Chapter 397: The Truth I
Wang Wei absorbed the two floating orbs inside his body, and as soon as he did so, two giant figures appeared behind his back. These two figures were his grandfather and father.
The two gray orbs that he absorbed were an application of the [Fate Stealing Technique]. By copying and storing the fate of someone else, Wang Wei can temporarily use their powers.
As the two most powerful people that he knew, Wang Wei copied their fate. When he developed this technique, he wanted to copy his wife's fate. Unfortunately, she was too powerful for him to do so.
Additionally, this technique required a lot of time, consent, and aid from the person whose fate is being copied. Plus, it seems to work better with people that are closely related to the caster.
After the two images appeared behind Wang Wei, his Physique's vision also appeared, then, his father and grandfather fused with the vision. That way, Wang Wei who sat on a throne with the River of Fate under his feet suddenly changed.
His robe turned into a golden armor, his temperament became more overbearing, more unruly; it was as if he had become a tyrant that forced anyone who stood in his way to bow down and surrender to him.
In his hand was a beautiful sword full of dragon and phoenix designs. On the hilt of the sword was the character for "Heaven". Then, Wang Wei in the vision stood up from his throne that hovered above myriad worlds and races.
A sword cry riveted across Heaven and Earth before a sword qi bigger than a universe gathered in the sky. The vision finally slashed its sword.
[Absolute Fate Slash]
Just like the name implied, this slash was absolute, final, so it cut through anything that stood in its way. It was simply unstoppable–or so it should be.
As Di Tian watched that slash rushing towards him, he thought, 'This Wang Tian's talent can compare to the Sword Empress.'
In his long life, only three Eternal emperors have officially defeated him in battle. And amongst these three, his defeat against the Sword Empress had the greatest impact on him.
This was because of how easily he was defeated. With just a swing of her bamboo sword, Di Tian's body and most of his soul were annihilated. So, as a person who learned from his mistake, he also studied swordsmanship during his long life.
He gathered Sword Scriptures from all over the world through his Sleepers, including the Sword Empress' [Heaven Slashing Sutra]. So, his accomplishment in the field is quite high.
Even if his talent is not on par with her and Wang Tian, his long years of studying the subject more than makeup for that. So, after making a spear-shape palm, he slashed with one hand creating a powerful slash to block that heaven-shattering attack.
Unfortunately, Di Tian slightly underestimated the power of that slash. As it was a combination of Wang Clan's three generations, it also represented the concept of the past, present, and future.
Wang Chang is the past, Wang Tian the present, and Wang Wei the future. So, this attack also contained Time Power.
The moment the two slashes clashed, Di Tian felt a powerful pressure pressing on his body. On top of that, that pressure seemed to drastically slow time, making his actions and thinking process extremely slow.
With his understanding of Time Dao, Di Tian quickly nullified the attack, but this was not all the power of the slash after all. As it was a combination of three people, there was also a third characteristic.
A powerful illusion boosted by all of Wang Wei's Paragon-Quality Soul
Suddenly, Di Tian's eyes seemed to blur as if he was confused. He raised his hand to caress the empty air. Then, he smiled. Although it was obvious at first sight that this was the first time he had a genuine smile on his face in a very long time, it still appeared beautiful.
"Ning'er," he muttered while smiling and caressing the air; two lines of tear dripped down on his face in the process. And even after that slash hit his body, creating a wound more than 30 cm long, he did not react.
'I'm running out of time,' thought Wang Wei. He saw that one of his Trump Card Attacks had created so little damage and he knew how dangerous the situation was.
He immediately activated His Heavenly Eye of Fate to connect to the River of Fate of this World. Then, he slashed once again, this time directing his attack at the river.
And with that single attack, he was able to servers that River of Fate from its main branch. While using the power of the river during this fight, Wang Wei learned something new about fate.
There is a River of Fate that is considered the main branch. It's responsible to weave the fate of all beings in existence and contains all information about all lives.
However, to function properly, many smaller rivers are detached from the main ones, creating branches. And each world in the Endless Void contained a branch of the River of Fate. Based on the power of the World, each branch will have a different level of strength.
