Void Year 1,000,000
Mi Jing Lun, the greatest strategist of the human race, sat quietly in an empty room.
His breathing was slow and weak.
His eyes were tired, carrying the weight of countless eras. Time had finally caught up with him. His lifespan had reached its end.
Even though he was an Open Heaven Ninth Rank master, his body was now too old. He could not even rise from his seat. His flesh had lost its strength, and his bones felt heavier than mountains.
He knew it clearly.
This was his last moment.
Mi Jing Lun slowly inhaled and exhaled. Each breath felt like it might be his final one.
"So… this is it," he thought calmly.
"I don't think I can live any longer."
His gaze lowered and fixed on the artifact resting in his hand.
The room was silent. No guards. No disciples. No old friends.
Everyone who mattered was long gone.
He sat cross-legged, alone, like an abandoned relic of a forgotten age.
The artifact in his hand was a pearl. It glowed faintly, giving off a soft light. If someone looked carefully, they would see water flowing inside it, from top to bottom, endlessly cycling.
Mi Jing Lun's eyes softened.
"Yang Kai…" he thought.
"You never came back."
It had already been one million years since Yang Kai left their universe.
Mi Jing Lun still remembered everything.
The battlefield against the Ink Clan.
The desperate struggles.
The sacrifices.
The countless lives lost.
He remembered Yang Kai standing at the front, blocking the darkness.
"I believed you would return," Mi Jing Lun thought quietly.
"But you didn't."
His fingers tightened slightly around the pearl.
"Forgive me," he murmured in his heart.
"What I am about to use will surely take my life."
His expression turned firm.
"You were my last hope. But since you didn't come back, I can only choose this path."
He looked down at the pearl again.
"With this artifact, I can merge with Heaven itself."
"I can enter ancient time."
"I can change everything."
His thoughts sharpened.
"I can kill the Ink God."
"I can weaken the monster races."
"And the Divine Spirit Clan…"
His eyes darkened.
"…the ones who made humans suffer for so long."
Suddenly, a voice echoed inside his mind.
"Mi Jing Lun," the voice said calmly,
"are you sure what you are doing is right?"
Mi Jing Lun did not panic. He had expected this.
"The Divine Spirit Clan helped us," the voice continued.
"They fought alongside us against the Ink Clan and the monsters too."
Mi Jing Lun replied slowly, without anger.
"They helped us because they did not want to disappear."
"It was not kindness."
His gaze became sharp.
"I will not wipe them out completely."
"But I will change the situation."
"No more humans being slaves."
"No more bowing."
"As for the Ink God…"
"If I have the chance, I will kill him."
The voice fell silent.
In that final moment, all hesitation inside Mi Jing Lun disappeared.
There was no longer right or wrong.
Only choice.
"This is the last method," he thought.
"With this, I can save my comrades who died on the Ink battlefield."
His thoughts turned to Yang Kai again.
"Forgive me for my past actions."
"After this, you will no longer be the hero of the human race."
A faint smile appeared.
"But I know you never cared about fame."
"If you were here," he thought,
"you would stop me from sacrificing myself."
"But if you stopped me… everything would remain the same."
Mi Jing Lun slowly raised his head.
The tiredness in his eyes suddenly vanished.
His gaze became bright and clear, just like it was during his prime.
He lifted his right hand and formed a seal using two fingers.
At once, a bright golden pillar descended from above, enveloping his body. Golden light filled the room, carrying an ancient and heavy aura.
A complex formation diagram appeared beneath him and began to rotate.
In the next instant—
Mi Jing Lun vanished.
The room became empty.
Only a small, ball-shaped world remained, floating silently in the void, as if sleeping.
***
In a dark domain beyond all known space, a figure appeared.
This was not a physical body.
It was a spiritual form.
The figure slowly opened its eyes and looked around.
It was Mi Jing Lun.
But not the old, dying Mi Jing Lun.
This spiritual body looked young, just like he did during the Ink Clan battlefield era.
The surroundings were pitch-black. Nothing could be seen in any direction.
Except for one thing.
A massive river flowed endlessly from above to below.
This was the River of Time.
The mysterious place where time itself was born.
Here, the flow of time was meaningless.
Past, present, and future overlapped.
The pearl appeared in Mi Jing Lun's left hand. It had followed him into this place where his real body could not enter.
He poured his spiritual energy into it.
The pearl glowed brightly and shot a beam of light into the River of Time.
The river churned.
Two figures slowly emerged.
One was very young.
One was extremely old.
The young one was his first self.
The old one was his future self.
Mi Jing Lun spoke calmly.
"Merge with me."
"I can save our friends."
"I can save our families."
