Chapter 3462: Alliance Celebration

————A bit later~~

————

Afterwards, in this Time Line, Xia Duo also traveled to Xinnaliya and Beilunuo just as in the other Time Line, and he still found the Time Gem that Dafuni had left for Dali.

However, the root of Xia Duo's manipulation of the Time Line was the Time Force collected after that Time Gem dissipated, so unsurprisingly—

In this Time Line, the Time Force contained within the found Time Gem was, after being collected, less than it had been before.

This also meant he could not continuously obtain new Time Force by "glitching"; his consciousness could transcend the Time Line, and the existence of Time Force could undoubtedly transcend the Time Line as well.

In the process of the birth and death of Time Lines, the total amount of Time Force was continuously decreasing.

This also meant that the operations Xia Duo could perform at the level of the Time Line were limited, so he had to make the best use of every opportunity.

Just as in the current time—where the Alliance won the Tear Drop Lake Battle—although the result of the Tear Drop Lake Battle was a fixed outcome, subsequent developments still held variables, and this was also what Xia Duo needed to strive for as much as possible.

Although a small change this time was not enough to shake the overall situation, adding up small changes time after time could potentially produce a qualitative change.

It was as if a person could repeatedly return to the past; then they would inevitably be able to guide the development of the world in the direction they most hoped to see. It was just that Xia Duo's Time Force was limited, otherwise he would definitely have grinded out a perfect result.

But for now, doing his best was enough.

……

Astral Plane special dimension, above the Time Spring.

Xia Duo reviewed the gains and losses of this Time Line after the Tear Drop Lake Battle over and over again. Most of the results were within his expectations; individual ones deviated from before, but they did not affect the overall situation.

Confirming that the plan was steadily advancing, Xia Duo once again locked onto a local battlefield where the Alliance had failed.

That was in the early days when the Illuminati was unscrupulously creating Time-Involving Signals. Due to the limited manpower on the Alliance side, they inevitably neglected the handling of certain Time-Involving Signals.

One of the local battlefields with a greater impact, like the Tear Drop Lake Battle, was still within Yierlan—located at the Xiangshui River in the south. It was just that at the time, Yierlan was mired in internal strife, with everyone suspicious of one another, and they could not spare the manpower to go and handle it.

Like the Tear Drop Lake Battle, it was still Alliance Mages who went as the main force to handle it, and the result was an unsurprising failure.

But it was only afterwards that they learned that after the handling of that Time Signal Source failed, it actually triggered a chain reaction, causing Time-Involving Signals in multiple different regions to change simultaneously, indirectly leading to the Alliance's defeat in multiple local battlefields.

It could be said that the Time-Involving Ritual at the Xiangshui River was a key Node in the progress of the Illuminati's ultimate ritual!

It was just a pity that in the first Time Line (that Xia Duo experienced), even after learning the importance of the Xiangshui River Battle later on, it was already a thing of the past and could not be changed.

And in the second Time Line—that is, the Time Line where the Alliance won the Tear Drop Lake Battle—because Xia Duo had already learned of the importance of the Xiangshui River Battle in the first Time Line, he had specifically arranged for manpower to go and handle it in this Time Line.

As it turned out, it was still a failure.

He guessed that such a key Node might already be under the focused attention of the Illuminati, so when he adjusted his strategy and sent additional manpower, he was still facing Illuminati members whose strength far exceeded that of the Alliance Mages.

So after the attempt failed, Xia Duo did not obsess over changing the outcome of individual local battlefields in the second Time Line, but instead focused on probing the Illuminati's protection of the key Nodes in their ultimate ritual process.

The first one probed was the Xiangshui River, and two more were probed subsequently—those were the local battlefields that had been determined in the first Time Line to have linkages with other Time-Involving Signals, and where he had tried but failed to change things in the second Time Line.

Because time was limited, he only probed these three this year, but on the premise of being able to confirm these three, the Alliance Mages in the second Time Line also listed a suspect list for Xia Duo.

A portion of it belonged to speculation, and a portion was determined with the benefit of hindsight.

But undoubtedly, in the third Time Line about to restart, Xia Duo would inherit the results of the previous two, and then lead the Alliance Mages to launch a continuous counterattack.

……

Above the Time Spring, time seemed to have lost its meaning. Here, Xia Duo did not need to worry about any variables in the Main Plane, because just like entering the Astral Plane normally, time in the Main Plane was effectively stagnant for him while he was in the Astral Plane.

No matter how long he stayed here, time in the Main Plane would not pass by even a single second.

Also because of this characteristic, he did not need to worry about bumping into Dafuni in the Astral Plane, because both sides did not enter the Astral Plane at the same time. If they could meet, the concept of space-time would be completely overturned.

At least in Xia Duo's understanding, as long as they were not two people (from the Material Plane) who entered the Astral Plane at the same time, it was impossible for them to ever meet in the Astral Plane.

And in reality, Dafuni most likely did not leap above time to manipulate the Time Line through the Astral Plane, but operated directly through Time-Involving Rituals or Time Force.

In this situation, Dafuni could likewise transcend the Time Line, but it was even more impossible for her to meet Xia Duo face-to-face.

So Xia Duo did not need to be as rushed while in the Astral Plane as he was in the Main Plane. Even though staying in the Astral Plane would also consume his lifespan, he could still afford to spend this bit of lifespan.

Next, according to the plan, he would search for a Time Line where the Alliance won the Xiangshui River Battle within the Time Spring—the future possibilities that constantly radiated in all directions starting from the Present World Anchor—and then make it the main trunk.

But after searching and searching, he could not discover any "future" where the Alliance won the Xiangshui River Battle!

"This can't be right!"

There were too many uncertain factors in the future, and everything was possible. Xia Duo did not believe it was absolutely impossible for the Alliance to win the Xiangshui River Battle; it was just that the conditions might be more demanding and the probability might be smaller.

But no matter how small the probability was, it shouldn't be zero.

It was just a matter of spending more time searching. Xia Duo had plenty of patience to do this. In any case, the process of searching Time Lines was akin to prophecy and consumed almost no Time Force—

The reason there was still consumption was mainly because Xia Duo needed to use the control characteristics of Time Force over the Time Line to exclude some obviously unsuitable Time Lines, thereby increasing search efficiency.

Otherwise, because the future was nearly infinite, it would be equivalent to Xia Duo having to search bit by bit from infinitely many possibilities. Even if time in the Astral Plane had no meaning, he couldn't waste it like this; after all, the time consumed here was also real.