So, with that attack, Wang Wei severed the connection of this branch to the main river. Then, he had his Vision absorbed the entire River of Fate thus once again boosting his strength,
Then, he did do hesitate to slash a third time with his newfound strength. Unfortunately for him, by then, Di Tian had already woken up. Although Wang Wei's soul outclassed him in terms of quality, it cannot come close to Di Tian in terms of quantity.
After living through 10 lives and 9 reincarnations, the quantity of his soul is astounding. So, he used it to break through the illusion. Then, an intense killing intent emanated from Di Tian's body as his wound instantly healed; the bloodlust in his body could no longer be contained.
[Nine Samsara Fist: Yellow Springs]
Di Tian punched forward and a yellow river manifested into the void. It rushed straight toward Wang Wei, easily destroying his slash attack before bombarding his vision into pieces and forcing him to vomit blood.
Then, it enveloped him.
Immediately, Wang Wei felt his Primordial Spirit being washed away. His memories, identities, personality, mind, and spirit were being forcibly erased turning him into a mindless puppet.
Wang Wei could tell that this attack was based on the idea of washing away the previous life memories before reincarnating, but more vicious. He knew that in just a few seconds, he would be nothing but a shell of his former self.
So, he gather a large portion of his spirit particle and detonated his entire body; there was no hesitation in his actions
Boom!
The explosion of his self-detonation pushed away from the river that imprisoned him. Meanwhile, in one of the many drops of blood that survive the explosion, a new body was instantly regrown. Unfortunately, a lot of his few remaining spirit particles once angina became dimmed.
As soon as Wang Wei regrew his body, Di Tian appeared next to him and punch him into oblivion. Then, the process of being instantly killed over and over again repeated itself,
In less than one minute, Wang Wei died more than a hundred times and revived himself, only relying on his own regenerative ability. And unlike the immortality granted by the Top 30 Heaven Chosens, the process of dying was a painful one.
Entering that state of deep darkness that seemed eternal was a scary thing. And most cultivators would have their minds broken by now, and their Dao Heart shattered.
Luckily, Wang Wei was used to constantly dying during the last trial of the Pagoda. So, his will had long been tempered beyond anything any mortal could ever fathom.
Suddenly, Di Tian stopped attacking as he had a frown on his face; he realized that something was wrong. With his ability, as long as he used the Duyi Realm to the full extent, he should be able to instantly kill his opponent and prevent it from regenerating himself.
Yet, he did not do so. Instead, he played with his opponent and essentially giving him a chance to live. Thinking about the entire battle, Di Tian realized that he had never gone for the kill move which is contrary to his original intention.
After realizing that something was wrong, he closed his eyes. Then, deep in one of his Primordial Spirit, he saw a gray chain surrounding it. He removed the chain and broke it.
"The Shackle of Fate? Is that his Innate Talent?" he muttered softly. He had seen this ability during Wang Wei's battle with Ji Song and he had speculated what it does base on the recordings he reviewed of the battle.
And after experiencing it himself, he realized what it was.
Wang Wei had placed a shackle or restriction on his mind; to be precise, on his way of thinking. It made him have the thought process that "my opponent is weak and not a threat, so I can play with him during this fight."
Because of this, Di Tian did not use his overwhelming strength to instantly kill Wang Wei. Because of this, Di Tian would talk to his opponent and give him time to recuperate, and even provided him with information.
Di Tian opened his eyes to look at Wang Wei. "Since when did you place that shackle on me?"
"From the moment you appeared and I looked you straight in the eyes," replied Wang Wei with a sigh. One of his trump cards is that he has been training to use his Innate Talent more passively and more subtly.
He used a very subtle method to place restrictions on his opponent's mind to influence. And the moment Di Tian appeared and his intuition warned him that he might die, he used this technique to give him a chance of survival.
Although it was very difficult to do so because of the large gap in strength, it still succeeded because of his soul. Because this technique does not harm the receiver and is very subtle, it is easier to succeed and prevent backlash.
However, Wang Wei knew that it would be a matter of time before it was discovered. Unfortunately, the time had arrived. Furthermore, as Wang Wei looked at his hands which had wrinkles and age spots, he knew that he was running out of time.