Time is like a colossal clock, intricate yet complex.
If someone were to travel back in time and do something, they would touch one of its threads.
Should a part of it shift, it might still function, simply becoming different from the original clock. It's like one thread splitting into two at its end; the clock remains the same, just with two different states.
However, if a critical part breaks, affecting other important components, it could directly impact the clock itself, causing its hands to slow, speed up, or even spin wildly, or worse, stop moving altogether.
That would be quite bad.
To control time entirely would be extremely difficult, because from a macroscopic perspective, all the threads of time advance in parallel.
But influencing time isn't impossible.
For artifacts like the Time Stone, the localized time restoration it performs is essentially copying those threads from their previous state.
For example, if someone was hit by a car and died at 10:02 AM, but the Time Stone revives them at 10:03 AM, it's equivalent to copying their state from 10:01 AM to 10:03 AM.
On the macroscopic timeline, the end of each thread still aligns, all at 10:03 AM.
Conversely, time acceleration works similarly. It's like a spiraling thread that becomes longer within a defined limit, but at its end, it still aligns with the ends of other threads outside.
As for time loops, they are like a Mobius strip; that particular thread keeps circling within that segment. Dormammu was trapped and spun around in such a small loop.
Time flowed by, little by little. Outside, a day and a night had already passed.
The orb of light in front of Qingshui and Old Heavenly Master gradually shrank, returning from the size of a human head to its original rice-grain size.
The feeling of seeing everything clearly, right before their eyes, also slowly faded.
Qingshui and Old Heavenly Master had already withdrawn their hands and were closing their eyes, sensing the gains from their experience.
A few hours later, Qingshui, having finished sorting things out, was the first to open his eyes. He glanced at the Old Heavenly Master beside him, whose aura was becoming increasingly ethereal, but didn't disturb him. Instead, he sat cross-legged, exploring the abilities he had just developed.
"Innate Qi can now be self-synthesized by drawing in Natural Energy from the outside. My body, stimulated by this energy, has become more active, and my life essence is slowly increasing as I refine my Innate Qi. Judging by the current state, after this Avatar's foundation is fully converted, my lifespan should be able to increase to nearly three hundred years."
"Both in my normal state and in the Reverse Life state, my basic abilities like strength and speed have significantly increased. It's foreseeable that using this higher-quality energy to cast Ninjutsu and magic will also yield better results."
Feeling the abundant Innate Qi within him, Qingshui nodded with considerable satisfaction.
As the quality of Innate Qi improved, he too could become a powerful "stat monster."
The upper limit of this thing was much stronger than mere Qi or Chakra.
Furthermore, with the refinement of his mental aura and the strengthening of his mental power, he could also receive a super Buff that significantly increased all his stats.
Assuming a new Avatar were deployed now, it wouldn't need to do anything. As long as that world had Natural Energy, just relying on Breathing Style and mental aura, it could start with the combat strength of an Elite Jonin.
If it had some time to cultivate and strengthen itself, relying on Innate Qi, it could directly possess Kage-level strength. If it then had more time to collect materials to build Puppet Armor and deepen its cultivation, it could even have Dragon-level threshold combat power if placed in the One-Punch Man world.
And this was merely one of the gains.
In the past, regarding space, Qingshui's earliest related skill was Summoning Jutsu, followed by the Blood Demon Art Flying Thunder God obtained through his Perfect Demonization body.
However, this was just a basic version of Flying Thunder God; he could teleport using his own blood as a coordinate. Qingshui initially only knew that it worked, but not why it worked. He could use it, but couldn't decipher its principles.
Later, in the Marvel Universe, he learned a lot through magic, but it still required high-quality energy to cast. Then, he obtained the Wang Family's Divine Coating technique from Wang Ai. His Marvel Universe Avatar also secretly learned some spatial techniques during Dormammu's invasion, initially stepping onto this path.
It was roughly like pushing the door to space half-open and stepping one foot inside.
But now, he finally had an opportunity to fully step in with both feet, and it had pushed him much deeper.
Those spatial domain skills, at this very moment, were like mathematical and physical formulas. From principle to application, they were deeply imprinted in Qingshui's mind, without any remaining limitations.
He could even try to integrate these existing formulas and deduce others.
He also had considerable gains in the domains of time and reality.
While not comparable to space, which had already embarked on the great path, he had still gained one or two practical and powerful skills.
