Told You I Can Turn Back Time
Chapter 392 - 317: Reflection

Chapter 392: Chapter 317: Reflection

Black and white sword forces erupted within the city, grinding everything in front of them to dust with an unstoppable force.

The darkness transformed by the Heavenly Demon Slayer Sword kept collapsing, clearly at a disadvantage against the Blazing Sky Sword.

"Ha ha, my dear son, if you want to kill your old man, this little strength is far from enough."

The Immortal Palace Leader struck with his sword, the light instantly ripping the whole street apart and sweeping numerous bystanders into it, turning them into misty clouds of blood.

The young man countered with a sweep of his Shadow Sword, swallowing the sword light with boundless shadows and withstanding the other’s attack.

He snorted coldly and shouted, "Old dog! Your physical body is much older than mine, and your vitality is no longer at its peak, let’s see how much longer you can last!"

The Immortal Palace Leader laughed heartily, his sword light flashing like thunder and lightning, tearing through the darkness and stabbing directly at the young man.

"Still picking on your old man’s age, truly a filial son I’ve raised. Dad is so proud."

Facing the fierce sword light, the young man roared, "Filial? Your! Mom!"

The next moment, black and white sword forces collided once more, scattering, and engulfing one street after another.

With the ongoing intense fight of the two masters, nearly half of the city was close to becoming ruins.

Suddenly, the darkness transformed by the Heavenly Demon Slayer Sword blew apart, intending to self-destruct and attack the Immortal Palace Leader.

"Hm? The Sword Spirit self-destructing?"

In an instant, the Immortal Palace Leader’s gaze sharpened, his Blazing Sky Sword emitting an unprecedented brilliance, blinding countless people inside and outside the city with its sword light.

After a long while, as the sword light gradually dissipated, much of the city had vanished without a trace, completely flattened under the self-destruction of the Heavenly Demon Slayer Sword.

But in this desolate place where no life remained, a figure stood proudly, thoughtfully surveying the barren battlefield before him.

"Ha ha, pretending to fight me to the death on the surface, but secretly preparing to use the self-destruction of the Heavenly Demon Slayer Sword as cover to escape... My dear son is really growing into the stature of his father," he mused.

"Let’s see where you’ll flee."

...

One year later.

In the present world, a country, a slum.

Inside an incredibly dirty and chaotic shack, where flies buzzed around in the steaming hot air, making the space feel like a steam room,

a man in tattered clothes and disheveled hair and beard lay quietly on a yellowed, ragged mattress.

The man appeared emaciated, his skin rough and his nails filled with dirt, his body emitting an indescribable stench, like a beggar who had been wandering for years, now completely blended with the slum.

"After a year of recovery, I’ve finally healed the injuries inside my body..."

A year ago, when he fought the Immortal Palace Leader, he knew that continuing to fight with his serious injuries would not make him a match for his opponent.

So, he seized an opportunity to flee, hiding his tracks and treating his wounds along the way, eventually finding a chance to return to this world and hiding in this slum.

Although the place was filled with danger and in poor conditions, it was suitable for healing.

In this slum, the various noises of pain, despair, agitation, and mindless entertainment from the past year permeated his mind, allowing him to clearly sense the suffering, confusion, and numbness of countless people.

This slum had existed for over a hundred years, with generations born and dying here.

They were relegated by the nation to the lowest jobs, even forbidden from leaving the slums to live elsewhere, and denied contact with people from other social strata.

Generation after generation continued to endure the same suffering, the same despair, as if perpetually trapped in an inescapable poverty.

And over the past year, the young man personally experienced this hellish poverty, feeling the various pains of the human world.

This life, rarely found in his past reincarnations, provided him with a unique experience.

"The excessive order of this world makes it impossible for these people to even think of resisting, generation after generation... living like animals..."

The young man slowly stood up, stepped outside the shack, and walked along the streets filled with mud and the stench of excrement.

His experiences over the past year had left him completely unfazed by the filth.

Furthermore, whether it was the filth or the pain, the various sufferings, joys, and evils of the world seemed unable to leave a mark on his heart.

At the same time, traces of Gang Qi started emanating from his body.

A year ago, during the fierce battle with the Immortal Palace Leader, his martial arts had already broken through the shackles, surpassing what he thought was his limit.

After a year of healing in the slum, not only could he perform extraordinary martial arts without exerting effort to suppress the negative influences of the evil energy, but he could even use this negative influence to push his strength to break through limits.

Wherever the young man passed, slaughter bloomed.

Numerous slum dwellers, who had just been calm or lost in their delusions, suddenly became agitated and started fighting and looting each other.

As the young man walked, a riot that the country had not seen in over a century spread throughout the nation.

