It was only that, on that timeline, in that ancient world, Xuan Qing had never appeared.
There had been no Xuan Qing rising into existence, no Supreme Great Dao to hold the line, no one steadily taking control of the heavens and reversing the tides.
In the Prehistoric Era of that world, no one had rewritten Fate, no one had defied heaven to alter their destiny, and no one had carved out a path ahead for the heavens.
Thus, the Prehistoric Era along that thread of destiny had never received repeated chances to break free and be reborn, never enjoyed the flourishing auspicious qi of all heavens returning to one fold, nor undergone the world's transformation through the fulfillment of the six Supreme Great Daos.
Without that sole variable, there could be no new life or glory.
The beings of that world could only struggle onward beneath the most primordial and cruel Fate decreed by the Heavenly Dao.
They too had sought the Dao, protected what they could, and fought in blood against the collapse of eras. Yet without a heaven-defying powerhouse at the helm, all their struggles had ultimately been no more than a drop in the ocean.
In the end, that entire Primordial Heaven and Earth—countless cultivators, countless living beings, countless ancient powerhouses—had all failed to escape the final end of annihilation.
Heaven and earth shattered, the Path of Dao withered, and all prosperity returned to nothingness. In the end, everything sank, was buried, and became part of the Return to Void Forbidden Land, silent for eternity and unknown to all.
That was how it should have been.
It should have vanished forever into the River of Time, reduced completely to dust between heaven and earth, with no possibility of ever appearing in the present world again.
Yet