There exists such a being.
A being who, from the moment of birth, was celebrated by the celestials of the heavens and blessed by the earth spirits that congregated around.
Such a being, transcending humanity from the moment of birth.
The 27th Patriarch of the Heavenly Devil Cult, Tianma, was precisely such an existence.
Of course, most people are unaware of this fact. I only know because I heard it directly from Tianma.
Moreover, Tianma had no interest in the world whatsoever.
Despite possessing innate martial skills that surpassed human limits, Tianma did not venture into the world.
There was no grand ambition like Xue Ma’s, who sought to taint the world with evil.
There was no desire to etch one’s name into history or leave a legacy.
Even though Tianma possessed the power to effortlessly achieve the utopia that countless absolute experts had dreamed of, Tianma never stepped beyond the Tian Mountains.
Thus, the world speculated: “He has seen the end of martial arts and comprehended the impermanence of life.” “He is so absorbed in closed-door cultivation that he has no leisure to look at the world.”
But in truth, the supreme ruler of the seemingly bloodless and tearless hundred-thousand demon lords was, ironically, deeply indulged in a love game.
To a severe degree.
When I first descended from the Tian Mountains to the mortal realm, Tianma indiscriminately attacked everything.
Cleaving the earth in half, causing the seas to boil and evaporate. Everything, utterly.
There was no mercy in such a cruel hand.
At least Xue Ma had a lust for power and control over the world, but Tianma was indifferent to such additional trifles.
I couldn’t comprehend the reason. Neither could I understand Tianma.
However, there was no avoiding the choice before me.
My family, dead once again. And the world.
With confusion, I rewound time. After that, I once again defeated the Blood Cult and saved the world.
On the hundredth cycle, I didn’t let my guard down. I knew Tianma was coming.
Tianma attempted to destroy the world without uttering a single word or having a purpose.
I blocked her with every ounce of strength I had, but I was overcome with ease, even though I was prepared.
Ultimately, the world perished once more, and I held the corpses of my family while swallowing tears of blood, rewinding time again.
Time seemed to stand still forever within this certain cage.
I spent near a decade resisting the Blood Cult. After stopping them each time, Tianma would descend, delivering an overwhelming force that no one could resist.
It was like a meteor. A force that mere human power could never hope to stop.
Nevertheless, I couldn’t give up. The burdens I carried, the inseparable halves of myself, raised me again and again.
Falling, dying, vanishing, rewinding, falling, dying, vanishing, rewinding—this cycle repeated hundreds of times.
Even knowing I would die, even biting down on the grim future that awaited me, I clenched my teeth and held the Qing Guang Bao Jian (Celestial Blue Treasure Sword).
Thus, when about three hundred cycles had passed,
I, in the bottomless despair which came despite all my efforts to still not even touch a strand of Tianma’s hair, despondently revealed to her the secret I had never even disclosed to Xue Ma.
“P-P-Please… stop…”
Tianma was always the same. A cold gaze, red eyes, and soft, black hair like silk.
To this chilling, frigid figure, I knelt and pleaded.
Confessing my “ability.”
“I-I can rewind time…”
Since Tianma was beyond the scope of adverse effects from the heavenly qi leakage, I knew I couldn’t harm her.
What I did, however, was a kind of blackmail.
“No matter how many times you kill me… once I rewind time, everything you do is meaningless…”
Each of her actions, rendered futile—a threat that wasn’t really a threat.
“So, please… cease the senseless violence! No matter how many times you kill me or destroy the world, I can just rewind time…”
But, the reply to this threat?
Was something I couldn’t have imagined.
“I already know it.”
“…Pardon?”
“I already know, so stop your rambling and rewind the time.”
Crack.
With that said, Tianma waved her hand.
A ripple from the slight wave tore me in half at the waist, moving forward and forward.
And once again, I rewound time.
The next time I spoke to Tianma was about three hundred cycles later.
By this point, suppressing the Blood Cult had become second nature, and repeatedly engaging Tianma only led to an inevitable and futile end.
“Why are you doing this?”
