Chapter 1548: The Truth About Battle Maniac
Chapter 1548: The Truth About Battle Maniac
"You know, it’s an honor to meet all of you. I grew up hearing your stories," Wang Wei said with a smile.
"Haha, your tales are way more legendary than ours," Turtle Shell laughed.
"True. Now, you’re more powerful than most of us," Miscellaneous sighed deeply. Wang Wei smiled politely. Among all of them, only Miscellaneous and Shadow Ruler had met one of the requirements to become Primal, with the former being in the same realm as Wang Wei, and Shadow Ruler having met two of the three requirements.
Turtle Shell showed signs of reaching that level, but he wasn’t quite there yet. Unfortunately, Rainbow and Hell Judgment were just peak Paragons.
"I would also like to thank you for sealing my identity as the Myriad Devourer," Wang Wei said.
"It was the Ancestor’s decision. I just followed orders," Miscellaneous nodded.
"Regardless," Wang Wei nodded. This action might have saved him some trouble. "There is something I’m rather curious about, but I don’t know if it’s appropriate to ask."
"You want to know how we could travel through time without repercussions?" Turtle Shell asked.
"I want to know how you guys got away with it."
"Why don’t you explain it?"
Miscellaneous wanted to roll at this guy’s audacity. Since he answered the question, why not explain? Regardless, he still gave Wang Wei an answer.
"It started the same way for everyone. As soon as we ascended, we were given a strange cultivation technique and ordered to enter seclusion and not interact with anybody or anything from the outside world.
"The cultivation technique allowed us to summon our Dao Imprint from the Grand Dao Source and preserve it in a strange manner inside our Sea of Consciousness.
"Then, a magic circle appeared on the floor and teleported us through a turbulent journey through the River of Time."
Wang Wei listened attentively.
"Once we arrived at our destination, the ancestors ordered us to take out the Dao Imprint, and they somehow used it to give us another identity."
"Another identity? I see, if you were technically someone else, then it removes the paradox of existing before you were born," Wang Wei commented.
"Exactly."
"While that makes sense, it won’t change the butterfly effect of traveling to the past in the first place. Your very presence in the past could have created effects that prevented your birth, and more — unless your timeline was protected from any cause and effect."
"I really like talking to people like you. It saves me a lot of effort," Miscellaneous nodded gently.
Wang Wei smiled. "Was it easy to protect your timeline?"
"No, it wasn’t," Turtle Shell replied. "We were given a list of events that were supposed to happen to us. Occasionally, we would return to the present and ensure that these events occurred. Not to mention the Time Wraiths that would attack us on occasion."
"The entire situation was absurd. Our entire life was reduced to a checklist of things we were supposed to experience, but the entire thing felt like a sham," Rainbow said with a wry smile.
"We were lucky that we did not travel that deep into the past compared to Ancestor Li."
"Oh?"
"By the time we ascended, it was the middle to end of the Second Origin War, and we traveled to the beginning of the war, which is not too long a period in the grand scheme of things," Miscellaneous explained.
The Second Origin War covered the entire Chaos Universe, making it probably one of the longest and largest wars of the Paragon Age. So, it was indeed a short period compared to Li Ming, who was teleported to the First Origin War.
"Did you guys regret doing it?" Wang Wei asked.
"I didn’t," Hell Judgment finally said a word. "It made me who I am today. I don’t think I would easily reach this realm without that experience."
"Me too," Rainbow nodded.
"Too much fighting for my liking," Turtle Shell responded. He never truly enjoyed fighting, which is why his Dao is primarily focused on defense.
"I’m half and half on the experience," Miscellaneous replied.
"It was fine," Shadow Ruler said.
"I see," Wang Wei nodded. The six of them chatted briefly before Wang Wei talked to a few other people, trying to get to know them. Then, he left the meeting room to teleport to Qiyuan’s Origin Mountain. The mountain contained a large white river with 3800 pillars, each containing an aura of a unique Dao. At the center of the white river was a luxurious, gold white mansion, which was Wang Wei’s destination.
Qiyuan and Yan Hai were already waiting for him inside a simple room. Wang Wei found a cushion and sat down.
"How did you feel about your first meeting?" Qiyuan asked.
