A gust of cold wind swept through.

Within the River of Time, the monsters that watched over time and history had reappeared.

There were numerous of them, all with strange appearances and extremely powerful presence.

Above the River.

A conversation could be heard from inside a hovering sphere of light.

"This sphere of light seems to be getting a bit unstable"

"Hm, your feelings aren't wrong, the teleportation power of the six Sealing Tokens is about to be used up"

"Then are we going to jump?"

"That's right, we need to jump"

Mentioning this, both of their voices became a bit more cautious-------

"Boss, I remember you saying that these monsters who watch over the River of Time were very powerful, some even more powerful than you?"

"That's right, they're unique entities manifested by the three Great Laws of Reality, it's best to not arbitrarily bother them, or else you won't die in one piece"

"Ah… I know what you mean…"

A sense of danger appeared in both of their minds.

"Hey, Boss, we only made sure that history would follow its original course, so these monsters shouldn't try to eat us"

"About that… that should be the case"

"Should be?"

"Ah, if you're not assured, we just need to make a bit of preparation"

"…Then we definitely need to make a bit of preparation, since this matter is related to our survival"

"True"

"Then…"

"That's right, prepare your measures"

"You too"

The sphere of light flickered like it was about to break.

It was only a little bit away from being broken!

A cat appeared near the outer edge of the sphere.

The cat used [Ghostly Shadow of Night] and stuck close to the outer edge, preparing to jump down.

A dog sat down next to the cat with a serious expression while a book hovered above his head, also prepared to use its ability at any moment.

The cat was orange, very impressive.

The dog was black, very ferocious.

One cat and one dog both readied themselves.

-----they were prepared!

Suddenly, the orange cat commented: "Speaking of which, before you transported me to the Age of Immemorial, some of my comrades and I also used a teleportation technique to avoid Reneedol's detection"

"Hm? What was the situation like?" the black dog asked.

The orange cat then explained what happened to Fei Yue, Xiao Die, and Crow.

"They're currently riding a heavenly ark, escaping Reneedol's pursuit through mystic teleportation" the orange cat explained.

"Then there's no issue. Although, since we returned from the Age of Immemorial, a little bit of time should have passed since that point" the black dog replied.

The orange cat froze.

That's right.

The 'present' would only continue to move forward along the flow, and anyone who returned to the future from the past would not be able to arrive at the exact moment they left.

They could only arrive at a future slightly further than when they left on the timeline.

"What point in the timeline would we return to?" the orange cat asked.

"I'm not sure either, since we stayed for quite a bit of time during the Age of Immemorial" the black dog shook his head.

"I guess so, let us go find my comrades first" the orange cat suggested.

The black dog's eyes suddenly lit up, then went silent.

"What's the matter?" the orange cat looked at him and asked.

"The heavenly ark was a Samsara artifact, right?" the black dog suddenly asked.

"That's right" the orange cat admitted.

"And you've changed my world jurisdiction, so now I'm also a Samsara being" the black dog commented again.

"That's right, what are you trying to say?" the orange cat asked.

"Now that I look like this, if we meet up with your comrades, you can't tell them that I'm the Lord of Infinite Origins------- such a grand entity being reduced to look like a dog, that would really lower my dignity" the black dog worriedly said.

The orange cat sighed in relief.

------and here I thought he was worried about something actually important, so it was just his reputation.

"Sure, just tell them whatever you like" the orange cat replied.

The black dog appeared delighted: "I'll need a new name, a different one from before"

"Have you thought of one?" the orange cat hesitantly asked.

"I have" the black dog replied.

"What's that?" the orange cat casually asked.

The black dog puffed his chest out: "If I'm now a Samsara being, and I look like a flaming black dog, I've decided to take a reference from the Samsara's legend and call myself------ Tengu"

"Tian Gou?" the orange cat asked.

"Tengu" the black dog corrected him.

"Sheesh---- I thought you've already let go of the past, why are you still calling yourself Tian Gou1?" the orange cat asked with a strange expression.

"No, I said Tengu" the black dog corrected him again.

"Ah, so you meant Tengu, got it"

Pop!

The sound of a balloon popping was heard.

The sphere that hovered above the River of Time vanished.

"-----Go!" the black fog shouted.

The six Sealing Tokens circled once around the orange cat before they entered his body.

A second later-------

The cat and dog both moved in a special pattern of their own as they descended into the River of Time.

However, this descent had proven one thing.

The two of them had worried needlessly--------

The monsters within the River of Time didn't even want to even look at them and just ignored their presence as they entered a certain point in the timeline.

…

The sun was shining gloomily, radiating a dim glow.

The world itself was silent.

There wasn't a single person in any of the buildings, other than the sound of the wind, not a single sound could be heard within the entire city.

The orange cat and black dog both sat on top of a tall building.

"Where are we now?" the black dog asked.

"Most likely the world that my comrades transported to in the past------ but I don't see them anywhere around here" the orange cat replied.

Dispelling [Ghostly Shadow of Night], the orange cat silently observed the city.

Very strangely, all the buildings in this city appeared a bit grey and looked like they would crumble away with the slightest touch. The crumbled portions appeared as fine sand but looked more like matter that had been turned to dust after being completely destroyed.

