The Forgotten Time and Space

He drew a breath, his old lungs letting out a faint wheeze.

The bottom of his staff scraped against the ground with a soft rustle.

He shifted his feet, his voice so low it seemed to hide within his shadow. "How... did you come to this spacetime?"

Qi Heng did not answer immediately.

He raised his head and looked into the depths of the universe, as though his gaze could pierce countless light-years.

After a while, he finally gave a concise account of his fierce battle with Beerus—the black, twisted rift in time and space torn open by the collision of supreme energies, and the helpless fall and traversal that followed.

When he spoke of the energy eruption, the surrounding space seemed to resonate, sending out faint ripples.

Old Kai listened in silence, his face creased with wrinkles, the air utterly still.

Only when Beerus was mentioned did his eyes flicker slightly.

After Qi Heng finished, Old Kai still said nothing. Time seemed to stretch on.

Stardust drifted slowly beyond the temple. In the distance, a dying star gave off its last dim crimson glow, outlining Old Kai's profile in particular loneliness.

After a long time, he finally sighed, his voice long and heavy.

"No wonder..." he murmured, so softly it sounded like sleep-talking. "No wonder the traces of 'destruction' on you are so obvious, yet utterly... out of place with everything here."

"Lord Old Kai." Qi Heng stepped forward, and the starlight stone beneath his feet glimmered faintly.

His tone turned grave. His blazing gaze met Old Kai's directly. "What exactly happened in this spacetime? Why, the moment I arrived, could I no longer sense Beerus's divine aura? I can't even find the lingering traces of Angel Whis's 'Instinct.' This is far too abnormal."

Old Kai slowly raised his head.

Qi Heng saw it clearly: a flash of pain passed through those aged eyes, then quickly vanished, like blazing magma deep within a stellar core—there and gone in an instant.

His grip on the staff tightened slightly.

"Because..." His voice was low and hoarse, like sand grinding over stone. "They simply do not exist here."

Qi Heng's brows drew together, carving a sharp line between them. "What do you mean?"

"This is a..." Old Kai paused, as though the words that followed would drain all his strength. "A forgotten spacetime. Or rather, a... crippled universe."

He raised his withered arm. His wide sleeve slipped down, revealing a bony wrist.

He pointed beyond the temple, at the boundless dark void where stars were few and far between.

"Within the laws of this universe, throughout its long trajectory that numbs the soul, not only does Universe 7... every God of Destruction system that maintains the balance between creation and destruction simply does not exist here."

"Impossible." Qi Heng's voice remained calm, but his conviction was as immovable as bedrock.

The violet-gold aura around him brightened slightly. "Gods of Destruction are an indispensable pole of the universe's dual balance. Without them carrying out destruction and cleansing, the cycle of life in the universe would have collapsed long ago. Energy would inevitably—"

"Fall out of balance?" Old Kai finished for him, forcing out a bitter smile that was more heartbreaking than tears.

"You're right. This universe... has long since fallen out of balance. And it is sliding toward the abyss."

His body bent a little further as his gaze turned toward the dim galaxies in the distance.

"The duty of the Supreme Kais is to create life, guide civilizations, and maintain the flow of vitality. But without Gods of Destruction to clear away rotten, stagnant, overgrown 'existences' that have exhausted their resources, new life has nowhere to sprout. The universe is like a pond with water flowing in but never out, its surface covered by a thick layer of dead duckweed. Life energy... the source of creation... is being drained away, little by little, by those ancient, rigid 'existences' that refuse to change. I can feel it. This starry sky... is growing colder and quieter."

"Why did this happen?" Qi Heng pressed.

His perception had long since spread out, and he had indeed sensed the extraordinary "congestion" and "heaviness" of this universe—the lifeless stagnation of something lacking all "metabolism."

"There must be a reason for the loss of balance. Was it outside interference? Or is there a problem with the laws themselves?"

Old Kai fell into another long silence.

This time, the silence seemed to have weight, pressing down on every inch of space before the temple.

Only the dim gemstone atop his staff occasionally flashed with a faint gleam that seemed on the verge of going out.

Time passed bit by bit, as though centuries had gone by.

At last, he spoke again, his voice carrying the exhaustion of several million years.

"About... five million years ago." Every word came slowly and painfully, as though he were digging dust-covered fragments from the deepest recesses of his memories.

"The Beerus of this spacetime... the God of Destruction who should have maintained the universe alongside me..." Old Kai's gaze turned vacant, as though he had crossed time itself to see that distant past. "He always believed that, as a Supreme Kai, I was too weak and lacked the wisdom to keep up with him—that I was incapable of 'matching' him and fulfilling our divine duties together. Between us... resentment had built up for a long time."

He paused, his Adam's apple bobbing.

"Finally, after a fierce argument over the survival of a certain civilization... in a fit of rage, he used the power of destruction to seal me... inside that Supreme Kai Sword."

Old Kai's gaze drifted involuntarily toward a stone platform at the side of the temple. It stood empty, with only a faint sword mark left behind.

"Not long after that..." His voice grew lower and lower, carrying an unreal uncertainty. "Beerus, and Angel Whis, who had always followed him... vanished completely. There was no warning, no message, no trace left behind. It was as if they had never existed. I... do not know where they went or why they left. When I finally broke free from the seal of the divine sword much later, I was faced with a universe like this... one without a God of Destruction, where the balance had long since tipped."

Qi Heng stood quietly.

Five million years ago, Beerus had sealed Old Kai, then disappeared without a trace alongside Whis.

Cold starlight spilled down, drawing his shadow long.

The temple stood unmoving, like a silent witness to this forgotten history of gods and the prelude to an unbalanced universe slowly marching toward its end.

At that moment, the history of this spacetime had silently branched apart.

Never had the wind of the Supreme Kai Realm felt so heavy. It swept across the emerald grasslands stretching to the horizon, stirring fine blades of grass into an unbroken rustling that sounded like a sigh.

The divine tree in the distance swayed gently, casting long, trembling shadows beneath the eternal-twilight glow.

"So," Qi Heng broke the silence, speaking slowly, each word clear and steady, "this timeline is an abandoned universe with no God of Destruction and no Angels."

Old Kai stood opposite him, the muscles on his wrinkled face twitching faintly.

With great difficulty, he nodded, extremely slowly. The staff in his hand seemed to have grown heavier.

"A forgotten timeline." His voice was dry, like dead leaves scraping together.

Qi Heng stood in the wind, letting the cool breeze of the Sacred World of the Kais stir the black hair over his forehead.

His golden eyes calmly watched the distant horizon where the sea of clouds churned. There was not the slightest ripple on his face—no panic, no disappointment, not even a trace of surprise.