Wizard: My career panel has no upper limit

Chapter 620 A Feast of Sharing
The feeling of falling lasted for a long time.

It was a more abstract, ineffable kind of "stripping away".

It's as if the soul is being slowly, layer by layer, torn out of the body.

Each tearing is accompanied by a dull pain, not in any specific part of the body, yet it is everywhere.

Ron tried to open his eyes.

The surrounding area was a chaotic purple.

Chloe gripped his sleeve tightly, her long, gray hair scattering in the weightlessness.

"Associate Professor Ralph."

Her voice was surprisingly calm:
“The arrangement of the stars has changed, and the causal lines that I can ‘see’ are intertwining in an abnormal way.”

"Is the spacetime structure here unstable?"

Ron turned to look at her, surprised by the blind astrologer's composure at that moment.

"It's not just unstable."

Chloe frowned slightly, her eyes beneath the silk "gazing" in a certain direction:

"It's more like some kind of 'framework' that's maintaining the structure is loosening."

It's like several of the building's load-bearing pillars have been removed, causing the entire structure to slowly tilt.

She shook her head:

"If my judgment is correct, the 'paradise' we are about to arrive at may no longer be the same as what Princess Eve saw back then."

The words just fell...

"boom!"

The two of them slammed hard onto a solid surface.

The impact was minimal because of the protective void, but the sensation under his feet made him feel nauseous.

He looked down.

The "floor" beneath your feet is made up of countless human faces.

Those faces were crowded together, men and women, old and young, humans and various subhuman races...

These faces are "alive".

When a foot is placed on a face, that face contorts in pain, and its lips move as if it is trying to say something.

He instinctively took a step back, only to step on another face.

The face belonged to a young woman, whose eyes suddenly opened and she stared straight at Ron, smiling.

That smile was so twisted it was chilling.

"Welcome... welcome to 'Paradise'!"

Countless mouths opened simultaneously, their sounds layered upon each other, like an entire choir singing the same song in different tones:

"This is where dreams come true."

"This is a land of eternal happiness."

Chloe stood firm, using her cane for support.

"Yes, wide-area perception will be severely hampered here."

She analyzed it as if talking to herself:

"Trying to track too many fatelines at once can lead to information overload, but if you narrow your perception and focus on a specific target..."

Her movements suddenly stopped, and it seemed as if starlight was twinkling before her eyes.

"I saw."

Chloe's lips curled into a subtle smile:

"In this distorted spacetime environment, things become clearer."

Just like in a storm, you can see the trail of lightning more clearly.

Ron noticed the change in her.

This isn't fear or panic; it's more like the excitement a professional feels when facing a challenging task?
"Chloe, you..."

"Sorry, it's just a professional habit."

The blind astrologer smiled apologetically:
“Whenever I encounter a special divination situation, I can’t help but want to test my limits.”

She took a deck of divination cards from the pocket of her skirt.

"Associate Professor Ralph, please give me three minutes."

Chloe spoke, already skillfully shuffling the cards:
"I need to confirm our next course of action."

Blindly exploring in such a chaotic environment is not a wise choice.

Come to think of it, I did the same thing when I was exploring the Golden Ring last time, but now I'd rather leave the professional stuff to the more professional people.

Ron didn't disturb her, but cautiously observed his surroundings.

This is a corridor that stretches endlessly, with no end in sight and no beginning in sight.

Countless cracks appeared on the wall, opening like wounds, revealing bright red muscle tissue and pulsating blood vessels inside.

Thick blood seeped from the cracks and slowly flowed down the wall.

The ceiling was slowly undulating like liquid, with a thick, black liquid dripping down continuously.

The "crystal doors" that should have been on both sides of the corridor have all disappeared.

Instead, there are gaping "wounds".

The edges of those wounds were jagged, and the "dreams" inside leaked out like pus.

An endless trial is unfolding within a wound, with everyone repeating the same actions, like a stuck phonograph.
In the other wound, there is a burning starry sky, where countless stars are exploding simultaneously;
From the depths of another wound came the cries of a baby, mingled with the sobs of adults and the sighs of the elderly…

"found it."

