Xue Ying watched as everything on the street before him turned still. He was able to sense through the Laws of Profound Mysteries that the time flow in the external world was slowed down to a crawl—time essentially stopped passing! Or rather, it was more accurate to say that the time flow in his region was actually much, much faster than that of the external world.
A powerful voice rang, "Dong Bo Xue Ying." It was a dull sound, as if the speaker was in a much higher position.
"My Temporal Temple is extending another invitation to you," the voice began. "This is the second time, and as per the rules set by my Temporal Temple of each person being given a maximum of two invitations…there will be no third! You could even grasp hold of a grade one True Meaning in the future, but my Temporal Temple would still not offer you a third chance! I suggest you think this over carefully."
While the Bloodshed Tavern belonged to the Bloodshed God Palace, the Temporal Temple belonged to the Temporal Island!
These two organizations were the strongest and biggest superpowers of the Deity World and the Dark Abyss, situated at the very apex of influence. They had deep foundations and could be considered unshakeable by any external factors! While a grade one True Meaning might be able to attract the attention of certain World Deity experts, the Bloodshed God Palace and the Temporal Island both had their own rules and procedures to follow. They wouldn’t be so thick-skinned as to just send out invitations over and over again.
The Temporal Temple was able to extend its influence throughout the countless mortal worlds, the Deity World, and the Dark Abyss, which greatly increased their chances to find genius Transcendents. That also meant, however, that their conditions for accepting them into their ranks were stricter than usual.
The other superpowers were to be pitied, however, since if they wanted to send any treasures to a mortal world, they would have to suffer through the Temporal Temple’s fierce exploitation!
For instance, even the entire resource pool of all of the ancestor Deities of the Xia Clan wouldn’t be enough to send a complete cure for Xue Ying; the price was truly exaggerated. For the moment, Xue Ying did not possess the qualifications necessary to persuade those superpowers into saving him. The Temporal Temple alone had the possibility of moving Xue Ying to the Deity World, where he could be cured at a negligible price.
"If you accept joining us, curing the Six Ghosts Resentment in your body would be a cinch! Once completely recovered, your current comprehension of the realms would allow you to easily get a secondary primordial bloodline awakening to enter the realm of Demigods, and you would also be able to use your Qi one again," the voice explained. "Furthermore, you would become a gold order emissary, as previously mentioned, and receive two Deity weapons well suited to you. Your fortune would be completely transformed! If you refuse the help of my Temporal Temple, I’m afraid you’re simply not qualified to have the other superpowers give you a hand in curing the poison. You’ll have to continue suffering under the torture of the hexing poison, finally gambling your life in the Crimson Rock Mountain just for a chance at life."
"There’s always hope that I’ll manage to cure the poison by going to Crimson Rock Mountain, is there not?" Xue Ying laughed.
"Indeed, there’s hope, but there’s just as much of a chance you’ll die," the voice replied. As a Treasure Spirit of the Temporal Temple, he would never respond with a lie. "I have to let you know, curing the Six Ghosts Resentment is not something your Xia Clan sees as an easy task that can be achieved just by taking a trip to Crimson Rock Mountain. It will be truly difficult to cure the poison, and the mountain itself is incredibly dangerous."
"But there’s still a huge chance of success, right??" Xue Ying retorted.
"Are you ready to reject our offer?" the grand voice questioned back.
"I’m trying to weigh my options carefully at the moment, so I’m asking more questions," Xue Ying continued. "Oh, right. The conditions you’re offering this time around are about the same as the last time, with the exception of those two Deity weapons, correct? That shouldn’t make much of a difference, seeing how I’ve already been able to obtain more than one Deity weapon."
"That’s simply because there aren’t any major differences from the last time we approached you," the voice explained. "Back then, you had only cultivated for a few dozen years including your time as a mortal, and were able to grasp hold of three grade two True Meanings, all of them following different directions. Your comprehension ability is extremely impressive! Had you joined us back then, you would have likely attained a secret skill much faster than you did by yourself! The conditions we may offer are limited and can’t get better than that. Even the Temporal Temple follows some rules."
