Full level of enlightenment: I achieved Daozu by ascending to the lower realm

Chapter 398 Time Rules
Even if the Holy Ancestor wanted to beat Ning Qi up, he didn't have time to deal with Ning Qi at the moment.

This is because the strongest person in the Mountain and Sea Realm, the Mountain Ancestor, has entered the War Realm, and he is coming specifically for him.

The imposing figure, simply standing there, exuded a terrifying aura of towering presence.

"bring it on!"

The Mountain Ancestor faced the Holy Ancestor directly and shouted.

The Holy Ancestor said no more and walked step by step toward the Mountain Ancestor.

Unlike his battle with Haizu, he seemed to have chosen a different way of fighting.

As soon as the Holy Ancestor took his first step, his aged face became several years younger, and his slightly hunched body quickly straightened up, like a sharp sword drawn from its sheath.

One step, two steps, three steps...

After three steps, the old and hunched figure of the Holy Ancestor could no longer be seen. What appeared before everyone was a burly, black-haired middle-aged man with muscles like piled-up stones, comparable to the Mountain Ancestor opposite him.

"..."

Everyone was shocked by what they saw.

From his appearance until now, this Holy Ancestor has always given people the impression of a well-read and refined scholar, a learned old man. However, now...

Everyone looked at the middle-aged Holy Ancestor, whose body was full of muscles and as strong as iron. No one would believe that he was well-read, but no one would doubt that he was a physical cultivator.

The contrast before and after is so stark that it's astonishing.

"If you hear the Tao in the morning, you will die in the evening."

The middle-aged patriarch sighed.

The mountain ancestor opposite frowned slightly. If you want to fight, then fight. What's the point of showing off your words?

The Holy Ancestor gave him a disdainful smile, "Uncultured."

This sentence comes from a book he obtained from one of the ancient sages in the Ancient Daoist Sacred Picture.

It means if someone knows the way to your house in the morning, you'll die that night!

After much research, the Holy Ancestor learned that this book was written by an ancient sage who focused on subduing people with force, and its name was "Lunyu".

It's obvious that Shan Zu is an uneducated kid who doesn't understand even such simple things. So he has no choice but to learn from that ancient master and subdue people with force!
However, just as the Holy Ancestor was about to do so, the Mountain Ancestor teleported in front of the Holy Ancestor and punched him in the face.

The moment this punch was thrown, it caused the energy of half of the war realm behind the Mountain Ancestor to tremble and resonate.

When they finally reached the Holy Ancestor's face, they could even faintly sense the terrifying power emanating from the Mountain and Sea Realm further behind them.

A single punch could unleash the energy of half the War Realm and the Mountain and Sea Realm—truly terrifying!
The Holy Ancestor raised his hand, and surprisingly, he blocked the fist with a palm strike.

The two burly, muscular men collided, and the Great Dao suddenly burst open, the space becoming like glass covered with spiderweb-like cracks.

boom!
The fierce rules of the Great Dao spread in all directions, and as they went further back, they even stirred up a storm of rules that swept towards the onlookers.

Ning Qi, Zhao Yujun, and Gong Tiandao simultaneously attacked the storm rushing towards them.

With just a tap from Ning Qi, the storm immediately subsided.

Before Zhao Yujun could even make a move, Hai Zu unleashed a divine power of rules, easily sweeping away the storm of rules in front of her.

As for Gong Tiandao, he got lucky; by the time the storm reached him and the cultivators under the Mountain Ancestor's command, it had lost much of its power.

After the storm subsided, everyone continued to look around.

Suddenly, the speed of the battle between the Holy Ancestor and the Mountain Ancestor increased.

From fist to elbow, from elbow to leg, every strike triggers a storm of rules.

However, the one who was most surprised was the Mountain Ancestor. He never expected that the Holy Ancestor of the Vast Realm could actually fight him to a draw in hand-to-hand combat.

"To hear of this in the morning, to die in the evening!"

Suddenly, the Holy Ancestor shouted.

His fists struck out like dragons, each fist emitting two colors: one a golden yellow like the rising sun, the other a pale red like the setting sun.

As the two fists collided, two dragon shadows of the same color as the force of the punches appeared and bit towards the Mountain Ancestor.

Shan Zu's pupils contracted slightly, as if he felt that things were getting a bit tricky.

Because this time, the Holy Ancestor's punch actually contained some power of the time rule.

Haizu and Ningqi also discovered this change at the same time.

Hai Zu's icy eyes were also startled. Could it be that the Holy Ancestor had held back when he fought her before?
Ning Qi had already switched to his Golden Eyes of Truth and was staring intently and seriously at the two combatants.

"To hear of it in the morning and die in the evening—is it the power of the laws of time?"

To date, he has never seen anyone from either realm wield the rules of time, let alone reveal even the slightest hint of them.

This is because the rule of time is the most special and strange rule in the world, and for cultivators, it is practically a god-level rule.

