Chapter 238: Variables Beyond Variables

"I never expected to see this thing again. This is the supreme treasure of the organization, capable of communicating with Tianming."

Seng Daoke also stepped onto the Tianming Platform, saw that Light Orb which resembled the Sun, and explained.

Li Heng nodded. He did not reply and continued to look around. On this Tianming Platform, there were many people. Each person stood at their own designated spot, distributed along a pattern that was mysterious and profound.

"The Tianming Ritual." Seng Daoke's expression was complex.

The two walked around casually.

These people did not notice them, as if they did not exist at all, still standing at their respective spots, circulating Qi and focusing their minds, waiting for the Tianming Ritual to begin.

"Bright is the Tianming, who can question it!"

Suddenly, a voice resounded across the Tianming Platform, rolling and echoing. Golden light descended from the sky, and an old man with flowing white hair, holding a cane, walked out from the golden light and scanned everyone present.

"This is the Great Elder of our organization."

"He has always been the one to preside over the Tianming Ritual."

Seng Daoke continued to explain.

"Then what is his cultivation level?" Li Heng asked.

Seng Daoke shook his head. "I am not clear on this either. The Great Elder's origins are a mystery, and his strength is a mystery. Many in the organization have speculated about these things, but in the end, it always came to nothing."

Li Heng narrowed his eyes slightly; he could not see through this Great Elder.

The two sides were like two parallel lines, never intersecting, never interfering. While the two talked, this group of people from the Tianming Organization also shouted in unison, "Only Tianming!" responding to the Great Elder's words.

Only Tianming can question Tianming!

"The time has arrived, the Tianming Ritual begins!"

The Great Elder struck the ground with his cane, and invisible ripples surged across the entire Heavenly Secret Platform. Everyone on the Heavenly Secret Platform moved, and together they erupted with pillars of light that reached the sky, which then gradually tilted and merged into that Light Orb resembling the Sun.

"Humans cannot look directly at Heaven. Therefore, the ritual must pass through the conversion of the Tianming Treasure, and then reach the vast Heaven directly through the treasure to question Tianming."

Seng Daoke explained.

He had originally wanted to say something more.

But his gaze seemed to catch something; his pupils shrank, his words came to an abrupt halt, and he fell into silence. Li Heng looked over following his line of sight, and his expression also gradually became subtle.

Because, standing there was actually a Seng Daoke.

This Seng Daoke was also participating in the Tianming Ritual just like the others!

There were actually two Seng Daokes?

Li Heng was somewhat stunned.

Could he have guessed wrong? This was not a historical phantom of past events repeating itself. It was not the same nature as the Ghost Village he had encountered before.

It seemed this was truly interesting; his curiosity grew even stronger.

"Li Jushi, do you think I am already dead?"

"In reality, I might have already died in the original Tianming Ritual, but my unwillingness and obsession turned me into a wandering soul, and I escaped, believing that I had not died."

Seng Daoke murmured softly, his heart beginning to waver. People in the Tianming Organization with cultivation deeper than his had all died; there was no reason he could survive just by being near the periphery.

"Not necessarily." Li Heng immediately denied Seng Daoke's words.

"I can feel that you are a living person, but I also feel that the Seng Daoke over there participating in the Tianming Ritual is also a living person."

Li Heng continued to analyze.

"Master, I will use my power to protect you later. If any strange change occurs, that power of mine will immediately help you break through the Void and return to the Present World."

As everyone's power was injected, the aura of that Light Orb grew increasingly vigorous. The sense of unease in Li Heng's heart swelled, so he cautioned the dispirited Seng Daoke.

Seng Daoke nodded. Although he was wavering inside, thinking he might have died long ago, it was better to live poorly than to die well. He could not drag Li Jushi down with him; he would run if he had to.

At this moment, the Great Elder began his next move.

He raised his cane, and it also erupted with a pillar of light.

But this pillar of light was more vast than the others, its size even enveloping that treasure Light Orb, and then the pillar of light passed over the orb and shot straight into the Nine Heavens.

