Taiyin continued, "When I quelled the Dark Turmoil back then, quite a few Forbidden Zone Supremes became my enemies. They may very well have already joined forces."
"Though the Immortal Ascension Road has become their obsession, and they are unwilling to engage in a Supreme-level deathmatch before it opens and affect their condition..."
"Once people break their bottom line even once, they no longer have any limits..."
The Taiyin Sacred Emperor recalled what he knew, and his expression grew increasingly grim.
The Sun Holy Emperor beside him also fell silent.
As the saying went, the moon's phases were one's fate, and the moon's cycle was one's life cycle.
Possessing the Taiyin Physique, Taiyin had endured a difficult period during the ancient era, when humanity held low status. He had been a pill slave, fed all manner of precious medicinal herbs as he awaited refinement into a pill.
To change his circumstances, and to change humanity's circumstances, he gradually worked out a method of cultivation.
After slowly growing stronger and escaping, he became the enemy of the entire world because of his identity.
For a long time, in order to flee and survive, he constantly stole secret arts from the myriad races.
Gradually drawing on curse arts, he developed a secret technique of his own. It allowed him to observe karma through the moon's phases, conceal karma, or kill enemies along the threads of karma.
This secret technique could also use the moon's phases to divine one's fate.
Listening to Taiyin's description, Fang Zheng recalled the old woman who performed shamanic rituals at the village Earth God's Temple. Curious, he asked, "Isn't that just making voodoo dolls and fortune-telling? Can you also perform shamanic rituals?"
Taiyin paused, then said helplessly, "I actually can."
He continued his account.
For all living beings bound by the River of Time, the river surged ever onward. They were usually carried along by its current, unable to change anything.
Under certain coincidental circumstances, like fish leaping from the water and catching sight of downstream, some people could glimpse a corner of the future through dreams.
Cultivators who deeply studied divination could foresee more detailed matters, thereby prolonging life and avoiding death, learning fortune and misfortune, and comprehending Heavenly Secrets.
But comprehending Heavenly Secrets came at a great cost. Cultivators who deeply studied divination often encountered all sorts of strange happenings, dying either beneath heavenly punishment or unnatural circumstances.
Today, immediately after returning to the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands, Fang Zheng had busied himself throwing Healing Potions at the Sun Holy Emperor's human skin in an attempt to revive him. Taiyin Sacred Emperor had not remained idle either, casually conducting a divination.
Using the Blood Block Fang Zheng had given him, which could endlessly produce vast amounts of Essence Blood, Taiyin Sacred Emperor used that Essence Blood as an offering and saw a glimpse of the future.
An utterly terrifying future!
Taiyin quietly described his discovery, his voice carrying a trace of gravity.
He slowly told Fang Zheng, "Just as a surging river changes course when it encounters boulders and mountains in its path, giving rise to different tributaries..."
"So too is the River of Time. During my divination, I glimpsed two possible directions for the future."
In the first future, it was a world where neither Taiyin nor Fang Zheng existed.
No Law Cubes had fallen from the Immortal Ascension Road—Law Cubes that endlessly produced Law Chains and could infinitely refine Immortal Substance.
Thus, the many self-severed Supremes of the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands did not break their seals ahead of time. They still waited until several years later, when the Immortal Ascension Road was about to officially open, before fully unsealing themselves.
Several years from now, at the so-called correct time and place, a crack in the Immortal Ascension Road appeared on the Big Dipper Star.
Certain that this was the right time and place, the Forbidden Zone Supremes broke their seals and attacked the Immortal Ascension Road together.
Within that future vision, Taiyin saw the remnants of his former body fall from the crack in the Immortal Ascension Road.
He witnessed Supremes from different life forbidden zones join forces to pierce the void deep within the Immortal Ascension Road and enter a chaotic cave.
Yet at the end of that chaotic cave, although there truly stood the barrier of an Immortal Realm Fragment, they had no Heavenly Heart Imprint to serve as a key.
