Chapter 143: One Thousand Years Later

In reality, Orochimaru had not perished at all. Just as the three lethal techniques were about to strike him, he had activated the scroll sealing the power of the Pseudo-Source of the Universe.

The Pseudo-Source of the Universe was a convergence of the powers of nearly every race in the cosmos, fused together to form a force infinitely close to that which existed at the dawn of creation. Orochimaru had never been able to harness this power because any attempt to manipulate it would result in being assimilated and consumed. Theoretically, all matter in the universe was merely a sub-power of this Pseudo-Source.

Thus, Orochimaru devised a method: he would use turbulent energy waves to strike the Pseudo-Source. The attempt succeeded. He had intentionally lured himself into the encirclement of the Sage of Six Paths, Otsutsuki Yamadake, and Otsutsuki Guchian, using their combined attacks to exert control over the source. He shattered the power of the Pseudo-Source, wrapped it around his body, and triggered the temporal energy contained within it.

With a flash of light, the scenery around Orochimaru shifted completely. He felt as if he were passing through a time tunnel, with countless images of all kinds flickering past him. The process was brief, and when it finally came to a halt, Orochimaru felt a lingering sense of intrigue. He attempted to analyze the phenomenon, but the window of time had been too short, and he had gained little. Now, however, the most pressing question for him was: in what era did he find himself?

After Orochimaru’s disappearance, the Allied Forces of the Myriad Races continued their brutal slaughter against the million-strong army of the Otsutsuki clan. The ultimate victor was the Sage of Six Paths. Fighting two against one—Otsutsuki Yamadake and Otsutsuki Guchian—the Sage relied on his uncanny soul techniques and his ability to foresee the future. With their physical strengths relatively matched, the Sage’s victory was inevitable. He slew both Yamadake and Guchian. With the high command of the Otsutsuki clan defeated, the Sage took full control of the Allied Forces, leading them to crush the million-strong Otsutsuki army.

As for Earth, it had been obliterated long before, shortly after Orochimaru vanished. It was shattered by the concentrated strikes of the Myriad Races and the Otsutsuki army, and Uchiha Madara had died of exhaustion trying to protect the planet. The war lasted a full decade, and the name of the Sage of Six Paths rose to prominence, known by all. Through this, the Sage gained absolute control over the Myriad Races, standing as a rival to the Otsutsuki clan. From that day on, the universe was divided in two: one half ruled by the Sage of Six Paths, the other by the Otsutsuki.

Orochimaru surveyed his surroundings. The space around him was fractured like shattered glass, with cosmic gales howling through the void. The star system he inhabited appeared to have undergone a cataclysmic war that had laid the entire region to waste, rendering it uninhabitable. To an ordinary person, this place would be a tomb, as they would likely lose their way in the spatial debris and be shredded to death by the cosmic winds.

"Is this the past... or the future?" Orochimaru pondered. Originally, he had assumed that using the Pseudo-Source would transport him back to the past—perhaps to the very beginning of the universe, where he could study the primal source power directly. Once he understood it, he would return to the present, and neither the Sage of Six Paths nor the Otsutsuki would be his match. When he had accidentally triggered the Pseudo-Source of Earth, he had indeed traveled back to the planet's inception. But this time, it seemed different.

Though space was littered with debris, traces of various techniques remained. Unrooted flames still burned, and unrooted waters still flowed. These were remnants of the great war, preserved by the unique conditions of the battlefield. Orochimaru recognized them well; they were the powers of the Myriad Races. "And the powers of the Otsutsuki clan as well..." This place looked exactly like the site of the battle between the Allied Forces and the Otsutsuki army.

Orochimaru frowned. "It is highly probable that my location has not changed, but the time has shifted into the future. And the future..." The future presented complications. Since the Sage of Six Paths could predict the future, even if Orochimaru had arrived in a later time, the Sage could still "see" him. This would mean he had failed to bypass the Sage’s predictive ability.

"Or perhaps not... When I traveled from the past to the future, the future itself changed," Orochimaru mused. "From this moment on, the timeline is no longer a straight line; it has begun to branch. I am the starting point of the butterfly effect. Every action I take will cause a new future to diverge. The more I act, the more futures are created, and the more futures the Sage of Six Paths will see. When the futures he sees become countless and no longer singular, his predictive technique will be rendered obsolete."

The logic was sound. Because of his interference, the timeline had ceased to be a single path and had begun to bifurcate. It was branching every minute, every second, indeed at every instant. Even his act of floating in space and blinking his eyes, which caused a slight shift in cosmic particles, could potentially trigger a violent cosmic particle storm in some distant corner of the universe. These events, which should not have occurred in the original future, had now happened. Thus, the timeline had split into two, and as this continued, it would branch into infinity.

"Intriguing. Does this not mean that from now on, new universes will constantly be generated—universes identical to this one in their pasts, but divergent in their futures? That would imply the existence of countless universes, and consequently, countless versions of myself." A thought took root in Orochimaru’s mind—a vision of infinite versions of himself—but he suppressed it for now.

His immediate priority was to determine the current era and how many years had passed since the great war. Most importantly, he needed to verify if his hypothesis was correct. If not, he would have to find another way to break the Sage’s foresight.

The spatial debris and cosmic gales posed no threat to Orochimaru. His gaze pierced through the distance, unaffected by the floating remnants of war and energy. Soon, he flew out of the center of the region toward the periphery, where he spotted a group of seven individuals belonging to the Snake-Head, Wolf-Head, Tiger-Head, Elephant-King, and Lion-King tribes. They were dressed as adventurers, and indeed, that is what they were.

The war a millennium ago had left several star systems in ruins, creating fields of debris where they could study the art of space manipulation. With the various traces of techniques still lingering, the area had developed into a sanctuary for adventurers over the last thousand years.

"Hey, look over there! A person!"
"And he’s alone!"
"Heh heh heh..."

The seven of them spotted Orochimaru, their eyes lighting up with greed. This place was not just for research; it was also a hunting ground for lone adventurers, which was exactly why they traveled in a pack. They had already robbed several others before encountering Orochimaru.

"Boys, let’s move!"

They flew toward Orochimaru, intent on pillaging him. Orochimaru remained motionless, watching them approach. Since he had encountered people, it was the perfect opportunity to inquire about the state of this era.