"Bright is the Tianming, Tianming questions it."

"Bright is the Tianming, Tianming changes it."

A long, lingering sigh resounded throughout the venue, and then it began to grow impassioned. Various phantoms emerged behind the Great Elder. There were the fireworks of the human world, curling smoke from cooking fires, marketplace vendors, trade and commerce, kings and nobles, those sitting high on the throne, and golden spears and iron horses, slaughter on the battlefield...

These phantoms constantly changed, merged, and then sublimated, inevitably giving birth to an inexplicable meaning, as if representing the entire human world, sublimating into the Human Dao, using the Human Dao to change Heaven.

Using the Human Dao to change Tianming—this was a good line of thought.

At this step, no matter how Li Heng looked at it, he felt that this Great Elder had a high chance of winning; it seemed he could truly succeed in changing Tianming. However, the sense of unease in his heart had reached its peak.

And the next moment.

In the Nine Heavens, above the boundless firmament, a pair of eyes appeared.

A pair of eyes capable of encompassing all things in the world.

These eyes looked down, seeing the Great Elder, seeing everyone in the Tianming Organization. In an instant, the Human Dao phantoms and the intent of the Human Dao behind the Great Elder were instantly crushed.

The boundless sky turned blood-red, and thunder suddenly roared.

Great Terror was born.

The incomparably brilliant Light Orb, like the Great Sun, was almost instantly dyed black by malice and secrecy; within the strange black were also a few streaks of blood color.

It made one feel an indescribable awkwardness.

The members of the Tianming Organization instantly underwent distortion, rolling and twisting, becoming indescribable. In the end, the only one left normal was that Great Elder.

The pair of eyes in the sky did not continue to look at the Great Elder, but instead sensed something and gazed toward where Li Heng was.

Immediately after, Heaven and Earth lost their color, leaving only black and white, and stillness. Everything between Heaven and Earth, including those eyes, froze into a photograph.

A black and white photograph.

"You have seen it, this is the truth." The Great Elder suddenly turned around, looked at the two of them, Li Heng, and said with a detached expression.

Hearing this, Li Heng narrowed his eyes slightly.

He had just noticed those eyes looking over and had originally intended to use his methods, but he did not expect them to be restrained now, and the sense of unease in his heart vanished in an instant.

It seems his methods do not need to be used for the time being.

Seng Daoke was startled upon hearing this, his face revealing a look of surprise and joy.

"Great Elder, could it be that you are not dead!"

"No, I am already dead. No one can look directly at Heaven, look directly at the mutated Heaven; not a Dharma Aspect, not a Heavenly Human, not even I can," the Great Elder said indifferently.

"But..." Seng Daoke's expression was stunned.

The Great Elder continued to speak.

"You should have seen yourself just now; you thought correctly, in fact, you are also already dead. Of course, one could also say you are not dead, because I saved you."

"What you saw was not a phantom of history, but another branch in the Light Flow, another possibility for Heaven and Earth. I am situated at a Node of this Tianming Ritual; looking toward the future, I can see countless branches, and I have likewise experienced the failures of countless branches."

"From that moment, I knew my struggle was futile; the future had already been locked, only gradually converging toward that one and only ending. Until I saved you and ushered in a turning point."

"But it is strange, you should not have come now. If I had not withdrawn from this branch, the Heaven of this branch would have noticed you too, leaving you beyond redemption."

The Great Elder frowned, somewhat puzzled.

"A turning point? Could it be referring to Li Jushi?"

Seng Daoke looked at Li Heng beside him in astonishment.

The Great Elder shook his head, "It is not."

"In my observations, you will indeed come into contact with a certain person; that person is the turning point, the hope, the variable, with the hope of reversing the already locked ending."

"But it is not this young friend Li."

The Great Elder's gaze turned toward Li Heng.

"In the branches I observed, you would indeed come into contact with this young friend Li, but you and he were merely passing acquaintances, and you would never have such a close connection and friendship as you do now."