Even someone with Ning Qi's extraordinary comprehension has yet to master the rules of time.

Now, the Holy Ancestor's attack actually contained some power of the time rules, which surprised Ning Qi.

Bang!
With a loud bang, the Holy Ancestor's two fists pierced through the Mountain Ancestor's defenses and struck the Mountain Ancestor's broad chest directly.

In an instant, the Mountain Ancestor was blasted back five steps!

Based on the force of the impact, he should have retreated at least a dozen steps, but he forcibly stopped his retreat, stopping at a distance of five steps.

The mountain ancestor suddenly lowered his head and glanced at his own chest.

On his broad chest, two deep fist marks were imprinted, still emitting different kinds of smoke.

One was pale gold, the other pale red; their powers were similar yet repulsive, forming a antagonistic force that acted upon his body.

The Mountain Ancestor took a deep breath, and no one knew what wonderful method he used. His chest heaved and trembled, and the two fist imprints that had penetrated deep into his lungs were rapidly recovering, expelling the power from them.

This scene naturally surprised the Mountain Ancestor.

The things he gleaned from the Ancient Dao Sacred Diagram always resulted in the death or maiming of his enemies, but the Mountain Ancestor was clearly an exception.

The Mountain Ancestor gazed at the Holy Ancestor, his brows furrowing slightly.

He didn't care about being injured; what he cared about was that despite anticipating and making a defensive move, he hadn't been able to defend against the Holy Ancestor's attack.

Because in that instant, the flow of time seemed to change for the two of them!

As the Holy Ancestor's fists accelerated, he slowed down. With this increase and decrease, his original defensive setup naturally couldn't hold up.

He immediately realized that the Holy Ancestor actually possessed some power over the rules of time!

After figuring all this out, Shanzu's eyes lit up again.

He had not forgotten why he had entered the war zone to participate in the battle; he had come entirely for the Ancient Dao Sacred Map of the Mountain Ancestor.

That thing told him that the Ancient Dao Sacred Diagram contained the power to achieve the status of an immortal Golden Immortal, something that the Mountain Ancestor was determined to obtain.

Unexpectedly, the Holy Ancestor used his power as soon as he started fighting.

Aside from the Ancient Dao Sacred Diagram possessing such power, the Mountain Ancestor couldn't understand what else could enable cultivators of their level to wield the rules of time.

However, he still needs to ascertain more information.

Therefore, once the Mountain Ancestor recovered from his chest injury, he unexpectedly launched another attack on the Holy Ancestor. "Thousands of mountains, ten thousand cliffs!"

With a roar, the mountain ancestor shot out like an arrow.

The entire earth trembled, and endless power gathered behind him.

In the dim light, everyone saw a vast phantom of thousands of mountains appearing behind him, as if the Mountain Ancestor had brought the divine images of all the mountains in the entire Mountain and Sea Realm!
As soon as the mountain shadow appeared, it immediately merged into the body of the Mountain Ancestor.

The mountain ancestor's body expanded again, transforming into a giant sixteen feet tall. Every part of his body was as perfect as a stone sculpture carved by a master artist, full of explosive and expanding power.

The Mountain Ancestor stepped towards the Holy Ancestor.

Facing the Mountain Ancestor, who had grown even stronger, the Holy Ancestor was not in a hurry, but simply uttered a single sentence:
"The wise find joy in water, the benevolent find joy in mountains."

In a daze, a huge humanoid Dharma image emerged from his body.

Once that Dharma form appeared, it automatically gathered all kinds of rules, and then those rules gave rise to the Holy Path, just like an indestructible Dharma body that lasts for eternity.

The Dharma body is much larger than the sixteen-foot-tall body of the Mountain Ancestor.

The Dharma Body's large foot swiftly extended, colliding instantly with the foot that the Mountain Ancestor had stepped out with in mid-air.

The impact of this collision was even more terrifying than the previous storm of rules!
Space itself seemed to vanish at the point of their collision, creating a shattered, abyss-like, pitch-black spatial fracture between them.

This was a war zone jointly created by the wills of two great spirit realms, yet it was so shattered by the attacks of the two fighting each other.

The wills of the Vast Realm and the Mountain and Sea Realm had already appeared and immediately began to expend their own realm power to continuously repair the War Realm.

However, the space they had just repaired crumbled again as the two moved once more.

As everyone watched, the Holy Ancestor's Dharma Image and the Mountain Ancestor's sixteen-foot-tall body continued to kick each other.

Even though their sizes are different, strangely, the forces they use gradually become similar.

Ning Qi remained focused, paying close attention to both of their movements.

Their battles may seem simple, but every movement and stillness contains a variety of supernatural abilities. However, what is presented to the public is a simplified version of the complex and a return to simplicity.

Ning Qi is able to see the true meaning in simplicity.

Every time the Holy Ancestor and the Mountain Ancestor launch an attack, it will inevitably trigger all the rules and spiritual energy within the war realm, and may even draw upon the combined power of the two spirit realms further downstream.

