Within Misty Palace.
At Wang Qi's words, cries of grief rang out one after another: "Impossible!" "How could this be possible?"
The path of exploring the material world was, in truth, woven from two roads.
"Empiricism" and "deduction."
On Earth, these two roads were respectively known as "empiricism" and "dogmatism."
In Earth's history, Bacon and Descartes had each been pioneers of one of these roads.
No matter which world it was in, they were practitioners of the Way of Reason, the proper method of understanding this world.
And now, one of the two feet with which humanity walked upon the Great Dao was about to be severed alive.
Because...
"Empiricism" no longer held any meaning.
An "empiricist" had to select the object of study from records of countless facts, then derive patterns from them—in other words, "empiricism" was directed toward "historical records."
But "history" itself could now be shaken.
"The past" was no longer immutable. Time travel was valid—all things built upon an "unchanging past" had become problematic.
Time travelers, those with foreknowledge, could choose history. Not all the history they had experienced was necessarily objective.
Records that appeared to bear no emotional bias inevitably carried "the subjective inclination of those with foreknowledge."
Because "history" itself inevitably bore the subjective inclination of those with foreknowledge.
This was a fact of the universe.
Despair.
This emotion surfaced uncontrollably among countless humans.
Beyond the Star Sea, who knew how many Conquest Envoys were burning with rage, secretly cursing the Immortal Alliance for not knowing the gravity of the matter.
But even more Conquest Envoys had already fallen into confusion.
This was the most fundamental interrogation of the Immortal Alliance's own path.
When "history" no longer existed, how were they supposed to continue onward?
Within Hometown, inside Wang Qi's study.
Everyone fell silent.