Chapter 966: Awakening

Destiny! Destiny!

This word rang in Li Pin's mind like a massive bell, echoing incessantly.

Destiny!

At this very moment, he was already starting to manipulate destiny?

What did destiny mean to Li Pin? It was the origin, the control, the trajectory.

Then the true significance of this Infinite Sovereign is...

Li Pin's eyes widened. "An experiment!"

It was an experiment of destiny.

The wheel of destiny began to turn.

He was showing Li Pin the trajectory of destiny!

With this awareness, Li Pin did not interfere in the Infinite Sovereign's life at all.

Events such as the one shown in the video footage Wan Fagui had shared with him continued playing out. The Infinite Sovereign encountered attacks from fugitives and robbers. Under the blood-pumping and mental stimulation from fleeing for his life, his cultivation made a slight breakthrough, and he secluded himself for a month.

During that month, the Li Qiuxian he recognized carried out various arrangements. After everything was done, he came in person. He disguised himself as a reclusive elder, displaying six self-created techniques, believing the Infinite Sovereign to be extraordinarily gifted, and planned to teach him one of his cultivation techniques. However, Bai Wuji took him for a fraud and a lunatic, immediately called the police, and sent him to a psychiatric hospital.

Li Pin couldn't help smiling at this scene. "What a scene..."

But immediately after, he seemed to think of something. In some sense, he was considered Li Qiuxian's successor. He had once said he would inherit his will, refine him into his past self, and together with his present self, journey to the future, surpass detachment, surpass Eternity, and reach the origin of all causes and effects.

In other words, wasn't he mocking himself in a roundabout manner by mocking Li Qiuxian?

Instantly, the corner of Li Pin's mouth twitched slightly.

Forget it, no one had heard him mock Li Qiuxian anyway.

***

Li Pin observed quietly.

Not too far from him, a certain Transcendent had come out of the psychiatric hospital, sighing. Destiny truly was unpredictable. This even affected his determination to continue observing.

But...

"What happens next?" Li Pin asked.

The Infinite Sovereign had sent the would-be teacher who came to impart techniques into the psychiatric hospital. What should he do next to change his life, to grow from an ordinary nobody into the Infinite Sovereign, famed across the universe?

Soon, Li Pin saw the answer.

Although Li Qiuxian, who intended to teach techniques, was sent away, his six techniques remained. In a situation that seemed extremely reasonable—yet theoretically should not have been so—the Infinite Sovereign picked up the six techniques and began to study them.

Once he started, he could not stop.

Moreover, unlike the original experiment—in which Li Qiuxian had intended to give him only one technique—this time, he effectively enjoyed all six techniques exclusively. Six techniques, crafted by a Transcendent, specifically tailored for a mortal.

Such treatment was akin to a Supreme visiting Gaia before the descent of the Astral God Yin Luo, taking a mortal disciple and creating custom techniques for him. For a Supreme to care so much... even the worst talent could be cultivated to Cosmic Radiance, right?

"So, Li Qiuxian deemed destiny unpredictable and gave up continuing to observe the Infinite Sovereign. Yet at this moment, the Infinite Sovereign obtained six techniques..."

Li Pin looked at the Infinite Sovereign, who had already obtained the six techniques and was studying them eagerly, and was struck by sudden realization.

None of this was a coincidence.

Judging by the Infinite Sovereign's cautious nature at this point in his life, he logically would've never risked dedicating time and energy to practicing these six techniques, let alone investing effort in cultivation. Yet he not only studied the six techniques, but fully trusted everything recorded in them, even discarding his original cultivation techniques, essentially betting his future.

Practicing these techniques might've looked reasonable at first glance, but upon closer inspection, one would realize it was completely illogical.

At this moment, Li Pin vaguely realized something. However, to know exactly what it was, he needed to continue observing the Infinite Sovereign's process.

During this period, naturally, there were Pioneers who wanted to make their move and seize the six techniques.

Anyone would know how incredibly valuable such a legacy, equivalent to a Supreme-level inheritance, truly was. However, in this cycle, Li Pin did not intend to allow anyone to interfere with the Infinite Sovereign's growth.

When these Pioneers were about to appear near the young Infinite Sovereign, Li Pin directly tossed them aside.

Without external interference, the Infinite Sovereign grew at an astonishing speed. In an incredibly short time, he rose to become a True God, rose on Bibo Star, and subsequently unified the star system where this planet resided, establishing a powerful empire.

During this period, his development went remarkably smoothly.

During the establishment of the empire, he inevitably clashed with other civilizations, but every time danger arose, every crisis was easily resolved. Eventually, the entire empire grew under his hand into a super-empire capable of ruling a Star Abyss-level region.

However, he also knew that to develop into a civilization beyond the Star Abyss level, his current strength and foundation were still insufficient. Thus, he chose to join the Prestige Sacred Hall, created and established by Transcendents during the Ancient Astral World era.

The nature of the Prestige Sacred Hall was similar to the Sacred Flame Hall. Or rather, the Seacred Flame Hall had inherited the legacy of the Sacred Flame Hall from the Ancient Astral World era.

