Talent

The more Dai Jie stared at the tiny village in front of him, the more emotions burst out from within him, like an unstoppable wave.

Most surprisingly though, what Dai Jie felt was not sadness or longing, in fact, what he felt was anger.

Dai Jie did not know who he felt anger towards, but as he looked at that village, which seemed to be mocking him, the anger rising within him continued growing.

As he looked at the village, which, by the looks of things, will probably still be there after he was gone, Dai Jie couldn't help but inexplicably feel angry.

Without any warning, rhyme or reason, the village in front of Dai Jie, the place where he originated from, was suddenly smashed to pieces.

In only a brief moment, the tiny, several hundred house village was annihilated from existence.

Usually, after killing innocent mortals, Dai Jie would feel something, would feel some emotion rising within him, either positive or negative.

But as he looked at the crater in front of him, Dai Jie felt nothing, only a leering feeling of emptiness.

A moment later, without any emotion on his face, Dai Jie vanished into nothingness.

...

Even though Xu Yue had previously stated that she would pay attention to Dai Jie, in actuality, she did not do that very much.

As such, Xu Yue had not yet noticed what had happened to Dai Jie, at this moment nobody was aware if this was a good thing or not, if Xu Yue not interfering with Dai Jie proved to be helpful or deadly to him.

At this moment, whilst Dai Jie was silently undergoing a radical change, Xu Yue continued her seclusion.

By now, Xu Yue had fully begun focusing on her seclusion, and as such, her cultivation began growing rapidly, causing another three thousand years to pass in but an instant.

...

As she rose out of her subconscious and opened her eyes, she couldn't help but fall into thought.

"I was in seclusion for far short of a time, I need to continue for at least three thousand more years," mumbled Xu Yue as she looked at the surrounding room, which had not changed in the slightest over all of these years.

A few moments after that, Xu Yue once again sunk into seclusion, unbothered by the outside world.

By now, after seven thousand years of serious cultivation, the Dao Tree inside of Xu Yue's sea of consciousness had fully transformed, and was now fully silver, as well as over ten thousand Li tall.

Unlike what conventional reason showed, as she progressed in her cultivation, the speed of Xu Yue's progress did not seem to slow down, instead, Xu Yue began progressing at an even faster speed, one so fast that it would horrify any person who knew of it.

Other than a certain group of five beings, as well as someone stuck inside a library, nobody was aware of Xu Yue's current progress, otherwise even Xu Lanfeng would be completely horrified.

In fact, other than the being stuck in the library, who was only slightly surprised by this speed but not that much, the other five were horrified as well, but sadly they could do nothing at the moment to stop Xu Yue's progression.

After a few moments of thought, Xu Yue once again lost track of time, causing a full four thousand years to once again pass, in but a flash.

...

After around a full eleven thousand years of seclusion, Xu Yue couldn't help but open her eyes with a slightly confused look on her face, as she stared at her Dao Tree.

As Xu Yue had expected, after seven thousand years of cultivation, her Dao Tree had turned fully silver, but after reaching that point, Xu Yue finally encountered some road blocks, for the very first time.

No matter how much deeper Xu Yue's comprehension of the Dao became, the color of the tree did not seem to want to change in the slightest.

Even though the size of the tree kept rising, after four thousand years of no progress, Xu Yue couldn't help but open her eyes in surprise.

"Have I finally encountered a bottleneck, or did I just not spend enough time cultivating?" mumbled Xu Yue as she sent out of her spiritual sense once again.

In truth, the amount of time that Xu Yue had spent cultivating has still extremely short, especially compared to the huge, five million years of lifespan of Dao Saints.

In Xu Yue's opinion, this could perhaps be the key, as she had not yet spent that much time enriching her foundation.

As Xu Yue fell into thought, a discussion about her was currently taking place in another timeline.

...

As the first listened to the words of the tenth, a faint smile couldn't help but appear on the face of its incarnation.

"Are you curious why this is the case, why fourteen is so much more exaggerated than the rest?" asked the first as she looked at the tenth.

Hearing this, the tenth shook her head.

"Don't worry, I think I already have a good idea why this had happened, but I'm not sure just yet," said the tenth, causing the first to smile.

After looking at the tenth for a few moments, the first shook its head.

"You do have a pretty good idea, sadly though, it's completely wrong," said the first as it smiled.

The moment the first uttered those words, the Tenth couldn't help but slightly freeze.

"Isn't it our influence which is traveling through different timelines and influencing our other selves?" asked the tenth as a confused look appeared in her gray eyes.

Hearing this, the first slightly chuckled.

"That is a pretty good guess, but it's also wrong," said the first, causing the tenth to fall into doubt for the first time in billions of years.

No matter how she racked her brains, the tenth couldn't figure out the reason why the fourteenth's talent was so exaggerated.