The River of the Future

The Heavenly Stele loomed like a mountain, piercing the sky. Blood-red peaks were wreathed in mist, and corpses ceaselessly tumbled down. This was a true forbidden zone; none could approach. Xiao Chen and his party advanced with difficulty, at last skirting the restricted area and arriving at the deepest reaches of the Death World.

Thunder rolled and lightning danced behind them, but after rounding the stele and entering this mysterious domain, the world seemed to lose its voice. All that had come before vanished. This was a desolate, vast Gobi, stretching as far as the eye could see, utterly still. The contrast with the earlier chaos was overwhelming.

Black vortices appeared and vanished, bobbing on the surface of the Gobi. In those swirling eddies, one could dimly glimpse the phantoms of worlds that had already been destroyed. The onlookers drew sharp breaths. Were these illusions, or echoes of events that had truly occurred?

"Don't touch those vortices!" Xiao Chen sensed a terrible danger. Those black whirlpools seemed capable of devouring entire worlds. He proceeded cautiously, avoiding each vortex, while Keke opened Paradise Lost to shelter the others.

"What is that?" Ahead, deep within the Gobi, lay a cluster of illusory worlds, each independent yet manifesting in succession. "A grain of sand, a world; a blade of grass, a paradise. Could these be miniature replicas of real worlds?" Those phantom worlds shone like lamps, swaying with gentle light. At first they seemed just patches of radiance, yet they clearly reflected every scene of a world.

"What is all this?" King Samsara in Paradise Lost felt utterly perplexed.

"Those are projections of great worlds." An aged voice suddenly spoke, startling everyone. In this dead, silent realm, a voice seemed sinister. The group swept their gazes in all directions but found nothing.

"You mean they are projections of real worlds?" Xiao Chen asked, seeking to converse with the voice.

The ancient voice did not evade, replying, "Not entirely correct. They are projections of worlds on the verge of destruction. You can think of them as the last radiance of a dying world."

"Then the black vortices we saw earlier—are they the projections of worlds that have already perished?" Keke's soft, tender voice arose.

"Very clever, little one. You caught on at once." The aged voice affirmed Keke's conjecture.

The party gasped. Those black vortices held phantoms of worlds that had truly existed. Did that mean countless worlds had been annihilated?

"There are no undying people, no immortal worlds. Heaven and earth, every blade of grass, every tree—all have an endpoint. There is no exception, no escape." The ancient voice spoke of all this with plain detachment.

"Who are you?" the Little Defiant Dragon asked.

"I too am a life among heaven and earth, a blade of grass, a tree. My end is approaching."

"May we meet you, senior?" King Qin Guang asked respectfully.

"There is no harm in it. I imagine you will soon see me." Then the voice fell silent, speaking no more.

The Death World had once been the center of all heavens and myriad worlds. It was not surprising that projections of dead worlds should appear in its deepest reaches. Xiao Chen and the others pressed forward with caution.

At last, a patch of green appeared on the horizon of the desolate Gobi. It was a ruined divine garden, filled with many divine trees, many of whose branches hung heavy with fruit. Clearly visible within the ruined garden were huge, ancient trees that had died countless ages ago but still stood, their gnarled branches like coiled dragons.

"This was a divine garden of yesteryear. Many exotic divine trees withered and flourished, old trees died and seeds sprouted—who knows how many generations passed. But here, oppressed by the projections of myriad worlds, no tree spirits could ever transform into human form. A pity." The aged voice spoke again, as if explaining to the group.

Keke was overjoyed. She called on everyone to help transplant various primeval exotic divine trees into Paradise Lost.

"Is your Paradise Lost not already filled with countless rare flowers and trees? Do you still need these?" Xiao Chen asked.

"Not enough, not enough. I want more." The little one wished to transplant every divine root under heaven into her garden. "So delicious..." Keke munched on a pile of ginseng fruits, eating with delight.

Leaving the ruined divine garden behind, Xiao Chen and the others continued forward. The land grew desolate once more. "I fear we have already arrived at the extreme depths of the Death World," Xiao Chen said, his powerful divine sense detecting an unusual aura.

"Is the deepest part of the Death World just a barren Gobi? Nothing else?" Sha Polang asked, puzzled.

"You are wrong. What lies ahead will likely shock us." Xiao Chen said this and walked forward.

At the limit of the great Gobi, enormous passages stretched across the vault of heaven, connecting to unknown destinations! They looked like wormholes, chaotically arrayed in the sky. Each passage exuded an aura of primeval antiquity, making one feel as if they were dreaming.

Xiao Chen extended his divine sense, trying to probe one of the immense wormhole passages, but it was boundless; he could not reach the end.

"What is this?" Everyone was shocked, wondering where these passages suffused with ancient aura led.

"Could they be passages connecting to all heavens and myriad worlds?" Xiao Chen could not help but speculate.