Xue Ying was contemplating.
"Allow me to remind you that your Xia Clan is on the brink of a huge catastrophe. Not only are your enemies two World Deities, they aren’t your run of the mill Deities, with one of them a Great Demonic God who cultivated to quite a deep level of the realms and the other a lord of a unique material world! Right now, your Xia Clan can only depend on those several ancestor Deities for help, and none of them are even World Deities. It’s quite clear your foundation doesn’t compare with theirs.
"As soon as they put their plans in motion, there’s a 99% chance you’ll be defeated, with your whole clan facing extinction!"
The more Xue Ying heard, the more his pupils contracted.
"The only reason they’re being so careful, outside of being on guard against your Xia Clan, is that they’re mindful of the Temple of the Earth God. But I can tell you that, as long as they paid the right price, the Temple of the Earth God would easily give up on their believers in this mortal world," the powerful voice continued. "If you were to join our Temporal Temple, you could turn your hometown into your resting area, where you can return after finishing your missions! Furthermore, you could also purchase a huge amount of treasures within the Temporal Temple, which you could then bring back to your hometown. By doing so, you wouldn’t have to pay any price. Your ancestors, on the other hand, can only send treasures over at a great cost!
"Considering your innate talent and combat power, in addition to the grooming abilities of my Temporal Temple, you would probably send over many more treasures than your ancestor Deities combined have ever sent!
"Not only that, your combat power will also quickly increase! By the time the war even begins…you will have become a huge boon to your Xia Clan.
"Alright, take your time to consider it."
The treasure spirit of the Temporal Temple hadn’t spent any time researching Xue Ying in particular, but with his ability, he could easily understand Xue Ying’s state of mind and send the invitation according to his personality.
Xue Ying nodded but didn’t hide his frown. "Have I heard correctly that as soon as I join the Temporal Temple, it will be very hard to me to regain my freedom, and that even my soul will be controlled?"
"The Temporal Temple would be sending you to various locations, and very fast at that, so there will naturally be some degree of control involved. However, everything is governed by certain rules! Had my Temporal Temple simply acted as they wished, the Temporal Island would not have become such an incredible superpower in the Deity world and the Dark Abyss," the voice relayed. "As a gold order emissary, you would naturally be quite free. Once you become a World Deity, you would get an even bigger degree of freedom. By then, you could simply ignore these restrictions."
He was once again disregarded…
The control on his soul was a certainty.
Even so, everyone would still be under some degree of control! As his combat power rose, the restrictions would become weaker and weaker. Xue Ying found that joining the Temporal Temple would fit him quite well at that moment!
After all, the threat brought about by the Sorcerer God and the Great Demonic God was too big!
It had yet to surface, but once it did…would they really be able to repel it?
At the small price of some of his freedom, as well as the danger of those missions, he could trade for a great amount of resources which might give the Xia Clan a chance at becoming the victor of the incoming war. It was worth the price.
"Once I join the Temporal Temple, must I begin going on missions right away without break?" Xue Ying asked.
The voice replied, "Indeed, during these early periods of your cultivation, we can’t go easy with training you."
"What I’m afraid of is that the Sorcerer God and the Great Demonic God might trigger the war while I’m on one of my missions," Xue Ying explained. This was a true possibility. He was the strongest member of the Xia Clan, and he would certainly become even stronger with time. The two Deities were not idiots; they would certainly choose a moment when he wasn’t in the Xia Clan World to being the war.
"Which is why I have a request. I would like for the Temporal Temple to keep watch over the Xia Clan World, and inform me as soon as the war erupts. At that point, I would have to stop doing my mission and return back home! As for the mission, I could just complete it some other time," Xue Ying finished.
"There’s no problem with stopping the mission, as it is one of the privileges of gold order emissaries, but I couldn’t possibly keep watch over the Xia Clan world," the powerful voice replied. "I am in charge of moving thousands of Reincarnators, so I must scout the many worlds out there. It’s impossible for me to keep watch over a single world."
