“Five breaths!”

A mere five heartbeats – too fleeting to be called a moment, yet for a cultivator, it was an eternity, a sliver of time just slower than a bolt of celestial lightning.

To end a battle in five breaths? Neither the Dragonscale Clan elder, nor the Fire Finch patriarch, nor even Sima Mozi himself would have believed such a feat possible. Five breaths was simply not enough!

For Wang Lin’s adversary was none other than the formidable Sima Mozi!

But upon hearing this pronouncement, Wang Lin’s eyes ignited with a fierce brilliance. As the echo of the word “One” faded from the ether, Wang Lin flung his hands wide, unleashing the full force of his cultivation!

“Heaven’s Withering!” Sima Mozi roared, employing a technique he’d forged within the Cursed Years Forbidden Zone, a skill mirroring Wang Lin’s own Flowing Moon Art. The arcane winds shrieked and howled, expanding with terrifying speed.

The very fabric of reality shuddered under the expanding storm. The heavens above turned a sickly, jaundiced hue, riddled with festering sores. As each pustule burst, a deluge of dark, corrosive ichor rained down, defiling the sky itself.

Below, the earth cracked and splintered, yawning into a network of desolate fissures. The land buckled and warped, a grotesque mimicry of rapid aging. In the blink of an eye, the heavens and earth, locked in their cursed embrace, were collapsing within the Forbidden Zone!

As they crumbled, the vortex of the Years Forbidden Zone lashed out, seizing the decaying cosmos and transforming it into a devastating wave of annihilation, aimed directly at Wang Lin!

And at that very instant, as the echo of “One” still reverberated, Wang Lin channeled his full power. A brilliant aura erupted around him, and in his eyes, the stars, the planets, the myriad spirits of existence – all emanated light, converging upon him to form a colossal, shimmering figure.

The Lumina Shield!

As the maelstrom of years drew near, the shield materialized, colliding with the storm in a cataclysmic explosion!

The ethereal figure around Wang Lin flickered violently. The Years Curse clung to it, accelerating Wang Lin’s own manipulation of time to an alarming degree.

Against any other, Sima Mozi’s cursed technique would have been insurmountable. But Wang Lin was no ordinary foe; he, too, wielded the art of temporal manipulation, having mastered the second form of his own power, Flowing Moon!

As the cursed vortex crashed against him, Wang Lin’s right hand slashed through the air. The world trembled, and a colossal stone gate materialized behind him. Ancient and desolate, it resonated with a primordial energy as it merged with Wang Lin’s being.

He stood as though rooted upon that ancient threshold, wreathed in the power of time, unmoved by the chaotic storm. Only his unbound hair and robes danced in the unnatural winds, lending him an air of otherworldly grace.

And in that instant, the Lumina Shield unleashed its power. Waves of blinding light erupted, warping the very fabric of space. Sima Mozi’s face twisted in alarm, and he lunged forward, his right hand slamming down toward Wang Lin!

The blow unleashed a titanic palm, infused with the full, albeit diminished, force of his Fifth Heaven’s Decay. Guided by a murderous intent, it cleaved through the outer layers of the Years Curse surrounding the Lumina Shield and crashed upon its surface.

The earth shuddered as shockwaves ripped through the air. The Lumina Shield wavered and buckled, but in that instant, Wang Lin roared, summoning a second shield of light!

Again and again, in the span of a single breath, the Lumina Shield appeared, three times in total!

And with each collapse, it redirected the force of the palm strike and the power of the Years Curse, sending a torrent of energy hurtling toward the oncoming Sima Mozi!

“Two…” The disembodied voice echoed once more!

Three breaths remained! Not a single soul among those who could witness this cosmic duel believed Wang Lin could prevail in such a short span.

As the word “Two” rang out, Wang Lin’s eyes glinted with cold determination. The Lumina Shield shattered, and though battered and bleeding from the impact, he threw back his head and charged forward!

In that instant, Wang Lin unleashed his ultimate attack! Moving with impossible speed, his right eye blazed with lightning as the mark of Thunder pulsed within its depths. Nine elemental bolts swirled around the mark. As he roared, the thunder erupted, coalescing into a colossal, ten-thousand-foot-wide Lightning Mandala!

The Mandala shook the very heavens and earth. Primordial lightning crackled within it, while the nine elemental bolts roared. And from those bolts, three stood above the rest: the lightning of Extreme Calamity, the lightning of Bloodline, and the lightning of Unyielding Fate!

Those three bolts unleashed a torrent of power, bathing the Mandala in blinding light.

In that instant, the world exploded in a network of silver serpents. Lightning crisscrossed the sky, converging upon the Mandala.