"Ya ya!" Keke nodded earnestly from within Paradise Lost.

The Little Defiant Dragon and Sha Polang also harbored similar suspicions.

"Not bad. You have guessed correctly." The aged voice sounded again. Everyone was stunned. Deep within the Death World, such passages connected to all heavens and myriad worlds—it was incredible.

No wonder there was a legend that one who ventured into the deepest part of the Death World would find a path to heaven and could enter the Celestial Realm.

The group had many questions and wished to meet the old man to ask him. "Senior, please come out and see us." Even Sha Polang put on a serious face and bowed to the void.

"Of course I can meet you. But might I first ask you to kindly lift your foot..."

Hearing this, Sha Polang sprang up as if stung by a scorpion, leaping and bounding away, because in that instant he truly sensed where the voice was coming from—beneath his own feet!

Sand shifted, and a skull rolled out, white as carved ivory. It was the very spot where Sha Polang had been standing. Everyone looked at each other in astonishment.

"Surprised?" The aged voice spoke from the white skull. "I told you, my life has already reached its end. How could I still have a physical form? Being left with just this skull is already fortunate."

The skull slowly rose, suspended in midair, with faint, dim light flickering in its eye sockets.

"This... I did not mean to offend..." Sha Polang felt uneasy. He had experienced many things and feared these ancient relics that refused to die—even a mere skull would surely possess extraordinary divine power.

"No matter. I am not a petty person. Of course, if I were petty, others would say I am not human." Everyone found this skull a bit different.

"Please, senior, show us the way..."

"I know you have many things you wish to ask. But unfortunately, I have limited ability." The white skull flashed with faint divine light. "Strictly speaking, I am no longer my original self. I am only a remnant of scattered thoughts, with limited knowledge. Yet I seem to sense familiar presences from you. You must have met another, or perhaps two others, of me."

Xiao Chen and the others were puzzled. "Before my destruction, my soul shattered into pieces. I should have sent one or two powerful souls out to escape. That has now been confirmed. You must have seen some of them."

Everyone was stunned. This ancient relic before them was likely a supreme expert who had participated in the war of all heavens and myriad worlds billions of years ago. The souls that escaped from him must be extraordinary! If they had seen them, who could they be?

"Escaping the endpoint, beginning a new starting point... That is not bad, even if this 'original self' has no hope." The white skull spoke with a trace of consolation, without any regret.

But the group could not guess who his new self was. Xiao Chen earnestly consulted him, but unfortunately he truly knew very little—merely a wisp of residual memory. "Since senior's 'true self' has already fled, we shall no longer ask about events from billions of years ago." With that, Xiao Chen brought up other important matters.

"You speak of a woman named Nuwa? Matters of primordial antiquity, I naturally remember." The skull answered. Xiao Chen was overjoyed. He knew that Nuwa and other ancestral gods had long entered the depths of the Death World but had lost contact. They had come today specifically to inquire.

"Please tell us, senior." "Come with me." The white skull flew ahead. They passed dozens of enormous passages that spanned the sky, stopping before a wormhole that exuded boundless life energy. "This was originally a withered, dead world. She said she wished to understand the ultimate secret of the power of life, and chose to open a new world in this dying realm, turning it from its endpoint back to its origin. It seems she truly succeeded." The skull explained.

"The vast life energy emanates from her. Truly astonishing. Such vigorous life force is rarely seen throughout the ages." "Is Ancestral God Nuwa within this great world?!" Everyone grew very excited and wished to enter. "I advise you not to disturb her peaceful cultivation. Unless she encounters danger, she will not wake." Xiao Chen and the others were somewhat relieved. The legendary Ancestral God Nuwa had not vanished; she would return one day.

"Senior, do you know a person called the Martial Ancestor..." "Never heard of him." Hearing this answer, Xiao Chen frowned. The magnificent Martial Ancestor had said he was going deep into the Death World to accomplish a great task. Had he failed? Since primordial times, very few had successfully come this far. If you do not know the person, describe him to me, and I may see if he is among those who have passed.

Xiao Chen described each distinctive trait of the Martial Ancestor. "Oh, you mean him. That is a deeply unsettling powerhouse..." For this ancient relic to evaluate the Martial Ancestor in such terms showed how deep an impression he had left.

"You know him?" "Of course I know that madman... He is terrifying." Xiao Chen and the others exchanged glances, not understanding why this relic spoke so.

"A stone man's tears fall only when his heart is truly wounded..." The white skull continued, "Over a hundred thousand years ago, that madman came and went, uprooting eleven primordial demonic cities one after another. He chilled the hearts of all stone men under heaven. In truth, he was a professional demolition contractor."

