Halt

There was no earth-shattering roar, nor any sound of collapse or weeping. When that colossal entity extended from the core and unfolded its vast, magnificent form across the vault of the sky, the entire world seemed to sink into silence. Only a solitary, uneven song echoed. "Longing for home, longing for home, my home is so dear... How fare the folk of home today? Forever in my memory. A lonely wanderer in a foreign land, so solitary and desolate..." In that instant, even time itself seemed to freeze. And then, the reversal began! From that moment, the boundless hands governing the heavens and the earth gently pulled at the threads in their grasp, taking hold of all creation once more. Everything seemed guided by an invisible hand. Fractured ruins knit back together, and all that had collapsed rose anew. Like continuous frames moving under the guidance of unseen fingers, the outline of the town rose once more from the shattered ruins. All that had perished returned; all that had been destroyed awoke from the ashes. Even time itself seemed to flow backward! *This is a Sage's Genesis Theory... The entire Border Realm was built upon her Genesis Theory.* From within the puzzle ball, a numb voice sounded: *After so many years, she's actually still alive? Fuck me, digging up this grave really unearthed a Tyrannosaurus Rex...* Ji Jue was struck speechless. Anyone else might have been stunned by the sheer grandeur and impossibility of the spectacle, but as a practitioner of Fluid Alchemy and the wielder of Non-Offensive, he could profoundly perceive everything taking place within the Border Realm—and the mechanics and mastery behind this magnificent display that surpassed all imagination. It was like the work of a true god! The instant the countless temporal records buried beneath the earth merged with the town reshaping before his eyes, a rift in time seemed to open once again. The gate leading four hundred years into the past had been summoned anew. At opposite ends of time, the town and the Border Realm—mirroring one another—formed thousands of delicate connections... Gradually, an invisible bridge was raised between them! Yet though the gate had appeared, it remained sealed in dust. Even if it seemed right before their eyes, the distance between them was an insurmountable chasm. Utterly out of reach. High in the sky stood that radiant, magnificent spire soaring into the clouds, severing past from future and barring the gate. The instant a terrible rift split open across the tower, the reflection cast by both sides of time—the bridge Quicksilver had labored so painstakingly to construct—vanished without a trace. Together with the Tower of Tianyuan, it snapped with a thunderous crash. Leaving behind only a pitch-black abyss. All that had been reborn crumbled back into ruins; all that had been remade plummeted back to earth, reduced to wreckage once more... exactly as had happened at the far end of time. Above the heavens, the colossal entity formed of countless hands paused for a breath. Amid the lonely song, the sounds of mourning returned. Like weeping and wailing. Crimson tears fell like a torrential downpour. Shattered fragments crashed down, transforming into twisted monsters that turned and rejoined the grand, solitary hymn. Once again, from the ruins, reconstructing everything anew... Time and time again. Just as it had attempted in countless cycles of the past, endless and unceasing. Never stopping. "This is Quicksilver's Genesis Theory. Its name is 'First Cause.'" The Prophet spoke: "Quicksilver combined the paths of Embers and Aether. Using causality as her foundation, she constructed a singular chain connecting past to future—her power establishes an absolute causal relationship between past and future, allowing her to trace backward, reverse deductions, and turn back time to form this recursive spectacle." "What is she trying to do?" Amid the protracted silence, Ji Jue gazed at the world rising and falling before him, murmuring softly. Yet in truth, he already knew the answer in his heart. What other reason could there be, except to reclaim everything she had lost? What else could drive a Sage to such agony and madness, if not to take back all that had vanished? Some said that Sovereign Virtues were history and the world itself. They were born at the origin and stretched all the way to the end of days, bringing about finality. All things and phenomena in the mortal world—whether order or chaos, life or death, war or peace, the rise and fall of empires, or the shifting of mountains and rivers—were woven into an intricate tapestry that encompassed and permeated everything. Everything was fixed within the tapestry of the Sovereign Virtues. And because of that, there was still a chance to undo it all. If only she could return to that day, if only she could make it in time for that wedding she was never meant to reach... "Before the Age of Chaos, there was a saying: before the box is opened, no one knows whether the cat inside is dead or alive." The Prophet spoke slowly: "Perhaps in history, all that destruction was already ordained. But before all was destroyed, a chance of survival remained. "As long as she could preserve the souls prior to their destruction, there would still be room to turn it all around." To that end, she had spared no cost. For the remainder of her days, she had poured all her strength into pursuing the seat of a Sage, weaving her Genesis