Before long, Wang Zhifan appeared in the room of the tavern.

As he had guessed, only two beings were there now. Elder Fumo was conversing with Jin Lianzi through an avatar.

Jin Lianzi sat on a wooden chair with an expression of apathy. His extremely aged body had robbed him of interest in everything. He listened to what Elder Fumo’s avatar was saying without any facial expression, even as the avatar held the Wandering Dragon Jade Folding Fan.

"Zen Master Jinlian, your current condition is not without hope for a solution. With the merit you earned in this battle, seeking an audience with a Saint in the Buddha Realm after the war might result in a reversal of time that restores your youth..."

"Heh... does Your Excellency think... this humble monk... can still live till then?"

"Why not? Treasures that extend lifespan, though rare, are not unheard of. Besides, the war is going well..."

The two noticed Wang Zhifan arriving and shifted their attention to him. Elder Fumo’s controlled avatar immediately congratulated Wang Zhifan without a hint of disguise:

"Congratulations to the Martial Venerable on successfully slaying the peerless foe! An imperishable merit for the Calamity Realm!"

"?"

Upon hearing this, a question mark appeared on Wang Zhifan’s forehead. He frowned, trying to discern if Elder Fumo was mocking him.

However, Elder Fumo’s controlled avatar seemed more puzzled by his reaction and quickly responded:

"What is this expression, Martial Venerable? Do you doubt my words?"

"How did you know I slew that Demon Venerable?"

From Elder Fumo’s tone, which didn’t seem like mockery, Wang Zhifan responded in somewhat speechless surprise.

"Of course, it’s the Demon Sealing List! Your merit points just surged by three thousand! If it wasn’t for slaying that supremely powerful Demon Venerable, what could have caused this?"

Elder Fumo’s controlled avatar replied without hesitation, without a shred of doubt.

"Is this true???"

Suddenly, it was Wang Zhifan’s turn to be shocked.

He immediately summoned his Demon Sealing List to check his ranking and discovered that his merit points had inexplicably grown from fourteen thousand to over seventeen thousand since a short while ago!

"What’s... going on here?"

For a moment, Wang Zhifan experienced the ups and downs of life. He had already resigned to the failure of his enemy hunt, only for fate to play a trick on him.

First of all, it is certain that the Demon Sealing List does not make mistakes. It could not just suddenly register an error that added three thousand merit points. Since such an addition occurred, he must have contributed accordingly.

Then, he strongly suspected that the Demon Venerable was not dead. It was an intuition, arising after seeing the counterpart’s body remnants vanish into thin air, which seriously conflicted with the points awarded by the Demon Sealing List.

Feeling extremely puzzled, Wang Zhifan suppressed his astonishment and explained the previous situation to the Elder Fumo before him, hoping that this intelligent and experienced local elite could offer some enlightenment.

Indeed, he inquired with the right person. After listening to him, Elder Fumo pondered for a moment and replied through his avatar:

"Martial Venerable, your intuition is correct; that Demon Venerable has not truly died!

According to what you said, I suspect that Demon Venerable is no ordinary demon realm being but the significant offspring of a Magic Lord!

Its sudden disappearance is due to a special method set by the Magic Lord. As soon as its offspring falls into an extremely unfavorable situation, it is forcibly pulled back to the demon realm for revival!

As for why the Demon Sealing List awarded merit points, Martial Venerable, have you forgotten the meaning of the words ’Demon Sealing List’?

The ’Demon Sealing’ implies that driving demons completely out of the Calamity Realm is as much a merit as slaying them!"

"I see... thank you, Elder Fumo, for your guidance!"

After a conversation, Wang Zhifan felt enlightened. His understanding of the demon realm’s existence was far less comprehensive than Elder Fumo’s, and under his explanation, he finally grasped the overall situation.

At the same time, he learned that Elder Fumo did not intend to support him previously but merely arrived a bit late with his avatars, and their location was somewhat off.

His avatars first discovered Jin Lianzi, who was held by the two Demon Venerables, so they fought the battle there. Once they resolved that concern and intended to assist Wang Zhifan, they found his merit points skyrocketed, presuming he had already achieved his goal, thus leisurely stayed to chat.

