章節 539: What Else is There In This Space-Time?
編輯: Dragon Boat Translation
"Who's there!? ... Mr. San?!"
At first, Chen Xiaolian was puzzled, but when he saw the long-handled umbrella in the man's hand clearly, he was shocked.
The man's body seemed to be shrouded in darkness, no matter how Chen Xiaolian tried to look, he couldn't see his face clearly. Even his voice sounded ethereal.
But that umbrella made Chen Xiaolian's heart suddenly tense!
Mr. San!
Why would Mr. San appear here?
Historically, Mr. San never appeared during this Instance of the copy.
"This thing is not something anyone can casually use." Mr. San's voice seemed distant, then repeated again.
"But... not... anyone can use it. But... but... but... but not just anyone... anyone... anyone... can use it..."
Chen Xiaolian was stunned.
This voice... it's like...
A disc?!
Mr. San was less than three steps away from Chen Xiaolian, but Chen Xiaolian still couldn't see his face.
"Mr. San?" Chen Xiaolian frowned, asking in a deep voice, "Is it really you?"
And at that moment, Mr. San suddenly raised the umbrella in his hand and lightly tapped the coffin.
Just a distant tap.
Chen Xiaolian instinctively followed the tip of the umbrella and looked at the coffin.
To Chen Xiaolian's surprise, the lid of the coffin silently moved, revealing a gap!
The coffin... was opened!
Shocked, Chen Xiaolian immediately turned to look at Mr. San, but to his horror...
Mr. San was gone!
This figure, inexplicably vanished into thin air!!
"I... I must be seeing things?!"
A cold sweat dripped down Chen Xiaolian's forehead, flowing along his cheeks.
But just as Chen Xiaolian was about to think he had just experienced an illusion, suddenly, he heard that voice again.
"...This thing... is not something anyone can casually use."
Chen Xiaolian jumped in fright, almost springing up, suddenly looking around, "Mr. San! Where are you?!"
"I... I..." The voice seemed to stutter a bit, "I... am not... here..."
Suddenly, a thought struck Chen Xiaolian.
Could it be... this situation is like... poor signal?
He swallowed nervously and tentatively asked, "Is it... poor signal?"
Although the phrase "poor signal" sounded bizarre in this context, it was evident that the other person understood Chen Xiaolian's meaning.
"It's... possible... like this... understood."
Hmm, it seemed to be a transmission signal issue. Chen Xiaolian only heard the word "understood."
"Mr. San, how did you... end up here?"
"I... because of..." After a strange disc-like noise, the voice continued, "...so, it's like this."
Chen Xiaolian was frustrated!
What is this?! Can't hear clearly at all?! The crucial part is incomprehensible?!
"So, do you know who I am?" Chen Xiaolian pressed on.
Is this Mr. San from this timeline, or... like himself, a Mr. San who traveled through time and space?
This is crucial! If it's Mr. San from this world, then he shouldn't recognize Chen Xiaolian!
"...The umbrella, is the key." Mr. San's answer left Chen Xiaolian puzzled, but fortunately, he understood the next sentence: "Chen Xiaolian, remember this."
Chen Xiaolian's heart skipped a beat!
This... this is... this is the Mr. San who knows him! Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to say his name right away.
...
On the top of an unnamed mountain peak, within a mysterious house amidst heavy snowfall, Mr. San sat by the fireplace, watching the flames burn brightly.
Within the flames, the scene of the Palace of the King of Qin in the Qin Emperor's Tomb was reflected. Although the image flickered, sometimes clear, sometimes blurry, it was still recognizable, with Chen Xiaolian standing beside the coffin.
Mr. San's face was extremely pale, his hair seemingly grayer than before. He gently stroked the umbrella in his hand, gazing at the image within the flames, more accurately, at Chen Xiaolian.
"Are you... under some kind of magic?" Mr. San frowned, seeming somewhat surprised, then shook his head. "Nevermind, let me take care of it for you."
