"Wang... Mang..."
At the sound of that name, Shi Lan's expression grew distant. On that day atop Mount Penglai, Tong Yuan had mentioned him to her in passing.
Wang Mang was much like her. Back then, she hadn't paid it much mind.
At that moment, Shi Lan seemed to glimpse an invisible thread of fate running through the river of time.
Today's cause, tomorrow's consequence.
That was the result of the river of time being severed. Everything was fated; the past was set in stone. She was destined to encounter Wang Mang at this point in time.
In the blink of an eye, as if awakening from a great dream, countless fragments flashed through Shi Lan's mind.
She had defied the order of time and, by a twist of fate, returned to the Primordial Era. She had wanted to support humanity ahead of time and change the future. For that, she had even slain four great saints of the demigod race. Yet the river of time hadn't changed in the slightest. She had always been deeply puzzled by this, but now, at last, she understood the cause and effect.
She thought of the God King, and of the twelve sovereigns who had come for her. No matter how powerful the God King was, the outcome of facing twelve sovereigns alone, including the Jade Emperor, had already been clear.
If she hadn't returned to the Primordial Era, the God King wouldn't have ended up in such a predicament. With the God King there, Lingyang wouldn't have fallen into chaos, and the Primordial Divine War would never have taken place. All the ancient history that followed would have changed.
Now the God King had fallen because of her. Lingyang had no ruler, and the Heavenly Dao had lost its restraints, holding supreme