Suddenly the other voice fell silent.

Then it spoke again.

"It is time."

Yu Xuan paused.

Something felt different.

Before he could react, a pulling force seized him. His consciousness stretched violently, as if dragged through a narrow passage.

In the next instant, he found himself standing inside a completely black domain.

There was no sky.

No ground.

Only endless darkness.

And in front of him stood two figures.

One of them was himself.

The older Yu Xuan stood calmly, his expression composed as always.

Opposite him was the anomalous being.

But now it was different.

Its form bled from every angle.

Its shape constantly distorted, struggling to maintain form.

"SHGFSI JSHW UDHS!" It shrieked in incomprehensible sounds.

The noise carried immense fear.

And hatred too.

Yu Xuan instinctively understood that these were not words.

They were the true dying echoes of something that did not belong within the laws of the Heavens.

The older Yu Xuan glanced sideways at his younger self.

"Watch carefully."

His tone was calm.

"This is what you will do with beings like them."

He looked at the writhing anomaly.

"These things who do not belong here."

His eyes darkened slightly.

"And we will be their merciful end."

Then.

He moved.

The power of his physique awakened.

[Darkness & Light Origin Physique]

A force manifested that could be interpreted as the darkest power in existence, or the purest light.

Depending entirely on the perspective of the observer.

It spread outward like a living ocean.

The energy wrapped around the anomalous being completely.

AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!

The creature released a scream so violent that it should have shattered worlds and plunged mortals into madness.

Yet the black domain remained perfectly calm.

Like still water. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

The anomaly struggled desperately as its corruptive essence trying to infect the surrounding domain.

But the domain rejected it.

Yu Xuan watched carefully.

He could feel it now.

The energy being manipulated.

The power born from his own body flowed outward, surrounding the anomalous being, then slowly compressing it.

Breaking it apart.

And then.

Something impossible happened.

The anomalous essence was absorbed.

Yu Xuan felt it clearly.

The technique was not destroying the anomaly.

It was incorporating it.

And taking its power.

***

Hundun watched Yu Xuan suspended within the heart of the formation.

Days had passed.

Yet Yu Xuan remained like this – motionless, caught between future and impossibility, in this paradoxical thing.

Across the vast realm, the immense array still glowed faintly, its power gradually weakening as it maintained the connection.

Nearby, Sheng Mu was approaching her limit.

Even for her, sustaining such a ritual while drawing energy through the Tree itself could not continue indefinitely.

It would not be long before they were forced to stop the ceremony.

Deliberately.

Hundun remained silent as it considered everything that had happened.

The intrusion from the Forbidden Timeline had changed things.

Before that incident, Hundun had estimated their chances of escaping this sealed realm at roughly five percent.

Now.

It felt different.

If Yu Xuan had successfully drawn the true outcome from the ceremony...

Then they would win.

Mathematically, that conclusion made little sense.

But Hundun and the others had long since transcended ordinary mathematics.

Probability, causality, destiny.

These were tools, not chains.

Still, one thought lingered in Hundun’s mind.

After this incident, It very much preferred not to be associated with Yu Xuan.

A being capable of attracting interference from a Forbidden Timeline was the kind of variable even primordial entities preferred to keep at a distance.

Then.

Yu Xuan’s body twitched.

Several times in rapid succession.

Hundun immediately sensed it.

The flow of Qi within Yu Xuan had changed.

The ceremony had reached its conclusion.

Without hesitation, Hundun sent a signal.

Across the entire realm, the massive formation began collapsing in sequence.

The pressure faded.

The connection to the [Origin of Time] closed.

Yu Xuan’s suspended body slowly descended, guided safely by the remaining threads of the formation until his feet touched the ground.

Hundun studied him closely.

It was curious.

Very curious.

It wanted to know exactly what Yu Xuan had seen in the future.

But Hundun suppressed the impulse.

The rules of the Future Blessing Ceremony were not in their favour after trying to take advantage of the [Origin of Time] because the Dao was fair.

If anyone other than the challenger learned what had been witnessed.

The blessing would begin to diminish.

And the backlash would be disastrous.

So Hundun remained silent.

But the other beings who had witnessed the ceremony had their own thoughts.

Changhe Daojun stood with a dark expression as he looked toward Yu Xuan’s unconscious figure.

He particularly despised anything related to Forbidden Timelines.

Those places were outside area of travel.

And that fact irritated him more than anything else.

"Don’t make such a dark face," a voice chuckled beside him.

The squid-like existence drifted closer, its tentacles lazily waving.

"Your expression looks so funny I might release some Time Ink just to commemorate it. Khuu!"

Changhe Daojun’s gaze sharpened dangerously.

But he said nothing.

Nearby, Grand Controller observed everything quietly.

’He would make a fine seed,’ the Grand Controller thought.

He had already made some preliminary plans involving Yu Xuan earlier.

Now, however.

The situation had changed.

The difficulty had skyrocketed.

Yet strangely, he was not disappointed.

If anything, the challenge made the opportunity even more interesting.

Meanwhile, the Ximen Juesheng was being surrounded by numerous ancient figures, each bombarding him with questions.

Even he.

The Third Human Emperor.

Was still processing what had happened.

Across the gathering stood another observer.

The Heaven Changing Sword, Jian Chen.

His thoughts ran deeper than most.

And now after witnessing this ceremony.

A new thought had begun to take root.

He was seriously tempted to convert Yu Xuan into his race.

To make him his successor.

Even if it meant offending the entire Human race.

Yu Xuan had unknowingly attracted the attention of some of the most powerful beings within the sealed realm.

Whether that attention would become fortune or catastrophe.

Was a matter for his future self to worry about.

Because at the moment.

Yu Xuan was completely unconscious.