From the end of the world

Chapter 769 The Cycle of Yin and Yang in the Mountain (Part 2)
"After losing to the old Fist God back then, Shan Liangyi must have undergone many reincarnations and accumulations. The Xuanwu you know should only be one of those generations," the Divination Master said. "Originally, Shan Liangyi would not have done something like leaving one of its successors to the next generation, even if that successor had the potential to become the Great Impermanence."

"The reason is simple: the two yin and yang of the mountain have unlimited time and opportunities. As long as one keeps reincarnating and accumulating, one will eventually reach one's ideal state. Perhaps a certain successor is qualified to become a Great Impermanence, but so what? Rather than waiting for the other party to become a Great Impermanence at some unknown time, it is better to harvest them first and directly start the next reincarnation."

"But this time, he consciously left the Xuanwu successor, who was qualified to be a Great Impermanence, in this generation. It wasn't because his patience had become stronger; on the contrary, his desire to defeat the Old Fist God had diminished his patience. In order to pursue efficiency and be able to directly devour the Xuanwu successor who would become a Great Impermanence when reincarnating into the next generation, he made the decision to release him."

According to this theory, although from the perspective of the Water Master Xuanwu, the Old Fist God's killing of Shan Liangyi occurred in the "future" of a generation after himself, from the perspective of Shan Liangyi, it was very likely that it was the "past" of countless generations ago.

Unlike humans who perceive time linearly, the way the Yin and Yang of the mountain perceive time follows a completely heterogeneous logic, which is hard for even me, who has also pushed open the third door and reached the legendary realm of enlightenment, to imagine.

Since there is the generation of the old Fist God between me and Suishi Genbu, and considering that "two people with the same attribute will not appear in the same generation", it is possible that in the generation of the old Fist God, Suishi Genbu will enter a state where he cannot be verified or observed as a person of the two elements, just like how the common sense world could not verify the strange world before the Fantian incident.

However, what happened to the naval Xuanwu was a very small-scale distortion that enveloped a single human being, while what happened before the Fantian incident was a distortion on a world scale.

As for how the naval commander Xuanwu himself felt, I have no way of knowing. I can't help but think of the famous quantum mechanics concept of "Schrödinger's cat." Humans outside the box cannot determine the state of the cat inside, let alone imagine how the cat, which is theoretically in a state of alternating life and death, would view its own life and death.

Such unknowns and chaos, from the perspective of the divination master, might mean that the two polarities of mountains are the greatest natural enemies.

The divination of the Divination Master is based on the rational deduction of worldly principles, while the process of the apocalypse is the process of the distortion and collapse of the rationality of world history. Therefore, the strong in the Third Gate have the power to render the divination of the Divination Master ineffective, and this is especially true for characters like Shan Liangyi, who can freely travel between the past and the future and disrupt the order of spacetime.

And perhaps it's not just the naval Xuanwu, but also Meng Zhang, the lord of Taoyuan Township, and myself, who were consciously "free-ranged" by the two forces of the mountain to this day.

Given Shan Liangyi's past practices, the Azure Dragon's successor should have been the one he devoured as soon as possible. However, Meng Zhang grew smoothly to a level comparable to Xuan Ming, and even nearly created the "Shangri-La," a super creation that even Shan Liangyi had to admire. After gaining fame, I was spared Shan Liangyi's schemes for a long time, allowing me time to continue growing.

This is mostly because Shan Liangyi wanted to reap the greatest rewards in this final battle before challenging the old Fist God. Aside from Ying Lingyun transferring the White Tiger Seed to the Water Master Xuanwu, which was probably not part of his plan, the remaining three Liangyi successors all became Great Impermanence, especially Meng Zhang and me, who were considered among the best of the Great Impermanence. Such high quality is probably unparalleled among all the Liangyi successors in this world throughout history.

"As long as one possesses the power of the Third Gate, even if one travels back in time and alters much of history, one will not be transferred to a parallel world, but will truly change the course of history in that world," said the Divination Master. "However, if the object of the alteration is history related to other powerful figures of the Third Gate, it will not be so satisfactory. Therefore, Shan Liangyi has no way to use time travel to kill the old Fist God in his weaker period and thus negate the current powerful old Fist God."

"Forcing it will only have two consequences: either the old Fist God in the future senses the possible historical changes and delivers a punch that transcends time and space to kill Yama Ryougi; or although it succeeds, the result is only the creation of a new parallel world branch, which has no effect on the old Fist God who defeated Yama Ryougi..."

"If Yama Ryougi truly wants to avenge himself, he can only honestly accumulate strength and go to the era after the Old Fist God defeated him to wipe away his shame."

I understood his unspoken meaning: "And in the midst of such painstaking preparations for a battle, for Yama Ryougi to flee in such a humiliating manner is even more unnatural..."

The divination master nodded and said, "Based on my understanding of Shan Liangyi, even if the old fist god had taken out his divine seal back then, it wouldn't have scared away his proud and arrogant self. It would have been fine when he wasn't in full condition, but now he would definitely not endure such a great humiliation."

After careful consideration, I asked, "Shan Liangyi must have considered the possibility that the old Fist God would become stronger after defeating him, right? Why didn't he reincarnate one or two years after the old Fist God defeated him, but instead reincarnated into the modern era a century later?"

