Secular world: My destiny has no taboos

Chapter 587-597: Past, Present, and Future
The sounds of several rats fighting in the courtyard were deafening, occasionally kicking up large amounts of dust, yet Lin Beixuan and the statue seemed to be shrouded in an eerie silence.

The eyes of the statue, originally carved from bluestone, now seemed to be covered with a warm luster, gradually radiating a hazy, soft light.

Suddenly, the rat-beast-human-bodied deity slightly turned its head, and the stone staff in its hand gently tapped under the offering table.

Despite the lack of sound, the long-eared giant rats and the lucky rats that were fighting seemed to be held down by an invisible force, their limbs frozen in place, and even the fur on their bodies that had been startled was frozen as if petrified.

Wisps of mist rose from all parts of the temple, spreading across the ground like silk, then creeping up the beams, bricks, and stone steps...

Lin Beixuan was also enveloped by the thin mist, and his black robes began to show strange weathering, as if they were being eroded by some kind of power of time. Even though his clothes were not ordinary, they gradually dimmed in the face of the power of time.

Realizing this, Lin Beixuan's inner temple opened, and black calamity flames spread outwards, engulfing his body like a sea of ​​fire.

The power of time's erosion was blocked by the calamity flames, but it was not ignited or burned. Instead, it continued to surge outwards, as if the mist had never intended to target Lin Beixuan in the first place.

"The power of time!"

Lin Beixuan opened his hands, and tiny sparks floated on his fingertips.

These sparks kept the erosion of time from his skin, but did not prevent him from feeling the power of time within them.

"People say that time waits for no one. As time goes by, things change, the world changes, and people change too. Nothing can stop the power of time."

At this moment, Lin Beixuan had already guessed what kind of law the old man Kongyun controlled.

time!

You have entered a special region - the Space of Time.

[Affected by the Law Space of the Mortal Master - Rat - Old Man Kongyun, the field has entered the Time Space. All life within the space is trapped in a special state called 'Time Erosion,' which cannot be covered by low-level altars or nullified.]

"Time is one of the most irresistible forces in the world. Anything, no matter how strong, is nothing more than a ripple in the river of time. It may appear briefly, but it will eventually disappear until the next ripple appears, and the cycle continues."

The aged, calm voice seemed to come from nowhere, as if it came from the distant heavens, or as if it were engraved in the ever-flowing time itself.

Lin Beixuan raised his eyes. He was no longer surrounded by an ancient and dilapidated temple, but by scenes that were moving rapidly.

He seemed to be sitting inside a sphere of light, with the surrounding scenery rushing by, while he remained unchanged.

This feeling was strange to him; it was an indescribable feeling—both familiar and unfamiliar.

Lin Beixuan turned his head and looked at the short old man who had appeared beside him at some point.

The old man had white hair but a youthful face. He wore a faded coarse cloth shirt and leaned on a jujube wood cane. The cloud patterns on the cane's head shimmered with light, as if the entire river of time was wrapped around it.

Below his brows were a pair of eyes that were not as aged and cloudy as those of an ordinary old man. They were bright and dazzling, like glass immersed in time, able to reflect a person's past and present lives.

"People who are seeing the River of Time for the first time should normally be a little flustered."

The old man tapped his wooden cane, and the rapidly passing scenery around Lin Beixuan suddenly paused, followed by the appearance of a scene.

Only then was Lin Beixuan able to take a closer look at his surroundings. To his surprise, he discovered that the rapidly passing scenery was not real, but rather fragments of images submerged in clear river water.

What he thought was a sphere of light was actually a ship whose outline could barely be discerned.

Standing at the bow of the boat was a figure, not a person, but a life form entirely composed of the water currents.

It rocked its oars without making a sound, and the oars glided across the water without creating a ripple.

"If you can see the passage of time, why panic?" Lin Beixuan asked rhetorically.

"Because there are so many people in the world, whether they are kings and generals or ordinary people, their lives are very different."

“Those with weak minds are easily trapped in a nightmare after observing water, while those with strong minds are still affected by the passage of time and thus feel worried and uneasy.”

Lin Beixuan smiled and said, "So, wouldn't it be all harm and no benefit?"

The old man shook his head: "No, there are those who break through their mental barriers and become immortals on the spot, but very few people can do it. Most of them get caught up in their own memories."

Do you know what the first thing people do when they enter the river of my life is?

