Chapter 764 Omen Sign at the Cloudy Summit <TOC> Chapter 766 The Time Thief
Translator: SumTLMan
This was a peculiar individual who embodied autism, madness, and paranoia.
Due to his nature, he had hardly ever set foot outside the clock tower throughout his life. However, he enjoyed observing the crowd below from the top of the tower while adjusting the clocks, fantasizing about how to kill them with a terrifying gaze.
Angel was trapped within the body of this deranged person.
He couldn’t control the man’s body, but he could feel his thoughts, spirit, and obsessions as if he were a second soul in the same body.
Even though Angel was an independent entity, entering the man’s demented mind felt like sinking into a dark quagmire.
The strange man must have sensed Angel’s presence, but due to his autism, he never spoke to Angel.
Although trapped in the man’s body, Angel had an inexplicable sense of how to escape.
There were two methods: either merge with the man’s soul, accepting all his thoughts and obsessions, or remain a bystander and wait for the man to die.
Only these two methods could free him from the man’s physical constraints.
The first method might be the fastest, but it came with the highest cost. Although the man was a mere mortal, his chaotic thoughts and deranged mind were beyond ordinary, according to Angel’s observations. If he merged with the man, his own thought process might become problematic.
Merging with such an extreme mindset might also lead to drastic changes in his personality.
Would he still be himself if his personality changed significantly? This was an unknown question. Therefore, Angel didn’t choose to merge with him but instead watched the man’s life as a bystander.
During this process, Angel tried to communicate with the man. Whenever the man had deranged thoughts, Angel would share his own ideas.
Neither the man’s thoughts nor Angel’s were necessarily right or wrong; they merely represented different perspectives. Angel shared his views, hoping to create a clash of ideas with the man. If sparks could be generated, perhaps some of the man’s character flaws, such as autism, could be improved.
However, the man never conversed with him, even though Angel could sense that the man was aware of his thoughts.
In this way, Angel lived within the man’s body for five years.
He knew he was in an anomalous space, so his concept of time must have been flawed. Nonetheless, he could genuinely experience the man’s five years of life.
The man still lived a lonely, autistic life in the clock tower, adjusting the clocks every day at midnight. This was his job and the source of his livelihood. While adjusting the clocks, he would still look down upon the masses, contemplating how to torment and kill them.
Angel quietly observed everything, his own life compared to others’, like a single duckweed leaf in the vast ocean. Regardless of storms or raging waves, he calmly rode on this leaf, slowly sailing towards the other shore.
Angel thought he would be trapped in the strange man’s body for decades.
Yet, on a snowy night in the fifth year, the strange man inexplicably jumped off the building while adjusting a clock, landing solidly in the snow. Pure white and vibrant red gradually merged together.
Surrounded by the gasps of onlookers, the strange man closed his eyes.
Angel knew he should be free from the strange man’s constraints. However, at that moment, the strange man, who had never responded to Angel’s words in his heart, suddenly said, “You’re very strange…”
You’re very strange.
In the last moment of the strange man’s life, he broke through the walls erected by his autism, whispered with doubt, and said this to him.
Angel always thought the strange man was strange, but the strange man thought he was strange too.
Although they shared the same body, they were still like two sides of a mirror, with the person in the mirror perhaps still only perceiving the surface.
As snowflakes fell, Angel felt the roar and howl of the River of Destiny once more.
Then, he woke up.
Upon awakening, Angel remained silent for a while. Even as the River of Destiny slowly disappeared before him, he didn’t react, instead digesting the unique life experience he had just had.
After a long time, Angel snapped back to reality.
At this moment, he was no longer on the banks of the River of Destiny but in a world of void and darkness. The only light in this world came from the enormous clock above his head, emitting a “tick-tock” sound.
The clock was like a wheel, its hands moving as the gears outside the wheel meshed and slowly turned.
The gears connected to an unknown void, and Angel was unclear about the meaning of their rotation.
However, he vaguely guessed the name of this clock: Wheel of Time.
The Wheel of Time, like the River of Destiny, was still one of the three major branches of the prophecy school of wizards. Angel pondered, could it be that he had to go through the trials of the three major branches of prophecy to create an item that depicted the Poem of the Void?
As he was lost in thought, a strange laughter came from the top of the Wheel of Time.
Angel looked up, unable to use any tricks or fly, and could only gaze from a distance. It seemed that on top of the Wheel of Time, there was a dark figure sitting at the apex of the wheel.
Unable to discern his appearance, perhaps intentionally obscured, all Angel could see was a shadowy figure.
