Chapter 317: A Method That Cannot Be Used in the Nine Provinces
Boom—
A never-before-seen battle erupted within the dream, fists and kicks clashing like thunder dragons roaring, thunder echoing across the skies.
This dream realm was constructed by the First Emperor. It was vast and boundless, far larger than the world of the Nine Provinces.
Although the First Emperor had only just gained control over the dream realm and wasn’t as familiar with the Dao of Dreams as Meng Chun, his cultivation realm was simply too high. The dream he constructed exceeded Meng Chun’s imagination.
The moment Meng Chun saw the First Emperor, she couldn’t help but tremble all over.
Unlike Jiang Li beside her, who exuded a gentle aura, the First Emperor radiated an overwhelming pressure. If Jiang Li hadn’t already told her that the First Emperor was himself from a parallel world, Meng Chun would never have believed the two were the same person.
The First Emperor didn’t intentionally unleash his power—just standing there quietly was already terrifying.
Can Jiang Li win? For the first time, Meng Chun doubted Jiang Li’s strength. She felt the First Emperor was too terrifying—utterly invincible.
Receiving a message from Jiang Li, Meng Chun quickly retreated from the center of the battlefield.
The moment she left, Jiang Li’s aura began to rise, colliding with the First Emperor. With Meng Chun’s insight, she couldn’t determine who was stronger.
She instantly understood—Jiang Li had never shown his full strength. He had always been suppressing himself!
Only now did Jiang Li finally release his true power!
Meng Chun sprinted far away, but the sound of battle never lessened. It was as if the clash between Jiang Li and the First Emperor would never end, echoing to the edge of time itself, without the slightest sign of fading.
Their fists collided, and the shockwaves spread outward at extreme speed. Meng Chun desperately tried to flee, thinking she was far enough.
But before she could even catch her breath, the shockwaves swept her even farther away.
The First Emperor’s blood spilled and turned into a river. Every drop of blood transformed into a soldier wielding a blood-red spear. Each soldier’s aura was terrifying, far beyond the Tribulation Stage.
Over ten thousand soldiers attacked Jiang Li. Jiang Li used the Dao of Yin-Yang he had learned from the Mortal World Celestial to reverse day and night, blur black and white, throwing heaven and earth into chaos. The soldiers’ spears turned and attacked the First Emperor instead.
The First Emperor gave a cold snort and recalled the soldiers, leaving only the blood-red spears behind.
The blood-red spear shot up like an arrow, piercing toward Jiang Li.
Jiang Li pointed with one finger, and the spear dissolved into earth, vanishing.
“A coward like you actually exists in a parallel world? I’m ashamed!” The First Emperor was arrogant—a dignified Great Ascension cultivator lowering himself to coexist with a mere remnant soul in the Fusion Stage, without a shred of pride as a powerhouse.
He had completely disgraced cultivators of the Great Ascension Stage.
“I’ve never met an equal in the Nine Provinces. I had intended to unify the Immortal Realm after finding the Celestial Ascension Staircase, but now it seems I’ll have to deal with you, you worthless trash, first!”
As they fought, their figures filled the sky, as if the entire world existed only for them.
Their movements were so fast they neared the speed of light. Time in the dream realm almost stopped flowing. The surrounding scenery distorted and twisted into a mess.
“You talk too damn much. Did you become a Great Ascension cultivator just by blabbering with divine sense?”
They were communicating via divine sense. Jiang Li replied coldly. While the First Emperor transmitted his pointless words, Jiang Li decisively punched him in the chin, smashing his upper and lower jaws together and cracking several teeth.
“Good, very good!”
The First Emperor burst out laughing in rage. His teeth quickly regrew. Since reaching the Great Ascension Stage, he had never been humiliated like this. Who would dare defy him?
The Nine Provinces continent suddenly appeared under the First Emperor’s feet. Meng Chun, barely recovering from the shockwaves, stared in disbelief at the scene.
Conjuring things in dreams wasn’t hard, but the First Emperor’s imagined Nine Provinces was too perfect—like it had been directly copied from the real one.
