He was born as a blacksmith, but he dominated the world

Chapter 509 Future
The pulling was too fast, giving Jiang Lin little time to think.

In a very short time, he made a decision.

I won't leave!

The attack from the giant's divine body is a certain death situation that is currently impossible to deal with.

However, the darkness before us, and the presence that is pulling us there, does not necessarily represent absolute danger.

At the very least, he still has a chance to resist.

One is certain death, the other is possible death; from any perspective, the latter is more advantageous.

Therefore, it seems that I currently only have one option.

Jiang Lin didn't think much more about it, only remaining vigilant and letting the other party pull him closer and closer.

If one were to use the Giant Stream Armor to travel, even if it covered tens of thousands of miles at a time, it would still take some time.

But under the pull of the other party, the distance was tens of thousands of miles in an instant, and the speed was getting faster and faster.

In the end, Jiang Lin felt as if he had traversed more than a million miles in an instant.

Such power was beyond his imagination and comprehension.

Even a giant with divine physique probably couldn't do that.

In the next instant, Jiang Lin felt an incredibly intense tearing sensation.

To be precise, it felt as if my body was being torn apart.

The Heavenly Scale Armor uttered a strained, low voice: "Master, I cannot withstand such power!"

Jiang Lin naturally understood that even a top-grade divine weapon could not withstand the darkness before him.

Even he himself felt as if he were facing a giant god after entering the dark realm.

Moreover, this attack comes from all directions, leaving no blind spots and never stopping for a moment.

Imagine a giant god launching billions of attacks in an instant—how terrifying would that be?
Just when Jiang Lin thought he was doomed, the pressure around him suddenly dissipated.

A golden light enveloped him, and a figure appeared in front of him.

The figure stood in the darkness, as if enveloped by it, or as if it were part of the darkness itself.

Although he couldn't see his face clearly, Jiang Lin could sense a familiar aura that shared the same origin as him.

He identified the source of the aura almost instantly.

Oven baking method!
The same furnace method as his three indestructible golden bones!
However, the opponent's furnace-making aura was unimaginably powerful, more than a hundred times stronger than his own.

Jiang Lin was surprised, but before he could speak, the other party spoke first.

"So it was you. No wonder someone could come to this void."

The voice sounded very familiar, and Jiang Lin couldn't help but ask, "Who are you? Do you know me?"

"Who am I?" The voice sounded incredibly ancient, as if it had witnessed countless changes in the world and endured billions of years of loneliness.

He chuckled and said, "I am you."

Jiang Lin was even more surprised, or rather, puzzled.

"You are me? What do you mean?"

The figure shrouded in darkness did not answer immediately, but instead asked, "From which year did you arrive? Judging from the fact that you have condensed your entire body's Dao bones, it must have been during the time of Emperor Shun's conquest of Heaven, right?"

Emperor Shun's rebellion against Heaven?

Jiang Lin was even more puzzled. Although Emperor Shun was willing to fight against the giant's divine body, he had not yet done so.

Moreover, does "伐天" ​​really refer to fighting against the giant gods of the outside world? It just feels a bit strange.

Wait!
Jiang Lin suddenly realized that the other party was asking him which year he had come from.

Based on the fact that he had condensed all his Dao bones, it was speculated that he came from the time when Emperor Shun attacked the heavens.

According to the actual course of history, the border army had not yet been fully expanded, the giant's remains had not been completely collected, and Emperor Shun had not yet made any move to attack Heaven.

His own cultivation level was only at the stage of condensing half of his Dao bones.

When was the event the other party was referring to?

future!

Only the future!

Jiang Lin blurted out, "Isn't this a thousand years before the founding of the Great Qian Dynasty?"

"A thousand years ago?" The figure seemed to understand something and said, "So you are still in the period when you first came into contact with fragments of history from a thousand years ago in the Great Qian Dynasty? I was wrong. You did not come from the whole body, but with the help of the power of the martial arts in the human world."

Jiang Lin felt his hair stand on end; the conversation gave him a strange, surreal feeling, as if he were in another world.

