Learn one small skill every day

In this instance, every time someone died because of Bai Miao's exploration, Bai Miao was always able to find a corresponding solution in the first instance.

It could be said that it had the opposite effect.

"So even if I tell you the consequences, are you still going to continue?"

"I can't trust you."

Bai Miao was also trying to figure out the other person's identity.

Besides the one who knocks on the door, what other being knows about the door and the copy?

And it has a lot to do with me?

Bai Miao's first thought was about the trouble caused by the Zero Hour Lock.

Could it be another version of myself from some strange timeline?

"Fine, since you want to see it, I'll let you see it."

The mist churned violently and then spread rapidly toward Bai Miao's location.

Bai Miao's vision blurred, and the originally dark room transformed into an endless rice field.

A warm sunset hangs in the sky, and a gentle breeze blows across the fields, causing the plump ears of rice to bow their heads.

"Susususu..."

Behind him came the sound of rustling rice stalks. Bai Miao looked up and saw that the rice stalks had gathered together and gradually transformed into a girl with long golden hair and wearing a long robe with gold trim.

Her two pointed fox ears twitched slightly, and her expression as she looked at Bai Miao was somewhat complicated.

"You are... a fox?"

Bai Miao never imagined that the fox he met after clearing the Qingqiu Rebellion would meet him again in this way, in this place.

But this fox not only foresaw the trials it might face later, but also sent the Heavenly Dao Fragment Abundant Soil to its inventory across the dungeon.

Bai Miao was mentally prepared that she knew about the existence of the copy.

But why did she appear at this time?

"I am Tu Shanqing."

The fox introduced itself, then asked, "Now you should believe me?"

"You weren't part of the Qingqiu Rebellion... so why are you in Yar City? And what is this place?"

Bai Miao could not suppress his curiosity. Now that the other party's identity was clear, Bai Miao stopped probing and asked decisively.

Whether she would answer or not was beyond Bai Miao's consideration.

This fox at least doesn't have any ill intentions towards me, otherwise it wouldn't have sent over the precious fragments of the Heavenly Dao in the first place.

"...What do you take me for? A tool to answer your questions?"

Tu Shanqing silenced Bai Miao completely.

Bai Miao stammered, "You've caused me so much confusion..."

"Then I need to answer your questions?"

"Did I do something to offend you...?"

Bai Miao thought to himself, "This fox knows I'm the one who knocked on the door. It shouldn't be so angry about me leaving right after the dungeon ends, right?"

So you mean I'm being unreasonable?

"?"

I've run into a pro this time.

Bai Miao raised an eyebrow: "Tu Shanqing, you still dare to say you're not being unreasonable?"

Tu Shanqing was taken aback by Bai Miao's question, and her fair cheeks turned bright red, as red as apples in the sunset.

She grinned and said, "Then tell me, where did I go wrong by being unreasonable?"

“Let me think… First, you’ve disrupted my dungeon strategy. If you hadn’t killed people indiscriminately, my progress might have been smoother. Second, you seem to think I should understand your situation, but in fact, I know nothing about you right now. To put it more bluntly, I’m not familiar with you at all, except that I know you are the weasel that I spent a lot of luck to get you a title.”

"Who are you calling a weasel?!"

Tu Shanqing suddenly bristled: "I am a fox! The reason I haven't been able to get a title is because no one has identified my species correctly! They all think I'm a weasel, but I'm a nine-tailed fox! A nine-tailed fox!"

Tu Shanqing, panting heavily, stared at Bai Miao for a while before calming down: "I am suppressed by the Heavenly Dao, so even your so-called system cannot recognize my identity... but I really am a genuine nine-tailed fox."

"Okay, okay, you are."

Bai Miao didn't dwell on the topic of the variety: "I'm still waiting for you to explain it to me further."

Tu Shanqing then wore an expression like a child who had made a mistake: "Actually, Yar City and Qingqiu Kingdom... are in the same world, just tens of thousands of miles apart, which is why I was able to find you. I just didn't want you to accomplish too many things in Yar City..."

"why?"

Yar City and Qingqiu Kingdom, these two are actually in the same world?

Bai Miao recalled that Chen Taifang, the fifth disciple of the Zhen Tian Si Si Ming, had indeed taken out a pocket watch from his pocket when he disguised himself as the coachman Chen Dalong.

At the time, I felt it was quite strange, but I didn't think too much about it.

"You should have received information about the Heavenly Dao Competition, right?"

A battle for the Heavenly Dao?

Oh, the system did indeed notify me that I had qualified for the Heavenly Dao Battle after clearing the dungeon.

