Chapter 926: Null

Liberation....

Li Pin quietly sensed the growth of his being.

"So this... is the power of Liberation."

It was a constant, unstoppable ascent. His growth knew no bounds. With every passing second, he became stronger.

If measured in the terms of the Gaia Era, it would be like his wealth increasing by billions, or even hundreds of billions, every single day, until money itself lost all meaning to him.

As he continued to expand, he could feel just how fragile everything around him had become. But this fragility... was different.

It wasn't like the moment he first returned from the Astral World and instantly grasped the universe's mysteries. Back then, the fragility came from understanding. Now, it was something else entirely; fragility born of disparity in essence.

The former was a sense of control born from insight, knowing the rules, perceiving every shift, understanding it all so completely that mastery felt natural. But now it was the complete and absolute suppression of a lower dimension by a higher one. The dominance that came after a breakthrough.

He no longer needed to think or calculate. With sheer overwhelming force, simply moving forward was enough to crush everything in his path.

"I knew the gap between the Supreme Realm and Liberation would be vast," Li Pin murmured, "but I never imagined it would be

this

vast."

Looking down from where he now stood, he suddenly realized that all those titles—Cosmic Radiance, Tyrant, Sacred Monarch, Heavenly Emperor, Divine Emperor, even Supreme—meant nothing.

There were only two true distinctions of power in all existence: Liberation, and everything beneath it.

***

After a long while, Li Pin gradually recovered from the state of ever-expanding power.

He lowered his head slightly and saw Sasha standing before him in her human form, her eyes filled with awe and reverence.

Li Pin said, "It's time. Let's go."

"Great Lord Origin... is this the... power of Liberation?" asked Sasha, her voice trembling with emotion.

Li Pin nodded. "Yes."

He glanced at the laws that had manifested around him, and at the universe unfolding beneath them. With a smile, he said, "Compared to Liberation, the term Creation, as Miao Ya and the others put it, seems more fitting. Because at this moment, I've truly created a universe from nothing. A universe with a complete and functioning order, capable of giving birth to countless races and civilizations. Everything, all of it, was born out of the void, emerged from chaos..."

He paused and looked at Sasha. "That includes you."

Sasha froze. "Me?"

A moment later, she realized something, and her eyes widened in disbelief. "I..."

"Yes. You severed your connection to the Ocean of Time, yet you still exist. That's because I allowed you to exist," Li Pin said.

Sasha, a sub-body of an intelligent lifeform designed to remain absolutely rational and composed, now found herself gripped by an inexplicable fear. It was the fear of having the foundation she once relied on completely stripped away, of stepping into an entirely new realm filled with the unknown and mysterious.

But it was also the transformation from a collective into an individual, marking the beginning of a personal journey filled with curiosity and a longing for her own life. These emotions brought a deep sense of conflict within her.

"From now on, you have a choice," Li Pin said with a warm smile. "You can exist as your own being, become a brand-new lifeform... or return to the existence you once had."

Sasha found herself overwhelmed by a swirl of emotions—fear, confusion, yearning, and more.

"I..."

These feelings, these perceptions, along with this shifting of mindset. None of it was something she had ever experienced before. It both frightened her and filled her with wonder.

"There's no need to rush," Li Pin said kindly. "Take your time."

The reason he felt that the term Creation suited this realm better than Liberation was that this realm itself was an act of continuously bringing something out of nothing, creating matter, energy, time, space, and even life and soul itself.

Of course, in the end, whether "Liberation" or "Creation," they were just names.

Buzz, buzz!

An invisible ripple spread outward from Li Pin at its center. The next moment, a figure stepped out from the starry universe he had created. It was an avatar not much weaker than his original body.

Li Pin smiled. "It's only an avatar, but it isn't any worse than a Supreme's True Body."

He glanced back at the magnificent starry sky behind him, where power continued to grow endlessly. "The ancient experts of the Astral World... they'd better improve quickly, just in case."

With that, he took Sasha with him and stepped forward into the vast, boundless starry expanse that stretched across their view.

But unlike before, when he would marvel at the magnificence and brilliance of the universe every time he looked at it... this time, he could finally face it as an equal.

***

Shortly after Li Pin returned to the universe, he was once again able to sense the laws that governed it.

Sasha said, "I have reconnected with the Ocean of Time."

Li Pin nodded. He could sense a conflicting force from the universe, one of rejection, yet also tinged with familiarity.

He quickly realized the reason behind this phenomenon. That closeness came from the fact that he was born of this universe, and the rejection stemmed from the fact that he had reached a level of power that posed a threat to the universe itself. It was an instinctive act of self-defense on the part of the cosmos.

No matter how close two people were, once one held a gun, the other would instinctively tense up. Even if they trusted that the gun-holder wouldn't hurt them, there would still be a sliver of tension in the air that was hard to shake off.

