Permanent Martial Arts Chapter 1975-END - 1975: Transcend Spacetime!

“Sinking into oblivion…”

The sheer terror of such a fate was beyond Lin Feng’s imagination.

In the past, the thought of losing himself to oblivion had never truly crossed his mind.

Perhaps it had surfaced as a fleeting concern, but he had never treated the possibility with gravity.

From his origins on his home planet to his current status as a spacetime cultivator, Lin Feng’s path had been marked by trials; yet, he had always managed to transform calamity into fortune. True setbacks and genuine despair were experiences he had never truly tasted.

It was only now, jolted awake by the white-haired elder’s revelation that he had already succumbed to oblivion, that Lin Feng finally snapped back to reality.

Yet, what did this realization change?

If simply knowing one had “sunk into oblivion” was enough to break the spell, countless others would have already achieved transcendence over spacetime. However, to this day, only Dawn had successfully transcended.

Every other seeker had been swallowed by different manifestations of oblivion.

Lin Feng was no exception; he was already lost. Furthermore, he was powerless to change it. Indeed, he was utterly helpless. At this stage, no solution presented itself to his mind.

“Do you intend to return to the past once more?” the white-haired elder inquired.

“I do not know.”

Lin Feng shook his head slowly.

He took his leave of the elder and sat in solitary silence within the Eternal Realm.

Time did not flow in the Eternal Realm; it remained anchored to a single, frozen moment. Nevertheless, for Lin Feng, an eternity of thought seemed to pass.

He had reached a point where the very purpose of his existence felt hollow.

If transcendence was unreachable, what was the point of remaining here in stagnation?

Conversely, if he leaped back into the past, what would be gained? Would he merely restart the cycle and continue his self-deception?

The inertia of the past was an inescapable force. He would be trapped forever, never reaching transcendence.

After an immeasurable duration, Lin Feng’s eyes fluttered open.

“Perhaps oblivion is a kinder fate than sitting here for eternity. Those spacetime cultivators who severed their ties to the present and future—are they truly unable to wake, or have they chosen to sink into oblivion willingly?”

Many thoughts swirled through Lin Feng’s mind.

Oblivion itself might not be the ultimate horror. Rather, existing without understanding the meaning of one’s own life was far more terrifying.

Lin Feng reached a decision. He would no longer linger in the Eternal Realm. He chose to return to the past once again. Even if he was destined to sink into oblivion, enduring endless cycles was preferable to this empty, stagnant existence.

With that, Lin Feng sought out the timeline of the past, and his form vanished instantly.

Inside the Central Sea University library, Lin Feng sat holding a book.

Suddenly, the haze of confusion in his eyes cleared. It was replaced by a gaze of infinite depth, carrying the weight of a thousand lifetimes.

“I have returned…” Lin Feng whispered under his breath.

He had warped through time, arriving back in the familiar surroundings of the Central Sea Library.

This time, he made no effort to find the metal sphere. The thought of acquiring the genetic fusion device did not even enter his mind. Lin Feng simply wished to see his parents and siblings one last time, after which he sat at home in a silent daze.

His parents watched him with growing anxiety.

They saw a disturbing lack of desire in Lin Feng’s eyes. They wondered what had happened to him.

Was he consumed by despair?

In his youth, Lin Feng had once fallen into despair because of his mysterious illness, giving up on life entirely. But hope had eventually returned, and he had spent years striving with everything he had.

Now, however, Lin Feng abandoned his university studies. He did nothing but sit at home. His parents watched helplessly as his health deteriorated, his body growing more frail by the day. To all their frantic questions, Lin Feng offered only silence.

In truth, Lin Feng had ceased his cultivation entirely.

Though his mind held a treasury of supreme cultivation techniques capable of curing his body’s ailment in an instant, he saw no point in it. So what if he did?

Should he use his “rebirth” and foreknowledge to climb to the summit again, as he had before? What would be the purpose?

The end result would be the same: a return to the Eternal Realm and another warp, repeating the cycle without end.

Lin Feng had lived through so much. He had known both the depths of despair and the peaks of hope. He had experienced almost everything—including the descent into oblivion.

“What if I simply let this strange illness take me?”

Lin Feng’s spirit remained heavy over the following days, causing his condition to spiral downward rapidly.

Under normal circumstances, he might have lived for a while longer. Now, it was unlikely he would survive even a few months.

In fact, as his health plummeted, he realized that in a few days, or perhaps even after a single nap, he might drift into a sleep from which there was no waking.

Lin Feng had contemplated many paths, but he had never considered the outcome of surrendering to the illness.

Perhaps the end was simply death!

The past was singular and eternal, yet it did not mean events were carved in stone. For instance, during his previous attempt, Lin Feng had used his “rebirth” to alter many things.

But the ultimate result remained unchanged.

He could not break free from the inertia of the past spacetime. The grand scheme of things stayed the same.

Indeed, they seemed unchangeable.

