He Li, at the peak of his youthful vigor, grasped the chains of destiny, fighting his way through life, experiencing joys and sorrows, lows and triumphs, fueled by an unyielding spirit.
At the moment of finally pacifying the Divine Realm and reaping the fruits of victory, he chose to continue his campaign, not for any other reason than to reclaim Xia Kudu, who had been exiled into the river of time.
This was the primary reason. As for the gratitude owed to Cheng Xilin and the machinations of the Lord of Time, they occupied little space in his heart.
It wasn't that he was inherently cold-blooded. Cheng Xilin had helped him only to use him, and he had ways to deal with the Lord of Time's schemes. More often than not, to do something, one reason was enough. Any further reasons were merely to bolster his own conviction, as that was how he had always navigated his path.
He Li followed Cheng Xilin into a boundless expanse of stars, a realm of extreme brilliance tinged with the desolation of deathly silence. There was no life here; everything was static, as if painted with oils.
He Li crossed his arms, surveying his surroundings, and then released his Star God Power to probe this seemingly endless starry sky. Finally, he asked, "Where is time?"
Cheng Xilin shook his head. "I'm searching as well. You have mastered the laws of time, so you should be able to sense it. This is why I sought you out. If it were merely about combat, I would suffice."
He Li calmed his mind and carefully felt for the laws of time. Strangely, there was no flow of time here. He suddenly turned back, realizing that he and Cheng Xilin had detached from their original universe and entered a different plane of existence.
"Strange, isn't it?" Cheng Xilin smiled and asked, "Does it feel familiar?"
He Li pondered for a moment before replying, "Star Devourer?"
Cheng Xilin nodded. "Precisely. This is the interior of the Star Devourer King's body. The timelines you saw initially, apart from the first instance of creating the spatial cube, were all within the body of a Star Devourer. I thought you would have figured something out by now."
He Li's expression turned peculiar. He rubbed his ear. "Is there a connection between the Star Devourer and the Lord of Time you mentioned?"
"I'm not sure," Cheng Xilin shook his head. He gazed at the brilliant, silent starry sky and slowly said, "Before, I couldn't act rashly. I had finally caught a trace of them and didn't want to alert them. But now that you're here, I can make a slight move."
He Li blinked in surprise, looking at Cheng Xilin with confusion. "How will you make a move? That star river before us is almost as vast as the sea of stars within my spiritual consciousness. This means this Star Devourer King should also be at the God King realm, and we are inside its body. If you want to leave, I can use time reversal to turn back time and take us out."
Cheng Xilin grinned. "No need for that. Save your strength. Keep the laws of time for dealing with the Lord of Time."
As his words fell,
Cheng Xilin raised his right fist, took a step forward, and assumed a stance for a charged punch. Then, he unleashed a punch towards the endless star river.
Boom!
The punch was ordinary, but in the next moment, the entire space trembled. The endless star river, stretching as far as the eye could see, disintegrated. The entire space perceptible by divine power cracked.
He Li's eyes widened, staring at the scene before him in disbelief. He was also at the God King realm now. Even the battles between God Kings had never produced such a shocking spectacle. That star river was boundless. At least, within his divine power's perception, he couldn't sense its end. One could imagine how many stars this Star Devourer had devoured from the universe to form such a vast star river.
Yet, such a star river, whose end He Li could not perceive, was shattered by a single punch from Cheng Xilin, disintegrating instantly. All the stars exploded, forming a long, continuous river of fire.
"You..."
He Li stared blankly at Cheng Xilin, who had returned to his side after retracting his fist, unable to comprehend the man's power. What level was God King power before him? Perhaps it was no different from a low-level lesser god, or perhaps just a slightly stronger ant.
He Li, of course, did not know that Cheng Xilin had fought through nineteen epochs, and he had personally brought about the annihilation of those epochs. The reason he hadn't acted against the Primordial Epoch was due to He Li's previous life, the existence of Yan Si, a being immune to the erosion of time.