The old figure said nothing and did not resist.
The young figure frowned.
"Why should I merge with you?" he asked.
Mi Jing Lun was not surprised.
He had prepared for this.
With a thought, he inspected memories within the young body.
Battles.
Loss.
Despair.
The fall of humanity.
Soon, understanding appeared in the young figure's eyes.
He no longer spoke.
The two figures merged into Mi Jing Lun's spiritual body.
At once, the surroundings began to collapse.
The darkness shattered.
Mi Jing Lun's spiritual body became dense, solid, almost real.
A terrifying aura spread outward.
It reached half a step into the realm of world creation.
Mi Jing Lun breathed out slowly.
"That is enough," he thought.
"Now the next goal can begin."
He raised his hand again.
"Soul-Splitting Method—"
"Three Times of Crying."
Suddenly, sound appeared everywhere.
Crying.
The sound of sorrow, pain, and separation.
It echoed endlessly.
Mi Jing Lun remained calm.
"My method is better than Yang Kai's," he thought.
"I don't need the Soul-Warming Lotus but can use this method."
Time passed.
Outside the River of Time, time no longer had meaning.
Perhaps a thousand years passed.
Perhaps more.
Finally—
Mi Jing Lun's spiritual body split into three.
Three identical souls stood in silence.
The first soul spoke calmly.
"We all know what must be done."
"Do not hesitate."
"Do not wait."
"Let us finish this."
Primordial Ancient Time
In the endless void, there was once nothing.Then a light appeared.This was the first light.
From that light, heaven and earth were born. Mountains, rivers, stars, and worlds slowly took shape. Countless years passed, and life appeared. One race after another was created.
As time went on, humans and monsters were born.
But they were weak.
Compared to the Divine Spirits, they were nothing.
Millions of years passed, and humans and monsters slowly became slaves of the Divine Spirit Clan. They were used, controlled, and discarded when no longer useful.
In a distant space, a massive existence floated quietly.
A giant Divine Spirit God.
Its body was so large that stars seemed small beside it. It had just finished consuming its food.
That food was an almost destroyed universe.
Satisfied, the giant spirit god slowly closed its eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
Time passed.
Suddenly, the giant spirit god's eyes opened.
Its pupils were no longer dull.
They were clear. Cold. Sharp.
It looked around and found itself drifting alone in the void. Something felt wrong. The familiar aura of its clan was far away.
In the next moment, it did not hesitate.
Its huge body moved, tearing through space as it rushed toward the place where the Divine Spirit Clan resided.
****
Ancestral Divine Spirit Land
The void twisted violently.
A giant figure appeared.
The Divine Spirit God descended.
But this time, it was not the same.
The innocent will that once belonged to the giant spirit god was gone.
Inside this body was another consciousness.
This was Mi Jing Lun.
One of his split souls had entered this body, devoured its memories, and completely taken control.
The moment it arrived, Mi Jing Lun did not waste a single breath.
There was no hesitation.
No warning.
The giant spirit god raised its hand.
A strange power gathered.
This was not the normal attack of a Divine Spirit.
Even Divine Spirit Gods could not release such an attack naturally.
This was something Mi Jing Lun had prepared long ago.
A dark, hollow beam condensed at the tip of its finger.
Mi Jing Lun spoke calmly, his voice echoing across the ancestral land.
"Devouring Hollow Beam of the Divine."
The beam shot out.
There was no explosion.
No loud sound.
Where the beam passed, everything simply vanished.
Divine Spirits.
Palaces.
Sacred lands.
All turned into ash.
Those Divine Spirits caught within the range of the beam did not even have time to scream. Their existence was erased completely, leaving nothing behind.
In a single moment, the ancestral land was half destroyed.
However, not all Divine Spirits died.
Because they treated humans and monsters as slaves, many of them were scattered across different worlds, overseeing their territories.
That was the only reason the Divine Spirit Clan was not wiped out completely.
The giant spirit god slowly lowered its hand.
Mi Jing Lun's thoughts remained calm.
"This is only the beginning," he thought.
The massive body turned.
Space shattered as it moved away at terrifying speed.
***
As it traveled, Mi Jing Lun's thoughts continued.
"Next, I must eliminate ninety percent of the monster clans," he thought.
"Only then will humans have enough resources to rise."
"After that, I will leave behind an Open Heaven cultivation method."
"One that will allow humans to suppress the remaining races."
His gaze turned distant.
"I hope my other souls succeed."
"One must kill the Ink God."
"One must deal with the remaining threats…"
The giant spirit god continued forward, its figure disappearing into the endless ancient void.
The fate of countless races had already changed.
And the era of human weakness was coming to an end.