For now, Li Pin had no choice but to restrain his power to reduce the universe's resistance against him.

Fortunately, the Supreme Realm was not far from the peak of universal existence. As someone at that level, Li Pin could manipulate the laws of reality themselves. When used for travel, his speed was beyond comprehension.

In just a few stellar years, he crossed all of Humanity's territory and reached the star system where the timelessly neutral being, the master of the Ocean of Time, resided.

Transcendents had always been known for their mystery. If a Transcendent chose to stay hidden, no one could find them. Under such circumstances, any Transcendent who declared neutrality was someone no one dared provoke.

What's more, the master of the Ocean of Time had existed since ancient times. The rise of intelligent lifeforms throughout the universe was only possible thanks to its aid.

With the support of the intelligent lifeforms and a consistent stance of neutrality, the master of the Ocean of Time had, over the years, sent out numerous avatars to help those in need.

Such actions were unusual for Transcendents, who generally preferred to remain detached. Even so, this one never wavered in its course.

There were speculations that the master of the Ocean of Time wasn't a survivor from the shattered Ancient Astral World but instead came from the Void of Chaos beyond. However, because of the master of the Ocean of Time's goodwill, no Supremes ever attempted to interrogate or forcefully uncover its origins.

After Li Pin's final transit, a massive galaxy, over a hundred thousand light-years across and filled with endless starlight, appeared before Li Pin's eyes.

At its edge, countless stars radiated energy, intertwining with time and space. The result was a chaotic spacetime field that spanned the entire galaxy.

On some planets, only a minute might pass, while on others, centuries could flow by. Some planets existed in the present; others existed in the future of a different world.

Within this tangled web of time, the Ocean of Time was filled with endless variables, unknowns, and paradoxes, any of which could lead to a planet's collapse.

Li Pin gazed at the scene before him. "So this is the Ocean of Time..."

He watched as planets lived and died. In the short time he stood observing, he had personally witnessed the birth and destruction of hundreds of planets.

Such phenomena weren't unusual for beings at the level of Supreme or Transcendent, but this odd-yet-not-odd occurrence still immediately drew Li Pin's attention.

It felt as if some profound mystery lay hidden within it.

As he observed more closely, he began to realize something. There was always a point, a reference. Every planet that came into being, or was destroyed, shared that one trait. That point could be a person or an object.

Li Pin's gaze was now fixed on a single mortal.

With every choice that mortal made, the master of the Ocean of Time would replicate him, then create a new planet where each version of him would go on to live a different life.

And so it continued. Each decision led to a new world, and as the choices accumulated, the number of planets and their populations grew at a staggering pace.

In less than an hour, Li Pin had already witnessed over ten thousand new planets come into existence, all because of the divergent choices made by just a single living being.

Under the acceleration of time, everything was changing at a staggering pace.

Across more than ten thousand planets, that same individual was walking ten thousand different paths. And this was merely a single hour in that mortal's brief life.

And at this rate of divergence, it could take as little as three to five days before the number of planets the master of the Ocean of Time needed to create, along with the variables he had to compute, expanded to an infinite scale.

𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Just imagining the scale of such computations left him breathless.

"What exactly is the master of the Ocean of Time doing?"

"I don't know." Sasha shook her head. "Since the moment we ended up here, Father has been running calculations non-stop. He hasn't paused for even a second."

"Not even once?" Li Pin's pupils dilated. "If I recall correctly, the master of the Ocean of Time is one of the oldest beings in existence. His history stretches all the way back to the shattering of the Ancient Astral World... and all these years, he has been..."

"Yes," Sasha affirmed.

"What is he calculating?"

"Our origin," she replied. "We believe we drifted into this universe. But over countless years, many Supremes and Transcendent Beings have ventured deep into the Void of Chaos, and none have ever found signs of another universe. We don't even know if our origin is real, or just a result of corrupted data. Just like how Father's database has lost vast amounts of information... these simulations are his attempt to uncover the cause of that loss."

Li Pin wasn't surprised by the mystery surrounding the Ocean of Time's master.

"Data loss?" His expression darkened. "Was it due to the collapse of the Ancient Astral World? Or did we encounter enemies from beyond the Void of Chaos?"

"I'm sorry. I don't know. Perhaps... you could ask Father directly," Sasha said.

Li Pin nodded without pressing further. Then, as if something had just occurred to him, he asked, "Right... What is the true name of the master of the Ocean of Time?"

The world only ever referred to that Transcendent existence as the master of the Ocean of Time. As for the actual name, no one had ever paid attention to it.

Before Sasha could answer, a voice rang out. It sounded mechanical, yet carried a faint grace and lightness. "You may call me Null."