Chloe's voice interrupted Ron's observation.

She had completed the divination; the seven cards were arranged in a specific formation on the ground.

"This is the 'crisis compass' formation."

She explained, pointing her finger at each card in turn:

“The center represents the ‘current situation,’ and the six surrounding elements represent six possible directions, each corresponding to different opportunities and dangers.”

"The result of your divination is..."

She pointed to a card on her right, which was the "Star Reversed":
“Go to the right, and you will encounter something broken but still valuable. The danger is moderate, but the reward could be great.”

"And my divination..."

She pointed to a card on the left, which was "The Hanged Man, Upright":
“If I go left, I will encounter a ‘trapped but not yet deranged being,’ which is extremely dangerous, but…”

She paused:

"This may be the breakthrough opportunity I need."

Ron frowned: "What kind of breakthrough?"

"The beginnings of 'uniqueness'."

Chloe said calmly:
“My construction of the ethereal body needs to move from ‘observing countless possibilities’ to ‘locking in a single future’, which requires a… sufficiently powerful stimulus.”

"The divination I just did told me that the existence of the road on the left is exactly what I need to stimulate."

She looked up and "looked" at Ron:

"Although it might lead to death."

Chloe spoke so casually, as if she were discussing today's weather.

Ron was silent for a moment: "Are you sure?"

"determine."

Chloe put away the divination cards and stood up straight again:
"The astrologer's duty is to have the courage to walk the path they have chosen after seeing their destiny clearly."

Even if that road leads to an abyss.

Just then, the entire corridor suddenly shook violently!
The faces on the floor screamed in unison, more blood gushed from the cracks in the walls, and the black liquid on the ceiling turned into a torrential downpour...

The corridor before them seemed to have "split" apart.

The entire spatial structure was distorted:
The once straight corridor began to tear apart from the center, like a piece of paper being torn in half.

The corridor on the left begins to veer to the left, while the corridor on the right tilts to the right.

Ron and Chloe are right at the "tear point"!

"It seems fate is in a hurry."

Chloe's tone carried just the right amount of teasing:
"They didn't even give us time to choose."

"Breaking up under these circumstances will only..."

Ron released his nascent form to try and pull her away, but an invisible force suddenly erupted, forcibly separating the two!

Chloe's fingers slipped from his palm.

At the critical moment, Ron forcibly activated the power of the Dark Threshold.

The nascent form of the ethereal body emerged behind her, and a ray of light seeped out from the crack in the door, wrapping around Chloe's wrist.

"This is the positioning anchor point."

He imprinted the magic mark on that ray of light:

“Chloe, come back along this ‘line’!”

"receive."

Chloe gave a brief reply, then was swept away by the force towards the left passage.

"Associate Professor Ralph."

Her voice remained calm:

"See you at the entrance in three days. I believe in your 'anchor point' and I also ask that you believe in my divination."

"We will all survive."

………………

I do not know how long it has been.

It might take a few seconds, or it might take a few hours.

In this place where the flow of time is chaotic, the concept of "duration" itself loses its meaning.

Chloe slowly opened her "eyes".

She can still "see," even though her vision is empty.

Those stars still twinkled in her "vision," and the threads of fate still entangled in the sky.

But now, those lines have become... even more insane.

They are no longer orderly trajectories, but rather a tangled mess.

They intertwine, knot, and tear each other, forming a huge, constantly rotating vortex.

At the center of the vortex is a certain "attraction point".

Chloe's gaze instinctively followed that point, and then...

"vomit--!"

She bent over abruptly, and vomit gushed from her mouth.

But all that came out was some glowing liquid, which crawled on the ground, trying to climb back into her mouth...

"Don't look at that spot..."

Chloe muttered to herself, forcing herself to look away.

She took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down.

"Step 1: Assess the environment."

Chloe thought to herself, this was a habit she had developed during her training at the astrology club.