"It was better than I expected," Wang Wei answered truthfully. Many of these elders were intelligent or had extensive experience, enabling them to analyze every situation in great detail. In the lower dimension, Wang Wei often had to take charge of meetings like this, leading most of the conversation. Now, he only had to give his insight a few times.
"You never had to because of how fast you grow and because I felt there was no need, but most Elders must take an intense course in government and analysis after becoming a Paragon. "We design entire worlds for them to learn and gain experience," Qiyuan explained, having guessed what he was thinking.
"I remember reading about that," Wang Wei nodded. He saw that information in the introduction of the sect that he read. "Such a program reminded me of the Imperial Exam."
"That was one of the inspirations for its inception," Yan Hai said.
"Make sense."
"So, why did you want to meet us?" Qiyuan asked.
"During my retreat, I took a visit home, and got some information that I wanted to share," Wang Wei said before sending the information about Perfection, Observer, and so on with them. Of course, he did not mention his conversation with Hongjun, Anansi, and Yahweh.
"My theory was right. The last trial was all the failed experiments of the first Transcendent. It was called the Observer?" Qiyuan muttered.
"Do you think the reason Grand Dao never erased these flawed methods despite them not fitting ’the proper way’ of transcendence is because she feared it would make the Observer mad?" Yan Hai asked.
"Probably. Grand Dao might be bold enough to use something that belongs to a higher entity, but it would not dare erase any part of it," Qiyuan commented. However, he soon frowned.
"The question is: how did our array summon these flawed records? Grand Dao should have them locked in a secure place."
"Didn’t you already have your suspicions?" Yan Hai said calmly. "Someone was using us as pawns. Their target was probably the entire record, but it failed in the end, summoning only the failed experiments or the discarded record. The question is who."
"Isn’t it obvious?" Qiyuan sneered.
"The Trinity Venerable," Yan Hai muttered.
"I’ve always been suspicious of how that spirit became angry during that test and cursed Brother Li," Qiyuan said with gritted teeth.
"What are you talking about?" Wang Wei asked.
"Oh, right, you don’t know," Qiyuan said. "Originally, all three of us proved the Dao and became Eternal. We grew together in the upper dimension and slowly established the sect. However, one day, while traveling in Primordial Chaos, we encountered the inheritance of what we now know was probably a Primordial Chaos Saint, maybe more."
"The Trinity Venerable?"
"That’s right. His legacy was all about Spirit, Essence, and Qi, and it requires three people who are either linked deeply by blood or by cause and effect." Qiyuan was momentarily lost in thought.
"We needed two requirements before we could take the trial for the legacy," Yan Hai continued. "We met the first one due to our brotherly bond, and the second one was a significant amount of destiny. So, we returned home and started the First Origin War."
"All three of you?" Wang Wei asked with squinted eyes.
"Yes, all three of us," Yan Hai nodded.
"During the trial, the spirit became outraged because of something Brother Li did, and cursed him as a warning. We watched in horror as his timeline was forcibly altered.
"Instead of winning his Heaven Will Battle, he lost and had to seal himself and compete again. What’s more, he failed to become an Eternal. Once he ascended, we had to use convoluted means to summon him to the past, ensure his growth, before we could take him to the trial," Yan Hai sighed deeply.
"Forcibly changing the timeline of a Paragon without any resistance? Is this the power of a Transcendent Saint?" Wang Wei muttered.
"This was a plot all along," Qiyuan said with squinted eyes. "The change in timeline was to create a paradox, a flaw in Grand Dao’s system. Even the fact that Brother Li failed to become an Eternal was probably a means to use his Heaven Will to access the authority of Grand Dao."
"And with the flaw, the Trinity Venerable wanted to summon the Observer’s records and find a way forward," Wang Wei added.
"That’s right. We used the legacy to summon the Ultimate Taboo, but ultimately, we were just pawns for a larger plan," Qiyuan said with a wry smile.
"Hong’er told me you learned the method of summoning people in the past from a deal with the Time Cardinal. Is that true?"
"That’s the explanation for how I summoned Brother Li to the past after the timeline was rewritten." Qiyuan replied before thinking of something: "Are you saying?"
"The Trinity Venerable is either in cahoots with the Time Cardinal, or he is strong enough to use the latter as a pawn."
"A Tribunal Saint," Qiyuan muttered with a wry smile. He had to shell all desire for revenge now.
"Have you guys ever checked your [Existence]?" Wang Wei suddenly asked.