Heavenly Mystery Continent: Ancient

The light of the teleportation array faded, and Ye Chuan and his group returned to the Ten Thousand Realms Apartments.

Lan Xiaoke barely steadied herself, messing with her hair, "Wah wah wah, my hairstyle—Ye Chuan, why didn't you use the teleportation array earlier?"

Ye Chuan reached out to support her, "I told you to fly just now, but you wouldn't. You stay cooped up at home all the time; you need to exercise more."

"What did I do wrong?"

Lan Xiaoke lifted her face with righteous indignation, "You clearly know how to teleport, but you insisted on carrying me all the way here through the night wind."

"This is called enhancing the travel experience."

"My experience was terrible."

Hmph, later when they play Three Kingdoms Kill, she was going to hit Ye Chuan with a few thunderous slams.

Just as Lan Xiaoke was lost in her fantasy, Ye Chuan reached out and poked her.

Luo Xi watched her expression and couldn't help but let out a laugh.

Bai Qianshuang stood quietly to the side, looking down at her arm, which had already fully healed.

The wound cut by the demon earlier had vanished, and even the bloodstains on her clothes had been wiped clean by a cleaning spell, as if nothing had ever happened.

But Ye Chuan noticed her small movements.

"Does it still hurt?"

Bai Qianshuang shook her head, "It's fine now."

This time, Ye Chuan didn't deliberately ask what she'd said. He just raised a hand and tousled her hair, only to have Bai Qianshuang dodge him expressionlessly.

"Don't touch my head..."

She seemed a bit shy.

"Oh." Ye Chuan grinned. He could always touch it later if he wanted.

He withdrew his hand and then rubbed Lan Xiaoke's head a couple of times instead.

"Then I'll touch this one."

Lan Xiaoke, sprawled on the sofa, turned her head back, "What, am I a rag or something?"

"Not really. Just nearby."

...

In the following days, Ye Chuan surprisingly didn't rush off to other worlds.

Ke Ning had specifically reminded him earlier that the source stone modification and dimensional experiments had entered a critical phase, so he'd better stay near the apartment.

Although it sounded like an excuse, Ye Chuan didn't really mind.

So Ye Chuan enjoyed a rare few days of normal life without even checking in on the New Century side.

Every morning, starting from when Lan Xiaoke and the others got up, he began his daily routine.

But most of the time, aside from having a bit to eat, he basically holed up in his room playing games with everyone.

They played until they lost all sense of day and night. With Ye Chuan's gaming skills on display, he could clear everyone else's health bar, and only then might he give up one of his own health points, then top everyone up one by one.

This went on for three days. Almost everyone living in the house experienced something of an endless night ritual.

On the afternoon of the third day, the door to Ke Ning's lab swung open.

The Magic Cube V2 flew out first.

Ke Ning followed behind, her fluffy curly hair even more disheveled than three days ago, with black-rimmed glasses perched on her nose and a silvery-black ring in her hand.

"Ye Chuan."

"Ye Chuan? Are you here?"

She called out toward the living room, "Come here."

Ye Chuan was just then holding Lan Xiaoke while playing a game. He got up and walked over, "What's up?"

"..." Ke Ning saw the pet being carried without touching the ground and said to Ye Chuan, "Don't just focus on playing. Here, take this."

It was only the size of a palm, shaped like a flattened silvery-black ring, with a cut source stone floating at its center.

Six slender metal needles slowly revolved around the source stone, and with each crossing, the surrounding space faintly doubled over.

Ye Chuan didn't stop what he was doing; he just propped Lan Xiaoke under his arm and looked at it briefly, "Is this the surprise you mentioned?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah... Yeah!"

Ke Ning pushed up her glasses, "This is a time-space anchor device."

"An anchor device..." As Ye Chuan took the device, he suddenly sucked in a sharp breath, feeling a tingle, "Pretty intense stuff... so powerful."

"..."

The six positioning needles lit up simultaneously, and the source stone at the ring's center emitted a blue light.

Several translucent images flashed past.

The same location, different buildings, different skies.

Ye Chuan could tell at a glance that these images weren't from different worlds, but projections of the same space across different eras.

"A timeline?"

"More accurately, a space-time layer positioning." Ke Ning said, "With this, you can pinpoint your location through time and space."

As he took the device, Ye Chuan casually set down the pet that had been spouting water elements randomly, "So I can use this to go back to the past? Without worrying about time turbulence?"

"Of course, it's not that simple."

Ke Ning shook her head, "You can't just pick any time or input a specific year. You have to rely on anchors connected to the target timeline."

"An item that has long belonged to a person, a remnant soul, or a lifeform originally from that timeline—all can serve as coordinates."

Ye Chuan understood immediately.

"As long as the anchor is stable enough, I can use it to enter the time-space where that existence originally belonged?"

"In theory, yes."

Ye Chuan thought about it.

He could even directly pinpoint the former timeline of the Aiser Continent, the timeline of Lilith.

The old lady's world? The true timeline of the real 'granny'?

That actually sounded kind of interesting.

"..." Ke Ning looked over at Lan Xiaoke, and seeing her state, she seemed a bit exasperated, "In the living room, at least mind your image a little."

"Ke Ning... wanna play together?" Lan Xiaoke invited Ke Ning to join the game.

"I'm not interested in that."

"Really?"

"..."

Just then, Bai Qianshuang dragged Little Black in.

"Ye Chuan, take a look at Little Black... this brat snuck off to the rift earlier and got beaten up."

Beaten up?

Ye Chuan looked down at the black Shiba Inu.

Little Black had a not-too-deep wound on its right abdomen, its black fur matted with blood.

"Woof woof—whimper—"

Ye Chuan pressed his hand on it, and a green light flickered; the wound quickly healed completely.

Little Black immediately wagged its tail.

Seeing Little Black wagging its tail and acting affectionately, Ye Chuan suddenly remembered something—

Speaking of which, this Little Black guy probably came from a place called the Tianxuan Continent - Old.

Ye Chuan pulled out his phone and checked Little Black's info.

【Pet: Black Abyss

Origin: Tianxuan Continent - Old, accidentally entered a rift and arrived at... information insufficient...

Realm: Nascent Soul Stage, Great Perfection】

【Pet Quality: A】

...

Old?

So he hadn't been mistaken.

Little Black truly did come from a place called Tianxuan Continent - Old.

Hmm...

Ye Chuan was a bit curious now.

Just then, the time-space anchor device in his hand suddenly vibrated.

The six positioning needles all turned toward Black Abyss.

The source stone at the ring's center rapidly brightened, and blue space patterns spread out in ripples, as if confirming some distant coordinate.

His phone buzzed. Ye Chuan picked it up and glanced at it.

The Ten Thousand Realms Landlord APP was auto-jumping; the original 'Adventure' function suddenly lit up with a blue glow.

He tapped open the world list.

Below the familiar Tianxuan Continent option, a new line of dim text had appeared.

【Tianxuan Continent】

【Tianxuan Continent·Old】

Two nearly identical names now stood side by side on the phone screen.