Xue Ying was startled.
"You must also understand this—the Temporal Temple is only inviting you as part of an order given by my master; you’re not qualified to ask us to do anything. Even World Deities are existences I can afford to ignore. I only follow the orders of my master. As such, once you join us, you’ll only have the privileges any ordinary gold order emissary has as you go on missions. You will not receive any more than that."
Xue Ying was enlightened. Indeed, he was just a minor character. The treasure spirit of the Temporal Temple didn’t have to fulfil his requests, and the invitation was just part of the rules.
"Then, may I exchange the Deity weapons which I would receive for certain treasures which I can leave behind in the clan, whose activation by my clansmen I will be able to sense when completing my mission?"
"Your combat power is, indeed, quite high, so you will almost certainly be sent on missions in the Dark Abyss and the Deity world. The distance between them and your mortal world is simply too large, and the material world would block off your senses; you couldn’t even maintain a Qi avatar. You’re also not yet a Deity, so it is impossible for you to sense the world by using a treasure. However, with a good enough performance, you might be able to exchange for certain precious avatar cultivation techniques."
"Avatar?" Xue Ying asked.
"World Deities, as well as other various experts of that level, all have several avatars made with a technique which Demigods are also able to cultivate. You could exchange for the manual within the Temporal Temple," the voice clarified. "At that point, you could leave your true body behind in your hometown while sending your avatar on missions."
Xue Ying asked, "Exchange for it at what price? How many ordinary Deity weapons is it the equivalent of?"
"A hundred of them," the voice answered.
"So expensive?" Xue Ying was stunned.
"It’s rare even for Deities to have avatars, much less Demigods, so avatar cultivation techniques are truly precious. This can even be considered a low price. In the Deity world, you might not even be able to get such a technique with over a thousand Deity weapons. The price we’re giving you is a privilege of a gold order emissary," the voice continued. There was another side of this deal which he did not reveal to Xue Ying, however, and that was that even if he did attain the cultivation method, he would still need many other treasures on top of it. But as Xue Ying didn’t ask, he wouldn’t tell him of his own accord. After all, his purpose was to ensure Xue Ying joined them.
Xue Ying frowned. He was not pleased with the deal.
He was fine with joining the Temporal Temple, but the problem of him doing missions while the war erupted still stood. If the war ended before he had the chance to return, would there even be any point in him joining them?
"If I can’t help the Xia Clan, is there even any sense in joining the Temporal Temple?" Xue Ying shook his head.
The voice tried to persuade him, "You can exchange for certain treasures to help the clan."
Xue Ying shook his head once more.
Treasures?
Treasures needed someone to use them. Hadn’t the Xia Clan just earlier been under huge pressure because of Lord You Lan? Xue Ying’s combat power was now comparable to his, and would only rise in the future! His abilities would certainly be of greater help in the war than a few treasures.
"If you can’t ensure I will be present when the war begins against my Xia Clan, and that I would be immediately able to join them, I will have to decline the invitation," Xue Ying began. "I would rather risk my life in the Crimson Rock Mountain. There’s hope within it that I’ll be able to cure my poison and attain treasures, while also retaining my freedom."
"There’s also the chance you’ll die inside."
"Being alive makes no difference if it means I can’t even join my Xia Clan in the war."
"Keep in mind that the Temporal Temple will not give you a third chance! Once you decline, it will mean that the temple will never invite you again."
"Then I’ll have to see that I have no fate with your Temporal Temple!"
"Alright."
That mystical, boundless wave of force rapidly retreated, leaving the Xia Clan world and returning the time flow in the region to its original speed.
The hawkers on the sides of the street continued their shouts, and the voices and laughter of the people could be heard again.
Xue Ying looked up at the sky. He felt a bright light fill his heart; this was his path, and he would walk it to the end! He would go to Crimson Rock Mountain and carve himself a future—everything now depended on that spear in his hand!
