Chapter 1871: Bu River

Hearing this, Xu Xiaoshou sighed inwardly.

He probably knew his guess was correct.

The Name Ancestor might not have perished, but the plan was likely ruined; otherwise, there wouldn't be so many Kong Yuhens—so that's it?

"When we meet again, Name is no longer Name..." The Nuo Ancestor, mentioning reincarnation, uttered a phrase remarkably similar to what the Ghost Ancestor once said: "Next time we meet, I may not be myself." The Ghost Ancestor controls reincarnation!

Xu Xiaoshou couldn't help but ponder:

What exactly is the path of reincarnation? Is it connecting life and death end-to-end, granting oneself a chance to start over, or is it self-deception, an unwillingness to admit defeat?

Are the Four Ancestors, through reincarnation, dead or still alive? Is the essence of demise the annihilation of the three paths of body, spirit, and consciousness, or the loss of self after recognizing my failure?

Some questions are destined to have no answers.

As Xu Xiaoshou thought of this, his sense of self became even stronger:

"I am me, not like others!"

"Name" was only a part of Xu Xiaoshou; it never represented his entirety. He even had many names: Wen Ming, Chen Shu, Little Stone Tan Ji... but he knew he was always Xu Xiaoshou, the "Grandpa Shou" in their mouths, not the Name Ancestor.

"How could Grandpa Shou become the 'Name Ancestor'? If anything, he'd become the 'Shou Ancestor'!"

His thoughts rippled, and the white smoke before him swayed.

A strong temporal aura surged forth. Xu Xiaoshou looked on alertly and saw the Time Ancestor, standing to the right, make a move.

"First move!"

Were these three merely talking theory, or did they possess true skill? Xu Xiaoshou also understood the path of time, and he was waiting for this moment to compare the Time Ancestor with himself and with Kong Yuhen from the Ancient and Modern Sorrowful Pavilion.

"Whoosh!"

The Time Ancestor flipped a hand, and ripples erupted behind them. Their river of time wasn't like a typical river; it was more like a vast river or an boundless ocean. Giant waves, like silver waterfalls, poured down from the nine heavens, crashing against the void with a roar, sending up thousands of feet of spray, making the scene tremble intensely, then surging away to an unseen destination.

"So powerful!"

Just this single act of summoning the river of time moved Xu Xiaoshou deeply. He had seen Kong Yuhen summon the river of time, and he himself had summoned it, even traveling along it into the past. Time, like water, had always been incredibly calm. Xu Xiaoshou had once thought that time nourished silently, and that the river of time naturally looked like the trickling stream they summoned. He never imagined that time could also rage, capable of becoming monstrous waves!

"Divide."

The Time Ancestor drew a line with joined fingers. With this motion, the white smoke almost dispersed. The river of time, falling from the distant sky, relentlessly surging and overflowing, almost engulfing everything, obediently split into nine distinct paths.

The nine rivers meandered, like nine dragons seeking their path, flowing in parallel towards the distance, their surfaces interwoven with light and shadow, displaying various colors distinctly, without interfering with each other.

"There are images!"

Xu Xiaoshou also understood time, though not perfectly, and immediately directed his attention to the images on the river of time. Those images were lifelike, enclosed within illusory bubbles, each bubble representing a segment of time and space, recording the events that had occurred within it.

"The river of time I summon can only achieve a two-dimensional effect. Good heavens, they've gone beyond even holographic imaging..."

Without time to marvel, Xu Xiaoshou glanced at all nine rivers, simultaneously scanning all temporal and spatial landscapes. He was very greedy! He tried to find traces of the Holy Divine Continent on the Time Ancestor's river of time, knowing they must be there! The Time Ancestor was one of the Ten Ancestors of the Five Domains. The Name Ancestor's methods must have involved a connection with him in a certain life, and although the process was unclear, the outcome was distinct.

"Search, search, search..."

Xu Xiaoshou skimmed through, observing incredibly quickly. Based on the powerful soul and consciousness cultivated by Super-Dao Transformation and the Intent-Dao Disc, he rapidly absorbed all information, simultaneously remembering and processing it.

Before long, his brows twitched; he had found something.

"Void Island!"

On the sixth river of time, among billions of bubbles, he keenly found Void Island, which had a slightly familiar aura. At this time, Void Island had not yet split into inner and outer layers and was still in a chaotic state. It was as tiny as a black bean, lingering amidst the fragmented currents of time, and its bubble, like the billions of surrounding bubbles, was entirely normal. In the grand scheme of time, Void Island was equally insignificant!

"Void Island, however, nurtured the Sky Ancestor..."

Xu Xiaoshou knew the outcome and hastily channeled his will, trying to "push" himself into the past.

He gained a little. He saw more clearly. The terrain on Void Island was complex and somewhat barren, but spiritual energy was abundant, nurturing its own beings. At this time, extremely tall giants were already "pioneering"...

"What a primitive era!"

Time flowed, and what he saw was far from complete. The scene was as if someone had pressed a fast-forward button; a single thought could span ten thousand years. Xu Xiaoshou's brain capacity wasn't that large yet, so he couldn't clearly see or remember everything.

