In the boundless darkness, an illusory long river stretched from past to future, rushing ever onward, unchanged since time immemorial. The points where its tributaries branched off shifted slowly but inexorably. Wrapped in the light of the Seven Kill Stele, Meng Qi felt Cause of All Fruits and his Other Shore Traits flare in response. He sensed with absolute clarity that he stood within this river of time and fate, at that very point.
He looked toward the future. Countless tributaries lay indistinct, and he could glimpse only a few. When he looked back into the past, scene after scene appeared: every detail of his own life, of other people's lives, of the ancients' lives, as vast as the stars in the sky and impossible to count. If they all flooded into Meng Qi's mind, his head would burst on the spot. Even a great power would not be spared.
He had done this more than once, and Meng Qi knew the process by heart. His thoughts turned, and his awareness expanded.
"Six hundred and eighty-nine years ago, the second day of the second month, at the half-hour mark of the noon watch..."
The countless scenes that threatened to blow his head apart faded away, leaving only those tied to the moment he sought. Yet nearly all of them were blurred, like television signals twisted by a powerful magnet, blanketed in static or swallowed by complete chaos.
Whenever the aura of a legendary or more powerful being was present, the Seven Kill Stele's retrospection suffered severe interference. And this time, forget legends and creation-level beings—even Other Shore Great Figures had appeared in the scene, more than one of them. Such a result was only natural. Meng Qi had expected it and did not panic. A new thought arose in his