-----

  Regressor, a title that Bing Xue had never heard about, but that she quickly guessed what it was oh expined he had e from the future, exactly ten years from now! But how was that possible?

  Through her many years of prehending the power of Time, she had never seen a power capable ressing time itself for so long. And ten years ter, it seemed utterly ridiculous.

  And she thought that even by prehending the Dao 100%, it was utterly impossible.

  Although she could regress time, it was only within a small frame of time, within a small domain, that to revert something for many years seemed ridiculous.

  But through the power of Divinities, which she had just discovered, maybe onbined with the Dao of Time at 100% prehension, it could be truly possible.

  However, if it was really a possibility, why hasn’t the Grandfather of Time dohat to screw her over?

  She doubted Seth for a moment, but after analyzing his soul, she found out he was not lying.

  “You’re not lying this time... But how is it possible? How did you even regress ba time? and ten years? That’s ridiculous.”

  “It’s not that I traveled ba time myself, but my memories came back to the past.” Seth said. “I holy have no idea how it exactly worked. But I do remember how it happened. I think my memories were sent back to the past by the power of... Earth itself.”

  “What?” Bing Xue muttered. “Earth itself? That’s not possible; Earth is merely a p. It possesses no sciousness or a soul.”

  “I-I don’t know, it just happened, okay?” Seth asked, sighing. “It’s not like I had any way to resist either... It was a mission she gave me; Earth itself did this. I tell; I feel her will within me.”

  “But that’s…”

  Bing Xue thought about it deeply. Sihe moment she had arrived bae, she would have already been able to tell if the p had a soul or sciousness of its own. Her senses could feel it all.

  This world was, without a doubt, just a phere was no living being there; it wasn’t secretly a giant alien being or something. It was just a rocky p with vegetation and seas on top of it.

  However, as she walked out of her bathroom in her real body, she decided to give it a go, spreading out her will and i into a thin and sharp spear and pierg the ground with it.

  FLASH!

  Like a needle that nobody could feel at all, her i will pierce the world’s surface, reag its deepest, boiling core.

  She tinued spreading her senses down there, calling for something.

  Yet there was nothing.

  “No, nothing at all... Could it be that in ten years from now, the p will... Maybe it could bee a god itself? A whole p being a god... It could happen if enough people and energy exist. The faith of humanity to save their own world, and all the mana... It could probably replicate a simir phenomenon, where the p would awaken as a god itself,” Bing Xue ented in front of Seth, who barely uood what she was talking about.

  “What? Wait, so… Maybe that happened, yeah?” Seth nodded.

  As the two talked, however, Bing Xue felt something, her eyes widening.

  It wasn’t ever-present or all-enpassing, but it felt like the tiing of a heart.

  Her presence was quickly directed toward it.

  Something that almost pletely hid right in front of her senses.

  Deep within the boiling, molten core of the p.

  There was a small, faint, glowing sphere of light.

  It was smaller than an apple.

  It was so tiny; it was obviously hard to find at all!

  But it was there, slowly growing rger.

  “T-That’s…” Bing Xue finally realized the process had already begun.

  Earth was slowly beginning to form a “soul” and bee a god itself.

  It was the same image she saw in the memories of the Gods of Eclipse; however, this process is supposed to take hundreds of years of “gestation” before the God is fully created.

  “I see it now. It's unbelievable.”

  “Wait, what? So it’s real! See? I wasn’t lying!”

  Seth smiled, feeling a bit happier knowing that the “goddess” that sent his memories to the past was still there, although much younger.

  “The thing is, a process like this would usually take hundreds of years,” said Bing Xue. “This means that the goddess of ten years from now was still pretty much a baby, yet even then, she used all she had to send your memories back... Impressive; she probably died after that.”

  “Oh…” Seth sighed, looking down. “But she’s alive again, right? This is the past after all... Right?”

  “…”

  Bing Xue thought about something; the revetion of the Parallel Timelines of Earth struck her as something that might actually be reted to Seth’s ins. Perhaps time was never actually reversed at all.

  And the memories the Seth of this world ied were the ones from a parallel Earth that was already destroyed iure. He had already told her that she didn’t appear in the past, so this might also make more sense.

  “Seth, I think the world whose memories you ied are already long gone,” she said.

  “What?!” Seth muttered. “No, wait, where are you basing this!?”

  “It’s simple; the existence of Parallel Earths, the Grandfather of Time’s powers are ened pathways to them,” Bing Xue expined. “And your power is a fragment of him, right? You said that this Goddess used this fragment of his divinity, which you were growing as his avatar, to send you to the past… But what if she actually sent you to a parallel world, oen years in the past pared to yours? It would also expin why your inal world was absent from my existe was simply a parallel version with a few variables.”

  “N-No, that ’t be true…” muttered Seth. “T-That’s a lie! That’s bullshit! My world… You’re saying it’s already gone?!”

  “…I am not firming it, but I am not denying the possibility,” said Bing Xue. “However, we must also take into sideration something else. The tower of the future—how different was it from the one of the present? Perhaps that tower could either be a parallel version of our own or actually a pletely different one. Or the same. But if it were the same, we would eventually enter people that e from the exact same p, but the future amongst the pyers climbing the tower hasn’t happened. So we’ll scratch that possibility.”

  “So you’re saying... That there’s a good possibility of either way?” Seth wondered.

  “Yes, it could either be a parallel timelihat has already met its end, with a parallel tower pletely separated from our own, which even includes the same gods, floors, and everything... Or it could truly be the future,” Bing Xue said. “To firm this, we would o first assess something. The Grandfather of Time.”

