775. Considerations

A second before he killed the Golden Immortal, Hui froze. Hold on. Let’s think this through!

I needed to wait for the other Hui to proc this moment, so I could see the Golden Immortal’s formation and know it was destroyed before making my move. After all, even if I fully turned back time, if I did it without understanding the purpose and principles behind the Golden Immortal’s array, I’d have to forever be on the watch for someone else to figure it out… or even for the Golden Immortal himself to recover it. Now that I know what to look for, I can quickly counter it without fear.

But to simply kill the Golden Immortal? He’s an Immortal. He’s sure to have one, two, maybe even hundreds of backups and revival plans! Dangerous, too dangerous.

I don’t want to meddle in time. If nothing else, the fact that it breaks the laws of this world is a bad sign. And of course, I’ve read plenty of time-travel books, and I’ve seen the Golden Immortal’s bad example. I don’t want to get obsessed with perfection, or constantly turn back time. That only ends poorly… and in fact, for the Golden Immortal, even repeatedly turning back only the Immortal Realm led to the other worlds breaking down. I can only imagine how much damage turning back the entire world repeatedly would do.

But, just once… perhaps just once, it could be permitted?

“Master, what do you think?” Hui asked.

Weiheng Wu scoffed behind him. Hui turned, startled. “Master?”

“You’ve already turned back time to this extent. What harm is there in turning it back further?” Weiheng Wu asked.

“Ah… that’s true,” Hui said, scuffing his foot.

“Bear in mind, however, that this world is on the brink of destruction. It needs to heal,” Weiheng Wu said. He lifted his hand, turning it over. Through his arm, Hui could see his face and his robes.

Hui startled. “Master?”

Weiheng Wu shook his head. “Damage done to the world cannot be undone by turning back time. The time beyond realms progresses, regardless of what we do within the realms. Even if you turn back time to before the Golden Immortal, the damage done to the world by his endless turning back time and attempting to merge this realm with your world will remain. Whatever you attempt to do from here, wherever you go… as the will of this world, I beg you to make this your last time to turn back the world, until the world has healed, however many hundreds of thousands of years it may take.”

“Ah… yes. I understand.” I only have one shot. One chance to get this right.

Weiheng Wu nodded. “Then, since you understand…”

His body vanished. His robes hit the ground. A few tiny gold sparks flew up into the air, rapidly vanishing.

Hui watched him go. He looked at his hands, then laughed quietly to himself. How Master-like of him, to leave me with not instructions, but merely a puzzle to solve myself.

“Farewell, Master.”

The silence of the void gave him no answer.

One last chance to turn back time. But where do I go? What point do I stop at?

He looked at the frozen Golden Immortal. At the crumbling Immortal Realm, all around him. I’m already in ancient history, long before I arrived in this world. And the Golden Immortal in front of me could still pose danger, even if I killed him here. Things like soul obliteration… I know better than to rely on those, if even someone as lowly as me can fake them!

Let’s keep going. I think, the right answer, is to continue going back. Return to when the Golden Immortal was a child, and prevent this from ever coming to be.

Time turned back. Further and further. The Immortal Realm vanished, replaced by an ancient Immortal Realm, full of beautiful lakes and gardens, a trim, carefully-curated Immortal Realm. Hui watched over it for a moment, then vanished.

He appeared in the Underworld. An empty realm awaited him, acting on automatic principles.

Sitting in the depths of the realm, a man with long red hair looked up, startled. He rose to his feet, instantly reaching for his sword. “Who are you?”

“No one, no one,” Hui said, waving his hands. Ah! It’s the man who was Lord of Hell before I arrived.

The man eyed him warily. “I can’t sense your cultivation.”

Oh… whoops. Hui quickly lowered his cultivation, forcibly appearing at a low realm. “As you can see, I’m merely a small bug, not worth bothering with.”

“And your authority with this realm?”

Eh? He can sense that I have authority with the Underworld? Well… I suppose he should also have authority with the Underworld. It makes sense that we could sense one another. Hui glanced at the ground. “At some point in the far future, I suppose you could consider me something like the Landlord of this realm.”

The man laughed. He lifted his hands. “I was sent to this realm. I don’t desire to be its master. I’ll recognize my better.”

“I’m quite fine with you being the Lord of Hell, if you wish,” Hui said.

