Outside of Time

Indifference was the only color in this god's eyes.

It was as though to It, all experiences of life were devoid of joy or sorrow; birth or death, it was all just a simple cycle.

Whenever revival came, whenever departure beckoned, It could 'see' it all.

Fate, like a river formed of countless particles of dust, every ripple, every wave within it, It knew them all.

Hence, tranquility was the unwavering aspect of this god's gaze.

From the moment of consciousness, there was never a ripple in Its eyes. This was true during the battle with the Ancestral Magus, and it remained so even after being suppressed by the three gods.

Today, by utilizing the resurrection of the emperor's corpse within Its Divine Realm, It aimed to change the situation of the seal within the Mountains and Seas Region. To It, it was just another day.

Even though Its current body was extremely weak, success or failure was still an experience.

Therefore, It looked at this place where It had revived.

The dust storm formed by the shattered stars in the sky stopped spreading. Time here stopped operating and the rules and laws here also lost their origin.

Even the void froze.

Needless to say… the ants that were rushing toward It.

Xu Qing, Erniu, and Flame Mystic.

The three of them stopped in their tracks in the void. In this time, they seemed to have become paper cutouts.

Their flesh and blood, soul and destiny were all withering away.

In the eyes of the god, they were slowly being erased.

Just like what It perceived within Its omniscience, there were no changes.

Hence, Its gaze did not linger on those three paper figures; instead, it looked beyond the Imperial Palace, toward another fate seemingly predetermined within Its omniscience.

That was Its only chance.

As an omniscient being, It understood that there was no absolute omniscience in this universe; there were only relative and limited forms of knowledge, each with its own scope and level.

Therefore, this was a battle that It had engaged in long ago, transcending time and space, with those three mysterious gods of later generations.

This battle was a divine fruit for both sides.

They were Its true adversaries.

And now, It would revive here, relinquishing Its divine source within Its main body in the Mountains and Seas Region. It would return to Its identity as the master of the Divine Realm here and win the battle of the gods.

It would then suppress the three gods and swallow the divine fruits formed by the three gods.

Moreover, with the help of his experience this time, once It formed a divine platform, It could truly ascend the divine platform and enter another realm of gods.

It would rebuild everything, and time would change because of this. In a way that the world didn't understand, It would return to the battle with the Ancestral Magus back then and sever all fates that were disadvantageous to It.

The only fate left was the divine platform.

This was Its divine path. It crossed time to sever fate and achieve the divine fire. It was the Divine Platform Realm!

It was very serious because It, who was omniscient, understood that to gods, there would definitely be obstacles in reaching the divine platform.

In the fate It 'saw', what obstructed It was naturally the mysterious three gods. So, long ago, It turned the Divine Realm into a battlefield, thoroughly entwining them with Itself. This was… mutually fruitful.

It was just that… like It understood, a god's omniscience wasn't absolute. It was only relative.

Hence, the instant It looked outside the Imperial Palace, a change that was hidden outside Its omniscience and an accident that was hidden in the time of fate It saw appeared naturally and abruptly.

It came from the ants that Its gaze pierced through.

It came from the time when Erniu and Xu Qing were together.

Or to be precise, it came from the other omniscience that covered It in terms of range and level.

A long time ago, in the Moon Offering Region, Xu Qing asked the captain a question.

"Eldest Senior Brother, in the past of the Moon Worship Divine Son that you were responsible for severing in that battle, it contained Li Zihua."

"Over there, did you meet the Li Zihua of that time?"

Back then, when Li Zihua descended into the Moon Offering Region and brought the Crimson Goddess away from the Wanggu Continent on the Red Moon, the captain answered Xu Qing's question.

"I made a deal with Li Zihua in time."

Back then, Xu Qing had thought that that transaction was related to Crimson Goddess.

Until this moment, he understood that transactions in time also had to occur within time.

Hence, Li Zihua came.

What came was the deal between Him and the captain.

It was a finger, a finger that had stretched out from the time Xu Qing had spent with the captain. It was as though It had been waiting here.

It was hard to describe this finger. At first glance, It seemed to be formed by fate, the galaxy, and the will of the universe.

It gathered all light, all power, and everything.

With the appearance of the finger, the entire Imperial Palace became a dispensable decoration.

The entire star became an insignificant decoration.

The entire Divine Realm became an neglected background.

It was difficult to compete with It at all.

At the second glance, It was so ordinary, like an ordinary finger.

It wasn't too exquisite, nor was It particularly rough. One could see Its fingerprints, and that was it.

Under the gaze of the god's eyes, It landed on the spider face.

A light touch.

The spider on the emperor's corpse's face trembled violently. The eternal coldness in Its eyes collapsed and Its eternal serene was destroyed.

Gods also had emotions!

