Start from the God of Death and break through the world.

Chapter 1149 An Out-of-Control Future

"So, our world's ocean actually has a future dimension?"

Lu Li asked curiously, "If that's the case, then wouldn't there be a future version of him?"
Then how should we calculate his one true spirit?
As if sensing Lu Li's confusion, Xue Zhiyu explained, "Yes, but it's not what you think. It's a complicated matter."

"Grandma, please explain! Your granddaughter is curious too!"

Lu Xueqing said obediently from the side, which made Lu Li feel a chill for no reason.

But Xue Zhiyu seemed to buy into it. After patting Lu Xueqing's head, she said, "Let's talk about the origin of time first. Originally, there was no time in this world, and this was the first concept born in the world."

"What about space?"

Lu Li had always believed that time and space were actually intertwined in some sense.

"Space follows closely behind, and it is indeed related to the taboo of time, but that's not the point. The point is that the concept of time was born in a very special way."

Xue Zhiyu said, "As I mentioned earlier, the World Sea and the guy inside you had a fierce battle that spanned the past, present, and future. Due to the fall of the tenth-level creator of space, we were put in a very unfavorable situation."

"At that time, the tenth level of space was equivalent to the innate beings nurtured by the World Sea. The World Sea at that time did not actually have life in the general sense of today, only some innate beings. They were unable to reproduce, but generally speaking, they were born powerful."

"As you probably know, we usually define life as something that can carry out activities through the exchange of matter and energy, reproduce, and replicate through genetic information. This was unimaginable before, because there are organisms in the Boundary Sea that can exchange matter and energy, but their numbers are countable. If one is erased, there is one less."

"Therefore, after that tenth-tier being fell, the beings in the World Sea were almost sentenced to death, because the Ancestor of All Calamities could mass-produce... well... what you know as peak ninth-tier soldiers, or even forbidden-level soldiers. So even though He was seriously injured and asleep after the great battle, those soldiers alone were enough to easily flatten the World Sea."

She paused for a moment, then continued, "In this situation, a being in the ocean of the world wanted to change things and hoped to gain more time. Of course, at that time, there was no concept of time; he just hoped to have more room to maneuver."

"Although the creator of the space has perished, he left behind some tenth-level energy legacies, including some of the lost essence. Part of it became the foundation for the operation of the space, while the other part was given to several powerful beings in the Boundary Sea."

"Under the guidance of that tenth-order legacy, the first being to step into the supreme realm was born, namely Time Taboo. I don't know if he had a name, or perhaps the concept of names didn't exist in that era. So when we met later, everyone called him Time."

At this point, Xue Zhiyu sighed, "You are all used to the existence of time now, and so am I, so it is hard to imagine what the world was like before the concept of time appeared. But the Time Taboo once described that scene to us. Everything was disordered, there was no before and after, and there was no cause and effect."

"If ordinary people went to that kind of world, they would definitely go crazy, but those beings born with innate taboos don't feel anything because they were born in that kind of environment and think everything is normal. On the contrary, after the time taboo established the rules, it took them a long time to get used to them."

"Now you should be able to see the important point."

Xue Zhiyu paused, seemingly testing her.

Lu Li reacted quickly, frowning as he said, "So, the concept of the birth of time was actually driven by a tenth-order power? As a concept, it is also special?"

Xue Zhiyu nodded in satisfaction, seemingly appreciating Lu Li's keen insight. "That's right. This is a very serious concept. Without time, the entire framework that follows is invalid, including cause and effect, destiny, and so on."

"The original concept of time was born to deal with the invasion of the army of annihilation, so the taboo of time has never allowed the great time within the world's ocean to involve the future."

Upon hearing this, Lu Li seemed to be deep in thought. "Because if there is a future, then things become even more uncontrollable. We already have fewer people on our side. If the enemy's future army also attacks our present, we will be at an even greater disadvantage."