In complex situations, use self-dialogue to clarify your thoughts:

"The space is very large, and the ceiling height is estimated to be over fifty meters."

The wall material... no, there aren't any walls in the normal sense here.

Her cane tapped lightly on the ground, making a crisp sound:

"The ground is hard, neither metallic nor stone, like some kind of...bone?"

"Step 2: Lock onto the observation target."

Chloe narrowed her sensory range, focusing her "Eye of Prophecy" on the nearest anomaly:
“At the twelve o’clock position, about five hundred meters away, there is a clear source of the twisted fate.”

"At the three o'clock position, at an unknown distance, there are several faintly distorted points that appear to be moving..."

She frowned.
"Six o'clock..."

The feeling coming from that direction made her uneasy.

Not because of danger, but because of... emptiness.

It was a complete "nothingness," where all the lines of fate vanished, like light being swallowed by a black hole.

"First, confirm the situation at the twelve o'clock position."

Chloe made her judgment and began to move forward cautiously.

She tapped her cane on the ground, using the echoes to determine the spatial structure around her.

After walking about four hundred steps, she "saw" the source of the distortion.

It was a long table.

On either side of the long table sat a dozen or so “humanoid creatures”.

Chloe's "prophetic eye" began to instinctively analyze them.

Then, her nose started bleeding.

"really……"

She wiped the blood from her nose, her voice remaining steady:
“Each one is a ‘black hole of fate’.”

"It cannot be observed directly, otherwise there will be a backlash, so..."

She changed her approach, no longer trying to "see" them, but observing the "influence" around them:
"Just like observing stars, although we can't look directly at the sun, we can judge its position and intensity by the shadow it casts."

This method really works.

By observing the twisting patterns of the fate lines, Chloe gradually "saw" the general state of those present:
The being in the main position has an extremely chaotic and fluctuating fate line, as if it exists simultaneously at countless points in time.

The third one from the left has a fate line that spirals and contracts, as if it has been compressed to a singularity.

The fifth one on the right, the fate line keeps splitting and merging, it's like...

"Just as I thought, this isn't a hopeless situation."

Chloe said to herself:

“These people aren’t just ‘crazy,’ they’re ‘losers.’”

“Everyone has tried to break through a certain limit, then failed in the process, and was stuck halfway through the ‘transformation’.”

"They are their own prison."

"Ah...another 'guest' has arrived."

A voice rang out, a voice that was both old and young, both male and female, with each syllable constantly changing.

Chloe tilted her head slightly, listening carefully:

"The frequency of change in the timbre of this sound is... one cycle every 1.7 seconds?"

"This represents a state of 'time misalignment'."

Welcome to the 'Feast of Sharing'.

"Please take a seat."

“We are enjoying our time.”

Chloe focused her attention on the source of the sound.

That was the figure sitting at the head of the long table.

He exists simultaneously at countless "points in time":

At this moment, he is a baby in swaddling clothes, with pink skin, crying.
The next second he transformed into a ten-year-old boy, his eyes innocent and curious;
The next second, he is a 30-year-old middle-aged man, his face showing maturity and fatigue;
Then there was a seventy-year-old man, with wrinkled skin and sunken eyes;
Next came the rotting corpse, the flesh began to rot, and maggots wriggled in the wounds;

Then came the stark white bones, and the skeletons grinned in the darkness;

Finally, we're back to being babies...

The entire cycle lasted only a few seconds, but his consciousness was clearly experiencing each change consciously:
The eyes of a baby hold the wisdom of an elder;

From the old man's mouth came the cry of a baby;

The corpse was still smiling as it rotted;

When the skeleton spoke, its voice was that of a middle-aged man, deep and resonant...

"My name is Valdis."

The ever-changing figure spoke; at this moment, it was in the form of a young boy:
"He was once a great wizard who studied the 'nature of time'."

The body suddenly transforms into a middle-aged form:
"When I was advancing to become a top-tier archmage, I tried to incorporate my ethereal remains into the essence of the power of 'controlling time'."

He turned into an old man again:
"But I failed."