Lin Beixuan raised an eyebrow, showing some interest.

"What will you do? Reflect on your own life? Or observe the lives of others?"

"neither!"

The old man shook his head again, his snow-white hair plastered to his scalp, as if it had been combed by the winds of time for a thousand years, so white it was almost transparent.

"They would ask me if they could ever go back to a certain period of their lives."

"Rebirth?" Lin Beixuan was somewhat surprised, followed by deep doubt: "Is there really such a thing as rebirth?"

The old man thought for a moment, then burst into laughter.

“Rebirth… Your analogy is quite apt.”

"Unfortunately, rebirth is impossible. Once time has passed, it's gone. How can it be relived?"

"Hehe, that's true. There aren't that many regret pills in the world." Lin Beixuan shrugged, seemingly unsurprised by Old Man Kongyun's answer.

Old Man Kongyun, leaning on his cane, came to the side of the boat, bent down, and scooped up a handful of river water.

Water leaked through his fingers, condensing into a picture in mid-air.

It was a middle-aged man in a brocade robe, weeping bitterly at his reflection in the river, repeatedly crying out, "If only everything could start over..."

Old Man Kongyun said calmly, "That was a wealthy merchant from Longzhou five hundred years ago. During a natural disaster, he colluded with other grain merchants to inflate grain prices, indirectly causing countless people to starve to death."

"After he died, he entered the underworld and was about to be severely punished by the Lord of the Underworld."

“However, because he believed in me during his lifetime, I allowed him to take a journey through the long river of time before he was to be executed, so that he could clearly see how many evil deeds he had committed in his life.”

Lin Beixuan scoffed disdainfully: "The punishments imposed by the former Lord of the Underworld were not severe at all. If it were me, he would never be able to reincarnate in this lifetime."

The old man in the empty clouds let go, and the image shattered into water droplets that fell back into the river.

"Time is not a tool that can be turned back, but a ledger."

"What you have done, what you have said, even the thoughts that have flashed through your mind will leave a mark in the river, which cannot be erased or changed."

Lin Beixuan looked at the life-giving water at the bow of the boat, which was still rowing silently.

Suddenly, the river water beneath the boat surged, revealing another scene.

Lin Beixuan looked over, a strange glint in his eyes.

Because the person in that picture was himself.

The picture shows him as a child, carrying a schoolbag and walking to school.

His parents have always been very busy, and they often leave him with the neighbors to take care of him. The longest they've gone without him is almost two months.

From that time on, he began to slowly learn to live independently on his own.

The neighbor had no children, and the only reason they took care of him was because their parents paid them well. Later, when the neighbor returned to his hometown and his parents were not around, Lin Beixuan learned to take care of himself.

This continued until one day, when the hospital suddenly received news that his parents had been in a car accident.

Lin Beixuan was in class at school when his homeroom teacher rushed into the classroom, took him away, and told him that his parents had been in a car accident and that he should go and see them immediately.

Outside the operating room, he sat blankly on a bench, his eyes vacant, his mind seemingly lost in thought.

cry?
Unfortunately, he couldn't cry. His childhood memories were fading, and all he could think about were the years his neighbors had taken care of him and the empty house he had been guarding all this time.

My parents often come back on the same day, only to leave again the very next day.

His feelings... seem to be minimal, not enough to make him shed tears for the other person.

But for some reason, his heart felt very heavy, so heavy that he could hardly breathe.

Lin Beixuan looked at himself sitting alone on the bench in the image, his hands supporting his knees, his head down, seemingly lost in thought. Suddenly, the black flame at his fingertips trembled, like a candle flame being blown by the wind, flickering out tiny slivers of light through the gaps.

At this moment, Old Man Kongyun suddenly asked, "You also have something you want to do over again, don't you?"

Lin Beixuan's expression was calm, but beneath that seemingly calm demeanor lay a complex mix of emotions and hopes.

He thought he had long forgotten that empty house, forgotten the cold porridge that was always warm on the stove when he opened the door after school, and forgotten the feeling of standing alone under the eaves while other children were picked up by their parents when it rained.

He even forgot that he had been sitting on the hospital bench for a long time, and when the nurse came out to express her condolences, he didn't even have the strength to get up.

In the scene, Lin Beixuan, who was only thirteen or fourteen years old, suddenly raised his head.

