My Endless Life.

Chapter 639 The End of the World
"what is that?"

In the space of memory, seeing the frozen nothingness, Li Qi asked blankly.

The fleeing Soul Realm members, the Soul Realm powerhouses who could not escape, and the completely collapsed Soul Realm all brought him immense shock.

A nameless sense of despair and helplessness spread through his heart.

This sense of despair and helplessness is just like that of the Demon King.

Upon hearing Li Qi's question, the Demon King simply shook his head slowly: "I don't know."

Li Qi then looked at the Demon King. He opened his mouth slightly, intending to ask something, but the words that came out turned into something else entirely:
"Those... Soul Saints, why didn't they just transfer away?"

The world is boundless... at least that's what everyone thought before they saw this nothingness.

The vast ocean, relying solely on its own speed, would require an incalculable amount of time to travel from one end to the other.

Therefore, the way the powerful connect their worlds is by using [transfer].

Using the power of their respective worlds and the [space strings] that are found everywhere in the world's oceans, they can travel through space to reach the places they want to go.

Li Qi used this method to travel from the Myriad Star Realm to the Azure Profound Realm.

Otherwise, if he had continued at his original speed, it would probably have taken him tens of millions of years... or even hundreds of millions of years to reach the Cangxuan Realm.

It's common knowledge that strong individuals use teleportation to travel.

However, the Soul Saints of the Soul Realm did not do so.

why?
“I don’t know,” the Demon King said solemnly. “But according to my guess, at that time, the spatial strings in that space, including the Soul Realm, were disordered, or even non-existent! Only this can explain why they didn’t relocate.”

Or worse.

The spatial string still exists, but it points only to that void that is devouring everything.

That's why the strong would rather escape in the most ordinary way.

"But...even so, their speed..."

The speed of a ninth-tier powerhouse can surpass the limit that light can reach within the current universe; simply put, it is faster than light speed.

In some worlds, the speed of light may be the fastest speed currently available and cannot be surpassed, but within the world's oceans, the speed of light is no longer the standard for speed.

To travel back and forth between adjacent worlds, one would need to travel faster than light.

And that speed was very fast, very fast.

It was so fast that ordinary people couldn't even imagine what kind of speed it was.

Even at such a speed, those powerful individuals could not escape the collapse.

"...Their escape speed was not fast enough."

The Demon King said in a deep voice, "The speed of the collapse is even faster than their maximum speed!"

"Or... they're slowing down..."

Li Qi then thought of another possibility.

Ninth-tier powerhouses utilize rules, while even tenth-tier powerhouses cannot create rules. This means that all their power is built upon the application of rules.

Whoever masters the rules more skillfully and applies them better will be more powerful.

However, if the rules they are familiar with change, their strength will also change.

The power of all the strong is based on the overall rules of the World Sea, so once the rules of the World Sea change, their power will also change.

Therefore, if the collapse causes disruption of the spatial strings and changes in the rules, then the fastest speed may no longer be the speed they thought it would be.

The speed of light might even slow down.

They thought they were escaping quickly, but in reality, their speed was probably lower than the speed of light, or even lower...

"But no matter what, it proves that once the collapse covers an area of ​​the Great World, everyone... will have no chance to escape!"

The Demon King spoke to Li Qi in a deep voice.

This is the most terrifying place.

The powerful could no longer use their escape and travel methods, and their speed was slower than the collapse. They could only watch helplessly as they and the world fell into the endless void.

This is the same for everyone.

Li Qi felt his palms sweating; he hadn't felt this way in a long time.

Li Qi used to think that even if things got to the worst point, he could still run away and travel to the next world through his special reincarnation method.

He will always be the most special one.

But now, his special abilities have become useless in the face of the catastrophe that has swept across the world's oceans.

After all the worlds are swallowed by the void, even if Li Qi manages to escape, where can he go?
At most, it means living a little longer than others.

“No…” Li Qi suddenly looked up at the Demon King, his eyes fixed on him: “How did you escape? Even those ninth and tenth-tier powerhouses were shrouded in the collapse, so how were you able to escape?”

Can't you guess?

Leaving his memories behind, the Demon King released Li Qi. He took two steps back to create distance between himself and Li Qi, then opened his arms to release his soul power, saying, "The soul power array is the reason I was able to come here."

"Soul Power Array..."

"The method of the soul power array to travel through the world is not to transfer by locking coordinates through spatial strings, but to determine the coordinates of the small world in advance and use the power of the small world to pull it."

