Hogwarts: This Dark Lord is so evil.

Chapter 491 Another Timeline, The Me Without a System...

Li Weide's face was a little pale.

No matter who it is, if Death suddenly comes knocking on your door and tells you that he's going to take you to hell, you won't look too happy.

"Why are you taking me to hell?" Li Weide asked, unwilling to give up.

He hoped Death would give him a reasonable explanation, just in case he could still argue his case.

"I'm taking you to the Great Hell. After you see it, you'll get closer to the truth of the world," Death said with a smile.

"Wait... After you finish reading this? You're not going to throw me into hell, but instead take me on a tour of hell?" Li Weide seized on the key words.

Death blinked. "Otherwise what? Do you want to live in Hell? If you really do want to... although your sins aren't serious enough to warrant going to Hell, I can still arrange something for you separately..."

"No, no, no...you've misunderstood." Li Weide shook his head vigorously.

“I knew it. Who would be so foolish as to want to go to hell? That’s a place of exile for sinners…” Death said, already standing beside Li Weide.

Then, Li Weide felt as if his body was being sucked into a tube, constantly leaping forward!
Finally, my body stopped, and I was plunged into a thick darkness...

In this pitch blackness, Li Weide could neither sense time nor space.

It felt like a million years had passed when the surrounding darkness suddenly vanished, replaced by a blinding red light!

After squinting for a while to adjust his vision, Li Weide was finally able to see the scene in front of him clearly.

Li Weide is currently standing in the air in a strange state, as if the air beneath his feet is tangible.

Before his eyes, there was neither sun nor moon, only a sky as red as blood.

Looking down, Li Weide saw only the collapsed ground, flowing lava, and countless bizarre demons struggling and floating in the lava...

Li Weide couldn't help but take a deep breath, and then this top-tier lung attack almost sent him flying...

A pungent smell of sulfur almost brought tears to Li Weide's eyes.

"I have tried my best to simulate the environment around you as if it were the human world, but it seems you are still having some difficulty adapting," Death said calmly.

"Cough cough cough..." Li Weide coughed for a long time before he came to his senses. "Am I dreaming? If I'm dreaming, I only have a consciousness, so why would I need to breathe?"

"A consciousness entity?" Death blinked. "If you're going to visit Hell, of course your real body should come along too."

Li Weide was completely stunned. It turned out that he had been dreaming just now. Now he was going to visit hell, and Death had taken his body to hell with him!
However, even though Li Weide had a lot of opinions in his heart, he didn't dare to show anything on the surface.

Of course... he still hoped that Death wouldn't read his mind, after all, in his heart, Death was really pitiful... I mean, he was scolded terribly.

"How big is hell?" Li Weide asked after he recovered.

“It’s huge. Take the smallest demon lord’s territory as an example. If you were to walk, you might not be able to leave his territory even after a thousand years. And in Hell, there are countless minor lords of this level.”

"So big!" Li Weide was truly astonished.

"After all... there are countless timelines, and therefore countless worldlines, but there has only ever been one Great Hell. The size of Hell has always depended solely on the evil of these sinners... the more vicious the soul, the larger the territory it attracts after falling into Hell... the sinners who come to Hell are all people of unparalleled sin, so... Hell keeps getting bigger and bigger..."

"Timeline? Worldline?" Li Weide once again grasped the key words in Death's words. As for the question of whether the Hell realm was a manifestation of the evil of sinners, he planned to ask about that later.

“Yes… I’ve heard you mention the theory of parallel worlds before. Most of your predictions are actually correct,” Death said with a smile.

“Wait a minute… I think I only told Professor Dumbledore and the others about this theory, how do you know?” Li Wade said in astonishment.

Death smiled and said, "I've been watching you ever since you arrived in this timeline, Vader. After all, a stranger like you is a rare sight."

Li Weide felt a chill run down his spine. A stranger in a foreign land...

Upon hearing this word, Li Weide understood that his biggest secret, "time travel," had actually been known to Death all along...

This is actually quite reasonable. How could a true god who controls the life and death of everyone in the world not notice a person who suddenly appears?

So... does Death know that he is actually just a character in a novel?
However, when Li Weide wanted to ask the question, he felt he couldn't control his mouth at all!

You can't even bring yourself to ask this question?!
Could it be that there is an existence even more advanced than the Grim Reaper?

