[Just as humans are made up of many cells and bacteria, time is not more terrifying than those things. In the lower-dimensional space, they cannot interfere with the travelers from all directions here, they are omnipresent.]

Zhou Yi's mind raced: "But isn't that incorrect? At least in human perception, time not only describes the changes of life but also the non-life changes of nature, which seems different from what you said."

[What you describe is the perception of time, merely an external result of time. What I am talking about is the real time.]

[The difference between them is like that between a person and their shadow.]

[The duality of the world is usually considered as matter and consciousness.]

[They are each other's shadows and projections. Conscious life perceives that consciousness dominates the world, influencing the birth of matter, while material life naturally believes that matter creates consciousness. Both are not wrong because the real world cannot be fully observed at the lower-dimensional level, it is just the 'universe's' appearance squeezed into lower-dimensional space.]

[The same goes for time.]

[If a person sees the shadow of a tree, naturally they wouldn't think this shadow is life, but the body of this shadow is indeed a living thing.]

[It's just that people think they've created the concept of time, just as they think dreaming is a physiological phenomenon. Behind dreams is the Dream Demon, while time is an ancient and omnipresent fundamental life form, they are spread throughout space, the foundation for the birth of all creatures. Or rather, they are the original template and foundation of life.]

[The movement of energy gave birth to time, and time's transformation among different spaces and materials gave rise to all kinds of life.]

[Time can be seen as a higher-dimensional form of Longevity.]

Scenes of clocks and pendulums everywhere in the universe flashed in Zhou Yi's mind.

He only felt like he had opened another door, peering into the other side of the world: "If time is a massive life form, then do they think? Can they communicate and converse? Do they have behaviors similar to metabolism and reproduction?"

[Of course.]

[Only the manner and form are different.]

[Haven't you interacted with time life forms before? Why would you ask such a question.?]

Zhou Yi suddenly realized: "Time Master?"

[Correct.]

[It is the form of time as a life form maturing to a certain stage, just like the cells for humans, a single cell may seem very simple and nothing special. But when in large numbers, they complete connections and gather, eventually resulting in a qualitative change, forming humans as life. Life's interest and greatness lie in the transformation from quantitative to qualitative change.]

Golden Tree's words made various thoughts flash in Zhou Yi's mind.

So Time Master is the mature form of time life.

Time—or rather those Time Flow Device, Time Reverse Device, for Time Master is indeed like cells for humans.

This kind of four-dimensional being, in front of individual life forms like humans, matches Golden Tree in size, using star systems as a unit of scale, belongs to the category of macro creatures no matter in terms of size or form.

Zhou Yi thought again of the three-way war led by Golden Tree, Time Master, and the Heavenly People's army.

"Why does Time Master hunt Golden Tree?"

[For the material.]

[Golden Tree can produce all kinds of matter and consciousness, but Time Master merely utilizes the life of time and dimensions, compared to it, we have more diverse growth paths, they only have the path of time to travel. Therefore, they need to acquire from the outside to supplement their deficiencies.]

[But rather than hunting, it's more like a fusion.]

Golden Tree explained.

[What I see from the energy of the Fixed Star Channel is this.]

[Both parties mainly vie for dominion, whether it's time driving the evolution of all things or material evolution leading to time change, both sides will continue to oppose each other over this.]

[The winner will dominate the fusion form, and the loser will only become part of the life organs.]

Speaking of everything related to the universe, Golden Tree seemed like a know-it-all.

Zhou Yi couldn't help but think, that he and Reverse Flow Xiao Fu seemed to be the same way.

Both sides vied for dominance, he won. So Xiao Fu turned into the No. 2 Machine, stepping down from the former central position to a supportive role.

On a higher-dimensional scale, time is a form of life.

Zhou Yi proposed a point of confusion for himself: "We discovered a type of time life, Time Storage Chamber, saying it's an important organ of Time Master in the depths of underground Earth."

"Why would such time life exist in the Earth Core?"

[Those are remnants.]

"Remnants?"

[Yes.]

[There was a war breaking out in this star system.]

[Time Master and String Civilization went to war, String Civilization lost and was locked in the Sun, but it also caused considerable damage to Time Master.]

[The String Civilization's power resides entirely on "strings," which is a very special energy structure that can connect different spaces and create channels. It used strings to destroy part of Time Master's body dimensions, causing organs like Time Storage Chamber to detach to lower dimensions.]

Zhou Yi couldn't help recalling.

When he was fishing in the Four-dimensional Space Hole, indeed he found many damaged four-dimensional organs inside.

Looks related to this battle.

Wait.

Body damaged, organ detached to lower dimensions…

A terrifying thought popped into Zhou Yi's mind: "Is Earth part of Time Master's body?"

[Yes.]

[And a very important part, considered as the part responsible for reproduction.]

[So, this world's abundant life is not by chance… as the time as the foundation of life continuously flows into this world, even when folded and decomposed here, it's still the base and framework for the birth of various kinds of creatures.]

[Time entering here from Earth Core is also part of Time Master's normal physiological cycle.]

[Time life brings evolution of various life forms, various creatures through all sorts of changes bring about diversity in movement, allowing time to grow through them.]

[Eventually, when the carrier dies and time completes its individual cycle, they will return to four-dimensional space.]

Zhou Yixin with a curse in his heart.

So, Time Master was the Earth's ancient creator.

All forms of life are carriers of time.

They are the genes of all things.

However.

Zhou Yi then proposed: "The Earth being messed up like this by the Heavenly People, does Time Master have no reaction?"

[Would you care about the loss of some cells on your arm?]

"..."

[Only String Civilization is what Time Master would be concerned about.]

[Because that guy has already achieved Breaking Dimension.]

[Based on energy records in the Sun.]

[Initially, can be traced back to the war you saw. String Civilization intended to use a complete Golden Tree to restrain Time Master and take the opportunity to control and capture it with strings.]

[Time Master eventually stopped the fusion because it discovered the Golden Tree was part of another high-dimensional life.]

[Later, String Civilization tried to trace it all the way using strings, which led them here.]

[Earth, one of the most crucial low-dimensional organs of Time Master. Placed here to also observe my condition, the Golden Tree's maturity day coincides with the Sun's destruction day. ]

Golden Tree paused.

[String Civilization forcibly initiated Circular Flow, made me form ahead of time, modified several other celestial bodies in preparation for a second attempt to capture Time Master.]

[Meanwhile, the Heavenly People rebelled, using Golden Elephant and Golden Tree remnants to awaken Time Master. Time Master then brought the String Civilization down in dimension, turning them into fuel for the Sun.]

Zhou Yi finally figured out the entire story.

The destruction of Earth's humans turned out to be just a chain reaction from the String Civilization's hunt for Time Master.

"Given that Time Master can suppress String Civilization, why didn't it do so during the earlier wars?"

Zhou Yi did not understand.

[The reason is still the same.]

[Humans wouldn't care about a mad dog barking wildly at them.]

[But if it angers humans, then it's not hard to deal with a mad dog as long as they don't care about injury.]

Only then Zhou Yi understood.

Even as both achieved Breaking Dimension, the gap seemed large.

When Time Master acted for real.

String Civilization was trampled over and turned into a figurine inside the Sun.

On a cosmic scale, looking at this scenario, it's either you trample me, or I trample you… even situations of balance seemed rare.