The Alchemic Clash against Qingye Ying was just as hyped and spectated as before, filled to the brim with excitement and expectations as the lingering term of 'Ascendant Emperor of Neo-Dawn' fluttered about ceaselessly in the air.
However, the end result was different; Wei Wuyin had used his Celestial Eyes of Spiritual Divinity to inconspicuously spy on Qingye Ying and matched her at every step perfectly, resulting in a miraculous tie that left many speechless. In a way, his act of eking out a tie was heaven-defying and baffled the entire world, a sign of great unity and fortune.
The title of Prince of Everlore and Princess of Everlore flourished and solidified, a genuine sign of destiny, and the crowd of millions shouted their fateful union to the highest heavens.
"The Dragon and Phoenix of Everlore!" They cried.
"The Destined Pair!" They called them.
Qingye Ying was blushing furiously at the crowd's fervent beliefs, and she had no say in their thoughts or the course of history. They both were labeled with the title of Era-Defining Existences! Wei Wuyin saw himself talking to Qingye Ying, hitting the right notes, and the light in her eyes subtly changed as the possibility of being together was ignited in her heart.
Unlike before, this Wei Wuyin became engaged to Qingye Ying privately after the event concluded. During this iteration of events, what Wei Wuyin saw was vastly different. Firstly, Qingye Yun had never informed Wei Wuyin of Qingye Ying's plight regarding her deficient meridians.
Secondly, he learned of the Tower of Myriad Excellence and the Void Gate's existence but not their purpose. He decidedly brought ninth-grade purification products to solve Qingye Ying's issues and improve her cultivation.
Thirdly, far later in this timeline, Qingye Ying vanishes, and the Void Gate inside the tower malfunctioned after one use. They were unable to consummate their eventual marriage or hold a ceremony after she disappeared. Only then did Qingye Yun tell him the history behind the Void Gate and its purpose, leaving Wei Wuyin regretting not entering it himself.
Before that, Wei Wuyin saw himself take a vastly different path at every turn since the Alchemic Clash and decisions regarding involving himself in various maters. For example, he hadn't entered the Four Extreme Continent himself. He focused on his cultivation base, which was the most significant difference in this divergence. Unlike his current life, Wei Wuyin began to rapidly blitz through his cultivation path as soon as he could. He didn't maximize his cultivation foundation at every turn but rushed fiercely toward the Realm of Sages.
This Wei Wuyin didn't enter the Gateway Door leading to the Devil War Realm; he sent Zuhei and Su Mei instead. He focused on his mission of improving his cultivation base as the Second Calamity sent waves and waves of pressure on the shoulders. This was the first Calamity he would take as himself, and it would verify if his Mortal Existence was capable of transcending the dangers of Hell.
A feat that he had little confidence in, but his Heart of Cultivation remained terrifyingly strong and hopeful.
"I never met Xue Yifei."
Wei Wuyin also noticed another change! He never entered the Bloodforge Continent; instead, he sent a team of Ascendants down there, splitting a portion of the continent's resources and bribing the current leading Bloodforge Emperor to his side.
The events left Wei Wuyin dizzy.
What was happening…exactly?
What changed?
From his point of view, everything differed greatly after he arrived in the Myriad Monarch Sect. It took him months of observing this Wei Wuyin to realize that this version of him had never felt a sense of external threat from the world…
He acted as if nothing but the Calamity of Hells was the sole threat in his life, and thus felt the goal of his life was to reach the Realm of Sages. There was only one possibility to this…
In this timeline, in this version of him, the Temporal Reincarnator hadn't descended and he decided to remain low-key! That level of threat with someone knowing your future had acted as the impetus to Wei Wuyin changing all of his actions from covert to overt, always believing that this Blessed that could make the Heavenly Daos harm themselves was an unimaginably vicious hammer that could strike at any time.
