bayedsolid Chapter 1223 Waiting for a Rabbit to Fall into a Trap
Chapter 1223 Waiting for a Rabbit to Fall into a Trap
Inside the Immortal Palace on the top floor of the Yuanji Immortal Ship, Su Mo slowly raised his head, his gaze seemingly traversing nearly a hundred cosmic years of void, looking in the direction where the battle had ended.
A hint of indescribable excitement flashed in his eyes. Two mid-stage third-tier Eternal Immortal Kings. He wondered how many units of Eternal True Spirit he would gain after completely obliterating them, and whether he could prove himself as an Immortal King in one fell swoop.
Soon, Su Mo's gaze returned to the chessboard. The black piece at his fingertips, enveloped in a faint dark light, landed steadily in the last corner of the board like a falling star. This move was like a dark cloud pressing down on a city, completely crushing the white pieces' star trails laid out by the Xuanzhen Immortal King. The crisscrossing paths of the pieces were cut off in half, and even the faint light remaining at the end of the star trails was swallowed up, leaving no room for maneuver.
"Fellow Daoist Xuanzhen, you flatter me."
Su Mo turned his gaze to the Xuanzhen Immortal King opposite him, his tone calm and even, as if he had only accomplished a trivial matter, without the slightest hint of pride.
"This... I've been defeated just like that?"
Xuanzhen Immortal King stared at the territory on the chessboard that had been completely swallowed up by the black pieces, his eyes filled with disbelief.
It was understandable that his avatar had lost to Su Mo before—a contest between cultivators was essentially a competition of divination and calculation, and it was normal for his avatar, whose cultivation was barely at the first-tier Eternal Immortal King level, to be no match for Su Mo, a third-tier Immortal King. But now that his true self had made his move, how could he possibly be defeated again?
In terms of cultivation, Su Mo was already slightly inferior to him; not to mention, in that battle three epochs ago, he even used forbidden techniques and secret methods to burn his eternal origin.
Once their cultivation reaches this level, if their origin is damaged, it cannot be restored to its original state in just a few epochs. Even if they use the power of time to accelerate time, it is difficult to make up for the deficiency in their foundation.
“Fellow Daoist Xuanzhen, I wasn’t the only one playing chess with you just now.” Seeing the shocked expression on Xuanzhen Immortal King’s face, Su Mo’s lips curled into a barely perceptible smile. He muttered to himself that there were still quite a few illusory bodies in his natal immortal domain. Not to mention a mere late-stage third-tier Eternal Immortal King, even a fourth-tier Eternal Immortal King would be easy for him to beat if he wanted to.
However, he did not explain anything on his face, but simply nodded slightly, his tone still calm: "Fellow Daoist's chess skills are profound, but I was just careless today." As he spoke, he raised his hand and swept it across the chessboard, and the black and white chess pieces flew back to the chess jar like stars returning to their nests, making a crisp collision sound, as if drawing a period to this silent battle.
"It's getting late, I'll head back to my palace for some quiet time." Su Mo rose to take his leave, his green robe swaying gently in the air currents of the Immortal Palace before he turned and walked out of the palace.
The Immortal King Xuanzhen watched his departing figure, his brows furrowed, his mind filled with doubts. Only after Su Mo's figure disappeared at the palace gate did he slowly withdraw his gaze and look back at the chessboard. His fingertips lightly tapped the jade table, his mind gradually immersing itself in the previous game, trying to find the key to the defeat, but he only felt that the black pieces' territory was like a chaotic fog, and he could never see it clearly.
......
On the eighth floor of the Yuanji Immortal Ship, within a luxurious immortal palace paved with star essence and walls made of chaotic crystal cores, understated grandeur permeated every corner. The star essence floor flowed with a faint starlight, making it feel as if countless stars were swirling beneath one's feet; the chaotic crystal core walls were indestructible, their surface subtly displaying patterns of laws, automatically absorbing the surrounding chaotic energy. Hanging from the ceiling was a fist-sized eternal star core, emitting a soft yet pure halo that cast a faint glow upon the Dao runes engraved on the walls, creating a natural barrier of isolation.
"Whoosh..."
A streak of azure light pierced the void, and Su Mo's figure silently appeared in the center of the Immortal Palace. His eyes flickered slightly, and he formed a hand seal. Streams of pale azure runes flowed from his fingertips, spreading like water throughout the entire Immortal Palace, condensing into an invisible defensive barrier outside. The barrier rippled gently, not only preventing physical detection but also shielding against divine sense probing; even the divine sense of a third-tier Eternal Immortal King could not penetrate it even slightly.
Having done all this, Su Mo opened his palm, and two beams of light, one golden and one white, flickered in his hand. The light dissipated, revealing two miniature figures, each about three inches tall—the sealed Crimson Dragon Immortal King and Lingxu Immortal King. Both were bound by pale golden chains of law, their immortal souls firmly locked, forced to struggle in vain, their eyes filled with fear and resentment, yet unable to utter a single sound.
