Finally Attaining the Third Realm!

"This is..." Lu Changsheng's heart shook just as violently. This tiny droplet of water from the River of Spacetime was not as terrifyingly destructive as a Sovereign's power of decomposition. It seemed incapable of breaking down his True Realm Plane directly. Yet it carried a power of "spacetime." It was subtle, silent, and imperceptible, moistening things without a sound. Inside Lu Changsheng's True Realm, that tiny patch of river water draped over the void. Gradually, the void caved in. Once the void collapsed, the decay steadily rippled outward into the surrounding worlds. Soon, an entire world crumbled. Of course, a single world was utterly negligible compared to Lu Changsheng's current sheer scale. It was like a solitary grain of sand—far too small, far too insignificant. Even so, it gave Lu Changsheng a firsthand taste of just how terrifying the waters of the River of Spacetime truly were. The real reason the world blanketed by the river water fell apart was not decomposition. It was time! Yes, time itself. It was as if that world had traversed countless epochs in a single heartbeat. The world simply arrived at its natural end. It collapsed on its own, organically. It was no different from a mortal aging decades in a split second and passing away of natural causes in old age. It was an inevitable, natural progression. Yet the more natural it was, the more shaken Lu Changsheng felt. After all, what was the most terrifying power in this world? A Sovereign's power of decomposition? Supreme treasures forged from immortal substance? No. None of the above. The most terrifying power was, in truth, the power of time. Time—silent and pervasive, nourishing yet eroding without a sound. Invisible, intangible. Yet felt every single moment. No matter how breathtaking your talent, no matter how peerless your brilliance; No matter if you commanded boundless resources and reigned supreme over an entire era; Even if you stood at the summit of the universe as a top Sovereign... What of it? Before time, none of it mattered. Even a top Sovereign, endowed with an unimaginably vast lifespan, could not live forever. Even an immortal soul, under the inexorable flow of time, would gradually grow dormant and eventually sink into the River of Spacetime. Wasn't that devourer Lu Changsheng had seen earlier once a top Sovereign? Before time, all matter would gradually decay, disintegrate, and ultimately reduce to ashes. Even immortal substance was no exception. The only difference was how much longer it could hold out. The final outcome remained identical. In reality, the water of the River of Spacetime functioned much like "time acceleration." Soaked continuously in the water of the River of Spacetime, even immortal substance would decompose, and even an immortal soul would collapse. That was precisely why every single one of those devourers eventually sank into the River of Spacetime, thoroughly meeting their demise. Seemingly devoid of earth-shattering destructive fury, the water of the River of Spacetime actually wielded the most dreadful power in existence. "Time..." Lu Changsheng murmured softly. He finally understood why one had to wash their physical body, consciousness, and power with the water of the River of Spacetime. When a cultivator birthed immortal true intent, their soul underwent a metamorphosis into an immortal soul. A body capable of housing an immortal soul had to be one capable of enduring the passage of endless time. The same held true for consciousness and power. Only under the relentless scour of the river's water would the physical body, consciousness, and power undergo a fundamental metamorphosis, thereby taking on the property of "immortality." When the time came, an immortal body, an immortal consciousness, and immortal power would naturally match an immortal soul. Only that was a true Third Realm existence! The fundamental distinction between the Third Realm and the First or Second Realm boiled down to two words: immortality. Of course, such immortality was merely relative. Before the River of Spacetime, nothing was eternal. Perhaps only the legendary Fourth Realm—the ethereal, nebulous Eternal—could be counted as truly immortal. As for what the Eternal actually entailed, Lu Changsheng had no idea. Regardless, Lu Changsheng was nowhere near ready to ponder eternity. He had to figure out how to bestow the property of "immortality" onto his True Realm. To birth the property of immortality, one had to withstand the scouring of the river water. Because he possessed an immortal soul, Lu Changsheng's physical body, consciousness, and power could endure for a very long time. It was only a question of when the transformation would occur. However, relative to the colossal scale of his True Realm, this tiny scoop of river water was far from enough. Fortunately, Lu Changsheng had prepared thoroughly. He brought out a massive quantity of immortal substance. Some of these pieces of immortal substance were treasures that contained vast inner spaces, and those cavernous spaces were filled to the brim with water from the River of Spacetime. *Crash!