It was a pity that this opportunity was almost completely used up here. Even absorbing the remaining small speck of light wouldn't cause much qualitative change, so he decided to leave that bit behind.
In the future, this speck of light could recover, it just needed the accumulation of time.
Over nine hundred years ago, during the mid-to-late Northern Song Dynasty, True Man Ziyang Zhang Boduan did the same, sealing this opportunity and setting up trials to test whether later generations were worthy of obtaining it.
As Qingshui finished his simple review of the gains, Old Heavenly Master, beside him, also opened his eyes. White wisps of Qi continuously emanated from his body, like the feathers of a crane.
"This is... becoming an immortal and ascending?"
Qingshui looked at Old Heavenly Master's posture, feeling quite surprised and uncertain.
In his perception, he found himself unable to discern Old Heavenly Master's true depth.
This feeling was quite similar to when he first encountered Dormammu.
Could he really have cultivated himself into a small world?
Old Heavenly Master gave Qingshui an affirmative answer.
"Indeed, I have cultivated the Dragon-Tiger Golden Core as spoken of by our patriarchs. It's not like in those supernatural novels where a golden core forms in the dantian. Rather, it's about aligning the Five Viscera with the Five Elements, and life and destiny with Yin and Yang. The dragon and tiger harmonize, becoming an integrated whole. The body itself becomes the Golden Core, reversing to the Innate state, forming its own universe. What you see now is the process of transforming acquired Qi into Innate Qi, and concurrently expelling the excess Innate Qi that balances energy. This high-quality Innate Qi is also our generation's repayment to this world before we leave it."
Old Heavenly Master spoke with undisguised pride.
"So, you're going to ascend, just like the Anomalous Humans who became immortals throughout history?"
"That's right. Since I've cultivated a world within my body, if I don't want to harm the world that nurtured us, I must leave as soon as possible. With my current cultivation, I can only remain for three days at most. After three days, it won't be excess Innate Qi being expelled, but my very essence will be affected. At that point, it wouldn't be daylight ascension, but rather my body merging with the Heavenly Dao, becoming a small world assimilated by this greater world."
So, this was the truth behind feathering and ascension.
Those who became immortals in the past, highly accomplished seniors, didn't choose not to stay and exert their power and influence, but rather couldn't stay at all.
What's called becoming an immortal is almost equivalent to cultivating oneself into a single universe, becoming a Dimensional Demon God like Dormammu, except their dimension is just a weak, tiny single universe.
Even if there's still a huge gap in energy levels and their respective methods, they can be considered beings of the same tier. The Old Heavenly Master's current state is akin to a newborn Dimensional Demon God infant.
Even though he is now over a hundred years old, compared to Dimensional Demon Gods who are hundreds of millions, or even billions of years old, a hundred years is indeed equivalent to just being born.
"A Heavenly Master seeks the Dao, but I seek both the Dao and techniques, which seems a bit greedy," Qingshui remarked with a sigh.
However, he had no regrets. The amount of natural Qi was too small. The portion he received after splitting it with the Old Heavenly Master wasn't enough to push his Avatar to this level.
The foundation of this Avatar wasn't sufficient.
Even though its combat power was strong, already standing at the peak of this world and having a deep cultivation within the Anomalous Human cultivation system, it was still far from the Old Heavenly Master's level.
Reflected in Reverse Life Triple, the life cultivation of this body was only enough to sustain his cultivation to the mid-second stage. It was still a bit short of Lu Jin's level before his life-or-death battle with Li Muxuan.
At that time, Lu Jin was in the late second stage, just one step away from the peak of the second stage, where one reconstructs the three Dantians.
Moreover, even if he could push this Avatar to that level, what could it bring back to the main body?
Perhaps some characteristics of a Dimensional Demon God could be synchronized back, but it would undoubtedly require an immense amount of Fortune.
It would be more cost-effective to directly comprehend techniques that don't require Fortune to bring back, just like comprehending the Eight Unique Skills.
Besides, the natural Qi here is renewable. He could think of ways later to accelerate its accumulation. When this Avatar's realm reaches a certain point, coming back again wouldn't be impossible.
And by then, who knows what level the main body would have grown to.
