Chapter 112 - 111: The Seen Future Does Not Exist

Chapter 112: Chapter 111: The Seen Future Does Not Exist

The watch was convinced.

CLICK!

CLICK!

The hands began to move again.

Li Ye pulled out the crown and turned it forward.

The scene before his eyes changed again.

Li Ye clearly saw himself put away the Eight Gates Locking Talisman. The people around him swarmed forward, all excitedly saying something to him. The world seemed to be on fast-forward.

The minute hand advanced just over four minutes before stopping again with a CLICK.

The moment the minute hand stopped, everything returned to normal. Li Ye was still sitting in the array formed by the Eight Gates Locking Talisman, but his mind inexplicably contained knowledge of events that would occur over the next four minutes.

’So, turning the minute hand forward lets me foresee future events, not travel through time.’

Li Ye put away the Eight Gates Locking Talisman. He felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity, as if this had all happened before. He froze on the spot.

"Alliance Leader, is the Divine Ability you just comprehended the ability to see events in the near future?" the Daoist Sect Leader asked, looking at Li Ye with envy.

"So, you all saw it too," Li Ye asked.

"We saw it. And what’s more, memories that weren’t there before have appeared in our minds," said the Sword Sect Leader. "In my memory, after you put away the Locking Talisman, Old Zhu’s first words were clearly, ’Alliance Leader, what new Divine Ability did you comprehend?’"

"But now he’s asking, ’Is the Divine Ability you just comprehended the ability to see events in the near future?’ So, the future isn’t set in stone, is it?"

"Correct. Once you know what the future holds, that future ceases to exist," Li Ye said with a smile. "People naturally have free will. If they know a future is unfavorable, they’ll subconsciously avoid it.

To be precise, it’s a precognitive Divine Ability. It’s useful in combat, as you’ll know what kind of moves your opponent is about to use. That allows you to respond correctly."

"Alliance Leader, your Divine Ability affected all of us. Does that mean the enemy will also gain this foresight?" Mao Xiu asked.

"Very likely. That still needs to be tested," Li Ye sighed. "The Divine Ability I just comprehended isn’t fully developed, and the duration I can use it for is very short.

Once I truly understand and master this Divine Ability, I might be able to apply its effects only to myself, without affecting anyone else."

"Truly a Divine Ability worthy of an Immortal Technique," the Sword Sect Leader said with awe, looking at Li Ye. "If you perfect this Divine Ability, Alliance Leader, you’ll know everything that will happen in a fight. No one in the world will be able to defeat you."

"That’s right. If you can’t win, you can just go back in time and easily avoid the fight," Zhai Bin added.

"If you could go back far enough, you could kill an enemy when they were just a child. Then they would never become an enemy in the future," said Mao Xiu.

"I feel like the Alliance Leader’s Divine Ability is even beyond Immortal Techniques," the Daoist Sect Leader said in astonishment. "If Immortals could really travel through time at will, the ten-thousand-year calamity would have been impossible! The Immortals could have snuffed out the source of the calamity right from the start."

"So, Sect Leader, are you saying the path of Wish Power cultivation is superior to Immortal Techniques?" a member of the Wenda Alliance asked excitedly.

"I don’t know." The Daoist Sect Leader turned to Li Ye again with a questioning look.

"I don’t know either. I read about Wish Power cultivation in an ancient text and figured it out on my own. I don’t have a master," Li Ye said. "The Divine Abilities just manifested naturally as I traveled between worlds. I don’t know what my own future holds. Perhaps when my Magical Power grows stronger, I’ll be able to see even further ahead!"

"Alliance Leader, you seem to have unintentionally forged a path of your own," the Buddhist Sect Leader said, looking at Li Ye with a complex expression. "In the future, your achievements will likely surpass even those of the Immortals."

"Does that mean the Alliance Leader is the founding patriarch of a new path? He’s not the reincarnation of some Great Power—he *is* a Great Power!" The Wenda Alliance members broke into a commotion. "If we follow the Alliance Leader and comprehend our own Divine Abilities, could we become even stronger than Immortals?"

"Of course!" someone exclaimed. "In the future, we’ll form our own lineage with the Alliance Leader as our venerable head, and we’ll rise above the Immortal Gods!"

Watching the enthusiastic crowd, Li Ye simply smiled without saying a word.

’Everything I have comes from demons. Demon Qi is truly an incredible thing...’

’No wonder every wisp of Demon Qi vaguely remembers once being incredibly powerful. They really were.’

"Li Ye, I have a feeling that one day, I’ll really become the God of Time," the watch said, its confidence restored by the group’s discussion. "I’ll go back to the time before I was suppressed, see what happened, and destroy the Demon Suppression Tower. No, not destroy it—*control* it. You were right. I’m probably the master of the Demon Suppression Tower."

"Alliance Leader, do you think it’s possible... before your Ascension, could you cultivate this Divine Ability to the Great Success stage? Then, you could turn back time to before we were your enemies, and save our physical bodies." The Daoist Sect Leader sidled up to Li Ye, his gaze pleading. "If we could do it over, we would never make an enemy of you."

"Yes, and it’d be best if our memories went back too, so we wouldn’t be so stupid again," the Sword Sect Leader said with a miserable expression. "Every time I think about that day, I feel like a complete and utter moron."

"We implore the Alliance Leader to resurrect us," the Buddhist Sect Leader said, bowing to Li Ye.