I, as quickly as I could, asked before Tianma could gesture.
“Why! Why continue this meaningless repetition!”
Desperately, yet firmly.
“No matter how many times you repeat this act infinitely, I will never give up! For my family and for the world, even if thousands of years pass, I will keep rewinding time!”
And in reply,
“This is what I hope for.”
It was, somewhat, frivolous.
“You must rewind time…”
Something I could scarcely imagine.
“So, I can see my husband again.”
It was only after about a thousand cycles had passed that I finally understood the reason for Tianma’s actions.
Tianma was not a malevolent devil like Xue Ma. The world held no interest for her, and she had no desire to achieve anything with her overwhelming power.
She was merely a
serious lover of love.
Too serious.
Unable to accept the fact that her husband would meet his death.
Each time her husband died, she descended to the mortal realm and brought about the end of the world.
Stimulating me to rewind time,
Desiring to return to the time when her husband was healthy and cheerful.
She had been continuing this terrible act all along.
From the moment I understood this, my goal was transformed.
To find a way to save Tianma’s husband, who would inevitably die, in any possible way.
After completely defeating the Blood Cult, Tianma’s husband would often die three days later due to a sudden heart attack.
Therefore, I acquired divine herbs. The Dahan Pill from Shaolin, Gong Qing Shiyu, an elixir no longer present in this world, and more.
Tianma said they would be useless, as she had already tried everything. But it was the only effort I could make.
However, in the next cycle, Tianma’s husband didn’t die of a heart attack but of brain death—another unexpected, sudden death.
Tianma didn’t destroy the world this time. This was because I quickly rewound time.
Having completed the now second-nature task of eradicating the Blood Cult, I sought a way to save Tianma’s husband.
I tried various things, standing by his side, circulating his blood with my inner energy, and more.
But, there was no improvement.
In every cycle, he met with accidents or untimely deaths, and Tianma decisively stated that this was due to a predestined lifespan inscribed in the Book of Life and Death that couldn’t be altered.
And she threateningly ordered me, once again, to rewind time.
It was around this time that I began to fear my own ability to rewind time.
A fear that I might be forever trapped in the prison of time.
…
After about a thousand cycles had passed,
I stopped trying harder to rewind time.
Instead, I silently gripped the Qing Guang Bao Jian.
To protect my family, this world, from Tianma, a transcendental being whose flick of a finger could overturn a million soldiers.
Dying, resurrecting, defeating the Blood Cult, battling Tianma.
Dying again, resurrecting again, defeating the Blood Cult again, battling Tianma again.
Dying, resurrecting, defeating, battling, over and over.
An anguish worse than hell. An eternal cycle.
There was no faint hope in sight. Every cycle ended in destruction, except those where I quickly rewound time upon Tianma’s victory.
By the time this should have become tiresome to Tianma, there was still a strange lack of desires that made her never abandon her love.
“Are you trying to fight again?”
“Useless, you will never defeat me, even ten thousand years from now.”
“Stop this pointless resistance and just rewind time already.”
All of them true. I could never defeat Tianma in ten thousand years, and I had habitually rewound time every single cycle.
When I rewound time, the cycle would start anew. Blood Cult resistance and Tianma’s tranquil ten years with her husband in the Tian Mountains.
I had once intentionally prolonged the war with the Blood Cult, hoping that if I never ended it, perhaps Tianma’s husband would survive longer.
But, all efforts were futile. Regardless, Tianma descended a decade and three days later, sweeping away anything in her path, be it Blood Cult, Middle Plains, or the Imperial Court.
But I didn’t give up. I couldn’t give up.
Though the glimmer of light was unseen, I believed in my own growth.
Even though with each life I advanced merely an ant’s stride.
Continuing this arduous existence, someday,
I would be able to block Tianma.
On that faint thread of light, I staked my fate.
And again, a thousand lives passed.
I, who could barely withstand the flick of Tianma’s finger, had grown to the point where I could touch the hem of her garment.
“You’ve grown quite a bit.”