"I saw that in countless Light Flow branches, young friend Li would die in that mutation in Bei'an City; no one in Bei'an City could be spared, which was originally a locked fact."

"But now, this fact has been changed?"

The Great Elder's gaze was even more puzzled.

He had many words he did not speak aloud.

For instance, he could originally only see the time period when Li Heng was discovered by Meng Lingyun and brought into the Demon Suppression Division. As for before that, there was a gap, a void.

He knew very clearly what this meant.

Either Li Heng's origin was hidden by someone more powerful than him. Or, Li Heng does not belong to this Heaven and Earth and is a visitor from a foreign realm. But regardless of which possibility it is, neither is surprising.

Yes, not surprising.

This Heaven and Earth has a long history.

Every era will have a protagonist.

This protagonist might be a Child of Destiny, or they might be a mysterious visitor from outside the realm with no past or future.

But regardless of whether it is a Child of Destiny or a visitor from outside the realm, as long as they are still within this Heaven and Earth, they cannot escape the net of the Causal Law Net.

There is no such thing as a visitor from a foreign realm being outside the Causal Law Net.

As long as one is within Heaven and Earth and comes into contact with others, creating Causality, then the various possibilities of this visitor from a foreign realm will be presented one by one.

Because people are interconnected.

Your Causality, your future, is not just your Causality and your future. It also contains the Causality and future of others; could you possibly shield the Causality and future of others as well?

Even if you truly possess a Great Divine Ability and black out a piece of the Causal Law Net's information, are others fools who cannot perceive that this blacked-out, missing piece of information is problematic?

Is deducing the future such an inconvenient thing?

You shield the Heavenly Secrets.

Others can also build a model, similar to the big data algorithms of Li Heng's past life, to perform deductions. At worst, the target of the deduction does not focus on you, but focuses on others instead.

It is like a map.

If your position cannot be determined, then determine other things, the positions of other people; once the positions, activities, and trajectories of other people and other things are all determined, are you afraid you won't find your position and your information?

Unless you are outside of Heaven and Earth.

And if a person is in Heaven and Earth, they have Causality.

You are interacting with Heaven and Earth at every moment; breathing a breath is an interaction, and if you disturb a particle in Heaven and Earth, that is also an interaction. With interaction comes Causality.

Even if you use a Great Divine Ability to shield these interactions from being probed, the essence of this matter is still an interaction with Heaven and Earth.

"The elder praises me too much."

Li Heng said with a smile.

"This is not excessive praise, but a fact."

The Great Elder shook his head.

"If Heaven and Earth were a book, every time period in the book would be a story in the book, and every story would have its own protagonist."

"Regardless of whether this protagonist is a Child of Destiny favored by Heaven and Earth, a peerless expert who dominates Heaven and Earth, or a mysterious visitor from outside the realm, they can never escape the net of this book called Heaven and Earth."

"They are still just protagonists, not the ones listening to the story, and certainly not the ones reading the book. But young friend Li is different; not a protagonist, but his strength is not enough to be one who listens to the story or reads the book."

"He is purely an accident. An accident that cannot be caught by Heaven and Earth, a variable."

"And this catastrophe is not a story, but an external calamity variable that can endanger the entire book. The Children of Destiny within Heaven and Earth are also vulnerable; the future of Heaven and Earth has already been locked and converged."

"Everything within Heaven and Earth cannot stop it."

"Therefore, Heaven and Earth need a visitor from outside the realm, need a variable, a guy who, like this catastrophe, has intruded into this story."

The Great Elder said in a deep voice.

"Li is this variable?"

Li Heng raised his eyebrows and asked.

"No, the variable already exists; according to my observations, Seng Daoke will come into contact with that variable in the future. But I did not anticipate you; perhaps even the entire Heaven and Earth has not paid much attention to you. Young friend Li, you are simply a variable beyond the variables!"

The Great Elder spoke in shock.