At that, Wei slowly raised his head. Beneath his snow-white hood, his gaze locked onto Jiu across the Go board, and his voice rang coldly: "Floating Life Is Like a Dream, Free Time!"
Jiu rasped, "Sun and Moon Eternal, As It Was, So It Returns!"
The two Venerables faced off. The wind fell silent, and all sound vanished. In an instant, the perilous cliff and solitary pine faded away.
The world around them lay empty. The distant, indistinct mountains, rivers, plants, and trees all vanished like smoke, leaving only a great river surging onward, its mighty current rushing and pounding forward.
It was as vast as an ocean, rolling on as if without end, exuding the grand aura of something that had endured since time immemorial, impervious to all calamities.
The long river roared. It seemed to flow through the Myriad Worlds, running from the past into the future, yet also seemed never to have left this empty world. It originated here! Its end was here, too!
This was the River of Time!
Now, the waters roared and the current surged. Towering waves rose like mountains, crashing against the hems of their black-and-white robes and spraying countless droplets into the air.
Each droplet was filled with scenes: the birth of the first light at the beginning of time, a gigantic Golden Crow blotting out the sky as its fallen feathers became immortals; the first drop of water in the Myriad Worlds opening its eyes, its dragon's roar shaking heaven and earth; the ancestors of the Human Race blazing a trail through hardship, while an old man with a face furrowed by countless wrinkles wielded a wooden staff, cutting through obstacles amid dangers on every side...
There was the Nine-tailed Fox Clan stumbling upon a great opportunity and leaping to become