The Time Hourglass and the World-Destroying Fire in the Realm of Nothingness

At the entrance to the Realm of Nothingness, time was visibly distorted. Floating rocks flickered between the "past" and the "future." Some still bore the marks of explosions that had yet to happen, while others were covered in moss that had weathered away long ago. The instant Xiao Yan and the others stepped into the rift, their bodies felt as though they had been tossed into a tumble dryer, their consciousnesses hurtling through countless fragments of time. One second, Xiao Yan saw Zi Yan chasing butterflies as a child; the next, he glimpsed Wu Hao in old age, leaning on a cane.

"Keep your minds steady!" Lu Mu's voice came from ahead and to one side. He was shielding the half-conscious Lin Xiuya with the detector's energy field. "This is 'memory turbulence' caused by differences in the flow of time. Focus on the 'present'!"

Xiao Yan drew a deep breath. The seven-colored lotus mark between his brows lit up, and seven Heavenly Flames formed a fiery barrier around him. The Heavenly Flame Origin collided with the Realm of Nothingness's energy, burning a ring of stable "present" time outside the barrier. He reached out and grabbed Zi Yan, whom the turbulence was sweeping toward the "future." Her Dragon Phoenix Flame was being stretched by an invisible force, and the edges of its feathers had already turned grayish white, a sign of aging.

"Burn yourself with the Dragon Phoenix Flame!" Xiao Yan shouted. "Fight fire with fire and force out the time energy!"

Zi Yan did not understand, but she instinctively obeyed. Golden-red flames erupted, colliding with the time energy eroding her with a sizzling sound. The grayish white rapidly faded, and she seized the chance to break free of the turbulence and rush to Xiao Yan's side. "This place is ten times nastier than the Bone Fire Formation!"

Wu Hao charged back and forth through the turbulence with the Space-Splitting Axe over his shoulder. Its blade hacked open spatial rifts, temporarily freezing the time around him. "Lu Mu, got a reading yet? Just how fast does time flow in this godforsaken place?"

The numbers on Lu Mu's detector screen jumped wildly. "It's extremely unstable! A moment ago, one minute was equal to an hour outside, but now... ten minutes equals one second outside!" He suddenly pointed to the left. "There's a 'time anchor' over there! The rocks are fixed in time!"

The group fought their way toward the anchor, repeatedly encountering "time afterimages" along the way: patrol routes left twenty years ago by soldiers from the remnants of the colonizers, a preview of the World-Destroying Fire burning down a plane thirty years in the future, and even images of themselves dying in battle. Wu Hao swung his axe through a "future afterimage" that was thrusting a sword at Xiao Yan and spat. "Damn it, I'm not dying such a miserable death!"

After reaching the anchor, an ivy-covered boulder, Lu Mu quickly set up an energy array. "Use the Soul-Suppressing Stone Stele fragments as the array core, and we can stabilize our time coordinates!" Five fragments fitted into hollows in the boulder and gave off a pale golden light. Sure enough, the surrounding turbulence subsided.

Xiao Yan looked at the dark purple clouds churning in the distance. Black lightning struck from them now and then, and their energy readings far exceeded Peak Dou Zong. "The World-Destroying Fire is behind those clouds." He clenched his fist, seven Heavenly Flames flowing across his palm. "But before that, we have to adapt to the rules of time here."

Zi Yan suddenly pointed at a flower beside the boulder. "Look!" The flower went from bud to bloom to withered husk in just three seconds, repeating the process over and over. "That's a 'time loop,'" Lu Mu said, pushing up his glasses. "We have to find a way to break it before the loop spreads to the anchor, or we'll be trapped in those three seconds forever."

Before he had finished speaking, the boulder suddenly shook violently, and the light of the Soul-Suppressing Stone Stele fragments dimmed. The loop was devouring the anchor. Xiao Yan's Heavenly Flame Origin automatically protected its master, and seven-colored flames formed a buffer around the array, temporarily holding back the loop's advance.

"Ten minutes left, Realm of Nothingness time!" Lu Mu calculated rapidly. "I need someone to get the Fixed Moment from the Time Hourglass to the east. It's the only thing that can fix the loop in place!"

Battle triggered: Snakes of Time lurked around the Time Hourglass to the east. Their bodies were made up of countless points in time, and they could appear instantly at a target's past or future location. Wu Hao volunteered. "I'll go! Chopping snakes is easier than wrestling with time!" He charged east with the Space-Splitting Axe over his shoulder, looking back with a smile before he left. "Wait till I get back, and we'll have a victory drink!"

Xiao Yan watched his retreating figure disappear into the turbulence and gripped the Dragon Phoenix Flame spark Zi Yan handed him. "We'll hold the anchor and wait for him to come back."

