Chapter 3529

"Knowing that we will eventually perish in this Great Tribulation, surviving it is no small feat."

"Fortunately, I saw early on that by borrowing the strength of my fellow daoists, I found a sliver of hope through a hundred divinations. I found the passage to the Canglong World."

"Furthermore, I moved this passage into the East Pole Fire Sea and hid it."

"Then, I sent the physical bodies of Old Bull and myself into the Canglong World to find the tail of the Azure Dragon."

"By absorbing the qi of heavens beginning leaking from it to strengthen ourselves…" Lin Moyu asked curiously, "How were you able to enter the Canglong World and return?"

"After Great Venerable Jiuyue's soul clone entered, she couldn't come back." Venerable Tianming said, "That is the advantage of the Dao of Fate."

"Fate exists in every world, and the fates between worlds are interconnected. Usually, it's hard to communicate, but if there's a spatial passage…"

"Then it's possible. I traveled along the cracks of fate and could barely control it."

"However, I couldn't return. I lost most of my soul for this and only barely recovered recently."

"Back then, I divined that if Fellow Daoist Lin were to go, it would be a different situation. Therefore…"

"That's why I'm asking Fellow Daoist Lin to bring back our physical bodies." Lin Moyu said, "Divination can't possibly reach such a detailed level."

"You probably just got a general idea." Venerable Tianming said, "Indeed. In my divination results…"

"The most important point was that Fellow Daoist Lin is a special person; nothing can stump Fellow Daoist Lin."

"The rest was also guesswork. Fine, this divination was half-guessing and half-bluffing." Lin Moyu said, "I have a question."

"Did you see this fire in your divination?" World-Burning Fire ignited in his palm, emitting a strange aura.

Chapter 4666: The Instigator

After devouring a world that hadn't completely shattered, the World-Burning Fire grew stronger again. The aura it emitted now…

…was enough to make a Great Venerable tremble. Venerable Tianming seemed to have already guessed what the fire in Lin Moyu's hand was, as he only gave it a brief glance.

He paid it no more attention, and his reaction confirmed to Lin Moyu that he definitely knew.

Venerable Tianming sipped his tea and said unhurriedly, "I've seen it." Lin Moyu said, "Then, Tianming…"

"Fellow Daoist, do you know that in the world I once resided in, there was a mysterious person?"

Venerable Tianming nodded slightly, "Naturally, I know. That person gave this fire to you." As expected.

He knew everything, likely having seen it when divining the future. Putting away the World-Burning Fire, Lin Moyu whispered, "Please elaborate."

"If there are conditions, you can name them." In his heart, regarding the Mysterious Master…

…he still had some confusion and curiosity. Perhaps today he could find answers. Paying a price for this…

…wasn't out of the question. Venerable Tianming shook his head, "No need."

"I originally called Fellow Daoist Lin over to tell you some things." At this point, he paused before continuing, "Actually, the instigator of all this…"

…is me." Lin Moyu was somewhat surprised. He didn't speak, waiting for Venerable Tianming to continue.

"Back then, I saw many things when divining the future. Everyone knows the future has countless possibilities and is constantly changing."

"A single calculation isn't definitive, especially the further into the future one divines, the less accurate it becomes."

"The future I divined back then involved a time so distant that it was impossible to calculate accurately."

"The accuracy was even lower; even after divining hundreds of times, there would be no precise answer."

"Everyone believes this, but they don't actually know that the future can be locked to a certain extent."

"For example, I can solidify certain conditions. Then, under those specific conditions, the future…"

"…will become fixed, and variables will be greatly reduced. This was my ability, which no one but myself knew at the time."

"However, those conditions required me to find and lock them myself. Thus, through repeated divinations, I saw a future with the highest probability."

"This future didn't produce any variables. Even if I changed some conditions, the direction of this future remained stable."

"There were minor differences, but it was largely consistent. So at that time, I was eighty percent certain."

"The future of our world seemed to have been fixed by some unknown force. At that time…"

"I saw the future Fellow Daoist Lin. To be precise, I didn't know it was Fellow Daoist Lin then."

"At the same time, I also saw this peculiar fire. Does Fellow Daoist Lin know why I know this fire is called the World-Burning Fire?"

