Journey of the Fate Destroying Emperor

Chapter 1628: The Loop

Wang Wei was not the only one, as everyone who was protecting received the same instant shock to their mind. Then, their spirit received a vision that none of them would ever forget in their life. They saw a war, no, a battle of an incomprehensible scale. It all started with a more mature and sinister-looking Wang Wei sitting cross-legged in the void. He appeared as if he was on the verge of a breakthrough.

Then, thousands of people suddenly teleported and surrounded him, all of whom whose aura almost destroyed the psyche of the watchers. The faces of these people were vague for an unknown reason, probably because observing them from any point in time would have garnered their attention. Wang Wei remained calm in the face of the army until someone suddenly attacked him from behind, at which case Wu Hong suddenly appeared and kicked the man away.

Her appearance seemed to baffle the crowd, but then even more people appeared around Wang Wei. Sadly, only the couple’s faces were visible, but by the figures and slightly familiar aura, the people secretly protecting present-day Wang Wei could recognize themselves.

The presence of Wang Wei’s ally immediately heightened the already tense atmosphere; it also caused the opposing force to pause. It’s apparent that they expected their target to be alone and vulnerable.

"This doesn’t change anything," a cold voice said.

"But —"

"This is his last Time Nexus, meaning our last chance to kill him. Do you understand what will happen if we miss this opportunity?"

These words catapulted this battle, and all the people watching this fight did not have words to describe what they experienced. In this battle, these Saints messed with time so much that the River of Time itself bled. Primordial Chaos shrank in order to reinforce and stabilize the Chaos Universe’s spatial foundation.

Samsara was inverted, meaning not only were the dead constantly brought to life, they no longer reincarnated individuals, but started killing all the life in the universe instead. A significant portion of the Source Qi Space was drained of energy. The River of Fate tried to hide and act like a puppeteer, but its strings were plucked, sending the mechanisms of fate, luck, destiny, and causality into chaos.

The Critical Hit Path screamed in joy as these warriors displayed brilliant applications of power that the world had never seen. The Hall of Records recorded this legendary battle with pleasure, but was it merely a matter of recording, or was it also keeping tabs on their sins? The Pool of Creation was working overtime to clean up the mess of these out-of-control gods.

The vision stopped as the war reached its pinnacle, and everyone stood in shock, utterly speechless. A bit of information and a message was transmitted alone into Wang Wei’s mind: "Close the Loop." Wang Wei stood frozen, slightly confused. He now understood what a Time Nexus was.

Quintessence Realm powerhouses are in the process of transcending the Chaos Universe, but they haven’t succeeded yet. As such, they have certain flaws, one of which is their Time Nexus. Saints are immortal and undying, and they have already detached themselves from the River of Time. As a result, even if someone were to find their Time Mark and go back in time to eliminate a Quintessence Realm Powerhouse, it will not work because their past and future self are illusory.

However, there is one exception: their Time Nexus. If someone successfully kills them at a Time Nexus, then they will truly die. However, this is more difficult than it sounds. A Saint’s Time Nexus is usually one specific day of their endless life. Unlike Paragons, who can be killed as long as it is a period before they prove the Dao, a Saint must be killed at that specific date, or it’s pointless. These people live for countless yuan epochs, which are counted in trillions of years, so how does someone find that one single day?

According to the information Wang Wei received, he was an anomaly. The maximum number of Time Nexus a Saint can have is five, which is determined by the number of factions, including their foundation and karmic debt to the universe. Moreover, they can slowly cultivate to reduce that number to one.

However, Wang Wei — for unknown reason — had more than five. In fact, he had them throughout his cultivation journey, and the only reason his future self is still alive is that he’s protecting the information from being leaked. The worst part is that, unlike other cultivators, his nexuses could not be closed by cultivation, but only by survival.

’A loop,’ Wang Wei thought. ’The end is connected to the beginning. Could it be that what my True Transcendent self did at my birth created this loop, which resulted in these numerous Time Nexuses, and in order to fix them, my present self must reach his level and close this loop? No, by this vision, I may not need to reach his level, but close to it.’

Wang Wei saw a few flashes of the war Pangu had with the Destruction General, as he called it, and the scale and level of destruction were even higher than the battle he had participated in. The only reason it had a greater impact on his mind was that the vision did not shy away from showing him some of the aura and direct result of that battle.

’By the look of that fight, I should have been in the second step, or a Tribunal Saint. The Time Nexus was my ascension to a Grand Dao Saint,’ Wang Wei analyzed. ’However, that is not as important right now as the key issue: why do the actions of my True Transcendent Self have any negative effects on me?’

Wang Wei had his suspicions after talking to Hongjun and the other two, but after this vision, he finally put all the pieces together. Assuming all his variants or selves (past or present) still have one goal — to become free and unfettered — then there is only one logical explanation:

’Transcendence cannot give me the absolute freedom I want,’ Wang Wei thought. Now, considering his deduction since the inception of the Essence Gate Art, that there might be higher paths after transcendence, it was easy for Wang Wei to guess that his Transcendent Self was doing all of this as a way to pursue a higher realm.

’As future me, no matter how high your cultivation, you should never be satisfied until the goal is achieved,’ Wang Wei smiled. He exhaled to calm down before finally walking out of the seclusion room. Wu Hong immediately appeared to ask if he was alright, followed by Maitreya, Qiyuan, Yan Hai, Li Ming, and Wang Chong.

"I’m fine. No, I’m better than ever," Wang Wei smiled as he held her in his arms. The others were still quiet, their mind still lingering from the vision.

"That vision," Wang Chong said. "You and us. We..."

"Don’t think too much about it," Wang Wei said. "The future is not set in stone. While the vision is a good sign for your fate, it’s not guaranteed." Even if his and Wu Hong’s faces were the only obvious ones, Wang Wei would not blindly believe in this vision. He has long deduced that while his current self was the chosen one to achieve Transcendent Wang Wei’s goal, the latter can easily change to a variant from another timeline if this one does not meet the requirements.

Wang Chong exhaled to calm down. Qiyuan said similar words, and now that the person at the center of everything had given him the same warning, he chose to manage his expectations. He had long understood the concept of not relying on luck or destiny for his transcending path, but Ancient Desolate could not help but be excited at the implications of that vision. Well, regardless of the fact that he could not rely on it, its presence has drastically increased his confidence in the future, which is not a bad thing.

"I’m glad everything is alright," Maitreya spoke. Of all the people, she was the calmest since she had an inkling of how powerful Saints can be. "However, I should warn you that I sense someone peeking at this place during your optimization." Everybody’s face turned ugly. They didn’t sense anything.

"Did you catch who it was?" Wu Hong asked.

"No. The individual ran away as soon as I investigated," Maitreya shook her head. "Do you have any idea who it could be?"

"The Heavenly Book Paragon," Wang Wei replied.

"Him?"

"You know him?"

"Not personally," Qiyuan shook his head. "But he keeps a low presence; he has many reputations in the Chaos Universe, one of which is that many people believe he is the true pinnacle of Primal strength."

"I fought him," Yan Hai said.

"You have?"

"It was kind of humiliating, so I never talked about it."

"What happened?" Wang Wei was kind of curious.

"He just stood and let me attack as much as I wanted, but none of my techniques could even dent his shield. Afterward, I saw a bright light, and I passed out. Didn’t even know what he did," Yan Hai said truthfully.

"Is that why you were so quiet after coming back from the Cosmic Sea Prism?" Wang Chong asked.

"Yes."