"The removal of such a terrifying foe is truly a fortunate event for the Calamity Realm! I will announce this achievement throughout the land, to boost human morale in this great war!"

Finally, the three chatted briefly and then parted ways.

Elder Fumo stated he would disseminate the news of Wang Zhifan’s triumph over avatars worldwide, encouraging the humans’ spirits amidst the war.

Jin Lianzi, judging by his appearance, would likely seek retreat and recuperation for a chance at reclaiming youth, since once his lifespan runs out, even the method of resurrection would be ineffective.

For Wang Zhifan, things were simpler; following his daily routine, he continued demon slaying in nearby areas, planning to teleport back to Celestial Essence City for cultivation later on.

Removing an unprecedentedly formidable enemy was certainly a joyous affair for him, but he wasn’t planning on taking a vacation.

This was because the war between the demon realm and Calamity Realm was still ongoing, and the elimination of a single strong foe wouldn’t immediately change anything. He needed to persevere for a swift conclusion to the quest.

Yet, for the remainder of the day, he pondered a question that had baffled him during the previous battle: why did that scholarly Demon Venerable’s time-stopping power not affect him?

It was, in fact, an astonishing matter, and Wang Zhifan himself did not expect such an outcome to occur.

Before the great battle, he had been prepared for a wearing battle against his opponent, anticipating the hopelessness of contending with the Time Stop. The outcome was entirely unexpected.

It could be deduced that the occurrence of this phenomenon had its cause, and there could not be a baseless notion that a powerful force at the level of laws would have no effect on him.

And the specific reason must be related to himself, attributed to some equipment or trait that aided him. Thus, he analyzed each piece of equipment he possessed, hoping to find the origin of it all.

"Firstly, none of the skills I possess have this potential trait. They are almost unrelated to the Time Law."

"The cultivation techniques I practice, whether the Great Dream Saber Scripture, Wind and Thunder Heaven-Treading Skill, Pure Yang True Skill, or Infinite Golden Body Skill, do not counter the Time Law."

"My Epic Layer perfect being mutation has a high essence, but it merely grants me immortality without indicating it can stop the Time Stop; neither does the Epic Layer Absolute Blood, other things like the Source of Ice Power, or Biological Force Field have any correlation with this."

"In terms of equipment, there are indeed a few related to the laws, but the one truly pertinent is the excellent-level necklace, Rog’s Inheritance.

This necklace has an ’Unruly’ trait, which reduces all control effects on me by 90%, but as merely an excellent-grade equipment, does it truly have the capability to withstand the Time Stop?

Other equipment even less so has this functionality..."

After thorough research, Wang Zhifan eliminated the majority of possible sources empowering him against the Time Stop.

In the end, he directed his attention to something he had long neglected: Titles.

"Titles lack classification into excellent, epic, etc. levels, existing outside the equipment system, which makes it hard to gauge their absolute strength.

The Dragon Slayer and Hero titles add or reduce damage, but the only one remotely related to Time Stop could be the Overlord title.

The function of the Overlord title is to make me immune to all negative statuses, while permanently increasing my constitution and strength attributes by 10%.

This immunity to all negative statuses is too ambiguous... the panel doesn’t further detail it.

Could the loss of cognitive and physical abilities due to Time Stop be considered a negative status?

So, I might have been immune to this negative status, thus being in an overlapped state of experiencing Time Stop yet unaffected by it?"

Delving into possibilities, Wang Zhifan concluded that his resistance to the Demon Venerable’s Time Stop likely originated from here.

Perhaps, he was not genuinely immune to the power of the Time Law; rather, the negative effects caused by Time Stop were suppressed by the Overlord title, allowing him to act freely within it.

Of course, the occurrence of such a situation is surely related to the insufficiency of the Demon Venerable’s power level to overwhelm him.

The description in transcendental game information often emphasized that unexpected situations would arise if the enemy were strong enough, and Wang Zhifan felt that should a truly invincible existence employ the Time Stop method, he might not escape the constraint.