Xue Zhiyu did not give a positive answer this time, but said: "Yes and no. In fact, the beings of the myriad tribulations do not understand the application of concepts. Those soldiers only have corresponding levels of power. The strongest of them can fight against our supreme forbidden powerhouses, but usually they are not forbidden opponents. It's just that there are many of them."

"What truly makes the Time Taboo fear is the Primordial Ancestor of All Calamities. Don't be fooled by the fact that He is now just a first-order prisoner. Back then, He was at least a tenth-order being. How could He not investigate or understand the concepts derived from the power of His deceased old adversary?"

"So once this concept is fundamentally released, the revival of the Primordial Ancestor of All Calamities will actually happen in an instant. Originally, He needed a long time to heal. In a chaotic era, this process would be very complicated and unpredictable. In an era with time, as long as He can traverse the past, present, and future, then the future Him will definitely be revived."

“And as long as the future Him can be fully revived, then all times of Him will be revived, and for people in the ‘present’, it will be a matter of a moment.”

"So although the Time Taboo had considered whether to seek reinforcements from the future, it ultimately strictly limited the development of time. Therefore, the time of the World Sea was originally a river flowing downwards with 'now' as its head."

Hearing this, Lu Li was somewhat confused. "Senior, I have a question. I heard Xue Qing say that, according to legend, before the great catastrophe, people from the future went back to the past to do some things. Doesn't that mean that the concept of the future existed back then?"

"You are quite perceptive."

Xue Zhiyu smiled and said, "Indeed, such a thing has happened, but it was a helpless move. The power of the Time Taboo was no longer enough for him to restart the world. When he was at the critical moment of life and death, the many taboos discussed and decided that they could not afford to lose anything. So they wanted to take a look at the future, and thus they loosened some restrictions on the Time Taboo, allowing time to move forward several eras, which was when the power of the Time Taboo was about to be exhausted."

At this point, she became serious again, "In fact, the seeds of this disaster may have been sown around that time."

"The deduction of forbidden time is not a true calculation, but rather a real extension of the river of time forward, thus creating the future. When the forbidden time beings of the future discover that they are still unable to defeat the army of annihilation when their power is exhausted, they can only send people back to the past, which is the 'present' for the forbidden time beings of the past."

"Fortunately, they made the right bet that time. Due to the adjustments made by the World Sea side, they narrowly managed to cultivate a powerhouse comparable to the tenth rank before the final battle. That's roughly how it happened."

After listening, Lu Li fell into deep thought. Some parts of what Senior Xue was saying were quite convoluted, but he understood it. Simply put, there was originally no future, but a period of future was created due to the emergency.

Judging from past results, the scope of this future is controllable; otherwise, the Primordial Ancestor of All Calamities would have revived prematurely, and they wouldn't exist anymore. The problem likely lies further ahead, he pondered, "Senior, how far into the future are we now?"

Lu Xueqing also looked at her great-grandmother with curiosity. She had never known that the future could be divided into short and long. She had heard stories of powerful beings from the future returning to the present, and thought that the spacetime of the Great World was infinitely long.

"It's very difficult to predict now."

Xue Zhiyu sighed, "After the Time Forbidden One fell, the successor was naturally not as skilled as him. Moreover, this power traces back to the tenth level, which is not something that an ordinary forbidden one can control. So it's no wonder that time went out of control. Or rather, after he exhausted the tenth-level source power he obtained from the Time Forbidden One, he was already finding it difficult to control and restrict the development of time."

As she spoke, she said seriously, "The future is now so far away that it is impossible to calculate. Moreover, according to our current scale of development, for every epoch that passes, the head of the river of time will flow forward by another hundred epochs."

Lu Li's mouth dropped open after hearing this. "Then... then if things continue like this, doesn't that mean we'll have more and more enemies in the future?"

"This is also what I'm worried about now. Although I once said that the birth of the tenth order has nothing to do with the time it takes, if we consider the infinite possibilities of the future, the probability of the tenth order appearing is not zero."