Chapter 2: The Snakes of Time's Paradox Strangulation

When Wu Hao broke into the Snakes of Time's nest, he arrived in the middle of their "shedding period." Countless transparent snakeskins floated in the air, each concealing a "past Snake of Time." No sooner had he landed than three Snakes of Time attacked him together: one bit at his foot from the "past," before he had lifted it; one struck from the "future" at the arm he was about to swing his axe with; and one coiled around his neck in the "present."

"Playing with time differences? Breaking the rules is what I do best!" Wu Hao suddenly poured Dou Qi into the Space-Splitting Axe. Its blade carved out three spatial rifts, each corresponding to the moment of one snake's attack. The snake from the past was sucked into the "future," the snake from the future was hurled into the "past," and the snake in the present was cleaved in two.

But the snakes quickly reacted. Tens of thousands of Snakes of Time formed a Time Strangulation Array. Some turned into scenes of Wu Hao being bullied at ten years old to distract him; others simulated his future death in battle to shake his resolve. Most troublesome of all, several snakes burrowed into his memories, trying to alter his original desire to "protect his companions."

"Get lost!" Wu Hao roared. The Space-Splitting Axe unleashed a gale of Dou Qi that chopped the memory illusions apart. "My past and future are none of your damn business!" He recalled what Xiao Yan had said about "anchors": everyone's firmest conviction was an anchor against the alteration of time. His anchor was "not letting a single brother fall behind."

The gale swept through, opening a gap in the Snakes of Time's formation. Wu Hao seized the chance to charge toward the Time Hourglass at the center. It was a gigantic funnel made of Star Sand. The grains in the upper half were the "future," those in the lower half were the "past," and a golden Fixed Moment floated in the narrow passage between them.

The instant he reached out to touch the Fixed Moment, the hourglass suddenly turned upside down. Countless "future Wu Haos" poured out of the sand. Some had lost an arm, while others had numb looks in their eyes. All of them roared, "Don't touch the Fixed Moment! It's a trap!"

"There's no way I'll end up looking like that!" Wu Hao swung his axe at the illusions, only to find that the blade passed through their bodies. Then the real Snake of Time King emerged from the hourglass. Fragments of Wu Hao's memories from childhood onward covered its scales, and its voice was beguiling. "Look, no matter how you struggle, the future is already set..."

Crucial counterattack: Wu Hao suddenly remembered what Xiao Yan had said while fusing the Heavenly Flames: "The origin is not enslavement, but symbiosis." He put away his axe and let the Snake of Time King's "future illusions" envelop him. But the instant they touched him, he used Dou Qi to pour his conviction to "protect his companions" into the Snake King's consciousness. "My brothers and I will write my future together!"

His conviction became golden light and pierced the barrier of time. The Snake of Time King hissed in pain, the memory fragments on its scales began to flicker, and the "future illusions" gradually faded. Wu Hao seized the chance to snatch the Fixed Moment and hacked open a path with the Space-Splitting Axe. "Xiao Yan, I'm coming back!"

On the way back, he found that the Snakes of Time no longer attacked him. Instead, they seemed to be bowing in worship. Shaken by the fact that "firm conviction can break the fate imposed by time," they acknowledged his "sovereignty over time."

Chapter 3: The Battle for the Anchor and the World-Destroying Fire's Whisper

By the time Wu Hao brought back the Fixed Moment, the loop around the anchor had shrunk to a three-meter radius. Lu Mu immediately fitted the Fixed Moment into the array core. The Soul-Suppressing Stone Stele fragments lit up again, and the loop was fixed in the "present" time zone. The rocks stopped flickering, and the time turbulence subsided.

"This can temporarily stabilize time within a kilometer," Lu Mu said, wiping away his sweat, "but it'll last six hours at most, Realm of Nothingness time."

Xiao Yan looked toward the dark purple clouds. The energy readings there were growing stronger, and a gigantic pillar of black fire could faintly be seen. "The World-Destroying Fire is about to wake up." He pulled up the energy distribution map Lu Mu had drawn. "Its core is at the base of the fire pillar, but there are three layers of defenses around it: the colonizer remnants' Time Puppets on the outside, the Spatial Rift Array in the middle, and the inner layer..."

"The inner layer is a Consciousness Prison." Lin Xiuya suddenly spoke. He had just awakened from his coma, but his expression was unusually grave. "I saw it in the turbulence. It's made of consciousness fragments from countless planes. Once you're trapped inside, you'll forget who you are."

Zi Yan's dragon eyes flickered. She could see the outline of the Consciousness Prison. "It looks like a huge glass ball, with lots of little glowing dots floating inside. Those are the consciousness fragments."

As they spoke, the sound of machinery came from the distance. The colonizer remnants' Time Puppets had arrived to attack. They had been made by modifying soldiers whose memories had been altered. Their bodies were half machine and half flesh, their eyes flashed red, and they numbered over a thousand.