“Who are you?” Angel inquired with confusion.
The shadow did not answer but only laughed more eerily and cheerfully. After a while, the shadow on the clock suddenly spoke, “It’s a shame, you chose to wait. Wouldn’t fusing directly have been a quicker way out?”
Angel was taken aback. Was the figure referring to the unique life he had experienced earlier?
“That’s right, young one.” The shadow’s tone was tinged with a smile.
“I don’t want to be changed,” Angel pondered for a moment before responding to the shadow’s question.
The shadow, however, uttered a thoughtful “hmm” and questioned, “But with each place you visit, person you meet, and experience you have, aren’t you changing the person you once were with each choice you make?”
Angel furrowed his brow, feeling as if the figure was engaging in sophistry.
“Yesterday’s you is not today’s you,” the shadow suddenly laughed, “The future you dreamed of as a child isn’t what you have today, is it? Moreover, ask yourself honestly, have you become the person you initially aspired to be? Is the person you are now the one you once admired?”
“You’re conflating concepts. Even if I’ve become the person I once despised, it’s still my own choice,” Angel said while skeptically observing the shadow. Was this the test the Wheel of Time had for him?
Seemingly able to read minds, the shadow did not dwell on the previous topic but told Angel, “You’re mistaken. This isn’t a test from the Wheel of Time, but a choice I’m presenting to you.”
Angel didn’t understand the shadow’s meaning and instinctively asked, “What choice?”
“You’ve already made your choice. As I mentioned earlier, you chose to wait instead of fusing.”
“But what does that have to do with the present situation?” Angel wondered.
The shadow let out a series of bizarre, eerie laughter before finally stating, “Since you chose to wait, I’ll take away the other choice.”
“What?” Angel suddenly had a myriad of questions. What did the shadow mean by taking away the other choice?
“My test is over. Though I could only take away one of your past choices, it’s still quite delectable,” the shadow said as its form gradually disintegrated into specks of darkness, seemingly about to vanish.
Angel cried out, “Who are you? What do you mean by taking away the other choice?”
From the void, a faint response could be heard:
“My true name is long, but I prefer to be called… Cassini. People from your world of wizards often call me… Time…”
His voice grew fainter and fainter. Angel could hear him speaking but couldn’t make out his final words. All he knew was that his name seemed to be “Cassini.”
As the shadow disappeared, so did the massive Wheel of Time.
At that moment, the surroundings began to change. Angel thought he would experience the last of the three major branches of the prophecy lineage: Strings of the World.
But it didn’t happen.
As the surrounding void dissipated, a door appeared before Angel. Behind the door, he could faintly see the cloak that was eager to break free from the golden rune shackles.
Angel stepped through the door, and everything behind him turned into an illusory bubble.
At the same time, as his eyes slowly opened, the mist enveloping his surroundings dissipated at a visible speed, and a strange energy surged into the cloak. At the last moment, it was complete!
The trio on the mountainside also witnessed the changes atop White Oak Mountain and felt a mental power patrolling the surroundings.
“It’s done,” White whispered.
Silkvine added, “Moreover, judging by the immense Omen Sign and the previous energy fluctuations, this is at least a mid-rank pinnacle alchemy item.”
Half a step to the high rank? White looked at the illusionary clouds on the mountain peak with surprise, “Hasn’t he moved one step closer to becoming an alchemy master?”
Silkvine also sighed, “I never believed the heated rumors within the alchemy circle, but now that I’ve seen it with my own eyes, I have to believe.”
White was also impressed. The strongest alchemist in the Song of the Deep Sea could only create items at the half-step high rank at best.
If Angel were to join the Song of the Deep Sea, he would likely receive treatment surpassing that of a formal wizard.
“It’s puzzling that Savage Grottoes would send out such an alchemy genius and even assign him the most troublesome Guide Mission.”
As White muttered, Jiebo, who had been silent, jumped onto the back of a nearby unicorn abyssal whale, “White, it’s time to go.”
“Sir, shall we not meet him?”
“Didn’t you feel the mental power patrolling just now? Whether he’s grateful or resentful, he already knows we’re here, and that’s enough.”
“With the birth of a new alchemy item, do you think he has time to bother with you now?” Silkvine transformed her arms into black feathers and sneered at White before flying away first.
After a moment of stunned silence, White also jumped onto the unicorn abyssal whale’s back and left with Jiebo.
Chapter 764 Omen Sign at the Cloudy Summit <TOC> Chapter 766 The Time Thief