The figure stopped playing games with him and said, "You're right, this is indeed not a fragment of history from a thousand years before the founding of the Great Qian Dynasty, but rather from after the founding of the Great Qian Dynasty..."

His voice trailed off, and then he said, "I don't know how many years have passed now, maybe a hundred thousand years, or a million years? Or maybe even longer. Time doesn't exist here, so I can't answer your question."

Although the darkness obscured the other person's face, making it impossible to discern, Jiang Lin already understood why the voice sounded familiar.

Although the voice was full of vicissitudes and weariness, it was almost exactly the same as his own!
Jiang Lin's voice trembled slightly: "Could you be me from a million years in the future? This time, entering this picturesque world, I'm not looking back to the past, but rather arriving in the future?"

"Yes, if I remember correctly, it was when you were searching for the seventh kind of strange fire for Jiang Hengyu that your fist technique was interfered with by the giant's power."

What the other party said completely matches reality.

Jiang Lin wanted to suspect something, but couldn't find any reason to do so.

Because the opponent's power was too great, this dark power, comparable to the countless attacks of a giant god in an instant, could be easily concealed.

If he wanted to kill himself, it would be as easy as turning his head; there was no need to resort to these messy methods.

Having figured this out, Jiang Lin completely relaxed.

Since this is myself countless years from now, there's no reason to hurt him.

Despite the terrifying power of darkness surrounding it, this is already the safest place in the world.

"I might indeed have been affected by the power of the giant's divine body, which interfered with my martial arts technique. I never expected to see my future self. Where is this? And what are these dark forces?" Jiang Lin asked curiously.

"This is the macrocosm, which, simply put, is the collection of all worlds."

"Macrocosm?" Jiang Lin was surprised. Even if the giant god interfered with the martial arts world and caused the timeline of "Human World as Beautiful" to go wrong, it shouldn't be able to travel to other worlds.

The figure seemed to understand Jiang Lin's doubts and said, "Seeing you reminds me of how surprised I was back then, with the same questions and the same answers. You didn't leave your original world; it's just that after the final battle, all the worlds were connected, forming the macrocosm that didn't exist before."

"The darkness you see is a sign that the macrocosm is about to be extinguished."

"And I am the only living person in all the worlds, supporting the macrocosm from being completely swallowed by darkness."

Jiang Lin was even more astonished. The only living person in the entire world?

Doesn't that mean that everything I'm familiar with has been destroyed?

This includes Old Man Wei, Emperor Shun, Sheng Yingchun, Liao Mingxu, Commander Yu, and others.

"That's right, they all cease to exist long ago."

Jiang Lin took a deep breath, suppressing his slight panic, and asked, "Why is this happening? What do you mean by the final battle? Who are we fighting against?"

“Our enemies are different every time.”

The figure sighed, "Haven't you ever thought that you possess martial arts skills in this world, and so do I? You can see your future self, and can I too?" Jiang Lin had certainly thought about this question, but he wasn't sure how it had anything to do with what he was asking.

The figure said, "There have been countless versions of 'us,' each seeing their future selves. Guided by the clues of the future, we have come step by step, until now, when you meet me."

"Although he killed all the enemies, he also destined all the worlds to be destroyed, and made himself suffer this loneliness forever."

"I must admit that even if countless versions of myself paved the way, I was still wrong before you made your decision."

"Or rather, countless versions of us have taken the wrong path. This path was not the best choice for us."

Jiang Lin was somewhat confused, seemingly understanding but not quite.

"You mean, before me, there were countless versions of ourselves who saw our future selves. We learned about the future from them, made corrections, and eventually ended up like you?"

"Yes."

Jiang Lin fell silent, gazing at the endless darkness around him.

No wonder this place is so vast that a single step can feel like an endless expanse of thousands of miles; it turns out to be a collection of all worlds, hence its absurdly large size.

It could even be said that the area they explored was just the tip of the iceberg.

The vast majority of places were swallowed up by darkness.

Considering what the other person just said, I wonder if they have spent millions or tens of millions of years here alone.

Jiang Lin suddenly couldn't help but shiver.

Humans are social animals and find it difficult to tolerate loneliness.

