Who is that?
With such a commanding presence and aura, could it be a Bianshen expert who did not participate in the battle?
Meng Qi’s heart was filled with alarm, experiencing an eerie sense of déjà vu toward those eyes. Was it due to the eyes themselves or the surrounding atmosphere?
Who is this important figure, watching so coldly, giving off the vibe of a hidden hand behind the scenes!
Suddenly, as if sensing Meng Qi’s gaze, the indifferent eyes formed by irregular whirlpools underwent a subtle change, as if glancing over.
With just a glance, Meng Qi’s heart pounded violently. He felt as if each of his thoughts and ideas had suddenly gained consciousness, becoming independent. His mind seemed to instantly host thousands, tens of thousands, millions of different “Meng Qis,” all gathered together, each speaking at once, none willing to concede, creating utter chaos.
His head felt like it was about to explode, with Primordial Unity and Yuanxin unable to control the chaos. Meng Qi grasped the last spark of clarity, preparing to terminate the Qisha Tablet and return to the future, to escape this scene and those cold eyes.
Just a glance, without any intention of attack, and he was already completely overwhelmed. Fortunately, he had already witnessed the process of the myriad worlds collapsing, memorizing most of the causal connections of the Dinghai Beads, achieving his objective.
Just then, Meng Qi suddenly felt a lightness in his body and mind, as Primordial Unity embraced and Yuanxin subdued all his thoughts and ideas, dissolving them back into his heart-sea, restoring everything to normal.
“What happened?” The thought of terminating the Qisha Tablet temporarily paused as Meng Qi, astonished, sensed outwardly and found that the cold, terrifying eyes had vanished, as had the chaotic dark red high above.
As this thought arose, he suddenly felt the roar of the illusory River of Time, which had always flowed quietly, now seeming to transform into a raging sea.
Immediately afterward, rays of light rose from the horizon, from the depths of the void, from the farthest reaches of the starry sea, ascending toward infinite heights. Then the light scattered, re-forming into myriad worlds!
They were the Dinghai Beads!
This was the Twenty-Four Heavens!
What was going on? Had the previously shattered heavens been restored? As Meng Qi’s thoughts surged, he was both startled and gradually realized the truth: No, time was flowing backward!
Time was flowing backward, everything was reverting!
The Four Great Continents and all the oceans, the floodwaters condensing into droplets of dark red rain, the solitary islands returning to mountains, the cities regaining their former splendor, the drowned corpses rising one by one, full of vitality and clear-eyed.
The rain flew upward into the sky, piercing through the ethereal mist created by the goddess Nuwa, like waterfalls rolling up waves.
The blinding light regressed from a slowly fading state to its brightest, then abruptly stopped, revealing the myriad divine thunderbolts and world-consuming flames.
The thunderbolts and flames continuously striking downward also rolled back upward.
Watching this dreamlike scene, Meng Qi’s heart was already certain:
This was truly time flowing backward!
The battle between those supreme experts from the Nine Heavens had reversed the flow of time, impacting the entire Four Great Continents and oceans of the Journey to the West realm—perhaps even affecting the Real World itself!
Was this the work of the Jade Emperor, or a miracle jointly created by them?
At this moment, Meng Qi noticed himself slowly retreating toward the seabed of the East Sea. The duration of the Qisha Tablet was also gradually recovering, increasing from just over ten seconds back to twenty. However, his memory remained unaffected. A sudden realization flashed through his mind: the Qisha Tablet was a peerless treasure related to time. Though not at the Nirvana level, it could still enable one to return to the past. Faced with the reversal of time, it possessed some resistance. Moreover, he himself bore the characteristics of a Nirvana-level expert—having neither past nor future. Combined, these two factors created a “time lag” with the surrounding reversal, allowing his memory to remain intact.
As he neared the sea surface, the illusory River of Time, which had been roaring faintly around him, ceased its roar and returned to calm. The thunderbolts and flames resumed their downward strike, weakened by the ethereal mist, with the remainder striking places like the City God Temple, the Earth God Temple, and the Dragon Palace.
An indescribably familiar shattering sound rang out again, but this time Meng Qi did not see the purest, brightest light rendering everything colorless. The sky suddenly darkened, as if one were drifting in a starless universe.
A new difference had appeared!
Suddenly, points of light emerged in the dark sky above, forming a dense expanse of stars unlike the sparse constellations seen on ordinary nights. They covered the endless, profound heavens, so densely packed in places that they formed streams of dreamlike, illusory star rivers, gently flowing as if stirred by a great wind.
This was the most awe-inspiring natural miracle, the most worship-inspiring starry sky.
Suddenly, countless stars, trailing flames, tore across the sky, falling together, leaving behind trails of dreamlike, illusory purity, impossible to describe adequately.
February the Second, at noon, stars rained like showers!
“Stars raining like showers?” The phrase suddenly flashed through Meng Qi’s mind, his heart leapt, and he spread his senses, trying to find any trace of Gu Xiaosang.
Was this the omen spoken of by the Sage of Numbers?
However, he found nothing, only seeing the dazzling star shower.
Each “star” corresponded to a stellar official, each “raindrop” heralding the fall of a powerful being.
The rain poured down!
At this moment, a dull, muffled sound, as if the very foundation had been shaken, descended from some unknown height. The night sky, now sparser with stars, collapsed downward, drawing ever closer.
Suppressing his disappointment, Meng Qi reignited the Dao Yi Glazed Lamp and activated the Cause of All Effects, gazing into the illusory realm.