Everyone was dumbfounded. The Martial Ancestor was indeed powerfully heaven-defying, but they did not dare comment too much, as they seemed to be doing the same thing. "Ahem." Xiao Chen coughed to hide his embarrassment. "I think the Martial Ancestor was not a wanton killer." "He himself said that the masters of those demonic cities had already passed away. Still, it makes my old scalp crawl. Truly the foremost demolition emperor of the ages." "What did the Martial Ancestor intend to do by uprooting so many demonic cities?" The white skull discussed the Martial Ancestor with a distinct impression of him. "That madman is truly unsettling to me. His thoughts, his aims, his actions—ordinary men cannot grasp them. He is an extremely dangerous figure." Keke was also intrigued, tilting her head and asking in her soft voice, "What did he do, exactly?"

"The first thing he did after uprooting eleven dead cities was... try to ignite a world!" The group was stunned, but soon they guessed something. "That madman wanted to use eleven dead cities as a catalyst to sacrifice an entire great world. It nearly scared my old heart, liver, spleen, and lungs right out of my body." Everyone silently retorted: You are just a skull; where could you have a heart and lungs?

"You must understand that the vast majority of all heavens and myriad worlds are connected to this place through wormholes. If he sacrificed one world, he could ignite all the others in the process. What a madman! Heaven-shaking methods that terrify." Everyone knew that the Martial Ancestor must have wanted to sacrifice the Otherworld. This was truly audacious. "Did the Martial Ancestor actually do it?" "Fortunately, I stopped him." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, afraid to hear that the Martial Ancestor had failed, since the Otherworld still existed. "Yet I deeply regret having advised him." The white skull sighed. "That madman is extremely dangerous. After listening to my analysis, he felt that using eleven demonic cities as a catalyst was not enough divine power. So he planned to connect several wormholes to sacrifice multiple decaying worlds to destroy what he called the 'Otherworld.' I should never have analyzed it for him! This heaven-defying being is terrifying to contemplate. He dares to think what no one has thought, dares to do what no one has done."

"Did the Martial Ancestor... actually... do it?" The group felt their hearts surging with emotion. "No. In the end, he weighed the pros and cons. After careful analysis, he thought he might succeed in sacrificing the Otherworld, but he could not harm a few beings called 'Ancestors.' Fearing it would alert the enemy, he shelved the plan temporarily." "Then where did the Martial Ancestor go afterward? What did he do?" "After that dangerous madman sacrificed the eleven demonic cities, he began sacrificing decaying worlds to refine himself. He was treating his own body as a divine weapon—or rather, he was taking himself as a heaven-defying war treasure. Who trains like that? A single misstep would melt himself into a true artifact."

While everyone was stunned, a bolt of lightning flashed through Xiao Chen's heart. The path the Martial Ancestor had walked was well worth emulating!

Suddenly, a rumbling roar like a surging flood came from ahead. "What is that?" "That is the River of the Future."

"River of the Future?" Everyone was astonished. "Correct." The white skull led the way. Deep within the great Gobi, a long river surged and rolled, rushing toward a massive stone gate suspended in the sky. Its waters were not sinister—in fact, they were completely unlike the Styx seen in the deep Death World. The great river sparkled, flashing with divine light. The splashing waves shone with seven-colored brilliance; they looked utterly sacred.

It flowed from the Gobi into the sky, pouring into a colossal stone palace. "The River of the Future appears only three days out of the month. But I urge you not to act rashly or take risks, because even if you reach the future and learn some fragment of what is to come, you will not be able to change anything. In the past, only one person who had collected all the oracle bone diagrams succeeded in coming and going without harm. Without that sacred relic, you cannot enter."

Xiao Chen and the others immediately thought of the master of the Death Heavenly Palace. He must have gathered the complete oracle bone diagram, come here, and followed the River of the Future to travel to the world of the future.

"Strange—the source of the divine river also has a massive stone gate." When the group traced the river upstream to its source, they found a new sight. On the Gobi floor, the rolling river was rushing out of a great palace.

"When the river reverses its course, it flows back into the world of the past." Hearing this news, everyone was quite surprised. This divine river was truly unique. And Xiao Chen was even more intrigued: if he could use this river to go back to the world of the past, could he retrieve the battle swords lost in the passage of time?

"In truth, the manifestation of the divine river serves another purpose. If you can find the legendary Heaven-Reaching Death Bridge and set it across the long river, you may then step onto the legendary 'Other Side' for the first time."

Xiao Chen then saw the edge of the Death World. It was a realm of absolute void. Even wisps of primordial chaos were evaporated there! The boundless void stretched toward an unknown distance. His divine sense could not reach the end; all one could see was a dark chasm, as if cut by a divine blade. It truly seemed to have been severed by some divine weapon!

"This is the limit of the Death World, the legendary 'Other Side'..." The white skull paused for a long time before saying, "The legendary Other Side is a place to be revered..."

Xiao Chen and the others felt their hearts drawn toward that other side. "Do not gaze at it for too long; it will do you no good." The white skull hastily woke them. "Let me show you other important sites. There are many I have not yet told you about. How about we talk about the Heavenly Stairway..."