After countless tens of thousands, millions, or perhaps billions of years. The giants on Void Island, after experiencing birth, death, battle, and struggle, finally gave birth to the first child of the plane.

"The Sky Ancestor!"

Xu Xiaoshou knew the Sky Ancestor very well. With just a glance, he recognized this ancestral god, who had left a legacy within him, by their aura.

The Sky Ancestor was born and raised by nature, born robust and many times taller than other giants. Their entire life seemed to be accelerated. Not many scenes were visible; in various battles, the Sky Ancestor went through infancy, adolescence, maturity... sweeping all before them, without a single rival.

Finally, black light descended from the sky, and Void Island welcomed a dark figure: the Demon Ancestor. The Demon Ancestor, clad in black armor and wielding a black spear, fought a battle that similarly swept past as the river of time flowed, and Void Island returned to quiet.

"Damn!"

Xu Xiaoshou desperately wanted to rush in, hit the pause button, and watch slowly. Before he could complain, after a single thought, countless tens of thousands of years had passed again, and he was once more moved.

"Me!"

Xu Xiaoshou saw himself! While enlightened in the Ancient and Modern Sorrowful Pavilion, his consciousness lingering in the river of time, peering into the truth of the black turntable through the source of space-time, he now saw himself in the white smoke image, himself during the Void Island period, on the river of time... This feeling was too miraculous!

Before the tide of time, all were equal. The Sky Ancestor's entire life was so insignificant, and so was Xu Xiaoshou's.

His self during the Void Island period flashed by. If not for his powerful consciousness and the fact that it was himself, he would barely have caught it. Besides himself, he saw places like Shennong Medicine Garden, Sin One Hall, and Abyssal Fall, and also people like Jiang Buyi, Dao Qiongcang, and Rao Yaoyao.

The difference was...

Even Dao Qiongcang, no matter how unfathomable he was, in the river of time summoned by the Time Ancestor within the white smoke image, he finally was no longer divine. —Like a chess piece, moving step by step, propelled by destiny.

"He didn't look up."

"He didn't notice me." Xu Xiaoshou felt a mix of relief, regret, and lingering fear, thinking that if Dao Qiongcang had really looked up, it would have been an accident.

The great waves washed away the sand. Void Island was merely a grain of sand. Its bubble images, as they surged forward with the sixth river of time, quickly vanished into nothingness.

"Time..."

Xu Xiaoshou whispered silently, feeling a weighty vastness from these two simple words. He looked at the Time Ancestor.

He had originally thought that the Time Ancestor, mastering the path of time and capable of splitting the river of time into nine with a single finger, should be able to manipulate everything. He quickly chuckled, realizing he had taken things for granted. Even the Time Ancestor, currently manipulating the nine parallel rivers of time, though their face wasn't clearly visible, showed signs of difficulty through their movements. This perfectly explained why they had hesitated earlier over merely nine clones.

"Making time flow in parallel and constantly supervising it is already an act against the heavens, let alone being distracted by other matters?"

The nine dragons of time advanced forward. Xu Xiaoshou no longer probed deeply; just watching was becoming too much mental pressure for him, and he quickly resorted to skimming. He watched selectively, choosing what felt comfortable.

And indeed! Among the myriad earthly experiences he had previously gained insight from, he caught glimpses of some scenes, fragmented here and there, from the Dragon Ancestor and Phoenix at the top to common mortals at the bottom. Was that worldly insight actually real?

"Emperor Ganshi, he's got something..."

His thoughts reached this point, and Xu Xiaoshou suddenly remembered. Ever since entering the world behind the door, the continuous worldly insights he had been experiencing had stopped. This meant that the power from Emperor Ganshi's realm and from the people wasn't yet strong enough to interfere with the source of space-time.

"Indeed, how could Emperor Ganshi compare to the Time Ancestor?"

Once the river of time appeared and then split into nine, after the initial commotion, it gradually stabilized under the Time Ancestor's control. The white smoke image also stabilized accordingly.

The three's discussion resumed.

"Magnificent!" The masked figure, clearly not seeing this for the first time, still exclaimed in admiration. Standing beside the Name Ancestor with arms crossed, they gazed at the nine temporal dragons ahead and mused: "After time flows in parallel, nine reincarnations open simultaneously, no longer sequential." "However, the place of reincarnation must be carefully chosen, especially the first one; it needs to be half a step ahead of the others, right?" "I have observed many beings who have reached the ancestral god realm; they can be good helpers... The future, so exciting!"

Future? Xu Xiaoshou was stunned. This meant his earlier prediction of the former was correct. The era these three were in was countless eons earlier than the Sky Ancestor's?

But at this moment, the Time Ancestor gently shook their head and uttered a profound statement: "All that is seen is the past."

Past? This time, not only were the Nuo Ancestor and Name Ancestor stunned, but Xu Xiaoshou was also stunned. So it wasn't the former of his predictions, but the latter? Were these three countless eras *after* the Ten Ancestors of the Holy Divine Continent—meaning the Name Ancestor was also *after* him?

