Chapter 360
Enduring the excruciating pain in her arm, Xia'er found herself faced with four choices.
First, she could seek out Lucy and borrow a bit of her luck; today, Lucy could roll two heads on the dice.
Second, she could find Adele and Tara to treat her arm and, in the process, stop Tara from sending the cultists to break into the prison. Without her ability to summon spirits, Xia'er could no longer use those cultists for sacrifices.
Third, she could confront Princess Vita and extract information about the "uniqueness" of Qiangyin—she must know something, or she wouldn't have spoken to Xia'er the way she did!
And the last option… was to end it all, to withdraw from this simulation, angering Qiangyin, who held the "uniqueness." This simulation would essentially be rendered void…
But…
She was unwilling to give up.
She had indeed completed the initial task she set for herself, uncovering one of the trump cards.
Yet Xia'er had no means to counter this card, not even a shred of information to guide her.
What if the opponent played this card in reality? How would she respond?
She didn’t want to gamble, didn’t want to risk that Qiangyin’s "uniqueness" wouldn’t affect the real world.
At the very least, she needed to find some countermeasures.
To commit suicide and "escape" this simulation?
She wouldn’t allow it; the "Subverter" potion within her was boiling and roaring, racing alongside her thoughts.
Kill him! Force him to come again!
The intense pain in her left arm made Xia'er's eyes bloodshot. Gritting her teeth, she turned the carriage around.
The carriage sped toward the Cecil Palace.
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**Chapter 198: The Future Queen of the Ansu Empire**
Cecil Palace, the concert hall.
Princess Vitalis sat at the center, her hands resting on the piano keys, her eyes half-closed, seemingly replaying her earlier mistakes.
At this moment, she was exploring original classical music, an essential part of the ritual for achieving perfect reproduction.
However, Qiangyin's abrupt departure had left her with an unsettling feeling, preventing her from fully immersing herself in the music.
"Ha..."
She let out a slow breath, deciding to do something else to shift her mood.
Turning to her personal maid, she softly asked, "Sophia, could you bring me the viola?"
But after a long pause, she received no response. Curious, she looked up at the maid's face, only to find a pair of pink eyes staring back at her.
"Princess Vitalis, we meet again."
The maid's face began to twist, her once chestnut short hair lengthening and turning a fiery red.
Meanwhile, in the real concert hall, the maid Sophia looked at the sleeping Vitalis, who had slumped over the piano, gently draping a blanket over her.
"Who are you?"
Vitalis frowned at the red-haired girl before her, quickly realizing who she might be.
Red hair… dream abilities…
That "Subverter"?
The red-haired girl who had been intercepted from the Order of the God of Order, was indeed connected to that "Subverter"?
Otherwise, it was too much of a coincidence that she had just revealed a bit of information to Qiangyin, and the girl appeared at her door…
The fact that she could find her meant she must have learned something from Qiangyin—she hadn’t spoken of this to anyone else; she knew that "Subverters" had a strong need for secrecy regarding their identities.
Vitalis recalled the rapidly aging and crumbling finger that Qiangyin had shown before leaving…
"Xia'er."
Xia'er stated her name directly. From their previous conversation, she knew the girl must recognize her.
Xia'er? The gifted "Lawgiver" intercepted from the Order of the God of Order? But wasn’t she a "Lawgiver"? How could she use the abilities of a "Dream Thief"?
Even a "Subverter" couldn’t fool everyone in the Order of the God of Order… with her talent, she must have been seen by someone of cardinal rank.
"I know you have many questions, but this isn’t our first meeting… technically, it’s our third."
Xia'er spoke quickly.
Third time? If the first encounter was with the red-haired "Subverter" in Boren City, then counting this one, they had only met twice… When was the second meeting?
"You told me what you planned to do in Boren City. Unfortunately, the person you were supposed to meet there was already dead by my hand."
After a brief pause, Xia'er directly asked, "I need to know more about Qiangyin."
Qiangyin!
Hearing this, Vitalis's expression changed. She quickly stood up, distancing herself from Xia'er, and said, "You’ve got the wrong person… Qiangyin is the master of the Royal Melody, the power of the royal family, while I am the princess of the royal family."
"What are you afraid of?"
Xia'er locked eyes with Vitalis, calmly asking.
Whether in their last encounter or now, whenever Qiangyin was mentioned, Vitalis always seemed to hold back.
Last time, she had hinted at something being off with Qiangyin, but this time, her reaction to Xia'er's direct inquiry was clearly out of place.
From her previous behavior, it was evident that Vitalis was dissatisfied with some of Qiangyin's actions.
"What are you worried about?"
Xia'er could sense that Vitalis was afraid of something.
"Give it up… Qiangyin can foresee the future. At this very moment, while you’re talking to me, he already knows…"
Vitalis took a deep breath and said, "It’s too late for you to regret now."
Foresee… the future?
The ability to rewind time indeed resembled foresight—Xia'er was well aware of this and familiar with it.
She understood that Vitalis had misunderstood Qiangyin, or rather, the "uniqueness" of Qiangyin's ability.
"This isn’t foresight, Vitalis."
Xia'er looked into Vitalis's eyes. "This is time reversal. Just now, sensing danger, Qiangyin rewound time by five hours and forty-three minutes, bringing us back to the present."
"Our conversation has already happened a second time."
This was a concept difficult for ordinary people to grasp; even extraordinary beings would take a long time to ponder and doubt its authenticity.
After all, until now, there was no known way to manipulate time, let alone reverse it.
But after a brief moment of contemplation, Vitalis quickly began to believe Xia'er’s words.
Because Qiangyin's actions had always been so precise, as if he knew the future… even reflected in every detail of daily life.
"If it’s a return to the past… then why do you still have memories?"
Vitalis looked at Xia'er, asking.
"Because he took something from me."
Xia'er replied, "And I need to reclaim that thing… it’s as simple as that."
"Because it’s not his to begin with, he won’t retain any memories when he uses it; he can only rely on certain cues to remind himself that time has been reversed… like his finger."
When Xia'er mentioned the keyword "finger," Vitalis was almost completely convinced by her explanation.
Because before Qiangyin left, his fingers had indeed begun to shatter and crumble…
So it wasn’t foresight after all…
Yet even so, Qiangyin had pushed this ability to its limits.
Especially since he established the Royal Melody, the entire Ansu Empire had developed at an astonishing speed, transforming into the world’s leading empire in just over a century, with imperial warships scattered across the oceans and countless overseas colonies.
One could say that Qiangyin was responsible for 90% of Ansu's current imperial status.
But such a person instilled fear in Princess Vitalis.
Because of his almost perverse desire for war and control.
Princess Vitalis had traveled through countless countries and visited many colonies, witnessing the bloody suppression by the Ansu army and seeing slave ships that had nearly all succumbed to plague, becoming ghost ships… the atrocities committed were beyond description.
Vitalis had also witnessed several uprisings, even preparing to liberate certain areas, but these efforts were easily quashed… as if they had been foreseen.
Now, Xia'er’s words gave Vitalis a concrete understanding of Qiangyin's abilities… but she had no idea how to counter this power.
Even if it wasn’t foresight, a Level 4 ability to rewind time was terrifying enough…
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