This conjecture horrified Li Weide.

If that's the case, even if Death could read your mind, he wouldn't be able to read this thought, right?

"I know you have a lot of questions, but don't worry, we have plenty of time now and can address them one by one..."

As Death spoke, he placed his hand on Li Weide's shoulder and then took a step forward.

Li Weide felt the scenery beneath him change rapidly, and in the blink of an eye, he had arrived at a new place!
Looking down, Li Weide felt a chill run down his spine.

Because the ground below was densely packed with all sorts of bizarre demons... at a glance, there were no fewer than a million of them.

These demons were completely surrounding a huge lava lake, and in the center of the lake, a small crack floated above it!
Suddenly, the crack lit up, and then a phantom image flashed from the body of the demon at the front, which was sucked into the crack.

His body collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

Li Weide frowned. The crack seemed to have a strange attraction, absorbing the demon's soul!
"Where is this place?" Li Weide asked.

"I'll answer that question last. Ask me any other questions you don't understand first, and I'll finish answering them for you," Death said.

“Okay…” Li Weide had no choice but to change the subject.

However, he had so many questions that even the usually eloquent Li Weide was at a loss for words.

Death seemed to sense his predicament and offered, "Let's start with the issue of timelines and world lines from earlier."

“Okay.” Li Weide nodded.

"Your previous reasoning was mostly correct; countless similar parallel worlds do exist. However, unlike your previous assumptions, these parallel worlds are not parallel lines that never intersect. Instead, they all originated from a certain point in time..."

"Time node? Parallel world... timeline!" Li Weide suddenly realized.

“It seems you understand.” Li Weide nodded and said, “There are countless possibilities for the future… because every choice I make right now, from major decisions to skipping a meal, will affect the future and create a different future. And each of these different futures is a timeline, a brand new worldline… that is, a parallel world.”

Death nodded and said, "That's right. Simply put, every action you take can be considered a point in time... Taking one less step, eating one less piece of candy, or taking one less breath will create a different parallel world... Therefore, there are countless points in time, and countless parallel worlds."

"Theoretically, these parallel worlds should not have any chance to intersect with other worlds after they are born. However, nothing is absolute. Because there are infinite possibilities, it is perfectly normal for parallel worlds to intersect. For example, if two world lines suddenly have an extremely similar time point, this possibility may occur. Especially when the concentration of this power increases, it will attract world lines with the same high concentration at this time point."

As Death spoke of "this power," a faint blue light emanated from his hand.

"Ancient magic!"

"Yes, it's what you call ancient magic..."

Looking at the ancient magic in Death's hand, Li Weide suddenly asked, "Is this your power?"

“You are very clever, Vader. Yes, this is my power… the power of a god.” Death withdrew the light from his hand and continued, “In every different timeline, there exists a version of me, and my power thus dissipates into each timeline. It is randomly scattered across different worlds, attached to various objects, or… to certain newly born souls, such as the ancient magical talents that occasionally appear in the world, and those places that contain ancient magic.”

Li Weide asked, "Then what about the ancient magic I possess? Did you give it to me as well?"

Death said, "Stranger, you are an anomaly. The ancient magic within you is not my power, or rather, it may come from a god even more ancient than me... You did not originally exist in any of the timelines under my jurisdiction. That day, you appeared so abruptly, it truly startled me..."

"Perhaps the world you came from originated much earlier than the day I was born, so I don't know much about it and can hardly glimpse it; I can only see a corner of its scenery..."

"But as I just said, two world lines that theoretically will never intersect can, due to infinite possibilities, unexpectedly converge, and then, you appear..."

"Since you appeared, countless new world lines have appeared in all my world lines! And it is because of your existence that these world lines, which would have been destroyed, have a chance to continue."

Li Weide's eyes widened. "You mean, if I hadn't come, my current worldline would have ended?"

“Yes. Do you remember those powerful vampires and werewolves? In other timelines, they were actually quite weak,” Death smiled.

Li Weide immediately understood. No wonder... The vampires in the original story barely appeared, and even if they did, they didn't pose much of a threat to the wizards.

The monsters in this timeline are so powerful; if I hadn't managed to wipe them out by some twist of fate, who knows what would have happened later...

