You want me to aid your cultivation?
Absolutely impossible!
"ROOOAR—!"
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's roar shook the ancient trees, displaying all the defiance and arrogance of a sovereign beast.
Bang!
Li Zhexian's fist gleamed with a glazed luster; with a body comparable to a Title Douluo's, he slammed a punch straight into the tiger's head.
"Do you think I was negotiating with you?"
That punch—
Sent the devil tiger reeling, vision spinning.
With a pained howl, blood spurted from between its fangs.
"Not convinced?"
"Still roaring?"
Li Zhexian flipped over and straddled the tiger's neck.
His fists rained down like a downpour, so fast they left afterimages.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Er Ming watched from the side, grinning widely, cheering in a rumbling voice:
"Brother Zhexian, hit it harder!"
"This thing needs to be beaten within an inch of its life!"
"If you don't beat it into submission, it'll keep baring its fangs at you!"
Inside Li Zhexian's spiritual sea—
The Skydream Ice Worm trembled in terror.
"Brother Zhexian is way too ruthless…"
"Is… is he going to beat me like that one day?"
...
Half an hour later—
The evil tiger lay half-dead, its huge head pressed weakly against the ground.
Blood leaked from its mouth, staining the ground.
"...roar…"
This roar no longer held any pride or defiance—
only surrender.
Li Zhexian snorted coldly.
He pulled some tiger fur to wipe the blood from his fists.
He wasn't worried about this cunning creature rebelling.
The more intelligent the creature, the more it cherished its own life.
"I'll give you one incense stick to recover."
"After that, follow me to the Lake of Life to cultivate."
...
"Why hasn't Zhexian returned yet?"
Zhu Zhuqing looked toward the direction the youth had left, unable to hide the worry on her pretty face.
Xiao Wu beside her also showed clear anxiety in her pink eyes.
"Brother Zhexian and Er Ming together—the evil tiger won't be able to make trouble."
Da Ming tried to reassure them.
But seeing the girls still unsettled, he sighed:
"Fine… I'll take you two to find Brother Zhexian."
Just as he finished speaking—
Da Ming suddenly raised his head.
Deep in the darkening forest, a pair of blood-red eyes appeared.
Da Ming exhaled a thick plume of white mist and moved his massive body, shielding the two girls.
A few breaths later—
A giant hand parted the trees.
Er Ming walked out, carrying his massive club, followed by the injured Dark Demon Evil God Tiger with its torn bat wings.
On the tiger's back—
A white-robed youth sat calmly.
"Zhexian!"
Zhu Zhuqing and Xiao Wu rushed over joyfully.
Da Ming finally relaxed—
But when he saw Li Zhexian using the evil tiger as a mount, even his azure beast eyes flickered with shock.
"Er Ming…"
Er Ming landed beside Da Ming, voice filled with admiration:
"Brother Zhexian is unbelievably strong."
"Da Ming… even you might not be able to defeat him now."
Da Ming froze slightly.
He remembered the first time he met him—
Back then, Li Zhexian was just a boy rushing to the Lake of Life in desperation to save his companion.
Yet in just a few short years, he had grown to such a terrifying height.
"Er Ming…"
"Perhaps our turning point wasn't failing to transform at one hundred thousand years…"
"But meeting Brother Zhexian."
After speaking with Da Ming, Er Ming, Zhu Zhuqing, and Xiao Wu—
Li Zhexian secluded himself once more.
He sat cross-legged on a blue stone beside the lake.
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger growled low, its scorpion tail lashing out—
Touching the air before him.
Space shattered.
A black vortex spread, swallowing both man and beast into the unknown.
From afar, Zhu Zhuqing and Xiao Wu were startled but not panicked.
Da Ming lightly swayed his serpentine tail, the ring-bells chiming, and said to Er Ming:
"To think…"
"That you and I once had to combine our domains just to escape that tiger's evil technique."
"Yet Brother Zhexian willingly uses it to temper his sword. Truly terrifying."
In the familiar darkness—
Li Zhexian watched as his hands shrank and his strength rapidly diminished.
Once again, illusions unfolded before his eyes:
Fallen leaves flew back to branches;
melted snow returned to the clouds;
old houses restored themselves;
hourglasses reversed their flow.
