Death... and me

Chapter 3993: Other Side

Inside the Future Realm, another five years went by. Once again, things should have worked faster, but because the twins’ group had to separate into two groups, one staying with Qufis, things became like this.

"Alright... alright..." Rean opened the portal into the Celestial Soul Dimensional Realm, waiting for the Time Plate to float inside.

However, he quickly closed it before Kentucky turned around and flew somewhere else.

A minute or so later, a group of several dozen experts, all using the same emblems, flew over that area. They stopped for a moment, looking around but finding nothing. Finally, they continued on their way, although they seemed to be a lot more cautious.

This had happened many times while Rean, Kentucky, and Foliana worked on taking the Time Plates. As soon as Rean noticed a Divine Sense touching his Divine Sense Bending Skill, they would stop everything and get out of there.

Kentucky returned sometime later, looking in the direction that the group had flown away. "This is quite annoying, having to stop every time."

Foliana didn’t seem to mind. "What are you complaining about? Would you rather swap places with Roan or Tanxan and stay with the Qufis Group? Celis will definitely have you cultivate every second you have free, especially since you two can get a much better synergy when you are together."

"Ahem..." Kentucky quickly retracted his words. "Now that I think about it, what is life without its challenges, right?"

Rean ignored the shameless bird. "Let’s take the Time Plate."

They once again stopped in front of the Time Plate, and Rean opened the Portal to the Celestial Soul Dimensional Realm. The plate drifted inside as always, and the portal disappeared. "Alright, let’s go to the next. There is one more, a few kilometers north."

[No need,] it was then that Sister Orb spoke. She didn’t talk only to Rean, Kentucky, and Foliana. She also included Roan’s group.

’No need? Could it be...’ They all grew tense.

[Yes, with this last Time Plate, I can finally infer the precise direction of the Chronoblade Serpent’s Soul.]

After hearing that, Roan got up from his cultivation position, which he hadn’t moved in several weeks. Not only him, but also Celis and Tanxan. All three of them flew in the direction of the protection formation barrier, catching the Qufis Experts’ attention.

’Is anything wrong?’ Zonhime, naturally, immediately asked them. They never tried to leave the group since the Qufis Alliance demanded their presence decades ago.

Roan looked at her. ’Our friends, the other three who arrived in the Future Realm with us and are still out there, need our help. So, we are leaving for a while.’

When Roan joined Qufis, they knew there were six members in his group, but they agreed to have just three of them helping.

Zonhime narrowed her eyes. However, after all the improvements to their defenses, they weren’t at much of a risk anymore. The only danger was when some of their members had to go out to look for the resources of the Future Realm, but that wasn’t Roan’s problem. Roan, Celis, and Tanxan never went out, even once. ’Fine. These formations should scare pretty much anyone for the time being. Just try to return here later.’

Roan stopped for a moment, noticing something. ’Now that you mentioned, why don’t you simply leave the formations ready for the next group once the Future Realm opens again? Having to build them from scratch every time you get here doesn’t seem very intelligent. In fact, I haven’t found any formations at all, even during the three years we were not helping you. How come?’

Zonhime was surprised he didn’t know. ’We obviously would love to leave formations ready for when the next opening happens. We won’t even take this protection formation down once the Realm closes. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter. Every time the Future Realm reopens, everything is gone. No formations or any other traces of our presence can be found anymore between openings. Otherwise, there would even be cities by now.’

’I see...’ Roan could attempt a guess as to why that happened, but that wouldn’t be of any use, so he didn’t. ’Anyway, we will be taking our leave now.’

’Do you need help? I can let another two or three of our guys join you. It’s just that I can’t let them go for more than a few days.’ Zonhime tried to build some good relations with them.

Of course, Roan refused. ’No need. In any case, it shouldn’t take long. Let us know if something goes wrong through the Werdlem Network. We will return as fast as we can.’

Finally, Roan left with Celis and Tanxan, the three quickly disappearing in the distance.

"Senior Zonhime," one of her subordinates couldn’t help but speak. "Is it okay to let them go? It hasn’t been even fifty years, and the realm will be open for over ten thousand. Even though our formations are now properly built, we will definitely receive more visitors sooner or later, especially after the first thousand years."