This situation seems very familiar…

If this is what I think it is, it's very dangerous.

The orange cat put his paw forward and recited: "Fei Yue, Xiao Die, Crow"

A thin strand of black thread appeared out of thin air and wrapped around his paw, but didn't fly away.

"They don't seem to be in the current world------- and from what I can see, something seems to have happened here" the black dog commented.

The dog and cat both went silent.

----this is quite problematic.

The orange cat pondered: "It seems we first need to determine how long it has been since we first travelled back in time"

"That's true, we need to take a look and see if there are any remaining survivors here"

The black dog flipped through the Book of Prophesized Destinies and placed his paw on one of the pages.

The empty page then displayed a large one-horned serpent.

The serpent appeared quite extraordinary at a glance, with a look of cautiousness and wariness in its eyes.

"It's to the East, let's go"

"Alright"

The dog and cat leapt into the air and flew towards the distance.

Half an hour later.

The desert.

Above the vast desert, the orange cat and black dog both appeared.

"Can't see it" the orange cat commented.

"It's hidden deep underground, seems like it's sleeping" the black dog replied with the Book of Prophesized Destinies in his paws.

A sword with an ancient design appeared next to the orange cat.

The sword turned into a streak of light and violently struck the ground.

Bam--------

The earth trembled, kicking up a massive amount of sand and dirt that obscured the light of the sun.

「 Who? Who is outside? 」

A fearful voice was heard underground.

The black dog and orange cat exchanged glances.

"No need to worry, we're just here to ask you a few things" the orange cat spoke to it using his boundless inner sight.

The voice hesitantly asked: 「 Who are you? 」

The black dog lightly cleared his throat and replied: "I am the great Lord of Infinite Ori----- not, I'm the Samsara Tengu"

「 The Samsara Tian Gou? 」 the voice doubtfully asked.

"Samsara Tengu!" the black dog bared his fangs.

「 Ah, that sounds impressive. It's been a really long time since there have been any people in this world, can you save me? 」the voice hurriedly asked.

"That's no problem at all, as long as you tell us what happened to this world, we can take you with us" the black dog lifted his head and spoke.

"That's right, tell us what time period it is currently and we'll take you away from this world" the orange cat also loudly sent his voice.

「 Is that really it? Thank you two very much… 」

The desert began to rumble as the immeasurable sand dunes parted ways like two tidal waves.

A gigantic monster about a thousand meters tall appeared.

It was a one-horned serpent!

It shook the sand off its body and looked around: 「 The two… great entities, where are you? 」

"Up here, look up" the black dog replied.

The one-horned serpent looked up and focused its gaze.

In the gloomy grey sky, a dog and a cat silently hovered.

「 Pfft---- 」

The one-horned snake suddenly coughed up some fluid and painfully smashed its head on the ground.

"Hey, what happened to you?" the orange cat hurriedly put his hands together, about to form a hand seal.

"Were you inflicted by some sort of curse?" the black dog also took out the Book of Prophesized Destinies and began flipping through it.

The one-horned serpent howled sorrowfully:

「 I, the sovereign of 1700 years, the legendary Guardian Serpent of the world, had fallen so low that I'm being deceived by a dog and cat, how deplorable! 」

The orange cat and black dog both stopped.

The cat stopped forming his hand seal, the dog also stopped flipping through his book.

They both narrowed their eyes.

"This guy's head isn't quite right; do we look like a normal dog and cat?" the orange cat complained.

"That's right, it only judges a book by its cover" the black dog also commented.

"Earth sword, knock it out" the orange cat shouted.

The same sword from before abruptly appeared above the one-horned serpent and lightly swung down.

Bam!!!

The one-horned serpent crashed directly to the ground, forming a crater that was several hundred meters in radius.

It had fallen unconscious.

The drifting sand began pouring down, about to bury it.

The orange cat lightly wagged his tail.

The entire one-horned serpent flew up with its head in front of the orange cat's paw.

The orange cat put his paw over it.

[Soul Reading], activate!

One breath.

Two breaths.

Three breaths.

"How was it?" the black dog asked.

The orange cat pulled his paw back and answered with a complicated expression: "We've wasted too much time, the circumstances have completely changed now"

"What's the situation like?" the black dog asked.

The orange cat looked at him and carefully explained: "According to what this guy had sensed and known; I've largely understood the circumstances------"

"The Eternal Abyss had just been defeated, and everything we see right now was the result of the first layer of the Eternal Abyss' seal being undone"

"Ah… if that's the case… the situation had turned incredibly dangerous because of my absence" the black dog pondered.

The orange cat sincerely replied: "That's right, the giant eyeball had only just escaped its seal. The fluctuations caused by its appearance radiated throughout the entire Space Vortex"

"The civilization of the world we're currently in was completely destroyed by an insignificant bit of radiation from that event"

"This Guardian Snake was the only lucky survivor"

This is a play on words, "天狗" is pronounced Tiāngǒu, which refers to the Japanese Tengu, literally translated as "heavenly dog"; while "舔狗" is pronounced Tiǎn Gǒu, which is literally translated as "licking dog", a Chinese slang for "simp"