"Impossible." Qin Che shook his head directly. "If projections are chaotic, then our real lives will also be incredibly chaotic. Can you say that Lingbi is a projection? Can you say that the people you know and the things you have experienced are all projections? No, those are all real. The First Empire is the projection. It is elusive and we have not seen any trace of it so far. It is the mirage."

Qin Che's determination surprised Li Xin as well.

He nodded: "What you said... isn't wrong."

Qin Che patted Li Xin on the shoulder: "Don't doubt the authenticity. You are real, and so am I. These are just projections."

Li Xin remained silent.

Qin Che added, "But what you said makes sense too. Maybe the projection is limited to the ice field area. Let's look at our reference points now: time and space, and the aircraft and these tall figures. They are what create the illusion, making us mistakenly believe that what we experienced before was all a projection."

What are you trying to say?

What if we change our frame of reference?

Li Xin was taken aback: "What do you mean?"

"Why did those patterns we saw on the ground completely disappear after the aircraft appeared? Li Xin, I remember now, what were those patterns? I just remembered."

"What is that?"

In a daze, Qin Che recalled the past: "It was during a cultivation process that my mind sank into the Black Tide World. I sank deeper and deeper until I finally arrived at the very bottom of the Black Tide World."

Li Xin gasped: "You've been to the Kuroshio Underground?"

"Yes, I haven't told anyone about this," Qin Che said. "Do you know what I saw underground in the Black Tide?"

"What is that?"

"remains!"

Li Xin's eyes widened, his pupils contracted slightly.

"I am now certain that the ruins are a projection of the ruins of the First Northern Empire into the Black Tide World. I have seen the exact same patterns in there!"

Li Xin hurriedly asked, "Do you remember how those patterns correspond?"

"I don't remember, but I'm going to go see it now."

Li Xin hurriedly stopped him, saying, "No! The Black Tide Underground is very dangerous. It's full of black calamities and vortexes. You'll be sucked in, and you'll die!"

Qin Che smiled.

He became immune to the Black Catastrophe a long time ago.

The only thing to avoid is the raging vortexes beneath the Black Tide. If you are sucked in, you will become a spirit and never be able to come back.

"There's no rush now. Those tall guys are still unresolved, aren't they? We have plenty of time. Let's continue to observe and see."

"Hmm." Qin Che nodded in agreement with Li Xin's words and prepared to take a break.

But if he remembers correctly, the patterns on the Kuroshio's underground surface correspond to the patterns they saw at the top of this sheer cliff.

After that, they saw no more patterns, indicating that they had deviated from the correct direction and entered this cyclical world, which was like a projection, where they continuously saw tall people falling, exploring, building ecological parks, and then dying.

Only by facing the patterns can you find the right path and the true First Empire!

They continued to follow in the footsteps of these forefathers.

Just as Qin Che had predicted, they eventually ran out of food and supplies at the ecological park and began climbing the cliff.

Using high-tech ropes, they climbed step by step and eventually traversed the past.

Qin Che and Li Xin followed them up.

They witnessed these forefathers using their watch-worn recorders to photograph the patterns left behind by the ice on the ground.

But they eventually lost their way, lost track of the patterns, and never saw any patterns again at the very top of the ice field.

This place is almost boundless.

Even Qin Che and Li Xin traveled hundreds of kilometers by teleportation and flight before they saw the aircraft crash again.

However, these ancient sages had no means of transportation and no more food reserves. They traveled for many days and finally could not withstand the pressure.

They began to kill and eat each other as they continued onward, until finally, they died from exhaustion.

Qin Che and Li Xin remained silent, watching them.

Until the last tall man fell to the ground.

As his life faded away, Qin Che was filled with lingering fear.

This is a replication; time has changed on the ice field as well, but it's all real.

These tall people are forever trapped in the projection.

They are constantly projected from the upper level to the lower level. Within the cycle of time, they keep coming to this world, constantly experiencing the same exploration, and constantly killing each other until they die.

This is like a prison.

Qin Che and Li Xin exchanged a glance, but this time they didn't say anything and continued forward.

They knew that only by continuing forward could they avoid being overtaken by the projections behind them. The cliff was shrinking step by step, and if they fell, they would be trapped in the projection world.

Only by moving forward can we be considered to be on the right loop and not damaging the original structure here.

They saw the ice field again.

"In terms of time, we are already one or two months ahead," Qin Che said.

"Yes, so you need to go into the Black Tide underground in the next month or two and memorize the route of the relic's pattern. There are reference points there to help you record it, but there aren't any here, so it's easy for us to lose our way and lose track of the pattern's index."

Qin Che nodded: "You're right."

He sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and his mind sank into the world of the Black Tide.

He kept sinking to the bottom, kept sinking to the bottom.

Over the years, Qin Che had actually been cultivating deep underground, but he only went close to the Black Tide's underground once.

That's where he obtained the Heart of Power.

He remembers it very clearly.

There is a ruin underground. It may not be a city of the First Empire, but perhaps it was just an outpost.

But the patterns there were exactly the same as all the patterns they had seen before.

Only by reaching the depths of the Kuroshio Current can they find a way out!