"We are eligible, but I have no idea under what specific circumstances to activate it."

"Let me think about how to explain this to you..."

Tu Shanqing was unaware that Bai Miao had already seized control of the conversation and taken the initiative.

"You can think of Qingqiu Kingdom and that region as two separate servers, compared to Yar City. In Qingqiu, there's a group of beings fighting fiercely for the fragments of the Heavenly Dao. In Yar City, there's another group whose goal is to cultivate their own followers, produce their own offspring, and ultimately, to monopolize Yar City."

Bai Miao was somewhat surprised that Tu Shanqing actually knew the concept of a server.

"If you explore too much in this instance, you might go even further in the next instance, and eventually you might become a part of the struggle for Yar City."

Tu Shanqing said, somewhat troubled, "If you participate in the Heavenly Dao Competition later... you might be treated as an intruder from outside the server."

"You mean, the people of Qingqiu Kingdom will unite against me, a member of the foreign server?"

Tu Shanqing nodded: "Although they fight fiercely among themselves, they will still unite against people from other regions."

"Then can't I just take them all down by myself?"

"..."

Tu Shanqing just looked at Bai Miao as if he were an idiot.

"Bai, you know yourself that this is a difficult thing."

"But I can't give up my current interests because of future difficulties; that would only push me further away. There's always a way out. If I tie my own hands in the face of potential difficulties, I'm afraid I'll have to keep making concessions when the battle for the Heavenly Dao comes."

“Since this is a battle for control, I cannot compromise.”

Sensing Bai Miao's determination, Tu Shanqing felt somewhat guilty: "That's why I didn't want to ask for your consent in the first place. I thought that as long as I killed the person who was beneficial to your progress, you might give up the reward for that clue."

"Furthermore... if you feel like there's a murderer around you, you'll likely devote more energy to investigating the murderer, and you might even start to suspect the people around you..."

Looking at Tu Shanqing's drooping ears, Bai Miao didn't know whether he should blame her or not.

It's somewhat unrealistic to try to bind Tu Shanqing, this fox demon, with human moral values.

Moreover, her intentions were good.

He just didn't want to become the target of everyone's criticism in the battle for the Heavenly Dao.

"Bai...I'm sorry..."

Tu Shanqing was no longer the arrogant person she had been at the beginning.

How do you know what will happen in the future?

Bai Miao was also quite concerned about Tu Shanqing's current strength.

"Besides the Fertile Soil, I also obtained a fragment of Time from the Heavenly Dao Fragment, which allows me to change the future outcome through this method."

"Wait...you mean, after you know how things will turn out in the future, you can go back in time and change the future through your actions?"

This is way more powerful than the Zero Time Lock.

The Zero Time Lock can only remind your past self, making them pay attention. It has no effect on the situation of the person who issued the reminder, essentially creating a new timeline.

However, fragments of time can change one's circumstances.

This is a bit outrageous.

"Yes... Time can take me back to the past, but on the condition that I must replace myself at the current point in time."

"replace?"

Bai Miao's heart skipped a beat: "Is it what I think it means?"

"Yes, I will kill her and become her. I will forget everything that happened after this point in time, lose everything, and start anew."

"My experiences, cultivation, personality, and memories will all be assimilated into who I am at this point in time. But for my current self, her death is also real. In a sense, my future self will also die at the moment of assimilation..."

"That's why many people are unwilling to grasp the fragments of time, because it means that they may be killed by their future selves one day after they grasp the fragments. Even if they don't seem to have changed in the eyes of their relatives and friends, they will actually be killed, and their existence will be completely erased, with their present being taken away by their future selves."

Bai Miao felt a chill run down his spine: "What if we get killed instead?"

Tu Shanqing smiled and said, "If I let you fight against your past, and you know all his skills, all his plans, and all his trump cards, while you yourself have even more tools that he can't even imagine, will you lose?"

For some reason, Bai Miao thought of the ethereal and intangible.

He was so restricted by the door that he could only carry one prop with him.

In this situation, I only managed to defeat him by relying on the power of the magical girl.

Without restrictions, the odds of winning would be zero.

These fragments of time are quite cruel.

The Lock of Zero tends to pass on hope, while the Fragments of Time represent self-sacrifice, entrusting hope to others.

Regardless, the individual holding the fragment cannot understand that the future has been altered, but they can enable others to anticipate the future and make changes accordingly.

Tu Shanqing added, "Moreover, even if we are killed in retaliation, it will not have any impact. As far as the Heavenly Dao is concerned, all it wants is normal time-related actions. It doesn't care who is driving time."