"No, that's not right."

Xu Xiaoshou suddenly recalled. In the world behind the first door, from the Time Ancestor's back, the terms "Ancestor Xu" and "Name Ancestor" were spoken. He deduced that world behind the door was the future. After all, he hadn't yet become an ancestral god. And for the Time Ancestor to address him that way, the world behind the door could only be something that happened in the future.

Yet, the other party also said this: "This is the past. You pushed open the door to the past; you and I meet at the source of the river of time."

The world behind the first door was the past. Could the world behind the second door correspond to the future? If so, then these three hadn't yet become ancestral gods, or even been born; he was their great-great... ancestor!

But the Time Ancestor then said: "All that is seen is the past."

So, the world behind the second door was also the past? Future equals past? Xu Xiaoshou's mind spun, his thoughts tangled, nearly boiling his brain—how was this different from saying his head was actually his backside?

"Sure enough, the path of time cannot be meticulously cultivated. No wonder Kong Yuhen got lost; Super-Dao Transformation has reached its limit. I can't mess around anymore..."

His thoughts churned. In the scene ahead, the other two Ancestors also regained their composure.

"I don't understand."

The masked figure, despite their fierce demeanor, had a direct personality. Having stated their lack of understanding, they simply stopped discussing these issues. They withdrew their gaze from the nine rivers of time and turned back to the table.

On the stone table, they had just taken two chess pieces. One was placed in front of the Time Ancestor and knocked away by the Name Ancestor; the other remained in its original position, closer to the masked figure.

The Name Ancestor looked back, knowing they had something to say. After stabilizing the river of time, the Time Ancestor also managed to withdraw and return, allowing time to flow as a background behind the three of them.

"You've both put in effort, so I should contribute a little too." "But one of you is in reincarnation, and the other is short on clones. I cannot exert my full strength, so I'll have to use an indirect method to protect you, Name."

The Name Ancestor listened until they finished, then smiled: "You're being modest."

The Time Ancestor didn't care about the amount of effort; they all knew that someone had to be left behind to directly confront the great tribulation—and there was only one choice.

"The play..."

The Time Ancestor's words were cut short. The masked man raised a sleeve, stopping them from speaking, and hissed in a sandy voice, showing utter madness: "It's my duty!"

He waved his hand, ending the discussion on this matter. Then, he flexed a finger and, with a remote grasp, an illusory three-story wooden pavilion immediately appeared behind the Time Ancestor.

The Ancient and Modern Sorrowful Pavilion! Xu Xiaoshou was still lamenting how the Nuo Ancestor possessed a similar youthful arrogance to the Eight Venerables when he suddenly saw something familiar.

The Time Ancestor truly had a pavilion. That Ancient and Modern Sorrowful Pavilion was also eternally unchanging, exactly identical to the one he had seen several times on the Holy Divine Continent.

"The pavilion remains, but the people are gone..."

Putting aside his sighs, Xu Xiaoshou noticed a detail. The Nuo Ancestor, remotely grabbing an object, had actually pulled out a wooden turntable from the Ancient and Modern Sorrowful Pavilion without the Time Ancestor's permission.

"It's true!"

At this moment, Xu Xiaoshou had long expected it, yet he was still somewhat amazed. This turntable was precisely the one placed on the table in the Ancient and Modern Sorrowful Pavilion, crudely made with an easily broken pointer. Perhaps there were two at the time; they took one, and the other remaining one had never been touched again?

"What's the meaning?" the Time Ancestor hesitated.

The relationship between the three seemed very good; no one cared that someone's private stash had been openly pilfered.

The Nuo Ancestor placed the wooden turntable on the stone table, glanced at the Name Ancestor, and said, "Give me a drop of blood."

For an ancestral god, blood was incredibly precious. One didn't even need to be at the ancestral god level; at the Five Decays of Heaven and Man, a single drop of blood could, with techniques, exterminate an entire clan. Could such a thing be given away so easily?

A red blood droplet appeared on the Name Ancestor's fingertip. They gracefully flicked their finger, and it floated away without a single question asked.

"You too." The Nuo Ancestor looked at the Time Ancestor, who complied.

They easily obtained two drops of blood, one red and one golden, suspended in the palm of their left hand. Then, they extended their right index and middle fingers, crushing the two drops of blood, leaving only traces of blood coiling around their fingertips.

Soon, the blood dried, its power seemingly fully absorbed, leaving only a red and a golden hue on the fingertips.

"Hair."

The Name Ancestor and Time Ancestor each pulled out a strand of hair and offered it.

The Nuo Ancestor stuck out their tongue, licking the two strands of hair, which suddenly became stiff as needles. They then made the strands pierce into the two blood-stained fingers.

The tips of the two fingers seemed to open like small mouths with sharp teeth, gnawing and devouring the hair.

The Nuo Ancestor bit the tip of their tongue, spitting out their own tongue-tip blood, which hung suspended in mid-air.

Their blood was black!

Red, gold, black... Xu Xiaoshou silently drew a cold breath, his anticipation growing for the masked figure's methods and what they were about to conjure.