Chapter 3985: What?

However, in the next moment, those Time Plates separated, floating away in different directions.

"Eh? Senior Xyrath, are you there?" Rean asked, but no answer came out.

He tried to use the same words again, but the plates didn’t get together like before. Talking about Laiana’s entangled tentacles had no impact whatsoever.

-How was it?- Laiana asked.

Rean shook his head in response. "Nothing. Could it be that what we heard was just an echo of his?"

Laiana heard everything that happened, falling into silence for a moment before speaking. -Just what could have caused this? Was it something Xyrath did himself?-

They did point out the possibility of Xyrath having surrendered of his own volition before entering the Future Realm.

Kentucky took the chance to ask. "Senior Laiana... Could it be that Xyrath is dead? Could that be the reason why all his Time Plates are spread and drifting randomly? If Rean was right that it was just an echo, maybe we can’t do anything else anymore."

-I...- Laiana couldn’t give a definitive answer. She said it herself. Xyrath would never leave his Time Plates in such a estate, but here they are. -I can’t be certain unless we manage to put the Time Plates back together, and even so, I can’t give guarantees.-

Roan nodded. "What can we do to put him back together? Do you have any ideas, Laiana? It won’t be an easy task since this entire Future Realm is filled with those things."

-If Xyrath is alive, the key here is his soul. As much as the Time Plates are spread, the soul isn’t the same. Just like some other Primordial Beasts, his existence is quite weird. No blood and flesh, and he isn’t a spirit either. There is no such thing as a core that keeps his soul inside.-

-Still, his soul is what keeps all the Time Plates together. Think about it as a packet of flat biscuits or crackers on top of each other, but in serpent form. His soul makes it possible.-

"The Chronoblade Serpent..." Tanxan couldn’t help but comment. "Is there any reason for Xyrath to take the serpent form?"

-I always liked to say that it’s because he slithers through the time branches. He absolutely hated every time I said that. I’m not sure if even he knows why he takes the form of a serpent. Why?-

Tanxan continued. "Was just curious. Perhaps there was some secret behind it that we could use."

"Alright, the Time Plates can be separated, but the same doesn’t happen to the soul, correct?" Rean asked.

-As far as I know, yes.-

"Then, if he isn’t dead, that means Xyrath’s Soul isn’t spread everywhere. But I highly doubt that after so many years, no one has found it yet. Otherwise, this place would have been sealed a long time ago by the Werdlem Empire itself. Also, since he answered my call earlier, it means all of his Time Plates are connected to his soul somehow." Rean thought about it.

"Senior Laiana, could this connection be due to Divine Sense? I have an ability that can detect Divine Senses, and the stronger the Divine Sense, the easier it is for me to detect, so higher cultivation realms actually help me. Still, I haven’t felt any Divine Sense stronger than Divinity until now, and they came from the other experts who entered the Future Realm. I haven’t felt any Divine Sense stronger than that."

Since the Chronoblade Serpent was a Primordial Beast, even if it didn’t use the same cultivation method, a Divine Sense was the norm in most cases. Unless the Chronoblade Serpent used some other kind of detection ability, it would likely use Divine Sense still. Rean wanted to confirm whether Xyrath was one of the few exceptions.

-He does not use Divine Sense,- Laiana confirmed Rean’s suspicions. -Instead, he has something much better, his control over time power. You know about the Natural Spatial Perception, right? For Xyrath, that is Time Perception. Everything has mass, regardless of how small it is.-

Rean knew where Laiana was coming from. "Everything that has mass creates gravity. Gravity, on the other hand, affects time. It’s just that if you don’t have an extremely high gravity, like a blackhole, you wouldn’t even notice the disruptions caused in time by all the mass bodies in the world."

-Aren’t you a smart kid?- Laiana was happy that Rean understood it so fast. -Exactly. Xyrath’s time control and perception are so ridiculously potent that he can detect the disturbances in time caused by the smallest body masses in the world. This perception has a range even bigger than most primordial beasts’ detection methods, Divine Sense being one of them. Even a tiny ant wouldn’t escape his perception, let alone cultivators, demon beasts, and so on. He has no need for Divine Sense. His methods are even better, something no one else can do.-

"Alright," Rean nodded. "So, if we assume he isn’t dead, we know that Xyrath is likely not using Divine Sense to connect all the Time Plates that make up his body."

Suddenly, Celis had an idea. "Wait! Xyrath couldn’t escape into the fake possible future time branches, but what if he sent just his soul inside one of them? Would that Time Plate be able to contain just his soul without breaking? Perhaps by existing inside one of the Time Plates, he can control or at least keep himself connected to all the others. That might be the reason he answered Rean earlier."

-This...- Laiana was taken aback. -I’m actually not sure. Maybe?-

"Celis has a point," Roan saw that possibility now. "When Rean shouted that Laiana’s Tentacles were entangled, that generated a shock big enough that Xyrath ended up answering by instinct. That confirms that the Time Plates are all connected to Xyrath’s Soul. It’s not 100% guaranteed, but I don’t think Xyrath is dead or that that answer was just an echo."

Then, he contacted Rean through their connection. ’That’s especially the case since the system created a side quest to get him free.’

Rean had his doubts. ’We can’t be sure. He doesn’t necessarily need to be alive for us to set him free. Perhaps we just need to get his dead body, the Time Plates, free from the Future Realm.’

Of course, Rean knew what Roan meant. ’However, I also think you’re right. I don’t think he is dead.’

Without hearing the twins’ exchange, Laiana continued. -Okay, I get it. If we want to help Xyrath, we need to find which Time Plate his soul is locked inside. But that makes things difficult. After all, if this theory is correct, Xyrath’s soul doesn’t need to be in the center of the Future Realm. It could be literally anywhere in here.-

"Indeed," Celis knew that. "We would need some method to find which Time Plate is the correct one. That’s considering I’m right about this Soul inside a Time Plate thing, which I might not be."

At that moment, Kentucky thought of something. "I have an idea. If his soul is indeed inside a Time Plate, and that’s the reason he is connected to all other time plates, then we are back to the start. His soul is the link that keeps that connection. Rean, Roan, there is a surefire way to make sure. Or, to be more specific, a surefire place where we can test it."

Rean and Roan’s eyes lit up. "Sister Orb!"

[Uh? Me? What?]

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