"Choose? Do we even have a choice?"
A hint of sorrow flickered in Ling Yun's eyes. "The river of time and space has already been severed. Now, even if we reach the peak of the world and look down across the ages, we cannot make up for our regrets. What meaning is there in giving everything to walk this path to its end?"
"In our eyes, they gave up what they should not have given up. In theirs... we persisted in what we should not have persisted in."
The depths of the hall were dim and gray, stretching beyond sight. Only a sigh drifted slowly through the darkness:
"Perhaps they saw farther than we did."
"Have you wavered, too?" Ling Yun gazed into the depths of the hall, her eyes narrowing slightly.
"I took another half-step forward and glimpsed fragments of what lay upstream. The great cosmos was awash in blood. Even then, someone had already resisted, wielding power far beyond yours or mine. But in the river of time and space, they still failed to stir the slightest ripple."
"Everything has already been decided."
When the words fell, the chaos energy in the depths of the hall fell silent. No more sound came from within.
Over the course of several months, the number of people in the Martial Practice Secret Realm surged. Perhaps spurred by Shi Lan, many more began challenging the rankings on the crystal steles.
Yet the rankings barely shifted, with movement confined mostly to places sixty and below. The top fifty positions on the crystal stele remained largely unchanged. A few short months were hardly enough to bring about a qualitative change in martial arts.
Even Shi Lan had spent decades in the system's virtual space, facing life and death day and night, before