The River of Time and Space?

The Jiang Family held the rights to use this entire plot of land occupied by the Soul Tool Workshop. When they renovated it, how could they possibly have neglected to dig underground and expand the usable space?

The room Jiang Ming found for Jiang Dongjun's seclusion was a basement beneath the workshop in the rear courtyard.

Apart from concealed ventilation openings, all six surfaces of the room were cast from metal. Entry and exit both required passing through the workshop. Anyone trying to break into the basement from outside would first have to get past the workshop's tight security and defenses.

The room was simply furnished: a single bed with a nightstand on either side. One was stuffed with long-lasting food and clean water, while the other held only a call-bell soul tool, an incense burner, and a box of incense sticks-Soul-Nourishing Incense.

Jiang Dongjun lay down on the bed and set his schoolbag-sized leather backpack beside him. Before making the crossing, he checked its supplies one more time.

Watching his son, Jiang Ming asked curiously, "Why aren't you taking a Storage Ring?"

"Conditions in time and space won't allow it. I can only carry things on me, and my yin spirit can't carry more than my own body weight."

Jiang Dongjun hid nothing and told him the truth.

Jiang Ming's brow, which had never relaxed, furrowed again. His lips moved, but in the end, he said nothing.

For this trip, besides the four soul tools-the top hat, golden sword, jade token, and revolver-he had brought ten cubes of gold, silver, and rare metal, each five centimeters to a side. Last came the skull of an eight-hundred-year-old Azure-Scaled Python.

"I'm still too much of a stickler for the rules. Otherwise, if I wanted something from people in another world, I could just rob them. Why bother bringing all these bargaining chips?"

After confirming that nothing was missing, Jiang Dongjun lay back on the bed, one arm wrapped around the bulging leather bag.

"Dad, I'm heading out."

"Be careful in everything you do."

After that reminder, Jiang Ming stayed rather than leaving, watching his son on the bed. He wanted to see which direction his yin spirit flew off in, so he would at least have a direction to follow if he needed to search for him later.

A hazy, clear light radiated from Jiang Dongjun's body, rippling like water. At some point, it gave an almost imperceptible flash, and everything returned to normal.

The chest of the person on the bed rose and fell steadily, but the bulging leather bag beside him had vanished.

"Dongjun? Dongjun?"

After calling softly twice and getting no response, Jiang Ming knew his son's yin spirit had already left. Alongside his worry, a flutter of excitement stirred within him.

"I didn't see his yin spirit leave. It seemed like a direct spatial shift? With such an extraordinary encounter, could my son truly have a chance to become a god?"

When he activated the "Light of Time and Space" in his Sea of Consciousness, Jiang Dongjun's only awareness was of it suddenly expanding until it enveloped his yin spirit and the leather bag beside him. Then-

Whoosh!

Like a wild goose vanishing into the distant, unseen heavens.

A passage of bizarre, dazzling lights surrounded him. After just two glances, Jiang Dongjun felt his sense of time and space fall into disarray. His head seemed stuffed with scrap, leaving him almost unable to think. He hurriedly closed his eyes to rest his mind, not daring to look around.

He had no idea how much time passed.

Splash... splash, splash...

Where... had I ended up? Why did it sound like flowing river water?

Jiang Dongjun found himself apparently standing amid the stars of the cosmos in his yin spirit form, his bulging leather backpack on his back. A hazy, clear light radiated around him-the protection of the "Light of Time and Space."

This crossing came with a "cutscene."

Last time... he couldn't remember last time.

Scanning his surroundings, Jiang Dongjun discovered an illusory river stretching endlessly beneath him.

Its source was clearly visible to his eyes;

its destination, beyond where he stood, was concealed by a fog of chaos.

"The River of Time? Fucking 'Light of Time and Space,' where the hell have you brought me?"

Jiang Dongjun gazed toward the river's source.

