Chapter 129: Stargazing Platform

"The moment they met, Master unleashed a great divine ability and engaged in a fierce battle with Mother."

"Even now, I've never clearly seen the dharma artifacts and runes he used. But that battle ended with Master successfully stripping away that monster's skin, at the cost of a broken leg and a severed arm.

"But the exact moment my 'Mother' died, time began to flow backward for all living and dead things in the vicinity, centering on Longshu Temple. It reverted to the exact point when I had just returned to the temple from the graveyard in a daze, seeing Mother for the very first time.

"Wishes made to the stars aren't so easily erased. Perhaps, deep down, I had secretly hoped to live happily reunited with my family forever. 'Mother' fulfilled that wish in her own twisted way.

"Upon re-entering the time loop, everyone's memories were wiped clean—whether they were the living or my fellow disciples who had died in the first loop and become ghosts. I repeated the exact same events over and over, completely muddled and oblivious.

"The ending of every loop was always Master rushing over, engaging in a fierce battle with 'Mother,' and defeating her.

"At that moment, there was a brief window—perhaps a few seconds—where I remembered everything. But this gap was far too short. Once the next loop began, my memories were completely wiped away once more as I was thrown into a new cycle."

Just like that, time began its endless, aimless resets.

How many years passed? Ten, fifty, a hundred, a thousand—time no longer held any meaning here.

From the outside world's perspective, a crimson meteor merely streaked across the sky, and all the monks of Longshu Temple vanished overnight.

Later, Longshu Temple was rebuilt several times. After wars, dynastic changes, and the transition to the modern era, the monks who cultivated in Longshu Temple no longer had any connection to Dharma Master Jingming's generation.

People of the modern age had already forgotten the bizarre incident from back then. Even if someone still remembered on rare occasions, they would never imagine that some of those vanished monks were still alive to this day. Trapped in a time and space that shouldn't exist.

"There were occasional minor variations within the time loops, but they never affected the overall outcome.

"In one particular battle with 'Mother,' Master slipped up and was killed by her instead, resulting in him becoming a ghost.

"But it didn't matter. The time loop continued. In the next iteration, the one who rushed over was Master, now already a ghost. His obsession from when he was alive had simply been too strong—he wanted to avenge Longshu Temple and save me. Over the course of tens of thousands of loops, the obsession in his heart had accumulated to an unimaginable degree. So much so that even after death, he continued to participate in the crusade against 'Mother' in the form of a ghost.

"Gao Tian, your group is truly lucky to have retained your memories of the previous timeline. Because of that, you successfully broke through the time limit after only three loops.

"If you didn't have that special Supernatural Item, you wouldn't have been able to break through this eternal cycle even with a thousand years."

Gao Tian couldn't help but ask, "So, how exactly did you escape a thousand years later?"

This was a mystery.

After all, Yusheng only retained his memories for the few seconds right before the loop reset. What could he possibly do with just a few seconds?

Yusheng explained, "Because of the Stargazing Platform.

"I don't know which loop it was, but in the few seconds before the reset, I used a stone shard I found to carve a few small characters on the stone wall beneath the Stargazing Platform, serving as a warning to my future self in the next timeline.

"The Stargazing Platform acts as the starting and ending point of the time loop, so it remains unaffected by the resets. Every small character left on it would carry over into the next timeline.

"In the beginning, it was an incredibly difficult task.

"The time I had was only ever enough to carve one or two characters. I wanted to carve a complete message on the Stargazing Platform: 'I am trapped by the cycle of time. Quickly find a way out. Left by Yusheng.'

"In many timelines, I would come here and see the single character 'I,' but for the most part, I wouldn't take it to heart. I just assumed some mischievous child nearby had scrawled it there.

"Only a rare few versions of me continued to carve that sentence during those final few seconds.

"Just like that, through countless loops spanning day after day and year after year, I finally carved the first complete sentence.

"That was the turning point. From then on, every Yusheng who came here and saw the words on the Stargazing Platform immediately knew he was trapped in a time loop. That drastically sped up the rest of the carving process.

"Every version of myself would carve down whatever changes occurred in their respective loop onto the Stargazing Platform, serving as a warning to my future self in the next loop.

"'Master died in this loop.' 'Master became a ghost in this loop.' 'The ghost Master still showed up on schedule.'

"Until one timeline.

"When I arrived at the Stargazing Platform and confirmed my identity as a person trapped in the loop, I looked down at the very bottom and saw a new line of text: 'Master did not come out.'

"'Did not fight Mother.'

"'Master went missing.'

"After looping countless times, my timeline had shifted for the very first time.

"Taking Master's place was a group of strange people wielding firearms and wearing bizarre clothes. Through some unknown method, they had entered this time loop to hunt down an unspeakable monster.