Xue Zhiyu frowned and said, "On the bright side, perhaps a tenth-tier being will emerge in the future who stands on the same side as us. On the other hand, there may be more enemies."

After hearing this, Lu Li fell into deep thought. If that were the case, he was more inclined to believe the latter possibility.

The reason is simple: human nature is inherently evil, and what's more, once one reaches the highest level, there are no more constraints, and one becomes indifferent to life and death.
The tenth level can influence too many things, and such powerful beings always like to do things as they please. However, now that the river of time is out of control, if they want to protect their own spacetime, they cannot let the other side do as they please, so their positions are naturally hostile.

After all, not every tenth-tier powerhouse is willing to 'serve the creatures of the Boundary Sea,' which is similar to a meme that Lu Li once saw an explorer post in the comments section of the space.

If someone suddenly gained superhuman powers, would he become Superman from the comics?
Of course, that's possible, but in reality, the vast majority of people are likely to become 'homelanders'.

The same principle applies here. Although the power of the tenth level is certainly not obtained suddenly, a person's character and beliefs are shaped by education and upbringing, and are also greatly influenced by innate factors.

All things considered, the likelihood of a powerful figure who has climbed out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood to reach the pinnacle also being someone who cares about all living beings and is willing to sacrifice himself to protect 'ants' is extremely low.

Even Lu Li was once unsure if he would become that kind of person, but now, after experiencing so much in his hometown, he still has a place to belong. Even if he doesn't fight to protect all living beings, he will fight to protect the people he loves.

Besides, he's a petty person, and he'll eventually settle the score with that shadow for turning him into a slime.

"By the way, can't we just cut off the extension of future time?"

Lu Li suddenly remembered and asked, "Isn't it said that the tenth level is omnipotent? Surely the senior's son can do it?"

“In the past, I could have done that naturally.”

Xue Zhiyu shook her head and said, "But since the tenth rank was born in the future, it has become impossible, because you cannot sever the source of a tenth rank in terms of time. In the realm of the concept of time, if a new tenth rank is born, then that period of time becomes a fact. Even if it is also a tenth rank, it cannot be changed. Besides, the other party will not sit idly by and watch you take action."

Lu Li knew he had asked a stupid question. Of course, putting everything else aside, the opponent was a master of the same level, so how could he easily let you cut off his time?

Next, he asked the other party some questions about forbidden areas, received answers, and benefited greatly.

At the same time, he heard many ancient secrets, which made him realize how different the world is now from the past.

In order to combat the presence within him, the Forbidden Ones once tried to create all sorts of underhanded concepts in order to maintain their invincibility.

Many of these concepts are quite important; without them, the world as we know it today would not exist.

For example, space, cause and effect, life and death, reproduction, etc. Among them, the concept of life and death defines the two states of life and death. Originally, the army of myriad calamities could not be killed. Even if it was defeated, it would only regroup and reappear after being silent. But with the concept of death, they can kill all the beings of myriad calamities.

As for the concept of reproduction, it is of paramount importance. Originally, there was no life in the World Ocean. After this concept was introduced, life began to flourish in the World Ocean. Later, when the space started to operate, they had a continuous stream of reinforcements, which allowed them to barely survive.

Hearing some of the old stories, Lu Li was filled with emotion, thinking that his ancestors had really had a tough time. If they hadn't fought so hard, they wouldn't be here today.

As for the discrepancy in time, they, as descendants, could not complain. After all, life is unpredictable. As Senior Xue said, the tenth-tier gift obtained from the Time Forbidden Zone had been used up. Even if he were still alive, he might not have been able to restrict the future well. No wonder the successor was not to blame.

"Turns out there really is a big one inside me."

Lu Li smiled and sighed, "Now I finally understand why that shadow wanted me, but I find it hard to agree with that attitude of destroying what it can't have."

"How are you doing?"

Xue Zhiyu asked.

Lu Li grinned, "If I could, I hope to kill him the next time I see him."

(End of this chapter)