* As the water poured down like a deluge, vast swathes of worlds inside Lu Changsheng's True Realm began to collapse. It was not a collapse driven by external forces. It was purely as if immense stretches of time had washed over them, leading to a natural end. This was the power of years. Lu Changsheng could only watch powerlessly as the worlds within his True Realm caved in. Yet fortunately, his foundation was indeed massive. Even as large areas crumbled, he could easily hold on. Lu Changsheng even began analyzing how to withstand the river water—which was equivalent to analyzing how to resist the power of time. Yet could anything truly resist the power of time? The only thing Lu Changsheng could think of was immortal substance. In truth, even immortal substance could not truly defy the march of time. Yet when facing the years, its resilience far exceeded anything else. Immortal substance was born from the relentless, repeated scouring of the River of Spacetime in the first place. *Immortal substance is occasionally birthed after being washed time and again by the River of Spacetime, so it inherently resists the erosion of years.* *For my True Realm to transform now, it must follow the same path as the birth of immortal substance. Scoured by the river water, my body and consciousness must also undergo metamorphosis.* *It's just that I cannot even control this metamorphosis yet. I can only passively endure the scouring. Once I endure to a certain threshold, the body will naturally transform...* Lu Changsheng had essentially unraveled the mystery of a Third Realm Sovereign. A Third Realm Sovereign possessed an immortal soul and an immortal body. Even their consciousness became an immortal consciousness. Even their power mutated into something akin to the water of the River of Spacetime: the power of decomposition, capable of breaking down all things. In a sense, that was the power of the River of Spacetime itself. Although Third Realm Sovereigns were immortal through and through, from the inside out, they merely knew what it was without understanding why it was so. Third Realm Sovereigns did not actually grasp the mysteries of time, much less the secrets of the River of Spacetime. Consequently, they could not permanently withstand the erosion of the river water once and for all, nor could they break free from it. Perhaps knowing the fundamental "why" required reaching the legendary Fourth Realm—Eternity! As Lu Changsheng reflected again and again, his True Realm Plane was scoured repeatedly by the river water, and massive portions of it collapsed. Lu Changsheng lost track of how much time had passed. His True Realm had been washed for far, far too long, and very little remained. Ten percent, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty... Roughly fifty percent of the True Realm Plane had completely collapsed and vanished into nothingness. Yet Lu Changsheng had no idea when this process would conclude. Perhaps he would never be able to ascend to the Third Realm. A sudden possibility crossed his mind. In the Great Universe, the strongest practitioners of the World Master path were only at the Second Realm. It seemed no Third Realm Sovereign had ever arisen from the ranks of World Masters. In other words, the pinnacle of a World Master was a Second Realm cosmic mighty figure. Why had the World Masters banded together to form the Boundary Sea in the first place? Fundamentally, it was because no World Master had ever become a Third Realm Sovereign. Without a Sovereign among them, they had no real voice in the Great Universe, and thus no sense of security. Hence, the World Masters united, gradually forming the Boundary Sea. The Boundary Sea could indeed contend with Sovereigns, and Sovereigns could do nothing against it. Yet the Boundary Sea was immobile. Nor had the Boundary Sea ever nurtured a Third Realm Sovereign from among the World Masters. With so many World Masters throughout history, not a single one had ever stepped into the Third Realm. There had to be a reason for this. *Cultivators of the physical path, washed continuously by the water of the River of Spacetime, shed their impurities and retain their essence. Having weathered the power of the years, they eventually bolster their resistance to the river's water, thereby achieving physical immortality.* *Likewise for cultivators of the Great Dao path. Day in and day out, their Dao is washed by the river water until it ultimately transforms into an immortal Dao. But what about World Masters?