Chapter 580: Escaping the Black Tide
A moment later, the corpse belonging to Chen Yan from countless eons ago once again appeared intact before him.
Troublesome.
Far too troublesome.
Chen Yan stared at the body that looked exactly like his own and sank into deep thought.
A corpse that could be reshaped over and over by the black tide, capable of using every technique he himself could deploy at the peak of the Unity Realm.
He simply couldn't think of any way to destroy this corpse head-on.
But Chen Yan hadn't forgotten his current goal—to hold out for as much time as possible.
The fully restored corpse began to move again.
In the process of battling the corpse that belonged to him from countless ages past, Chen Yan started noticing something unusual.
The corpse before him, wearing the Kongyuan Mountain Daoist robes, wasn't the true version of himself from the past. Instead, it was a replica created while he was fighting alongside countless cultivators at Qingxuan Mountain.
The reason Chen Yan realized this was because he recalled that during his battles at Qingxuan Mountain against those frenzied cultivators, he hadn't gone all out. For instance, he only used the Great Derivation Art to manifest immortal artifacts, heal injuries, and replenish spiritual energy. It was only in the final confrontation with the fallen Immortal that he manifested a bit of Immortal Qi.
Chen Yan never used the Great Derivation Art to create External Incarnations or other techniques.
The corpse before him was the same.
It seemed that this corpse merely copied all the techniques he had used at Qingxuan Mountain.
No, it wasn't even a copy.
It was just a projection.
But this realization didn't help Chen Yan at all.
Under the relentless assault of the indestructible corpse, even with a full major realm gap, Chen Yan couldn't dodge every attack or evade everything with the Emptiness Annihilation Art.
Because the techniques Chen Yan possessed could indeed allow one to kill enemies across realms.
Since he could use these techniques to slay cultivators of higher cultivation levels than himself.
Then Chen Yan himself would inevitably be killed by those same techniques across realms.
The result was cycle after cycle of reincarnation.
Chen Yan did everything in his power to fight his own corpse and dodge the black tide surging in from all directions. But as the black tide gradually closed in, it left him almost no room to maneuver.
He could only watch helplessly as the dark tide rushed toward him.
In the end, Chen Yan had only two choices.
One was to be killed by his own corpse. The other was to manifest Immortal Qi and kill himself.
Of course, he didn't want to be swallowed by the spatial rifts again, and the reasons for that had already been explained.
If he could hold out for more time...
[Reincarnation Ended]
...then maybe there would still be a turning point.
[Current Reincarnation Evaluation Grade: D+]
The greatest comfort Chen Yan found was that every few reincarnations, the reincarnation save point would move forward by one cycle.
[Accumulated Cultivation: Peak Divine Ability]
Every time the reincarnation save point advanced, Chen Yan received a certain accumulated cultivation coefficient. He hadn't calculated exactly what number it had reached, but he knew that even at the same peak Divine Ability Realm, his current true strength was several times greater than what it had been dozens of reincarnations ago.
[Reincarnation Reward: Accumulated Cultivation Coefficient × 1.1]
Chen Yan's talent meant that even if his cultivation realm was forcibly elevated, he could barely stay at the minimum standard for that realm.
This also meant that without the reincarnation-rewarded techniques like the Hidden Immortal Art, Great Derivation Art, Xun Wind Step, and Li Fire Seal—arts far superior to those of Chenping Continent's cultivation world—Chen Yan would absolutely not be a match for ninety percent of cultivators at the same realm, let alone the elites among them.
But now, Chen Yan was beginning to change.
[Detected that the Accumulated Cultivation Coefficient has reached the First Standard!]
[Dispensing Coefficient Reward: Kan Water Art]
[Unlocking First Divine Ability: Conceal the True, Return to Stillness]
...
He had lost count of whether this was the dozens or hundreds of times he had regained consciousness.
In this cycle, what Chen Yan had to face was the crimson flame raging toward him from his own corpse's whip.
Chen Yan's gaze sharpened.
Then, he quickly activated the Great Derivation Art, gathering faint blue water ripples before him, which eventually condensed into a mirror.
An immortal artifact: the Kan Water Mirror.
After that, Chen Yan fixed his gaze on the crimson flame whip in his corpse's hand and gently pointed a finger through the air.
Conceal the True, Return to Stillness.
The crimson flame whip in the corpse's hand vanished instantly, as if it had never existed in this world.
The blood-red flames crashed against the Kan Water Mirror and, in the blink of an eye, were transformed into countless spiritual energies and lingering resonances of the immortal path, dissipating into the air.
In this cycle, Chen Yan seemed able to hold out a bit longer than the last. But even though he had gained new techniques and unlocked his Divine Ability.
He was still just a cultivator in the Divine Ability Realm. Faced with this black tide of unknown origin, he remained powerless.
Should he keep save-scumming?
With no escape left, Chen Yan stared at the encroaching black tide and fell into brief contemplation.
There was no room for further maneuvering in this situation.
If he reincarnated again, he might end up trapped in a dead save.
Could it be... that Heaven's Dao guidance wanted him to fall into the spatial rifts again?
Chen Yan hesitated, torn between continuing to save-scum and resist the black tide, or giving up and falling into the spatial rifts.
Just then, a massive hand suddenly reached in from outside, tearing apart the dark tide formed by cracks, crushing the corpse into powder, and then grabbing Chen Yan firmly and pulling him outward.
What came into Chen Yan's view as he was yanked out of the darkness was a clear blue sky, with the pitch-black rift like the maw of an abyssal giant slowly healing above.
And beside him stood Mr. You, his body covered in black cracks, looking like he could shatter at any moment.
Even Mr. You, who had already stepped into the Uncarved Simplicity Realm, couldn't gain any advantage against the Goddess Statue and the existence behind It.
But at least, he had finally returned from the spatial rifts.
Mr. You, holding Chen Yan in hand, turned into a streak of light and, in an instant, crossed tens of millions of miles, bringing Chen Yan from two hundred thousand miles north of Heavenly Summit Mountain to a lone island on the edge of the Southern Region of Chenping Continent.
This was Fusheng Island.
"How do you feel?"
Mr. You landed on Fusheng Island and sat down against a large tree.
His face still bore that calm, effortless smile, as if everything was under control.
But the black cracks on his body were spreading more and more severely.
Then, a piece of his cheek actually flaked off. Behind that fragment wasn't flesh and blood—
It was the pitch-black spatial rift.