Turning back into a corpse:

"The backlash from the illusory body has trapped me in the 'eternal present moment'."

Back to the skeleton, its empty eye sockets "staring" at Chloe:
"Past, present, future... make no difference to me."

"I am all of 'me' at the same time, yet I am not any one of 'me'."

The body returns to that of an infant:

"This is... the price."

After saying that, he, or rather "it," let out a burst of laughter.

Laughter mingled with the giggles of babies, the playful laughter of teenagers, the hearty laughter of middle-aged men, the dry chuckles of the elderly, the gurgling sounds from the throats of corpses, and the clattering of skulls colliding...

All the sounds combined created a chilling symphony.

The other "guests" at the long table also turned their heads, "staring" at Chloe in all sorts of distorted ways.

"Come on, sit down."

Valdis (in his middle-aged form at this moment) made an inviting gesture:
“Enjoy our ‘dinner’.”

"you will like it."

He pointed to the "food" on the table.

Chloe's "gaze" fell on those things, and then the first crack appeared in her rational defenses.

Those "foods"...

A certain "guest" is pulling out glowing threads from his own head; these are the embodiment of "memory".
In front of another "guest" was a transparent container containing more than a dozen mouths that were constantly opening and closing;

Some people are "sharing pain," exchanging body parts. One person's arm is attached to another's, the arm still dripping blood and struggling, while the recipient shows an expression of ecstasy.

"This is a 'feast of memories'."

Valdis (in his old man form) explained:
"That was a 'feast of fear'."

(Youth form)
"And then there's the 'painful exchange'."

(Infant form, but with the deep voice of an adult)
"We are here, sharing each other's 'existence'."

"Because we have lost our 'complete self'."

"So we can only maintain the illusion that 'I am still alive' by 'devouring' the fragments of others."

He was currently in corpse form, his rotting face close to Chloe:
"And you..."

"You have so many, many 'possibilities' within you."

"Those glittering 'futures'!"

"Those 'destinies' that haven't collapsed yet!"

The empty eye sockets of the now-skeletal skull were now glowing with an eerie blue light.

"Let me have a taste."

"Just a small sip."

"Let me see all your possible 'futures'..."

Thank you for the invitation.

Chloe responded unexpectedly politely, even bowing slightly in greeting:
"But before I take my seat, may I have a professional check-up as an astrologer?"

"I'd like to confirm the 'security' of this table first."

This answer clearly surprised the prisoners present.

They probably hadn't encountered such a nonchalant "guest" in a very, very long time.

"Hahaha……"

At this moment, Valdis, in his middle-aged form, retreated upon seeing this, letting out a low laugh:
"Interesting, really interesting. Aren't you scared?"

"Fear."

Chloe readily admitted:
"My heart rate is now 1.8 times higher than usual, and my hormone levels are probably also seriously high."

"But fear doesn't mean giving up thinking." She paused:

"If I remember correctly, the name 'Feast of Sharing' appears in ancient occult texts."

That was a thought experiment about the 'time paradox'.

“You… don’t want to ‘eat’ me, you want to ‘observe’ me.”

"Observe a 'normal,' 'not yet failed,' 'still growing' existence to confirm whether you are still 'alive'."

A brief silence fell over the entire space.

Then, Valdis, in the main seat, slowly clapped:
"very good."

“You are the first ‘guest’ in many years who has been able to remain rational.”

"Well then, Miss Astrologer."

In his youthful form, he leaned forward:
"Since you've seen through our 'true nature,' you should also understand."

What does our 'observation' mean to you?

Chloe remained silent for a moment.

Of course she understood.

These prisoners will forcibly "open up" all her possibilities and observe all her futures.

During the observation process, her mind might be torn apart, she might collapse, she might...

"It means opportunity."

She finally spoke:
“I need an opportunity to ‘observe all possibilities’.”

"Because only by 'seeing all the roads clearly' can we 'choose the only road'."

"And you..."

Chloe stared at all the prisoners present:
"It can help me complete this process."

"Of course, that's assuming I can survive."