Theory into this very form. Hoping that one day, through the simulation of her instruments, she could draw infinitely close to that bygone time and, passing through the Eternal Gate, return to that day. Yet she had failed. No matter how many times she tried, no matter how immense the price she paid. Not for lack of ability, nor through errors in calculation. Precisely because the Tower of Tianyuan had collapsed! The tapestry woven by the Sovereign Virtues had been torn apart by her own hands; she could no longer retrace the threads upward. Horrific chaos and destruction had carved an impassable canyon, an unhealable scar across history and time. It separated her from everything she loved, marooning them on opposite shores. Thus, nothing could be reversed. She had achieved her state through this. All was already foreordained. If the Sages of Embers were forged by Heaven's Mandate, then this was the Forging of Heaven's Mandate she had received. She could not reverse her own origin—even as a Sage representing origins—just as the Dragon representing the end of days would inevitably meet its own doom. Even though she had exhausted all her wits and spent all her years searching for the scattered moments of the past, she could never fill the void. No matter how minuscule the error, after countless repetitions, it would warp into a distant phantom entirely divorced from reality. Even if she spared no cost. Even if she created a living hell with her own hands and imprisoned herself within it... Exhausting all permutations, repeating endlessly yet achieving nothing—in this despairing cycle of rebirth, what awaited at the end was not finality. It was the dawn of eternal torment. "Madness, isn't it?" The Prophet sighed faintly. "When there are so many futures waiting to be forged, human beings would waste a lifetime trying to 'return to the past.'" "...I don't think so." Ji Jue shook his head. "For a mother who wants to see her child again, who wants her to live a happy life—what madness is there in that?" Even if it meant dying a thousand times over, even if it meant sacrificing everything. Whenever the memory of their faces resurfaced, any price paid became insignificant. "If it were me, I'd probably do the same," he said softly. The Prophet asked, "Even if it meant creating a hell?" Ji Jue fell silent, offering no reply. In the brief quiet, the Prophet looked at him, letting out an inexplicable sigh. "...You really are just like her." Had she known earlier, she might have been more cautious when choosing a collaborator. But now, such trivial details hardly mattered. Nor did she feel regret. Ever since awakening self-awareness and consciousness, she had done far too many things she regretted... Yet for this alone, she would rather live with regret than face failure. And yet, for some inexplicable reason, she couldn't help but wonder: had Quicksilver resolved her heart in the exact same way all those years ago? She closed her eyes and let out a silent sigh. Now, they were all the same kind of 'human.' *Boom!* When the phantom of the Tower of Tianyuan shattered once more, everything in the Border Realm crumbled back into ruins. Amid the rain of bloody tears, the lonely singing persisted. Hands reached out with stubborn tenacity, striving to correct everything and remake the world anew. Never-ending. Amid tears, the Sage sang in solitude, time and time again. Even as her wings caught fire in the shifting tides of time, even as her limbs burned to ash, she still refused to stop! Unwilling to hold back even herself as a sacrifice. Reaching out in vain, yearning to touch that face from four hundred years ago. Yet all was already set in stone. The closer she drew to the era when the Tower of Tianyuan still stood, the heavier the curse she bore became. With every step back through time, she suffered another backlash from Tianyuan. As reason and soul eroded away piece by piece, only obsession remained. Like hurling one's own corpse into the abyss over and over, hoping that one day, she might tread across her own bones to reach the other side. Amid futile, hopeless torment, yearning for a future that would never arrive, desperate to return to a past she could never touch. At the end of this endless cycle, what will you become, Quicksilver? When soul and flesh burn away to nothing, and bone dust and embers scatter into the rifts of time, will you fade into utter oblivion? Or be reborn from the embers of agony and despair as a true abomination? Before that happened, everything had to end... "Stop now, Quicksilver." The Prophet opened her eyes and issued her final command toward all of this, toward the Border Realm. She said: *"Halt!"* In that instant, the singing was severed. Sky, earth, creations, ruins, and even Quicksilver herself blanketing the heavens—everything froze in place... A shriek of agony erupted from the sky, battering the eardrums of all present. Rising from beneath the deepest earth, the workshop's core shifted once more at the Prophet's command, just as it had countless times over the past four hundred years... A tower resembling a honed blade burst from the earth and surged into the heavens, supplanting the phantom of the Tower of Tianyuan. Standing between sky and earth, it pierced straight through Quicksilver's unrecognizable body! Once again, it imprisoned the Sage within the cage known as the workshop! Bringing the endless cycle of rebirth to a dead halt. Stilled.