To comprehend the Time Dao, one must observe past and future events. Being able to look back a thousand years and forward a hundred years is considered the true threshold of understanding the Dao of time and seasons.
Reaching this level of comprehension qualifies one to use the Time Dao to achieve enlightenment and become a quasi-saint.
Chen Xia was now trying to regain his insight, looking back into the past and gazing into the future, but he always felt that there was an intangible barrier blocking him, preventing him from fully grasping the Time Dao again.
This was the helplessness of being a remnant soul. Achieving enlightenment was much harder than for the main body, because the incomplete spirit made it difficult to fully grasp the Dao.
Chen Xia had no good solution, so he eventually left the state of enlightenment and continued to wander the starry sky in his youthful form, slowly making his way towards the Blue Sky Sword Sea.
He might not enter the Blue Sky Sword Sea now, but he just wanted to take a look.
The memories of over twenty thousand years condensed into a journey of a few months.
Chen Xia stood at the outermost edge of the Blue Sky Sword Sea, separated by a massive Grand Formation. Nearby, there were many guardian cultivators watching vigilantly, their divine senses spread out like a vast net, capable of detecting the slightest movement.
Next to the formation, other traveling cultivators were gazing in awe, discussing among themselves.
"This must be the Heaven-Confining Formation. It's truly magnificent!"
"They say it was jointly created by various Saints, using their divine abilities and techniques, with a Demigod Artifact as its foundation. They even arranged for cultivators to guard it strictly."
"What was the reason for creating such a formation?" a cultivator asked curiously.
"Legend has it that there's a mad Saint inside. Any cultivator who entered was killed, so the other Saints had no choice but to use this method to seal him away."
The conversation continued, but Chen Xia was no longer listening. With a single step, his figure flickered like a flash of sword intent, finding the weakest point of the Grand Formation and passing straight through.
Chen Xia's figure was now inside the formation, still at the edge of the Blue Sky Sword Sea, but he could now see the broken and fallen sea of swords.
The sword sea below still existed, but it had become stagnant, no longer flowing, devoid of sword intent.
The celestial sword that once lay across it had long since disappeared. Its tip had entered Chen Xia's sea of consciousness, while its hilt remained in the Blue Sky Sword Sea. After so many years, who knew if it had been taken away.
The rest of the Blue Sky Sword Sea's layout remained as it was before. Chen Xia could vaguely recall its appearance from his memories. He stood with his hands behind his back, a faint smile on his lips, indulging in rare nostalgia.
A meteorite drifted slowly by, a fragment of the shattered Blue Sky Sword Sea, still bearing faint traces of its former glory.
Chen Xia turned to look, waiting for the star to drift away before smiling again and walking further in.
He wasn't here to retrieve the sword, but to see the Old Fisherman.
At this point, the other half of the celestial sword wasn't that important to him. Having it would be like adding wings to a tiger, but without it, he was still a tiger nonetheless.
Though he appeared youthful, he was far from being a youth anymore.
The starry sky stirred slightly.
He stepped through it, drawing closer to the location of the Blue Sky Sword Sea.
The Grand Formation trembled faintly, sending out a response.
In a great hall closest to the Blue Sky Sword Sea.
A Saint with a body as vast as a mountain and cold, stern features stood up, staring directly at the formation. After observing for a moment, he said in a deep voice.
"What lowly insect dares to enter the Heaven-Confining Formation?!"
His enormous body shimmered, and the entire hundred-mile starry sky seemed to tremble, the firmament pausing for a moment.
The Saint's figure appeared inside the formation, one hand reaching out to grasp the void, then nodding.
"Come."
This was a summoning technique, capable of calling anyone within a hundred miles.
But it didn't work on Chen Xia.
Because no figure appeared before the Saint. His brow furrowed, and he released his grasp on the void. Finding Chen Xia's trail, he snapped his fingers lightly.
Snap!
A large area of meteorites shattered.
The Saint's figure appeared before Chen Xia, his mountain-like body growing even larger, becoming a ten-thousand-zhang true form. He looked at Chen Xia as if gazing upon an ant.
His eyes fixed on Chen Xia, filled with boundless arrogance, he said disdainfully.
"What petty trick did you use, you little insect, to sneak into the formation undetected? It's fortunate that my divine sense is keen, or I might have missed your little maneuver, hehe."
"Who are you?" Chen Xia asked with a frown, truly unfamiliar with this Saint.
"You don't recognize me?" the Saint asked in return.
"No," Chen Xia nodded, then added an evaluation, "Your cultivation is passable, but your combat ability is lacking."
As a four-path Saint capable of single-handedly killing Great Saints and quasi-emperors, Chen Xia was indeed the most qualified being in all the myriad worlds to evaluate a Saint's combat ability.
But this Saint didn't know that, and merely sneered: "Don't be hasty, you'll soon see whether my combat ability is lacking or not. My title begins with 'Overlord', and I am the overlord sage. You'll soon understand the weight of these two words!"
"That's quite a grand title," Chen Xia nodded, then ignored the overlord sage and continued to gaze at the ruins of the Blue Sky Sword Sea.
"Seeking death!" The overlord sage suddenly roared, his body flashing to Chen Xia's side. His hand, like a small mountain, swept out, causing the entire sky to tremble and the formation to sink.
Boom!
Chen Xia's youthful figure was sent flying, sword energy flashing around his body in an attempt to defend, but it shattered instantly upon appearing.
A hint of red appeared at the corner of his mouth, and he could no longer hold back. Blood spewed from his lips as his figure fell like a meteor, crashing into the bottom of the star realm and slamming into the formation.
Clang!
The entire formation shook.
Several Saints looked over simultaneously, all of them powerful beings who had helped construct the formation.
In the Dead Star Region.
A pitch-black hand grasped a giant coffin, and a figure sat up.
The overlord sage didn't let up on Chen Xia, quickly pursuing him. He gathered the true meaning of the Dao in his hand, about to smash it down on Chen Xia's head, intending to completely annihilate this insect who dared to sneak into the formation.
The Dead Star Region trembled.
The giant coffin was now empty.
The overlord sage raised his hand, the true meaning of the Dao gathering, about to strike down when he suddenly paused.
Because he saw a pitch-black hand emanating dense death energy.
This hand was firmly grasping his own.
The overlord sage was somewhat surprised and turned to look.
A pitch-black figure was steadily gazing at him, revealing only a vague face.
For some reason, the overlord sage felt that the black figure looked somewhat similar to the insect below.
"Wait... hold on..." The overlord sage seemed to want to explain something.
The entire sky suddenly sank, the formation twisted as if being squeezed.
The other hand of the body double seemed to be grasping the entire formation, and it gently exerted force.
Starting from the overlord sage.
Extending thirty thousand miles behind him.
Everything shattered!