"On the surface, it's about projecting your soul out, but in reality, it's the smaller world that pulls you there."

Upon hearing this, Li Qi understood and also realized why the Demon King was so desperate.

With a complicated expression, he said to the Demon King, "That's why you're here."

“Yes.” The Demon King nodded: “I fled here… to await my death.”

The Soul Power Array can only be used once at a time. After using it again, one needs to use the array's power to return. But now... the Demon King's Soul Power Array is in the collapsed and shattered Soul Realm, in that world that has fallen into the void.

He had no more chance to use the soul power array, and he could no longer escape.

Perhaps some people with secret techniques, or those who are already very strong, are able to break free from the formation and leave the small world to go to other worlds.

But the Demon King is definitely not that kind of person.

He was just one of the countless ordinary cultivators who escaped from the Soul Realm.

So, just as he himself said.

He came here to wait for death.

"If that's the case, then why did you become the Demon King?"

Li Qi became curious about the Demon King's motives.

The Demon King laughed, a bitter and desperate laugh: "I thought... I could live a long time... I thought I could live until I died..."

The flow rates differ between the small world and the large world.

Therefore, even if the World Sea is truly doomed, at least before its destruction, the Demon King should be able to live a peaceful life in the small world.

He did whatever he wanted in his life, considering it his final act of madness.

"What do you 'think'?"

Upon hearing the Demon King's words, Li Qi's eyelids twitched, and he had a bad feeling.

Without a word, the Demon King waved his hand, and the peculiar clock in front of the throne flew to the two of them.

This is a clock that only those who cultivate soul power or consciousness can see.

The Demon King pointed to the peculiar clock face:

"This is a prop we created together through communication; we call it the Death Knell."

"..."

Putting aside the fact that the name seems to overlap with that of an anti-hero from the DC universe, Li Qi understands why they chose such a name.

"Because it can predict the process of collapse?" Li Qi guessed.

Unfortunately, he was right.

The Demon King nodded and pointed to the pointer above, saying, "This pointer will only go through one cycle, starting from the top and ending at the top. Once it completes one cycle, it means that the collapse is imminent. But now... it only has one mark left."

"How long did it take?"

"Twelve years."

The Demon King laughed bitterly: "Twelve years... This world is just an ordinary medium-sized world, and its time flow is at least a hundred times different from that of the Soul Realm. But... it only took twelve years to collapse and arrive here. Even if this world is very close to the Soul Realm, this should not have happened."

"Is time... slowing down?"

“Some of us speculate that the collapse caused a change in the rules of time. Also, as the collapse approaches, the time flow in the nearby smaller worlds will become closer to that of the larger world,” the Demon King explained.

If soul power cultivators can exchange their soul power catalysts, they can communicate through soul power even if their small worlds are very close to each other.

It's like a chat group.

However, this chat group doesn't cover a large area, so if you want to get information from farther places, you need someone to act as an intermediary.

The good news is that nowadays, almost all the soul power cultivators in the Soul Realm have scattered to various small worlds using soul power arrays. On average, there is one soul power cultivator for every five small worlds in this area.

Communication was not a problem for them at all.

The bad news is...

They are all fish that have come ashore.

Death was just a step away.

Li Qi remained silent, staring at the hands of the [Death Knell], watching the arrow gradually approaching the 'end,' and asked the Demon King:

"How much longer?"

"I don't know, maybe a year? Maybe half a year? Maybe only one day left, but I'm sure it's not now, because it has only just moved."

That's what the Demon King originally thought.

Li Qi thought so too. Since the scale had just been moved not long ago, it wouldn't be necessary to move the pointer again so quickly.

It took the Demon King twelve years for the pointer to almost complete its cycle. Even if the pointer's speed gradually increases, it shouldn't be possible to complete a cycle so quickly.

But they were both wrong.

Just as Li Qi breathed a sigh of relief and was about to return to the Holy City to continue collecting cultivation data from this world.

A crisp click sound rang in their ears.

The sound was truly like a death knell, booming in their ears and shaking their souls.

The Demon King's expression turned blank and bewildered, and Li Qi also silently looked at the Death Knell beside the Demon King.

The crisp sound just now was the sound of the pointer turning.

It completed a full cycle during their conversation, and the pointer returned to the very beginning, which was also the final destination.

Then, under their gaze, it dissipated, transforming into the appearance of this world: the burning hearth fire.

The embers from the furnace scattered across the ground, rolling and gradually dying out.

The extinguished flames seemed to symbolize the final end of this world.

(End of this chapter)