Chapter 1403: Chapter 1403: Sixteen Grand Eras

As soon as Zen's eyes landed on Rocher, he smiled and floated in the air, before finally landing by the lake.

Meanwhile, Freya followed suit and landed beside Zen.

Zen was about to give Rocher a brotherly pat on the shoulder when Freya suddenly warned, “Watch out!”

Zen was startled, but he also noticed that although the green item had temporarily replaced his flesh and blood, it was still very fragile. It might hurt if he accidentally crushed it.

Thus, he raised his hands in surrender.

Xenia stared at Zen's hands and giggled when she saw his face. Her dimples dipped further into her cheeks, which was rather adorable. “Have you gotten used to the Illusion Battlefield and forgot to protect yourself? Look at you! You look really pitiful!”

Since there were no actual deaths in the Illusion Battlefield, many martial artists unscrupulously used up their lives. They would eventually be resurrected anyway.

They were still used to that after they returned to the real world. In those times, they wouldn't panic during a crisis, but sometimes they would also get seriously injured. They might even get killed. And if they got killed in the real world, they would be dead. Only during then would they realize that they were no longer in the Illusion Battlefield.

“I heard that you were injured, but I didn't expect your hands to be like this,” Rocher sighed.

“That's not important,” Zen said, his lips curled. “I have a lot of questions to ask you.”

There was a trace of craftiness on Rocher's face. “Zen, you can ask whatever you want, and I will answer all of them.”

However, Rocher rarely ever looked like that. He was a righteous man, but from his expression, Zen figured that he probably wouldn't get what he wanted to know.

Still, it was better to know something than nothing.

Just then, Zen turned to Xenia and asked his first question.

“First question, where did you get that page of the Sanskrit words?” Zen asked. At his first question, Xenia was stunned.

She didn't think that he would direct his first question at her. She blinked a few times, and then smiled. “Didn't you want to ask Rocher questions? It's not like I agreed to answer your questions.”

In the end, Xenia wasn't one of those old foxes. Her eyes flickered with guilt, and Zen already knew what her answer implied.

He stared at her before he shifted his gaze to Rocher. “It seems that you already know that I also have a page of Sanskrit words.”

Those Sanskrit words were quite special.

All the Sanskrit words appeared on his body whenever he encountered the raging fire.

Over ten years ago, Zen had once been exposed during the competition in the Cloud Sect.

Moreover, with Rocher's eyesight, he would never forget those Sanskrit words, just like how Zen had never forgotten Rocher's sword moves.

When Rocher and Xenia fought in the Illusion Battlefield, Xenia's page of Sanskrit words had also been exposed. It was very easy for Zen to link it with his own. From there, he guessed that Rocher and Xenia knew something that he didn't.

Combined with the unmistakable glint Zen saw in Xenia's eyes, he understood more clearly that there should be a connection between their pages of the Sanskrit words, or rather, a hidden direction for fate.

It caused Zen to hate fate even more. Although fate treated him better and he responded to that by not giving up on his own efforts, it seemed that such kind of fate was strongly deceptive in nature. It gave Zen a goal and made him strive for it, but it didn't tell him why.

That kind of imaginary goal was too much for Zen to bear, just like how saving Yan was one of those fictitious goals.

He thought that fate treated him like a puppet, and he didn't want to live a life of deceit.

But after he thought it through, he decided to bargain with fate. He didn't want to be fate's puppet. He wanted to know where the end of this journey would be, and the purpose of his efforts.

“Tell me! What do these pages have to do with each other?” Zen asked seriously with a stern look.

Although this wasn't the first time he had met Xenia, this was the first time they had actually spoken. His attitude towards the beauty was indeed out of control, but he was too anxious to care about his manners. ℟𝓪𐌽o͍ꞖÈš

Xenia took two steps back and leaned behind Rocher. She looked somewhat aggravated as she answered, “He won't allow me to speak.”

“Who?” Zen asked. “Of course it's the old man.”

The surname of the leader of the Celestial Position race was Feng.

Yet out of the entire race, Xenia was the only one gutsy enough to call him the old man.