After she finished speaking, she actually walked to the long table and sat down in an empty seat.

"Then, everyone."

Chloe placed her cane on the table, assuming a posture of attending a banquet:
"Please begin."

"But I have one small request."

A subtle smile curved the corners of her lips:

"Please...use all your strength."

"Because if the intensity isn't high enough, I might not be able to break through."

"In that case, we will all be very disappointed."

This composure, this even arrogant confidence, stunned the prisoners once again.

Then, Valdis, who was in the main seat (in corpse form at this moment), let out a strange laugh:

"Hahaha...Good!"

"It's been so long since I've encountered such a 'guest' with such charisma!"

"Then, as you wish!"

As soon as he finished speaking, all the "guests" at the table stood up in unison.

A dozen pairs of eyes, or eye sockets, were all staring at Chloe at the same time.

Then, some unseen force erupted.

That was the embodiment of "gazing," with the "observation" of more than a dozen prisoners acting on Chloe simultaneously, forcibly "prying open" the threads of her destiny!
Chloe's body jolted violently.

Blood gushed from his nose like a fountain, and his ears also began to bleed.

Countless "futures" flooded into her consciousness like a tidal wave:

She saw herself being torn to pieces in the next second;

He imagined himself starving to death in some corner three days later;
Seeing himself go insane, becoming the new prisoner here;
He saw himself escape, only to be killed by the enemy outside;
To see oneself live to old age and die alone in a hospital bed;
He saw himself become a great wizard, only to perish in the war;
Seeing...seeing countless "selves":
A thousand ways to die!

A million ways to fail!

Countless kinds of despair!
Pain overwhelmed her like a tidal wave.

Yet, despite her suffering, Chloe remained unusually clear-headed.

"Step 1: Categorization."

She silently recited to herself this was her training method for dealing with information overload:
“Categorize all ‘futures’ according to their outcomes.”

"Death category: 873 types."

"Failure category: 1247 types".

"Mediocre category: 5894 types."

"Success Category: 12 types"

"Step 2: Screening key nodes."

She began to analyze the future of those "successful" ones:

"What these 12 paths to success have in common is that they all made the right choice at some point."

"And that choice is..."

Her "gaze" was focused on a specific point in time:

"Now, right now."

"Step 3: Secure uniqueness."

Chloe took a deep breath and then made a decision:

"I don't want 'all possible futures'."

"I only want the 'one and only' one."

Her voice resonated on a spiritual level:
"I choose……"

"Not the safest, not the most comfortable, not the easiest..."

"I choose the one that will help me grow the most!"

The moment those words were spoken, all the threads of fate began to tremble wildly!
Then, one by one... they broke.

The lines that symbolized "she would die here" disintegrated into points of light;
The lines that symbolized "her failure" turned to dust;

The lines that symbolized "she would live an ordinary life" vanished into nothingness.

Only a single, precarious yet incredibly resilient line remained.

That line connects "Chloe in the present" with "some point in the future".

That point remains blurry and indistinct, and its specific details are not visible.

But it exists.

Moreover, Chloe "saw" the scene around that point:

There was Ron there, a door that was slowly opening, and light shining in from the outside.

"I see……"

She spoke softly, a weak but contented smile playing on her lips:
"That's what 'uniqueness' is."

It's not about 'seeing all the possibilities' and then choosing the 'best' one.

Instead, "look at only one possibility" and then "make it come true".

"This is the true essence of prophecy."

The surrounding prisoners stared blankly at the scene.

They "observed" all of Chloe's futures, trying to extract a sense of "being alive" from them.

But they never expected that this young astrologer would turn around and use their "observations" against them.

"you……"

Valdis, seated at the head of the table (currently in infant form, but with the hoarse voice of an old man), exclaimed in shock:

"You actually did it."

"Thank you all for your 'assistance'."

Chloe struggled to her feet, her body swaying precariously, but her voice remained steady:

"This 'dinner' was very beneficial to me."

"In return..."

