History is said to carry too much, but history still exists in time.
He Li sped through the river of time, rushing upstream against its current. He saw nineteen temporal voids, which he knew were the epochs that Cheng Xilin had annihilated. Cheng Xilin was never meant to exist in this world, and his traces had been erased by the Lord of Time.
But what puzzled He Li was this: if the Lord of Time brought Cheng Xilin into this world solely to monitor him, why then erase all traces of his existence?
It was a clear paradox.
This confusion gnawed at He Li's mind.
The river of time was an immensely vast space. In the pure white void, sparks of light of various colors flickered around. Yet, in He Li's perception, it felt small, so small that he could only advance with extreme caution. A single misstep could send him tumbling into some temporal node.
Among the light spots, he saw many familiar faces: Fei Ge, Kuer, Weiluo, Sister Jiang, Susan, and the pasts of the gods from the Divine Realm – Huai Xi, Yu Li Che, Xia Hu Chu, Xia Min Ao…
But he couldn't find Xia Ku Duo, Cheng Xilin, or himself.
One was absent from time, another was exiled in the river of time, while he himself was incompatible with time and had mastered its laws, a controller of time, thus existing on a higher plane.
He Li finally understood. As long as consciousness existed in this world and it was no longer chaotic, time would exist for everything.
If it were a void of chaos, without life, without consciousness, without the concept of time, then the laws of time would not exist.
Time existed within consciousness, in a state of flux. If it were utter chaos, where would the laws of time be?
In that moment, He Li attained enlightenment, and a bold guess began to form in his mind, sending a chill down his spine and causing him to break out in a cold sweat.
Suddenly,
A temporal node in the river of time exploded. A piercing shriek sounded. From the exploding node, a phantom, unreal hand reached out. As He Li cautiously moved against the current, it grabbed him directly, dragging him into the exploding node. Then, the exploding temporal node instantly rewound, restoring itself to its original state.
For the river of time, the speed of time was irrelevant. It was too immense, like tossing a tiny pebble into the ocean. The ripples stirred by this pebble could not spread across the entire sea, much less create giant waves. httpδ:/m.kuAisugg.nět
…
A place of beautiful scenery with high mountains and flowing water.
Cheng Xilin, stepping on his dark golden halberd, slowly descended along the waterfall and approached the ancient man sitting cross-legged on a large rock in the pool.
Cheng Xilin looked at the old man, who seemed to be at the end of his life, and after a long silence, said hoarsely, "We finally meet again."
Cheng Xilin's voice was more like an accusation, a recounting of grievances. The pent-up emotions from twenty epochs had coalesced into the phrase "we meet again."
The old man opened his eyes. Those cloudy eyes held the deepest weariness of the world.
That summer, it was this old man who had stopped Cheng Xilin on the road and given him a white card. This led to Cheng Xilin's subsequent conquests, his fusion with the Gui Xu Golden Gate, the sealing of his world by a mysterious power, forcing him to break free from the Gui Xu Golden Gate and journey alone to the Divine Realm, conquering the Great Wilderness in search of a method to unseal it.
He had traversed epoch after epoch, conquered epoch after epoch, yet time and history had no record of him.
He wanted to turn back, but he could no longer go home.
In the end, the source of it all was that fortune-telling old man who had stopped him. Now, he had finally found him. Though he had a thousand words, filled with gloom and anger, he couldn't utter them. Ultimately, all he wanted was an answer.
The Lord of Time sat on the giant rock, looking up at the imposing Cheng Xilin. "I did not wish to see you, but I had to. Cheng Xilin, why are you so fixated on the past? Why not look forward?"
Cheng Xilin understood the Lord of Time's words. With his abilities, he could dominate any epoch or live quietly hidden anywhere. He could have been the freest of all.
But he simply couldn't forget the past, always thinking of those sealed people on Earth. If he had been more ruthless and ignored them, he wouldn't have imprisoned himself for billions of years.
Cheng Xilin said calmly, "You gave me a dream, and in the end, you told me it was just a dream. I would rather die in the dream than wake up, yet you disturbed my great dream. Do you truly take me for a plaything in your hands?"
The old man shook his head and said frankly, "When faced with uncontrollable power, the most effective solution is to restrain and control it, isn't it?
I observe the river of time, I observe the torrent of history. All beings are the same. When facing something they fear yet are helpless against, they will trap it when it is weak, keep it within reach, and control it.
Humans do this, gods do this, so why should I be any different?
Cheng Xilin, you are the one who instills fear in me yet cannot be eliminated. Therefore, I could only control you, give you power, and bind you within limited strength, using limited power to contain infinite power."
White arcs of electricity danced on Cheng Xilin's shoulders. "Are you referring to electromagnetic force?"
"Precisely."
The old man nodded and said, "This power can be immensely vast; it's not impossible to create and destroy universes with a single thought, but it is always limited. Using this power to restrain your own infinite power is the method I employed against you."
The Lord of Time spoke candidly and without concealment. At this point, any further pretense or lies would be a disadvantage. Moreover, he had no need to hide anything; the truth was the truth. Even if he didn't say it, with Cheng Xilin's intelligence, he couldn't possibly guess incorrectly, otherwise, he wouldn't have achieved He Li to find him.
Cheng Xilin clenched his fists tightly, his expression shifting. Gritting his teeth, he squeezed out, "Unseal the封印 on my epoch, let me go home to continue dreaming, and I will willingly imprison myself."
He still couldn't let go of his family, his loved ones, and his friends.
Unexpectedly,
The Lord of Time still shook his head and sighed, "I cannot unseal it. That is the power that sealed an entire epoch. Like you, it does not belong to this world."
Cheng Xilin said, "Since the power of the seal does not belong to this world, then tell me where it is, and I will go find it. Even if I have to conquer for billions more years, I am willing. I just want you to tell me."
"I cannot tell you," the Lord of Time refused without hesitation.
"Heh heh…"
Cheng Xilin released his clenched, pale fists and let out a few low, cold laughs. "Old man, you're looking for death!"