Chapter 4063: Future And Past

Lu Yin let out a breath. Greater Sancte Mi Jin had perished together with Qi Xu for the sake of human civilization, while Progenitor Hui had schemed against Yong Heng and ended his own path at the Immemorial Citadel for the same purpose.

The two were too much alike. In fact, they were the same.

The colliding Karmic Lines caused the scenes of the past to become increasingly clear to Lu Yin.

Greater Sancte Mi Jin’s manifested thought had merged into Yuan Qi’s body, and it had naturally learned that Yong Heng had joined forces with the Spirit Nidus to take down the Heavens Sect. At that time, the Origin Progenitor had already disappeared, and Yong Heng’s next target had been the God of Death. Greater Sancte Mi Jin had warned the God of Death, which had allowed him to make preparations beforehand.

That was how the God of Death had replaced himself with a clone.

In that case, where was the God of Death now? Why had he still not appeared?

Also, since Greater Sancte Mi Jin had been able to warn the God of Death, why had the God of Death not shared that warning with Ancestor Lu Yuan and the others? Instead, he had faced Yong Heng on his own, as though marching to his end. He had even sent a single attack down the River of Aeons to save Lu Yin.

That attack had been delivered by the God of Death’s true body, but it was his clone which had died. It defied belief that Yong Heng had not noticed anything.

There was still an impenetrable fog shrouding matters.

Lu Yin continued to examine Yuan Qi with karma.

Half a day later, the old man left.

Lu Yin and the others remained silent.

“Things are almost clear now,” Lu Yin said, “Before Yuan Qi arrived in the Tianyuan, Master Qing Cao intercepted him outside, using the Nine Odysseys Megaverse’s prohibition against intervening in the Tianyuan as a pretext to attack. However, his true target was Greater Sancte Mi Jin, whose manifested thought was shattered. Only after confirming that Greater Sancte Mi Jin’s manifested thought had dispersed did they allow Yuan Qi to enter the Tianyuan.”

He paused briefly before continuing to say, “But Master Qing Cao still underestimated Greater Sancte Mi Jin. He used the last sliver of his manifested thought to warn the God of Death. No one knows what was shared, but it allowed the God of Death to prepare for Yong Heng’s attack. But as the price, Greater Sancte Mi Jin’s manifested thought completely dispersed.

“Even so, the power of an Immortal doesn’t fade away that easily. That nearly dissipated manifested thought, after countless years, eventually gave rise to Progenitor Hui.

“That’s the entire course of events, and even if there are some discrepancies, they won’t be anything drastic. The critical information to uncover at this moment is the God of Death’s current location. If he didn’t die—no, he shouldn’t have died. He must have made preparations after receiving that warning. In that case, where is he now, and what is he doing? Also, why did he save me?”

Lu Yin’s eyes swept the group. His tone grew heavy. “The God of Death lived for countless ages before I was born. At that time, he had no knowledge of my existence. Even if he was able to see the future, how far into the future could he have seen?”

Ancient God interjected, “There’s more than one future.”

He looked at Lu Yin. “If you weren’t so important, Blackie wouldn’t have done what he did. We weren’t even able to tell that his corpse was a clone. It had also mastered death energy, giving it incomparable power. He sacrificed that clone to mislead Yong Heng, but I believe that he truly intended to save you.”

Chu Yi said, “Even if he had needed to sacrifice his true self, it’s possible that he still would have done so. He saw your future.”

Everyone looked at Lu Yin. “When Blackie stepped into the Origin realm, his gaze pierced through the River of Aeons. We can’t do that, but there is one person who can.”

“Destiny,” Lu Yin said.

Lu Yuan took a deep breath. “Lassy is also able to see the future. Both she and Blackie could do that, and they both chose to disappear. There has to be a reason why. Also, Lassy helped you, too.”

Lu Yin nodded. “She awakened Zhao Ran, reversing time.”

He stared ahead, lost in his thoughts. The God of Death had sacrificed a clone to save Lu Yin, while Destiny had given him the chance to start over. What kind of future had they seen?