With that, Mr. San raised the umbrella and gently tapped Chen Xiaolian.
...
In the hall, Chen Xiaolian suddenly trembled!
He faintly felt a strange force piercing through his body. This sensation was extremely subtle, only comprehensible but not expressible. It instantly made Chen Xiaolian feel as if, deep within his mind, a veil that once shrouded something had been gently torn apart, wiped away...
"A... spell... I... remove..."
Mr. San's voice came intermittently into his ears, leaving Chen Xiaolian bewildered. He instinctively understood that this peculiar sensation was caused by Mr. San, but why exactly was a bit puzzling.
"Remember..." Mr. San's voice suddenly became clearer! Chen Xiaolian's spirits lifted.
...
"Remember!" Mr. San suddenly stood up, positioning himself before the fireplace. His voice resonated like a profound bell, beneath which the flames surged upward, becoming fiercely intense in an instant! The scene became suddenly vivid.
"Chen Xiaolian... Remember this phrase! The world, is a tree!"
As his words faded, Mr. San suddenly trembled, and the flames before him flickered rapidly, dimming swiftly.
Mr. San took two consecutive steps back, collapsing heavily into the chair behind him. His arms hung limply on the armrests as he gasped loudly, cold sweat streaming down his forehead and face, as if he had been weakened to the extreme.
Yet even in such weakness, he still tightly gripped the umbrella in his hand!
...
"...The world, is a tree!"
This phrase echoed clearly in Chen Xiaolian's ears, each word seemingly imbued with a certain enchantment, deeply etching into Chen Xiaolian's consciousness!
Initially, he felt invigorated, but then, Mr. San's voice disappeared completely.
Chen Xiaolian stood in place for another full minute, but Mr. San's voice did not resound again.
Frowning, he looked around and called out several times, but received no response.
Finally, Chen Xiaolian turned his head and looked at the coffin, gazing at the lid that had been slightly opened.
Taking a deep breath, Chen Xiaolian approached and peered into the coffin.
Inside the coffin lay a person.
Dressed in a long black robe, the figure appeared lifelike.
But something eerie occurred.
Although the body lying in the coffin seemed vivid, with only a slightly pale complexion, there was no sign of decay whatsoever.
However... Chen Xiaolian inexplicably couldn't see the person's facial features clearly!
This seemed difficult to explain.
The person was right in front of Chen Xiaolian, dressed in the dark imperial attire of the Qin Dynasty, just within arm's reach, their features right before his eyes.
But it was as if some magical force prevented Chen Xiaolian from seeing the person's face clearly!
Or perhaps... he could see it, but... just couldn't... remember it!
While looking at the person, it seemed as though their face was right there, but the moment he blinked, he couldn't depict the person's appearance in his mind.
This... was simply too eerie!
Suddenly, Chen Xiaolian's gaze was drawn to something.
Lying in the coffin, the Qin Emperor had his hands crossed over his chest, tightly grasping a jade cup between them.
And within the jade cup, there seemed to be a faint, subtle glow emanating.
As if guided by some inexplicable force, Chen Xiaolian reached out towards the jade cup almost involuntarily.
With a forceful tug, Chen Xiaolian pulled the jade cup out, and as he did, something about the size of a thumb rolled out from it and landed in the palm of his hand.
Crystal clear, green like an emerald.
Intensely verdant, like an indissoluble green. The faint green sheen shimmered with a vitality akin to life itself.
As Chen Xiaolian held this object, the more he looked at it, the more it resembled...
"A seed?!"
At the same time, the jade cup in his hand suddenly shattered, turning into fine powder that flowed through his fingers.
Startled, Chen Xiaolian saw a prompt appear in the personal system.
"?????: Obtained item, successfully prevented the resurrection of the Qin Emperor, obtained the highest authority in this Instance of the copy, mission accomplished. Exiting the Instance now."
