It runs through beginning and end, conceals cause and effect, flows through every corner of the world, and is everywhere.
With its nourishment, the world is able to function normally, and everything can change.
This river is called the River of Time.
This is a secret realm of heaven and earth, a cradle for the Dao of Time, where countless Dao of Time Gu insects breed and thrive.
Countless eons' worth of river water flows freely, never ceasing.
The river water surges mightily, tides rise and fall, waves roll.
Every drop of the River of Time's water is pale and colorless. But trillions upon trillions of time-water droplets, colliding and merging with one another, erupt into the most brilliant and dazzling streamers of flowing light the world has ever known.
The multicolored splendor of this radiance is difficult to describe in words. Fang Yuan had always felt this was one of the most moving and magnificent sights in all the world.
When the Ninth Transformation Immortal Gu house Inspector Tower unleashed its long-accumulated strike, Fang Yuan was caught in the crossfire with no way to escape, no means of evasion.
His only remaining option was to activate the Spring Autumn Cicada.
However, the Sixth Transformation Spring Autumn Cicada carried a tremendous flaw. Every activation carried the risk of failure!
On Qing Mao Mountain, Fang Yuan had successfully activated it once.
On Three Fork Mountain, Fang Yuan had successfully activated it a second time.
If counting his previous life five hundred years ago, Fang Yuan had successfully activated the Spring Autumn Cicada three times in total.
Now, he had finally encountered failure.
The activation of the Spring Autumn Cicada had failed.
Though his will had entered the River of Time, at the very moment of departure, the Spring Autumn Cicada self-destructed, shattering into countless fragments.
Fang Yuan's will was like an infant who had lost its boat and fallen into the water.
The churning River of Time could swallow and destroy Fang Yuan's will in an instant, dissolving it completely until not even a trace remained.
"So in the end, I have failed..."
In this moment of approaching death, the remnant of Fang Yuan's will was, paradoxically, remarkably calm.
No anxiety, no unwillingness, no regret.
When he had chosen this path, he had already anticipated the possible outcomes, and this situation had long been within Fang Yuan's calculations.
There was nothing more to be done.
He had already exhausted every ounce of his strength.
"If given another chance, I would still choose to live this way. Hehehe, then let it end like this. My Gu Immortal adventure story concludes here. Though I've left behind no biography or legacy, well... it doesn't matter."
Fang Yuan's will sank rapidly.
He was calm. He even felt a kind of happiness.
If he still had a face, the corners of his lips would likely have curled upward, instinctively wearing a smile.
What was there to regret about dying on the path one pursued?
"Hehehe... hmm?"
The laughter in Fang Yuan's heart halted abruptly. An anomaly occurred at this very moment.
Within the vast and desolate River of Time, a ghostly face suddenly emerged.
The ghostly face first winked and made faces at the remnant of Fang Yuan's will, as if issuing silent mockery.
Then the ghostly face's pitch-black cheeks bulged, its expression twisted in apparent agony. It looked as though it was about to vomit.
A massive flower bud, dripping wet, forced its way out of the ghostly face's mouth.
The ghostly face's mouth was stretched almost to the point of splitting, its corners grotesquely peeled back all the way to its ears.
After spitting out the flower bud, the ghostly face instantly relaxed, then resumed making faces at Fang Yuan, wearing a grin that was simultaneously comical and eerie, yet deeply terrifying.
And that flower bud broke through the river's surface, slowly unfurling.
Time seemed to stop at this very instant.
In the blink of an eye, the flower bud fully bloomed, transforming into a gorgeous red lotus!
From the heart of the lotus, a faint red light radiated outward, illuminating the site where the Spring Autumn Cicada had crashed. Within the red light, time began to reverse.
At the same time, the ghostly face carrying the red lotus slowly sank into the river water.
Just like a film played in reverse, everything that had happened was rewinding.
Or like water spilled from a basin, flowing back into it of its own accord.
Fang Yuan's will had already dissipated almost entirely, reduced to mere specks that could be directly disregarded. But under the illumination of the red light, his will rapidly regenerated, and countless Gu insect fragments reappeared as well.
Then these Gu insect fragments all pieced together, merging into a complete Spring Autumn Cicada!
The Spring Autumn Cicada, carrying Fang Yuan's fully restored will, set off once more.
The red light faded, the red lotus withered and disintegrated in an instant, and the ghostly face was swiftly washed clean by the ceaselessly surging waters of the River of Time.
As if everything had been nothing more than an illusion.
But the Spring Autumn Cicada had been forcibly restored.
It carried Fang Yuan's will, Fang Yuan's last remaining hope, and charged into the river water.
Struggling... against the current.
To return to the past!