“Y-You can’t be serious, haven’t you heard of the butterfly effect?! Just me being here talking to you is going to change so much, I might not even return to a recognizable timeline.”
As Li Shen thought this his jitters increased and he began panicking even more.
Meanwhile, Li Bai shrugged his shoulders and said.
“I’m sure it will be fine.”
Li Shen didn’t pay him any mind as he realized he was a bit slow, which was disappointing.
He had no idea how disastrous this was.
Li Shen in his past life as Avarice had studied this very thing. His entire goal was to become a cultivator, after which he would choose a path to comprehend time. He hoped that one day, as much of an impossibility it was, that he could bring back his family.
That was his driving force and why he spend every waking day of his life for.
He knew of the first Empyrean Rule of heaven that states no one under the heavens should pursue the comprehension of time or interfere with it.
But he thought that with this way of comprehending the laws, he wouldn’t be bound to those rules. He would go against the heavens and bring back his family that was stripped away from him, reversing the bad hand that the heavens themselves had dealt him.
However, he eventually ended up dying.
Though even after death he had awoken an unknown amount of years in the future. Of course his goal was the same, and despite his growing attachment to his family at the back of his mind, he didn't think of them as his true family. Li Shen didn’t see this life as his own, he wasn’t the second prince he didn’t want that responsibility, or anyone to call him that.
To achieve his goal he was even willing to use Yang Su to faster his comprehension of the Six Elements so he could finally start comprehending time.
Everything was so that he could see his family again, to go back to the life that was unfairly ripped from him.
But as time passed, that path he tried to take became muddled. He found himself hesitating and questioning himself.
Should he hold onto his past and let the hatred of the injustice he once faced fuel his motives in this life? Or should he just let it go and live this new life that was granted to him? The God Era was gone, he should be focused on that, why should he seek to go back to a life that was nothing but torment for a simple chance of seeing something that was long gone?
His emotions boiled over when a face from the past appeared in front of him. But after he met an incarnation of Avarice and he accepted this life. He accepted he was no longer Avarice and was Li Shen the second prince of the Maple Continent. And he would take responsibility.
So having gone through all of this and letting go of his desire to use his cultivation of Time like that, only to now be put in this situation.
There is no way Li Shen could be blamed for his reaction.
On top of his lack of desire to use his comprehension of Time like this, was his profound understanding of its consequences he once ignored.
‘An entire Timeline could be erased from existence because it broke the Empyrean Rule.’
The staggering amount of danger in such an outcome was not something Li Shen could fathom.
‘If the Heavens deemed me being here great of an offense then the Empyrean Rule would be enacted. But considering nothing has happened so far something special must be about that gluttonous thing’s method. But if I was to say anything about the future I can’t guarantee something won't happen.’
Li Bai watched as Li Shen continued to walk back and forth. He released a smile before he snapped his fingers.
Li Shen suddenly disappeared to appear sitting on the throne.
“Calm down, I don’t think you realize the nature of you're existence while you're here. Take a minute to examine your body, do you feel anything strange?”
Li Shen was frowning at Li Bai, but upon hearing him he paused.
He soon did what Li Bai suggested and he closed his eyes to examine his body.
“This-”
Li Shen’s eyes flew open and revealed the shock within them. He had been so distracted that he hadn’t realized something like this.
Where his dantian should have been, the Time Seed was there instead. It was pulsating with a strange silver light.
“Did you finally realize? I’m not sure what that treasure is but it's completely mysterious. As you are right now the heavens can’t sense your existence, and from what I can tell you aren’t part of the flow of time.”
An indistinguishable flicker flash past Li Bai's eyes as he stared at Li Shen thoughtfully. He then continued to say.
“That means we can talk freely.”
Li Shen’s anxiousness slowly melted away upon realizing this.
“What do you want to know?”
Li Shen eventually sighed and asked.
Smiling, Li Bai responded.
“How is the Clan?”
Li Shen thought for a moment then said.
“We’re still the rulers of the Continent.”
Li Bai didn’t mind Li Shen’s casually way of speaking to him and simply asked again.
“Who are you in the clan?”
“The Second Prince.”
Li Shen was trying to keep his answers simple regardless.
“Oh.”
Li Bai said surprised upon hearing that.
“Are you going to become a Guardian Elder then?”
“Guardian Elder?”
Li Shen reiterated in a questioning tone, not sure what Li Bai was talking about.
Seeing Li Shen’s confusion at what a Guardian Elder was, he was first livid that his descendants had forgotten his rules. But after some thought, he realize that it might not be the case.
‘Maybe he wasn’t selected because he had the potential to cross the Heavenly Bridge. It would have been a be waste if a talented member of her clan was forced to be tied down by my rules. I was so worried that I made another rule that exceptions should be made in circumstance that calls for it.’
After thinking that Li Bai asked a few more questions.
To Li Shen’s discredit he wasn’t asking about future events or anything specific in detail, but broad questions like the size of the clan or if they were still following traditions.
“Wait, so the clan stopped creating statues of past Emperors? Why?”
Li Bai on his umpteenth question asked shocked.
Li Shen rose from his slouching position on the throne and shrugged his shoulders.
“I’m not sure, no statues of past Emperors have been erected, not even yours.”
A hesitant look appeared on Li Shen’s face but he eventually said slowly.
“In fact, nothing much is known about you. Your entire record was scrapped from the clan, you're only known as our Founding Clan Patriarch and the First Emperor.”
Li Bai went silent upon hearing that. Then thinking of something, he smiled bitterly then said.
“I think I just heard something I shouldn’t have.”
Li Shen immediately realized he might have made a blunder, but Li Bai consoled him.
“It’s fine, I knew I wasn’t going to be around forever. I must have ordered my information to be erased from the clan, or I likely did it myself before running away. That’s what I always do and I am good at.”
A self-deprecating smile covered Li Bai’s face as he said that, causing the mood to become somewhat musky.
Li Shen didn’t understand what he meant by that.
Waving his hand dismissively as if he wanted to fan away the bad mood he created, Li Bai then said.
“Anyway, you can ask me some questions you want to know.”
He then smiled and awaited Li Shen’s questions.
Li Shen was still trying to wrap his head around this entire situation. It was supposed to be as big of a deal as it was currently.
He was in the past as a ghost, speaking with his Clan Founder that was no more than a legend than he was a mystery.
This situation should be more intense and shocking. At least more climactic.
But as it was now, Li Shen couldn’t help but think that this was too underwhelming.
Though he couldn’t say he wasn’t curious about this man who was his clan’s founder.
Li Shen looked at Li Bai and asked.
“You said you left, where did you go?”
Li Bai’s smile faltered a little but he eventually said after a while.
“I went back to my Clan.”
Li Shen’s brows furrowed in confusion.
“I don’t understand, what do you mean you went back to your clan?”
Li Bai sighed before saying in a heavy tone.
“I’m not originally from your clan on this continent, I fell in love and married into the Li Clan while taking up the surname Li name.”
Li Shen’s brain short circuit upon hearing that, but he managed to ask.
“Are you...from the Golden Lotus Clan on the Central Continent?”
Li Shen quickly made a connection.
Seeing Li Bai nod his head, the shock Li Shen felt increased. He wanted something climactic, I guess he got it because this opened a whole new load of questions.
**
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