Those eyes were bright, but not the clear ones a boy should have; instead, they seemed to be covered by a thin layer of ice as he stared at the green light in the operating room, his fingertips digging into the wood grain of the bench.

You were only thirteen years old then.

The old man Kongyun spoke softly as he watched the scene on the screen with Lin Beixuan.

“I have seen too many people and things in the long river of time. Some resent the early death of their parents, some blame themselves for the words they never said, but you are different.”

Lin Beixuan withdrew his gaze, his Adam's apple bobbing: "Is there anything different?"

"You didn't turn around."

The old man Kongyun pointed to the scene in the river that suddenly accelerated.

Lin Beixuan did not shed a tear while handling his parents' funeral arrangements. After the few relatives who attended the funeral, they completely disappeared, as if Lin Beixuan had never existed in their memories.

Lin Beixuan returned home and placed his parents' photos on the table. The next day, he went to school as usual. With the savings and compensation left by his parents, he was admitted to a key high school. There was always a yellowed and old notebook in his desk, in which he recorded the expenses for daily necessities.

"Of all the people I've met, your early life wasn't the best."

Lin Beixuan chimed in, "I don't need others to judge my life. I forge my own path, not by listening to what others say."

The old man Kongyun smiled and tapped his wooden cane gently, producing an ancient hum.

"Others look for 'what ifs' in the past, but you look for 'what' next.' Perhaps that's why you've gotten to where you are today—by not dwelling on the past."

Lin Beixuan ignored the old man Kongyun's words and said indifferently, "I didn't come to see you this time to see my past."

"Hehehe..."

The old man in the empty clouds smiled, and the river water he scooped up formed a new picture.

Do you really think you've seen the end of your life?

"??"

Lin Beixuan's brows furrowed, and his gaze returned to the screen.

The person in the picture looks different from him; he is taller and more imposing, with a scholarly air about him, like a refined general.

“This is… Lu Chenjiang!” Lin Beixuan’s tone carried a subtle, almost imperceptible change.

Old Man Kongyun looked at Lin Beixuan: "What do you think his relationship is with you?"

Lin Beixuan lowered his head slightly, pressed his left chest, and felt the beating heart inside.

"Just say what you have to say."

The old man Kongyun smiled as he watched Lu Chenjiang's life flash by in the image, finally settling on the great battle on the Tianming Plain.

Almost all of the twelve Zodiac Gods participated in that great battle, not for the sake of pursuing anything, but simply to prove that their ideas were correct—a clash of ideologies.

Lu Chenjiang is a key figure in this. If he were just an ordinary person, how could he bear the karmic consequences of stirring up the world's situation, causing a war between immortals and gods, and leading to the fall of countless immortals and gods?

"Now that you've come here, it means that Hai Zhu and the others have intentionally let you know about these things."

"As you probably know now, all the mortal beings in this world, including us mortal gods, have become pawns on the Dragon's chessboard."

Lin Beixuan remained expressionless, neither nodding nor shaking his head.

The old man Kongyun said to himself, "This game of chess was played by him and the Lord of the Underworld hundreds of years ago."

"However, the Lord of the Underworld left after playing only half of the game, while he wanted to finish it all by himself."

"So he began his plan."

“At first I wanted to help him, but he refused. He said that this was a deadly road and that I had to risk everything. My strength should be saved for the future.”

Old Man Kongyun sighed and stood by the boat.

He simply waved his hand, and suddenly the river of time surged with waves, creating towering sprays, and countless scenes in the river began to recede rapidly.

"Unfortunately, I can only control the power of the past, not the future!"

"Chenlong has staked his future on this, dismembering everything he owns in an attempt to create something that can completely solve the problem of the world behind the door."

Lin Beixuan frowned upon hearing this, feeling somewhat displeased, and looked at Elder Kongyun.

"Are you saying that I am the one?"

Old Man Kongyun nodded, looking Lin Beixuan up and down: "Unfortunately, it seems he hasn't created what he envisioned."

"Why?" Lin Beixuan asked.

"Because what he originally wanted to create was a combination of personal power that could stop all disasters."

"But at this moment, you have gathered everything, using your own body to transform disaster and shake the world."

"How can the power of one person be the same as the power of everyone combined!"

The old man Kongyun's eyes were calm, and his gaze toward Lin Beixuan was as dim and uncertain as a candle flame.

(End of this chapter)