Zonhime knew that. "Indeed. Unfortunately, trying to stop Zende or Juvenal would be meaningless. You saw how they could even put up a fight against Divinity Realm Initial Stage experts, especially after their breakthrough into the Late Stage of the Space-Time Realm. Trying to force them to stay now would do us more harm than good."

Zonhime looked away. "Also, the Qufis Alliance is very interested in those two, and they intend to make an offer for them to stay. Getting them on our bad side won’t help our Quifis Alliance’s intentions."

"So they impressed that much, uh?" The guy sighed. "Very well..."

Zonhime wasn’t that worried. "Don’t bother. Now that the formations are correctly in place, Qufis is trying to convince those who deserted to come back, especially those in the Space-Time Realm. It will be better for them since the fact that they left can be overlooked if they come back. Most of them will probably take this option."

"That’s good to hear."

---

Roan’s group only flew until they left everyone’s Divine Senses’ range. After that, they simply entered the Dimensional Realm and exited it by Rean’s group’s side. "Where to now?"

[Follow my directions.]

The group quickly jumped on Kentucky’s back. Kentucky flew southwest, using Sister Orb’s help to approach the location of the Chronoblade Serpent’s soul. As they expected, the soul truly didn’t need to be near the center of the Future Realm. Instead, it was quite close to the border.

[It’s close.]

Everyone looked with their Divine Senses, searching every nook and cranny. "Are you sure? How far?"

[Based on the soul connection to the Time Plates in the Dimensional Realm, it seems to extend no more than a few hundred meters.]

"A few hundred meters?" Their Divine Senses could span many thousands of kilometers when there are no restrictions. Even if they send it straight into the ground, it would still manage to go a few hundred kilometers. Yet, Sister Orb says the soul is only a few hundred meters from them, so how come they can’t find any clues?

"Wasn’t it supposed to be inside a Time Plate? There are no Time Plates around," Kentucky commented.

[Not exactly. To be more specific, we ’expected’ Xyrath’s soul to be inside a Time Plate. Laiana even said she wasn’t certain if it was possible, so she didn’t rule it out, but she didn’t say it was the case either. Since there are no Time Plates around, we are likely wrong about our assumptions.]

"We believed that Xyrath’s Soul resided within a Time Plate due to his connection to all Time Plates," Roan explained. "But nothing says that is the only possibility."

Roan retracted his Divine Sense, covering an area of about one kilometer. Everyone did the same. Still, other than the trees, plants, and a few small animals that you could see all over the Future Realm, there was truly nothing there.

"Hum?" But then, Rean noticed something. On a branch of one of the many trees, there was a tiny snake. It wasn’t anything remarkable, and he had seen countless of this kind of snake as he flew all over the Future Realm. Right now, inside that one-kilometer range, there were over ten of those, nothing special or out of the norm.

What caught Rean’s attention was that he was using his Light and Divine Sense Bensing Skill, so no one would know they were there. And yet, that tiny snake seemed to be looking straight at them.

He patted Kentucky on the side, who quickly flew down before changing back into his humanoid form. The group stopped not too far from that snake, and it was truly looking at them as they moved.

There was no cultivation, no bloodline, no nothing. It was as weak as you could possibly imagine. It barely had more than ten centimeters.

"That can’t be it, right?"

"It might be?"

"It is a snake, though."

"Not a serpent?"

"Serpent, snake, just different names for the same thing."

"Shouldn’t it be something majestic and such?"

"We were indeed expecting something big or some shit like that..."

"But it is looking at us. It shouldn’t be able to, no?"

"Snakes have some great sensory methods, so it might be looking at us because of our heat or even smell."

Kentucky lost his patience. "Why are we wasting time? Let’s just catch it and have Sister Orb take a look inside the Dimensional Realm."

Before anyone could say something, Kentucky extended his hand, trying to grab the tiny snake. However...

*Plang!*

Something that looked like a Time Plate, but a very, very tiny one, appeared out of nowhere, breaking up the fabric of space. The snake immediately jumped inside, and the Time Plate disappeared without a trace.

"What?!" Everyone was taken aback. "Where did it go?!"

[Errr... you won’t like it. I’m detecting the soul on the other side of the Future Realm now.]