The next second...
Su Mo pointed his fingers into the void and uttered a soft cry: "The River of Time and Space Appears!"
"Om..."
Ripples spread through the space within the Immortal Palace, and a surging river of time suddenly emerged from the void, traversing the entire palace. The river shimmered with the ethereal light of time, and countless images flickered within it—fragments of time extracted from the earth: the birth and death of stars, the enlightenment of cultivators, and the fall of Immortal Kings. As the river turned, the flow of time within the Immortal Palace rapidly accelerated; a single breath outside was equivalent to a hundred years passing within the palace.
Soon, the eyes of the Crimson Dragon Immortal King and the Lingxu Immortal King became vacant. Their entire life memories, from their ignorant youth of cultivation, to the moment of enlightenment that broke through the mortal and immortal realms, to the glorious moment of becoming Immortal Kings, and finally to the schemes and greed that led them into the Forbidden Land of No Form... all the scenes were forcibly extracted like a burst dam, turning into two streams of light that rushed wildly into Su Mo's sea of consciousness, weaving together in his mind into two complete epics of life.
......
one year later.
With a muffled "bang," the river of time and space that ran through the Immortal Palace suddenly shattered, turning into billions of shimmering fragments of time and space that streaked across the palace like shooting stars, disappearing without a trace in the blink of an eye, leaving not even a trace of energy aftershock.
Immediately afterward, Su Mo slowly opened his tightly closed eyes, a flash of brilliance in them disappearing in an instant before settling into a deep calm. A satisfied smile curved his lips as he lightly tapped his knee with his fingertips, thinking to himself, "A third-tier Eternal Immortal King is indeed a third-tier Eternal Immortal King. His vision and foundation are far beyond what a first-tier Eternal Immortal King like Yuan Jin can compare to."
"I never expected that once the diameter of this Formless Heavenly Crystal exceeds ten zhang, it will emit a formless heavenly light."
The light was pure and intense, able to directly ignore the suppression of the formless mist and spread to tens of millions of cosmic years away, or even further, making it a "beacon of eternity" within this forbidden land of formlessness.
"It seems I'll have to change my plans." Su Mo's lips curled up, a calculating glint in his eyes.
There are only about twenty or thirty third-tier Eternal Immortal Kings in the Southern Heaven Domain, both openly and secretly. Even though the opening of the Formless Forbidden Land attracted Immortal Kings from several nearby Dao Domains, the maximum number of third-tier Immortal Kings who could ultimately enter the inner circle was only one or two hundred.
The inner space of this Formless Forbidden Land is measured in billions or even tens of billions of cosmic years. In contrast, these third-order Eternal Immortal Kings, under the suppression of the Formless Mysterious Mist, can only perceive a few thousand Dao years of void with their divine senses, which is their limit.
Finding the other Eternal Immortal Kings in this vast space is like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Even with the help of thousands of illusory spirit bodies, it would still take a long time.
However, the weakening period of this Forbidden Land of No Form is not infinite; it is only a hundred million years, which is far from enough for him to squander like this.
"Instead of going to great lengths to find them, it's better to wait patiently for them to come to us."
The next second...
With a thought, Su Mo's primordial divine sense in his sea of consciousness spread out like ripples, and a new command crossed endless time and space, instantly reaching the seas of consciousness of the thousands of illusory spiritual bodies scattered throughout the forbidden area.
Almost simultaneously with the decree, the thousands of illusory spirit bodies scattered throughout the inner perimeter of the forbidden area, who were diligently searching for the whereabouts of the other Eternal Immortal Kings, all stopped in their tracks and bowed slightly in the direction of the Primordial Immortal Ship, saying, "We respectfully obey the decree of our Venerable One."
......
Time flies, and eight million years have passed in the blink of an eye.
Inside the Starry Sky Immortal Palace on the eighth floor of the Yuanji Immortal Boat.
"Whoosh..."
With a wave of his hand, Su Mo conjured tens of thousands of mid-grade Formless Heavenly Crystals before him, hovering in mid-air. The largest exceeded ten feet in diameter, its surface as clear as glass, its internal runes flowing like a galaxy, radiating a vast spatial and spiritual essence; the smallest was only the size of a pigeon's egg, yet still crystal clear, exuding a pure primordial aura. Upon their appearance, these Formless Heavenly Crystals seemed to subtly converge towards the largest one, as if an invisible gravitational pull existed between them, their halos intertwining and illuminating the entire Immortal Palace, even dimming the light of the Eternal Star Core atop the palace.
"These Formless Celestial Crystals, when fused together, should form a single Formless Celestial Crystal with a diameter of over ten zhang. Next, we just need to find a suitable place and wait for them to come to us."
......