The Old Man First nodded, his expression unreadable but faintly pleased. "Do not misunderstand," he said, his tone quiet yet profound. "Interest does not an approval. It ans potential—the seed of sothing that might grow, if nurtured well enough."
Max nodded in understanding. Yet even so, his spirit burned brighter than ever. The Law of Ti was within reach, and before him stood the one being who could help him understand what he had long been chasing—the truth behind the flow of monts and the very essence of eternity itself.
"However," Old Man First said after a long silence, his voice carrying the calm weight of ages, "even though you have piqued my interest, you are not the best candidate to comprehend the concept of ti." His tone, though steady, carried a trace of lancholy, as if he regretted what he was about to say.
Max frowned slightly, unable to understand what he ant. "What do you an?" he asked. He could easily comprehend so many concepts to the fourth level already—space, sword, lightning, fla, ice—and each of them carried imnse profundity. So what could possibly stop him from doing the sa with ti? To him, it was just another path to understand, another barrier to break through. "I've walked through concepts others call impossible. Why would ti be any different?"
Old Man First looked at him with quiet eyes, the kind that seed to see through the illusion of the world. "Because the concept of ti is unlike any other," he said, his voice calm but firm. "You misunderstand its nature. Fla, ice, lightning, sword—they are domains of existence. They define what is, and how it behaves. But ti is not existence. Ti is the thread that weaves existence together. It governs not what is happening but why it happens. When one tries to understand ti, one steps into the river that controls the flow of causality itself."
He took a step forward, and with that step, the stars behind him shifted as though reality bent around his presence. "The Law of Causality is not a simple law of cause and effect," he continued. "It binds every event, every decision, every possibility into a continuous chain. To comprehend ti is to perceive every ripple caused by a single thought, every outco born from a single motion. It is to see not only what is but what could have been and what should never be."
Max's brows furrowed. "So what you an is… understanding ti ans understanding everything connected to it?"
Old Man First nodded slowly. "Yes. And therein lies the danger. The mont you begin to comprehend the law of causality, it will reach into your body, your soul, your mories, and even the concepts you have already mastered. It will try to align them according to the laws of cause and effect. It will seek harmony, and if it cannot find it, it will attempt to create it."
He raised his gaze toward Max, his eyes sharp and penetrating. "You, Max, are already filled with countless conflicting forces. Space bends within you. Flas devour. Ice freezes. Sword severs. Devouring essence consus everything, while the White Lotus Ice Essence seeks stillness. These forces coexist only because your body and soul are abnormally stable. But if you touch the law of causality—if you attempt to understand ti itself—it will try to reconcile all those contradictions. The result would be chaos, a chain reaction of cause and effect spiraling out of control."
Max went silent. The thought of it made him uneasy. He had always known his power was complex, perhaps even unstable in so ways, but he had never considered that sothing could unravel it completely.
Old Man First sighed softly, his gaze distant. "I have seen beings greater than gods lose themselves to causality. One misstep, one misunderstanding, and their souls were erased from every point in ti. No one rembered them because, in the law of causality, they ceased to have ever existed. That is the danger of ddling with ti before one's essence is perfectly unified."
Max clenched his fists slightly. His instincts told him to resist the warning, to keep pushing forward regardless of risk. "But I can control it," he said, his tone calm yet defiant. "My body has already adapted to the clash of flas and ice. I've overco imbalance before."
Old Man First's expression softened, though his tone remained grave. "You may believe that, but understand this—the mont you grasp even a fragnt of causality, there will be severe cause and effect. The law of causality will hit you for sure. It will test the aning of every cause that led to your being. Your past, your future, even your present will blur together until you no longer know who you are or when you are."
A cold stillness settled in Max's heart as he heard those words. The Law of Ti sounded magnificent, but it was a power that demanded everything from those who sought it.
"And let's not forget," Old Man First continued, his tone calm but layered with aning, "you have already comprehended the concept of space to the fourth level." His gaze shifted to the endless expanse of stars stretching in every direction. "Though there is a saying that ti and space are closely related, it is, in truth, a dangerous oversimplification. Those who truly walk the path of the laws know that ti and space may touch, but they do not rge. They are two sides of existence that resist one another, each maintaining its own dominion."
He raised his right hand slowly, and the space around his fingers began to ripple like water disturbed by an unseen current. In the next instant, the ripples froze completely. Everything around them—the starlight, the flicker of distant constellations, even the faint energy pulsing through the void—stopped moving. It was as if the universe had suddenly lost its heartbeat.
"This," he said softly, "is space holding ti still. When space dominates, it creates stability. It forces reality to take form and remain in that form. Space is the skeleton of existence, the frawork that holds everything together. But when ti interferes, it begins to bend that frawork. It shifts what was once solid and fixed into sothing transient, sothing that lives only in the mont between past and future."
He slowly lowered his hand, and movent returned. The stars twinkled once again, and the faint hum of existence resud its rhythm. "The concept of space grants one control over distance, position, and dinsion. The concept of ti governs change, progression, and the unseen flow that turns possibility into reality. They appear to complent each other, but they are not harmonious. The mont one tries to hold both in perfect balance, conflict begins. One wants stillness, the other motion. One seeks permanence, the other transformation."
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