Zhang Ying Hao tossed the corpses of the two muscular men into the space vortex, watching as they slowly faded away into the faraway wind.
After a long while, he turned around and doubtfully asked:
âBoss, Gu Qing Shan, thereâs something I donât really understandâ
Boss crossed his arms and casually replied: âGo headâ
âIf weâre going to save Lady Darksea, why do we insist on doing it right before the moment of her death? After all, her life is very long, we can simply choose a safer moment and bring her back to our eraâ
Boss shook his head: âIn reality, there is nothing more dangerous than temporal mattersâ
He patted Gu Qing Shanâs shoulder and continued: âLook at him, this guy is the only person Iâve ever seen traveling all the way back to the Age of Old and still managing to survive the ordeal. In truth, I really want to know what period of time he went back to and how he managed to return intact as wellâ
Gu Qing Shan shrugged: âMy situation at the time was actually quite unique, the place I went to consisted of countless fragments of time each from different parallel worlds, even when I entered the true Age of Old which belonged to this Reality, it was a unique point in time that I arrived atâ
âA point in time? How unique was this point in time?â Boss pursued the matter.
Gu Qing Shan replied: âThat point in time was hidden away by a human called the Immortal King, which was also the moment of his deathâ
Boss displayed an expression of understanding and followed up: âNo wonder, so it was a Temporal Oasisâ
Ye Fei Li cut in: âWhatâs a Temporal Oasis?â
âA real point within a timeline that was detached and isolated from the actual flow of time through a unique ability. Thatâs what we call a Temporal Oasisâ
Boss paused briefly, then continued: âAlright, guess Iâll give you a proper explanationââ there exists a connection between the fate of every âcreatureâ and every âthingâ in Reality, although this connection might turn out to be strong or weak depending on each caseâââ do you understand this?â
âI understandâ Zhang Ying Hao replied.
âLady Darksea was one of the strongest individuals within the 900 million World Layers, having participated in numerous occasions throughout the various eras of the 900 million World Layers. She is a living testament to much of its history, to the point that even I have heard of her nameâ
Gu Qing Shan chimed in: âAnd she was always the one to personally select rookies to enter the Strife Zones from the infinite worldsâ
Boss nodded: âFor that reason, she held a determining value within numerous historical occasions, intertwining herself with the fate of numerous peopleââ- do you care to guess if we were to abruptly remove her from any point within that timeline, what kind of influence that would have on history?â
âIâll tell you what would happen, a catastrophic level of influence. Countless events and even the fate of numerous people in history would be alteredâ
Boss raised two of his finger before explaining: âAt this point, there could be two possibilities: firstly, Reality simply gets destroyed; secondly, those people living in history would find events that had clearly happened suddenly vanish from their memories, as if none of it had ever occurredâ
âââthey would find that many of the events that had clearly happened had abruptly become just a part of their imagination, some might even see secrets from the distant past or brief visions of their futureâ
Gu Qing Shan had a sudden thought and muttered: âCould it be... this is how parallel worlds are created?â
âExactlyâ Boss confirmed it, âWhen a pivotal moment of turning fate abruptly occurs, one Reality will split into two, both of which will have the same long course of history, except for a single turning point that created two completely different Erasâ
âThis is one of the reasons why a parallel world would come into existenceâ
âHowever Gu Qing Shan, when you returned from the Age of Old, did you happen to see the River of Time?â
Gu Qing Shan nodded: âI didâ
He didnât just see it, he had to travel with the Golden Coin and relied on its [True Luck] to avoid the monsters in the River of Time in order to return safely.
Boss continued: âThe act of disturbing the past would anger the monsters that rest within the River of Time, at any point that you attempt to interfere with the past, they would immediately sense and attack when you return in an attempt to eliminate you, thus returning history to its original appearanceâ
âHow strong are they?â Zhang Ying Hao asked.
âSome are strong, some are weakâââ without exaggerating, even at my peak, I would only end up being food for the four strongest kinds of monsters within the River of Timeâ
Everyone gasped.
Boss continued: âIn summary, the more you interfere with the past, the more numerous and powerful the monsters that notice you would beâ
âReality would either be destroyed or would create a parallel world, but regardless of what happens, the culprit who caused it all would be devoured by the monster that protects the River of Timeâ
ââââThis is the reason why we canât arbitrarily interfere with the pastâ
Zhang Ying Hao pondered: âFor that reason, at the moment of a personâs death, their connection with Reality, its countless people, as well as everything as a whole would be reduced to its weakestâ
âExactly. At the moment of Darkseaâs death, she had entered a state where she no longer affected others, so taking her from that moment, from a historical standpoint, nothing she did during her long life would be altered or affectedâ
âAt that moment of history, she had, in fact, âdiedâ. So the act of us taking her from the past would become the âCauseâ, with her appearance in the future being the âEffectâ, perfectly fulfilling the requirements of the Laws of Causalityâ
âThis way, everything in both the past as well as the future of Reality, which had become our âhistoryâ, would not changeâ
âBut thanks to the Causality that we created; she would now exist in the futureâ
âHistory, Future, Fate or Causality would all be perfectly adhered to without any faultâ
âThanks to this, after we save and take her to the future, the monster within the River of Time wouldnât be alarmedâ
âWe will return aliveâ
âAnd that is the correct way to time travelâ
Boss summarized everything.
