Backtracking and the Light Cone

When you are the only one in the entire world who can perceive the truth...

When only you can realize that this illusory world is being constantly manipulated by someone.

Even if you know that other people have free will, it's just... that free will is ridiculously weak.

They have free will only because the Almighty want them to.

If they wished, powerful beings could also change the entire world according to their will, allowing those 'free wills' to be altered at will.

Modifying memories, erasing experiences, and reshaping personalities are all effortless.

Once you understand this, and at the same time... you also possess the perspective of these powerful beings, you will experience immense pain.

Especially when you are not a powerful being.

You can only watch helplessly as all this unfolds, endlessly repeating the trajectory set by the Great One.

You have free will only because they need you to have free will.

If you don't care about anything, that's fine. You can go crazy, you can vent your pain violently, mess up everything around you, and pour out all your dissatisfaction.

But Li Qi just couldn't do it. He was facing a rabbit and its little rascals. If he vented his anger, they would only wonder what had happened in the past three hundred years. Their reunion would turn into worry, and their rare joy would be overshadowed.

Although... a lot of things have indeed happened, Li Qi really doesn't want things to turn out this way.

This happened dozens of times.

Li Qi was truly exhausted, and Shen Shuibi had asked him dozens of times.

It's unclear when it started, but the rabbit always seemed to sense something was off about Li Qi, yet Li Qi couldn't say anything.

This is the perspective of the sorcerer god; you can't just spread it around.

Just as the great shaman Changxi said, there are some things that, even knowing them, can bring about utter destruction.

However, after several dozen attempts, Li Qi woke up.

This time, it's not in the Moon Palace.

Li Qi took a deep breath.

What followed was not joy, but 'liberation'.

Finally... finally.

If it's repetitive, Li Qi would rather keep going through life-or-death battles than relive the time spent with his family over and over again.

However, if this isn't the Moon Palace, then this must be some kind of war zone, right?

He was still looking around when a voice came from beside him. "Li Qi?"

Before Li Qi could speak, Li Shiwei exclaimed in surprise, "Uncle Bo Yue?!"

Li Qi also found the source of the sound. Not far away, there were halos of some World Cluster Formation. This place should be inside a certain world, a world that is about to die.

At the very center of those halos that stretched for hundreds of miles, about seventy miles away from him, Bo Yue was sitting there.

What a coincidence!

This is probably just a coincidence, because no one can control such a trivial matter. Li Qi did not observe any strange fluctuations in the causal line. Moreover, the Witch God said that from now on, no one can arrange Li Qi's fate. Li Qi has truly gained reality and escaped this situation.

That would truly be fate.

"Haha, Bo Yue, I never expected to be working under you this time," Li Qi laughed, perking up and his numb heart began to loosen a little.

People still need some new things to stimulate them; endlessly repeating the same thing is something even Li Qi can't bear.

Meanwhile, on Bo Yue's side, while processing the information sent by the World Cluster Formation, he said, "It really is you, kid. Why did you bring your family along... I can't move, you guys come over here."

"What? You're not happy that I'm here to be your Executioner Squad? How many people can be better than me?" Li Qi said, as he and Shen Shuibi walked away from the spirit raft.

The spirit raft disappeared the moment Li Qi left.

The spirit raft of Guanghan is said to be able to travel to any place, but if you want to get to Guanghan, you can only rely on yourself to run there; there is no teleportation. It is a completely one-way connection.

"Gao Xing... You bastard, you're already at the fifth rank, can't you slow down your cultivation speed a bit?" Bo Yue sighed, his face full of exhaustion.

Seventy li is a short distance for a fifth-rank official, so as they spoke, Li Qi had already brought Shen Shuibi to Bo Yue's side.

Although Shen Shuibi has become a mother and her personality has changed a lot, she is still generally an introverted and quiet person. She didn't say anything, but just held Li Shiwei's hand and stood beside her.

Li Shiwei knew that her father was talking about serious matters with her uncle, so she didn't interrupt, but kept looking around, especially at the World Cluster Formation.

This thing is an upgraded version of the Shamanic Way Mountain-Water Grand Formation. It can mobilize the resources of an entire world group, and its effectiveness is terrifying. It is the main force against the Human Path War Fortress.

"I really want to take some time to reflect, but unfortunately, if I do, I might die. I have no choice but to accept the situation..." Li Qi shook his head and sighed.

