Volume 3: The Land of Mist Chapter 35 Cause and Effect, Cycle and Eternity

The battle ended quickly. Just as the Takma cult member said, they were fully prepared and Remedios's resistance was meaningless.

The entire collection room was in ruins, with countless broken collections scattered on the ground, and large areas of burn marks blackening the entire ceiling.

"What a shame for the collection in this room."

The old man in the linen robe said with a little regret.

As he spoke, he walked to another dragon crystal glass display case. Without him making any movement, the seal on it faded away on its own.

He carefully took out the silver-white crown that was as ethereal as smoke and slowly walked in front of Remedios.

Remedios looked over the other party at the seven elliptical light cocoons floating in the air. Her seven arrows that could automatically return to the quiver after being shot were all trapped in the light cocoons by the other party.

"Why……"

She asked with difficulty.

"Why didn't that last arrow hit you?"

The other party half squatted down, and exclaimed with calm eyes:

"Sharp, Devil-breaking, Burning, Weakening, Purifying, Dispersing, Causal, this weapon made by the seven Void Kings for their first generation of Divine Scroll Masters is truly powerful. Especially the last arrow, which was made by the moneylender Sherlock himself. It is an arrow that is 100% certain to hit the enemy at the causal level, and is even more irresistible than the Divine Domain-level spell [Declaration]."

It was with that last arrow that Remedios killed Terra Riel.

The old man said this, holding Remedios’s hand and pulling her up from her squatting position.

"But unfortunately, the loop I wrote in advance does not include the possibility of being injured by you."

Remedios looked at him in confusion, not understanding what he meant.

She had not been injured in the brief but intense battle that had taken place earlier—in fact, the other party had not actually attacked her.

The old man just stood there and easily resolved all the attacks against him one by one. Until the very end, he slightly raised his hand, releasing a heavy pressure that pressed Remedios so hard that she could not stand up.

"We'll talk as we walk."

After pulling Remedios up, the heavy pressure on her disappeared instantly. She let go of her hand very gentlemanly, then turned and walked out the door... He didn't even have the slightest warning that Remedios could rush up and strangle his neck with Liuliyue's bowstring.

But after hesitating for a moment, she lowered her bow and followed.

There was fog outside the window. The old man walked and said:

"Humans abstracted the originally abstract elements of creation into the images of the seven holy spirits. For a long time, we looked at their actions with a sense of ridicule, believing that it was a symbol of ignorance."

"After all, according to our theory, after the creation ended, the creative substances that flowed down from the Realm of Light became the composition of the present world. Rules, life, self-awareness, emotions, exchanges, logic, memory... their Holy Spirit only pieced those scattered things together into the past, and the will of the Holy Spirit is nothing more than an illusion imagined by mortals..."

"I don't need to take another general education class right now."

Remedios interrupted him.

"Okay... let me just state the conclusion. Those 'holy spirits', including their wills, are real, and there is no such thing as a 'past' for them."

The other party replied, his tone very solemn.

"What's the meaning?"

Remedios asked in confusion.

"Time is layered, Your Majesty. Some things exist forever, some things are constantly circulating, and some things are running forward until the end of the world... This is the fundamental reason why ritual magic can work, and it is also the true secret of the immortality of the Void Kings."

"Time is...layered?"

She still didn't understand what this meant.

“There are three levels of time—eternal time, cyclical time, and causal time.”

The other party explained patiently.

"Causal time is easy to understand. The arrow you shot earlier is the best example of causal time. You shot the arrow, and then the arrow sank into my heart, and I died. My soul turned into wind and merged into the air. Maggots and fungi ignited the remaining life in my body, and my memories of this life turned into undead spirits, and finally were gradually forgotten... Under causal time, things always develop along a one-way arrow. The dead cannot be resurrected, and the lost cannot be retrieved. Even the greatest miracle in the world can only affect everything that is still alive."

"I think you're talking nonsense ."

Remedios commented.

At this time, they had walked over the steps and strolled to the atrium corridor leading to the throne room of Moon Law City.

“Sometimes, we also call causal time mortal time.”

Ignoring Remedios’s words, the old man concluded.

"So you have discovered a great eternal truth - that if a person is killed, he dies?"

Thinking of this meaningless catchphrase that someone often said, for some reason, Remedios dug out a kind of humor from her long-dried heart.

Perhaps for the first time in nearly a hundred years, she did not stiffly pull up her facial muscles to imitate, but smiled from the bottom of her heart and asked:

"Then what?"

"Then?"

The old man in the linen robe asked back with a smile on his face.

"Think about it carefully. Are all things in this world moving forward along the one-way arrow of time, with no way back?"

The old man's words made the smile on Remedios's face disappear in an instant like snowflakes falling into warm water.

Satisfied with the expression on Remedios's face, the old man asked and answered himself:

"The changing of seasons, the alternation of day and night, the waxing and waning of the moon, the rise and fall of the tides... they are all in a continuous cycle, without end. If causal time is an axis that moves forward continuously, then cyclical time is a ring that is connected from beginning to end."

"You mean to say..."

Remedios seemed to have some idea of what the other party meant.

