Chapter 2481: Chapter 2430: No More Riddles

“What is the meaning of this?” Zu An asked. His brain was a bit overloaded. Yesterday, today, tomorrow, the past, future... Even words like "wristwatch" appeared in his head. Wasn’t time being continuous something completely to be expected?

Mi Li hesitated for a moment, but in the end, she still explained, “The concept of time is something naturally formed by ordinary creatures. But for certain extraordinary beings, time actually doesn’t have much meaning. They can, at the same instant, observe every single key moment of the past, present, and future.”

Zu An nodded to himself. This was also the same understanding humans had toward certain divine beings.

“For those beings, as long as they want to, the past can become the future, and the future can become the past. That's why you don't need to worry too much about whether or not you can change history. As long as you follow the proper rules, even if you change it, it won’t actually mean too much.”

Zu An was a bit moved. In the past when he saw Yumen Beiqing in the Sealed Land, the latter had said a lot of mysterious things to him. Could the meaning of what she'd said back then be similar to what Mi Li was saying right now?

“But if we put it that way, isn’t history a bit like a girl who allows others to dress her up as they wish? But if anyone can change her outfit, wouldn’t the endless realms be in complete chaos?” Zu An asked. His brain felt like it was about to explode.

“What you're saying isn’t entirely correct. History is indeed like a girl anyone can dress up, but not just anyone can get the right to decide on the changes. Those who can decorate history are those who can impact history to begin with,” Mi Li corrected him. She continued, “Also, for the sake of not triggering the chaos you mentioned, I don’t know whether it's because those exceedingly powerful beings have privately reached an agreement to do so, or if there are some preexisting laws of the cosmos that cause this, but some important historical incidents are fixed in place. After they occur, those pieces of history can no longer be changed. Only slight alterations like the ones I told you about before can be done.”

Zu An nodded in half-understanding. He wanted to ask more, but he was stopped by Mi Li, who said, “These concepts are still a bit too early for you and they aren’t things that you should worry yourself about right now. Getting too deep into it will only trap you within the riddles of time.”

Zu An shivered. Mi Li almost seemed to have used some calming recovery skills, allowing his head to feel much clearer. He said, “Thank you, master empress!”

Zu An wiped cold sweat off his forehead. He had always mocked Mi Li for being a riddler, but she hadn’t spoken in riddles today, and he'd actually confused himself. It seemed things really were as she said. It was useless to know about some things before it was time, and would only bring more danger.

“It’s not too easy for me to wake up, so ask away if you have anything else you’re curious about. Aside from the issue of time, of course.” When she saw him understand her efforts, Mi Li nodded in satisfaction.

Zu An was silent for a moment, but he thought of something else. “By the way, Mojard mentioned something called the 'path of annihilation' when I fought against him before, and he even mentioned the Divine Beast Taotie. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard about the Taotie. I don’t think it’s the same as those things I saw in the Yinxi secret dungeon before, right?”

“Huh? He actually knows about that?” Mi Li’s expression grew a bit grave.

Zu An was surprised, asking, “He shouldn’t have known about that?”

“With his current strength, he doesn’t have the right to know about these things at all. But there are too many variables across the various realms, and everyone has their own encounters. It isn’t entirely impossible for him to know,” Mi Li muttered. “Since you’ve already learned of this from someone else, it should be fine for me to tell you about it.”

Zu An blinked and waited for her to continue.

“These two are actually the same subject.” Mi Li thought to herself for a bit and didn’t directly answer. Instead, she asked, “What's your understanding of deities?”

“Deities?” Zu An had never expected her to ask him this question. “Deities should be the product of human civilizations that haven’t developed to a certain extent yet. They can't explain some natural phenomena and thus use their imaginations to create divine beings.

“The faiths of different civilizations continuously develop, and they eventually complete their own divine theories, thus creating all kinds of deities…”

Mi Li chuckled. “After everything you’ve already experienced, do you still really believe that deities are just superstitious beliefs?”