Lu Yin could not even imagine one day being able to see the future.

What kind of power would be needed to do that?

Building a bridge in the future could allow one to change it, but that was not something that was possible with raw power.

Destiny had emerged from one of the Mirari Realm’s forbidden regions, and then she had recultivated with that power. It had allowed her to plan and scheme with the River of Aeons, to the point where she had manipulated a ferryman.

The God of Death had reached the Origin realm, but what had allowed him to see the future?

Lu Yin himself was also an Ortuser.

He firmly believed that the God of Death had been immensely powerful, but not to the point where he surpassed the current Lu Yin. Lu Yin was the most powerful being beneath the Immortal realm.

That was unless the God of Death had cultivated a different kind of power, mastered some other force, or possessed a treasure such as a mirebound artifact.

Lu Yin left the Heavens Sect and summoned the River of Aeons, entering the Mirari Realm.

Wei Nu fled from the Mirari Realm once again. She felt incredibly frustrated. Lu Yin’s strength had risen too quickly for her to stop him from entering the Mirari Realm any longer. All she could do was run away.

Lu Yin stood on the bank of the River of Aeons and looked out at Zhao Ran. “I want to see the future.”

Zhao Ran shook her head. “All you can do is build a bridge yourself. I can’t help you.”

“I want to change the future.”

“Impossible.”

“The God of Death reached down through the River of Aeons to save me once, and Destiny granted me the opportunity to awaken you. All of that happened in the past.”

Zhao Ran said, “The past and the future can be seen by building a bridge, but to affect the past, you must be able to endure the force of the River of Aeons. You’ve seen that power before.”

That was the same power used by Wei Nu’s paper-cutting technique. When one of her paper cut-outs was cut, theoretically, doing so severed the past. However, because the River of Aeons continuously flowed uninterrupted and unchanged, it was impossible to sever the past. The attempt created an overlap between the forces of progression and reversal, leading to backlash from the River of Aeons.

“Have you ever seen the past truly be changed?” Zhao Ran asked.

Lu Yin frowned. In the end, Wei Nu’s paper-cutting technique was just an attack, rather than a true attempt to alter the past.

Truly altering the past required one to shatter the eternal flow of the River of Aeons and overcome its force. Lu Yin could scarcely even imagine that kind of power.

Lightstream’s boat form allowed him to sail up the River of Aeons and change his physical location in the past, but he could not affect anyone else. Everyone else would continue along the same timeline, and only Lu Yin would vanish from his original position. Simultaneous existence was impossible.

Even when Lightstream reversed time by one second, the effect only applied within a specific area, and it did not affect history itself. It was nothing more than another application of the power of time.

The only way to truly change the past was to have a branch of the River of Aeons return to the main stream.

There had only ever been one instance of the past truly being changed.

However, the catch was that the past that had changed had been wrong from the start. It had only been a branch in the River of Aeons that Destiny had created to ambush Wei Nu.

“In order to alter the past, the timeline itself must be wrong.”

“Are you saying that, if the timeline of the future is also wrong, it can be changed?”

“Destiny took action before Wei Nu attempted what she was going to do. That created a temporal paradox that created a branch stream in the River of Aeons. That’s why I awoke, to merge that branch back to the main stream, which altered the past. However, if the future is wrong, the one to change it won’t be me.”

“It would be the future you,” Lu Yin blurted out.

Zhao Ran said, “Or perhaps another ferryman of the River of Aeons.”

Lu Yin stared at Zhao Ran intently as six words echoed in his mind: it all starts and ends with a cup of tea.

These were the words that Destiny had left behind. Was it possible that the God of Death’s attack had also been a kind of coordinate left behind in the River of Aeons?

Zhao Ran had offered the only answer that she could give. Lu Yin was not personally able to see the future. Without building a bridge across the River of Aeons, there was no other way.

If Lu Yin could one day alter the future in a different manner from what Zhao Ran had described, then he would finally have an explanation for the God of Death’s attack.