  “Right, I guess we will never be able to tell for sure until we front him,” sighed Seth. “Hah, this is a headache to think about... Dammit.”

  Bing Xue felt a bit of pity for the young man, patting his head as if he were her child.

  “Calm down, child. It is fine,” she said, giving him a gentle, motherly smile. “For now, we should trate on the present. Seth, do you have any family members?”

  “I don’t, my mom and my dad... They died whehing began; I’ve been alone my whole life,” Seth sighed. “I'm not saying it for you to pity me or something; a lot of people out there have experienced a simir life. Most of the young hunters of today are all orphaned."

  “Hmm.” Bing Xue nodded. “Even then, I’m sorry for your loss. You’re a brave and strong young man, someone who strives forward despite being alone. But have you thought that your path is the corree? Were you pnning on taking the weight of the future of our world pletely, all on your own?”

  “I…” Seth muttered. “Who else could have helped? I thought I simply couldn’t share the truth with anybody; nobody would ever believe me, or they would try to use me for their own bes.”

  “Your ck of trust in people is justified, I suppose.” Bing Xue nodded. “However, the path you chose was not the corree at the end; it led to your death.”

  After hearing her words, Seth couldn’t help but sigh, and he nodded.

  “You’re right… I guess… I’ve been looking at things the wrong way. I was desperate to grow stronger and to make a ge. I ended up getting involved in that fight because I thought I could do it even without prior preparation, but I died. It’s my fault,” Seth accepted it. “Bing Xue, I wohough, why weren’t you there iure I came from?”

  “I don’t really know,” said Bing Xue. “But the ces are many... One of them might be that... The eleven thousand years I spent in Murim also passed oh, meaning that tless Earths died before I came back, arriving at one of the many parallels.”

  “W-What…?!” Seth gasped, and the theory that Bing Xue had was utterly terrifying.

  Thousands of parallel Earths had already died, and when she was finally able to return, her inal world was long gone.

  And so was her family.

  “But of course, that is a very crazy theory; don’t take it seriously,” Bing Xue said. “I want to stay optimistic right now. Not drown in the sorrow of just “possibilities” or self-loathing. We’re here to protect our world and save it, right?”

  “Bing Xue…” Seth muttered, looking down.

  Somehow, he felt much more ected to her; perhaps it was a simir feeling; both shared the same sensation, their wills to save the world were the same, and the responsibility they carried with them was genuine.

  Above all, one came back to Earth without even knowing if it was even her ow or if her world was already long gone.

  The other came from the future, without knowing if it was actually the real future and not a parallel world that had already beeroyed.

  “I know we started things the wrong way... After getting to know you better, I feel slightly bad after having kicked you now,” Bing Xue sighed. “I am sorry for that, Seth.”

  “N-No, you don’t o apologize, Bing Xue,” he said. “I also shouldn’t have acted like that. After my memories of the future came back, I realized how stupid and reckless I acted ba those days. The trauma of the death of my parents was still weighing me down. I only bme my horrible attitude for all the unfortuhings that happeo me.”

  “I uand how you feel; it’s alright.” Bing Xue had more patiend a much softer and kinder side thah imagined. “Seth, I think your help would be tremendous for my future endeavors. If possible, I would like us to work together.”

  “Together?” he muttered. “But even with my knowledge, you’re s; do you eve?”

  “I sure do. Strength sometimes... Is not always everything you need,” Bing Xue sighed. “Knowledge and insight are also very important things.”

  “O-Oh, I uand,” Seth nodded.

  He was still processing what had just happened; he never imagined he would have such a deep versation with this woman and end up making a friend.

  “Then, of course, let’s... work together, Bing Xue,” Seth smiled. “It’s not like I have another option anyway.”

  “Fufu, you sure don’t!” ughed Bing Xue, although her ughter was a bit menag to Seth. “ht, I guess I might as well make you my disciple too. Won’t you like to learn how to cultivate your irength and free yourself from the system’s parasitic powers, Seth?”

  “I-Is there such a thing?” Seth wondered. “Wait, the energy of this pce—right! What is this pce?”

  “This is my Inner Realm,” Bing Xue expined. “Your impurities were already sed by the air, so you’re more than ready to start. So? Will you bey disciple? It will be the only way for you to bee stronger.”

  “…”

  Seth wao think about it a bit more deeply, but he didn’t have an optioher.

  If he dared to offend Bing Xue by rejeg her, he would be missing a great ally.

  And he khat, for what had to e iure, he’d need as much help as possible.

  If Bing Xue could have been there when all these terrible things happened...

  Maybe the future be truly ged.

  “Okay, I… I will bee your disciple if that makes you happy,” he nodded.

  “Excellent! Now stay right there!” Bing Xue smiled.

  “Huh, for what-”

  BAAAM!

  Bing Xue punched him in the chest.

  “Ugh?!”

  However, instead of the paih imagio have felt, he actually felt a surge of tremendous power as an endless sea of energies rushed from his chest all the way to the rest of his body.

  Rapidly, something inside his chest began to crystalize!

  “W-What is this?!”

  “You’re talented, so I decided to be a bit rougher with you, Seth!”

  Bing Xue then moved her fingers rapidly, strikih at every Meridian and Pressure Point.

  Rapidly, she freed all his internal energies and mixed them with the ones she doo him.

  Within seds, Seth’s entire body started to ge and evolve.

  The Regressor had gotten an incredible master, it seemed.

  -----

  Pach