Outside Of Time

1787  Today, I Become a Summer Immortal!

The fortune-teller Liu Xuanji burned his book of fates. At the moment the flames consumed his life, he had already calculated the Heavenly Dao of his world.

"All fates are one fate!"

The historian Chen Mo exhausted a lifetime exploring the truth. In the end, amid the interplay of starlight and candlelight, he saw everything—understanding that all historical outcomes revolve within the same wheel.

"Every person who tries to grasp history's trajectory ultimately becomes part of that trajectory."

Not only them. Under the illusions woven by the God of Pain, Xu Qing experienced countless lives—scholar, high official, commoner, beggar—each, at some pivotal moment, arriving at the same realization through different means and serendipities.

Until finally, the most extraordinary version—the painter—spoke the ultimate truth with a sigh:

"Return to One isn't just about space—but time."

He, too, met another version of himself across spacetime.

And conveyed all his insights through the fabric of time and space.

They were all Xu Qing.

Ordinary enlightenment flows forward like a river—a straight line.

But Xu Qing's Ordinance had reached such heights that his enlightenment formed a circle.

Future selves, past selves, present selves—each became his teacher.

Thus, as the old painter departed with a smile and his world shattered, Xu Qing—gazing at that painting—felt the vibration of the Great Dao thrust in his mind.

A sound like the gathering of all spacetimes, a clarion call of enlightenment!