He tried his best to appear normal and not let others notice anything wrong with him.

Bo Yue is only a sixth-rank official at this time, just like when Li Qi was in command.

"Alright, judging from your appearance, I know you're not doing too well. But my situation isn't much better either. As you can see, my Executioner Squad has been almost wiped out, which is why I asked for reinforcements from above. You have a lot to do."

"It's nothing. I'm here to do something. It would be better if I were just sitting around doing nothing and waiting to win. How's the situation on your end?" Li Qi sat down and asked Bo Yue.

Since the two were acquaintances, they didn't mince words and got straight to the point.

"The other side is very strong. They ambushed and wiped out my Executioner Squad, which made it impossible for me to restrain the Human Path Army. Now I am in a passive and defensive situation, and it is difficult to break the deadlock," Bo Yue said bluntly.

"It is indeed very difficult." Li Qi nodded; he had also been tricked like this by Liu Junyi.

Liu Junyi first wiped out Li Qi's Executioner Squad, then used a dog-walking tactic to manipulate the Shaman Path army at will. In the end, Li Qi fought desperately, and with the help of temporarily mastering the power of cause and effect and a third-grade treasure to help him advance, he was able to defeat Liu Junyi.

In pure battlefield strategy, Li Qi is honestly no match for Liu Junyi.

Bo Yue continued, "I have tried using the Demon Seed several times, cutting off many futures that I don't want, but it is still difficult to win. Even if I could start over, the opponent has not given me any opportunity."

These words startled Li Qi for a moment.

Wait, he suddenly remembered.

Bo Yue's Demon Seed! It can cut off the light of the universe! And he could do it when he was at the ninth rank.

Is this some kind of 'backtracking'?

Just like one's own True Knowledge Dao Charm, it is the manifestation of some special power. As young masters, almost everyone has this skill.

"Wait a minute, let's not talk about that yet. Let me ask you first, does your Demon Seed have any range limitations?" Li Qi suddenly asked.

"Huh? You have a grudge against me? You want to find out where I am?" Bo Yue chuckled.

That's not very polite. Asking that question is like trying to find Bo Yue's weakness.

"No, I've run into some things recently that are related to this. I'll switch with you..." Li Qi realized his mistake, but he couldn't give up.

However, Bo Yue waved his hand and said, "It's alright. Between us brothers, we entrust our lives to each other at the ninth rank. How could I not trust you? But do you really need this information? Even more important than battlefield intelligence?"

At this moment, Shen Shuibi, being sensible, coughed twice and claimed that she wanted to go and see the World Cluster Formation around her, and took Li Shiwei with her.

Li Qi and Bo Yue naturally watched her leave, leaving only Bo Yue and Li Qi at the scene.

So Li Qi nodded. "Yes, this is very important to me. Moreover, if I know this, I might be able to help you take over the battlefield here."

"Okay, I believe you. Go ahead and ask." Bo Yue readily admitted it.

"The same question remains: are there any limitations on the range of Demon Seed?" Li Qi asked.

"Yes, it mainly depends on the pressure from the Heavenly Dao around me, my level of Law Power, and the length of the time it takes to rewind." Bo Yue nodded. "Right now, outside the domain, if I cut off one second, the coverage area is about 600,000 miles. But I can adjust it. If I cut off ten seconds, the coverage radius will increase tenfold."

"If it were in the world, this number would probably be fixed at around five li, because I can't support cutting out more time and range. Five li... the time of rewinding is less than a moment, or even a pause, so it's basically useless in the world. The Heavenly Dao in the world is just too strong."

Li Qi immediately realized something. "In other words, this range is linked to time. The longer the removal takes, the larger the range it can affect, and the Law Power consumed also increases exponentially?"

"Yes, that's it." Bo Yue agreed and said, "This range is roughly related to the Heavenly Way Limit. I can also manually compress the range, but that requires me to adjust the speed Heavenly Way Limit."

As he spoke, he demonstrated.

Bo Yue raised his hand, and the Demon Seed was activated. Li Qi immediately felt the cosmic light around him begin to peel away, the range of which was light speed × time.

Li Qi was a smart man; with just this one move, he immediately realized the reason.

It's the speed of light.

The limit of Bo Yue's backward travel is the speed of light.

