The Legend of the Great Desolation: I Am the Fortress

In the inner world, atop a mountain within the Holy City, lies a portable cave dwelling.

Inside a large hall within the cave.

Lei Zhan was sitting cross-legged on a futon, his eyes closed, like a withered, stubborn rock.

He was enveloped by a suffocating force of spacetime.

"The Holy Scripture of Time and Space: Over the past ten thousand years, I have comprehended a great deal of the inheritance of time and space, and finally completely forged my own path."

"Shattered Stars, Annihilation, Thousand Realms, Reincarnation, Fleeting Shadow..."

According to his own understanding, Lei Zhan divided the space-time domain into five categories, and the "Space-Time Bible" has now been divided into five styles.

The "Shattered Star" technique, one of the Five Techniques of Time and Space, which was the first prototype that I comprehended, has undergone subtle changes.

The essence of this move is still spacetime strangulation, but in Lei Zhan's design, it is the fastest, most direct, and most penetrating move.

The 'Annihilation' of the Five Styles of Time and Space is the most violent and ferocious of the five styles, representing the ultimate destruction of time and space, and the ultimate annihilation.

The 'Thousand Realms' that he later comprehended could cause large areas of spacetime to crumble inch by inch.

After comprehending a great deal of the inheritance of time and space, this technique has now undergone many changes.

The shattered spacetime created by the 'Thousand Realms' can not only withstand and isolate a large number of attacks, but also completely destroy weaker beings in this utterly shattered and chaotic spacetime.

This technique is both a way of attacking and a way of defending.

The 'Reincarnation' of the Five Styles of Time and Space is extremely versatile, and in Lei Zhan's conception, it is the ultimate single-target defense.

Layer upon layer of time and space, it withstands all attacks and is the most solid 'shield'.

The layers of time and space can also be transformed into a cage to trap the enemy.

Even if the enemy can break through space and time layer by layer, the layers of space and time are like water, constantly being broken and reborn, like a cycle of reincarnation. In the end, they can only be trapped in the endless overlapping space and time.

The "Instant Shadow" technique, one of the five techniques of time and space, is the last technique created by Lei Zhan.

This technique allows one to escape into spacetime, forcibly breaking through spacetime to travel, as if in another spacetime dimension.

Similarly, in another dimension, those with insufficient cultivation levels cannot even detect it, and to some extent, they cannot even touch it.

With the advent of this technique, whether leaving or staying to assassinate, Lei Zhan is almost invincible.

"The Five Styles of Time and Space encompass almost everything in time and space."

Lei Zhan sensed his own understanding of the Dao and vaguely understood that this was the limit of what he could do at present.

Throughout these ten thousand years, both the original body and the second primordial spirit have been comprehending the Dao of spacetime and the inheritance of mental power.

The original body, which has cultivated for the longest time, has cultivated for five million years under the blessing of the five hundred times the time flow speed of the Sky-Gazing Taihao Tower.

Over the course of time, the "Scripture of Time and Space" was continuously developed and perfected, eventually becoming what it is today.

In fact, the "Time and Space Codex", after being perfected by Lei Zhan, originally had eight forms. In Lei Zhan's understanding, each form, when taken to its extreme, represents the strongest path.

Lei Zhan knew very well that the strongest path did not require five paths; it could be six, seven, eight, or even ten.

Just like how one begets two, two begets three, and three begets all things.

No matter how many strongest paths there are, they are all part of the ultimate path of spacetime.

The most important reason is still to look at one's own understanding of the 'Tao'.

Most practitioners can only see a part of what they can see; their understanding of the 'Tao' is an incomplete Tao of time and space.

Seven thousand years ago, after Lei Zhan exchanged the spacetime inheritance of the Eternal Emperor level and the spacetime inheritance of that Daoist Ruosang, his understanding of the Dao of Spacetime became more and more thorough.

Over the course of seven thousand years, Lei Zhan’s understanding of the principles of time and space was constantly summarized and refined, eventually forming the current “Scripture of Time and Space”.

The "Scripture of Time and Space" is the culmination of Lei Zhan's long years of cultivation, and it is also the foundation of his path in time and space.

"Among the many time-space inheritances I have observed, the Eternal Emperor was actually the one who could merge with the Dao and achieve eternity. His 'Dao' was the most stable, but in terms of the Dao of time and space, he was quite ordinary."

"As for Daojun Ruosang's 'Dao,' it is broad and refined, and it is already perfect enough. It combines the two strongest offensive Daos and the two strongest defensive Daos, but it is still not the most comprehensive."

"At least... it's not the most perfect way of time and space that I imagined."

A mere mortal at the level of an Ancestral God or Ancestral Immortal is going to evaluate the 'Dao' of the Heaven-Defying Dao Lord and the 'Dao' of the Eternal Emperor...

If other cultivators knew about this, they would probably laugh at Lei Zhan for being so arrogant and ignorant.

He had comprehended the Dao of many Dao Lords of Life and Death, and the Dao of the Eternal Emperor, and in the end, that was the feeling he gave Lei Zhan.