Even if Lin Feng were to wipe his home planet from existence, it would ultimately mean nothing to the rest of the cosmos.

This past belonged to Lin Feng alone!

It was disconnected from all others.

However, if Lin Feng truly died, there was only one past to speak of. If his current self allowed the illness to finish him, death would be absolute. Whether he was a spacetime cultivator or a common man, the end would be final.

Lin Feng possessed a profound intuition that this death would be real.

Should he perish, his entire timeline would face total collapse.

“If I die, the inertia of past spacetime becomes irrelevant… though I won't be around to see it.”

Lin Feng allowed a small smile to form.

Even now, the thought of how to transcend occupied his mind.

If he truly died, the spacetime of the past would surely crumble. The timeline of Lin Feng’s history would vanish in an instant.

Yet, what was the gain?

Even if he triggered the collapse of his past, he would be dead and unable to achieve transcendence.

Lin Feng stopped overthinking and embraced the silence.

Time drifted by slowly.

One month, three months, five months passed…

Finally, at the nine-month mark, Lin Feng’s physical form gave out entirely. His life force had drained away, and his final moments were upon him.

Gathered around his sickbed were his parents, his brother, and his younger sister. Even Qu Chen was there.

These were the people Lin Feng knew better than anyone.

While they were consumed by grief, Lin Feng felt a strange lack of sorrow. He was perfectly at peace.

He remained silent, simply waiting for the end.

This stillness brought a profound calm to his heart.

Slowly, Lin Feng lost the strength to keep his eyes open. His consciousness began to slip into a void. The muffled sounds of weeping reached his ears one last time.

Then, an all-encompassing darkness took hold.

This was the end of Lin Feng’s life. No miracle arrived to save him.

“It seems I am nothing special in the face of death after all…”

A faint, self-mocking smile touched his lips.

In the next heartbeat, he was submerged in infinite darkness. Even the might of a spacetime cultivator could not survive a true death in the past.

As he hovered at the threshold of demise, a torrent of images flooded his mind.

Every deed from his original life and his reborn life flashed by like a rapid slideshow.

“I have tasted every hardship, save for death. So, this is what it feels like…”

At the exact moment of his passing, Lin Feng felt the timeline he inhabited begin to shatter.

Boom.

The reality around him buckled and failed.

Image after image disintegrated.

The people standing by his bed dissolved into nothingness.

Everything was swallowed by the dark. Everything ceased to be.

Even Lin Feng’s very consciousness was pulled into the abyss.

From that point on, every version of Lin Feng’s timeline—past, present, and future—underwent a total collapse.

Death was the ultimate destroyer of lives and timelines. With his passing, every thread of his existence snapped.

The final bond connecting Lin Feng to his past timeline was severed quietly.

Back in the Central Sea University library…

Swoosh.

Lin Feng suddenly startled awake.

He blinked, looking at his surroundings and then down at his own hands.

“Am I back at Central Sea University again?”

Lin Feng was stunned. The memories remained vivid in his mind; he knew with certainty that he had died.

Dying within the past spacetime was supposed to be the end.

“Wait… is that… me?”

Lin Feng looked toward the side.

There sat a sickly young man, quietly turning the pages of a book.

It was the Lin Feng of the past.

“My past self…”

Lin Feng closed his eyes. Though he felt as if he possessed no power at all, the entirety of the world and spacetime laid bare its secrets before him.

The timeline of the past had been completely cut away!

“Transcendence… is this what it means to transcend?” Lin Feng whispered.

The truth finally dawned on him. He understood it all.

By returning to the past and embracing death, Lin Feng had achieved transcendence. He had finally experienced the one thing he was missing: death itself.

However, Lin Feng realized that transcendence was a unique journey for every individual. He specifically needed the experience of true death to break free from spacetime, whereas other cultivators might have different requirements.

For any other spacetime cultivator, such a move would likely have resulted in permanent death.

Lin Feng had found a narrow path to life through the jaws of death. He only lacked the experience of dying; thus, when he perished, the past timeline snapped. In that moment, a Lin Feng did die—but it was only the version of him tied to the past.

The spacetime cultivator known as Lin Feng was finally liberated! He had transcended spacetime!

Lin Feng watched as his “past self” moved toward a specific row of bookshelves. He knew that the genetic fusion device waited there, ready to alter that version of his life forever.

Yet, to him, this now looked like nothing more than a simulated program.

That “Lin Feng” was now entirely separate from the being he had become.

With a casual wave of his hand, Lin Feng made the genetic fusion device vanish from the shelf. In its place, he left a book that shimmered with a soft, golden radiance.

When the “past Lin Feng” reached the shelf, he immediately noticed the book.

He reached out and picked it up. Bold letters immediately materialized on the cover.

“The Book of Spacetime!”

Startled, the young man opened the first page.

“I am the Wayfarer of Spacetime—Dawn!”

(End of Book)