Downstream in the River of Time, roughly ten civilizations' worth of history away from the present.
Wang Xuan sat cross-legged in the Holy City as it traveled upstream, when his divine sense suddenly jolted without warning.
Dragon Island.
It was the Dragon Crystal he had left with the Old Ancestral Dragon all those years ago.
Now, someone had crushed that Dragon Crystal, which held a sealed strand of his spiritual consciousness.
"So, the time has finally come."
Wang Xuan's gaze sharpened. Following that connection across space and time, he found an inconspicuous ripple in the surging River of Time.
A strand of his divine sense slipped silently into it.
Deep within the ripple, a painted scroll slowly unfolded.
It depicted the Nine Provinces.
Yet these Nine Provinces were utterly different from those he remembered.
In the Nine Provinces depicted on the scroll, Stone Man Kings were numerous, and Ancestor Gods emerged in endless succession. The vital essence between heaven and earth was so dense that it had almost become tangible.
What truly caught Wang Xuan's eye was that, after long ages of development, this world no longer had any ordinary mortals. Technology and martial arts advanced side by side, and everyone was mighty as a dragon. Vast cities dotted the land, their towering buildings piercing the clouds; powerful martial artists piloted high-tech mechs across the heavens and myriad worlds.
"They've forged a different path after all."
Wang Xuan swept his gaze across the scene, but his attention soon settled on the sky above the Nine Provinces.
These changes were not the real reason the Dragon Clan had crushed the Dragon Crystal to summon him.
What had truly summoned him was the imposing figure slowly rising into the air amid billions of divine rays above the Nine Provinces.
As the divine