"Their time coordinates are fixed at 'ten minutes ago.'" Lu Mu's detector sounded an alarm. "Our attacks will take ten minutes to affect them!"

That meant an axe swing made now would take ten minutes to injure a puppet, while the puppets' current attacks would strike them instantly.

"I'll handle it!" Xiao Yan's Heavenly Flame Origin suddenly surged, and seven-colored flames became a huge bell-shaped barrier around the group. "Heavenly Flames can burn away the time difference!" He arranged the seven Heavenly Flames in the order of "past → present → future," forming a Time Incinerator. After a puppet's attack entered the incinerator, the Heavenly Flames would "burn away" its time difference, turning it into "instant damage." Their own attacks, meanwhile, would be "pre-burned" in advance, instantly striking the puppets from ten minutes ago.

Battle scene: Xiao Yan controlled the Green Lotus Core Flame, turning it into vines that wrapped around the puppets' mechanical legs-the fire of the past, locking onto their positions ten minutes in advance. The Fallen Heart Flame detonated at the puppets' joints-the fire of the present, taking effect instantly. The Sea Heart Flame froze the puppets' energy cores-the fire of the future, preventing a counterattack ten minutes later. Zi Yan's Dragon Phoenix Flame worked alongside his, its golden-red flames specifically burning the puppets' memory chips and leaving them without instructions. Wu Hao and Lin Xiuya dealt with any that slipped through at the edge of the incinerator: the Space-Splitting Axe split open mechanical shells, and the long sword picked out energy wires.

Lu Mu took the opportunity to crack the puppets' time coordinates. "There's a 'time anchor' in their core chips. Destroy that, and we can eliminate the time difference!"

The battle lasted an hour. Over a thousand puppets were destroyed, and their scattered chips burned in the Heavenly Flames, revealing the soldiers' consciousnesses imprisoned inside. Those consciousnesses became points of light and flew toward the sky, as though giving thanks.

But just then, the dark purple clouds suddenly pressed downward. Space began to shatter, and countless black rifts appeared around the anchor, with rocks and turbulent streams of energy pouring out of them.

"The Spatial Rift Array has activated!" Lu Mu shouted. "They're breaking apart the ground beneath our feet!"

Xiao Yan made an immediate decision. "Wu Hao, use the Fixed Moment to stabilize space. Lin Xiuya, protect Lu Mu while he rebuilds the energy array. Zi Yan, come with me to break the array core!"

He and Zi Yan charged toward the place where the rifts were densest. There, a black vortex was spinning-the array core. Countless black tentacles stretched out of the vortex, covered in the colonizers' symbols.

"These symbols are absorbing spatial energy!" Zi Yan grabbed a tentacle with her dragon claw, only to recoil from the heat. "It's so hot! There's World-Destroying Fire energy inside it!"

Xiao Yan's seven Heavenly Flames erupted at once, and seven-colored flames enveloped the vortex. "Heavenly Flame Origin, devour!" He intended to absorb the rift array core's energy back into himself. The vortex resisted fiercely, its tentacles lashing him and leaving wounds deep enough to expose bone, but the lotus mark between his brows remained bright throughout-a sign of his symbiosis with the Heavenly Flames.

"Now!" Zi Yan spotted a weak point in the vortex, condensed her Dragon Phoenix Flame into a spear, and drove it in. The vortex let out a mournful cry, and the spatial rifts began to close.

When the last rift vanished, Xiao Yan collapsed to the ground. The wounds on his body healed automatically under the scorching of the Heavenly Flames. Zi Yan handed him an energy crystal. "Rest a little. Next... we have to face the Consciousness Prison."

The distant pillar of black fire suddenly blazed brighter, and a deep voice echoed through the Realm of Nothingness. "Welcome to... the end of all things."

Chapter 4: The Consciousness Prison and the Battle of Memories

The Consciousness Prison was stranger than imagined. It was not a solid object, but a grayish-white space made of countless memory fragments. The instant Xiao Yan and the others entered, they were separated. Xiao Yan returned to his youth in Wutan City, standing outside Yao Lao's door and drawing circles with his foot. Zi Yan became a newly hatched little dragon, chasing fireflies through Dragon Valley. Wu Hao found himself on the battlefield where he had first fought alongside Xiao Yan, the blood from that day still staining the Space-Splitting Axe. Lu Mu sat in a university laboratory, pulling at his hair as he faced a complicated instrument. Lin Xiuya's sword lay before his father's memorial, and he was kneeling and wiping its blade.

"Are these... the memories we care about most?" Xiao Yan knocked on Yao Lao's door. Just as in his memory, there was no answer from within. But he soon noticed something amiss: a colonizer's symbol was carved into Yao Lao's door.

"Fake." Xiao Yan sneered and raised a hand, setting the door alight with a Heavenly Flame. Amid the flames, "Wutan City" began to melt, revealing the prison's underlying grayish white. His consciousness form was more solid than the others'-the Heavenly Flame Origin could resist the alteration of consciousness.

