1092 Battle of Limits
Although Wang Wei had solved one mystery, he now had a hundred more questions. How did Emperor Jia hide his reincarnation from his eyes? Why did he not ascend but reincarnate instead? What is he planning?
Emperor Jia heard Wang Wei's words but did not say anything. He was momentarily confused as he looked at his body and checked his memory.
"This is the fifth reincarnation? Why did I reincarnate into the Spirit Genesis Sect? I took measures to ensure this did not happen. And why is the Dao this time Battle? This is not what I chose."
His eyes turned into runes, and he seemed to be calculating or deducing some information. "No information deduced, but my intuition is telling me you're involved in this anomaly in some way," said Emperor Jia, finally paying attention to Wang Wei.
"I want to say that this is our first meeting, and I have nothing to do with you. However, weirder things have happened to me, so you might be right. Who knows?"
Despite his laissez-faire attitude, Wang Wei was on guard at all times, and that's because Emperor Jia was a blank to him; he could not divine any information or see the latter's future actions. This was the first time he faced such an opponent.
"It seems the battle between us is inevitable," commented Emperor Jia after a brief silence.
"I'm afraid so."
"Very well."
The center of his brow suddenly lit up five different colors, and immediately afterward, his aura drastically increased: 60% ... 65% .... 68% ... 69% ... 69.99999% Grand Dao Source.
'What is this? I sense a very subtle aura of Eternal Emperor from each of the lights?' thought Wang Wei, and his eyes squinted. 'Could it be?' When Emperor Jia's strength reached his level, he was sure of his theory.
'He's trying to enter the Taboo Realm by following a path similar to the Nine Extremity Foundation. He proves the Dao, condenses his strength into a seed, reincarnates, and does it again. Then, once he's become an Eternal Emperor nine times, he can fuse his power together to form a unique Dao Body that can break the limitation and enter the Taboo Realm.'
Wang Wei's brow furrowed, 'This plan sounds doable, but there is a major flaw - True Heavenly Dao. It would not allow someone to prove the Dao nine times, let alone become an Eternal Emperor nine times. No, it probably wouldn't let anyone participate in the Heaven Will Battle a second time unless they abandoned their status as Emperors. So, how did he protect his seeds from being detected or annihilated?'
Millions of thoughts flashed in Wang Wei's mind every second, and he soon deduced the answer: 'The Paradox - he did not create it just to protect the Spirit Genesis Sect or allow the broken Empyrean Artifact to exist in the lower dimension, but to hide his reincarnation and power seed; it was definitely his primary objective, and the others were either a byproduct or necessary steps for the entire endeavor.'
Wang Wei felt he was close to the truth despite not having his Fate Dao to help or give him the answer.
'However, this raises even more questions: how did Emperor Jia know how to use the Paradox to cover his activities? Such a brilliant idea could only be thought of by a Dao Lord or Overlord, which he probably is, but executing it is not a question of intelligence but ability.
'Can a Great Emperor create a paradox to hide such a major thing from True Heavenly Dao? No, even the Paradox involved changing True Heavenly Dao's records, and that's not something that any Paragon can do?'
Once again, he had more answers and even more questions. The most likely explanation is that Emperor Jia was once a pinnacle Paragon, maybe even a Primal Paragon, and spent an untold amount of time deducing this method. Then, he abandoned his strength and started over to achieve the Taboo Realm.
'If that's true, he's scarier than the Human Emperor, as he would have to abandon his strength as a Boundless Paragon to start over.' Anyone who can make such a ruthless decision has terrifying Willpower and mental fortitude.
'Adding his intelligence, he's a more than worthy foe,' concluded Wang Wei, who immediately decided to end this battle as quickly as possible to capture Emperor Jia and get more answers from his soul or memory. However, before Wang Wei reacted, Emperor Jia clapped his hands to release a strange energy into the Void Battlefield.