The moment Cheng Xilin saw Yan Si, he knew an opportunity to capture the Lord of Time had arrived. His electromagnetism, which he had refined into destructive electromagnetic force in the later stages, might be able to contend with the Lord of Time. However, he couldn't find the Lord of Time, so his only reliance was Yan Si, who was immune to time's erosion, and in this life, He Li, who mastered the laws of time.
Buzz!!!
An incredibly vast ripple of divine power erupted from the center of the shattered star river and spread outwards. Everything around them seemed to shatter like bubbles.
He Li sensed his surroundings and realized they had exited the Star Devourer King's body.
He looked up. An eye opened in the darkness of the void, gazing down at them like a colossal dragon looking at ants.
It was the Star Devourer King!
He Li couldn't help but marvel. He had seen many Star Devourers before, and each time he was amazed by their immense size. Now, seeing the Star Devourer King, "a dwarf before a giant" was an understatement. The largest Star Devourer he had ever seen wasn't even as large as one of the Star Devourer King's eyes. No wonder it could swallow a boundless star river.
Their gazes met for only an instant.
The Star Devourer King vanished into the void. The two did not stop it.
He Li spoke, "Your so-called slight move means breaking its body and then watching it leave?"
Cheng Xilin's expression remained unchanged. "It escaped."
He Li was speechless. He reached out towards the void, pinched his fingers, and said, "I can't sense the existence of the river of time, and the spatial cube of my own is also empty of the timeline."
He pondered for a moment, as if having made a decision. "I can risk being backlashed by the laws of time to find my future self and have him help you find the Lord of Time."
Cheng Xilin shook his head. "Your future self is your present self. The cause made now is the effect of the future. Why bother your future selves? If we change an event at a certain moment, our future selves will be burdened by our present selves. Why create trouble for ourselves?"
"Then what do you suggest?" He Li found his words reasonable, but they were at a dead end. What else could be done?
White arcs of electricity pulsed on Cheng Xilin's body, spreading outwards like a spiderweb. As they passed through He Li's body, He Li frowned slightly. This white electricity gave him an uncomfortable feeling of being completely exposed before Cheng Xilin.
"My electromagnetic force can create and destroy all things. Its power has transcended the constraints of epochs, but it has been limited by the many laws of the universe, preventing me from unleashing it fully. Otherwise, this era would be destroyed by me."
Cheng Xilin paused, then continued, "He Li, help me shatter the spatial-temporal barrier of this era and reach the eternal void beyond this universe. I believe the Lord of Time must be there."
He Li looked somewhat troubled. He had seen the "eternal void" that Cheng Xilin spoke of. It was the white space behind the passage opened by the time messengers on those two occasions. However, rashly shattering the spatial-temporal barrier, if uncontrolled, would allow that place, which should not exist within the universe's space, to instantly erode this universe, plunging the entire universe into great danger.
Cheng Xilin saw He Li's concern and smiled as he explained, "Don't worry. Since I can use destructive power to shatter the spatial-temporal barrier, I can also use creative power to repair it. There are people I care about here, so I won't act recklessly."
"Xiao Bai?" He Li asked.
"Her name is Tata," Cheng Xilin immediately corrected He Li.
He Li sighed. In truth, he knew that he could no longer find the river of time in his current state. To find Xia Kudu, he first had to find the river of time. Going to the "eternal void" was the best option.
Moreover, if Cheng Xilin broke his promise and did not repair the shattered time barrier, he could also use time reversal.
"Alright!"
He Li nodded in agreement. "I will use the laws of time to find the point in time when the life force of all living beings in the universe is weakest. At that moment, you will act to shatter the spatial-temporal barrier."
Then,
He Li's tone turned solemn. "You will only have a moment to act. I witnessed the power you used to shatter the star river just now. The destructive force is too immense. If it's even a moment too early or too late, the life force of half the universe's beings will be drawn out by you, and they will die instantly."
Cheng Xilin grinned. "I know that, of course. That's why I don't dare to act rashly."
He Li gave Cheng Xilin a sideways glance and slowly closed his eyes, spreading his divine power and the laws of time throughout the entire universe, sensing the life force of all living beings.
