Chapter 286: Future Rules

"Lin Qing, Primordial Realm, Gravekeeper of the Void Great Tomb."

On the Wang Zuo, the towering and majestic figure emitted a voice that shook space and time amidst endless radiance, ethereal and distant, as if transmitted from the future.

"Your Majesty, the Light King?" Lin Qing spoke somewhat uncertainly.

"You have passed the trial I set." The towering figure in the endless light spoke indifferently: "It is rare to meet a little one with such talent in the Future Rules; naturally, this King is willing to give you some guidance."

"Passed?" Lin Qing was stunned, saying: "But did I not fail?"

The trial required a full year without losing oneself in the future; only by surpassing the future in the simulation could one pass.

Although he did not know what "losing oneself in the future" meant, since he had not changed the final outcome, he naturally failed.

"From the result, you indeed failed."

The voice from the endless light echoed through the temple: "But the essence of this trial is to test talent in the Future Rules; you naturally qualify to pass."

"Talent in the Future Rules?" Lin Qing's heart stirred.

Could it be...

Because in the simulated future, he had repeatedly used the Entropy Reverser to pre-create divine techniques?

He knew that within the simulated future, he was likely being observed by the Light King, so he did not pre-create secret arts requiring external treasures, avoiding such absurdity as creating something from nothing, and only pre-created divine techniques of pure skill and conception.

But... even so, it seemed the Light King still discovered his peculiarity?

However, judging by the other's attitude, it did not seem to be a bad thing.

"Do you know what state other trialists are in when simulating the future?" the Light King asked.

Lin Qing was slightly stunned.

At this moment, images appeared not far away; they were other trialists in the state of simulating the future. Upon careful perception, it was found that each of these trialists was in a dazed state, their wills appearing extremely scattered.

"The past is unique, the present is real, the future is infinite."

The Light King spoke indifferently: "Among the three great rules of time, the Future Rules are the most mysterious and dangerous. Those cultivating the Future Rules must rely on their future selves along the timeline to glimpse; this causes the self to easily become confused and blurred, with countless falling into loss and madness."

"Even when contacting the simulated future with this King's power, the mind is easily replaced by the future self, forgetting the original self, falling into loss, and can only be pushed forward by time."

Looking at Lin Qing, he said: "Among the Sovereign-level trials, two people's minds and wills reached the degree of becoming real, but those two never remained as awake as you; in the simulated future, many memories had already become blurred."

"Remained awake?" Lin Qing's heart trembled slightly, understanding his own situation.

He never expected other trialists to be in such a dazed, lost state; he never expected that the so-called "losing oneself in the future" would mean being replaced by the future self and forgetting the original self?

And what about him?

From start to finish, he was in an awake state!

"In the future I simulated, you seemed unaffected by the future self, still maintaining your own self?" the Light King gazed at Lin Qing.

Lin Qing suspected it might be related to the Entropy Reverser, but could only say: "This... I am not clear either."

The Light King fell silent for a moment, saying: "The universe is wonderful, indeed containing great mysteries and great blessings; it seems... you possess great talent in the Future Rules."

"Talent in the Future Rules?" Lin Qing thought to himself.

"Pity, you are the Gravekeeper of the Void Great Tomb in the Primordial Realm, so it is not appropriate for you to take me as your master." The Light King spoke softly: "However, the Lord of the Heavenly Secrets City in the Primordial Realm once owed this King a favor; since you have such potential, this King is also willing to cultivate you a little."

Lin Qing could not help but say: "Honored by Your Majesty the Light King's regard, it is my supreme privilege, but... having talent only in the Future Rules, one's future achievements are hard to say, are they not?"

"Only?"

The Light King smiled: "Little one, do you perhaps think the Time Rules must have all three complete?"

"Is that not so?" Lin Qing was slightly stunned.

"It seems the Void Great Tomb taught you little."

The Light King shook his head slightly, saying: "The Past, Present, and Future of the Time Rules are three paths; any single path can reach the peak. Cultivating multiple paths is indeed stronger, but the three paths are inherently conflicting; the difficulty of cultivating them together is too great, too great, they will only affect each other, and there is no need for it."

Looking at Lin Qing, he said: "Since you have potential in the Future Rules, you should delve deeply into the Future Rules; moreover... the Future Rules are inherently the most powerful of the three Time paths."

The Future Rules are the strongest?

Lin Qing could not help but feel somewhat puzzled.

"Do you know the ratio of cultivators among the three Time Rules?"

The Light King did not wait for Lin Qing to answer, but directly said: "All living beings live in the most real 'Present', so cultivators of the Present Rules are the most numerous; the Present Rules mainly adjust real time changes and are the most common."

"As for the Past Rules, they peer into the past and anchor the past; their methods are more mysterious. Among cultivators of the Time Rules, only one in several dozen exists."