If he uses the Demon Seed to rewind one second, he will rewind one second at the speed of light, regardless of the speed of light or whether it has been altered.

Or you could say that... he was retracing the path of Light Cone.

All events in the universe spread outwards over time. As time increases, the scope of an event's influence also expands. When the scope of each time period is superimposed, it eventually forms a cone shape.

Imagine you light a candle; the light will spread in all directions.

The moment the candle is lit, the light rushes outward in all directions at the speed of light, thus forming a bubble that keeps growing outward.

You can never get past this bubble, because an object with mass cannot exceed the speed of light, nor can it exceed the Heavenly Way Limit.

You can modify the Heavenly Way Limit, just like all travelers from beyond the realm, but the light will also accelerate accordingly, and you have never been able to surpass this limit.

This is the true meaning of 'the Heavenly Way Limit': it can be modified, but it cannot be surpassed.

Therefore, you cannot escape from this bubble.

If you slice each moment of this bubble into a plane and combine them, you can see a cone shape that starts at the candle and extends into the infinite future.

The central axis of this cone extends from the past to the future. The sides of the cone are tilted at 45 degrees because the distance light travels in a given time is absolute. For example, if light travels one light-year in space in one year, this cone is called the Light Cone.

The 'point' at the very front of the Light Cone is the cause of the Light Cone.

The circle behind represents all the fruits.

The origin is the beginning of an event. The direction in which time increases is the future of the event, and the direction in which time decreases is the past of the event.

The cause of this event and all its effects on the future are contained within this cone, thus creating causal relationships in the universe.

This is the most important Principle cause and effect in the universe.

Within the Light Cone lies destiny.

Any event in the universe can only affect objects within its future Light Cone; objects outside the future Light Cone of an event will not be affected by that event.

Those outside the Light Cone cannot know what happens inside it, and those inside Light Cone cannot know Light Cone.

Starting with the Light Cone, the universe is clearly divided.

Therefore, the Demon Seed's backtracking can only backtrack to one Light Cone.

Therefore, backtracking does not produce any causal paradoxes, because things inside the Light Cone cannot affect the outside, so local backtracking will not produce any consequences.

So... perhaps the rewinding of powerful beings also follows the same principle? Only the methods are more advanced, similar to the contrast between a campfire in a primeval forest and nuclear fusion.

Although both utilize temperature, the differences between them are incomprehensible.

If that's really the case...

Li Qi shook his head.

Even so, it seems he has no other options.

However, this conjecture should be of some use to Bo Yue?

So Li Qi said, "Recently, I've gained some insights into the threads of cause and effect. When I suddenly heard about your Demon Seed, I had a guess. Please listen to it."

After saying this, Li Qi began to preach in front of Bo Yue.

The lines of cause and effect unfold, and at the same time, they combine with the 'Light Cone'.

Time and space, cause and effect, merge into one in this instant.

It turns out that the line of cause and effect is not two-dimensional.

Previously, Li Qi's understanding of cause and effect was that 'cause lines' plus 'effect points' would form a huge network, but this network was flat and two-dimensional.

But... what if it's combined with spacetime?

At this moment, the planar network transforms into a ' Light Cone, and causality reaches a new height, much like how two-dimensional organisms evolve into three-dimensional beings.

However, Li Qi's oratory was somewhat clumsy.

He was very familiar with cause and effect, but he didn't quite understand the space-time represented by the Demon Seed.

But coincidentally, Bo Yue understands this very well.

Bo Yue immediately stood up from the World Cluster Formation and sat down in front of Li Qi.

He also began to preach, using his own understanding to supplement Li Qi's lack of understanding of Demon Seed and time and space.

The two became one, complementing each other's lack of knowledge; their understanding of the Dao Path merged together in a strange way.

It seems... that's how it was meant to be.

Spacetime and causality are inherently one.

Cause and effect are strictly related to time.

There must be a cause before there is an effect.

At the same time, the Light Cone itself is also a manifestation of space, and since space and time are one, the relationship between cause and effect in time can also be projected into space, becoming the trajectory of space.

Yes, time is the trajectory of things moving in space; time is an axis of motion in space.

In this way, the laws of causality and spacetime are unified.

This was merely an inspiration for Li Qi.

But for Bo Yue, it was a breakthrough opportunity!