Xue Ying watched as everything on the street before him turned still. He was able to sense through the Laws of Profound Mysteries that the time flow in the external world was slowed down to a crawl—time essentially stopped passing! Or rather, it was more accurate to say that the time flow in his region was actually much, much faster than that of the external world.
A powerful voice rang, "Dong Bo Xue Ying." It was a dull sound, as if the speaker was in a much higher position.
"My Temporal Temple is extending another invitation to you," the voice began. "This is the second time, and as per the rules set by my Temporal Temple of each person being given a maximum of two invitations…there will be no third! You could even grasp hold of a grade one True Meaning in the future, but my Temporal Temple would still not offer you a third chance! I suggest you think this over carefully."
While the Bloodshed Tavern belonged to the Bloodshed God Palace, the Temporal Temple belonged to the Temporal Island!
These two organizations were the strongest and biggest superpowers of the Deity World and the Dark Abyss, situated at the very apex of influence. They had deep foundations and could be considered unshakeable by any external factors! While a grade one True Meaning might be able to attract the attention of certain World Deity experts, the Bloodshed God Palace and the Temporal Island both had their own rules and procedures to follow. They wouldn’t be so thick-skinned as to just send out invitations over and over again.
The Temporal Temple was able to extend its influence throughout the countless mortal worlds, the Deity World, and the Dark Abyss, which greatly increased their chances to find genius Transcendents. That also meant, however, that their conditions for accepting them into their ranks were stricter than usual.
The other superpowers were to be pitied, however, since if they wanted to send any treasures to a mortal world, they would have to suffer through the Temporal Temple’s fierce exploitation!
For instance, even the entire resource pool of all of the ancestor Deities of the Xia Clan wouldn’t be enough to send a complete cure for Xue Ying; the price was truly exaggerated. For the moment, Xue Ying did not possess the qualifications necessary to persuade those superpowers into saving him. The Temporal Temple alone had the possibility of moving Xue Ying to the Deity World, where he could be cured at a negligible price.
"If you accept joining us, curing the Six Ghosts Resentment in your body would be a cinch! Once completely recovered, your current comprehension of the realms would allow you to easily get a secondary primordial bloodline awakening to enter the realm of Demigods, and you would also be able to use your Qi one again," the voice explained. "Furthermore, you would become a gold order emissary, as previously mentioned, and receive two Deity weapons well suited to you. Your fortune would be completely transformed! If you refuse the help of my Temporal Temple, I’m afraid you’re simply not qualified to have the other superpowers give you a hand in curing the poison. You’ll have to continue suffering under the torture of the hexing poison, finally gambling your life in the Crimson Rock Mountain just for a chance at life."
"There’s always hope that I’ll manage to cure the poison by going to Crimson Rock Mountain, is there not?" Xue Ying laughed.
"Indeed, there’s hope, but there’s just as much of a chance you’ll die," the voice replied. As a Treasure Spirit of the Temporal Temple, he would never respond with a lie. "I have to let you know, curing the Six Ghosts Resentment is not something your Xia Clan sees as an easy task that can be achieved just by taking a trip to Crimson Rock Mountain. It will be truly difficult to cure the poison, and the mountain itself is incredibly dangerous."
"But there’s still a huge chance of success, right??" Xue Ying retorted.
"Are you ready to reject our offer?" the grand voice questioned back.
"I’m trying to weigh my options carefully at the moment, so I’m asking more questions," Xue Ying continued. "Oh, right. The conditions you’re offering this time around are about the same as the last time, with the exception of those two Deity weapons, correct? That shouldn’t make much of a difference, seeing how I’ve already been able to obtain more than one Deity weapon."
"That’s simply because there aren’t any major differences from the last time we approached you," the voice explained. "Back then, you had only cultivated for a few dozen years including your time as a mortal, and were able to grasp hold of three grade two True Meanings, all of them following different directions. Your comprehension ability is extremely impressive! Had you joined us back then, you would have likely attained a secret skill much faster than you did by yourself! The conditions we may offer are limited and can’t get better than that. Even the Temporal Temple follows some rules."