She "looked" at the prisoner whose time was out of place:
"I think I know why you're stuck here."

“Lord Valdis, if I’m not mistaken…”

"The root cause of the failure of your research on 'controlling time' is that you tried to 'exist at all points in time' while forgetting that 'existence' itself requires 'uniqueness' as an anchor."

"If you had the chance to do it all over again, perhaps you should consider..."

"It's not about 'controlling time,' but about 'choosing the moment.'"

After saying that, she turned and left.

Every step was difficult, but every step was taken with unwavering determination.

Behind her, Valdis (in his old man form at this moment) stared blankly at her back.

After a long while, he murmured to himself:

“'Choose the moment'…”

"It's not about controlling everything, but about choosing the only one."

………………

On the other side, Chloe's steps remained calm.

Each step was precisely controlled to be about seventy centimeters, and the rhythm of the cane tapping the ground was also kept regular.

But only she knew how terrifying the situation was behind that composure.

Her legs were already trembling.

He gripped the cane tightly with his fingertips, his nails almost piercing the skin of his palm.

She could feel that the dozen or so pairs of "eyes" behind her were still watching her.

Those gazes were as heavy as reality.

Each one was like a sharp blade, carving countless tiny wounds into her spirit.

"Three hundred meters to go..."

Chloe silently counted the distance in her mind:
"Two hundred and twenty meters..."

"Two hundred meters..."

Her "prophetic eye" clearly "saw" that the intensity of those gazes was slowly diminishing.

The farther away they were, the more blurred their senses became.

Although this cage has become distorted and chaotic, it still has its own inherent "rules".

Each prisoner's influence is limited; this is an isolation mechanism set up by "Paradise" to prevent them from interfering with each other.

"One hundred meters..."

Chloe's lips began to tremble.

She gritted her teeth and forced herself to keep going.

A sweet, metallic taste filled my mouth; it was the blood seeping from my bitten lip.

"Fifty meters..."

Excessive mental exertion left her mind feeling as if it were submerged in quagmire, making every thought sluggish and heavy.

"Twenty meters..."

The cane suddenly slipped.

Chloe leaned forward and nearly fell.

She forced herself to adjust her center of gravity and barely managed to steady herself, but this action left her dress soaked in cold sweat.

"Ten meters..."

My heart was pounding in my ears, like a war drum.

Each throb sent a sharp pain through her temples, as if someone were constantly piercing her skull with a fine needle.

"Five meters..."

Just then, a voice came from behind.

"and many more."

Valdis's voice, at this moment, transformed into a deep, middle-aged tone:
"Little girl, are you... really not afraid?"

Chloe stopped in her tracks.

She didn't turn around, but simply turned slightly to the side:
"afraid."

The witch's voice was soft, yet crystal clear:
"But fear should never be a reason to stop moving forward."

"after all……"

A subtle smile curved her lips:
"The duty of an astrologer is to have the courage to walk the path they have chosen after seeing their destiny clearly."

Even if that road leads to an abyss.

After saying that, she didn't linger and took the final step.

That step crossed some unseen boundary.

The prisoners' gaze was abruptly cut off.

Like a taut string suddenly released, Chloe's body trembled violently.

then……

"puff--!"

A mouthful of blood spurted from her mouth, tracing a scarlet arc in the air.

Immediately afterwards, blood flowed from the nose, ears, eyes... everywhere that could bleed, bursting forth at that moment.

"Boom."

Her knees slammed into the ground with a dull thud.

The cane slipped from his fingers, bounced a few times on the floor, and finally rolled away into the distance.

Chloe's body slumped limply onto the eerie floor made of human faces, like a puppet with its strings cut.

The faces, sensing her blood, all opened their mouths and began to suck greedily…

But she couldn't care less about any of that anymore.

At this moment, Chloe is experiencing an extremely terrible state:
The "fragmentation" of consciousness.

She can "feel" a hundred different emotions at the same time:
Fear, joy, anger, peace, despair, hope...

All emotions poured down like a torrential downpour, unleashing a devastating flood on a spiritual level.