* *A World Master's inner world consists of planes. When the river water constantly erodes a world, that world simply collapses. And what does a collapsed world become? Naturally, it turns to dust and ashes. Under these conditions, how can a World Master's inner world ever become immortal? How could they ever ascend to the Third Realm?* A thought struck Lu Changsheng. He began contemplating deeply why World Masters could never attain the Third Realm. In the past, many World Masters assumed they failed to reach the Third Realm simply because their foundation and accumulation were insufficient. Yet right now, Lu Changsheng's foundation was colossally vast. He had become the number-one supreme on the Hundred Supremes Ranking—undisputedly the mightiest cosmic mighty figure beneath the Third Realm. With such an achievement, how could his foundation possibly be lacking? If the issue was not accumulation, then the fault lay in the World Master cultivation system itself. A World Master took their inner world as their root. Their physical body was their inner world. One could regard the inner world as worlds, planes, or even an entire universe. Now Lu Changsheng had run straight into the dilemma. How could a world, or a universe, become immortal? No matter how the years washed over it, a world would only crumble. A universe was no different. How could it ever achieve immortality? For a time, Lu Changsheng sank into deep contemplation. He could not even spare attention for the ongoing wash of the river water. He was utterly absorbed in figuring out how to make a world—or a universe—immortal. Without resolving this question, he had a faint premonition that this attempt to break through to the Third Realm would end in failure! Yet how could it be resolved? With the passage of time, any world was bound to collapse. The same applied to universes. This was not something external forces could alter. Could a world exist forever? Could a universe exist forever? Within the River of Spacetime, were there worlds or universes that endured eternally, or at least survived for an unfathomably long span? *Wait... Though it is said that all universes and worlds in the River of Spacetime will eventually collapse into desolation, their actual lifespans vary dramatically.* *The most ancient universes have existed for spans almost beyond reckoning, far too ancient to count. Why have those ancient universes continued to endure, lasting so long without collapsing into desolation?* *When a universe collapses, it is mostly due to external factors. The water of the River of Spacetime merely carries the power of time, which does not count as an external factor, because every universe undergoes the passage of time and weathers the years.* *Setting aside external factors, what causes a universe or world to finally march toward desolation?* Lu Changsheng cast his mind back through his memories. He possessed abundant experience on this matter. After all, Lu Changsheng had devoured countless desolate planes. His current monumental scale had been largely built on consuming desolate planes, so naturally, no one knew them better than he did. *A plane falls into desolation—barring external forces—because of life! When living beings dwindle and eventually vanish, the plane gradually withers and falls into desolation...* *And a desolate plane will slowly crumble, turning to dust...* At this realization, Lu Changsheng's heart jolted. Life! Who would have guessed that the enduring existence of an immense plane, world, or universe was inextricably tied to life? Individual living beings seemed utterly trivial compared to a universe—infinitesimally small. Take the Great Universe, for instance. What did mortal lives matter to the vast cosmos? Yet it was precisely those frail mortal lives that allowed a universe to endure endlessly. Lu Changsheng did not know the underlying principle. Yet whatever existed held its own rationale. Right now, Lu Changsheng did not need to know the why. He seemed to have found the key to granting "immortality" to the True Realm within him. Life! Moreover, mere life was not enough. It required a harmonious order where life flourished endlessly, cycling anew without end. Only then could the True Realm achieve "immortality." In truth, living beings already inhabited Lu Changsheng's True Realm. Lu Changsheng had even passed down the method of the World Master to the denizens within. Even so, after all this time, not a single World Master had been born. Cultivation was never an easy path. Still, his True Realm had always held life, so why had it not achieved immortality? Under the relentless scour of the river water, the True Realm continued to collapse. Sixty percent, seventy percent, eighty percent... Eighty percent of Lu Changsheng's True Realm Plane had crumbled away. Yet Lu Changsheng remained locked in thought. "A person lives for a single lifetime, like grass that greens in spring and withers in autumn..." "Compared to a universe, how fleeting is the life of a mortal? It is as minuscule as a speck of dust." "Yet how can such fleeting lives flourish without end?" "What is still missing?" Lu Changsheng repeated the phrase "flourish without end" to himself. Suddenly, a flash of inspiration blazed through his mind. Life flourished without end because new people were continually born. New life arrived into the world. Yet what happened after death? The operation of the universe seemed to be missing one crucial linchpin. Reincarnation! *Reincarnation... Why does the Great Universe have no cycle of reincarnation?