171: Time Vortex

Shen Shiyao leaned her hands on the railing, scanning the area the boat was passing through, and inadvertently saw Wang Qing lost in thought.

She asked, "Husband, what are you thinking about?"

Facing the question, Wang Qing's thoughts raced, and he replied:

"The Void Realm space I left behind back then was for suppressing the source of time."

"But now, Zhuge Yuanxi wants to use the power of the myriad things mother cauldron to suppress that Void Realm space, and at the same time, suppress the source of time."

"I'm just wondering if, besides awakening her True Body, she has another purpose for suppressing the source of time?!"

With that said.

Wang Qing fell silent again.

Shen Shiyao also remained silent for a while, unable to understand what was happening, and could only urge the boat to speed towards the end of time.

At the same time... in the central region of the Source Realm of Time.

Billions of timelines were not static Veins.

They seemed like living entities with self-awareness, writhing, intertwining, and colliding in the Void Realm of the Source Realm of Time.

Each timeline emitted a faint glow from a different era.

Some shimmered with the purple hue of the Grandmist before it opened.

Some flowed with the brilliant golden light of splendid civilizations.

And some were stained with the blood-red afterglow of doomsday.

The giant net they wove was not flat, but a three-dimensional cage, layered and surging up and down.

The giant net woven by the timelines seemed to envelop the entire Source Realm of Time, turning it into a constantly deforming spatiotemporal cocoon.

The closer one got to the central region, the more terrifying the density of the timelines became.

They were no longer just delicate threads of light; in the blink of an eye, they swelled into vast rivers of time, like star rivers.

These torrents tore at and devoured each other, erupting with deafening sounds of spatiotemporal rupture.

That was the wailing of countless parallel worlds being born and then annihilated.

Occasionally, shattered fragments of time splashed out from the torrents, like shards of a mirror, reflecting completely different historical trajectories:

Like the eternal and undying prosperity of a certain Dynasty!

Like the never-ending brutality of a certain war!

Like the madness of a certain Mortal after gaining eternal life... These fragments, as they streaked across the Void Realm, left brief trails of light, like tear stains.

If one accidentally touched them, their consciousness would be dragged into them, experiencing all the joys and sorrows of that historical period, and then be washed blank by the torrent of time.

Only beings in the Dao Exhaustion Realm could maintain their original heart within these fragments.

And the direction in which all timelines surged pointed to the same destination: the time vortex at the very center of the Source Realm of Time.

The time vortex did not spin violently like an ordinary vortex; it writhed with a heart-pounding slow rhythm, like an ancient behemoth breathing in its sleep.

The edges of the vortex were blurry, and bizarre distortions constantly occurred where it merged with the surrounding timelines:

Sometimes a crack would suddenly open, spewing out afterimages of a lost era;

Sometimes it would collapse inwards, swallowing nearby timelines along with their halos.

The grey space around the vortex was not mere darkness; it was a mixture of countless "non-existent" colors.

That was the ashes remaining after time had completely died, the ultimate desolation that even the Void Realm would sigh over.

Here, vision lost its meaning, because everything within sight was constantly twisting and deforming.

One moment the vortex might appear billions of miles away, the next it would be found close at hand, almost ready to swallow the observer.

This spatial dislocation was even more devastating than temporal dislocation.

In the center of this region where even light had to crawl, the time vortex flickered in and out of view.

Outside the time vortex, a black-robed woman floated indifferently on the timeline; it was Zhuge Yuanxi.

Her broad black robe was woven from "forgotten time."

As the hem of her robe swayed, it scattered specks of starlight—the last imprints left by a completely vanished civilization.

A bronze mask covered her face, but occasionally a few strands of hair, deeper than the night, escaped from the edges of the mask and the gaps in her black robe.

Her gaze was as complex as the vortex itself.

Reflected in those eyes were not only the eerie light and shadow of the time vortex, but also the turbulent Karma currents generated when billions of timelines converged.

With every blink, the destinies of countless parallel worlds were born and extinguished in her pupils.

This burden was enough to drive any being not in the Dao Exhaustion Realm instantly insane.

She just quietly watched the center of the vortex, her gaze interwoven with hesitation, determination, and a trace of imperceptible pity.

As her gaze pierced through the distorted light on the vortex's surface, she saw a black-dressed woman, also wearing a bronze mask, sitting cross-legged at the center of the vortex.

This True Body of Zhuge Yuanxi seemed to be one with the vortex, yet also seemed to be resisting it.

Her black dress was even deeper than the black robe, its hem spreading out at the center of the vortex, like an ink-colored lotus blooming at the end of time.

The material of the long dress was mysterious and unpredictable, sometimes undulating like flowing water, sometimes solidifying like metal and stone.

A bronze mask covered her face, and at the junction of the mask's edge and her skin, faint runes could vaguely be seen flowing on the mask.

Those runes did not belong to any known civilization system; their writhing rhythm was perfectly synchronized with the breathing of the time vortex.

What was most astonishing was that, despite the woman exuding an aura of deathly stillness.

The temporal turbulence around her exhibited an unnatural order.

All timelines surging towards the vortex became docile when they approached her.

Like Dragons tamed into gentle streams, they gracefully revolved around her seated form.

Zhuge Yuanxi watched her True Body's hands, elegantly folded on her lap, fingers maintaining a certain ancient mudra.

Miniature star maps were carved on her fingernails; upon closer inspection, one would find those stars slowly moving, enacting the birth and death cycles of an unknown Universe.

When the fluctuations of the time vortex became particularly violent, the True Body's fingers would tremble imperceptibly.

The rotation speed of the star maps on her fingernails would accelerate accordingly, as if forcefully calming the frenzy of time.

"True Body, what kind of future have you truly seen..."

Zhuge Yuanxi whispered silently.

Her voice was swallowed by the vortex, unable to even stir a ripple.

In the memories of the projection, there were fragments of memory left by the True Body during her slumber.

A premonition of the complete collapse of the source of time, an ultimate annihilation from which even those in the Dao Exhaustion Realm could not escape.

The True Body chose to self-suppress here, not merely for the convenience of the projection awakening the true self.

But also to plant a "variable" of the myriad things mother cauldron at the source of time, a wedge that might change the ultimate outcome of all timelines.

The myriad things mother cauldron floated three inches above the True Body's head.

The cauldron's body was not engraved with ordinary runes, but with totems forged from "possibility" itself.

There was no flame inside the cauldron, yet light brighter than a star surged within it.

That was the Origin of Time refined to its extreme, each wisp of light carrying the projections of billions of future branches.

As the Mother Cauldron slowly rotated, it scattered a rain of light.

These light rains did not fall into the vortex but flowed upstream, seeping into the surging timelines, injecting a tranquilizer into the turbulent river.

Zhuge Yuanxi noticed a detail: at the hem of the True Body's black dress.

There was a small, lighter-colored area on the hem, shaped like a flower's imprint.

That was the Void Realm imprint left by Wang Qing a long time ago.

The True Body never mentioned the Origin of this imprint, but Zhuge Yuanxi's projection could feel it.

Whenever the fluctuations of the time vortex touched that Void Realm imprint.

The temporal fragments around the True Body would experience extremely subtle disturbances, as if encountering some non-existent force.

This discovery made Zhuge Yuanxi's mood even more complex; did the True Body's plan also involve some personal emotions?