Infinite Evolution: My Idle Evolution System

— Meanwhile, within the Mooncast Swamp, a few hundred miles east of the concealed River Mountain City —

SHING! SHING!

Sparks drifted across the countless scales of a massive, shiny blue snake over three hundred meters in length. These sparks were produced as a result of a purplish-black-haired boy zipping around the scaly serpent's body, attacking with his transformed wooden arms.

"HSSSSsss—!!!"

The Three-tailed Moon Serpent's rage soared, and so too did its power as it pushed Necro back thousands of feet. He crashed into a nearby field of green goo without a scratch on him.

"This substance." He frowned after realizing how stuck his feet were in the glue-like goo. "What an annoyance."

Transforming his legs into an illogical number of huge roots, Necro forcefully blasted away the field of goo. At the same time, he passively broke through to the Half-step Qi Condensation Realm of his 5th Orange-tier Petal.

"Breaking through is like breathing for me," he stated as his eyes glowed a deathly blue. "And so too is killing."

The massive head of the Three-tailed Moon Serpent lowered to Necro's position. Just one of its eyes was many times his size, with its terrifyingly forked tongue slithering in a mocking manner.

"You dare laugh at me, worm?" Necro grabbed out with his hand, and in an instant, a wood extension in the shape of a palm smashed down on the Serpent's head. "You're an inferior being. Don't get ahead of yourself."

"ROOOARRGGHH—!!!"

The Three-tailed Moon Serpent was furious.

Su Yu, who was watching with Lolipop in the distance, was very tense. She had seen a few battles at this level and above before, but none of them had Necro as one of the core players.

"You better win, you dummy…" Her nervously tight grip on Lolipop's tail made tears bubble up at the corners of its eyes.

'Yes, please win…' Lolipop prayed.

— An incense stick later —

|Death Piercer| - |Gatling Barrage|

SHA! SHA! SHA!

The Three-tailed Moon Serpent was already badly hurt before Necro used this special variation attack. But after it was unleashed, the Serpent's damaged defenses were pierced through in repeated succession.

Greenish-blue blood drenched the swampy land for thousands of meters, covering up all the sticky goo that the Serpent used for a territorial advantage.

THUD!

The fall of a giant. Something magnificent to behold. Yet also so very daunting.

*Ding!*

[You slew a 10th Layer Qi Condensation Realm Three-tailed Moon Serpent, draining it of its Lifespan!]

[Lifespan +1,210]

"Monsters have way more Lifespan than humans," Necro stated coldly as he walked up to the giant, holed corpse. "This makes them far more worthwhile to kill instead of humans."

Something suddenly made him pause.

"This feeling…"

Necro could feel something strange inside of the Serpent's corpse calling to him.

"What is this I'm feeling…?"

*Ding!*

[Encountered trace amounts of a Special Bloodline nearby. Would you like to begin the absorption process, subsequently re-activating the Origin Progenitor Bloodline?]

"Origin Progenitor Bloodline…? I… I don't understand what it means by re-awaken—"

That was when it hit him. A splitting headache that sent him spiraling into his subconscious and into a series of unfamiliar memories.

This was a period of time when Cassius was finishing the discovery and absorption of the Original Abyss Fragments. It was when Cassius first glimpsed the true dangers of the world outside the Ascension Tower—glimpses that he wished he could've done more with.

OOOM!

*Ding~!*

[Dear Host, you have successfully assimilated the last of the Original Abyss Fragments, and thus attained the True Form of the 'Shadow's Foresight' Skill, as well as unlocked the 'Fate Manipulation' Skill! You can see the future and manipulate it with no limits, but for a price.]

Necro could neither talk nor move. However, he could hear.

'This robotic feminine voice… Is it not the voice of my System…?'

The voice continued to speak, saying, [Dear Host, are you willing to pay the price to unlock the future and bend it to your will?]

"Yes," came a voice that made Necro jolt back in shock. "Do it."

The price the Idle Evolution System spoke of was both a very simple one, but at the same time, it was extremely complicated.

'This man…' A migraine pulsated in Necro's head, forcing him to grimace. 'H-His presence… He's not a cultivator… So weak… A lower lifeform…? But what is this archaically indescribable aura permeating around him…?'

Cassius's starry eyes closed. In his complex array of neutrons, the power of Fate and Destiny surged. His eyeballs constantly rolled beneath his eyelids, adding to his disgruntled expression.