What immense divine sense this must have required!
No, it wasn’t just the Nine Provinces—he had also imagined the starry sky, the endless black holes, and the surrounding four cosmos beyond the continent… The entire Nine Provinces World was recreated in this dream realm!
Yet even this entire world could not reach the edge of the dream.
“Perish!” The First Emperor suddenly clenched his right hand, shrinking the Nine Provinces World rapidly, compressing it into Jiang Li with all its mass.
The temperature dropped to absolute zero. All matter ceased movement.
“World-Ending Absolute Cold!” Meng Chun’s face changed. In ancient legends, this was the terrifying process of a world’s end—a state of irreversible despair.
The Nine Provinces World was crushed into a single grain of sand, with Jiang Li trapped inside, his presence lost.
“This dream realm belongs to me. You think you’re qualified to fight me?” The First Emperor sneered, as if he had already claimed victory.
But then he noticed the grain of sand in his hand was no longer under his control—it shrank again, into a point even his divine sense couldn’t detect.
It was as if the grain of sand had become a conceptual “point.”
The First Emperor finally found it—the grain of sand was trembling violently. Then it suddenly expanded, with its temperature, density, and spacetime curvature dropping from infinite values to calculable ones. Space and time were born. Primal matter emerged from the singularity and formed primordial stars.
Jiang Li walked out of the Big Bang, surrounded by swirling dust of primal matter—like the first being of creation!
“You dare use dream-forged things against me? Even I can’t imagine a being stronger than myself—how could you possibly do it?”
“Creating and destroying worlds? That’s basic stuff!” Jiang Li mocked the First Emperor’s shallow insight. In his hand appeared a tiny singularity, invisible to the naked eye. He drove it into the First Emperor’s face with a punch.
The singularity was the origin of a world—it carried the weight of an entire world.
Which meant Jiang Li had just smashed an entire world’s weight into the First Emperor’s face.
The singularity exploded on his face, not yet forming a world before Jiang Li compressed it back, only to explode it again—repeating the cycle.
The singularity exploded so rapidly that in seconds, there were over a hundred zeroes before the decimal point!
In a single breath, the First Emperor suffered countless singularity explosions and births.
“How is this possible?” Meng Chun stared, dumbfounded. Even from such a great distance, she could feel the overwhelming killing intent from the battlefield.
She couldn’t understand Jiang Li’s methods. The First Emperor could conjure the Nine Provinces and singularities because he controlled the dream realm.
But Jiang Li couldn’t control the dream realm—so where had that singularity come from?
Unless… this was his own ability.
Creating a world with one hand—this was similar in essence to the Dao of Dreams’ ultimate state: turning dreams into reality, and reality into dreams!
This was a method that couldn’t be used in the Nine Provinces World. A single misstep could lead to a conflict between the singularity and the Nine Provinces World, and both would be destroyed.
But in a dream, especially one crafted by the First Emperor, Jiang Li could use this method without restraint.
Meng Chun suddenly remembered how Jiang Li, during his first time entering a dream, said he couldn’t imagine anyone stronger than himself. Back then, she thought he was just bragging. But now… it was clearly the truth!
“The majesty of the emperor cannot be defied!” the First Emperor roared with fury. His face was heavily damaged, still covered in primal matter, preventing it from healing.
The injuries didn’t affect his combat power, but they were a disgrace.
He had been caught off guard by his parallel self—a version with no royal aura.
Unforgivable!
Unforgivable!
Unforgivable!
The First Emperor reached out his right hand. The Desolate Heaven Halberd appeared in his grip.
If Jiang Li were asked what could be stronger than his bare-handed self—it would only be himself wielding the Desolate Heaven Halberd!
The First Emperor would answer the same. Aside from that one time he shattered the Yin-Yang Heaven Seal and other immortal tools, he hadn’t needed to use this weapon for a long time.
He was unwilling to admit it, but Jiang Li’s power had exceeded his expectations. If he wanted total victory, he had to wield the Desolate Heaven Halberd.
Fortunately, this was his dream. The opponent couldn’t create the halberd.