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.