The difference was that the Prestige Sacred Hall disappeared with the collapse of the Ancient Astral World. Among the powerful forces established by Transcendents, only the Sacred Flame Hall survived.

At this time, Li Qiuxian must have been in the Prestige Sacred Hall, and having cultivated into a Transcendent, was called the Transcendent Immortal

, Li Pin thought to himself,

but in the Divine Treasure World created by the Infinite Sovereign, the memories of the Transcendent Immortal were always vague, even replaced by a mysterious, powerful Transcendent...

Li Pin wasn't surprised by this, but rather delighted.

At least, this mysterious Transcendent existed.

Although he existed in a way no one could fully comprehend, the fact that he could even be perceived implied two possibilities.

One possibility, as Li Pin speculated, was that he did not attain Eternity. He had not completely bound spacetime and karma, so traces remained in this universe and era.

The other... is it guidance?

Li Pin asked himself.

He wished to understand Li Qiuxian, currently in his Transcendence form, and through him learn about the Eternal. However, for the young Infinite Sovereign to come into contact with Li Qiuxian in his mysterious Transcendence form seemed already the limit allowed by the rules. Even if he wished to follow Li Qiuxian's footsteps, he could not know his whereabouts. Or even if he knew where he was, he could not find his figure.

If he forcibly searched for Li Qiuxian's existence, he would inevitably need to release at least Transcendence-level comparable power, which this Divine Treasure World could not withstand. Even Supreme-level power alone could destabilize the entire Divine Treasure World.

At most, he could only indirectly obtain information about Li Qiuxian through the Infinite Sovereign after the latter had joined the Prestige Sacred Hall.

Fortunately, after the Infinite Sovereign reached the Prestige Sacred Hall and cultivated successfully, he tried in every way to apprentice under Li Qiuxian, the Transcendent, showing considerable attention to him.

Under these circumstances, Li Pin learned much of Li Qiuxian's deeds and speculated through them.

"The Eternal already existed, but Li Qiuxian kept running, kept striving to defeat the Eternal. Because, if I guessed correctly, the Eternal would not allow another Eternal to appear. Moreover, he transcends time and can directly see effects from causes. Therefore, if Li Qiuxian wanted to achieve Eternity, he must defeat that Eternal..."

Because the Eternal would preemptively cut off all paths for non-Eternals.

Li Qiuxian had to, as a non-Eternal, openly defeat the Eternal with all results exposed before him. And this... was fundamentally impossible.

That Eternal seems to have cut not only Li Qiuxian's path, but all paths for all potential Eternals in his future era...

Li Pin himself was the best example. He had already seen that severed path.

However, there was just one thing Li Pin couldn't wrap his head around.

"Why didn't that Eternal simply kill Li Qiuxian?" His brows knit with confusion. "Even more, why not erase all beings with potential for Eternity, solve the problem fundamentally, and avoid spending so much effort and cost to cut off their paths to Eternity?"

It didn't make sense.

Unless... that Eternal couldn't do it. But that made no sense either. Eternals could reverse cause and effect, so even the most powerful Liberator was meaningless before them. They could directly manipulate spacetime to alter the Liberator's past.

For example, if he had previously cultivated a technique with a terrible flaw, at this moment the flaw would manifest, and the Liberator would be reduced to ashes. Or more simply, make the Liberator believe he had already perished, that everything he experienced was an illusion created by obsession, and now, as the illusion dissipates... he should accept his death and calmly face it.

Eternals and those below it cannot be surpassed merely through increased scale or accumulated insight.

The Eternal has the power to destroy Li Qiuxian, even to kill me, yet did not do so. In the end... that leaves only one possibility.

Li Pin's mind flowed with every detail he knew about Li Qiuxian and the Eternal. Gradually, he reached a conclusion.

"It's the power of Destiny!"

Destiny had interfered with Eternity.

At this realization, Li Pin's pupils suddenly dilated sharply.

Destiny had interfered with the future that the Eternal had seen?!

Or rather, Destiny had interfered with the Eternal, causing him to no longer look at his future, but to shift his gaze elsewhere.

At that moment, Li Pin felt the fog clouding his mind dissipate at an incredibly fast speed. Everything was being cleared at lightning speed, revealing the truth before him clearly.

"Li Qiuxian had disappeared. In a sense, he had already fallen, and I... in a sense inherited his will, refined him into a past form, yet did not die.... Doesn't that prove..."

Li Pin felt as if electric currents ran through his entire body. These currents transformed into endless radiance, continuously converging, all pointing in one direction.

"I... am the single thread of life wrested from Destiny in the battle between Li Qiuxian and the Eternal."

He suddenly lifted his head, his gaze seeming to pierce through the entire Divine Treasure, space, and even the layers of karmic cycles, seeing a higher dimension.

"So...this battle between Eternals did not end with the fall of Li Qiuxian!"

What he saw was like a heavenly chasm, severing all his paths of advancement. As well as that majestic figure at the end of the heavenly chasm, the one that gathered a myriad tiers of spacetime, standing above spacetime itself.

That was... the Eternal!

"On the contrary, things have just begun!"