Chapter 424

Bowing deeply to the Supreme Tomb, the First Immortal Sovereign of Jiuzhou and the others suppressed their greed and returned to the Heavenly Stele.

The tomb of a Supreme Being—anyone would want to claim it for themselves, and the First Immortal Sovereign of Jiuzhou and the others were no exception; the ultimate goal of cultivating the Dao and growing stronger is precisely to become Supreme.

Now, a Supreme tomb lies before them, as if a shortcut had appeared beside your path to cultivation.

Who could remain unmoved?

But in the end, the First Immortal Sovereign of Jiuzhou and the others did not entertain wicked thoughts; the Immortals and Gods buried here were heroes and martyrs who made immense contributions to the past, who fought on the earliest battlefields, and who deserved respect, not desecration.

They had witnessed the terror of “Heaven.”

This Supreme Being willingly chose death rather than become a “Heaven,” and he was great.

Before the Heavenly Stele.

“This phrase about fate reminded me of what Enlil the Supreme once said.”

The Demon Lord, the Void Lord, and other great figures had recounted that Enlil the Supreme once declared, ‘In the end, none can escape this scheme’—the information embedded in Gao Xianghong’s interpretation of this passage subtly relates to that chessboard.

Whether it is fate or ‘inevitable destiny,’ the meaning is nearly identical.

Whether it is ‘in the end, none can escape this scheme’ or ‘fate is sealed,’ both send chills down the spine, especially ‘fate is sealed’—fatalism is the most despairing, for everything is already predetermined.

Gao Xianghong offered comfort.

“Fate is not absolute. That He was once a pawn, yet later broke free from the scheme and became a player.”

This brought them comfort, and the First Immortal Sovereign of Jiuzhou agreed.

Yet soon, the First Immortal Sovereign of Jiuzhou let out a bitter smile and said slowly:

“But what if He himself is part of fate? There is a saying: ‘Fate is the strongest!’”

At that moment, the Heavenly Evil Sword Immortal also spoke:

“If fate is inescapable for all beings, then who devised this fate? What if He is the one who devised it?”

Gao Xianghong shuddered.

Yes—what if He is part of fate itself, having escaped the scheme only to become fate? Or worse—what if He was always the architect of fate, and escaping the scheme was always destined?

If true, this is even more terrifying, more despairing.

All your struggles, all your efforts, are merely parts of fate—how utterly hopeless is that? No matter what choice you make, even if you believe it is your own, even if you would die ten thousand times without regret, everything is already written.

You believe man can overcome Heaven, yet fate is the true power.

This feeling—the helplessness, the fury, the despair—Gao Xianghong and the other two felt it clearly.

Clearly, they all simultaneously recalled the final, agonized roars of the seven Supreme Beings from the future, who sacrificed themselves, burned their Dao, and offered their lives solely to find Him.

This is precisely why they entertained this suspicion—it was not mere speculation.

“The word ‘fate’ is merely a term—it may not truly exist. Perhaps this Supreme Being’s ‘fate’ is not the fate we understand, but merely a word we misinterpret as our own concept of fate.”

Gao Xianghong offered reassurance again.

The First Immortal Sovereign and the other did not refute him—there was indeed such a possibility.

Over the eons, meanings of words have changed drastically; simply put, it is like dialectal differences—for example, the two characters ‘ba shi’ mean ‘comfortable,’ while ‘shua pengyou’ means ‘make friends’ to southerners, but ‘date’ to locals.

Then they departed.

The subsequent inscriptions on the Heavenly Stele were blurred, unreadable; they decided not to linger and continued onward.

But after taking only a few steps, they saw another Heavenly Stele not far ahead.

Earlier, they had been fixated on the Supreme Tomb and the towering Heavenly Stele, overlooking their surroundings—only now did they notice.

“Could it be…?”

The First Immortal Sovereign exchanged glances with the other two, then hurried toward the stele.

From afar, the stele resembled the Supreme Heavenly Stele.

“Another Supreme Heavenly Stele.”

As they drew closer, the First Immortal Sovereign confirmed his thought—it was indeed a Supreme Heavenly Stele.

It still bore the aura of the Supreme, but the characters were blurred and the stele was partially damaged.

“The Hangu Pass must have witnessed more than just the seven Supreme Beings breaking through—it must have seen other events, where the future side breached the pass.”

Supreme Beings transcend time; their inscriptions should be immune to erosion—yet these were blurred and damaged, suggesting something catastrophic occurred here, erasing most of the Supreme’s Dao resonance and stripping away its immunity to time.

“Perhaps even earlier—before the Hangu Pass was even built.”

The Heavenly Evil Sword Immortal held a different view: the previous Supreme came from the Chaos Era, which may have been the Primordial Era, when the Hangu Pass did not yet exist.

Even if a divine barrier stood there then, it was not the Hangu Pass.

This stele was also inscribed in ancient Chinese oracle bone script, but it was not left by the previous Supreme—its aura differed.

Then Gao Xianghong translated the inscriptions on this stele as well.

This passage was noticeably newer than the previous one—no one knew how many eons had passed between them.

“Countless brethren died, severing the path to the future…”

My heavens!

All three were stunned—severing the path to the future? That meant no one could travel to the future, nor could anyone come from the future to the present—was this not the severing of the river of time itself?

Instinctively, they raised their heads to gaze at the sky, as if trying to take in the entirety of the Hangu Pass.

The fallen Dark Emperor of that lineage had once said: “The past cannot influence the future, because the river of time was severed.”

Then this stele’s creator lived in the era when the river of time was broken? What era was that? Primordial?

And why did the past sever the river of time? It seemed the past, too, wished to sever it—not merely the future.

Gao Xianghong and the others now had even more questions.

“...A flick of the finger, ten million years; a blink, a single instant. The mortal world has passed through countless aeons; how many prodigies struck against the heavens, only to be buried by time… yet I am eternal…”

In this passage, Gao Xianghong and the other two sensed his growing doubt.

A sense of foreboding immediately arose.

And indeed, the next moment:

“...I sit within this time, watching the lives of countless beings—weak, numb, vile, yet impossibly complex. Their brief lives are no longer than my breath… Are these creatures truly my kin?”

“Have the sacrifices of countless exalted beings truly meant anything?”

His heart had changed—he now doubted his own conviction, doubted his brethren’s conviction: Was it worth trading eternal life for the future of ants?

He shuddered.

That was the feeling of the First Immortal Sovereign and the other two.

The world and time were truly terrifying—they could twist the unyielding will of a hero, corrupt the resolve of an exalted being, even one who had transcended time, for even such a one still witnessed time.

But more importantly, it was humanity itself—its overwhelming complexity, uncertainty, and multiplicity: vile and beautiful, glorious and shameless. When you grow numb to beauty over time…

The vile naturally becomes more visible—and the gulf between mortals and such exalted beings is immeasurable.

…