Chapter 447

Jiang Xia sat in a treehouse made from the Helheim Forest; the treehouse was fully furnished, though all the furniture was made from variously shaped trees. He was sitting on a terribly uncomfortable wooden sofa, still clutching the half-fruit flesh he had just bitten.

Beside the sofa was a wooden trash bin already stuffed full, inside piled with fiery-red fruit rinds; he had already eaten many of the fruits here, and each time he ate one his control over the Helheim Forest increased by one point. Now the area he was in had completely become his.

Although the area is not large, at least he now possesses a piece of his own territory, which could be considered a base.

"It seems that without fully obtaining the Golden Fruit, the highest permission I can raise is only to this extent."

Jiang Xia watched the constantly lighting-up areas in his mind, continuously receiving information from the wind of the void; this place, like the Magic Gem World, cannot use the Earth Library because its nature is that of an alternate space, so he can only expand his senses and then conduct an overall scan.

Nevertheless, even so, he could not possibly perceive every region of this alternate space; even a single stone contains an astonishing amount of information.

The gains from his perception were meager; he had not found the core of Helheim, only discovering a few powerful alien beings and a few researchers in protective suits walking back and forth in the rifts.

As for the permission over Helheim's underworld, even if he kept eating the fruits here, he could only control a small area and its vines.

Because the previous holder of the Golden Fruit is still alive, and there are many alien overlords present, if he wants to obtain full permission, he should reclaim the shares they occupy.

However, this is only one solution; another solution is to obtain the human Golden Fruit and update it in one go, but what Jiang Xia wants is not just the human Golden Apple, he also wants the entire Helheim Forest.

The Helheim Forest constantly selects suitable evolving races across the universe, using them as blueprints to evolve the most suitable Golden Fruit for evolution; humanity is merely one in the long river, and given the Helheim Forest enough time, other races' Golden Apples will eventually appear.

Thus the most precious thing has never been the Golden Fruit, but the Helheim Forest itself.

The Divine Fruit's key is not the fruit itself, but the great tree that bears it.

Of course, both are what he needs, and he does not possess only the human race in his hand.

Isn't researching the mass production of divine power more worthwhile?

"Huh?"

Jiang Xia's originally leisurely expression suddenly turned strange; he sensed that spacetime had undergone a slight tremor.

If he continued to investigate carefully, it should be someone who had come from the future, and this method of crossing spacetime is strange, seeming not to be ordinary time travel.

Put differently, this is not a genuine spacetime crossing but rather a consciousness flowing upstream; although it can interfere with spacetime, its influence on spacetime is limited, meaning it cannot change the future's course, only being carried forward by spacetime.

"Is it because of you?" Jiang Xia gazed at this quiet yet strange Helheim Forest.

He suddenly thought of something, and the corner of his mouth involuntarily curled into a faint smile.

"Let me see your limits, Helheim Forest."

He already knew who the person traveling from the future to the past was.

Being able to return to the past yet unable to change the future, such a crossing mechanism ought to be altered; or, if everything is predetermined, then he is the greatest variable.

Jiang Xia then pulled, and the space before him, like a zipper, split open from the middle to both sides, forming a spatial rift; opposite the rift lay the familiar skyscrapers of his known human world.

However, the current situation is a bit troublesome.

One figure wore a decoration like a curved blade on his head; his blue grid-like base body was clad in orange-yellow armor, resembling a samurai from Japan's Sengoku period; in his right hand he held a black longsword, and in his left a weapon similar to a wakizashi, bearing an orange-like pattern.

His opponent had a tiger-like head, his hands completely covered by sharp claws, tall and nearly two meters tall, his whole body wrapped in green bark-like skin resembling a tree.

On his curved claws shone a jade-green arc light; he roared loudly, emitting a beast-like sound, his mouth full of sharp teeth opening, its bite force rivaling that of a crocodile.

"Gekkou Hirota and Kakuyu Yusuke?" Jiang Xia had just crossed the Helheim Forest's spatial tunnel when he encountered these two, the most pivotal figures of this world.

Gekkou Hirota is the Kamen Rider Gaim's transformer, while Kakuyu Yusuke is someone lacking qualification, attracted by the fruit, who ate it and became a mutated human.

What's more ironic is that Gekkou Hirota and Kakuyu Yusuke are still very close friends, except one does not know he is his friend, while the other has turned into a completely mindless monster.