Zu An took a deep breath. “Indeed. I did think it was all superstition, but now, it seems there are some especially strong beings that are viewed as deities by ordinary people.”

He couldn't help but recall what he'd seen in the Imperial Tomb secret dungeon. Not only had there been the Goddess of Mt. Wu, there was also the Celestial Court.

“You’re partly correct, but not entirely,” Mi Li said seriously. “There are many deities who were just powerful beings at first, but the faith of ordinary creatures isn’t just mere superstition. They can indeed provide their corresponding deities with faith power and allow those beings to break through to an even higher level.”

Zu An wasn’t too shocked to hear this. He had read many fictional novels that contained similar concepts often.

“Of course, because they've received the benefits of this faith, they also receive a corresponding restraint, which is that they cannot go against their believers’ faith.” Mi Li paused for a moment before adding, “You can understand it as what the ordinary people believe their deities should and shouldn't do correspondingly applying restraints to the deities they believe in. Of course, it isn’t completely set in stone, but they can't go against the faith too much.

“For example, if a deity of righteous living and kindness keeps doing evil things, or if an evil deity always does good things, it will cause them substantial problems.”

Zu An nodded. This wasn’t too hard to understand.

Mi Li continued, “Furthermore, one’s fate can be simply understood as a kind of faith.”

Zu An was a bit shaken. He asked, “Does that mean the 'path of annihilation' Mojard spoke of is the way of death?”

Mi Li didn’t directly respond to his question, and instead slowly said in a mysterious tone, “There are untold numbers of faiths across the world. Some civilizations practice monotheism, while others are polytheist. How many deities do you think there are in the universe?”

Zu An frowned slightly. “There are probably innumerable deities.”

Just Earth alone had countless legends, let alone the various realms.

“That’s right. The kinds of deities you're imagining are indeed innumerable across the universe, but they can only be considered deities with narrow domains. As for deities with broader domains, there are only…” Mi Li paused for a moment before continuing, “I don’t even know the exact number, but it should be around ten. Definitely not more than twenty.”

“So few!” Zu An was shocked. Just how many worlds and civilizations were there across the realms? Even just worlds alone were countless, yet there were so few of these deities.

“The faiths of the realms number millions upon millions, but there is one common trait shared between them, which is that they're each part of a larger path. Meanwhile, the endpoints of these paths belong to those true deities who have broader domains.”

Zu An was greatly shaken up. Many things he'd been confused about before now made sense. He then asked, “Wait, then is the 'path of annihilation' Mojard mentioned the domain of one of those true deities?”

Mi Li nodded slightly. “That's why I was curious. This isn’t something someone of his level should have been able to come into contact with.”

All kinds of things were going through Zu An’s mind. He felt as if there was someone stirring the inside of his brain with a stick. He saw Mi Li open and close her mouth several times.

Is this really something I can learn about right now?

Mi Li seemed to have guessed his thoughts. She said impatiently, “You're always complaining about how indirect I am. Now that I’m really telling you things, you’re getting all scared instead?”

Zu An wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said with an apologetic smile, “Didn’t you say that some mysterious beings might know if we talk about certain things?”

Sis, can you be a bit more reliable? Why do I feel as if you’re passing on the words of the deceased or something? The future is still long, no?

“It’s fine. You learned about this from someone else, and I'm just bringing understanding to that concept. That won’t trigger any corresponding laws.” Mi Li couldn't help but smile when she saw this rare instance of him being flustered.

Zu An finally released a sigh of relief. Then, he thought about it again. So it turned out Mi Li could talk about things if he learned about them on his own first.

“By the way, the Annihilation Beast that destroyed the Monster World before was none other than a lesser soldier of that 'path of annihilation' deity.” Mi Li said with a grave expression. “That being is already destined to become your enemy. Keep some distance from its pathh before you've fully grown.”