'This is?' thought Wang Wei before smiling wryly. The latter used a technique that imitated his Order-Disorder Dao, and the stipulation Emperor Jia placed on the battlefield was the prohibition of foreign aid to acquire Taboo Realm strength. In other words, Wang Wei cannot use the Illusory Pills to acquire Empyrean Tier strength as he did with Old Man Nether.
'I underestimated this bastard,' thought Wang Wei, wondering how he knew about this.
A rune rapidly condensed before Emperor Jia and Wang Wei sensed He Shiyi's Battle Dao. As soon as the rune finished, Emperor Jia's aura became purer as a new Dao emanated from his body.
'He condensed He Shiyi's Grand Dao Source into a rune to remove its effect on him and used his original Dao, which is Rune Dao or Language Dao,' analyzed Wang Wei.
Emperor Jia then glanced at the Four Symbol Mirror and uttered an unknown incantation, turning the artifact into an opened book with runes written all over the cover and pages. The book turned to a blank page before the Battle Dao Rune filled it with writing.
[Thunder-Destruction Rune: Lighting Bolt Rain]
A strange rune appeared above Emperor Jia's head, releasing billions of dark short lightning bolts. Wang Wei observed while evading, and the bolts were numerous and followed him.
'Thunder and Destruction Dao, and it's the pinnacle,' he analyzed. There is a restriction in versatile Dao - such as Talisman, Array, Battle, or Fist - that can use other laws through resonance: knowledge/understanding. For example, if a Talisman Maker wishes to create a top-tier Time Talisman, they need a deep understanding of Time Dao. Otherwise, their talisman will be weak, or they might not even succeed in the creation process.
However, in this short exchange, Wang Wei could tell Emperor Jia had such a deep understanding of Thunder and Destruction Dao to the point it appeared as if he was a pinnacle Heaven Chosen who proved the Dao in these Daos.
[Space Slash]
Wang Wei pointed his two fingers to make a slashing motion: a powerful silver slash rushed toward Emperor Jia, slicing through all the lighting bolts of destruction. A new rune materialized, releasing the fluctuation of Space Dao. The rune swallowed the attack before releasing thousands of space slashes.
'Time Rune,' thought Wang Wei before uttering, "All things are fated to die as the universe plunged into death, returning to primordial chaos."
The all-white Void Battlefield turned gray momentarily, and then all the destructive bolts and space slashes dissipated. They followed natural law and returned to chaos.
"The world is cyclical. After primordial chaos, a new world will be born and start the process." After uttering these words, one side of the Void Battlefield turned green, fighting the gray area. The two colors confronted each other briefly before canceling the other.
Wang Wei took a step forward, appearing before Emperor Jia, punching him in the face. However, his hand went through the latter's head as he only attacked an afterimage. Wang Wei teleported again, and this time, he hit a solid shield that rebounded his force, which he then redirected due to his absolute control.
Emperor Jia dispersed into a mote of light as his real body appeared in the distance. He summoned a new ruin that shot spears containing the power of death.
'Something is wrong,' thought Wang Wei. 'The way he avoids direct confrontation at all costs is a mistake that someone with top battle experience would not make.' It's fine if someone prefers distant combat, but they should never make it so obvious.
'Is his battle experience really bad?' thought Wang Wei before using a few attacks to test out his theory.
'It's not bad, but it's also not at the level of an old monster who was once a Boundless Paragon,' thought Wang Wei. 'What's the reason? He's either doing it on purpose for an unknown plan, or the memories from his time as a Paragon are still sealed.'
Wang Wei reversed Yin and Yang so that Emperor Jia's runes or words have the opposite meaning of what they are intended to. He also modified the rules in the surroundings, following the saying language is deceiving. In other words, all the runes used should have a completely different effect than intended.
He rushed toward his opponent as Emperor Jia summoned a new rune. Wang Wei squinted as he realized his technique was canceled.
'No, not cancel, they became errors: Error Dao? That's new.'