"The Dao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to all things. All things originate from the Dao, and techniques can also approach the Dao. Professor Zhuo, you have nothing to regret. In the eyes of others, I, the old man, have already attained the Dao, but I still have to continue seeking it. Techniques and the Dao are inherently intertwined. If you were to reach my level, you would actually have to seek the Dao by evolving your inner world, or by plundering other worlds to accelerate the evolution process. At that point, the more techniques one masters and the closer they are to the Dao, the more complete and naturally stronger their inner world will be," Zhang Zhiwei said to Qingshui, stroking his long white beard.
Two days later.
Longhu Mountain, Jiangxi. Celestial Master's Mansion.
Large numbers of Anomalous Humans, from across the nation and even the world, poured into the area.
Almost everyone who could make it arrived.
This was because the Old Heavenly Master was about to ascend to immortality, and before his ascension, he would lecture on the Dao for a full day.
There were at least seventy to eighty thousand Anomalous Humans across the nation, and four to five hundred thousand worldwide. Yet, on this day, over a hundred thousand Anomalous Humans came to Longhu Mountain.
To the public, the Daoist Association could only announce that this was a long-planned Grand Heavenly Ceremony.
The Grand Heavenly Ceremony is similar to the Luo Tian Grand Ceremony but of a higher specification. Above the Luo Tian Grand Ceremony is the Universal Grand Ceremony.
Throughout the history of Daoism, there are only five clearly recorded Universal Grand Ceremonies and only three Grand Heavenly Ceremonies have been held.
This was the fourth.
This kept Nadou Tong's Central China branch so busy that they had to temporarily borrow personnel from the South China, North China, and Southwest China regions to help.
Managing over a hundred thousand Anomalous Humans with various supernatural abilities was indeed a huge challenge.
Fortunately, Longhu Mountain itself is a well-known tourist attraction, having experience hosting over a hundred thousand tourists in a single day during holidays.
However, at any given time, there were usually only forty to fifty thousand.
This forced the Celestial Master's Mansion and the local culture and tourism bureau to temporarily set up many venues to accommodate these Anomalous Humans.
But even so, only a few thousand people in one plaza could personally hear the Old Heavenly Master's lecture.
Fortunately, this is a modern world, and the lecture could be watched via live stream.
Aside from not being able to personally experience the Dao charm when a true immortal lectures on the Dao, and not having the opportunity to ask questions, it wasn't much different from being there in person.
On the eve of this Grand Heavenly Ceremony, the Old Heavenly Master had already secretly held a closed-door Dharma assembly, writing down all his insights and compiling them into the Dragon-Tiger True Chapter of Seeking the Dao.
Those who received this transmission, besides the Old Heavenly Master's direct disciples and a few important grand-disciples like Zhang Chulan, were only Qingshui and Lu Jin, who were present.
On the first day of the Grand Heavenly Ceremony, after the lecture concluded, at five in the afternoon.
The sky was still bright, not yet evening.
Under the gaze and witness of numerous disciples from Longhu Mountain, many representatives from the Anomalous Human World, and multiple Anomalous Human envoys from around the world, Zhang Zhiwei, the 65th Heavenly Master of Longhu Mountain and Heavenly Daoist, after passing on the position of Heavenly Master to his closed-door disciple Zhang Lingyu, Ascended to immortality in broad daylight, transforming into an immortal!
...
...
Naruto World.
Sand Village, highest experimental base.
Qingshui's main body sat in a chair, picking up a brush and writing down the Old Heavenly Master's Dragon-Tiger True Chapter of Seeking the Dao, meticulously pondering it.
Even for the current Qingshui, this was highly valuable for reference.
The path he walked was not the same as the Old Heavenly Master's, but different paths lead to the same destination. This cultivation journal could also point him in the direction of how to proceed with a part of his future path.
Yes, this was just a cultivation journal, not a cultivation method.
If it were a common cultivation method, even a slightly profound one, given the Old Heavenly Master's current realm and vision, he could write it down effortlessly.
But to write something that could allow later generations to ascend to immortality like him, cultivate an inner world, and transform into a Dimensional Demon God, that would require much more time, and he might not even be able to write it.
-----------
Machine Translation by: https:// beta.randomtranslator.com/
Read 1111+ original & fanfic translations in English, Español, Português, Deutsch, Français, or Русский at: https:// beta.randomtranslator.com/
Join our Discord: https:// discord.gg/NSWvfN7vua
-----------