Scenes of time rewinding.
He too reverted to a young child.
Though wrapped in the power of time, the confusion in Li Zhexian's eyes only deepened.
What is time?
"Brother Zhexian,"
the Skydream Ice Worm sighed helplessly within his spiritual sea:
"Time is intangible, formless, without substance."
"For you to comprehend time… it's almost impossible."
Li Zhexian seemed not to hear.
He stood once more on that arena suspended in endless darkness, clashing again with the young Evil God Tiger.
Using a child's body to wield his sword—
Was another form of tempering his sword dao.
Aside from seeking Time Sword Intent,
he would not waste such a rare opportunity to refine himself.
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger was no different.
It too was refining itself.
If it won just once—
Just once—
It could tear this terrifying boy to pieces.
...
In the darkness—
Sword cries and tiger roars intertwined,
marking the beginning of a path of refinement.
Four months passed in the blink of an eye.
From the first snowfall to the fading of winter's chill.
Li Zhexian had experienced hundreds of time reversals and life-and-death battles upon the arena.
On the dark arena—
The small Evil God Tiger was surrounded by swirling black mist as it lunged, its speed far surpassing that of four months ago.
The child lifted his hand like a sword.
Several strands of sword intent swirled at his fingertip, then slashed diagonally upward.
The tiger howled miserably—
A deep wound tearing across its waist and abdomen.
It staggered backward.
Defeat filled its blood-red eyes as it stomped the arena floor—
Cracking it open.
Light surged forth.
Man and beast returned to the lakeside of the Lake of Life.
"Eight sword intents—
All reviewed and refined."
"Only Time Sword Intent remains…"
Li Zhexian frowned, gazing at the misty surface of the lake.
Beside him, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger lay licking its wounds.
Seeing the terrifying youth looking lost, its tiger face revealed a human-like sneer.
Even though it hadn't won a single match in four months—
It still didn't believe this boy could comprehend time.
For its own species, even with the Evil God's power, they barely glimpsed it.
How could a human understand time?
Bang!
A massive club slammed down onto its head.
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, its wings fully healed, snapped its head toward Er Ming with a furious snarl.
Er Ming grinned, holding his club:
"When did you get permission to bare your fangs?"
"Want me to tell Brother Zhexian?"
The tiger's blood-red pupils shrank.
It stared at Er Ming for a long moment…
Then finally suppressed its boiling killing intent, turned away, and resumed licking its wounds.
"Sigh…"
Da Ming rumbled:
"To glimpse the power of time is harder than ascending to the heavens."
"Even one as strong as Brother Zhexian can't find an entry point."
Zhu Zhuqing and Xiao Wu ended their cultivation nearby.
Seeing the white-robed figure by the lake, they whispered with firm conviction:
"Zhexian will succeed."
"Brother Zhexian can definitely do it."
...
Within the spiritual sea, the Skydream Ice Worm sighed:
"Now I understand why you became so strong at such a young age."
"With such a heart for the sword… there is nothing in this world you cannot achieve."
After four months—
It increasingly felt—
That it had not graced Li Zhexian by becoming his hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring…
but that it was fortunate to follow him.
Li Zhexian remained expressionless.
His right hand rested on the Qinglian Sword at his waist.
Four months of nurturing the sword—
the sword intent had gradually fused.
Its power was unknown.
His Spirit Power had also advanced again—
reaching Level 75.
Only the Time Sword Intent still eluded him.
"Is time truly impossible to grasp…?"
For one full day and night—
Li Zhexian stood quietly beside the lake.
Late-winter ice had not yet melted.
The wilderness was silent, save for the winter wind sweeping through withered branches and an occasional soul beast's distant cry.
The white-clothed youth seemed to melt into the desolate end-of-winter landscape.
Until—
A dead leaf fell upon the icy surface, its veins still holding traces of autumn's color.
Li Zhexian suddenly reached out, pinching its stem.
The leaf's tip was still green, its tail brown—
clearly a relic from another season.
"A leaf from late summer… frozen into winter ice…"
He gently rubbed his fingers.
The leaf crumbled into powder.
"This is the proof time leaves behind…"
...
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