At the top of the Blood Pine Tree, Chu Xisheng had turned into a blood gourd.
Dozens of deep, bone-exposing wounds marred his limbs, and his torso was even more pitiful; Chu Xisheng’s entire chest was laid bare, with even parts of his five internal organs and six hollow organs having vanished.
Half of these injuries were the backlash of Temporal Power, and the other half stemmed from those Heavenly Gods who had tried to obstruct the Wood Sword Immortal.
So even his "Blood of Ten Thousand Ages" couldn’t heal him quickly.
Chu Xisheng was nearly unable to stand straight and could only kneel on the ground, his voice hoarse as he gasped violently.
Fortunately, those Gods were far away in "Heaven".
Without a medium, they could only restrain him slightly in this manner.
Otherwise, Chu Xisheng would have been crushed to pieces at the very first motion of his sword move.
To Chu Xisheng’s surprise, his character panel showed that he still had four hundred and nineteen days of life expectancy left.
Chu Xisheng had thought that he would have to fight to the depletion of both the river and sea, yet after the sword move was over, he still had a small half of his life expectancy remaining.
A hint of bewilderment flickered in Chu Xisheng’s eyes.
At the critical moment of executing the "Nine Heavens Time Wheel," Chu Xisheng felt that his movements suddenly became much smoother.
The resistance he faced had abruptly disappeared by half.
Chu Xisheng had been ready to fight to the death, but when he gathered all his strength, the opponent withdrew theirs.
As Chu Xisheng was puzzled, he heard a ’crackling’ noise from below the Blood Pine Tree.
Then, Chu Xisheng felt the ground beneath him vanish again, and he entered that void-like spatial passageway once more.
When his vision returned to normal, he found himself back at the entrance to the Time Secret Realm, outside the rugged and ancient Stone Tower.
Fang Bu Yuan and Zhoou Liangchen and the others were also successively expelled from the Secret Realm.
Seeing the bloodied Chu Xisheng, they were all startled.
Teaching Institute Grand Elder Qingxuzi, who had been waiting outside the Stone Tower, frowned and flashed behind Chu Xisheng, grabbing his shoulders.
Chu Xisheng immediately felt much more relaxed; the chaotic Temporal currents and the Power of All Gods that had been raging in his body were suppressed by Qingxuzi.
As long as these forces didn’t rebel within him, Chu Xisheng’s "Blood of Ten Thousand Ages" healed his wounds back to normal in just a few breaths’ time.
However, this was all due to Qingxuzi’s suppressive strength; once Qingxuzi let go, things would be just as before.
Chu Xisheng didn’t care about his wounds at all; his first action was to look up towards the Stone Tower.
"The Wood Sword Immortal has achieved Ascension and entered the Eternal Realm."
War Hall Grand Elder Aox Guo turned to look at Chu Xisheng, his bell-like eyes filled with admiration, "You have worked hard, and you did a splendid job!"
They had opened the Secret Realm ahead of time and sent Chu Xisheng in to give him an extra year of cultivation time, to quickly advance to Fifth Grade.
They hadn’t expected that Chu Xisheng would manage to find traces of the Wood Sword Immortal inside the Secret Realm and unlock a Supreme Immortal Fate.
But what impressed Aox Guo even more was Chu Xisheng’s courage and valor.
He had actually withstood the pressure of the Gods and fought to the very end.
Upon hearing these words, Chu Xisheng’s mind relaxed.
He feared that after giving his all to execute this sword move, he would’ve failed in his "investment".
The reason Chu Xisheng went all out to assist the Wood Sword Immortal wasn’t due to any noble sentiment or great justice.
He did it for the benefits that would come after the success.
As for the benefits that the Wood Sword Immortal’s escape brought to the Formless Divine Sect and the whole world, that was just an incidental bonus after the fact.
Chu Xisheng looked doubtfully at the Stone Tower: "Master Qingxu, did something happen just now? I felt executing the sword became much easier all of a sudden."
Before Qingxuzi could answer, Fang Bu Yuan laughed lightly: "Nothing happened outside, but Zhu Guangyin chickened out."
He had been fighting with Ancient Sword, Jian Shifei, and others when Zhu Guangyin suddenly withdrew his "Time Trace" Divine Skills, causing Fang Bu Yuan, who was displaying great Divine Might, to be caught off guard and nearly killed by Ancient Sword and the others.
However, since "Time Trace" was withdrawn by Zhu Guangyin, the transaction could not be completed.
The "Divine Essence Qi Seal" of Fang Bu Yuan then began to take effect again, sealing a significant portion of their True Yuan.
Thus, Fang Bu Yuan began a "fair trade," purchasing a Bloodline Talent from each of the eight Heaven Pillars and Super Heavenly Pillars.
This nearly burst his body wide open; the Three-legged Golden Toad’s belly swollen like a drum, was the avatar of "Taiyin," but even it had difficulty containing more Bloodline Talents at once.
Yet Fang Bu Yuan’s combat power increased tremendously as a result, single-handedly dealing with more than thirty strengthened Heaven Pillars and Super Geniuses, all with ease.
Chu Xisheng looked at him sideways with surprise and doubt.
"Don’t listen to his nonsense," Qingxuzi said calmly, one hand on Chu Xisheng’s shoulder and the other behind his back: "Those two must have reached some kind of transaction. It does Zhu Guangyin no good to keep obstructing."
"Isn’t that chickening out?" Fang Bu Yuan snorted with laughter, then with a tone of sympathy added: "Speaking of which, Zhu Guangyin is quite a resentful being. He was simply staying in the Time River without causing any trouble to anyone, but he was forcibly dragged out by the Wood Sword Immortal.
Not only does his recovery time have to be significantly postponed, but he also gets extorted by the Wood Sword Immortal. You either lend me your strength to help me cut through the Time Order and prove the Eternal; or we both perish together. It’s amazing that Zhu Guangyin could bear it, if it were me, I’d probably feel unbearably aggrieved."