Xue Ying was contemplating.
"Allow me to remind you that your Xia Clan is on the brink of a huge catastrophe. Not only are your enemies two World Deities, they aren’t your run of the mill Deities, with one of them a Great Demonic God who cultivated to quite a deep level of the realms and the other a lord of a unique material world! Right now, your Xia Clan can only depend on those several ancestor Deities for help, and none of them are even World Deities. It’s quite clear your foundation doesn’t compare with theirs.
"As soon as they put their plans in motion, there’s a 99% chance you’ll be defeated, with your whole clan facing extinction!"
The more Xue Ying heard, the more his pupils contracted.
"The only reason they’re being so careful, outside of being on guard against your Xia Clan, is that they’re mindful of the Temple of the Earth God. But I can tell you that, as long as they paid the right price, the Temple of the Earth God would easily give up on their believers in this mortal world," the powerful voice continued. "If you were to join our Temporal Temple, you could turn your hometown into your resting area, where you can return after finishing your missions! Furthermore, you could also purchase a huge amount of treasures within the Temporal Temple, which you could then bring back to your hometown. By doing so, you wouldn’t have to pay any price. Your ancestors, on the other hand, can only send treasures over at a great cost!
"Considering your innate talent and combat power, in addition to the grooming abilities of my Temporal Temple, you would probably send over many more treasures than your ancestor Deities combined have ever sent!
"Not only that, your combat power will also quickly increase! By the time the war even begins…you will have become a huge boon to your Xia Clan.
"Alright, take your time to consider it."
The treasure spirit of the Temporal Temple hadn’t spent any time researching Xue Ying in particular, but with his ability, he could easily understand Xue Ying’s state of mind and send the invitation according to his personality.
Xue Ying nodded but didn’t hide his frown. "Have I heard correctly that as soon as I join the Temporal Temple, it will be very hard to me to regain my freedom, and that even my soul will be controlled?"
"The Temporal Temple would be sending you to various locations, and very fast at that, so there will naturally be some degree of control involved. However, everything is governed by certain rules! Had my Temporal Temple simply acted as they wished, the Temporal Island would not have become such an incredible superpower in the Deity world and the Dark Abyss," the voice relayed. "As a gold order emissary, you would naturally be quite free. Once you become a World Deity, you would get an even bigger degree of freedom. By then, you could simply ignore these restrictions."
He was once again disregarded…
The control on his soul was a certainty.
Even so, everyone would still be under some degree of control! As his combat power rose, the restrictions would become weaker and weaker. Xue Ying found that joining the Temporal Temple would fit him quite well at that moment!
After all, the threat brought about by the Sorcerer God and the Great Demonic God was too big!
It had yet to surface, but once it did…would they really be able to repel it?
At the small price of some of his freedom, as well as the danger of those missions, he could trade for a great amount of resources which might give the Xia Clan a chance at becoming the victor of the incoming war. It was worth the price.
"Once I join the Temporal Temple, must I begin going on missions right away without break?" Xue Ying asked.
The voice replied, "Indeed, during these early periods of your cultivation, we can’t go easy with training you."
"What I’m afraid of is that the Sorcerer God and the Great Demonic God might trigger the war while I’m on one of my missions," Xue Ying explained. This was a true possibility. He was the strongest member of the Xia Clan, and he would certainly become even stronger with time. The two Deities were not idiots; they would certainly choose a moment when he wasn’t in the Xia Clan World to being the war.
"Which is why I have a request. I would like for the Temporal Temple to keep watch over the Xia Clan World, and inform me as soon as the war erupts. At that point, I would have to stop doing my mission and return back home! As for the mission, I could just complete it some other time," Xue Ying finished.
"There’s no problem with stopping the mission, as it is one of the privileges of gold order emissaries, but I couldn’t possibly keep watch over the Xia Clan world," the powerful voice replied. "I am in charge of moving thousands of Reincarnators, so I must scout the many worlds out there. It’s impossible for me to keep watch over a single world."