This was the first time he had used his God King power on such a grand scale. The feeling of looking down upon all living beings in the world was wondrous, as if all life were in his palm. His breath was the breath of the entire universe, the entire epoch was in his palm, and life and death were within his grasp.
Cheng Xilin smiled knowingly as he watched the potent Star God Power fluctuating around He Li. He recalled his own initial joy and exhilaration when he first applied electromagnetic force to a higher level, where creation and destruction were instantaneous, looking down upon the kneeling of entire epochs.
"Everything will end," Cheng Xilin looked up at the boundless void. "You who have been sealed for twenty epochs will be liberated."
A web of electromagnetic force formed beneath Cheng Xilin's feet, layer upon layer, exuding a mysterious beauty. Due to the emergence of electromagnetic force, this universe, shattered by his punch, was once again illuminated by white light. Floating cosmic dust rapidly gathered, forming celestial bodies and stars. These celestial bodies instantly connected, transforming back into a brilliant star river.
Cheng Xilin spread his arms, feeling the power of creation. All forces danced at his fingertips. Beside him appeared a dark gold halberd and a black chess piece, bearing the golden characters "鎮" (Zhen, meaning suppress) and "鬥" (Dou, meaning fight). His body was covered in blue-black patterns, resembling armor that faintly flowed with demonic energy, as if the armor were alive. Its ferocious angles were the fangs of a giant snake.
His expression was calm. Two pairs of wings appeared behind him: one pair, brilliant and magnificent, flowed with molten gold; the other pair, ferocious and terrifying, was deathly silent. A golden light flickered in his eyes, his round pupils transforming into vertical slits, black and deep, like a bottomless abyss.
At this moment,
Cheng Xilin was both divine and demonic. He was mortal, yet a combination of god and demon.
A bolt of white lightning tore through the void, traversing the star river like a sharp sword, cleaving the star river in half. He stood like a monarch, looking down upon the star river, upon everything he had created.
He had been fighting, single-handedly cutting through nineteen epochs. He was the symbol of all "force." He himself was an army; as long as he advanced, it was as if an army of thousands roared and galloped behind him.
Cheng Xilin waited patiently. He had waited for nineteen epochs, for countless days and nights, and he still had patience.
"My teacher once said that success is not a mark of a man's maturity. Those who can bravely face adversity and endure loneliness are truly worthy of admiration."
"People say: we spend our entire lives trying to escape the expectations of others and find our true selves."
"But my life is too long. My entire life has been on the path of conquest, not to change anything, but to find an answer."
Cheng Xilin spread his electromagnetic force to every corner of the universe. He was like a giant bending over to look at a crystal ball named "Universe," needing only to reach out gently to pick up the entire crystal ball. He could hold the crystal ball, or he could shatter it. He was the master of this crystal ball's destiny.
As He Li opened his eyes, his magnificent Star God Power instantly retracted, returning to his body. Although He Li found Cheng Xilin's current transformation strange, he did not ask, but nodded at Cheng Xilin.
Cheng Xilin let out a soft breath. In an instant, he casually threw a punch into the void before him.
Bang!
The void in front of his fist shattered like a mirror, breaking into fragments that fell away, revealing a pure white void.
He Li gazed at the "eternal void," and saw a figure step out from that void, walking step by step as if ascending stairs.
His long hair was tied with a ribbon, fluttering in the wind. He wore a long robe, barefoot, his face aged, like an immortal.
Cheng Xilin narrowed his eyes and said faintly, "You have finally appeared." His tone was calm, not loud, but anyone could hear the suppressed rage.
He was the Lord of Time, and also the old fortune-teller who had once placed a white card into Cheng Xilin's pocket.
The old man standing before the eternal void was so serene. Hearing Cheng Xilin's voice, his expression changed, and he smiled, asking, "I bestowed upon you power that does not belong to you, and this is how you repay me?"
"What? Cheng Xilin's unparalleled power originates from the Lord of Time?" He Li's brow furrowed.
...
...