In Earthly terms, it's not that you don't know the goods, it's that you're afraid of comparing them!

The advantages and disadvantages of a time-space inheritance are simply not clear to the blind men and the elephant.

Only by thoroughly analyzing and carefully studying each and every aspect of the time-space inheritance can one gradually discover that one time-space inheritance is extremely outstanding in a certain aspect, while another time-space inheritance still has some shortcomings in a certain aspect.

Which timeline has a stronger lineage? Which timeline has a more complete system of teachings?
Which method has advantages that other methods in time and space do not have?
Through continuous analysis, Lei Zhan developed a 'ruler' in his heart to measure things.

Gradually, he gained more and more insights into the Dao of Time and Space, and even formed a complete system about the Dao of Time and Space in his mind.

It should be noted that the cultivators who left behind these inheritances were at least at the Dao Lord level, and their 'Dao' was indeed very strong.

Even when contemplating and reflecting upon the stacked objects, one feels as if a single grain of sand floats into view of the blue sky.

In particular, when watching the Dao of Ruosang Daojun and the Dao of the Eternal Emperor Qianhuo Emperor, Lei Zhan felt an urge to follow the Dao of these two.

However, once he noticed the problems in this inheritance, Lei Zhan could not ignore them.

Besides, other people's paths are ultimately not suitable for him.

Just as no two leaves in the world are the same, other people's paths can only serve as a reference.

As Lei Zhan observed and studied the time-space inheritance left by these many great beings, and observed the path of these practitioners, he gained a deeper understanding over time.

This allows one to vaguely discern the differences in the 'path' of these practitioners, some of which are the same, while others are different or even diametrically opposed.

It's like a jigsaw puzzle; everyone has the same pieces, some have more, some have fewer. Some have only a single piece, or even that piece is missing.

What Lei Zhan needs to do in this process is to take out the parts that can be confirmed to be completely identical, and then try to piece together the missing or incomplete parts.

However, Lei Zhan dared not completely assert that his 'path' was the most perfect.

He merely stood on the shoulders of giants, becoming the one who reaped the benefits of others' work by analyzing and summarizing his own experiences.

He can only confirm that the overall framework of his 'puzzle' is complete. By continuing to move forward, he will eventually have the opportunity to piece the entire 'puzzle' together perfectly without any missing pieces.

"The framework is in place; all that's left is to observe, learn, and hone my skills. If I continue to isolate myself and try to comprehend the Dao of Spacetime, it will be of little use to me." Lei Zhan had a vague realization in his heart.

Seclusion is indeed one way to improve one's strength.

However, once one has reached a certain level of cultivation, continuing to cultivate in seclusion becomes meaningless.

And that's exactly what's happening now with the base development.

"However, before we leave, we must not let go of any treasures we can get our hands on."

Lei Zhan pondered to himself, "I have already obtained the spiritual power inheritance of that top-tier Dao Lord, but I still lack enough merit points to exchange for an eternal divine weapon."

Over the past ten thousand years, apart from secluded cultivation, Lei Zhan would venture into the Demon Subduing Palace and slay ice demons in the Ice Demon Valley every so often. Even after exchanging his merits for numerous inheritances, he still had a considerable amount left.

But when it comes to treasures, no one would complain about having too many.

"After my second primordial spirit leaves the Earth's core world, I will also venture into the endless chaos, so the more treasures I have, the better."

Lei Zhan said softly, "Whether it's buying more methods of the Path of Time and Space to perfect my path, or magical treasures, the more the better."

Thoughts kept surging through Lei Zhan's mind.

"And breakthroughs in cultivation, World God, Chaos Immortal..."

"I can feel my own understanding of space and time, and I can go even further. I should be able to break through directly."

If Lei Zhan wanted to, he could easily break through to the level of World God or Chaos Immortal right now, given how immense his accumulation over the past five million years in the Sky-Gazing Taihao Tower is.

However, he was not in a hurry to break through immediately. If he wanted to truly become an unparalleled master in the field of time and space, he had to build an incomparably solid and powerful foundation.

There are also other reasons related to the situation that the base presents.

The first one is still in this inner world. If he breaks through and gets teleported out, he'll have nowhere to cry.

Secondly, Lei Zhan felt that his own accumulation could be even more powerful.

……

"This little guy has really impressed me."

Deep within the Earth's core, in a space, a woman in white looked on with satisfaction.

"He learned this explosive technique from somewhere, a technique that even I can't see through. He also used this technique to gain a lot of merit and a lot of magic methods."

Over these ten thousand years, she could clearly see Lei Zhan's growth.

From initially understanding the 'Tao' at a level comparable to a world god, his understanding has steadily climbed, with visible changes, until now, it has completely rivaled or even surpassed the perfect level of a world god...

"Cultivating at fifty times the speed of time, I've only glimpsed a fraction of the Dao he's comprehended, but this little guy's ambition..."

The woman in white sighed, "This Dao, which seeks to encompass all time and space, is far more ambitious than its original master!"

"However, he has grown to this point, and it's time to go and meet him."

……

(End of this chapter)