Lin Moyu shook his head, indicating he didn't know. Venerable Tianming had a smile on his face, his tone calm.

"No sound can be heard from the future, only images. But through Fellow Daoist Lin's lip movements in the future…"

"…I discerned the name of this fire, the World-Burning Fire. It shouldn't be wrong."

Lin Moyu could hear the confidence in his words; he was clearly very sure of his inference. "I divined the source of this fire…"

"And I knew that no one but Fellow Daoist Lin could control it. Furthermore…"

"No matter how we handled this fire, it would eventually return to Fellow Daoist Lin's hands for various reasons."

"Because this fire belongs to Fellow Daoist Lin. However, different processes lead to different results."

"If we forcibly claimed this fire, we would eventually perish because of it, with no exceptions."

"I told everyone this result. After some discussion, we decided to proactively give this fire to Fellow Daoist Lin."

"Consider it forming a good affinity. The key question was how to give it. So, I thought of a way."

"I had Fellow Daoist Tianzai create a clone. When Fellow Daoist Lin arrived in this world, the clone would follow to the world where Fellow Daoist Lin was…"

"…and wait for Fellow Daoist Lin." Lin Moyu said, "Wait a moment. From my birth to entering the Great World, only a few decades passed."

"But the person who gave me the fire was a figure from a million years ago. The timing doesn't match."

Venerable Tianming smiled, "Fellow Daoist Lin might not know, but before Fellow Daoist Tianzai obtained the scepter of calamity, he was known as Heavenly Venerable Tianyu."

"He excelled at manipulating time. If paired with some time magic treasures or things like time essence stones, reversing or accelerating time…"

"…is not difficult. In that Small World where Fellow Daoist Lin was born, perhaps only decades passed."

"But in the Great World where that Small World is located, millions of years had passed, and even the entire Domain had seen tens or hundreds of millions of years go by."

"With the power of a Great Venerable, manipulating the time of a Domain is not very difficult."

"Let alone a tiny Small World within a Domain; it's even easier." Lin Moyu didn't speak. With his current knowledge…

…he knew what Venerable Tianming said was entirely possible to achieve. Venerable Tianming continued.

"I don't know how Fellow Daoist Tianzai ultimately chose to do it—whether he reversed time or accelerated it—that was his decision."

"But no matter how it's done, a problem arises: space-time will become distorted. Perhaps things that don't belong to that world will appear…"

"…or things that don't belong to that space-time. It's also possible that things related to this world…"

"…which clearly exist in another space-time, will simultaneously manifest somewhere in the world, and on a large scale." Lin Moyu was suddenly startled.

He realized that the Ancient Battlefield ruins he saw outside the Great World, containing things similar to the Shenxia Tower…

…and Meng Anwen's message, were things he could never figure out the origin of. The Small World was indeed taken away by Great Venerable Tianzai.

But why would things from the Small World appear in the Great World, and why did the Ancient Battlefield ruins appear?

This mystery had remained unsolved, but now he finally understood. The Small World belonged to the Great World, and though it was detached…

…and forcibly taken away, the Small World and the Great World still shared a mysterious connection. When time was affected, some events happening to the Small World outside…

…would appear in the Great World due to the distortion of space-time and the connection between the two. It was like an ethereal projection of the Small World…

…entering the Great World along the rules. In other words, Meng Anwen and the others might be elsewhere…

…fighting some enemies, and the projection of that battle entered the Great World along the rules and was materialized by them.

In reality, that battle never happened in the Great World. It sounded a bit confusing, but Lin Moyu quickly sorted out his thoughts and understood most of it.

"Fellow Daoist Tianming, that Mysterious Master, besides the World-Burning Fire, also seems to be related to the undead…" Before Lin Moyu could finish his question, he was interrupted by Venerable Tianming.

Venerable Tianming said, "Fellow Daoist Lin, don't be in a hurry. Listen to me continue. Fellow Daoist Tianzai refined a clone."

"His clone would deliver the fire seed to Fellow Daoist Lin. At the same time, I took some projections of skeletal undead…"

"…and gave them to him, letting him refine them into the clone."

"This way, Fellow Daoist Lin would think he was related to the Mysterious Master, and naturally, a karmic affinity with Fellow Daoist Tianzai would be formed."

