Chapter 512: Only the One Ending I Want Remains!

Huo La turned his head toward the Bilan and Paipa beside him, gave a gentle nod, and signaled with his eyes that they should stay steady and need not panic.

Yet even though he had soothed his companion, his own palm had already silently gathered a thin sheen of sweat. The Chi Ri before him was the most terrifying opponent he had ever encountered on his journey.

He was obsessive but not insane, calm and supremely rational, seeing through destiny yet unwilling to be manipulated by it, advancing step by step with meticulous calculation, each move landing at the most lethal spot.

Such a deeply thoughtful, inscrutable enemy was truly the first Huo La had ever met.

Chi Ri remained composed and unhurried, showing no trace of impatience, and slowly continued, "After Spinel arrived in this world, he chose a completely different path, which isn't surprising."

"When a person has personally witnessed every ending, walked through every destiny, and then repeats the past, it truly is meaningless. On that point, I can understand his choice."

He shifted his tone, his voice suddenly firm, bearing an unshakable resolve: "But unfortunately, I am not him, nor can I ever become him."

"What I wish to accomplish, no matter how many worlds I must cross or what price I must pay, must be achieved."

Huo La remained silent for a long while, suppressing the swirling thoughts in his heart, then abruptly changed the question: "What exactly is the cause of your aging?"

Chi Ri lifted his hand to gently stroke his graying temples, his fingertips brushing the rough lines of time, and softly repeated, "I have long said this is the price of Forceful Time Manipulation."

"You should know that among the Space-Time Trio, Qi La Di Na is the sole Primordial Body. And Pa Lu Qi Ya and Di Ya Lu Ka, who descend into various Parallel Worlds, are merely scattered Power Projection and Clone of the source."

Huo La nodded slightly.

This matter was the truth that Ma Zhu Mu personally told him at the beginning, and it could not be wrong.

"Since they are merely projections and clones, there will come a moment when their power is exhausted and the source dissipates."

Chi Ri's gaze drifted far, looking at the vast hall, and slowly unveiled the forbidden secret: "At first, borrowing their Space-Time Power caused almost no backlash. But as time passed, the Projection Power continually weakened and dissipated; if one still Forcefully leverages Space-Time, the only thing that can be overdrawn is my own Life Source."

"So your rapid aging is because you have been constantly Forcefully manipulating Space-Time?" Huo La frowned and pressed, "But merely opening a temporal gate to the past for Spinel shouldn't consume to this extent."

Chi Ri gently shook his head, and a statement that upended perception suddenly shook Huo La's mind.

"I did not go to the past."

"Where I went was the future."

Boom—!

Fourteen words rang in Huo La's mind like a thunderclap, making his whole body shudder, and his eyes instantly filled with disbelief.

Before Huo La could calm his thoughts, Chi Ri's voice continued, each word heavy, laying out all the origins: "Retracing the past is a predetermined historical trajectory, something the world permits. We are already a part of history, so there is naturally no excessive or absurd consumption."

"But the future is different."

He lifted his gaze toward Huo La, his eyes harboring endless depth and madness: "Going to the future, unrecognized by World Rules, has no predetermined path, no closed‑loop retreat; everything is unknown, all variables."

"My current aging, overdrawn life, and the marks of countless years are all the price of peering into the future and leveraging unknown Space-Time."

"What kind of future did you see?"

Huo La's voice was pressed low, yet carried a heavy weight, each word echoing in the vast hall.

At this moment, his thoughts were heavier than ever before.

Hearing this, Chi Ri suddenly threw his head back and laughed aloud, his hoarse and bleak laugh tinged with near‑mad self‑mockery, reverberating in the sealed space.

"The future?"

"There is no predetermined future! I don't understand the ending at all!"

He abruptly reined in his smile, his eyes interweaving madness, confusion, and obsession, each word ringing.

"I have seen the League sweep away all turmoil, retake control of the entire world, and usher in a stable, peaceful future!"

"I have seen a future where the world completely collapses, all things return to void, and the one who personally destroys everything is the Creator God A'erzousi!"

"I have also seen myself breaking all restraints, standing atop the world's summit, completely reshaping Space-Time, and fulfilling my lifelong ideal in the future!"

Countless vastly different destiny scenes interwove, collided, and vanished in his mind, with no hierarchy, no truth or falsehood, and no single predetermined endpoint.

Chi Ri's chest rose and fell violently, his eyes shining terrifyingly, appearing mad yet crystal clear: "I finally understand completely! This is the uncertainty of the future!"

"The past is a closed loop, a fixed number, immutable to the smallest degree. The future, however, consists of countless branching paths, ever‑changing in an instant, with no trace to follow!"

He paused, stared intently at Huo La, and his tone suddenly became unwaveringly firm, wrapped in a desperate, all‑or‑nothing resolve.

"Uh, you're crazy." Paipa, standing nearby, could no longer hold back and muttered softly.

In his eyes, Chi Ri's words were completely self‑contradictory.

The next second, a cold, sharp gaze suddenly locked onto Paipa.

Chi Ri's gaze suddenly sharpened, and the terrifying intimidation belonging to the Leader of the Galaxy Team slammed down, making Paipa's scalp tingle, his body stiffen, and his breathing become slightly labored.

"Am I crazy?"

Chi Ri's voice was ice‑cold and piercing, "What do you understand?"

Paipa gritted his teeth and forced himself against the pressure, retorting, "You yourself are contradictory! You just said history is irreversible and the future has evidence, now you claim there is no future certainty—what are you if not crazy?"

The hall's atmosphere instantly tightened to the extreme, with conflict about to erupt.

"No, he isn't crazy." At that moment, Huo La's calm voice suddenly rang out, breaking the stalemate.

He lifted his gaze to stare straight ahead, his eyes clear and deep.

"But if we stand at the endpoint and look back, all choices settle like dust, every ending is already fixed, and the future becomes absolutely certain."

"Thus the future is inherently uncertain, yet also certain."

A single sentence pierced the heavens.

Chi Ri's whole body quivered, staring intently at Huo La; his tense expression slowly relaxed, then he burst into loud laughter, his laugh full of admiration and praise, laced with endless ambition: "Good! As expected, only you understood!"

"I truly didn't misjudge you, Huo La."

In those eyes, weathered by the passage of years, the fierce, blazing fire of ambition reignited, hot and obstinate.

"Exactly! The future's uncertainty means— the future is never a dead end!"

"It can be chosen, it can be intervened, and it can even be Forcefully rewritten!"

Chi Ri's voice suddenly rose, echoing in the cold, spacious Headquarters hall, each word ringing, shaking the hearts of all.

"I have glimpsed ten‑million futures—some of destruction, some mediocre, some failures, some hastily‑concluded endings that submit to destiny. Then I discard all the endings I don't need, and finally—only the one ending I desire remains!"

He stood still, his body clearly aged and frail, yet at that moment seemed to support the entire Space-Time, his surrounding aura overwhelmingly dominant.

Bilan and Paipa stared dazedly at the man before them, whose obsession was taken to the extreme, and a bone‑deep chill rose in their hearts.