Wait! And that eerie ancient tomb! It's not in the original story either! That means it wasn't in the original timeline either! Could it be that the root of the destruction lies there?
After thinking it over, Li Weide suddenly glanced at Death with a guilty conscience.

“You seem worried that I can read your mind, but don’t worry, I can read the mind of anyone in this world, but I can’t read your mind… because you are a stranger, from a worldline that I couldn’t even read before… In other words, I can’t even control your life or death…”

"Huh? Then wouldn't I be immortal?" Li Weide asked in shock.

"If you don't want to die, then immortality is indeed possible, but not aging... that's probably very difficult. Aging is a natural law. So, you might end up becoming an immortal old man," Death laughed.

“This is not funny at all…” Li Weide’s heart skipped a beat.

"Don't worry, Vader, although I can't take your soul, if you ask, I'll gladly take you to the world of the dead..."

"That's good... If I'd rather be dead than live like this, I'd rather be dead."

"As long as I exist, death is not the end of life, but rather a continuation in a different form..."

So this is the truth behind the death... Li Weide was very surprised.

“Okay, let’s get back to the main topic… that strange ancient tomb, I’m sure you know about it too… is that the root cause of the destruction of this timeline?” Li Weide asked again.

"Yes, this place doesn't exist in other timelines. The fork in the road is at a point in time thousands of years ago. As mentioned before, timelines have countless possibilities, so it's extremely rare for timelines to intersect. And this timeline, at that point in time, intersected with another world again. Unfortunately, that world wasn't one of the other timelines, but... Hell..."

Li Weide exclaimed in astonishment, "So, this time the timelines collided, and we accidentally bumped into hell? Wait... doesn't that mean that ancient tomb is...?"

"Unfortunately, you guessed right. The world line that collided with Hell is the world line you are in now... and that ancient tomb is just a passage that appears occasionally."

"How...how could this be? Didn't you say there are countless world lines, but only one hell?"

“But Hell itself is a separate world,” Death said. “Even if the odds are only one in a billion, there will always be a timeline that unfortunately becomes that one. Yes, unfortunately…”

Li Weide took a deep breath. "So, this gap below connects to that ancient tomb? Hiss... In other words, those consciousness entities I encountered in that ancient tomb were actually the souls of these demons!? And Cain, who escaped and replaced the original vampire, was also the soul of one of the demons?"

“Demons don’t have pure souls, Vader. What’s separated is just a consciousness… Look.” Death pointed to the demon that had just fallen below.

Sure enough, the demon stood up again, looking very happy.

"Such a powerful consciousness, yet it's just a wisp of a demon's consciousness?" Li Weide frowned deeply. "Lord Death, you said there was hope in my timeline, but now... I see no hope of victory! Unless you intervene... but since you've found me, it proves you must have a reason why you can't intervene..."

"You're right. I can't change it because I was also born from one of these timelines... The specific reasons are too complicated to explain to you. But you're different. You come from a world outside my understanding, so you can."

"Then I still can't see where the hope of victory lies."

"There is still hope. Have you forgotten the consciousness within you that can communicate with many parallel universes? That is your chance to become a god... If you become a god like me, you can stop all of this," Death said with a smile.

"You mean...my system?"

"It seems that's indeed the name."

"Then...do you know its origin?"

"The system's origin? It comes from a destroyed worldline... On that worldline, a man named Li Weide almost saved the entire world with his own power... However, human strength is ultimately finite, so even though he was just one step away from becoming a god, he still couldn't protect the worldline he was in, so..."

Li Weide's pupils dilated in shock, "So... my system comes from myself..."

Li Weide has fully realized that the one who gave him the system was also himself, only from another timeline.

In that timeline, Li Weide had no system. He relied on his own efforts and was just one step away from becoming a god and preventing the destruction of that timeline, but he ultimately failed.

So, before his world line was destroyed and swallowed by hell, he used his last strength to create this system and threw it back to the point in time when he first arrived in this world, hoping that this system could help him take the final step and save countless similar world lines...

Therefore, the ultimate goal of this so-called merit system is to become a deity...

“But it seems your system has some malfunctions, so… you’ll have to fix it first. However, I can’t help you with that; you’ll have to fix it yourself,” Death said.

Hearing this, hope did indeed reappear, but... it was just as terrifyingly slim...

How much time do I have left?

(End of this chapter)