they could never unite as the Three Great Kami did.

In a sense, the Three Noble Children were one body. Himiko was Izanagi’s left eye, Tsukuyomi was his right eye, and Susanoo was his nose. Their rebellion against Izanagi was no different in principle from Lin Yuanmiao’s betrayal of Lin Lingsu. The difference was that Lin Yuanmiao’s two companions perished, while all Three Noble Children survived.

This divine kingdom was a projection of the Takamagahara Divine Kingdom. Supplemented by this divine kingdom, the strength of the Three Great Kami increased further.

This was the principle behind how Godly Immortals avoided heavenly tribulation. If a Godly Immortal wished to descend into the mortal realm in their true body while evading tribulation, the best method was to use divine power to create a domain that completely blocked heaven’s perception, akin to an umbrella.

This way, the Godly Immortal could wield the full power of a true Immortal, far above that of an ordinary descent. But just as with long campaigns, the issue always came down to resources. The expenditure of divine power was crippling, even threatening the foundation of their divine kingdoms. Thus, few Godly Immortals chose this path. The Three Great Kami were no exception, so they resorted to shortcuts.

There were also other exceptions. Certain cave realms, like Kunlun Paradise, were also not affected by heavenly tribulation, like divine kingdoms. As long as an Immortal never left their cave realm, they could remain in the mortal world indefinitely. But this was no different from imprisonment, so few would choose it. Moreover, before the Holy Xuan unified the Daoist Order, Kunlun Paradise was sealed and guarded by God Luwu, whose might rivaled that of a Second-Tribulation Immortal. So there was no chance anyone could imprison themselves there.

Now, Kunlun Paradise was no longer sealed. However, with the end of the era approaching, the Kunlun Paradise’s complete descent and fusion with the mortal realm was inevitable, merging more and more until it became part of the world itself. No Immortal would try to use Kunlun Paradise to evade tribulation anymore. As the end of the era neared, staying to endure heavenly tribulation became pointless.

Another exception was to find a suitable vessel, like a human body and cultivate anew within it. If such an incarnation could once again reach immortality, then as long as its vessel was under 100 years old, it would not face tribulation. True Lord Taiyin used this method, abandoning her golden body like a cicada shedding its shell, leaving behind a divine kingdom as she ascended. True Lord Ziguang attempted something similar. Though she failed, she left behind descendants within the Zhang family, which she could retreat to as a last resort.

“No wonder you three have ruled Fenglin for a thousand years. You do have some tricks up your sleeves,” the Imperial Preceptor said with hollow praise. His face was expressionless, and he merely held his sword horizontally before him.

From the Imperial Preceptor’s perspective, these three could not escape their congenital limits. Even after ruling Fenglin for nearly a millennium, the Three Great Kami had not advanced further. They clung only to their innate divine powers, consuming what they were born with, similar to manmade Banished Immortals.

Were it not for the end of the era approaching, the Li family would never have placed their hopes on a manmade Banished Immortal. But with the path of immortality severed, few Immortals were willing to remain in the mortal realm and risk tribulation. This gave manmade Banished Immortals the chance to shine.

However, the plans of using manmade Banished Immortals would take decades to bear fruit, during the eighth and ninth generations of disciples. According to the visions of the future glimpsed by the Heavenly Preceptor in the Guizang Lantern, after the collapse of the major earth veins, the Great Xuan Dynasty might not survive. Whether the Daoist Order would perish in its ninth generation was something no one could predict.

The three Daoist sects and the Great Xuan royal family all recognized the crisis and sought change. But the greater the external pressure, the fiercer the internal struggle over direction became, intensifying the Daoist Order’s divisions.

In good times, everyone prospered together, took turns holding power, and all was well. However, in adversity, contradictions intensified, and harmony could no longer hold.

This undoubtedly pushed the Daoist Order to a critical point. If successful, the factional struggle, though cruel, would serve as a second unification of the three sects, completing what the Holy Xuan had left unfinished. Unity would be strengthened, action would grow more decisive, and the Daoist Order could weather the crisis. But if it failed, their already fragile alliance would collapse, rifts would deepen, and factional strife would spiral into full-scale civil war, accelerating the Daoist Order’s downfall.

But now, it was still the sixth-generation disciples who shone with the last afterglow, the final flicker of radiance on the immortal path.

With a single slash of the Imperial Preceptor’s sword, even the void was torn apart, offering fleeting glimpses of the real world outside before being smoothed and healed again by the power of the divine kingdom. However, the four elements anchoring the divine kingdom—earth, water, fire, and wind—became violently unstable. It raged out of control, so much so that the torn space began to twist and warp.