Thus the two are now facing each other with blades.

Gekkou Hirota wielded the two longswords, one long and one short; the orange armor on his body gave him immense power, his sharp longsword continually sparking orange-yellow brilliant sparks on Kakuyu Yusuke's chest, the tremendous force of his slashes forced Kakuyu Yusuke into retreat, directly cutting him flying away.

He continued his assault on Kakuyu Yusuke, but at that moment Kakuyu Yusuke, with his hands spread toward Gekkou Hirota, had a vine-like green spreading across his body; Jiang Xia knew that was the fruit's power.

That energy was like a living thing, like a spirit snake; before Gekkou Hirota could react, it surged forth and struck his bright orange armor.

The sudden ranged attack directly flung the first-transformed Gekkou Hirota away, he fell onto his back on the floor; after the sparks faded, a pale cyan smoke rose from his body, and the orange short dagger in his hand dropped to the ground.

If it weren't for Gekkou Hirota's transformation using an A-rank orange lockseed, that blow might have killed him; both of them have adapted to the Helheim Forest's energy beyond ordinary people.

As Kakuyu Yusuke swung his clawed hand at the prone Gekkou Hirota, step by step approaching, the surrounding spacetime once again produced a slight sense of dislocation.

Ordinary people could absolutely not perceive this feeling, but Jiang Xia, who had crossed the Helheim Forest, was waiting for exactly this.

On the stairs beside those skyscrapers, a girl in a white long dress and moon-white long trousers was slowly descending; the bright sunlight fell on her golden hair, dazzling like gold, reminiscent of magical golden silk; her eyes were one scarlet, one brownish-yellow.

As the girl moved, the spacetime dislocation feeling became increasingly obvious; Jiang Xia could hardly fail to notice this overly beautiful girl, not only him, but even the just-fighting Gekkou Hirota and the mindless Kakuyu Yusuke gradually ceased their attacks.

The Origin Maiden, Divine Priestess, Beginning Maiden—these are her titles; she is Takasugi Mai, who has already become a goddess in the future and is attempting to return to the past.

Takasugi Mai completely failed to notice another person beside her; she spoke to the fallen Gekkou Hirota in a mysterious, ethereal voice: "If you take one more step forward, you will never return; you will have to keep fighting until the end, until the world is dyed in your color."

"My color?" Gekkou Hirota eyed the girl before him, "You… are Mai?"

Takasugi Mai gave no reply, merely standing silently there. However, what Jiang Xia saw and heard in his world was completely different from the present Gekkou Hirota; he heard the girl before him letting out a wail, her expression not calm and noble but filled with panic and refusal.

"No… no, that's not what I wanted to say! Why can't these words be conveyed? If this continues, the future cannot possibly change."

The girl trapped in the spacetime rift softly sobbed; although she possessed the power to change the world, now she could do nothing, only able to watch the future slide into the abyss of suffering.

Thus, from the very beginning, her method of crossing could never bring about temporal change; no matter how many times she crossed, she could not alter the facts that had already occurred in the past.

And now the Origin Maiden can only briefly affect the real world; thus, after speaking a sentence, Kakuyu Yusuke once again launched an attack on Gekkou Hirota, no one able to awaken his bestialized mind.

Facing Kakuyu Yusuke's renewed rampage, Takasugi Mai pressed her lips, showing sorrow, for she knew the monster before her was her good friend, and Gekkou Hirota likewise; this is where all tragedy begins, and only one person can survive.

To prevent the current Gekkou Hirota from being killed by the alien-transformed Kakuyu Yusuke, she could only choose the present Gekkou Hirota—that is, she must personally send Kakuyu Yusuke to his death, and this is also a predetermined fate.

If she simply removed the activated lockseed from her belt and placed it into the notch of that black longsword, she could knock Kakuyu Yusuke down in one go; this moment in time cannot be changed any further, so she must seek another way.

But just as she had made up her mind about what to do, she suddenly noticed, out of the corner of her eye, a person standing in the shadows, wearing a white robe like hers, with a handsome visage that did not look human.

"Who is this person?" Takasugi Mai stared in astonishment at this unfamiliar youth; having passed through the time tunnel, she knew everything that had happened on this timeline, yet she had never seen the appearance of this man before her.

Because such an appearance, impossible to ignore in a crowd, once glimpsed, is absolutely unforgettable.