“At your current level… let’s say, easily the greatest martial artist of ancient and modern times. Of course, assuming this excludes me.”
Praise.
It was the first praise I had heard from the monstrous Tianma.
But it wasn’t enough.
Not nearly enough.
I had to block Tianma. I needed to become stronger than that monstrous Tianma.
It was the only way to redemption, the only key to breaking this absurd shackle.
For this path, I ran. Despite harsh storms trying to block me, I ran endlessly.
Tragically, Tianma was fully aware of such growth in me.
Once, I aggressively declared to her that I would no longer rewind time.
That I couldn’t go on. Regardless of the collapse of the world, the deaths of my family, I would never rewind time again.
Of course, I didn’t have the actual courage, but I hoped, futilely, that Tianma would stop upon hearing this.
Tianma immediately started cruelly and inhumanely slaying those close to me before my very eyes.
And as their blood and organs were scattered all over me, she questioned,
“Can you live in this world? Without rewinding time, can you endure?”
Tianma, devoid of moral concepts,
was just a pure beast.
As humans eating sacred beasts or cutting down plants for tools is considered natural in the order of things,
Tianma viewed me merely as a tool. And outside of her own “love,” everything else to her was as lowly as beasts, trees, and timber.
Not a being who sought pleasure or superiority from committing evil acts,
but simply someone utilizing a “tool.”
For her own love.
“Damn…”
Ultimately, I once again clawed my hair, screaming, and rewound time.
From that moment, I developed an intense obsession with becoming stronger.
As regressions, cycles, and time started to transform from “salvation” to “training.”
A thousand cycles.
Ten thousand cycles.
Thirty thousand cycles.
…
My spirit was chiseled away, my heart utterly shattered.
Killing people over and over again. Saving lives over and over again. Collapsing in exhaustion during futile struggles in cycles doomed to end in failure, grabbing my malfunctioning knees and forcing myself to move.
Time flowed slowly.
“You’ve grown quite strong. Good work. Now, it’s time to rewind.”
“In this cycle, you minimized the casualties during the war against the Blood Cult. Good work. Now, it’s time to rewind.”
“You’ve done us all a favor. Good work. Now, rewind.”
“Shouldn’t I just rewind time myself? If I could, would I be wasting time ordering you around? Don’t belittle time and rewind already.”
“Ah, you finally gripped my sleeve. Nicely done. How commendable. Now, rewind.”
“Ah, have you managed to cleave the heavens with your sword? Good work. Nobody will be able to touch a single strand of your hair in the next cycles. Though, it doesn’t matter since everything starts anew.”
“You’re such a convenience. Selfishly, wrecking the world a little and fixing it yourself is the easiest way. Now, rewind.”
Good work.
Rewind.
It was, in a sense, an “imprint.”
The activation phrase of what I had become—a “regression machine.”
Every time Tianma spoke these words, I regressed.
Eventually, even after the so-called “duels” with Tianma—I’m not sure it should even be called a duel as I had yet to land a single blow—once I lost, I would leap into regression before Tianma could even begin to destroy the world.
“Seems like you’ve learned something. Better that way. Now, rewind.”
The same situation repeated tens, hundreds, thousands of times.
I resisted the same number of times, and died the same number of times.
There was no better training opponent than the Blood Cult. Though too weak for me, I could always place restrictions on myself.
Don’t use internals, for instance.
Xue Ma, who had reached the Xian realm, was the most perfect trainer among them. He was the only one among otherwise impossible-to-warm-up-against opponents who let me warm up.
“You still won’t give up? Your willpower is becoming dangerously strong. Go now. Do you think by doing this you’ll even cross swords with me even once? Stop this futility and rewind already.”
Time flowed, returned, and flowed again, endlessly. This was the transcendental act performed by Tianma each cycle with Jiancheng as her unique instrument.
And so, it flowed and flowed.
The counting of cycles lost its meaning, and my martial arts had reached a point where no further growth was possible.
To elaborate further, at “this cycle,”
An anomaly,
An anomaly that would end all tribulations,
Occurred.