Everyone listened.
Gu Qing Shan combined that knowledge with his own experience and recalled the moments that he was devoured by those monsters.
He sighed and whispered to himself: âNo wonder I died so many times back then...â
âGu Qing Shan, what did you say?â Laura asked.
âAh, nothing, itâs nothingâ Gu Qing Shan quickly answered.
Boss continued: âThe secret of the Law of Time is still so much deeper. I can talk for one day straight without covering even half of it, but this much should be enough for you right nowâ
Zhang Ying Hao cut in: âGuys, Anna said that the reason they came back was to have Gu Qing Shan search for somethingâ
âWhat about it?â Gu Qing Shan asked.
Zhang Ying Hao was a bit bothered: âThe [Chaos] army would definitely have their own intelligence network, otherwise, they wouldnât be able to grasp Kitty and Annaâs movement so accuratelyâ
âWhich meansââ many people from the [Chaos] army must have remained in this Era, responsible for observing our movementsâ
Gu Qing Shan suddenly chuckled: âI know exactly what theyâre afraid ofâ
âTheyâre monitoring to see whether or not weâll actually return to the past. If we continue to stall without returning, wouldnât that mean they have to meaninglessly wait in the past?â
âIndeedâ Boss clapped his hand and continued: âNot only would they be meaninglessly waiting, but they would also need to be careful of avoiding themselves at that timeâ
Gu Qing Shan decidedly declared: âSo, weâre temporarily not going to return to the past at allâ
Boss replied: â...But if you to do that, they would surely lose their patience and pursue us from the pastâ
âAs soon as they return to the future, weâll immediately make our way to the pastâ Gu Qing Shan replied.
â...â everyone.
Gu Qing Shan summoned a sword which turned into Shannu.
And Shannu took his appearance.
âThe real reason why weâre doing this is to stall for timeâââ I will need to find a certain item, this item will most likely affect the entire outcome of this warâ Gu Qing Shan explained.
âShannu will replace me to accompany you guys to the Bramble Bird Kingdom. Weâre going to openly spread the news of the Bramble Bird Kingdom rallying people from the 900 million World Layers, keep stalling for time on your return trip and slowly build up our momentumâ
âI will secretly leave to look for that item, as soon as I find it, Iâll return to meet up with you at the Bramble Bird Kingdomâ
âIâll come with youâ Zhang Ying Hao said.
Gu Qing Shan shook his head.
âThe fact that they could disguise themselves as Kitty and Anna to directly find us earlier meant that they also have somebody constantly monitoring our movements, thatâs why not a single one of us can be seen going missing at any point. We canât draw their suspicion or the Soul Shrieker will immediately realize that its ambush had been exposed and return from the past right awayâ
Laura was confused: âMonitoring us? But none of the anti-clairvoyance artifacts I carry with me reacted at allâ
Boss chuckled: âMy senses are extremely sensitive, so the other party would definitely not try to use a clairvoyance technique for that. It must be some sort of non-magical monitoring ability, like a super-distance telescope, or a creature with natural-born eyesight capable of observing other people at extreme distancesâ
The group agreed.
Laura reached her hand behind her back and undid her hair tie again.
âââafter retrieving the [Order] Card from the two Deities, Gu Qing Shan had already returned this Twine of Cloud Atlas to her.
âGu Qing Shan, since youâre going to be moving alone, I suggest that you keep this, it will bring you luckâ Laura said.
Gu Qing Shan quickly shook his head and refused: âLaura, your way back to the Bramble Bird Kingdom isnât necessarily safe, itâs better that you keep it with youâ
âIâm not a fool, Gu Qing Shan, donât use such an excuse to act formally with meâ
Laura said nothing else and took Gu Qing Shanâs hand, getting ready to tie the Twin of Cloud Atlas to his wrist.
Gu Qing Shan still wanted to refuse, but an image suddenly flashed through his mind.
The Age of Old.
Iâve just obtained the twin swords Heaven and Earth.
The Earth Creator gave me the Golden Coin, considerably reluctant: ă Remember, Iâm only lending it to you, once I come back, you must return it to me ă
After that, he told me again: ă After you come back and settle yourself down, take some time to activate this coin, it will take you back to my world againââ where you can return the coin to me ă
ââdue to losing his luck, the Earth Creator lost his life at the Reality Gate.
With that thought in mind, Gu Qing Shan abruptly felt an indescribable sense of prophesized fate.
As if some sort of unavoidable deadly calamity was waiting for him within the long future filled with darkness.
ââjust like what the Earth Creator had felt.
Gu Qing Shan gave up on refusing.
He let Laura tie the Twine of Cloud Atlas on his wrist and muttered: âThen Iâll be keeping it for the next whileâ
Seeing him no longer hesitant, Laura happily said: âBe careful, weâll be waiting for your return at the Bramble Bird Kingdomâ
Gu Qing Shan nodded.
Lines of glowing text appeared on the War God UI:
[Attention:]
[Youâve obtained Occultism artifact: Twine of Cloud Atlas]
[Youâve obtained the lost identity: Awakened from the distant Dusty World. In consideration of this lost identity, youâre being sheltered by the soon-to-disappear Dusty World from the Immemorial Era]
[You have been bestowed the Mystic-type power: Shelter of Past Occultism]