Someone had died, so the auction couldn't continue.
The scene was chaotic, but Blake didn't bother being polite. He went straight to the auction's backstage.
In front of all the Christie's staff, he transferred the money and took the bronze animal head.
As for the other mysterious auction item, it would have to wait until the next time Christie's resumed the auction.
After handling his business, Blake was eager to leave. After all, while he wasn't afraid of the trouble caused by killing someone, avoiding direct conflict with the police was best—keeping a low profile was preferable.
But just as Blake was about to leave with Natasha, something lying on the ground caught his eye.
In an instant, his pupils dilated.
An obviously ancient golden coffin was quietly lying on the ground.
Earlier, a cart placed next to it had blocked his view, so he hadn't noticed. But after the transaction, the staff had moved the cart away.
The coffin was simple, with minimal carvings on it.
However, the lid had raised corners, resembling the eaves of ancient buildings.
Blake remembered suggesting this design when he commissioned a coffin, thinking it would add a playful touch—after all, it was a marriage, a brief indulgence in his dark sense of humor.
"This... can't be..."
Blake muttered to himself as he walked toward the coffin.
"Mr. Blake , are you interested in this as well? It took us a lot of effort to acquire this piece. It's incredibly old, but unfortunately, some symbols on the front have worn off. Only a few traces remain, and we're unsure what they represent, which diminishes its archaeological value."
Following the staff member's words, Blake looked at the front of the coffin. He saw a horizontal stroke, followed by a slanted line, and then a barely visible small mark. The rest was so worn it was impossible to make out.
"These aren't symbols—they're part of Chinese characters... '百年好盒' (A lifetime of happiness, with 'box' replacing 'union')."
Blake stared intently at the remaining characters on the golden coffin, a storm brewing in his mind.
"Blake , we need to go. What's wrong?" Natasha asked with concern. He hadn't shown much reaction after killing someone earlier, but now he seemed deeply affected. What had happened?
For once, Blake ignored Natasha. He stood up and asked the Christie's staff member directly, "Is this coffin consigned by someone, or does it belong to the auction house?"
"This... this is our company's item. Mr. Blake ... is there a problem?"
The staff member was clearly frightened—after all, Blake had just killed someone earlier in front of everyone.
"How did this item come into your possession? Tell me!"
"I... I don't know, Mr. Blake . I'll have to call the head office and ask."
"Then call them right now!"
"But... it's late at night there, no one's working!"
"Where is the auctioneer?" Blake turned around and found the auctioneer still present.
"You're auctioning off this item today, and you don't know its origins?"
"We only know it belonged to the owner of a castle. He sold it to our auction house. As for where it came from, he said it had been in his family's collection since his grandfather's time. No one knows exactly how they got it. That's what the company told me. If you want more details, you'll have to wait until the staff at the main office are back at work, Mr. Blake ."
The auctioneer remained calm, explaining the situation clearly and even adding a remark: "However, Mr. Blake , our company usually doesn't hide the origins of items from auctioneers. You know, with antiques, if there's no story, we're eager to invent one. So even if you inquire with the company, I believe you'll be satisfied."
"Hoo..." Blake let out a deep breath.
The situation was too bizarre; he needed to calm himself.
After a moment of silence, Blake dialed a number.
A minute later, a portal opened at the scene. Blake hoisted the coffin and, with Natasha, stepped into the portal.
Before leaving, Blake turned to the auctioneer and said, "I have to take this item. Have your company name a price and contact me later."
...
New York Sanctum.
Natasha, having traveled through a portal for the first time, was amazed at how they had gone from France to New York in an instant. But seeing Blake's expression, she knew something was weighing on him.
Sensing this, she wandered off to explore the Sanctum, giving Blake and the Ancient One enough space.
"What's going on? Why did you bring a coffin here?" The Ancient One hadn't asked about the details earlier, given Blake's urgency.
"Can you figure out where this came from?"
"Where it originated, when it appeared, why it's here—Ancient One, I know you can use the Time Stone to see both the future and the past. I don't know what price must be paid for this, but if it's within acceptable limits, please tell me. This matter is *extremely* important!" Blake emphasized the last words.
The Ancient One gave Blake a surprised look but said nothing. Instead, she circled the coffin once and then placed her hand lightly on it.
The Eye of Agamotto on her chest began to emit a faint green glow.
Her figure started flickering in the space around them.
After a while…
The Ancient One grunted and abruptly pulled out of the trance.
"What did you see?" Blake quickly stepped forward to support her, eager for answers.
With a strange expression on her face, the Ancient One waved her hand to signal she was fine. Without answering Blake, she touched the coffin again, and the green light appeared once more.
After about the same amount of time, she again grunted and exited the state.
"This can't be! It's impossible!" The disbelief on her face surpassed even Blake's when he first saw the golden coffin.
Ignoring Blake, she sat down cross-legged, clasping the Eye of Agamotto between her hands as she entered the time-browsing state once more.
This time, it lasted much longer.
Natasha came by twice, but upon seeing the scene, left again both times.
Just as Blake was about to lose patience and consider kicking the Ancient One to snap her out of the state, she let out a loud cry, coughed up a mouthful of blood, and slowly opened her eyes.
"What did you see?" Blake rushed over, helping her to sit and anxiously asked.
"Our timeline... has been severed!"
*******************************************
You can get access to early chapters on patr*on.
If you like my work and you want to support me then you can become my patron on patre*n.
My patr*on account is S_Pandey_0170
The Ancient One, coughing up blood and emotionally agitated, while Blake had calmed down.
Slowly helping the Ancient One sit down, Blake asked, "What do you mean by the timeline being severed?"
"The literal meaning!"
The Ancient One adjusted herself and replied.