"That's what I said back then, and Fellow Daoist Tianzai didn't refuse."

"It seems he did exactly that. In fact, whatever he intended to do…"

"…I knew clearly."

Chapter 4667: Wanting to Live Well

Venerable Tianming had seen the future.

Although the future was always changing, he found that the general direction of the Chaos Ancient Wilderness's future remained unchanged.

So, he knew very well what Great Venerable Tianzai was going to do.

He also knew Great Venerable Tianzai wouldn't let him go. At that moment, he was already thinking about how to escape, and his method was to fake his death through military dissolution.

Using this to deceive Great Venerable Tianzai. Many of the things Great Venerable Tianzai did came from his mouth…

…and were arranged by him. Lin Moyu's doubts were basically resolved; the Mysterious Master was indeed Great Venerable Tianzai's clone.

The seed of the World-Burning Fire was seen by Venerable Tianming in the future and then personally sought out by Great Venerable Tianzai.

After confirming he couldn't control it, he decided to give it to Lin Moyu. Furthermore…

…to create a deeper affinity, or to make Lin Moyu remember a favor, or to make him think he was the Mysterious Master's successor.

Whatever the reason, it was to make Lin Moyu owe a karmic debt to Great Venerable Tianzai. The method was for Venerable Tianming…

…to give the projections of Lin Moyu's future control over skeletal undead to Great Venerable Tianzai's clone, in the guise of the Mysterious Master.

Then, through some special means, he allowed Lin Moyu to see and feel it. In fact…

…he did once believe he was the successor of the Mysterious Master. Moreover, when he learned of Great Venerable Tianzai's scheme back then, he even marveled at how powerful the layout was.

He even felt some admiration. Only later did he realize Great Venerable Tianzai treated everyone as chess pieces. Venerable Tianming had known all this early on.

So he chose to withdraw. He successfully avoided Great Venerable Tianzai and has lived peacefully until now.

Lin Moyu asked, "Then, Fellow Daoist Tianming, what was the final outcome of the future you divined?" Venerable Tianming shook his head.

"I couldn't see it. It was a mass of mist. Divining the future has its limits."

"And that limit is the Great Tribulation. When the Great Tribulation rises, fate becomes chaotic."

"I have no way to divine it." He had known about the arrival of the Great Tribulation long ago and had also prepared for it.

Finding the physical body in the Canglong World to absorb the Azure Dragon's qi of heavens beginning to grow even stronger.

Lin Moyu sipped his tea and continued to ask, "Fellow Daoist Tianming, I have a few more things I'd like to ask." Venerable Tianming said, "Fellow Daoist Lin, don't be polite."

"Ask away." Lin Moyu asked, "Great Venerable Tianzai took away the Small World where I was born. I wonder where it went."

Venerable Tianming said, "After he took that Small World, he didn't actually do anything to them. In the future I saw…"

"A large number of powerhouses will appear in that Small World, bringing him many benefits. As for what benefits, I couldn't divine them. There are very few things I cannot divine."

"Does Fellow Daoist Lin understand?" Lin Moyu was stunned for a moment, "Another world?" Venerable Tianming nodded.

Although he didn't answer directly, it was a confirmation of Lin Moyu's words. His tone remained calm. "For some reason, in my divinations, our Chaos Ancient Wilderness…"

"…seems to have many spatial passages connecting to different worlds, but these passages appear and disappear intermittently."

"I only found one back then. If my divination is correct, Fellow Daoist Zixing should also find one. One world connecting to multiple worlds simultaneously…"

"…is indeed very strange." However, facts had already proven that Venerable Tianming wasn't speaking nonsense.

He saw those passages during his divination, but he didn't find them later, ultimately finding only one.

Lin Moyu sent a telepathic message to the hongmeng gem, asking why this was so. The hongmeng gem said, "It might be related to all the worlds being completely shattered."

"Those worlds have all collapsed. Now, the only intact world left is the Chaos Ancient Wilderness."

"And Master's Yushen World. These only living 'living worlds' will generate an attraction."

"Nearby world remains might draw closer to them. After contact occurs, spatial passages will be established between them."

"These spatial passages won't easily manifest, but now that the Great Tribulation has come, within the Great Tribulation…"