A strange silence fell over the teahouse.
Li Yuan looked at the phantom image of Bai Yuji hovering in midair, his expression remaining largely unchanged.
He had already heard the Empire's talk of a "glimmer of hope for the Empire" before.
He just hadn't expected the source of this matter to actually be an ascended senior from Kyushu's Heavenly Secret Pavilion.
Bai Yuji let out a soft sigh. Seeming to have anticipated their reactions, he simply began to recount his past.
“About two thousand years ago, I underwent my Ascension Tribulation in Kyushu.”
“At the time, I thought I would ascend to the Immortal Realm like the sages of past generations. But what lay beyond the Immortal Gate was not the Immortal Realm.”
His tone was filled with reminiscence of the past, carrying a touch of sorrow.
“For some reason, I was swept into a void storm.”
“There was no heaven or earth, no spiritual qi, and no direction.”
“Even time lost its meaning there. I had no idea how long I drifted, nor did I know where I was heading.”
“At first, I tried to find a way back. But within the void storm, Divine Sense is completely blocked, karmic ties are impossible to trace, and divination methods fail ten times out of ten.”
Bai Yuji looked at his illusory palm, a self-deprecating smile appearing in his eyes.
“The past masters of the Heavenly Secret Pavilion were all famous for their divination, but in the void, claiming to calculate all affairs under heaven is nothing more than empty talk.”
Hearing this, Li Yuan nodded in deep agreement. He understood what a void storm was better than anyone else present.
To survive in such a place was already a testament to one's sheer resilience.
If his physical body and divine soul hadn't been slightly stronger, he would have likely met the same fate as Bai Yuji.
Pausing for a few seconds, Bai Yuji continued.
“Later on, my protective magic treasures shattered one by one, and my divine soul suffered severe damage.”
“Just when I was on the verge of giving up, I somehow tumbled into this world.”
“At the time, I was down to my very last breath. It was a patrol squad at the border of the Empire that saved me.”
Hearing this, Venus's eyes flickered slightly. She had never seen any mention of this in the royal archives.
Since he had such deep ties to the Allen family, a record surely would have been left behind, but...
As if sensing her confusion, Bai Yuji shook his head gently.
“The Empire back then was different from today. Wars raged everywhere, and many records were lost long ago.”
“After I was rescued, I recuperated for many years.”
“This world has no spiritual qi, so the injuries to my divine soul could never truly heal. My strength plummeted as a result, and I lost any hope of ever returning to my peak.”
“Fortunately, my studies were quite broad. Relying on my remaining cultivation and divination techniques, I managed to scrape by.”
As he reached this point, his tone gradually softened.
“Later, I traveled this world for several centuries, witnessing the rise and fall of nations, the turning of eras, and the invasions of the Abyss...”
“Eventually, I grew tired, so I chose to settle down in the Empire.”
“I married and had children there, living a life that, for a cultivator, could be considered peaceful and ordinary.”
Noah and Leah were shocked beyond measure by these words. Leah couldn't help but take a step forward.
“So, you are... the ancestor of the Allen family?”
Bai Yuji looked at her and smiled slightly.
“In terms of bloodline, yes, indeed.”
Leah's eyes widened. Noah was more composed than his sister, but he could not hide his shock either.
The Allen family's Time Retrospection talent had always been thought to be the remnant of an ancient bloodline.
But no one had ever imagined that its source actually came from a cultivator of another world.
Bai Yuji looked at the siblings, his tone softening.
“I originally thought that my heritage would have no chance of being passed down in this world... because the people here are not suited to cultivate spells.”
“But I didn't expect that my descendants would actually inherit a portion of my innate divine abilities.”
“Though incomplete, it is still a rare feat.”
“The root of your so-called Time Retrospection comes from one of my innate talents—the Pupil of Time.”
Hearing this, Li Yuan asked in surprise.
“The Pupil of Time? They have the Pupil of Time?”
This was a golden key to cultivating the path of time! To be born with the ability to establish karmic connections with the River of Time, unlike him... who had to laboriously cultivate all the way to the Tribulation Transcendence stage just to barely catch a glimpse of it.
