[The Lord of the Underworld's methods remind you of Bai He.]

"The Lord of the Underworld may not be able to use that method in the future, but Bai He... you think it's definitely possible!"

[It's just that Bai He played around for too long back then, which created a fixed mindset.]

In some ways, he's just like you, always maintaining a mortal mindset.

He always enjoyed the mundane pleasure of tormenting others, rather than pursuing the Great Dao, yearning for the ultimate truth, that mysterious and profound thing.

"Fortunately, I'm used to Bai He's methods. He prefers to use external means to destroy people's minds and doesn't like to directly hypnotize or brainwash them, otherwise I would have been in real danger."

"Yes, he rarely even reads memories."

"That's true. Using various external means to destroy someone's spirit is like playing a game and defeating a target using various skills."

"But if you directly use hypnosis and brainwashing, it's like clicking 'one-click to clear the game,' or just piling on stats to instantly kill the monster, instead of using normal stats to find the opponent's weaknesses. That offers absolutely no gameplay experience."

"And now..."

You became unusually angry.

The Lord of the Underworld is different from the Lord of the Star River!

The latter is genuinely and seriously recruiting disciples and nurturing younger generations; they are a true "god"!

But the Lord of the Underworld... He is an evil god!

Even if the Lord of the Star River is just putting on an act, He will at least save His actions for later, giving you the opportunity to return to your true form within the universe.

[This Lord of the Underworld immediately resorted to brainwashing on people!]

You gave a bitter smile.

You originally thought the Lord of the Underworld might not come and would try to cut off your hope in that way.

I never expected it to be in this form.

[You once again foresaw the future, and within that future, you condensed the Dao Seal.]

[He forcibly resisted brainwashing until the arrival of the Lord of the Darkness.]

[You resisted the brainwashing, extending your power to contact Him, and in the instant before you were completely brainwashed, you finally touched Him.]

[Lord of the Darkness's essence -16%.]

[In the instant following the execution of the essential punishment, you interrupt the future and choose to return Him to His true state.]

Even afterward, your anger hadn't subsided.

[After a week, the Dao Seal was once again condensed in the future, summoning the Lord of the Netherworld.]

[This second time, you can sense that He is much weaker, and the brainwashing effect on you is slightly weaker: originally, you would be completely brainwashed after one-tenth of a second of complete contact with Him, but now it takes more than ten seconds.]

[The third time, including the update to the essential ability, the decimal points after the 16% reduction in essential penalty mean that the Lord of the Netherworld has been weakened by half, leaving him with only 0.517 times his essential ability.]

After that, He never came again.

[It's estimated that sensing its own inexplicable weakness three times in a row, even after discovering someone forming a Dao seal that resonated with it, it refused to go out to investigate further.]

"It's a pity... I originally planned to weaken Him to the limit, take advantage of His brainwashing ability declining, have Him pull me further outwards, and then return me to my true form."

Who would have thought that the Lord of the Netherworld, after only three instances of diminished essence, would completely become a coward?

"A mighty ancient god, and this is all the petty magnanimity he has?"

You were somewhat disappointed.

You sigh.

This body, at the peak of the fifth realm, began to crumble.

[You have recovered to the sixth realm.]

[Restore the original body.]

[Since you were performing the rituals in the future, the ritual materials were not consumed and still exist.]

But it's no use, it's already blocked.

"The time that followed was going to be tough."

Close your eyes.

Without those external things, without being able to meet new people and experience new things to fill that lonely void, you can only live on memories.

You wanted to connect with more people, like licking candy, to temporarily forget your scars.

But now you have to face the scars and the pain; you have no choice but to face it all.

[...]

[Every 21 days, once your descent count recovers to a certain level, you will accumulate points for yourself until you can travel at the speed of light within the chaotic matter.]

You charge forward with all your might until your strength is exhausted after 24 hours, then return to your original position.

Aside from the once-every-twenty-one-day movement, you used all other returns to your true nature to strip away and store your life essence as your reserve energy.

[But this is still too slow.]

[Including the distance traveled during the return journey and the distance traveled in reality to dissipate in the descent state, you can only move the length of two light-days every 21 days.]

You can only move one light-year every ten years.

You are slowly moving outwards.

【ten years.】

[Twenty years.]

Thirty years.

In the midst of chaos, years and months are forgotten.

You open your eyes, looking somewhat tired.

"How long has it been?"

You glanced at your true self.

"One hundred and thirty-three years."

You keep your eyes closed, using memories to fill the ever-growing emptiness in your heart.

[8200 AD.]

You open your eyes: "It's been hundreds of years..."

You feel your thoughts are somewhat muddled.

"I can't take it anymore, I really can't take it anymore."

Those things magnify in your mind; in this chaotic and lonely ocean, all you have left are their memories.

You even considered: dying.

"But no, I must live! I must live to the end! I must live to become the Lord of Time! As long as I live, I can take everything back! I must live!"

"But living is so hard!"

Suddenly, you remembered what you had once said to Bei Chenguang.

He was tormented by the loss of Jiang Yueli, by his inability to kill the leader of the calamity beasts, and by his inability to leave the Yuantian Realm.

You said you just need to wait a little while, close your eyes, and then open them again.

"Yes, just close your eyes, then open them again."

You close your eyes and drift into sleep.

The only difference is that you can't close your eyes as peacefully as Beichenguang.

The cosmic membrane is constantly squeezing you; under that immense pressure, you can only last a few decades at most.

[So every day you have to wake up for a few seconds, use your summoning ability once, and then exhaust all the power that came with it to create a small protective shield for yourself.]

[Every week, you need to spend 168 hours in the future to remove the imprints of life's origin from the future, return to your true nature, and bring back those unclaimed substances as your reserves.]