My mind was a chaotic blur, but upon focusing my eye, what I saw was a scene of primordial chaos, exactly the vista he had witnessed years prior upon the Guang Jie Yi (Boundary Viewing Instrument). A vision of the Taichu (Great Beginning)!

Decades later, seeing it again, Zong Shou’s heart was shaken, the feeling still indescribable.

What shocked him even more was the power of the Zhou Shu (Cosmic Book).

This Zhou Ji Ming Shi Shu (Book of Ultimate Destiny and World Creation) had truly reversed time, pulling his very soul back several years into the past, back to the moment he first glimpsed the opening of the Taichu via the Guang Jie Yi.

He inwardly chuckled. If this Zhou Shu could forcibly yank him, a man destined for public execution, from the jaws of death, what else could it not accomplish? This mere feat of temporal reversal was nothing in comparison.

However, this single exertion cost him a full five hundred years of his lifespan.

He wondered what price Zong Weiran had paid when enacting this.

He could have ascended to Sainthood in one step, yet his cultivation plummeted below the Spirit Realm, ultimately leading to him being surrounded and killed—thinking of it now, he felt he owed his father too much.

A spiritual thought suddenly reached him from nearby, interrupting Zong Shou’s contemplation.

“Is this the image of the Taichu’s opening? The time you chanced upon the Guang Jie Yi in the Third Dragon Palace?”

Standing beside Zong Shou now was another ‘Zong Shou,’ who was staring blankly into the distance, clearly trying his utmost to recall and grasp everything he was currently witnessing.

Zong Shou felt an inexplicable, mighty force restraining him. There seemed to be a membrane separating him from his surroundings, preventing contact, and naturally, preventing any influence.

His heart was filled with regret. If only, in this moment, he could manifest and guide this ‘Zong Shou’ from a few years ago—surely his current self could be even stronger? Even transmitting a single word, a warning to Wei Xu, would have prevented the Cangsheng Dao (Dao of All Beings) from falling into its current predicament. But he could not breach this membrane.

That feat must have demanded the cost of ten thousand years of lifespan and tens of millions of Immortal Stones. Zong Shou possessed neither the financial means nor the spare lifespan to squander. It was truly a pity, a source of deep regret.

Just as he felt a slight wave of melancholy, the probing consciousness seemed to grow extremely displeased. Waves of soul pressure rolled over him. Zong Shou sighed internally and replied with his own intent.

“A’Kun, you have the leisure to speak with me at this moment? Wasting even a fraction of a second is squandering my lifespan. Do you not feel you are betraying my good intentions?”

The Zhou Ji Ming Shi Shu this time had brought more than just his divine soul back several years. A’Kun and A’Yi had accompanied him. The Qiantian Battleship, with its scores of supporting vessels and an entire army for protection, and with Ye Xuan overseeing security, was completely safe.

The purpose of their escort was this: in times of crisis, to safely pull his primordial spirit back to the present moment from the past. Only someone like A’Yi, a Half-Step Supreme Realm existence, could accomplish this. A’Kun’s cultivation was lower, but this dragon possessed the Shunkong (Instantaneous Void) Dragon Bloodline.

“Zong Shou, you bastard! A’Yi alone was sufficient! Are you afraid I don't owe you enough already? I will settle accounts with you sooner or later!”

A’Kun nearly cursed aloud, but he finally quieted down. Just like Zong Shou’s eye, missing even the slightest detail now was a tragedy.

The Taichu Creation was crucially significant to A’Kun! The sole flaw in the method of his existence's demise was that the Laws of Creation remained incomplete. And this vision of the Taichu was fundamentally superior to Zong Shou’s own creation anomaly. The benefit derived could naturally not be compared—Zong Shou smiled without speaking, having brought A’Kun along. It served as an added safeguard, but also held a personal agenda for him. He hoped that if A’Kun could perfect his Great Law, perhaps he could assist Patriarch Yuan Jing in truly completing his Dao Foundation. Then, the three Supreme Realm masters of the Cangsheng Dao, relying on the Cangsheng Qiongjing (Vault of All Beings), might possess the power to contend with the Daoist Sect. Besides, he still had Han Xi, that innate anomaly, who had just leaped two realms and had a long lifespan ahead.

What brought him the most relief was the bond of shared life and death. However, if that Ant Queen ever learned of this thought, she might just take her arm-blade and cleave him in two.

A’Yi, on the other hand, remained silent. From beginning to end, she maintained absolute stillness. Almost all her attention was fixed on the scene unfolding before them—the instant the singularity erupted. She did not need to view the panorama; she only needed to observe how the Law of Glacial Ice was produced and how it coexisted with the other Celestial Principles and Rules.

Zong Shou timely discarded all extraneous thoughts, focusing on what lay before him.

Limitless power surged forth from that dark point. It expanded rapidly outward; lines and points entangled and wove together. Countless materials gradually took shape and were then pushed into the distance. The nascent form of a newborn world was beginning to show.

Zong Shou had witnessed this once before a few years ago, but now, the experience was entirely different. The same precise detail allowed him to comprehend deeper principles and correct past errors. He could also survey the entire scene, incorporating everything from the origin point’s eruption into his soul-thought. Back then, his cultivation was insufficient; he had to be cautious. Even exerting his full capacity for memory was limited, and he needed to deliberately ignore much to avoid excessive consumption of his vital essence.

Now, Zong Shou had no reservations. He was like a sponge with no bottom, greedily absorbing everything before him. He absorbed what he could comprehend, and what he couldn't, he imprinted fiercely onto his heart for later reflection. He refused to let go of any change, any generated Law. Even the trajectory and temperature of a single speck of dust were memorized. Seeing the great through the small, grasping the whole through a single patch. These seemingly insignificant things could allow him to deduce infinite information and countless truths. As for whether existing here in the form of a primordial soul would cause him to be dispersed by this mighty force of Taichu Creation, Zong Shou paid it no mind.

Inside the specialized cultivation chamber aboard the Qiantian Battleship, time flowed silently.

Nearly a month had passed since Zong Shou enacted the technique of temporal reversal. The actual duration spent in the past had been only one hour.

When A’Kun and A’Yi brought Zong Shou back to the present from years prior, all three of them immediately entered a state of deep meditation. None dared waste even a speck of time, nor did they have the capacity for conversation, fearing that the insights gained during that period would be forgotten. This was true for Zong Shou, and no less so for Supreme Realm experts like A’Kun and A’Yi.

One month in the outside world translated to a hundredfold increase in time within this quiet chamber. Before they knew it, eight years had elapsed.

It was only on this day, as the Immortal Stones distributed around the chamber pulverized and burst open, completely exhausting the spiritual energy stored within the Zhou Ji Ming Shi Shu and rendering it unable to sustain itself, causing it to tumble from mid-air, that Zong Shou’s figure suddenly trembled, startling him awake from his meditative stillness.