It instilled him with abject fear, justified vigilance, and a heart-pounding urge to be able to defeat this absurdly high-level Blessed should they ever face each other. Wei Wuyin had deliberately slowed down his cultivation, focusing on his foundation rather than swift progression, took more personal actions to handle things in the most perfect way, and even began to actively hunt or slay possible Blessed—such as Jing Jiu.
Various theories needed to be verified, and Jing Jiu was the answer to many of them. He learned what would happen should he slaughter a Blessed, confirmed that not all Blessed received their fortune the same way, and the effect it would have on his Karmic Luck Value.
Was that the difference?
"The Wei Wuyin that didn't fear others, racing against the clock." King's voice resounded in his soul after a very, very long time of being silent. While Ori, Eden, and Kratos were being as energetically optimistic, as serenely calculating, and domineeringly aggressive with their sounds and words, King was entirely silent for the last several decades.
But it had spoken here, clearly saying the most meaningful words that could shake his very soul. King was right; this timeline version of Wei Wuyin didn't fear others, simply the Calamity of Hell, a looming disaster that was as inevitable as death to a mortal being.
Wei Wuyin knew that despite this version of himself having a high cultivation by the end of the Devil War Realm's completion; when Lin Ming exited as the sole Elementus Chosen, this version of Wei Wuyin was weaker. At the same level of cultivation and even at the same age, he could kill this version of himself with a single freaking flick of his finger.
The disparity was utterly gargantuanly massive!
"Long Chen is alive," Ori pointed out solemnly.
Wei Wuyin watched as he kept interacting with Long Chen after the Devil War Realm came to a conclusion, and found that Long Chen's power wasn't very far off from his own. This version of Wei Wuyin was vigilant towards Long Chen but mostly uncaring of his future or potential threat. He distanced himself from his drama and harem, focused only on his matters of cultivation, preparing against the Calamity of Hell with nothing else mattering.
A single-minded focus on survival.
Not even Lin Ming's eventual rise in the Elemental Heaven Pavilion was enough to catch this version of Wei Wuyin's notice, ignoring all else.
"It's not wrong," Eden commented as Wei Wuyin was concocting various products with a manic madness that could elicit enlightenment of his next cultivation stage. He didn't care about his foundation at all. He didn't bother with most starfield-shaking events, merely focused on the Ascendants and his own cultivation.
The speed of his progression was wild.
Due to him not killing Yuan Longshi, not seeing Blessed as enemies, not actively hunting them down or firming his will to slay them for his own ends, by the time the Devil War Realm came to a 'natural' conclusion, his Second Calamity was still twenty-five years away, and he was fifty-four years old.
Wei Wuyin wistfully sighed. At that age, he had decided to leave a devastated Everlore Starfield behind and venture into the Grand Cyclic Stellar Region with Bai Lin. However, this version of himself was still in the Everlore Starfield, away from prying eyes, while cultivating without holding anything back.
By the time this version of Wei Wuyin reached his present age, he had already Ascended to the Soul of Mysticism Phase, exceeding every living thing in the Everlore Starfield. Wei Wuyin was thoroughly stunned by the journey, learning many different matters regarding cultivation. While the tribulations couldn't be seen from his perspective, much like the Bloodline of Sin matters, he still learned various arts, spells, formations, arrays, and concoction methods and gained cultivation experience from living as this version of Wei Wuyin. The benefits were hard to imagine but incredibly bountiful nevertheless.
Wei Wuyin had just recently turned sixty, and as the date of their age matching approached, when the timelines between these two versions began to align together, Wei Wuyin heard howls of struggling pain from Ori and Kratos. While Eden and King remained totally silent, suffering without a single groan, he could feel their violent quivering from his soul.
The Temporal Eye Astral Tribulation had just gone into overdrive, and these Astral Souls of his were bearing the entire brunt of its lethal might. The chills he felt inside his soul were horrific as he couldn't assist them as he was the spectator of this tribulation.
He could only pray for them to remain strong as the day, the hour, the minute, and the very second arrived!
Time froze.