Before Chen Xiaolian could utter a word, he suddenly felt his body rise into the air. His vision blurred, and before he knew it, he was no longer in the hall.
...
Surrounded by the quiet of the night, as if in a mountain, yet standing halfway up the slope, he could vaguely see lights in the distance.
After a moment of confusion, Chen Xiaolian swiftly ran down from the mountainside.
After running a few hundred meters, a sign in front of him made Chen Xiaolian freeze.
Qin Emperor's Tomb Scenic Area?
He stopped abruptly, looking around.
"Zero City!" Chen Xiaolian shouted loudly. "Is the time-space traversal not over yet?"
Finally, the voice of Zero City resounded in his mind.
That rigid, meticulous voice, devoid of emotion and fluctuation.
"Because of the calculations on the timeline, you completed the Instance task before your original self, so you've been granted some extra time. Of course, if you don't need to use this extra time, I can teleport you back now."
Extra time?
Chen Xiaolian's mind was in a whirl.
"Now you need to consider a few things," Zero City quickly continued, "Because of your intervention this time, everything about you in history, your companions, and everything that happened in the Instance, the process, the outcome, has changed. In other words, you... have altered history."
"..." Chen Xiaolian was stunned. "What do you mean?"
"It means exactly what it sounds like."
"Wait! Are you saying that just now... I actually traveled through time, back to... several months ago?! Relived this Instance again? And it wasn't... my goodness, it wasn't something you created? Or some sort of game save? It was genuine time travel? I thought... you only recreated a copy based on my memories... just a memory backup."
"You experienced the history of time," Zero City's response left Chen Xiaolian astounded. "The issue now is, because you relived it, there are significant differences between the outcome of this Instance and the outcome of the original timeline. This may cause confusion in the timeline. When the world's main program detects this confusion, it will adjust accordingly, meaning... it will refresh, reset, and the result of the reset will prioritize factors after you altered history."
Chen Xiaolian's mind was in turmoil, and he suddenly exclaimed, "Wait a minute! You mean... a lot of things..."
"A lot of things will change. For example, in this Instance, in history, the leader of the Nangong Guild died in battle, and the Wind Slasher Guild was wiped out. But because of your intervention, completing the Instance ahead of schedule, none of these events occurred, so..."
"Wait... does this mean that when we go back, history will change too?" Chen Xiaolian gasped, feeling a chill run down his spine. "Oh my, this is huge! For example, the backup options for the candidates, they joined my team because the leader of the Nangong Guild died! And if the leader of the Nangong Guild didn't die... then everything changes! And... myself! If I didn't experience the final battle of the Qin Emperor's Tomb, would I not have obtained Bai Qi's War Soul?"
"No, the only thing that remains unchanged is you. Nothing about you will change," Zero City replied calmly.
"There are many more... For example, in the end, Miao Yan obtained the Qin Emperor's coffin, so how does that work now?" Chen Xiaolian was confused.
"These changes and divergences will be calculated by the world's program based on various factors, and then a new timeline result will be reset," Zero City replied with precision. "Some aspects of history are definitely going to change."
"It's chaotic... This is all a mess, isn't it?!" Chen Xiaolian exclaimed, clutching his head. "So many things will be off!"
"I think worrying about these things won't do you any good. You can wait until you go back and the main program calculates the causality, refreshes the new historical outcome, and then worry about it," Zero City said calmly. "Now, you have a choice: to go back immediately or to stay here for a while longer? Due to the differences in historical outcomes, you completed the mission ahead of schedule, so you now have a total of 98 minutes to stay in this timeline."
98 minutes?
Chen Xiaolian shook his head. "What's the point of staying here... The Instance is over, so... Oh, wait!"
Chen Xiaolian paused suddenly.
Was there something special about this timeline?
There was!
Of course there was!
This timeline... had...
Qiao Qiao!
A Qiao Qiao that was still alive!
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