Boom!
The sound came first, followed by the light. Twenty-four dazzling rays of light rose one after another, scattering across the Four Great Continents and into the depths of the void—where they seemed to belong to the world of Fengshen, the Real World, or even different universes.
“Indeed, the causal characteristics are different from before.” Meng Qi was quite relieved as he memorized again. If he had left earlier, it would have been all for naught.
How could he have anticipated such a situation?
Rattling sounds accompanied the scattering of the Dinghai Beads, and the unexpected arrival of the dark red blood rain, droplet by droplet, pierced through the ethereal mist, bringing the apocalyptic floodwaters across all the worlds.
As the floodwaters appeared, the scattering accelerated. Meng Qi couldn’t memorize everything in time and could only choose the easiest to overlook.
Time passed moment by moment. The effect of the Qisha Tablet was about to end, and the Dinghai Beads had long since vanished without a trace.
Just as Meng Qi was about to return, he suddenly heard a hoary, ancient sigh descending from infinite heights, directly entering the hearts of everyone.
What was this? Looking up, Meng Qi saw a burning fireball falling, no, it was not a fireball, but a majestic palace wrapped in layers of deep flames.
It felt so familiar, as if he had seen it before.
Yes, he had indeed seen it—the ruins of the Heavenly Court in the Jade Mountain!
So, this was the falling Heavenly Court?
Within the roaring flames, inside the majestic palace, a vague and distorted imperial figure stood tall, seemingly filling past, present, and future, never lowering his head.
He made no move, standing there as if unchanged for millions of years, the flames unable to touch him, as if they had become his cloak!
The fireball plummeted rapidly into the depths of the void, yet the imperial figure still did not move the slightest, like, like a corpse.
At this moment, Meng Qi’s vision darkened, and he could no longer see anything or sense the slightest external presence. It felt as if something from an unknown height had collapsed, covering everything.
A thought naturally arose in his mind:
“This is the sky collapsing!”
A literal, genuine collapse of the heavens!
The Qisha Tablet’s light shone, its time limit reached, carrying Meng Qi away from this ancient battlefield back to the future.
…
Was the imperial figure in that palace the Jade Emperor’s remains?
A single lingering will, refined together with the core of the Heavenly Court and the Seal of Heaven, into the Blade of Time?
Whose were those cold, terrifying eyes watching from the sidelines?
And who had emitted that ancient, hoary sigh?
These questions surged through Meng Qi’s mind as he returned to the future. Particularly that sigh, which resonated with his Yuanxin. Could it be the Primordial Venerable, the one spoken of in legends but never seen?
The most formidable and ancient expert of the Other Shore!
Light and shadow emerged, and Meng Qi appeared in the Dragon Palace of the East Sea. By this time, history had subtly changed. Previously, when the Dragon King of the East Sea had greeted him barefoot, he had already recognized Meng Qi as the mysterious and sudden Taoist of old, making him even more cautious. Later events became increasingly easy.
The Dragon King and his sons and grandsons could only see a flash of light around Meng Qi, nothing unusual, completely unaware that “history had changed slightly.”
Meng Qi stood up, clasped his hands in a Taoist salute, and laughed loudly, “Dragon King, you’re still as vigorous as ever. This humble Taoist takes his leave.”
After saying these familiar words, he turned and walked out of the Dragon Palace of the East Sea.
The old dragon king secretly sighed in relief and loudly said, “Honoring the Immortal’s departure.”
Then he truly accompanied him all the way to the gate.
The sooner such a figure departed, the better, to avoid more troubles!
After Meng Qi’s back disappeared from sight, he exhaled, stroked his dragon whiskers, and resumed his majesty as the ruler of the East Sea.
“Father King, do you recognize this Taoist Su Meng?” One of the dragon sons recalled the scene and curiously asked.
The old dragon king nodded, “When the Heavenly Court fell, he mysteriously appeared in the Dragon Palace, and he also told me that I was still vigorous in my old age.”
As he spoke, he softly exclaimed, “At the time of the Heavenly Court’s fall, he was clearly in the Dragon Palace. Why did he still ask me about the year, the month, the time, and the date…”
Wasn’t this self-contradictory?
Just now, he had been focused on pleasing Meng Qi and hadn’t felt anything strange. Now, in calmness, he sensed the oddness.
The old dragon king had lived a long life and seen much. Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind, and he realized that if this were the explanation, the events would make sense:
The other party had obtained the exact time of the Heavenly Court’s fall from him, then reverted time, arrived in the past, appeared in the East Sea Dragon Palace, giving him the impression of having met Meng Qi before, slightly altering history.
And those who could return to the past were… The old dragon king’s body shivered, his voice abruptly stopping. The dragon sons and grandsons around him exchanged puzzled glances.
“Father King, what’s wrong?”
Concerned voices came one after another. The old dragon king suddenly sprang up, sweating profusely, his terror and panic even greater than before. He shouted loudly, “Quickly, quickly set up the incense altar!”
A group of dragon sons and grandsons were at a loss but had to comply. When the incense altar was set up, the old dragon king immediately prostrated himself, pulling all his sons, grandsons, and the palace’s aquatic creatures to respectfully perform the nine kowtows facing the direction where Meng Qi’s back had disappeared. He loudly proclaimed, “Your humble subject honors the departure of the Heavenly Venerable!”
At Kunlun Mountain’s Jade Void Palace, the ability to revert time—unless it was the Primordial Dao Ancestor, it must be a Heavenly Venerable!
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