He needed to find the others and break each of their "memory cocoons."

Zi Yan's cocoon: The fireflies in Dragon Valley suddenly turned black and bit her little dragon body. At first she was terrified, huddling in a corner and trembling, but she soon remembered Xiao Yan's words: "A true dragon isn't afraid of the dark. It can shine in the dark." She tried using the Dragon Phoenix Flame to light her scales. The golden-red glow drove away the black insects, and the cocoon began to crack.

Wu Hao's cocoon: The "Xiao Yan" on the battlefield suddenly raised a blade and stabbed at him, shouting, "You're holding us back." Wu Hao froze at first, then flew into a rage. "Bullshit!" He swung his axe and split the fake Xiao Yan apart. "My brother would never say that!" His conviction made his consciousness form erupt with Dou Qi, and the cocoon cracked with the blow.

Lu Mu's cocoon: The laboratory instruments all suddenly displayed "error," and his teacher's voice sounded in his ear. "You're too stupid. You're not cut out for research." He almost fell back into self-doubt, but when he saw the sketch of the Soul-Suppressing Stone Stele stuck to an instrument-his graduation project from back then-he suddenly laughed. "I won first prize for that, you know. You can't fool me!" He tore the sketch off, and the cocoon tore apart with it.

Lin Xiuya's cocoon: A colonizer's mask suddenly appeared before his father's memorial, and his fake father's voice said, "You shouldn't have learned the sword. The family will be ruined in your hands." Lin Xiuya gripped his sword. "What my father said was, 'The sword is an instrument for protecting the Dao.' Don't think you can change that!" His long sword flashed from its sheath and split the mask apart, and the cocoon shattered into fragments.

When the five reunited at the center of the prison, they all bore "scars of memory," but their gazes were firmer than before. At the prison's core, an "incarnation of the World-Destroying Fire" made up of countless consciousness fragments slowly took shape. It looked human, but had no facial features, and black flames burned all over its body.

"You are stronger than the group from three hundred years ago," the incarnation said, its voice mixed with the wails of countless people. "But consciousness will eventually be worn away, just like theirs." It pointed at the lights floating around them. "These are all the consciousnesses of those who resisted. Now... it's your turn."

Countless points of light rushed toward them, each carrying a painful memory: some held the despair of homes destroyed, some the sorrow of parting from loved ones and friends, and some the numbness of ideals shattered.

"Don't let them consume you!" Xiao Yan shouted, turning the seven Heavenly Flames into a shield. "Use your anchors to guard your consciousness!"

He remembered Yao Lao in Wutan City, his brothers at Jia Nan Academy, and his pact with the Heavenly Flame Origin. Zi Yan remembered the sunlight in Dragon Valley, her first meeting with Xiao Yan, and the warmth of the Dragon Phoenix Flame. Wu Hao remembered the weight of the Space-Splitting Axe, the team's laughter, and his vow to "never fall behind"... These "anchor memories" became golden light, protecting their consciousness forms.

Final confrontation: Xiao Yan merged the seven Heavenly Flames into his consciousness form, turning them into a seven-colored long sword. "World-Destroying Fire, you've devoured countless consciousnesses, but you don't understand their true power. It isn't pain, but the bonds that help them keep one another alive!"

The long sword pierced the incarnation's chest, and countless points of light poured out of it. They were no longer wailing fragments, but carried warm memories: a mother's embrace, a friend's smile, cheers of victory... These "positive memories" began purifying the World-Destroying Fire instead.

The incarnation roared in pain, and the black flames gradually receded, revealing a beating red core within. It was the World-Destroying Fire's origin, and also the Fire of Life that had been forcibly twisted by the colonizers three hundred years ago.

"So... you're a victim too." Xiao Yan put away his long sword. He could feel the sadness coming from the core.

Chapter 5: The Truth of the Time Hourglass and the Resonance of Origins

The red core beat in Xiao Yan's palm, transmitting a fragmented consciousness. It had originally been the Flame of Creation, the origin of life in the Realm of Nothingness. Three hundred years ago, the colonizers had contaminated it with "painful memories," turning it into the World-Destroying Fire that destroyed everything. The colonizers' true goal was to collect the "pain energy" of every plane and pour it into the World-Destroying Fire, ultimately igniting the Great Plane Explosion and extracting pure Power of Chaos from it.

"The Time Hourglass is their 'energy converter.'" Lu Mu had suddenly deciphered the information transmitted by the core. "The Fixed Moment doesn't just fix time in place. It can also turn painful memories into fuel for the World-Destroying Fire!"

Wu Hao slammed a fist into the ground. "Those bastards! They even exploit pain!"

Zi Yan stroked the red core. "Then can we change it back? Back into the Flame of Creation?"