Chapter 677
But there was indeed one thing that the simulation possessed, which the old world did not necessarily have.
That was the complete disregard for morality and the rule of law.
Xia'er didn’t have to progress step by step from synthetic beings to animals and then to corpses.
She could skip all that and conduct experiments directly on living extraordinary beings.
The experimental approach had to change.
The next anchor point cycle... starting directly with human experimentation, the research on the Brain of the Otherworld could be even more radical, and then there was the establishment of the Witch Society...
The plan had been roughly outlined.
If nothing unexpected happened, the upcoming cycles of anchor points would revolve around these main tasks...
After recording all the experimental data, Xia'er directly opened the system interface and returned to the anchored reality...
...
“Cough, cough...”
Cold, dark, painful...
On a rainy night in Ansu, a gaunt figure draped in a tattered cloak leaned against a dark alley in the Holy Cathedral District.
“Cough, cough...”
A weak cough escaped from the cloaked figure, the voice so hoarse it was indistinguishable between male and female.
Filthy sewage gathered around the cloaked figure as she slowly extended a hand from beneath her ragged cloak, pulling out an ancient silver pocket watch, nearly completely blackened.
Click.
The mechanism of the pocket watch seemed to have long been damaged; she could only push the lid open with her thumb, revealing its contents.
Inside were two weathered crystal films, etched with the faint images of several heads in a pale blue crystalline block.
One of the crystals depicted four figures: two skeletal parents with hollow eye sockets, a boy missing half his face, exposing his brain, and a gaunt girl smiling at the viewer.
The image on the other crystal was blurred and distorted, revealing only a hint of red hair. But the longer one stared, the more it felt like a mental taint, making it impossible to discern its true appearance.
The internal mechanism of the pocket watch had been completely hollowed out; besides the two crystal images that seemed out of place in Ansu, there was also a dull silver rune stone.
Click, click.
Footsteps echoed from outside the alley.
She extended her bony thumb, gently caressing the image of her family, then closed the pocket watch again.
The woman extended her pale, bony right hand, leaning against the wall to slowly stand up, silently pressing against the wall as if to make way for the footsteps at the alley's entrance.
But those footsteps stopped right beside her.
“(Ansu language) Hey, don’t block the way, freak.”
“(Ansu language) Big bro, look, that watch of hers looks like it’s silver!”
“(Ansu language) Ha, freak, why don’t you use your pocket watch to buy yourself a pass for the beating you’re about to get for blocking the way... what do you say?”
“(Ansu language) Damn it, speak up! Trash!”
The woman stood there, seemingly oblivious to the words of the thugs, until her hood was violently pulled back, and she felt the cold raindrops on her face, as if she finally showed some emotion.
“(Mourning language) Are you... calling me?”
The woman slowly raised her head, looking at the thugs who had stopped in front of her.
Her eye sockets were empty, replaced by intricate silver gears spinning within, and the upright silver-black hour hand seemed to form her vertical pupil.
To the ordinary onlookers, it appeared as if a long-dead, desiccated corpse stood before them, its hollow, deep-set eyes staring at them with an eerie intensity.
The voice that emerged from the creature sounded like a piercing shriek in their ears, causing a splitting pain in their heads just to hear it.
Ordinary people could not see the body of an extraordinary being eroded by potions, nor could they perceive the attacks launched by such beings or understand the language from the old world.
“(Ansu language) Freak... freak!!!”
A scream erupted from the one referred to as “the boss,” but before he could finish his words, it abruptly cut off.
Because his throat had already been damaged, aged to the point where he could no longer produce a sharp scream.
The three men at the alley's entrance, in the blink of an eye, rapidly gained weight, then quickly lost it, beginning to hunch over.
Their flesh and skin seemed to be drained by time itself, continuously shrinking and sagging, before collapsing to the ground, weathering into a pile of bones, washed away by the rain and flowing into the sewer.
In just a few seconds, they had fast-forwarded through a lifetime.
The woman, as desiccated as a mummy, looked at the weathered corpses before her, her arms hanging limply at her sides. Just by observing her silhouette, one could feel a profound sense of despair and helplessness.
The world line... had branched out into countless paths after the deaths of these three.
And by not killing them, the chaos triggered by their screams would further split the world line into those where they encountered her and those where they did not, endlessly...
The harder one tried, the more obstacles appeared; the more information one left behind, the more worlds without that information would emerge.
“(Mourning language) Master of Witches... please guide me...”
“(Mourning language) How should I continue...”
Click.
Another footstep.
The fluctuations of the Ascendant were far too powerful; in a world with almost no Ascendants, using their abilities was tantamount to exposing themselves.
“(Mourning language) Salas.”
A gentle, magnetic male voice came from behind.
Salas did not turn around; she knew what was behind her.
It was the existence born in the future, a fanatic corrupted by the past, the most loyal minion of that being.
“Give it up, Salas. Stop the pointless struggle and aiding the wicked,” the man stepped forward, slowly speaking, “You’ve witnessed how many worlds your faith has destroyed...”
“Ha...” Upon hearing this, Salas let out a cold laugh, slowly turning to face the man behind her.
He was a tall, robust priest clad in a black robe, his face obscured by the shadow of a wide-brimmed hat. But the moment one looked away, all memory of his appearance and voice would fade.
“Well, I’ve also seen the disasters you’ve caused to bind the timelines... I’ve witnessed the destruction wrought before the being you worship was born...” Salas spoke in a hoarse voice, “Everything that has happened is your doing...”
Her words caused the priest to pause slightly, then he gently shook his head and replied, “It seems that after all this time and witnessing so many worlds, you still cannot grasp this point...”
“To you and your being, those worlds may seem false, but to me, they are real because we truly lived in them, and we cannot decide everything for ourselves.”
“What He destroys are real worlds, one after another, not illusions, but existence, not nothingness...”
The priest’s words made Salas smile slightly; she seemed to have heard enough of these self-deceiving, hypocritical words from the fanatics. She gently shook her head and chose not to argue further.
These minions were beyond communication.
Even if she told them that the god born in the future would destroy all other timelines, including those minions living in different timelines, to make Himself the only and eternal existence, they would find countless excuses to absolve their deity.
They were a group of stubborn madmen, nothing more than thoroughly corrupted minions.
“May the God King have mercy on you...” The priest slowly raised his head, a hint of pity in his eyes. He lifted his hand, bringing his index and middle fingers together, and gently traced a line in the air towards Salas.
Buzz.
Brilliant silver light erupted in Salas’s eyes, her body rapidly twisted and flickered, and everything before her began to distort, as if entering a different space.
In that strange realm, one that seemed not to belong to this dimension, the world before her continuously split, and the priest was also divided into countless frames.
Her mental energy was being devoured and tainted, and the images before her kept shrinking. But as these spatial images diminished, she could see countless more spaces, until finally, her vision briefly detached from this dimension and entered another realm.
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