In fact, I think the most terrifying thing about Shan Liangyi is not that he can reclaim the power seeds of Liangyi successors at will, nor that he has the power of the third gate, but rather that his seemingly powerless "reincarnation" power.

If there may be different generations of Yin-Yang inheritors in the same era, then it also means that there are different generations of Mountain Yin-Yang in the same era.

Perhaps in the future, when I think I have killed Yama Ryougi, a second Yama Ryougi from the same era will be "activated," and this Yama Ryougi will be "the one who was defeated by me, then devoted himself to cultivation and became stronger, and was reincarnated into the present day."

Even if we defeat it again, who knows if a third or fourth Yama Ryougi will jump out and become stronger as they appear more often.

Based on my understanding of the power of reincarnation, he was fully capable of doing so, but he didn't exhibit such absurd behavior when facing the Old Fist God. It's very likely that the Old Fist God did something else besides killing Shan Liangyi at that time. "This is also what puzzles me. It's possible that he doesn't actually have the ability to control the timing of his reincarnations as we imagine. It's also possible that he has considerations that we cannot yet deduce," said the Divination Master.

I had no choice but to keep this question to myself for now. In any case, as long as Yama Ryougi is killed with "True Death," even with the power of reincarnation, he will probably only be able to die completely.

"Do you have any other questions?" The Divination Master looked at me. "As you can see, I am now a severely injured and crippled body that is of no use whatsoever. Even if I could fully recover, I would not be able to help you deal with the Mountain Yin-Yang, much less stop the unknown schemes that the Old Fist God might be plotting. Only the little bit of experience and intelligence I have accumulated in my head might be of some benefit to you."

I do have a question that I'd like to ask a fortune teller to answer.

The Diviner Master's actions in protecting Xiao Wan and the others powerfully demonstrate that what supports his precognitive abilities is not only his superb divination skills, but also his keen and exceptional wisdom. Even if he couldn't directly know that I had pushed open the third door using his precognitive abilities, he could deduce the possibility in advance by observing the subtle changes in the two polarities of the mountain, and prepare corresponding safety measures in advance.

I shared some important information I knew with the Divination Master, including the fact that the Old Fist God currently possesses the Divine Seal of the Present World, and that the Old Fist God might want to open the Fourth Gate to change the world. Then I asked, "Divination Master, in your opinion, what exactly is the Old Fist God's wish?"

The fortune teller's expression turned extremely serious.

"Zhuang Cheng... do you know what the Old Fist God's Law of Heaven and Earth is?" he suddenly asked.

"I don't know," I answered honestly.

"Let me put it this way..." the fortune teller said after a moment of contemplation, "Ever since the Old Fist God debuted in the supernatural world, he has possessed a spirit that infects others. It's not charisma, nor is it magic in the conventional sense, but rather an charisma based on a high-density soul that subtly alters the subconscious of others. This infectious power makes those around him exceptionally combative."

"Specifically, the old Fist God was often attacked by humans and strange creatures back then, which was the situation he himself sought. Even demon hunters from large families with good upbringing would inexplicably become irritable in front of the old Fist God, unable to resist provoking him to his face, or persecuting and scheming behind his back."

It sounded like the old boxing god was the protagonist of a fantasy story who would cause conflict wherever he went... I couldn't help but be taken aback.

"After he reached the Great Perfection stage, this phenomenon intensified even more." The Divination Master continued, "The Yuchi family, who imprisoned the Qilin, provoked the Old Fist God in this way and were wiped out."

"You might find it hard to believe, but despite its evil nature, the Yuchi clan is actually a rather low-profile, reclusive family. Generally speaking, they don't provoke powerful individuals without reason. Although there were some frictions between them and the old Fist God in the past, after he reached the Great Completion stage, the Yuchi clan was preoccupied with wanting to reconcile with him."

"Back then, the old boxing god wasn't lacking in opponents. As long as the Yuchi family maintained the right attitude, they wouldn't have been able to crush him. But you can imagine what happened next."

A powerful soul can influence those around it... This phenomenon was also demonstrated by the former missionary of Peach Blossom Village in front of Xiao Qiao, a junior student.

After pushing open the first gate and reaching the Great Accomplishment stage, the scope of this influence will expand dramatically, potentially becoming a social and cultural phenomenon that begins to take shape on the scale of a city; and after pushing open the second gate and reaching the Great Impermanence, another qualitative change will occur, acting on the natural ecosystem in the form of following the laws of heaven and earth.

The increasingly prevalent culture of supernatural tales worldwide over the past few years, besides the influence of increasingly frequent bizarre activities, has made me wonder if there might be an element of my own thoughts secretly at play. As for why the phenomenon of high temperatures and drought occurred after it transformed into a "heavenly phenomenon," I suspect it's due to the influence of the Vermilion Bird Seed. Originally, it might have become a "heavenly phenomenon" that "further promotes the activity of bizarre events."

As for what effect it would have if I were to use the Celestial Manifestation Technique again now, I haven't tried it yet. I can try it when I have time later. However, I'm not entirely without a prediction—considering the nature of spiritual power integrating with and simulating all things in nature, it's very likely that nothing will happen in the default state, but on this basis, it can simulate any Celestial Manifestation Technique.

"Judging from what you're saying... could it be that Old Fist God's soul-infecting power transformed into something absurd after he pushed open the second and third doors, making you believe that if he really pushed open the fourth door, it would inevitably cause terrifying consequences?" I asked.

(End of this chapter)