"You will not die, for I will not kill you. I will banish you into the river of time, to drift with the currents through endless eons, experiencing the pain of separation and loss countless times," the Lord of Time said, looking at Cheng Xilin.
Cheng Xilin let out a disdainful snort. Hovering in the air, he disdained to converse with the Lord of Time. He gazed at the end of the blood path; the three giant demons had already departed, and the blood path was gradually dimming.
Suddenly,
His eyes became incredibly bright. He raised his hands, each condensing a drop of his heart's vital blood, imbued with his last and strongest power. One drop of blood flickered with white lightning, while the other showed a crossed battle halberd and war banner.
"Go."
Cheng Xilin whispered softly. The two drops of heart's blood shot towards the blood path. As the blood path completely dimmed and vanished, the two drops of blood also disappeared at its end.
This was his final strength, his most precious power. He left it for his successors, a gamble for the distant future. If He Li could not completely destroy the Lord of Time, these two drops of blood would carry the successor, inheriting his will, to conquer the heavens and return for another battle.
The Lord of Time frowned and turned towards the direction of the blood path's end. The power of time law began to gather; he intended to rewind time and intercept those two drops of blood.
But,
He suddenly discovered that the time he was rewinding was flowing away in an extremely gentle manner. The law of time had stagnated.
"They're here."
Cheng Xilin in the sky struggled to open his eyes. Scattered white hair obscured his aged face but could not hide his bright eyes.
The next instant.
A turbulent vortex erupted in the sky, the entire space becoming strange, as if everything was being drawn towards that vortex.
Within the turbulent vortex,
He Li emerged, carrying the corpse of a time envoy. He brought it to Cheng Xilin's side, casually tossed the time envoy's corpse before the Lord of Time, and then it fell.
He Li slowly turned to look at the extremely aged Cheng Xilin.
"I've come to save you."
Cheng Xilin drew a breath. "Heh... I've actually reached a point where I need saving. But, thank you."
He Li smiled, then became serious and said, "Thank you for your Star God Power. I have broken through to the Divine King realm, but it's extremely unstable. Perhaps I only have one chance. Success is best; if I fail, I will leave you and depart alone."
"Good," Cheng Xilin replied softly, his response simple. He felt no impropriety in this. For He Li to have such considerations and to come was already good enough.
*Buzz!*
As a deafening roar erupted from the surrounding space, an incredibly powerful airflow swept over the two.
"Thus, you two shall sink into the river of time together!" The Lord of Time's cold and majestic voice echoed from the heavens.
He Li looked up at the sky. The old man stood on the clouds, with a magnificent galaxy behind him – the river of time, shrouded in white mist, with countless forces of time law surging towards the elder.
Yes, he was the true Lord of Time, controlling the past, present, and future. He possessed the authority to control the life and death of all beings in the world, how could he tolerate their repeated provocations?
"Gods can be killed."
He Li took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and recalled a sentence spoken to him by an unnamed hunter member in Tokyo Port:
"Mortals are unyielding, gods are eternal."
Damn it!
The more critical the moment, the more irrelevant trivial matters came to mind.
However, he was right.
As long as one did not yield, gods could eventually be slain.
When He Li opened his eyes again, his silver-white irises held the brilliance of an endless starry sky, with waves of light flowing within. That silver hue was the boundless law of time, like a vast and ancient history.
He moved, stepping towards the Lord of Time, wordlessly, silently. With each step, he landed on a white cloud, each cloud representing a historical node within the river of time.
Looking into He Li's eyes, the Lord of Time, in a daze, seemed to see his past self, no, even more majestic than his past self.
He Li's figure began to become ethereal, with a vast expanse of white mist behind him, within which countless stars appeared, glowing faintly.
A figure flashed out behind the Lord of Time, identical to him. It was his past self, whom he had summoned using the law of time.
From the white mist behind He Li, another He Li emerged, carrying a blood-red saber on his shoulder, tilting his head. He paused for a moment, as if trying to understand the current situation, then raised his saber and charged at the Lord of Time.
Following that,
Another self appeared behind both He Li and the Lord of Time simultaneously, and they rushed out, colliding with each other.
More and more... more and more...
Thousands upon thousands, every second of the past, every moment of their existence, was a trace of time. They divided time into countless segments, summoning their past selves. Each of them was an army of ten thousand.
He Li's steps did not falter as he slowly approached the Lord of Time. The surrounding space had been shattered. Their "past" selves were engaged in a fierce battle within the river of time, colliding at countless temporal junctures, their blood staining the sky.
"You have lost," He Li finally broke the silence.
The Lord of Time asked with a playful smile, "How do you know?"
He Li did not answer. Another him emerged from behind him, clad in a pure white robe, with a lazy expression, as if he had just woken up. He glanced around, then at the Lord of Time, and finally said to He Li, "Why did you call me here again? It's not easy to arrange things on my end. Don't think that just because you are me, you can command me as you please. I..."
He Li ignored the rambling of the person beside him. He continued to stare directly at the Lord of Time and said, "My future self has arrived. What about yours?"
"From the moment I mastered the law of time, the first time I observed the river of time, I attempted to communicate with my future self and continuously extended the temporal nodes. Finally, during the battle with King Huang, I summoned my future self. I knew then that no matter what happened, I would be the ultimate victor, I just wasn't sure of the process."
The Lord of Time narrowed his eyes and asked, "So, when Cheng Xilin invited you, you had already made up your mind?"
"Precisely!"
He Li said, "Planning before acting has always been my guiding principle for survival. If I didn't have a certain degree of certainty, I wouldn't have come back.
I have always been outnumbered. I have struggled to this point. If I didn't have the ability to plan a hundred steps ahead, I would have already died in the battle of gods on Earth."
At this moment,
The Lord of Time was also shocked. He looked at He Li in disbelief. "From the moment you mastered the law of time, you foresaw today and have been preparing for it all along?"
He Li smiled noncommittally, turned to look at his future self, and chuckled softly.
"Let's begin."