"May…" Cassius talked to himself. "This is what you were trying to prevent…?"

He was watching his future unfold. It was limited to the next hundred years of higher dimensionality, but it was more than enough for Cassius to learn all that he needed to know.

May's discussion with him at the top of Mount Olympus was not the first time the two of them had that talk. At least, not for Cassius.

"I can change it all…" he muttered as he went to dip his hand into the stream of Fate. "I can make it so that the invading cultivator was never born. I can save the Ascension Tower from annihilation. I… I can save my family… the Lifespans of those I hold dear…"

But before Cassius could change everything in the way he wanted, he stopped his hand.

"...Why was I shown all this, only for grim reality to actualize and illustrate how much of a fool I am…?"

'What is this man talking about?' Necro asked himself, observing the countless complex emotions clouding Cassius's face.

"I can see it. I can change everything. But I can't prevent a number from snowballing to infinity…" Cassius murmured with hopeless eyes.

The Butterfly Effect.

It was what governed the Laws of Time and reigned in those who wished to cruise the River of Time at will. And in a way, the Butterfly Effect was the Law of Entropy. One thing—no matter how small—would always become multiple more things of a much higher magnitude, assuming that thing was the result of a change on the Timeline.

That is to say, even if Cassius could solve one or two problems, a thousand more would show up. He could never fix them all, not unless he could quantify infinity.

Messing with the Timeline was akin to leaving him and his family with no way out…

Realizing this was when he decided to do the only thing he could do when presented with such daunting information.

"I know you're watching."

"!!!"

Necro was astonished to find Cassius looking straight at him from within his projected subconscious form.

"I made a choice that led to your existence," said Cassius. His voice was far more aged than when he first activated the full extent of 'Shadow's Foresight,' causing the Skill to permanently vanish in the same moment.

"But…" he continued dramatically. "It had to be done."

"W… What are you talking about…?" Necro was unable to bear the illogical level of pain assaulting his senses.

"I'm talking about something that you'll fully understand when the day Fate and Destiny collide arrives for us both," replied Cassius, as if he already knew everything Necro was going to say before he said it. "Out of countless, unlimited paths our Destiny could walk along, there has always been but one for us. And for this path to be successfully tread—for the future past my sight to be opened up—for the darkness to be cleared—you had to have come to be."

"This also means that the death of everyone and everything I ever cared about is inevitable." Cassius revealed an incomprehensible expression. "It all has to happen the way it did. The way it will. The way it's destined to happen."

"As for me…" The version of Cassius in his specialized subconscious gradually started to fade away. "The cost for controlling my Fate was more than just a one-time use of the Skill. It also entails the loss of my memories having ever seen what no mortal should witness in their feeble lifetime."

"This is goodbye, Necro," said Cassius with an unreadable smile. "Or should I say….."

Then suddenly, Necro opened his eyes.

As it turned out, he had at some point fallen into his subconscious. Only now did he wake, looking as if he had seen a ghost.

Then came the System Notifications:

*Ding!*

[You have successfully activated the Origin Progenitor Bloodline!]

[Absorbed the Moon Serpent Bloodline (Inferior Quality)(3rd Rank)]

[Acquired the Moon Serpent's Innate Skills: Moon Cleaver, Half-Moon Strike, Luminosity Poisoning, Gigantification, Moon Beam]

Necro's splitting headache finally subsided, allowing him to look over his boons. At the same time, the Moon Serpent's Bloodline and all its attached Innate Skills coalesced before being assimilated by the Origin Progenitor Bloodline.

The individuality of the Innate Skills vanished, but the payoff was well worth it. The qualities of the Skills were extracted, refined, and then fused into the Origin Progenitor Bloodline.

OOOM!

Surrounded by a white serpentine aura, Necro's eyes spawned slits. A deadly luminous intent erupted from his gaze.

"The Origin Progenitor Bloodline," he mused to himself as he sensed an unbelievable amount of strength coursing through his white scaly figure. "This is what that man in the world of my subconscious possessed."

But now it was his. And with it, any Bloodline in the world became his for the picking.

RUMBLE!

Necro's piercing eyes darted over to a large depression in the ground. It connected to a cave. The rumbling originated from inside that cave.

"So there was more than one of them."