He saw the beginning of creation;

he saw the Five Genesis Sons just beginning their rise;

he saw the Dragon God, who had gained mastery over the power of creation and destruction through a fortuitous encounter, campaigning east and west across the star domain, slaughtering phoenixes, exterminating the Behemoth race, subduing the Elves... granting fiefs to the Lords and ascending to the summit of the universe!

How glorious the Dragon God had been!

Yet he watched him raise his grand tower, watched him feast his guests, and watched his tower collapse.

His plan for a God Star crumbled in a single day.

...Continuing along the River of Time-

Jiang Dongjun saw the Five Genesis Sons gather the remnants of the Divine Realm, finally ushering in their own era and ascending to their promised seats;

he saw the Angel God and the Sea God rise together on Douluo Star, where fortune flourished most abundantly-two brilliant rivals of the same age;

he saw the four-god battle between Bibi Dong, Qian Renxue, Tang San, and Xiao Wu. The longest river on the Douluo Plane officially took the stage of history, and eternal night began from that moment onward. However peerless your splendor, you could never overcome the Tang blood flowing through my veins...

The River of Time continued downstream until it reached the Douluo II node where he stood. Farther downstream lay chaos, signifying an uncertain future.

"And then? Weren't you supposed to take me traveling? Why have you dragged me into studying the ancient history of the Douluo World?"

Suddenly, a guess sprang into Jiang Dongjun's quick-witted mind.

"Wait... you're not taking me traveling to another world, but merely on a trip along the Douluo timeline, are you?"

As though it had heard Jiang Dongjun's muttering, the "Light of Time and Space" stirred.

Whoosh-

It swept him upstream along the River of Time. Were they heading to Douluo I?

No! Much farther back!

It went straight to the source-the source of the River of Time, when the Creator God first created this world!

There, the hazy, clear light spread outward, illuminating a tributary hidden in the void and bringing it into view. No, "tributary" was no longer enough to describe it, because it was just as vast, only more illusory.

Directly beneath the more solid River of Time from before, it flowed parallel to it, one above the other. The same developments following creation played out within that illusory river.

The Five Genesis Sons, the Dragon God, the First-Generation Angel/the Sea God, Tang San/Xiao Wu...

Then, when they reached the node aligned with where he had appeared earlier-the point in time corresponding to Douluo II-he saw Huo Yuhao-

He himself did not exist within that River of Time. Its course of development was no longer clear, either, but blurred and indistinct. Only Huo Yuhao ultimately became the protagonist of that era and ascended to godhood, while the River of Time continued surging downstream.

The theories of time and space Jiang Dongjun had studied in his previous life gave him an idea.

"So we're not crossing the timeline, but going straight to a new parallel world?"

There had been theories of multidimensional space in his previous life, claiming that whenever you faced a decision, making different choices would correspondingly give rise to multiple parallel worlds heading in different directions.

"Huh, did this parallel world already exist, and the 'Light of Time and Space' merely illuminated it? Or is it so ridiculously badass that it created a new parallel world itself at the very source of creation?"

Jiang Dongjun was puzzled.

Suddenly.

The "Light of Time and Space" stirred again, once more sweeping him along the newly revealed, illusory River of Time... no, he might as well call it the River of Time and Space. It followed the current, hurtling downstream.

It stopped at neither the Douluo I node nor the Douluo II node, continuing its headlong rush.

Only when it reached ten thousand years after the Douluo II node did it finally stop.

At that point, Jiang Dongjun, who had been watching the passing scenery with unwavering attention, breathed a sigh of relief.

Douluo Dalu III: The Legend of the Dragon King, then?

The Douluo III World was great!

Social order was stable, the people were simple and honest, science and technology were advanced, the Spirit Pagoda was powerful, Shrek Academy was going to get blown up, otherworldly planes were plentiful, Tang Haozi didn't dare show his face, and the Blue Silver Emperor was waiting to devour an heirless estate and seize the position of Life Core...

Busy. Everyone was busy...

Busy was good!

Suddenly, the "Light of Time and Space" swept him up and plunged headfirst into the illusory River of Time and Space below.

Entering the world.

The journey had officially begun!