"Later, when I escaped the time loop and entered modern society, I learned that Xia Country had already moved into modern history. Emperors and dynasties were things of the past. Those ghost hunters were likely from the Republican era.

"In the time loop, people would occasionally leave, and other people or ghosts would join in, taking their place to push the events forward.

"In the original timeline, Master returned to Longshu Temple, found all the monks dead, rushed to pursue 'Mother,' and suppressed her to end the loop. Now, it was this Republican-Era Team. They entered the time loop, arrived at Longshu Temple to find corpses everywhere, followed the tracks to the Stargazing Platform, and defeated 'Mother' in battle to end the loop.

"Watching that Republican-Era Team beam with joy every time they sealed 'Mother' away, thinking they could finally return to normal time and space... As I stood on the Stargazing Platform reading my own handwriting, knowing the full truth, I only felt a deep sense of sorrow for them. Then, I quickly recorded as many of the changes in this timeline as I could.

"Even though I knew I was in a time loop, there was still no way to escape. If I chose suicide, the loop would just reset early, bringing me right back to the beginning. Trying to flee beyond the boundaries of Longshu Temple's loop was even worse. My 'Mother' would appear without a word and forcibly drag me back. She might even kill me outright, allowing the cycle I had lived through tens of thousands of times to simply play out again.

"Because I was the center of the entire time loop, even if I died, I wouldn't turn into a ghost in the next iteration.

"You don't need to ask me what those extra stars were trying to accomplish. To this day, even after escaping that endless time loop, I still don't know."

This point could also be confirmed by looking at Yusheng's room in the Living Apartment.

It was obvious that after entering the modern era, he had crammed a massive amount of modern scientific knowledge, studying many concepts related to astronomy and time.

Unfortunately, the cognitive limits of humanity in this era were still incapable of solving the mystery of Longshu Temple.

Gao Tian asked again, "So, how exactly did you escape a thousand years later?"

Yusheng's interest waned. He clearly didn't want to dwell on the subject and merely glossed over it. "After a few loops, that Republican-Era Team ran into some bad luck and started suffering casualties. Just like the other ghosts in the time loop, these dead members still saw themselves as living humans. They continued to set out with the team, faithfully carrying out their duties to strike down 'Mother' generation after generation, kicking off new rounds of the time loop."

'Mother,' who controlled the entire time loop system, had forgotten one thing.

When a living person became a ghost after death, they were guaranteed to obtain a Killing Rule.

"Or perhaps it was simply the will of heaven," Yusheng said, "deciding to end this farce that had lasted for a thousand years.

"When that Republican-Era Team completely died out and became ghosts, they had no idea they were even dead. They continued to hope they could defeat the final enemy of the instance and return to their proper time...

"But the Killing Rules they had obtained, when combined, happened to create a miraculous effect.

"The first ghost's rule: if someone nearby did the same thing multiple times, it would leave a 'Grudge' mark on them. For example, if you went to the bathroom twice in a row in front of that ghost, you would generate two 'Grudges.'

"When these Grudges accumulated to a certain point, they could slightly warp reality."

In Longshu Temple's time loop system, from the moment a person opened their eyes every day, everything they did was completely identical.

Looping year after year, who knew what terrifying level those accumulated Grudges had reached.

"The second ghost's rule involved an alternate dimension inside its stomach that was completely isolated from the outside world. Anyone it killed, or any ghost it suppressed, would be permanently imprisoned inside its belly.

"Killing my 'Mother' once per loop couldn't directly imprison her, but it did weaken a portion of her power.

"Because the space inside that ghost's stomach was isolated from the outside world, it didn't share the same timeline.

"Because of this, the time loop couldn't reverse its devouring.

"After hundreds of loops, 'Mother' grew weaker and weaker.

"The third ghost was an observer.

"She had no ability to actively kill people. But when the surrounding time and space warped to a certain threshold, she would instantly kill every living thing nearby, forcing all Fierce Ghosts, Supernatural Items, and various abilities into a deep slumber. A total reset to zero."

There was naturally no need to explain what happened next.

Throughout the endless loops, the second ghost continuously chipped away at 'Mother's' power.

The first ghost endlessly stockpiled Grudges, violently warping the surrounding reality.

Longshu Temple was already a closed loop formed by warped time. Once the spatial fabric was twisted to a critical point as well, it finally triggered the third ghost's bomb. This instantly leveled the entire area around Longshu Temple and forcibly suspended 'Mother's' time loop system.

"That moment," Yusheng said, "was exactly what I had been bitterly waiting for.

"I activated a Supernatural Item to block the third ghost's instant death effect. And just like that, Longshu Temple's thousand-year time loop was finally paused."