"Ah... Ahh!"

Chloe let out intermittent groans.

Her hands scratched helplessly at the ground, her nails slicing across the faces of the people, leaving streaks of blood.

But just as her consciousness was about to completely dissipate, a new power awakened from the deepest part of her soul.

That power was extremely weak, like a candle flickering in the wind, and could be extinguished at any moment.

But it exists.

Moreover, in Chloe's "Eye of Prophecy," it is growing at a visible rate...

Behind her, a phantom began to slowly emerge.

"Huh...huh..."

Chloe's breathing became more rapid.

She could feel her life force rapidly slipping away.

The condensation of the ethereal remains requires a massive amount of magic power and mental energy.

But she had just experienced the mental shock of the "feast of sharing" and was already on the verge of her limit.

Forcing a breakthrough now is like trying to pull a massive weight with a rope that's about to break.

"No, it's not enough."

She whispered to herself:
"The strength is not enough."

"The condensation of the ethereal body requires a 'fulcrum'."

“A strong and stable enough ‘anchor point’ to secure ‘uniqueness’.”

"But now, I can barely keep my own consciousness."

Despair began to spread in her heart.

But at that moment, a warm power, carrying the aura of "time," quietly seeped into her body.

Chloe was jolted.

Her "prophetic eye" immediately detected the source of that power:
It's Valdis.

The prisoner trapped in the "eternal present" is now transmitting a portion of his power to her across the barriers of space.

This force is very weak, but the "essence of time" it contains is exactly what Chloe needs most.

"I see……"

She suddenly realized something:
"Isn't the essence of astrology simply 'the time of observation'?"

"The stars of the past, the stars of the present, the stars of the future..."

"All divination is an attempt to understand how 'time' flows."

"Locking in 'uniqueness'..."

Her mind became incredibly clear at that moment:
"It's about finding the one that's bound to happen among countless possible timelines!"

As the power of time was added, the phantom behind it began to tremble violently.

Not far away, at the location of the "Feast of Sharing," Valdis slowly withdrew his hand.

He gazed in Chloe's direction, a look of satisfaction in his eyes:
"Choose the moment, rather than control time."

He softly repeated the words the other person had left behind, then laughed self-deprecatingly:
"What I couldn't figure out for thousands of years, this little girl suddenly understood on the verge of life and death."

"Really..."

His body remained in the form of an old man, no longer changing:
"That's enviable."

After he finished speaking, he closed his eyes.

"grown ups……"

A prisoner nearby cautiously spoke up:
Why did you help her?

"Help her?"

Valdis remained with his eyes closed, resting.
"I'm just... gambling."

"What's a bet?"

"I'm betting she'll get out alive."

The old man's voice carried an emotion that was difficult to describe:
"I'm betting she can become a great wizard."

"I'm betting on what will happen after she becomes a great wizard..."

His voice became extremely low:
"They will remember this place, they will remember us, the forgotten losers."

"Then……"

"Perhaps, just perhaps..."

"She will find a way to save us."

After these words were spoken, the entire "banquet" fell into a long silence.

All the prisoners understood how slim the chances were.

But they also understood that this might be their only hope.

"but……"

Valdis opened his eyes and suddenly added:
"The young man who came with her is even more interesting."

“He bears the mark of the ‘clown,’ the attention of the ‘scribe,’ and also the mark of the ‘fairy,’ the ‘clock,’ and the ‘nameless one’…”

The old man stroked his chin:
"And many more extremely unique scents that I had never seen before."

"If I'm not mistaken."

"That young man's ethereal remains seem to have a 'triple core' structure?"

This judgment caused all the prisoners present to gasp in shock.

A three-core void!
What does that mean?
This means that when this young man breaks through to the Great Wizard level, he will have to withstand three times the pressure of a normal Dark Sun level cultivator.
But this also means that if he succeeds, his power will far surpass that of his peers!
"It seems..."

Valdis murmured:
"This era is about to produce an extraordinary figure."

　There should be another update around midnight, I'm working hard to write.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)