Bai Yuji nodded and explained.
“It allows one to glimpse time shadows and, to some extent, capture the traces left behind by all things in the past. Once fully awakened, one can even use this talent to briefly wander upon the River of Time.”
“It is just that your bloodline inheritance is diluted, leaving behind only the most basic of its abilities.”
“But even so, it is unique enough for this world.”
Venus listened in silence, many of her doubts finally resolved.
No wonder the Allen family's ability was completely different from ordinary magic. From centuries ago to the present day, no other family in this world had ever possessed such a talent.
Bai Yuji sighed softly and continued.
“Several centuries later, my lifespan finally reached its limit.”
“Before my passing, the Emperor of the Empire at the time sought me out.”
“Because the Empire was not particularly strong back then, in addition to continuous wars with neighboring nations, the Abyssal Rift had also brought great disasters upon the country. The signs of national ruin were already starting to show.”
“So he came to beg me to find a way for the Empire to survive.”
He shook his head, a trace of bitterness and helplessness on his face.
“I could have refused back then. My divine soul was about to perish, and forcing myself to peer into the secrets of heaven would only cause my last remaining sliver of soul to dissipate. But the Empire had saved my life, and my descendants had taken root and lived there. With our karmic ties already forged, I had no choice but to perform this divination.”
Hearing this, Li Yuan nodded knowingly—because that was exactly how the people of the Heavenly Secret Pavilion were.
They would always harp on about how the secrets of heaven must not be leaked, yet when push came to shove, each was more eager than the last to go against heaven's will.
Well, he wasn't in any position to criticize them either. After all, as cultivators... who among them wasn't defying heaven's will? It was just that their methods differed.
Bai Yuji looked at Li Yuan once more, a trace of reminiscence flashing in his eyes, which also grew a bit more serious.
“That night, I used the compass to set a formation, sacrificing my own remaining soul to peer into a corner of the Empire's future.”
“At first, it was only the Empire.”
“But the further I looked, the more I realized that the situation was far more severe than what the Emperor feared.”
His voice grew deep, and his expression gradually turned solemn.
“The Empire will eventually perish, but it is far more than just the Empire—”
“The Federation, the temples, the gods, and every nation in this world will collapse one after another after a certain point.”
“The entire world will be swallowed by the Abyss, ultimately turning into a lifeless dead world.”
The teahouse was dead silent. Venus's face turned extremely pale.
As the Great Sage of the Empire, she had personally been to the Abyssal battlefields, so she naturally understood what these words implied.
If it were only the destruction of the Empire, she could still do her utmost to mobilize all of the Empire's power to make an attempt, fighting for a slim chance of survival.
But if the entire world was heading toward becoming a dead world, it was no longer a crisis that any single nation could stand against alone.
After a brief pause of a few seconds, Bai Yuji continued.
“I tried to calculate many possibilities.”
“Relocating the Empire's capital, alliances between nations, the intervention of the gods, the gathering of Heroic Spirits... I even envisioned having all living beings abandon this world and flee into the starry sky.”
“But the results were all the same.”
“Without exception, all of these paths led to the end.”
“Until finally, within a fractured rift in time, I caught a glimpse of someone who did not exist in the records of time.”
At this point, he looked toward Li Yuan.
“That person does not exist in the past, does not belong to the present, and cannot be captured in the future.”
“The River of Time cannot cast a projection upon him, and though threads of karmic ties can connect with him, they cannot influence his actions.”
“Among all predetermined outcomes, he is the sole variable.”
“And because of this, I called him the Empire's only glimmer of hope.”
Noah and Leah subconsciously looked at Li Yuan.
When they were tracking him with the compass earlier, they only felt that he was somewhat special.
But now, having learned the truth from Bai Yuji's mouth, they realized with a shock that this could no longer be explained as a simple "special existence."
“Only by finding this person can the Empire have a slim chance of survival. Yet, this is not a glimmer of hope unique to the Empire, but the sole possibility of saving this world from its fate of becoming a dead world!”
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