Even at the correct time and place, the Immortal Realm Fragment would not open its gate for them. They could not break through it.
Whether it was several Supremes at the peak of sublimation attacking with all their might, the Wushi Bell acting with Great Emperor Wushi's Essence Blood, or Amitabha's Divine Self offering up all of Mount Sumeru and the Buddhist faith power of the entire universe, none of them could break through it.
After repeatedly failing to breach the Immortal Realm Fragment's barrier, several Supremes who had never launched a Dark Turmoil to devour living beings were in terrible condition. Suffering backlash from the Immortal Realm Fragment, they died immediately after their peak sublimation ended.
The remaining self-severed Supremes broke back through the Immortal Ascension Road and returned, launching a Dark Turmoil even more brutal than any before it.
At this point, Taiyin's expression darkened, and he clenched both fists.
During that Dark Turmoil, countless living beings suffered. Taiyin saw several younger human generations fight the self-severed Supremes to the death in order to protect all living beings.
The Sun Holy Emperor's human skin revived. The spirit-born corpses of Void Emperor and Great Emperor Hengyu returned from the past, along with Gai Jiuyou, Ye Fan, and many others, all enduring savage battles to the death.
In the end, amid a horrific scene of mutual destruction, they dragged several beasts that had devoured living beings down into death with them.
Even so, several Supremes still devoured enough living beings to barely recover their condition, returning to the forbidden zones to seal themselves away once more.
Thus ended the first future Taiyin had seen.
Fang Zheng asked, "Eh? Taiyin, are you saying that in this future, there was neither me nor you?"
Tilting his head as he pondered for a moment, he recalled the science fiction novels he had read before and suddenly said, "Isn't what you described a parallel world?"
"A parallel world?" Taiyin raised an eyebrow slightly. "What is that?"
Fang Zheng explained, "It was mentioned in a science fiction novel I read. It said that every different choice causes the future to split, like two parallel lines that never intersect once they diverge."
"In different parallel worlds, there are identical people and events, but there are also certain differences."
"For instance, whether you step out with your left foot or your right foot creates two different worlds."
After hearing Fang Zheng's explanation, Taiyin seemed to gain some insight. "Parallel worlds? The future's different tributaries within the River of Time may indeed be regarded as different parallel worlds."
But he immediately shook his head and continued, "If I had only seen this one possible course of time, it would not have been much of a concern."
"After all, I have already returned. History has long diverged from that future, so the future will naturally change with it."
"It was the second future I saw..."
With a solemn expression, he continued recounting his discovery.
After conducting the divination and seeing the first future, Taiyin initially had not paid it much mind.
After all, history had already changed. The future he saw was merely one former possibility.
However, the second future's course was something he found utterly unacceptable.
Unlike the first future, where he had seen only scattered scenes, in the second future Taiyin seemed to personally experience a devastating calamity.
It was a future where Taiyin existed, yet Fang Zheng did not...
As though awakening from a great dream, Taiyin opened his eyes to find a vast sea of stars before him. He was somehow standing amid the boundless starry sky.
"How did I get here?" he wondered in confusion.
"Wasn't I conducting a divination?"
Looking around, Taiyin saw a vast formation pattern beneath his feet, endlessly spreading outward.
At the center of the formation stood a golden-red cube. Every instant, White Tiger and Vermilion Bird Law Chains carrying the power of a full-force strike from a Great Emperor-level figure poured endlessly from within it.
It seemed that Taiyin himself had personally set up this formation.
Examining the formation's patterns closely, Taiyin could tell that it was precisely the Four Symbols Killing Array formed from the White Tiger and Vermilion Bird law phantoms guarding the gate of the Law Mighty Pass on the Immortal Ascension Road.
This array was extraordinarily intricate and immensely powerful. Once fully activated, even Supreme-level experts could suffer grievous wounds from it.
He felt confused. "Why did I set up this formation?"
"Could it be that part of my memories is missing, or perhaps..."
Instinctively, he wanted to use divination to make a calculation.
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