"Detected? No wonder you're the Origin Maiden." Jiang Xia raised an eyebrow.

Although he was merely standing here casually, he had also used a bit of special ability to conceal himself, but he hadn't expected Takasugi Mai to see through him at a glance.

Jiang Xia stepped out from the shadows, the darkness clinging to him gradually replaced by brightness; a breeze lifted his long robe, revealing from the shadows his pair of golden eyes.

He walked unhurriedly to the center of the road, locked eyes with the astonished Takasugi Mai above, then turned and walked toward Kakuyu Yusuke.

His steps were steady; seeing this kind of monster, he showed no fear at all, while on the contrary, Jiao Ju Yu Ye unnaturally retracted his claws and fangs—the ferocity and viciousness he had just displayed vanished completely at the moment that man appeared.

His originally scarlet pupils gradually calmed down; with each step the man took forward, the monster that Jiao Ju Yu Ye had become retreated a step, his body trembling incessantly—this was not calmness but fear, and this monster, who had lost his reason because of the fruit, was actually afraid.

At this moment Jiang Xia stopped, but Jiao Ju Yu Ye kept stepping back step by step, as if he wanted to flee directly yet dared not turn around.

As the distance between them grew ever larger, Jiao Ju Yu Ye's movements became increasingly frantic; he gave Jiang Xia one last glance with his scarlet pupils, then turned and fled.

Even after regaining a beast-like instinct, he still dared not approach the man who had suddenly appeared.

"No, if we let Yu Ye escape, he'll hurt more people." Gaosi Wu shouted at Jiang Xia.

He is now a monster without reason, and cannot be let go.

Only Jiang Xia could hear that voice, but in Ge Ye Hou Tai's eyes, Gaosi Wu still stood on the stairs like a lofty goddess, making no other movement or expression.

"Don't worry, he can't get away." Jiang Xia said softly.

He could see and hear Gaosi Wu's demeanor and voice, and his voice could likewise reach her ears.

As Jiao Ju Yu Ye was running with all his legs, he leapt high, hoping to escape the scene with explosive jumping power; but when he reached the peak of his jump, preparing from midair to leap onto another high-rise, along the necessary path of his jump direction, a sound of a zipper opening rang in the air, and the original landing point on the wall was swiftly replaced by a patch of hastily green forest.

Jiao Ju Yu Ye thus dove straight in, easy, simple, efficient.

On the other side of the Spatial Portal was the area of Helheim Forest that Jiang Xia had just taken over; there was nothing there except fruit and a patch of treehouses.

Even otherworldly beings living in Helheim Forest would not approach this place, clearly marked by a powerful overlord.

At the moment Jiao Ju Yu Ye fell, it was as if he had been pricked by a hypnotic needle; he fell headfirst asleep, lying flat on the grass.

"Would you like to chat? The origin maiden from the future." Jiang Xia moved his lips.

"Hmm." Gaosi Wu thought for a moment, then lightly nodded.

This might be a chance to change the future, even though she clearly cannot interfere herself, and any words she wants to say get twisted into something else—but why can this person change the past?

In Gaosi Wu's eyes, Jiang Xia should be just like her—a traveler from the future—because in the present world there is no trace of him, and he likewise possesses the power of Helheim Forest; reasoning from these facts leads to the conclusion that the two are of the same kind.

"See you next time, Ge Ye Hou Tai." Jiang Xia walked up to Kai Wu and said.

"Who are you?" Ge Ye Hou Tai asked doubtfully.

"I suppose I'm your rival." Jiang Xia said with a smile, then walked forward, while Gaosi Wu also stepped down from the winding stairs to meet him.

"Wait, Wu." Ge Ye Hou Tai was chewing over Jiang Xia's words when he discovered that the two of them had vanished simultaneously upon meeting.

"Hou Tai?" A girl behind Ge Ye Hou Tai lightly tapped him and asked, "What are you looking at?"

"Ah Wu, are you here?" Ge Ye Hou Tai stared at the black-haired Gaosi Wu with her hair tied in twin tails, and he blanked out for a moment.

"What about that monster?" Gaosi Wu asked doubtfully.

"Um… he was driven away by a strange guy." Ge Ye Hou Tai slowly released his transformation.

"Driven away?" Gaosi Wu exclaimed in surprise.

"Well, let's talk as we walk; that guy is really strange." (End of chapter)