Its indifference turned into confusion.

Its calmness turned into bewilderment.

At this moment, It seemed to understand that the obstruction to Its divine platform didn't come from the three gods but from… the finger that shouldn't have appeared.

"So, he was a springboard."

As expected, the spider shattered into pieces and turned into dust!

The emperor's corpse didn't resist at all. The altar below transformed into an abyss that kept falling, about to be buried by nothingness!

Hence, the remaining souls couldn't cause any waves and were suppressed!

Its world was pitch-black.

This wasn't the only place that had gone dark. There was also the Mountains and Seas Region…

Its world became darkness but color appeared in Xu Qing and the captain's world in the imperial palace. The paper was no longer cut and their vitality returned.

The captain didn't disappoint Xu Qing this time around.

"The sonic boom removes the barrier, the dawn breaks the seal, and the time node suppresses the god. Junior Brother, our era… has arrived!"

As the captain laughed, he transformed into a stream of light and headed toward the emperor's corpse that was suppressed by Li Zihua's finger.

An intense fluctuation rose in Xu Qing's heart. This was the first time such a fluctuation had appeared in his heart since he came to the Divine Realm. He had done too many major things with the captain, causing Xu Qing to be able to remain calm to a certain extent.

Even so, his heart still trembled at this moment. However, he didn't hesitate at all. His body was like light as he headed straight for the emperor's corpse with the captain.

One went to his dantian and the other went to where the soul was.

There was also someone else moving with astonishing speed. It was none other than Flame Mystic.

She saw everything from the start to the end. These scenes of shock churned in her heart, so she firmed her belief. Regardless of whether it was stopping or plundering, she wouldn't give up this opportunity.

She was about to rush into the emperor's corpse with Xu Qing and the captain.

At this moment, the commander raised his hand and performed a series of hand seals, pointing into the distance.

In the imperial tomb, outside the Imperial Palace, a pearl appeared in the collapsing maze.

This pearl flowed with light and could fix yin and yang. An ancient aura circulated within and contained the source of one's life. One could tell at a glance that it was a supreme treasure.

However, at this moment, the instant it appeared, it was like a fish that had left the water source or like a lump of mud that had lost its moisture…

It began to dry up, shatter, and die.

Once it shattered, it would no longer exist unless the fish could return to the water within a short period and the mud ball was watered.

At that instant, Flame Mystic, who was about to rush toward the emperor's corpse, suddenly trembled. She could sense the aura of the pearl. It was her life pearl and the reason for her hatred of Erniu.

To her, the importance of this pearl could be seen from how she hated Erniu.

She quickly made a judgment. She could either continue chasing into the emperor's corpse or give up here and take back her life pearl.

This was the captain's goal in performing the hand seals.

Flame Mystic had no choice.

Her eyes were bloodshot. With a sway of her body, she instantly left and sped toward the location of her life pearl.

Almost at the instant she left, the commander and Xu Qing were already close to the emperor's corpse that was falling into the abyss. One was above and the other was below, and the two of them instantly entered.

The emperor's corpse sank into the abyss of nothingness and disappeared.

At this moment, this Imperial Palace completely collapsed and no longer existed.

The imperial tomb and this star collapsed together.

As for Tian Mozi and the others, they quickly teleported away with lingering fears.

After everyone left, in the Divine Realm, the star in the core area transformed into a black vortex that silently rotated, guiding the entire Divine Realm.

Outside the vortex, Tian Mozi and the other two were silent.

This lasted until a vast aura descended from above them. Divine light flickered and holy might enveloped the surroundings. The figures of the three gods descended into the Divine Realm and appeared above this vortex.

"The time has come."

The Sun God calmly spoke.

Tian Mozi and the others lowered their heads one after another with mixed feelings. They had guessed before why… the three gods hadn't appeared.

However, now that they saw this, this wasn't a doubt anymore.

After taking back the pearl, Flame Mystic, who appeared there, was also silent. This was because he already understood that regardless of whether it was Tian Mozi and the others or him, they were all pawns in this Divine Realm battle.

"Then, who will be the next chess player?"

Flame Mystic lowered his head and stared at the deep vortex. This vortex gradually spread to his eyes and occupied his pupils.

It was pitch-black.

…

Under the Jiuli Forbidden in the Mountains and Seas Region, a pair of eyes slowly opened in the darkness, converging the night into its pupils like an endless vortex.

"Has the time arrived?"

A hoarse voice came from his mouth. It was like the wind of time had blown through the abyss, stirring a promise in time about becoming a god.

He slowly stood up.

He walked toward the shrine that was sealed and suppressed under the Jiuli.

In the shrine, the withered spider god was dying… The connection of fate caused the aura of the figure walking over to become stronger and stronger.

He was absorbing everything from this spider god.