"When the Holy Spirit Church was at its peak, we once had a debate with them. At that time, the most pointed question we raised was, 'Where are the Holy Spirits you believe in?' This question annoyed the Patriarch of the Holy Spirit Church, and he even drove our people away in anger. However, today, our research results have helped them answer this question - they are in another level of time, in the cycle of all things. We cannot see their true bodies, because we cannot see the full picture of cyclic time from the perspective of mortals."

The old man spoke slowly and logically.

Remedios was silent for a moment, then asked:

"Even if we understand this, what can we do? Can we add or subtract a season? Or extend or shorten the length of day and night?"

This kind of thing is neither possible nor meaningful.

After hearing what Remedios said, the other party shook his head and said:

"No, I use seasons or day and night as examples just to help you better understand the concept. In fact, what we call 'fate' is also part of cyclical time. Things that happened in the past are repeated, and a tragic fate keeps repeating itself. These are all manifestations of cycles. Countless people have shouted that they want to control their own destiny, but very few people can understand what destiny really is - destiny is reincarnation, a cycle, something that has happened before will happen again in the future."

"This theory also explains the origin of the immortality of the Void Kings. Death is the end, and the end is something unique to causal time. They are in cyclical time, with neither a beginning nor an end, but just repeating themselves over and over again. Of course, it's not just the Void Kings, all beings with the word 'God' in their names are the same. Whether it's the Holy Spirit, belief in God, and..."

"Spirit."

Remedios interrupted him, and then she stopped walking.

At this time, the two of them had already walked to the door of the throne room, and a faint mist was constantly seeping out through the crack in the door.

This is where the Mist Spirit resides.

The Phoenix Sacred Fire Ceremony that controls the birth and death of the high elves is the reincarnation of the soul. She allowed those skills to reappear in the elves of later generations.

The phantoms that appeared in the thick fog of Ava were also the reincarnation of past events.

Remedios thought so as she looked at the door.

"Can we enter the cyclical time through the spirit?"

Remedios asked.

“You can even weave your own cyclical time phenomena.”

The other person pointed at himself.

"For example, the person in front of you has now become a phenomenon, a phenomenon that serves as an advisor to guide all the rulers of Ava."

Remedios couldn't help but open her eyes wide.

"So you won't be affected by the 'loss of cause and effect'... But didn't you just come up with this theory not long ago? And the members of the Takma Cult have been serving as advisors to the rulers of Ava for tens of thousands of years. It's impossible..."

Having said this, Remedios paused as if she had suddenly thought of something.

The other party looked at her and said with a smile:

"Do you understand?"

Remedios recovered from her shock and nodded slowly:

"For you who are in a cycle of time, there is no beginning or end."

Because time is layered, and cause and effect are mortal concepts.

His career as an advisor to Ava began before his birth and will continue after his death.

Remedios raised her eyes and looked towards the magnificent door of the throne.

"You once gave me a suggestion to merge my will into the mist spirit."

She pressed the hand that wasn't holding the bow against the door.

"And after I admitted that it was just a bargaining chip for me to win over Yin Sucheng, you came here. Is that the reason? You want me to enter the time cycle."

As she spoke, she turned and looked at the old man.

"The final step of all god-making rituals is to open a gap in the cycle of time and allow oneself to transcend the limitations of cause and effect. Before that, whether accumulating magic power or spreading faith, in the end, it can only create a powerful mortal. This is just a quantitative change. Transcending cause and effect time is a complete qualitative change."

The old man answered the question irrelevantly.

"Do you mean the Eighth Holy Spirit?"

Remedios, who had a vague idea of what the other party was going to say, asked tentatively.

"The assassination of the envoys, the first expedition, and even the current expedition. Food, land, and faith are just excuses. Their real goal is only this - to use the spirit of Ava to enter the cycle of time."

The other party nodded and replied.

Remedios couldn’t help but raise her voice a little and asked:

"Why are you telling me now?"

"Because I just found out about it now. Have you forgotten that the theory of time stratification was only proposed now?"

Remedios tried to understand the logic of cyclical time, but she gave up rationally after two seconds.

"So, what exactly do you want me to do?"

"The Inspired One of the Eighth Order is coming soon. She needs you to communicate with the spirit of the mist. Terra Riel deliberately died in your hands, leaving his memories in the mist. Now, a pledge child is all that is needed to complete his unfinished work from eight hundred years ago."

Hearing this, Remedios showed a bitter smile on her face.

"Is this what you said before about wishing to witness the eighth fragment of creation?"

"Above cyclic time is eternal time, which is the true throne of the all-powerful God 'Ma'. The eighth element of creation is the most indispensable part of completing the creation model."

"I see no reason to sacrifice my life for your beliefs."

Remedios refused decisively.

Even if the other party controls her, the ritual can only be completed with her active cooperation.

"The other party promised that after success, they would give up the invasion of Ava Continent."

As if he had anticipated this, the old man threw out his chips directly.

"How can you guarantee that?"

"He will take it as a phenomenon and include it in his eternal cycle. He will never take action against Ava Continent."

Hearing this, Remedios was silent for a moment, but finally shook her head.

"Why?"

Hearing the unexpected answer, he asked in confusion.

"Because if you want to witness the Eighth Holy Spirit, I have a better suggestion."

…………