Chapter 424: What If He Is the Architect?

Bowing deeply to the Supreme Tomb, the Jiuzhou Di Yi Xian restrained their greed and returned to the Heavenly Stele.

The tomb of a Supreme Being—anyone would want to claim it for themselves, and the Jiuzhou Di Yi Xian were no exception; the ultimate goal of cultivating the Dao and growing stronger is surely to become Supreme.

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

Who could remain unmoved?

Yet in the end, the Jiuzhou Di Yi Xian did not entertain wicked thoughts; the Immortals and Gods buried here were heroes who made immense contributions to the past, who fought on the earliest battlefields, worthy of reverence, 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 said."

The Demon Lord, the Void Lord, and other titans had said that Enlil the Supreme once declared, 'In the end, none can escape this scheme,' and the information within Gao Xiang Hong's interpretation of this passage subtly relates to that chessboard.

Whether it is fate or 'inevitable scheme,' the meaning is nearly identical.

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

Gao Xiang Hong offered comfort.

"Fate shouldn't be absolute—wasn't He once a pawn, who later broke free of the scheme and became a player?"

This brought them comfort, and the Jiuzhou Di Yi Xian agreed.

Yet soon, the Jiuzhou Di Yi Xian let out a bitter smile and said slowly:

"But what if He himself is part of fate? There's a saying: 'Fate is powerful!'"

At this moment, Tianxie Sword Immortal also spoke:

"If fate is inescapable for all beings, then who created fate? What if He is the one who made it?"

Gao Xiang Hong shuddered.

Yes—what if He was part of fate all along, broke free of the scheme only to become fate itself? Or worse—what if He was the very architect of fate, and breaking free had always been destined?

If true, this would be even more terrifying, more despairing.

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

You believe man can overcome Heaven, yet it is fate that is truly powerful.

This feeling—the helplessness, the fury, the despair—Gao Xiang Hong 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, offered their very selves, just to find Him.

This is precisely why they made this speculation—not mere idle conjecture.

"The word 'fate' is merely a term—it may not truly exist. Perhaps the Supreme Being's 'fate' isn't the fate we understand at all—perhaps it's just a phrase, and we've misinterpreted it as our own concept of fate."

Gao Xiang Hong offered reassurance again.

The Jiuzhou Di Yi Xian said nothing—they could not refute it; such a possibility did exist.

Over the ages, meanings of words have changed drastically; simply put, it's like dialectal differences—for example, the two characters 'ba shi' mean 'comfortable,' while 'shua peng you' means 'make friends' to southerners, but 'date' to locals.

Then they left.

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 Jiuzhou Di Yi Xian exchanged glances with the other two and hurried toward the stele.

From afar, the stele resembled the Supreme Heavenly Stele.

"Another Supreme Heavenly Stele."

As they drew closer, the Jiuzhou Di Yi Xian confirmed his thought—this was indeed a Supreme Heavenly Stele.

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

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

Supreme Beings transcend time; their inscriptions should be immune to erosion—but here, they were blurred and damaged. Most likely, something occurred here that erased the Supreme's aura, stripping away most of its timeless power.

"Perhaps even before the Hangu Pass was built."

Tianxie 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 not by the previous Supreme—its aura was different.

Then Gao Xiang Hong 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.

"Infinite compatriots died, severing the path to the future…"

My heavens!

All three were stunned—severed the path to the future? That meant no one could travel to the future, nor could anyone come from the future to the present—wasn't this the severing of the river of time between past and future?

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."

So, does this stele's era mark the time when the river of time was broken? What era was that? Primordial?

And why did the past sever the river of time? It seems the past wanted to sever it too—not just the future.

Gao Xiang Hong and the others felt even more confusion.

"…A flick of the finger, ten thousand years pass; a blink, an instant. The mortal world has seen countless aeons, countless prodigies striking against the heavens, only to be buried by time… yet I am eternal…"

In this passage, Gao Xiang Hong and the other two sensed the author's growing doubt.

A sense of foreboding immediately settled over them.

Indeed, the next moment.

"... I sat within this span of time and saw the lives of many: weak, numb, base, yet infinitely complex—each brief life no longer than my breath... Could such beings truly be my own kind?"

Did the sacrifices of countless exalted beings truly mean anything?"

His heart had changed; he was beginning to doubt his own resolve, to doubt the resolve of his kin—was it worth exchanging eternal life for the future of ants?

A chill ran through him.

This was the feeling of the three Jiuzhou Di Yi Xian.

The world and time were truly terrifying—they could twist the indestructible will of a hero, alter the steadfastness of an exalted being, even as one transcended time, one still bore witness to it.

Of course, a more important reason was humanity itself: too much complexity, uncertainty, multiplicity—base and beautiful, magnificent and shameless—when time numbs you to beauty.

Naturally, the base aspects became more apparent, and the gap between mortals and such exalted beings was truly immense.