Thinking of this, Xu Zimo couldn’t help but admire the boldness of the True Martial Progenitor.

He had left his own future body inside the declining True Martial Sect, openly and brazenly in front of everyone. It was a kind of misdirection. The most dangerous place was often the safest place. That was why the Ten God-Clans never discovered it.

In their eyes, the remaining disciples of the True Martial Sacred Ground were probably just a group of useless trash, unworthy of any attention. After wiping out the sect back then, they never looked at it again. Other than still trying to locate Heaven’s Annihilation, the artifact disguised as the True Martial Tribulation Tower, the sect itself had long become worthless to them.

So after the fallen True Martial Sect was rebuilt, no one bothered to interfere. At most, a second-rate power like the Ancient Dragon God-Empire came to bully them from time to time. But no one ever imagined that Xiao An’an was actually the future body of the True Martial Progenitor.

The True Martial Progenitor’s planning had indeed reached far into the future.

Although Xiao An’an was his future body, she only carried half of the True Martial Sword Physique. The other half was hidden inside the jade pendant Xu Zimo brought. The True Martial Progenitor knew that if the sword body were awakened too early, the Ten God-Clans would detect it and stop at nothing to eliminate his future body.

Waiting for Xu Zimo to arrive and activate the True Martial Sword Physique was the perfect timing.

That jade pendant had been given to Xu Zimo by Sky-Shroud War God when he bore the Heaven’s Will and departed from the Primordial Heartlands. It was said to be left behind by Grand Emperor Zhen Wu. No one expected that as far back as a million years ago, the True Martial Progenitor had already been preparing for all of this.

Xu Zimo looked up at the man in the sky. He could only feel that the True Martial Progenitor’s scheming ran incredibly deep. These powerful beings had lifespans so long that patience was never a problem. For a single matter, they could wait and plan for over a million years, something only these ancient monsters unconcerned with mortality could do. Ordinary people wouldn’t be able to; they would die long before then.

Meanwhile, outside the Great Beyond, Xiao An’an, who remained with Willow Ancestor and the others, suddenly grew unbearably hot, startling everyone. Based on the power she had shown before, they had been nurturing her as the sect’s future hope. Among the younger disciples, her potential was unmatched.

But the moment they approached her, a sky-piercing sword intent erupted, sweeping everything in its path. The sword intent shot upward, piercing through the heavens and leaving a gaping hole.

Beyond the torn firmament lay the projection of the Great Beyond.

Sweeping yellow sand, Saints roaming everywhere, Infinite Daos drifting through the sky.

“Progenitor manifests! The Progenitor manifests!” Willow Ancestor was the first to kneel, shouting.

Then Xiao An’an turned into a streak of sword light, broke through the spatial barriers of the Nine Heavens, and shot straight toward the Great Beyond.

The scene shifts to the Great Beyond.

The True Martial Progenitor embraced heaven and earth. His present self was now aligned not with the Heavenly Dao of the Nine Heavens, but with the True Martial Dao he himself had walked.

When Xiao An’an’s sword light approached, the Mountain Titan True God of the Eight God-Clans was the first to shout, “Stop his future body!” His power surged as he merged with his Titan form and reached out to grab the incoming sword light.

The other Infinite Dao cultivators did not act immediately; they chose to observe first.

“Courting death,” the True Martial Progenitor said coldly. “From the future I came, watching the world shift, seas turn to fields, sun and moon race onward. The future never perishes; the past is destined to fade.” With a single gesture, he called out, “Future, arrive.”

In that instant, the sword light that was Xiao An’an erupted with overwhelming temporal power. Time and space surged violently, capable of washing away all things and erasing them into the ruptures of time.

When the sword light reached the Mountain Titan True God and he struck out with his massive palm, the sword light passed straight through his hand, and through his entire body. He looked down, feeling an immense temporal force coursing within him. His body began disintegrating from the right hand, bit by bit dissolving.

Everyone was shocked. For someone like the Mountain Titan True God, an Infinite Dao powerhouse, death was exceedingly rare. They stood at the apex of this world’s combat strength. They were not truly immortal, but the forces capable of killing them were extremely few. Yet the corrosion of time and space made even him turn pale.

He cultivated the power of shaking heaven, the Dao of Force. That edict churned violently within him, trying to resist and expel the temporal rule that had invaded. The two types of edicts clashed fiercely inside him, tearing his body apart again and again. It was only because he was an Infinite Dao cultivator that he hadn’t already died countless times. The explosions of Primordial Edicts left behind wounds that could not be healed.

The crowd fell into an uproar. They finally understood that neither the True Martial Progenitor nor the Holy Progenitor were existences they could contend with, not even as Infinite Dao cultivators.

The Great Beyond, once thought to be their battlefield, had reduced them to spectators.

Xiao An’an’s sword light merged with the True Martial Progenitor. The fusion of the present body and future body forged the complete True Martial Progenitor. Temporal power surged violently. In the sky, it was as if the words “True Martial” appeared.

In that moment, around the True Martial Progenitor, a heavenly pathway naturally formed. A celestial bridge extended infinitely toward the far reaches of the heavens. On that bridge, a seven-colored rainbow hung in the air. A god tree supported the entire sky. Countless plants seemed to come alive, growing vigorously along the bridge.

Flowers bloomed and withered, cycles of rebirth turning endlessly, shaping a Dao. Countless living beings were born on the celestial bridge, ordinary pigs, dogs, cattle, and sheep, as well as the four sacred beasts, Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise. It was as if all life under heaven originated here.

To the uninitiated, the sight was awe-inspiring. To those who understood, this was the True Martial Progenitor’s Dao, or rather, the future form of his Dao. When the day came that his Dao fully matured, its scale would be exactly like this.

Under the True Martial Dao, all divine and earthly beings were equal. Everyone could rise like dragons. Perhaps this was the True Martial Progenitor’s lifelong dream, and so he forged this Dao.

The scene before them completely shocked everyone, including the Holy Progenitor.