Xenia was also furious at Zen's attitude. If he wasn't Rocher's good friend and he hadn't been injured, she would've taught him a lesson. Thus, she didn't mince her words when she ruthlessly said, “Besides, you can't blame the old man. We told you to come but you didn't come. Then you fought your way up to the top ten. I didn't even get a Godly Plate because of you. I had to take your place and failed to enter top ten. I'm the one who has been wronged!”

The only reason why Xenia entered the Illusion Battlefield was to fight in the top ten rankings, or even the top three.

If it hadn't been for Zen, then the battle between Xenia and Rocher would have been a round-robin's battle for the top ten. She wouldn't have been eliminated, and of course, she might not have lost to Rocher.

At that moment, Rocher sighed and said, “Zen, don't blame Xenia. If you're really that confused, I can tell you something.”

“Tell me.” Zen calmed down a little.

“Zen, you do know about the great tribulation of the universe, right?” Rocher asked. “Yes,” Zen nodded.

It was known that the universe did not have a coherent history.

When a grand era began, creatures were born, raised, grew up, and died. The universe was like a tree in a way—it grew up from a seed, bore fruits, aged, and eventually withered.

The whole process lasted for 3.6 billion years.

It was naturally an unimaginable amount of time.

Yet despite how long it took, it always came to an end.

If a martial artist became a True God, they would be able to escape the limitations of the Five Aging Processes. The 3.6 billion years wouldn't be too long for them because True Gods did not die. Thus, immortality would be above everything else: it could be 36 billion years of longevity, 360 billion years of lifespan, or even an unimaginably long period of time.

“This rule is an embodiment of the heavens. Even a Supreme Lord cannot break it,” Rocher said. “But why would we have to be destroyed once in 3.6 billion years? And for no reason at all?”

On the other hand, Freya blinked a few times.

She didn't have the right to speak there. Therefore, she naturally maintained her silence, but couldn't help thinking about the question Rocher raised.

Why?

No living being liked to die.

Even the lowly crickets and ants cling to life, let alone human beings. These people would be the most powerful existences in the universe in the future.

Clearly, Rocher referred to “we,” which Zen knew were the creatures in the entire universe. His lips curved up into a smile and he asked, “Do you have the determination to be the savior of the universe?”

In response, Rocher shook his head and stared at him. “No.”

The look in Rocher's eyes became deeper. It was a look that could only be seen after he had gone through a baptism of time. It was no surprise since Rocher had trained alone for 300 years, his situation completely different from Zen's.

“This crisis in the universe is different from what it was in the past. This crisis is related to both you and me, and the root cause is within the divine land. If the universe can't overcome this crisis, then there won't be a next grand era,” Rocher stated.

“There's no next grand era?” Zen mulled over his words. He thought of what Master Feng had said. There wouldn't be another young generation; they were the last.

Rocher nodded and sat down at the mirror-like lake. Xenia sat beside him. Then Zen and Freya also followed suit.

Apparently, Rocher did know a lot of things that Zen didn't. However, Zen was also puzzled. Just where did he learn those from?

His confusion didn't go unnoticed by Rocher, who smiled at him. “I didn't know in the beginning, either. I even knew less than you, but ever since I entered the savage land and saw the sixteen scratches on the mountain wall, I have learned a lot.”

“Sixteen scratches?” Zen asked, even more confused.

“The names of the grand eras are all written under the scratches, respectively. Beneath the sixteenth scratch is the word 'Cosmos, ' the name of the current grand era.”

“This universe has undergone sixteen grand eras?” Zen asked. His eyes went wide at this piece of information.

The Heavenly Fragment in Zen's hand was a fragment of the previous grand era.

Who drew those scratches? How did that person know this?

If so, then that person had made a record of all the grand eras since the creation of the universe.

If that person had experienced each of all the grand eras and drew a mark every time, did that mean that he had lived for 57.6 billion years?

Needless to say, Zen was speechless. All of his experiences in his life combined were most likely just a hair's width compared to what that person had experienced in a blink of an eye.