In a previous life, I conducted a similar experiment, locking a person in a dark, soundproof room where they could neither hear nor see anything.

That almost absolute sense of emptiness is something almost no one can endure for more than an hour.

But my future self spent countless millennia here.

How did he manage to endure such loneliness?
"The indestructible golden body allows us to live forever. Even if darkness completely engulfs the macrocosm, we will not die."

"However, this is not a lucky thing, but rather like a curse."

"I've been waiting for you, just to tell you not to repeat the same mistakes. This is not the path we should choose!"

Jiang Lin finally understood that the Indestructible Golden Body was indeed incredibly powerful.

So powerful that even if all the worlds were destroyed, he himself would not die.

In a sense, the ultimate goal has indeed been achieved.

But the question is, what's the point of living forever in such darkness?

This road is indeed very unpleasant, even unacceptable.

Jiang Lin took another deep breath and said, "Then tell me everything you know, and we can discuss together what the right choice is."

"Naturally, this is the greatest significance of my ability to prevent the macrocosm from being swallowed up. Otherwise, if it were truly swallowed by darkness, you would be torn apart the moment you entered. At that time, I would cease to exist as well."

Jiang Lin was taken aback. Would his death affect his future self?

It's not surprising when you think about it; without your past self, how could you have a future?

He couldn't help but wonder if his future self, in the midst of countless years of solitude, had ever prayed that his past self would perish prematurely, so as to end this terrifying ending.

“I have never prayed for such a thing, because our belief is that we take our destiny into our own hands. It doesn’t matter if we take the wrong path for a while, as long as we correct it, we will always get back on the right track.”

Hearing this, Jiang Lin felt much relieved.

Yes, I've never believed that it's a good thing to have your destiny in someone else's hands.

Only self-control is the best!

He exhaled a breath of stale air and said, "Then let's begin. I'm very interested to know what my future self has done and what wrong paths I've taken."

"That's a very long timeline, it will take a very long time to tell."

Jiang Lin smiled and said, "You know, we have plenty of time, almost unlimited, at least here."

"That's true. In that case, let's start from the moment you left here..."

In a world where life is like a painting, time has little meaning.

Jiang Lin used to think that time was just a way for him to witness the past.

Now, in the vast universe ravaged by darkness, time has completely lost its meaning.

He listened intently to his future self recounting the events that had transpired.

Many things are things I never imagined.

It turns out that Emperor Shun's goal was not simply to fight against the giant's divine body.

It turns out that the so-called "Emperor Shun's conquest of Heaven" really meant conquering the heavens above.

Emperor Shun's only goal was to crush the existence of the seventh ancestor of the Western Barbarians with a single finger.

This emperor of the Great Qian Dynasty speculated that giants were beings that fell to earth after death.

It is pointless to fight against the giant's divine body alone.

Giants will keep falling, and the people of the Great Qian Dynasty will find it difficult to maintain lasting peace.

Therefore, he must completely shatter the heavens and eliminate the source of the disaster.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Lin couldn't help but feel a sense of admiration for Emperor Shun.

This Emperor of the Great Qian Dynasty was even more far-sighted and ambitious than he had imagined!

"That's a very interesting and capable young man, no wonder he's a descendant of Ma Ningyan," his future self praised.

In the future that has already been verified, the choices made by Emperor Shun and Jiang Lin's response at the time were both correct.

But just as the flapping of a butterfly's wings can stir up a storm on the other side of the ocean.

What seemed like the right choice at the time may not have been entirely correct in the future.

Or rather, it could become a trigger that leads to a series of changes in subsequent events.

Jiang Lin didn't interrupt; he knew too little about the matter and just needed to listen.

In the vast universe where time has vanished, Jiang Lin, amidst the darkness, hears countless futures.

Countless versions of ourselves move step by step toward the future, validating each different choice we make.

Ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times, ten thousand times...

Even my future self has lost count of how many times this has happened.

For me, this is the future.

But for the future, that is the past.

Within this timeframe, there can be one time, or there can be countless times.

Even the most mathematically gifted genius cannot accurately calculate the numbers involved.

Jiang Lin spent a very long time just listening, until he himself forgot the time.

(End of this chapter)