The colossal Mandala surged toward Sima Mozi, like a battering ram to the Gates of Ascension.

Sima Mozi’s face was grim. Throughout the chase, he had feared the adversary’s lightning techniques. The mere vision of what had occurred upon the planet of the Truth Keepers was enough to instill dread in his heart.

As he saw the Mandala, memories of the assault on the Gates of Ascension flooded his mind. His hands flew through a series of arcane gestures, and the Years Curse returned, enveloping him in a whirlwind of temporal power.

“Let us see,” he roared, “whether your thunder or my time proves the stronger!”
Wang Lin moved with the speed of a thunderbolt, each stride a catalyst for the unfolding of a vast, ten-thousand-zhang thunderous tapestry. He drew upon the boundless lightning coalescing in the heavens, as if hoisting the very firmament of storms upon his shoulders. He transformed into a bolt of eternal lightning, a veritable tribulation hurtling toward Si Mozi.

They closed the distance, an instant separating them from violent impact. From the void, that spectral voice echoed once more.

“Three…”

As the utterance of “three” resonated, Wang Lin became one with the ten-thousand-zhang thunderous tapestry. His form vanished, indistinguishable from the storm, and he crashed into Si Mozi’s vortex of imprisoned years.

A cataclysmic roar tore through existence, reverberating outwards in all directions. Under the force of the impact, Si Mozi’s vortex of temporal bindings convulsed, then shattered with a series of violent cracks. It was as if a colossal force had ripped it asunder, and with lightning and thunder dancing within the breach, the fractured vortex recoiled upon Si Mozi.

Within the tempestuous backlash, thunder rumbled and the thunderous tapestry drew ever closer.

It happened with blinding speed. The tapestry slammed into Si Mozi’s chest. His face drained of color, and he spat out a mouthful of blood he could no longer contain, staggering backward.

Lightning danced across his chest, crackling with destructive energy, exacerbating his internal injuries with each step he took.

A look of utter horror consumed his features. Though he had greatly esteemed Wang Lin’s mastery of lightning, he was unprepared for such primordial, heaven-rending force.

Even the power of ages crumbled before it.

Yet Wang Lin, too, felt the sting of the vortex of imprisoned years as the lightning clashed against it. He aged in an instant, his features transforming into those of a withered, ancient being.

But a surge of potent vitality erupted from his core, reversing the ravages of time. The aged visage vanished, and his youthful features returned, though his face remained ashen. Such a battle against a third-step Great Cultivator, even a manifestation of one, was undeniably arduous.

Seeing Si Mozi falter, a cold glint ignited within Wang Lin’s eyes, and an all-consuming killing intent surged forth. He lunged forward, poised to strike, but just then, that voice from the void echoed through the heavens once more.

“Four…” The voice was cut short as Wang Lin unleashed a roar that seemed to shatter the very air. He moved with the speed of a shooting star, catching up to the retreating Si Mozi in a thunderous surge, and with a mighty sweep of his hands, he unleashed his trump card!

A single, thumbnail-sized golden pill materialized from the ether, hurtling towards Si Mozi with unimaginable speed. In the blink of an eye, it closed within ten zhang of its target!

“Explode!” Wang Lin roared without hesitation, his command hanging in the air.

Even as the echoes of his shout faded, a sound akin to the destruction of an entire cultivation star detonated. It transformed into an endless wave of sonic force, releasing a surge of pure, unadulterated annihilation. Si Mozi, caught in the blast radius, coughed up blood again, his eyes wide with terror.

He never imagined his opponent possessed such a powerful weapon. The shockwave from the pill’s detonation washed over him, threatening to tear flesh from bone and shatter his very skeleton.

Had it not been for the countless rare materials and untold effort that went into forging his manifestation, the very essence of a third-step Great Cultivator’s power, an ordinary cultivator would have been utterly annihilated.

This manifestation was crafted because Si Mozi’s cultivation had stalled at the initial stages of Sky Nirvana, and he lacked the necessary Dao spirits. It was created to allow his avatar to reach the Third Step, thereby augmenting his personal power.

As his manifestation was tossed about by the collapsing energy, Wang Lin pressed his advantage, and with another sweep of his right hand, he unleashed the infinitely compressed crystalline essence of otherworldly flame.

“Explode!” Wang Lin roared once more. The crystalline flame hurtled towards Si Mozi, detonating in another devastating cataclysm that mirrored the explosion of the golden pill.

All this unfolded in the span of a single breath.

“This is not good!” The Dragon Armor Clan’s patriarch, who had been observing the battle with unwavering focus, felt his expression change drastically as he witnessed this turn of events.