* *Not just the Great Universe—it seems the entire River of Spacetime lacks a cycle of reincarnation as well.* *Sovereigns claim to be omniscient and omnipotent, so why is there no reincarnation?* Lu Changsheng jolted. He seemed to have grasped something. He had no idea why the Great Universe lacked reincarnation, nor why Sovereigns had never mentioned it. Yet that did not stop a flash of insight from striking him, prompting him to establish reincarnation within his True Realm. To Lu Changsheng, the True Realm was under his absolute control. Establishing reincarnation took nothing more than a single thought. By this point, eighty percent of the True Realm Plane had caved in. Yet the remaining twenty percent was still colossal in scale. *Rumble!* With a thought from Lu Changsheng, the cycle of reincarnation manifested within the True Realm Plane. The moment reincarnation appeared, an earth-shattering transformation seemed to sweep across the entire True Realm. The remaining twenty percent of the True Realm Plane, which had been on the verge of total collapse under the scouring of the river water, suddenly slowed its rate of decay. It could not be said to have ceased collapsing entirely, but the rate had slowed to an unimaginable crawl. Day after day slipped by. Lu Changsheng lost all track of how much time had passed. After all, nearly all of the remaining twenty percent of his True Realm Plane was blanketed by water from the River of Spacetime. With so much river water, that twenty percent would normally have crumbled long ago. Yet now, after so long, the volume of his True Realm had only eroded a miniscule fraction—not even one ten-thousandth, let alone ten percent. Such a snail's pace spoke volumes. *Reincarnation... really works.* *Moreover, under the repeated scouring of the River of Spacetime, a new power has been born inside the True Realm... Even the True Realm itself seems altered...* *And my consciousness—scoured by the river water, it feels as though countless epochs have passed, yet it shows no sign of breaking down whatsoever.* *Have I... ascended to the Third Realm?* Lu Changsheng found it almost unbelievable. He had reached the Third Realm just like that? He had felt nothing out of the ordinary. There were no cataclysmic upheavals. It was entirely silent and subtle, moistening things without a sound. Smoothly and naturally, like water carving a channel, he had attained the Third Realm. "The Third Realm..." Lu Changsheng willed it. *Boom!* The power of the True Realm erupted. To be precise, this was the unified power of the entire True Realm. Yet it seemed distinct from a Third Realm Sovereign's power of decomposition. His True Realm power possessed the capacity to decompose all things, but it also held the power of "new life"—capable of restoring and renewing everything. "This is the power of creation and destruction..." A sudden flash of inspiration struck him, and the term surfaced in his mind. The power of creation and destruction. Birth and ruin—was that not precisely creation and destruction? And worlds were born out of the cycle of creation and destruction to begin with. Furthermore, Lu Changsheng discovered another way in which he differed from ordinary Third Realm cultivators: his physical body. Other Third Realm Sovereigns relied primarily on the power of decomposition. Their physical bodies held little combat potency, or were virtually useless in battle. For a Third Realm Sovereign, increasing their strength meant enhancing their power of decomposition, which was accomplished by strengthening their immortal soul. The stronger the immortal soul, the more formidable the power of decomposition. Lu Changsheng's physical body was different. His body right now was the True Realm itself. And the moment the True Realm established reincarnation and weathered the continuous scouring of the river water—effectively enduring the passage of vast time—it actually began to expand on its own. Yes, self-expansion. Because life now flourished endlessly within it, Lu Changsheng's True Realm no longer needed to devour other planes. It expanded autonomously. Given sufficient time, his True Realm would eventually swell to an unimaginable scale. Moreover, his True Realm was still classified as a plane. Another thought struck him. If he dedicated himself to elevating