Xue Ying was startled.
"You must also understand this—the Temporal Temple is only inviting you as part of an order given by my master; you’re not qualified to ask us to do anything. Even World Deities are existences I can afford to ignore. I only follow the orders of my master. As such, once you join us, you’ll only have the privileges any ordinary gold order emissary has as you go on missions. You will not receive any more than that."
Xue Ying was enlightened. Indeed, he was just a minor character. The treasure spirit of the Temporal Temple didn’t have to fulfil his requests, and the invitation was just part of the rules.
"Then, may I exchange the Deity weapons which I would receive for certain treasures which I can leave behind in the clan, whose activation by my clansmen I will be able to sense when completing my mission?"
"Your combat power is, indeed, quite high, so you will almost certainly be sent on missions in the Dark Abyss and the Deity world. The distance between them and your mortal world is simply too large, and the material world would block off your senses; you couldn’t even maintain a Qi avatar. You’re also not yet a Deity, so it is impossible for you to sense the world by using a treasure. However, with a good enough performance, you might be able to exchange for certain precious avatar cultivation techniques."
"Avatar?" Xue Ying asked.
"World Deities, as well as other various experts of that level, all have several avatars made with a technique which Demigods are also able to cultivate. You could exchange for the manual within the Temporal Temple," the voice clarified. "At that point, you could leave your true body behind in your hometown while sending your avatar on missions."
Xue Ying asked, "Exchange for it at what price? How many ordinary Deity weapons is it the equivalent of?"
"A hundred of them," the voice answered.
"So expensive?" Xue Ying was stunned.
"It’s rare even for Deities to have avatars, much less Demigods, so avatar cultivation techniques are truly precious. This can even be considered a low price. In the Deity world, you might not even be able to get such a technique with over a thousand Deity weapons. The price we’re giving you is a privilege of a gold order emissary," the voice continued. There was another side of this deal which he did not reveal to Xue Ying, however, and that was that even if he did attain the cultivation method, he would still need many other treasures on top of it. But as Xue Ying didn’t ask, he wouldn’t tell him of his own accord. After all, his purpose was to ensure Xue Ying joined them.
Xue Ying frowned. He was not pleased with the deal.
He was fine with joining the Temporal Temple, but the problem of him doing missions while the war erupted still stood. If the war ended before he had the chance to return, would there even be any point in him joining them?
"If I can’t help the Xia Clan, is there even any sense in joining the Temporal Temple?" Xue Ying shook his head.
The voice tried to persuade him, "You can exchange for certain treasures to help the clan."
Xue Ying shook his head once more.
Treasures?
Treasures needed someone to use them. Hadn’t the Xia Clan just earlier been under huge pressure because of Lord You Lan? Xue Ying’s combat power was now comparable to his, and would only rise in the future! His abilities would certainly be of greater help in the war than a few treasures.
"If you can’t ensure I will be present when the war begins against my Xia Clan, and that I would be immediately able to join them, I will have to decline the invitation," Xue Ying began. "I would rather risk my life in the Crimson Rock Mountain. There’s hope within it that I’ll be able to cure my poison and attain treasures, while also retaining my freedom."
"There’s also the chance you’ll die inside."
"Being alive makes no difference if it means I can’t even join my Xia Clan in the war."
"Keep in mind that the Temporal Temple will not give you a third chance! Once you decline, it will mean that the temple will never invite you again."
"Then I’ll have to see that I have no fate with your Temporal Temple!"
"Alright."
That mystical, boundless wave of force rapidly retreated, leaving the Xia Clan world and returning the time flow in the region to its original speed.
The hawkers on the sides of the street continued their shouts, and the voices and laughter of the people could be heard again.
Xue Ying looked up at the sky. He felt a bright light fill his heart; this was his path, and he would walk it to the end! He would go to Crimson Rock Mountain and carve himself a future—everything now depended on that spear in his hand!