But right now, he needed to focus on finding Master Qing Cao and seeing if that man knew about the God of Death’s circumstances.

...

In the Tianyuan, four universe-class battleships were drifting through outer space. Cultivators from the Spirit Nidus had gathered from all directions, all of them excited.

“We can finally go back! I never want to come back to this megaverse.”

“I miss home so much. I didn’t miss it this badly even during that expedition to the Consciousness Megaverse.”

𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

“That’s because you knew that you could return. This time was different. People said all along that we might never be able to go back. Thank Lord Lu for his wisdom in letting us return.”

“It was Seraph Su who negotiated with him. Thank Seraph Su...”

All of the cultivators were talking, excited to be heading home.

However, there were some who were still uneasy. “Is it really good for us to go back? The Nine Odysseys Megaverse plunders the Spirit Nidus’s spirit seeds. We won’t even be in control of our own lives.”

“Do you really believe that the Nine Odysseys Megaverse will give us justice? Or allow us to go free?”

Countless people fell silent.

They had only gone to support the Tianyuan because Lu Yin had said that they would be allowed to enter the Nine Odysseys Megaverse afterwards. Lu Yin had acknowledged that, and Su Shidao had told everyone that they could follow him to the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. However, what good would going to that megaverse do? Would the Nine Odysseys Megaverse really allow them to go free?

Lu Yin had never said that he would grant them freedom.

In a moment, the hearts of the cultivators aboard the battleships grew heavy.

They could leave the Tianyuan and return to the Spirit Nidus, but what awaited them there?

Su Shidao stood on the deck of the vessel, staring off into the distance with a complicated expression. He was staring in the direction of the Heavens Sect.

Every cultivator from the Spirit Nidus wished to return, but they also wanted freedom when they returned. They did not want to live while being suppressed by the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. Spending a lifetime cultivating only for that effort to ultimately benefit someone else; what meaning was there in returning to such a fate?

It might be better for them to stay in the Tianyuan. At least the people of the Tianyuan did not oppress them.

The people of the Spirit Nidus had also been taught the Nirvana Tree Path. Lu Yin had not discriminated against them.

Su Shidao sighed. He did not know what to do.

He suddenly found himself missing the High Seraph. While the man had lacked any sort of moral code, he had at least served as the spiritual pillar for all of the Spirit Nidus’s cultivators.

A figure appeared behind him, and Su Shidao whipped around to see Master Qing Cao.

He stared at the Immortal in shock. “The... the invincible being?”

Master Qing Cao observed Su Shidao. “You needn’t return. Stay here in the Tianyuan.”

“Junior Su Shidao greets the invincible being of the Spirit Nidus.”

“Mm.”

Su Shidao looked up in confusion. “We’re not going back?”

Master Qing Cao shook his head. “The Spirit Nidus is not safe. The Tianyuan is.”

“But... everyone wants to return.”

“You can’t.”

Su Shidao wanted to say more, but he could not find the words. No one from the Spirit Nidus could argue before Master Qing Cao.

Just as Master Qing Cao was about to leave, another person appeared. Lu Yin had arrived.

Su Shidao was startled to see the younger man.

Lu Yin looked at Master Qing Cao. “Senior, no matter what, they deserve an answer. There’s nothing wrong with them wanting to return to the Spirit Nidus.”

Master Qing Cao met Lu Yin’s gaze. “You’re testing me.”

Lu Yin calmly asked, “Why would you say that?”

Master Qing Cao replied, “There’s no need to test me. They’ll stay here in the Tianyuan. It’s safe.”

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Master Qing Cao.

To the side, Su Shidao quietly excused himself. There were some things that he could not afford to overhear.

“Did you come here specifically for me?”

“There’s something I’d like to ask you about, Senior.”

“There’s no need to repeat what’s already been said. I have no interest in answering you again.”

Lu Yin said, “Senior, you attacked Yuan Qi in the past, didn’t you?”