the True Realm from a plane into a full universe, would his strength undergo an earth-shattering leap? When that time came, could he stand toe-to-toe with top Sovereigns? Lu Changsheng felt the likelihood was immense! Yet what was needed to progress from a plane to a universe? He could no longer devour other planes directly as before. Devouring would disrupt the present structure of the True Realm Plane. If that broke the self-sustaining cycle of endless life, the loss would far outweigh any gain. The True Realm had to expand on its own. And it truly could expand autonomously; given enough time, it would naturally broaden into a universe. It would be a natural progression. However, that required a vast expanse of time. "Time... Doesn't the water from the River of Spacetime act as time acceleration?" Lu Changsheng gazed at the river water before him, a faint smile touching his lips. Cultivating using the water of the River of Spacetime? He was likely the only one capable of such a feat. Even top Sovereigns could not use the river's water to cultivate. Now, this very water had become Lu Changsheng's cultivation resource. However, in his breakthrough to the Third Realm, he had completely exhausted his supply. If he wanted to obtain vast quantities of river water now, he would have to venture into the River of Spacetime himself. Furthermore, this time he would need far more than a meager scoop. He required an enormous volume of river water. With the meager amount of immortal substance he possessed, how much river water could it possibly hold? *It would be best to find a spatial treasure forged from immortal substance...* Lu Changsheng thought of the Spacetime Boat. The space inside the Spacetime Boat was plenty vast. Yet would the Eternal Academy allow him to borrow it? That would be very difficult. Then again, it did not necessarily have to be the Spacetime Boat. Lu Changsheng decided to inquire across the Great Universe first. If there were spatial treasures made of immortal substance available, he would have no need to borrow the Spacetime Boat. With this in mind, Lu Changsheng casually calculated the passage of time. "What? Ten thousand years have already passed?" Lu Changsheng was stunned. He had been completely immersed in weathering the river water's scouring, entirely oblivious to the passage of time in the outside world, having lost almost all sense of it. Yet a careful tally revealed that ten thousand years had slipped by. This was likely the longest seclusion Lu Changsheng had ever undergone. He had known that striking for the Third Realm would take a considerable amount of time, but ten thousand years was still extraordinarily long. Lin Qingluan, Sovereign Feilong, and the others waiting outside were probably frantic with worry by now. With that, Lu Changsheng rose abruptly and exited the cave dwelling. In truth, outside Lu Changsheng's cave dwelling, Lin Qingluan and Sovereign Feilong were indeed fraught with anxiety. At the one-thousand-year mark, Lin Qingluan had remained calm. By three thousand years, her composure began to fray. At five thousand years, she could neither sit nor stand in peace. After all, even the slowest recorded ascension to the Third Realm had taken around three thousand years. Five thousand years was already well beyond that. Fortunately, Sovereign Feilong had kept his cool. He could still sense Lu Changsheng's presence. Moreover, Lu Changsheng's avatar had informed Lin Qingluan that the main body had entered a temporary state of dormancy, but was in no mortal peril. Then came six thousand years, seven thousand, eight thousand, nine thousand... Finally, as of today, over ten thousand years had elapsed! *Swish!* Suddenly, Sovereign Feilong snapped his eyes open. He stared intently at the entrance to Lu Changsheng's cave dwelling. Just moments ago, he had felt Lu Changsheng's aura begin to "revive" inside. Evidently, Lu Changsheng had "awakened." Yet had the breakthrough succeeded, or had it ended in failure? Some cosmic mighty figures could preserve their lives even after failing a breakthrough. Lu Changsheng was alive, but none could say whether he had succeeded or failed. Still, Sovereign Feilong harbored deep concern. He had broken through to the Third Realm himself; when he succeeded back then, the commotion had been tremendous. Yet right now, there wasn't the slightest stir from within the cave dwelling. And Lu Changsheng had already awakened. Perhaps that silence already spelled out the result. "Did he still fail? The Third Realm... To think such dazzling, peerless talent—the number-one supreme on the Hundred Supremes Ranking—has also fallen before the Third Realm..." Sovereign Feilong murmured softly, his heart weighed down with complicated emotions. Finally, the heavy stone door of the secret chamber ground open. Lu Changsheng's familiar figure stepped slowly out from within.