Above the bounds of reason, the few who had surrounded the Martial Emperor spoke beautifully, as though they meant to forge a progressive New World.
Yet how could the Martial Emperor not understand? In each of their respective eras, every one of them had once held absolute dominion over the world of the future. In the end, they had merely grown tired of it themselves.
Then they began overlooking the River of Time, searching across antiquity, the present, and the future for powerful beings, hoping to seek "truth."
The first to clash with the Martial Emperor had been the Shadow Expert. He was the first Tenth Order being born in the later ages. Originally, he had run wild within the River of Time, tracing his way back until he provoked the Martial Emperor. Their conflict had erupted into a great battle.
Later, the two had communicated as well, but the Martial Emperor discovered that the other party was the sort of transcendent madman beyond reason. He gave up on communication, because at the root of it all, the other party was not even a living being, but an Innate Being born amid variables through a special coincidence.
That was also why he had not sensed the other party attaining the Dao in later ages. The Shadow Expert had deceived the heavens and evaded the Martial Emperor's perception. This shadow had not the slightest empathy. At first, he had not intended to erase time and unite everything at the origin point.
That notion came later. During his struggle with the Martial Emperor, he discovered that the Martial Emperor had once slain a Tenth Order being, yet had not killed him completely. Thus, he used certain methods to lure out the Ancestor of Myriad Tribulations. When negotiations failed, he sealed him away.