The Light King paused, the corners of his mouth rising slightly, saying: "As for cultivators of my Future Rules, the path of cultivation is the most difficult and dangerous, but their methods and abilities are the most mysterious; among thousands of Time Rule cultivators, it is hard to find one cultivating the Future Rules."

Lin Qing's heart stirred, and he could not help but say: "In the Void Sea where my hometown is located, one of the Ancestral Founders of a Sacred Land seems to have cultivated the Future Rules."

"Indeed so." The Light King nodded indifferently: "Pity, the Future Rules are the most obscure and difficult; integrating them into one's own source is even harder. He overestimated himself by pursuing this path; I fear he will never take that step before death, and his achievements are limited to this."

Lin Qing could not help but be stunned.

Although he did not understand exactly how these Transcendents divide their strength, this Your Majesty the Light King is a great figure of the King Realm of a Level Three Civilization, surely far more powerful than the three Ancestral Founders of the Sacred Lands.

Of course...

For him, all these people are great figures he cannot provoke.

"But you are different."

The Light King looked at Lin Qing: "You can remain unaffected by the loss of the future; cultivating the Future Rules must hold great promise. Do you understand?"

Lin Qing nodded slightly, saying: "Thank you, Your Majesty the Light King, for your guidance."

The corners of the Light King's mouth rose slightly, saying: "I saw from your performance in the simulated future that you seem to want to prevent the Great Extinction of your hometown?"

"Yes." Lin Qing did not hide it.

"If you can truly achieve the status of a Chaos God, I might be able to help you." The Light King said.

"Your Majesty the Light King is willing to help me?" Lin Qing's eyes lit up.

The Light King said: "Whether this matter succeeds depends mainly on yourself; after all, you are the Gravekeeper of the Void Great Tomb; according to the rules, I cannot help you too much."

He pointed with his fingertip, and a stream of light flew toward Lin Qing, hovering before him.

It was clearly a glass crystal pillar composed of countless lights, emitting a strange fluctuation.

"Before you achieve the status of Chaos God and ascend to the position of Sovereign God, do you not need to reincarnate to leave your homeland?"

The Light King said, "At that time, you can use this Light King Token to have your Chaos God avatar reincarnate into my Realm of Kings. Afterwards, I will dispatch you to your homeland, the Void Sea. Once you ascend to the position of Sovereign God in your homeland, you can leverage the connection between you and the Realm of Kings to transfer and expel part of your homeland's Void Sea origin from the universe, thereby delaying the arrival of the Great Extinction."

Lin Qing's eyes immediately brightened.

So it can be done this way?

After all, after he achieves the status of Chaos God, if he wishes to ascend to the position of Sovereign God, he must leave his homeland, the Shanhai World; otherwise, the Yu Xingyuan will inevitably destroy the homeland world that nurtured the Sovereign God.

He originally planned to reincarnate into the Starfall Civilization, using this opportunity to destroy the Starfall Civilization.

However, the Yuan Emperor of the Starfall Civilization seems to have sided with the Yu Xingyuan; he does not know if, after his reincarnation, the Yu Xingyuan will truly destroy the Starfall Civilization.

But if he could reincarnate into the Realm of Kings, that would be wonderful.

Not only could this solve the problem of delaying the arrival of the Great Extinction in his homeland, but he could also go even further!

Although the Primordial Realm was a Level Three Civilization, it had ultimately been destroyed.

"However..."

Lin Qing hesitated for a moment and asked, "After I become a Chaos God of the Realm of Kings and ascend to the position of Sovereign God, will it not bring calamity to the Realm of Kings?"

The Light King smiled and said, "Do you think the Monarch of the Yu Xingyuan dares to stretch his hand into the Realm of Kings?"

Only then did Lin Qing set his mind at ease.

Indeed, even a Level Three Civilization dares to send down Chaos Gods to become Sovereign Gods in various Void Seas; clearly, they do not care about such collateral disasters.

"After you become a Chaos God of my Realm of Kings, your Chaos God avatar can become a Sovereign God in your homeland. Although you cannot transcend, after achieving the status of Sovereign God, you can comprehend space and time from the perspective of the universe's origin, which will be of great benefit to your cultivation."

The Light King spoke in a calm voice, "At that time, even if your original body is affected by the Will of the Universe and cannot transcend the universe, you can leave your other avatars in the Realm of Kings. In the Realm of Kings, you can transcend the universe without restriction. Your original body can simply cultivate to the limit by leveraging the benefits of the Sovereign God position. Only a Transcendent Civilization like mine can achieve this."

Listening to this, Lin Qing felt even more anticipation in his heart.

Once a Chaos God ascends to the position of Sovereign God, they cannot transcend, and this applies to avatars as well; that is the influence of the universe's origin.