“No, no. You need reapers, do you not? I’ll take that role. And I had another in mind…”

Hui chuckled. If I can’t refuse it, I might as well accept it. “I think she’ll be a good fit.”

The man startled. “You already know…?”

“Er, forget I said anything,” Hui said, waving his hands. He glanced around, then found a small flat place to sit down and settled in to meditate. “You two can handle the Underworld. I’ll be busy for a while.”

The man with red hair saluted.

Hui closed his eyes. As I am, I’m almost too powerful for the realm. In fact, I don’t know that I could enter the mortal world. The Underworld is probably fine, as long as I’m careful—well, especially given my authority in the Underworld.

Strange that it still recognized me. But then… He sent a tiny bit of qi into the realm. Somehow, it’s the Underworld that I re-forged, not the original one. Do the realms progress, regardless? But then, the Immortal Realm…

Or maybe it’s because I’m here, and I’m the one who turned back time. Perhaps I subconsciously left the Underworld in its reforged state.

In any case, I need to focus on my goal. The Golden Immortal!

Though I suppose he’s just an ordinary mortal for now.

Hui sent his divine sense forth, sweeping the mortal realm. A few moments later, a familiar qi signature met his. Hui locked on. There! Focusing, he sent a small strand of his qi to the mortal world.

On the surface of the mortal realm, a small cultivator in blue robes appeared. He looked around, quietly fixing his ponytail. Wind blew, sending fallen autumn leaves into a flurry around his ankles.

In the distance, cultivators on swords flew down toward a small village. Young children gathered around, excited, led by eager yet nervous guardians. Among them, a familiar face stood out.

As the other cultivators flew down, Hui walked casually into the village. The villagers regarded him nervously, but he smiled back, gentle as could be. He approached the Golden Immortal.

The boy looked up at him. A little younger than the Golden Immortal’s later appearance, his face wasn’t quite as bratty yet, his eyes still big and innocent. He stared up at Hui in fear and awe.

“Mister, are you an Immortal?”

I could kill him. Right now. He would never know anything. He lifted his hand toward the boy’s face.

“Mister?”

Hui’s hand landed on the boy’s head, and he rubbed his hair. “Would you like to become an Immortal, too?”

The boy stared at him. “You could do that for me?”

“I could teach you, yes,” Hui offered.

He nodded aggressively. “Yes!”

Hui looked at the Golden Immortal’s guardian, a young woman barely older than him. She nodded, releasing her son’s hand. “Thank you, Great Immortal!”

“I’m no one great, no one at all,” Hui insisted. He looked at the boy. “What’s your name?”

“Yao Gong!” the boy replied.

“Yao Gong. Come with me. I’ll teach you everything there is to know.” And I’ll make sure you don’t focus on those dreams, and instead become an earnest and un-warped Immortal!

The boy nodded. “Yes, Master!”

The woman nudged her son. “Quickly, now. Like I taught you!”

Startled, the boy dropped to his knees and kowtowed to Hui.

“There’s no need, no need,” Hui said, helping the boy up. “Yao Gong, let’s go.” This time, you’ll grow up into a fine, upstanding young cultivator.

And if you don’t, then…

He turned to the scouting cultivators and bowed, clasping his hands. “Greetings, Seniors.”

“Greetings,” the scouts replied, clasping hands back.

“Are you looking for new disciples?”

“Ah, yes,” one of the scouts said, slightly off guard.

Hui grinned. “Would you take me?”

The scout shook his head. “We’re only recruiting young disciples, not…”

Hui exuded a little bit of cultivation pressure. I don’t want to scare them, but I don’t want to be so unimpressive that they turn me away, either. How about… fifth stage?

The scouts’ eyes widened. A moment later, three of them collapsed to the ground under Hui’s pressure. The remaining two struggled to stand.

Startled, Hui quickly bit back his pressure. “Apologies, apologies. Forgive me. I didn’t mean to—”

“Please come with us!”

The scouts grabbed at Hui’s hands, their eyes shimmering with tears. “Please join our sect!”

Ah… whoops. I did forget that this was the ancient era. I suppose standards for cultivators were different back then… or else this is a low-realm area. He licked his lips, a little nervous. “Ah… yes.”

Yao Gong stared up at him, amazed. My new Master is that powerful? Wow!

Hui nodded at Yao Gong. “Shall we?”

Yao Gong nodded. “Disciple hears and obeys!”