"I’ll do my best." Li Ye smiled and scanned the crowd. "Before every Ascension, I’m bound to achieve Great Success with my Divine Abilities. I just never expected I’d master the Time Divine Abilities this time around.

When my Divine Abilities reach Great Success, I will bring back not just the three of you Sect Leaders, but also Mao Xiu, Zhai Bin, Lv Jun, and the others who were killed by the Ghost Sect’s Elder.

So, when we fight the Three Evil Sects, I want all of you to not hold back. Fight with everything you have. As long as I live, everyone in the Wenda Alliance has a chance to survive. Even if you die, you will be brought back to life."

Ninth Elder’s Puppet Silk could force anyone to fight to the death for him. Li Ye had been worrying about the lack of cohesion among this group of followers, who were bound to him only by self-interest.

The watch had just given him the perfect assist.

The ability to be resurrected after death—what team could boast such powerful logistical support?

"Alliance Leader, rest assured! We will defend you to the death!" The Wenda Alliance members, as if they’d been given a powerful dose of courage, all rushed to pledge their loyalty to Li Ye.

They had no idea how powerful the Puppet Silk was, nor did they truly understand how terrifying Ninth Elder could be, so naturally, they felt no fear.

Trading one life for the Alliance Leader’s favor seemed like a good deal, no matter how you looked at it.

...

「Three days later.」

Li Ye led the Wenda Alliance to the Sword Sect.

By conquering large and small sects along the way, Li Ye had successfully advanced his cultivation to the Harmonization Realm.

Qu Hao and his group had taken half of the forces. But after recruiting along the way, Li Ye’s contingent had grown to over five hundred people. Most were at the Divinity Transformation Realm, with nearly one hundred at the Void Refinement Realm, and twenty at the peak of the Void Refinement Realm.

Li Ye was the only one left at the Harmonization Realm.

Mao Xiu’s and Zhai Bin’s Nascent Souls had grown to over a meter tall, while the three Sect Leaders’ Nascent Souls were now over a foot tall.

After all, the combat power of a Nascent Soul wasn’t very high.

In the battle against the three Sect Leaders, the lower-level Nascent Souls had all been wiped out long ago.

Now that Li Ye had the Eight Gates Locking Talisman, the Ten Thousand Swords Spell, and the Buddhist Sect’s Golden Body, he no longer needed Nascent Souls to protect him.

Therefore, only five Nascent Souls remained on the Nascent Soul Tree behind his head.

These five Nascent Souls weren’t there to help him fight, but were offerings prepared for the ’sacrifice a teammate’ ability.

While Li Ye was reluctant to use this overpowered ’sacrifice a teammate’ skill, if he couldn’t defeat Ninth Elder, he would use it if he had to.

Between Derived Skills and one’s life, life was obviously more important.

’At worst, my Demon Qi would be depleted. I could just return to Earth and ’borrow’ some more from the Team Emblem to replenish it.’

’After successfully returning from two worlds and bringing back so many Secret Manuals, I don’t believe the Demon Hunting Bureau wouldn’t grant me at least that small convenience.’

’Besides, someone at the Harmonization Realm should have some say back on Earth, right?’

...

Li Ye was either on the march or preparing to march, so he wasn’t up-to-date on news from the outside world.

The Divinity Transformation Realm scouts sent to gather information couldn’t keep up with their pace.

So, Li Ye simply gave up on scouting the Three Evil Sects and focused on increasing his own power.

Qu Hao and his group were at the peak of the Void Refinement Realm, and the people they took were all at the Divinity Transformation Realm. In small and medium-sized sects, a Divinity Transformation Realm cultivator was at least at the Sect Leader and Elder Level. As a result, they were extremely efficient.

Within five or six days, Li Ye could clearly feel his once-stagnant Demon Qi beginning a new phase of growth.

The watch was ecstatic, reporting the growth rate of the Demon Qi in Li Ye’s mind every day.

This was at Li Ye’s request.

He needed to extrapolate the duration of time he could control based on the watch’s Demon Qi reserves in order to plan his battles accordingly.

Otherwise, if a battle started and he used up all its Demon Qi at once, he wouldn’t be able to control time and would be left completely on the defensive.

After all, even moving forward or backward by a single second consumed the watch’s Demon Qi, not his own Derived Skills.

He had lost touch with the outside world, and Ninth Elder could attack at any moment. He had to ensure the watch maintained a sufficient amount of Demon Qi at all times.

Thanks to the progress made by Qu Hao’s group, the skill’s cooldown had shortened to seven seconds. Soon, it would be short enough for continuous use.

Based on the rate of Demon Qi growth reported by the watch, Li Ye calculated that the amount of time he could control had likely increased from four minutes to about six.

In a few more days, if Ninth Elder still hadn’t attacked and the Wenda Alliance’s influence had truly spread across the Mortal World, Li Ye estimated that this duration would likely increase to ten or even twenty minutes.

By then, no matter how powerful Ninth Elder’s Puppet Silk was, he wouldn’t need to worry.

With twenty minutes, unless Ninth Elder could instantly kill him, he could figure out any kind of Derived Skill.

Just like Doctor Strange saw over fourteen million futures, he could use Cutting on those twenty minutes to see at least ten different possible futures.

That would be enough.

The only drawback, which he had confirmed while attacking smaller sects, was that when he looked into the future, his opponents could see it too.

’But that wasn’t a big deal. Worst case, they’d just have to fight with all their cards on the table...’