Where did the unfinished part of "All that came before, scattered like smoke" lie?
"Does it refer to the final slash of the Overlord's Six Slashes, 'Step into the River, and Fate Is Not Decreed'?" Meng Qi stood rooted in place, his thoughts in turmoil as he wondered what Young Master Wang had left unsaid. "But that slash seems more like an application of a certain legendary power. It summons all the 'other selves' imprints from every corner of every universe to attack an enemy at once. It's extremely dangerous for the user, but also incredibly overbearing—a desperate strike that leaves no way back. Very much the Overlord's style."
"But that slash has no practical significance for escaping the causal ties of a great figure or the shackles of the Six Paths."
"Hmm..." As he thought it over, Meng Qi suddenly murmured in surprise. Something was wrong with the scene he had witnessed while comprehending the Overlord's Absolute Saber. With what he knew now, his earlier assumption had been incorrect!
What he had seen back then was this: a phantom river, its surface rippling with light, appeared out of nowhere. No one knew where it came from or where it flowed. It bore no marks of age and was not choked with dust, yet it gave the impression of being eternal and unchanging, of time flowing past. Figures flew out from all along the river: an "Overlord" clad in black armor, a man holding a halberd and cradling a woman in white, a youth holding up a cauldron—countless others besides, scattered throughout the void and suspended in silence.
That slash had clearly stepped into the River of Time. The figures it summoned came from all along the river, some connected to other universes and some from the Real World. In