Chapter 373: Consciousness Evolution

"I'm back."

Lin Qing opened his eyes, found himself still within Star Refining Holy Star's Star Refining Island, and couldn't help but slowly exhale.

Immediately, he sensed himself and discovered that the power of the Heart of the Future had indeed appeared deep within his soul, completely merging with him and lying quietly dormant.

"Turning the illusory into the real has truly succeeded."

A faint smile appeared on Lin Qing's lips. "I actually managed to bring the Heart of the Future back from the future!"

The Supreme Divine Miracle lives up to its name.

Now he knows that the future timeline is indeed real, merely another time line, like an extended parallel universe, yet the Reverse Entropy One's ability to turn the illusory into the real can achieve this; it is truly a divine miracle!

"When descending into the future, time in reality is indeed relatively static..."

Lin Qing immediately noticed this point.

During the time he descended into the future, time in the present timeline had not changed in the slightest, as if frozen at the very moment of his descent.

During this period, he was like entering another layer of parallel space.

This descent into the future spanned over thirty-four million years, and the space-time repulsion would also take the same amount of time to vanish, so he would have to wait thirty-four million years before using it again.

"Present timeline, future timeline..."

Lin Qing calmed his mind, recalling the sensations before his return, and couldn't help but frown slightly: "Where did the consciousness of my future self go?"

Since descending into the future, he had not sensed the existence of another consciousness.

It was as if his future self in the future timeline possessed no consciousness at all.

But how could a living being exist without consciousness?

Even rock lifeforms and mechanical lifeforms possess self-awareness; this is the foundation of life.

"Self-awareness..."

Lin Qing attempted to sense his own consciousness but suddenly froze: "Hmm? Something's wrong! The strength of my consciousness!"

Originally, he hadn't felt it, but now, upon carefully sensing space-time, he discovered that his ability to perceive space-time was far, far stronger than before!

Yet his physical body and soul had undergone no changes, and the Heart of the Future does not enhance perception abilities.

The only explanation is the strength of his consciousness.

The strength of his consciousness has increased!

"What's going on?"

Lin Qing felt some surprise and doubt in his heart. "How could the strength of my consciousness suddenly become stronger?"

Consciousness is the foundation, more important than the soul and the body, and far more difficult to evolve.

Treasures that cause the physical body to evolve and strengthen are countless, while treasures that cause the soul to evolve and strengthen are already very rare.

As for causing consciousness to evolve and strengthen?

Theoretically, there is only one method for consciousness to evolve: it must evolve alongside the evolution of the life level!

"The consciousness strength of my original body is actually slightly stronger than that of my Mind Walker clone; this must be consciousness strength at the Eternal level..."

Lin Qing suddenly felt a stir in his heart. "Could this be related to this descent into the future?"

He squinted slightly. "From beginning to end, I never discovered the consciousness of my future self, and after returning from the descent into the future, my consciousness strength has just evolved to the Eternal level?"

He already had a hypothesis in his heart.

His future self had just achieved Eternity, and his Mind Walker clone had also just entered its mature stage; the consciousness strength of the two differed by almost nothing.

"Could it be... the consciousness of my future self in the future timeline merged with my present self?"

Thinking of this, Lin Qing couldn't help but feel it was utterly baffling.

As a Chaos Lifeform, his consciousness, will, soul, and physical body have already become the World Consciousness, World Will, World Heart, and World Divine Body of the world within his body; to evolve and strengthen, the world within his body must first evolve.

Even though the Mind Walker clone possessed consciousness strength at the Eternal level, the consciousness strength of his original body remained merely at the High-Level Chaos Lifeform level.

Yet after descending into the future and returning, his consciousness strength had actually risen to the Eternal level?

It was too incredible.

"Is it because of turning the illusory into the real?"

Lin Qing speculated silently. "But from the very moment I descended into the future, I never sensed the existence of another consciousness; perhaps the fusion had already occurred by then..."

Regardless, this is indeed a tangible benefit.

And a huge benefit!

The increase in consciousness strength not only enhances perception abilities and control over the Space-Time Domain, but crucially, the will also evolves to the Eternal level!

One must know that an increase in perception ability and the strengthening of the Space-Time Domain are already very useful.

With immensely powerful consciousness, perceiving space-time laws and Chaos Origin Energy becomes easy, and cultivation becomes simpler!

The manifestation in the Space-Time Domain is even more obvious: the stronger one's own Space-Time Domain, the stronger the influence one can exert on others through space-time manipulation, and the smaller the space-time influence one receives.

In other words—

What previously could slow the time in his location to one percent of normal might now be unable to reduce the time flow in his space-time at all!

What previously could freeze his time instantly can no longer freeze his time!

"Facing an Eternal Existence, I no longer need to worry about being manipulated and toyed with by the opponent through space-time due to a vast gap in realms."

Lin Qing revealed a faint smile.

Originally, without the help of his Mind Walker clone, he would have been completely dominated by an Eternal Existence in terms of space-time; the opponent could easily accelerate time by hundreds of times, or even reduce or freeze the time in his location, making the battle easily turn into him being suppressed unilaterally.

He could only rely on an Eternal Treasure to endure and protect himself.

But now, it is different!

His consciousness strength is on the same level as an Eternal Existence, his Space-Time Domain is equally powerful, and with the suppression of space-time by an Eternal Treasure, the difficulty for the opponent to influence his space-time will increase significantly!

"Most crucially... my mental will has also reached the Eternal level!" Lin Qing couldn't help but feel some excitement in his heart.

Consciousness and will are inherently closely linked.

If one's own consciousness is a person, then willpower is that person's strength!

Normally, chaotic beings must first master the mysteries of time and space, driving the transformation of their inner world, before their consciousness, soul, and divine body can transform accordingly.

Yet his inner world has not yet transformed; his consciousness has transformed first!

"My own willpower, combined with the astonishing amplification of willpower by the Mind Walker, has greatly increased the power of Illusory World Great Extinction..."

Lin Qing nodded silently. "I did not expect descending into the future to bring such benefits. Could it be brought by the Entropy Reverser? However, the mystery of descending into the future is already extremely divine; combined with the Entropy Reverser's uniqueness, it is no wonder such a change occurred..."

The mystery of descending into the future can be called the most difficult among the ten great mysteries of the time-space laws!

Countless future-law cultivators have been stuck at the hurdle of descending into the future.

Once achieved, the benefits are immense.

As long as one finds a future line with the highest achievement, descending into the future time-space thirty-eight million years later allows one to read memories and learn all mysteries.

If eternity can be achieved within thirty-eight million years, then after reading the future memories, one will know the complete future laws!

Once one returns, eternity can be achieved!

Of course, after mastering three perfect mysteries, fusing them into the complete time-space laws is also the most difficult hurdle.

Only because Lin Qing has the Entropy Reverser can he achieve eternity so easily; otherwise, normal high-level chaotic beings could almost never find a future line leading to eternity.

Even if such a future line exists, the probability is so small that it takes countless future lines to find just one such line.