Perhaps afraid that Blake didn't fully understand, the Ancient One waved her hand through the air, and a glowing orange line appeared, extending endlessly in both directions.
"This is the timeline of our world. Everything—people, events, all things—run along this timeline."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but this suddenly appeared in front of me... so I…"
Natasha appeared suddenly, pointing at the timeline the Ancient One had conjured.
"It's fine, come over! There's nothing to hide!"
Blake beckoned Natasha over and gestured for the Ancient One to continue.
"This line should be boundless, extending into the past and the future, but now…"
The Ancient One waved her hand toward the long line and directly cut a segment out of the middle.
"This is our current state, for example, here is where we are now."
The Ancient One casually marked a point.
"When I traced back the past of this coffin, it stopped around 5,000 years ago, completely blank! Time disappeared at that point!"
"Wait!"
Blake signaled her to stop.
"You said 5,000 years ago—is that when the coffin first appeared? How did it come about?"
The Ancient One glanced deeply at Blake.
"We'll discuss that later. First, let's talk about this timeline. It ends after 5,000 years in the past and only continues 1,000 years into the future!"
"What do you mean it ends? Time should move forward eternally, right? What do you mean it stops? The universe ends?"
Natasha curiously looked at the timeline.
"The universe is conserved. It may change forms, but it won't stop. So there's only one answer: someone has manipulated the timeline, creating a closed loop!"
The Ancient One erased that segment of the timeline and drew a circle instead.
On two parts of the circle, small black segments replaced the original orange color.
"Time has inviolable rules. It's impossible to link the ends of a single timeline together. So, what must have happened is that two timelines have been connected at their ends, forming this circle."
"These two places are where I saw the past and the future, where the two timelines are joined."
The Ancient One pointed to the two small black segments.
"I don't know how he managed the transition, but it's clear that I cannot break through those two regions!"
"Who is he? Do you know who did all this?"
Blake sharply caught onto the "he" in the Ancient One's words.
"Yes, I know. He's the time traveler, the Conqueror—Kang!"
The Ancient One's words sent shockwaves through Blake's mind!
Before his journey through time, he had seen previews of *Loki*, where people speculated online that the Time Variance Authority's hidden boss might be Kang the Conqueror.
Now, it seemed to be true.
"It looks like we need to have a serious conversation about this timeline and Kang the Conqueror."
Blake said quietly.
"Kang the Conqueror!"
The Ancient One sighed softly.
"He comes from a future 1,000 years ahead, the greatest scientist of his era, and the first time traveler in the entire timeline!"
"He broke the laws of the timeline. His time traveling directly triggered the creation of the multiverse!"
As the Ancient One spoke, she once again produced an orange-red simulated timeline.
"The original timeline existed in this way, but Kang's time traveling—"
The Ancient One made a grasping motion at the front of the timeline and placed a small glowing point behind it.
Then, the timeline began to split.
"Kang the Conqueror is obsessed with time travel. He has visited nearly every time point, measured in years, and his presence, along with his advanced technology, caused massive changes at each point."
With a wave of her hand, the timeline began to branch off in countless directions.
"The appearance of these branches led to more and more versions of Kang the Conqueror—each crazier than the last!"
"They all sought to alter the future or the past according to their will, and eventually, war broke out across multiple universes!"
"Countless multiverses were annihilated. In the end, one Kang emerged victorious. He unified the remaining timelines and established the Time Variance Authority to monitor and control the development of every timeline, preventing new branches from forming and stopping another war."
The Ancient One waved her hand, and countless orange lines converged into a single, thicker timeline.
"This timeline, which contains many controlled branches, is what's known as the Sacred Timeline!"
Blake glanced at the so-called Sacred Timeline, still puzzled as to why his own appearance hadn't drawn the intervention of the Time Variance Authority.
Natasha, unfamiliar with all of this, was simply stunned by the Ancient One's explanation. She asked a question that Blake also wanted the answer to.
"How do you know all this?"
"Sigh."
The Ancient One sighed again, her eyes filled with a hint of memory.
"Because the one who helped Kang unify and establish the Sacred Timeline was none other than the first Sorcerer Supreme, Agamotto!"
"Every Sorcerer Supreme swears to guard the Eye of Agamotto and protect the order of time. Because of this, we have also, in a way, protected the Sacred Timeline."
"But Kang deceived us—or rather, he deceived the first Sorcerer Supreme, Agamotto!"
The Ancient One, with a touch of anger, revealed this little-known story.
Agamotto, the first Sorcerer Supreme and the legendary first wielder of the Time Stone, was a demigod who lived a million years ago.
He studied magic, created Kamar-Taj, and protected Earth from threats from other dimensions.
After the multiversal war broke out, one version of Kang the Conqueror traveled back to one million years ago and found Agamotto.
Kang expressed deep regret for his time traveling, which had sparked wars across the multiverse, and he claimed he wanted to end the war.
He proposed creating an organization to prevent more timelines from emerging, to avoid a greater war in the future.
It's unclear how Kang convinced Agamotto, but in the end, he did.
With Agamotto's help, Kang persuaded almost every version of Agamotto across different timelines.
Ultimately, for the sake of multiversal peace and the stability of the timelines, Agamotto sacrificed himself, drained his power, and used the Eye of Agamotto to help Kang control and regulate all the timelines, creating the Sacred Timeline.
---
This chapter took a bit longer to release. I spent a lot of time researching and reviewing *Loki*'s plot and the setup of the Sacred Timeline, to avoid any plot holes and ensure readers remain immersed!
*******************************************
You can get access to early chapters on patr*on.
If you like my work and you want to support me then you can become my patron on patre*n.
My patr*on account is S_Pandey_0170
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