But a Transcendent Civilization has already broken free from the universe's control. Although his original body, as a Sovereign God, cannot transcend, his avatar in the Realm of Kings is unrestricted!

This is also the best method to solve the problem of Sovereign Gods being unable to transcend.

"As for other matters, we will discuss them after you reincarnate into the Realm of Kings," the Light King said indifferently.

"Thank you, Your Majesty Light King, for your assistance," Lin Qing said gratefully.

From the change in the Order Level, one could also see that the other party held no hostility toward him.

Moreover...

For such a great existence of a Transcendent Civilization, killing him would be far too simple.

"Go."

The Light King said no more; space-time distortion descended, directly moving Lin Qing away.

As for this great existence hidden within endless light, he fell into deep thought, murmuring, "Unaffected by the future? Created by the Primordial Realm? Or perhaps a miracle of the universe?"

He slowly shook his head, "Enough. The debt owed to the City Lord of Tianji from back then has been repaid through this young fellow. It is not a disgrace. The favor has been settled; the rest has nothing to do with me..."

He knew very well how the Primordial Realm was destroyed, so he had never intended to get involved in it.

If not for the favor from back then, he would not have personally guided this young fellow.

Although he possessed some talent that surprised him, nothing compared to himself; naturally, he could not have too many entanglements with the successors of the Primordial Realm.

Shanhai World.

"I'm back."

Lin Qing glanced at this world that was growing vigorously, and a smile inevitably appeared on the corner of his lips.

This time, he also did not expect to find hope for delaying the Great Extinction.

"I wonder how one can evolve from a Level 2.9 Sacred Land Civilization into a Transcendent Civilization?"

Lin Qing pondered silently, "I estimate the difficulty must be outrageous; otherwise, there would not be only the Three Great Sacred Lands across so many epochs. Moreover, in the countless Void Seas of the entire universe, the most recently born Transcendent Civilization, the Realm of Kings, was already established three hundred billion years ago."

However, these matters are still very, very far from him; thinking about them is useless.

If one day he could also cause the Shanhai World to evolve into a Level Three Civilization and transcend the universe, then it could be spared from the calamity of the Great Extinction.

"The first current goal is to become a Chaos God first," Lin Qing thought silently.

Now that he has seen hope and a path forward, he feels quite motivated in his heart.

"Hmm, there are still twenty or thirty thousand years until the Civilization War; it is just right that I gained some gains in the Realm of Kings this time."

A faint smile appeared on Lin Qing's face, and he immediately began creating inheritances one by one on the Second Universe Network.

These inheritances were all secret arts he learned during the trials in the Realm of Kings.

Although the secret arts were merely Void-Level secret arts, their essence was the foundation of Origin-Level secret arts, far superior to the secret arts created by the Ancestors of the Three Great Sacred Lands.

Even if they were merely secret arts for Void-Level cultivation, if one could pay a sufficient amount of treasures and cultivate them to the limit, they would not be much inferior to the early stages of his Mist Pigeon Secret Art.

Theoretically, after cultivating these Void-Level secret arts to the limit, one's strength would be nearly equivalent to the Sixteenth Layer of the Yu Xingyuan.

Keep in mind, the peak experts among Void Beings often only reach the peak of the Fourteenth Layer of the Yu Xingyuan or barely the Fifteenth Layer.

Such strength is enough to occupy a huge advantage in the Void-Level battlefield of the Civilization War!

"If Hall Master Qi also becomes a Void-Level citizen of the Primordial Realm, his strength could even reach the peak of the Sixteenth Layer of the Yu Xingyuan, making the Civilization War even more certain of victory."

Lin Qing immediately felt quite confident in his heart.

Among the three battlefields, he had already given up on the Ruler-Level battlefield.

As for the Secret Realm Master's battlefield, unless matched with a very powerful civilization, he naturally has a very high chance of success.

Now that he also has confidence in the Void-Level battlefield, he naturally feels much more at ease.

"The first Civilization War surely won't match us with a civilization above Level 2.6..."

Lin Qing muttered silently, "However, I heard that civilizations possessing ruins of a Level Three Civilization are often matched with very strong civilizations. If we really get matched, I might have to fight against Void Deities..."

In the Void Sea, how could a civilization be rated at Level 2.6? That would mean a Void Divine Servant had inevitably been born.

Although his current strength was comparable to an ordinary Void Divine Servant, he still lacked sufficient confidence to defeat one.

However, the benefits he had gained from this journey to the Legacy of the Kings had not yet begun to be digested.

"Better to continue cultivating..."

Lin Qing immediately diverted a thread of thought to handle matters of the civilization, while his main focus sank into cultivation: "If I could create a Divine Art embodying the complete spatial laws, then I would have absolute confidence..."

(End of this chapter)