This was merely the young man slightly emitting the influence of the evil energy within him to the ordinary people.

Over these two years, apart from healing and observing the world, the most frequent activity for the young man was—reflection.

Reflecting on the gap between him, Lin Xing, and the Immortal Palace Leader.

Reflecting on how to defeat the other.

Reflecting on how to become stronger.

"Now, the gap between me and the Immortal Palace Leader from two years ago still exists."

He thought, "The peak of the third inheritance was already the limit that the world’s cultivators could achieve before the surge of spiritual mechanisms."

"It’s incredible that I could make any breakthroughs at all."

"But recalling the power of the Immortal Palace Leader, why was he a notch stronger than I am now?"

"Skills, sublimation, scenarios, unique techniques... I’ve forged everything to the limit; even the evil spirit has become an aid rather than an obstacle to me now."

"What exactly is still missing between that old dog and me now?"

Looking at the city engulfed in war, the youth didn’t speak but simply left the country, continuing to measure the world with his own feet.

In the year that followed, he traveled through one orderly country after another, observing the world from a perspective he had never tried before, and yet he only felt a pervasive sense of death.

"A world like this, what future can it possibly have?"

"The matter of the imbalance of evil spirit between realms; once I kill that old dog and take care of Lin Xing, that mad dog, it must be completely changed..."

At this moment, he was no longer passively agreeing with and inheriting the ideas once spoken by the Immortal Palace Leader; he had formed his own views on the world and bore a dominating desire to transform it, a strong will to dominate the world.

But to dominate the world, to transform it according to one’s own ideas, was inherently a privilege of the strong.

As one of the strong among the strong, having made breakthroughs in power time and again, his desire to dominate the world naturally grew stronger.

"The time has come."

After staying in this world for two years, he finally awaited another opportunity for the gate to the Immortal Palace to open.

Carrying his latest breakthrough and his thoughts, he once again stepped into the gate of the Immortal Palace, heading to another world.

...

Boom!

Loud noises sounded in the mountains.

With the collapse of mountains and destruction of forests, the youth was seen chasing a strong member of the Evil Sect.

And this kind of chase was what he had been doing since he arrived in this world.

He was doing this partly to cut off the wings of the Immortal Palace Leader and partly to gather more intelligence related to the Immortal Palace Leader.

After a long fight, the battle finally ended, and the youth successfully captured his opponent.

Several hours later.

Bang!

With a gentle slap, the head of the Evil Sect expert being chased was smashed by the youth.

The youth’s mind then went over the intelligence he had gathered.

"The Immortal Palace Leader had collaborated with Shi Lin Temple... following the clues I found last time, their area of activity was around Jiangyang Province."

He continued to explore in the region of Jiangyang Province and finally confirmed some things.

"Lin Xing indeed comes from this world."

"He even has a very close relationship with Da Guangming Temple."

"The old dog collaborated with Shi Lin Temple; I wonder what method they used to erase Lin Xing’s memory and send him to the present world..."

At that thought, a glint of enlightenment flashed in his eyes, "The old guy knew so many secrets about Lin Xing and me; could it all be related to Shi Lin Temple?"

"Does he also control the method of mind-reading from Shi Lin Temple? Is he using mind-reading to gather information from our minds?"

Realizing this, the youth then planned to find a way to counteract the mind-reading.

And after spending two and a half years, he finally found the inheritance left by the Heartless Elder, which included a way to prevent Shi Lin Temple from reading his mind.

Not long after, he captured Bai Yun and garnered more intelligence from him.

"That old dog used the Yuhua Reincarnation Chapter of the Taiching Sect to implant memories into puppets."

"If that’s the case, doesn’t that mean he’d need to master both the unique techniques and inheritances of Shi Lin Temple and Taiching Sect?"

"Can he dual cultivate magic and martial arts?"

Thinking this, the youth’s gaze became intense, "If he really can dual cultivate, then I must seize this power in the future."

In his ongoing exploration and contemplation, the youth grew increasingly knowledgeable about many secrets concerning the Immortal Palace Leader.

At the same time, he gradually developed new thoughts on a question.

How exactly did the Immortal Palace Leader control Lin Xing’s memory?

Over the years, he repeatedly recalled and pondered but still couldn’t remember any opportunity the opponent had to alter Lin Xing’s memory.

"If there’s no chance in my memory, then the remaining possibility... must be outside my memory."

In the youth’s mind, possibilities he had never tried, a time he had never reached, kept emerging.

"At the end when Lin Xing lost control, what exactly was it like... Come to think of it, I’ve never lived to the moment Lin Xing completely collapsed."

"Did something happen at that moment?"

This time, the youth decided he would live to the very end to see what would happen.