Lost in Time and Space

Twenty years of grueling training, sparring with Champa in the God of Destruction Realm day after day, fighting Beerus until even the galaxy trembled—those experiences had long since forged Qi Heng's will into something unbreakable.

He was a warrior, one whose heartbeat and breathing would never falter even when backed into a corner.

"I'm going back."

His voice was calm, deep as a still pond. "Back to my original time and space."

Old Kai raised his clouded eyes to stare at him. His lips moved, but all the complicated emotions in his gaze remained hidden.

He had wanted to persuade him otherwise, but swallowed the words when they reached his lips. He merely said heavily, "To precisely locate your own point of origin among countless intersecting, parallel streams of time and space... the hope is very slim. Nearly impossible."

"I know."

Qi Heng turned around to face Old Kai.

The instant he turned, something like a silver starlight flashed deep within his golden eyes—sharp and resolute, as though it could cleave through darkness.

"But I'll find a way."

His gaze passed over Old Kai's shoulder and into the depths of the universe, piercing through layers of nebulae before settling upon a certain azure planet.

Earth rotated quietly, carrying a unique, familiar aura of life amid the vast sea of stars.

"Before that," Qi Heng murmured, his voice low but decisive, "I'll look for Beerus and the others in this time and space first."

The hope might have been slim, but he would never give up even the slightest possibility.

With that, he no longer hesitated.

He raised his right arm, pressed his index and middle fingers together, and steadily placed them against his forehead.

He had performed this movement countless times. It had long since become instinct.

"Farewell."

There was no eruption of power. Only a bright yet gentle light enveloped him.

The light flashed, bursting like a bubble, and his figure vanished from the grasslands of the Supreme Kai Realm. Only a faint ripple of energy remained in the air, soon scattered by the wind.

Old Kai remained where he was, utterly motionless like an ancient stone statue.

He stared at the spot where Qi Heng had vanished, watching the air distort slightly before returning to normal, and said nothing for a long time.

The wind stirred his beard and robes, rustling softly.

After quite a while, the young Supreme Kai, Shin, finally recovered from his shock. He cautiously approached, his voice filled with awe and confusion. "Lord Old Kai... who exactly was that mysterious expert? Where did he come from?"

Old Kai slowly shook his head, his gaze still fixed ahead.

"I don't know where he came from." His voice was low, and beneath his weariness lay a trace of reverence that came from the depths of his soul. "But whoever he is... the level of power within him has long exceeded anything we can comprehend or imagine. It isn't divine power, nor is it the power of destruction. It is something else."

The wind continued to blow across the empty divine realm, making the grasslands rise and fall like waves.

The Supreme Kai Realm gradually returned to the peace and desolation it had known for countless ages, as though neither the conversation nor the visitor had ever existed.

At that moment, Qi Heng had already crossed the sea of stars and appeared beneath an unfamiliar sky.

Supreme Kai Realm.

A breeze swept through, sending ripples through the emerald grasslands like an azure sea.

Qi Heng appeared soundlessly amid that tranquility. The grass beneath his feet sank slightly, then slowly sprang back up.

He stood still, his golden pupils reflecting a cold gleam beneath the sunlight as he surveyed this world that was both familiar and strange.

It had been exactly seven days since he first arrived in this displaced time and space.

Over those seven days, he had traveled through the desolate corners of the universe—the ruins of purple nebulae at the edge of the North Galaxy, the silent dead planets deep within the South Galaxy that had long ceased to turn. He had stood upon the small platform of King Kai's Planet and looked out over the empty Snake Way. He had also visited Grand Kai's Planet, where the martial arts tournament that should have been bustling with activity had left behind only peeling stands and an arena covered in dust.

He had found nothing.

Just as Old Kai had said, this universe was a completely hollow shell.

There were no yawns from Beerus after destroying planets, no ripples spreading through the void at the tap of Whis's staff, no trace whatsoever of the God of Destruction system.

Even the faint resonances and barely perceptible connecting passages between universes had vanished completely.

The boundaries of the twelve universes had entirely melted away here, leaving only a lonely time and space drifting in the void, like a prison without doors or windows.

Qi Heng stood in the middle of the grasslands and slowly closed his eyes.

The wind stirred the loose strands of hair before his forehead. He could hear the grass brushing together and smell the mingled fragrance of soil and divine flowers, but within his senses, the aura of the higher gods that should have filled the universe was nothing but dead silence.

He opened his eyes again. His golden pupils turned toward the eternally blue sky beyond the divine temple, his expression as calm as a frozen lake. Only the tight line of his lips revealed the restless irritation churning within.

Seven days.

One hundred and sixty-eight hours.

He had wandered the hollow universe like a ghost, gaining nothing except repeated confirmation of that suffocating "emptiness."

"You've returned."

An aged, hoarse voice came from the direction of the divine temple.

Leaning on a crooked wooden staff, Old Kai trembled as he emerged from the shadows beneath the temple's colonnade.

His body was more stooped than it had been a week ago, as if an invisible burden weighed on his shoulders. Every step made his skinny legs tremble slightly, the soles of his cloth shoes scraping across the temple floor with a harsh, dragging sound.

Supreme Kai Shin followed closely behind. His young face was filled with worry, confusion, and a hint of reverence. His gaze fell on Qi Heng, then quickly shifted away toward the distance.

Qi Heng turned around sharply, his robes stirring a gust of air.

"I want to know more."

His voice was not loud, yet it was like tempered metal—every word clear and cold, striking directly into the air before the temple. "About this timeline, about the truth behind the disappearance of all the gods, about where all of this began and where it ends."

Old Kai did not answer immediately.

He slowly made his way to the white stone steps before the temple, set down his wooden staff, and braced his knees with his withered hands. He lowered himself bit by bit, as though even that motion drained every last bit of his strength.

He raised his wrinkled face, those clouded eyes that had once seen through all things gazing up at the boundless sky.

His gaze was distant, as if it had pierced through the barriers of time and space, traveling against the river of time to five million years ago—the day everything had begun to fall apart.

After a long while, a long, heavy sigh squeezed out of his chest.

"What do you want to know?"

His voice sounded like an old, broken bellows.

Qi Heng stepped forward two paces and stopped before Old Kai, looking down at him as his shadow covered the old man's hunched figure.