"Ming!"
A voice came from deep beneath the earth.
"What is it?"
Another voice suddenly appeared, yet no image could be seen.
"Someone has integrated with the Dao of all beings. Did you know?" Tomb asked.
"Hm?" Ming's tone carried shock. "Who?"
"His name is 'Xuan'!"
Ming fell silent, sinking into his memories.
Who was this Xuan?
How had he never heard of him?
How could someone have quietly "integrated with the Dao" of all beings?
He governed Reincarnation. How could he have failed to notice anything at all?
"Are you certain?" Ming asked.
"Certain!" Tomb said gravely. "Not long ago, I noticed that a living being was rather unusual, so I went to investigate. Then, starting from a hundred thousand years ago, he began greeting me, and it continued for a full hundred thousand years. Yet all the Karmic Cause and Effect appeared at the same moment..."
"Could it be that it wasn't 'all beings,' but time?" Ming asked in astonishment.
"Oh... I saw with my own eyes as he divided into countless beings. Every living being had a completely different Great Dao, a completely different life, a completely different 'self.'"
"This..."
Even Ming could not refute that.
This bizarre phenomenon spanned countless living beings horizontally and countless periods of time vertically. It truly could not be defined by time alone.
"Do Shadow and Qing know about this?"
"I came to you first. I thought you knew, but I didn't expect even you to be unaware."
Ming governed Reincarnation, so he ought to have understood living beings better than anyone.
That was why Tomb had sought out Ming first.
"Ask Shadow. He might know."
Who knew what Shadow had seen in the "darkness"?
The exchange deep beneath the earth came to an end.
A moment later, another exchange began