It may seem simple, but it embodies the greatest power that the two of them can currently muster.

Ning Qi looked at the space that neither of the two realms' wills had time to repair, and he felt that if the two continued to fight like this, the war realm would eventually shatter.

Just as he was thinking this, suddenly, the Holy Ancestor's Dharma image shone with a golden luster.

Immediately, the next clash between the two did not end in a draw; instead, the Mountain Ancestor was sent flying!
Rumble!
As if a stubborn rock were passing through the void, the Mountain Ancestor used all his magical power to stop his form and hover in the sky.

This time, blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

More importantly, the towering phantom image that he had previously merged with his body flew out completely from his body and dissipated behind him.

Shan Zu glanced behind him, then raised his hand and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Hehe... Hahaha..."

Even though he was defeated by the Mountain Ancestor again, he laughed out loud.

"It's been so long since I've been hurt, so long that I'd almost forgotten what it felt like. Thank you for reminding me."

He looked down at the image of the Mountain Ancestor below, his gaze sharp as a hawk's, a gleam of ambition fixed on its prey.

When the Holy Ancestor saw the look in his eyes, he felt a slight sense of unease.

Even before the spirit world opened, he had been using divination to plan everything.

He first calculated the situation of the patriarchs within the Mountain and Sea Realm.

They calculated the current situation where the Mountain Ancestor and the Sea Ancestor were at odds, and even became enemies.

He calculated the situation within the Mountain and Sea Realm and thus devised a strategy to counter the attacks from the Mountain and Sea Realm's various spiritual domains by having the Vast Realm, akin to the story of Tian Ji's horse racing strategy.

Logically speaking, based on what the Holy Ancestor calculated, their Vast Realm should have won.

But then Ning Qi appeared, an anomaly, who completely disrupted everything he had planned, making one wrong step lead to another.

He then cast another divination and calculated that Ning Qi was his opportunity to advance further, and that Ning Qi was also the biggest variable in this battle.

Therefore, the Holy Ancestor did not hesitate to send his clones into the war zone twice.

Now, he has even brought out his most treasured possession—the Ancient Dao Sacred Map—to deal with the Sea Ancestor and the Mountain Ancestor.

Speaking of the Ancient Dao Sacred Diagram, he still hasn't been able to unravel its secrets.

The Holy Ancestor only comprehended the abilities of one of the ancient saints whose power was similar to his own, and even that was not comprehensive.

The previous sayings "to hear in the morning and die in the evening" and "the benevolent find joy in mountains" all stemmed from the power of that ancient sage's words.

Now, seeing the expression on the mountain ancestor's face, for some reason, the mountain ancestor had an unusual feeling, as if he had miscalculated something.

He has practiced divination for many years and is quite sensitive to intuition and spiritual perception.

This mountain ancestor didn't show himself earlier or later, only appearing after I took out the Ancient Dao Sacred Diagram. Judging from his expression, could it be...?

The Holy Ancestor had a bad feeling about this.

Although it seemed that he used the Ancient Dao Sacred Diagram to suppress the Mountain Ancestor, as the person involved, he was very clear about the true strength of the Mountain Ancestor.

It can be said that he encountered the only major enemy in his life.

"The God of Zhou Mountain has descended!"

The Mountain Ancestor suddenly shouted, pulling the Holy Ancestor back to reality.

He stared at the Mountain Ancestor and discovered that the towering phantom of the mountains that he had just blasted out of his body had reappeared and was arranged in the void according to some mysterious trajectory.

In the end, they actually combined to form a terrifying phantom of a sacred mountain.

The phantom of that divine mountain connected to the earth below and stretched to an unseen height, seemingly capable of piercing through the war zone and entering the boundary sea.

It has already occupied one-third of the entire war zone since it first appeared!
And it continues to spread outwards, seemingly trying to squeeze out everyone's space.

Beneath this phantom of the sacred mountain, one must either submit or be suppressed.

Upon seeing this, Haizu's expression became slightly ferocious.

She was defeated by the Mountain Ancestor's move every time, and she knew the origin of the Mountain Ancestor's move.

Back when they were still fellow students, they accidentally stumbled into a small world.

The Mountain Ancestor obtained an ancient tradition from there, known as the tradition of Buzhou Mountain.

According to legend, Mount Buzhou was an ancient divine mountain, located in a corner of the Great Wilderness, and was the only path to the Heavenly Realm.

Anyone who wants to become an immortal must climb Mount Buzhou!

No matter who you are or what level of cultivation you have, as long as you have not become an immortal, you must walk this mountain to have even a slight chance of obtaining immortality.

But then something happened, and Mount Buzhou collapsed, leaving no bridge between the mortal realm and the immortal realm.

After Shan Zu received the inheritance, he founded the Zhou Shan Immortal Sect, removing the character "不" (not) to complete the "Zhou" Dao.

(End of this chapter)