Chapter 1829: Journey of a Madman (Part 42)

Helen sat cross-legged on the ground, holding a book larger than her own head. Strange stood before the bookshelf, continuously tossing books down, while Harley stood below to catch them and pass them to Helen.

Helen shook her head as she read, her movements accompanied by sighs. After hearing her twelfth sigh, Strange couldn't help but turn around to look at her and ask, "What exactly is the matter? Is there something wrong with this method?"

"'Is there something wrong with it?' Please, where is there *not* something wrong with it?" Helen looked up from the book, glared back at Strange, and shook her head slightly. "You've shattered my stereotype of Dr. Stephen Strange being consistently sharp. How could you be fooled by this piece of junk?"

Strange stood there, looking at her gloomily. Helen slammed the book shut with a "thwack" and tossed it aside. "You haven't taken a magic theory class, have you? What is the most important thing in a magic theory?"

"Origin and historical evolution," Barry answered without looking up from another book. "If a magic theory cannot trace its source and evolutionary process, it is highly likely a trap used by evil gods to bewitch humanity."

"The greatest characteristic of human magical knowledge inheritance is its gradually perfecting evolutionary process. Misuse and corruption are indispensable parts of theoretical inheritance. Any theory that appears as a finished product either has inherent flaws and massive loopholes, or it is definitely a trap."

Barry recited the content from the textbook very fluently, then added, "The Sorcerer Supreme added a note below it: the more powerful and perfect a theory is, the less likely it is to appear out of thin air in human hands. Without an exploratory process, it is not knowledge that humans could have researched."

Strange rubbed the cover of a book, and after a long while, he spoke: "It seems the magical education in your world is very advanced."

"Or rather, you are too backward. I guess you never really went to school, did you? It's lucky you didn't die in the Strange Serial Murder Case."

Helen had only mentioned it in passing, but she suddenly paused. She looked down at the book she had tossed aside, then looked up at Strange and asked, "Where did you get this book?"

"This is a secret realm. The building we are currently in is called the Library of Cagliostro. This is one of its collections."

Harley immediately frowned, narrowed her eyes, and shook her head. "It looks suspicious no matter how you look at it. How did you get here?"

Strange hesitated for a moment, but still poured out his previous experiences.

Simply put, Strange had been in a car accident on his way to a date with his girlfriend, Christine. But this time, he didn't break his hands; instead, his beloved girlfriend, Christine, died in the accident.

Strange embarked on the path of magic, becoming the Sorcerer Supreme, and wanted to use the Eye of Agamotto's time-reversal ability to save his girlfriend, but he failed.

No matter how he changed the conditions at the time, Christine would inevitably die. Later, he learned from the Ancient One that Christine's death was an Absolute Point in Time, because only if Christine died could Strange become the Sorcerer Supreme.

After Strange tried countless times and still didn't want to give up, the Ancient One could only sever his time, causing him to split during a choice.

The Strange who chose to turn back and walk the right path remained in the universe, while the Strange who chose to remain obsessed stumbled into a secret realm and, led by the secret realm administrator Aoben, arrived at the lost Library of Cagliostro.

Here, Strange found a way to break the Absolute Point in Time. This method wasn't anything magical; it was simply using summoning arrays to summon various powerful creatures and devour their power. As long as the power was strong enough, he could naturally break the inescapable curse.

After hearing this, Harley shook her head and said, "Perhaps your vigilance is too poor, or perhaps you were blinded by urgent desire. How could there be such a coincidence in this world?"

"You were in urgent need of a way to solve your predicament, and then, through a coincidence, you happened to arrive at a completely safe secret realm, and this secret realm just happened to have a library recording all kinds of knowledge, and among this knowledge, you just happened to find the one you needed. Didn't you feel there was something wrong with this?"

Strange just opened his mouth to speak, but Harley interrupted him. She said, "You want to say you're lucky, but if you were truly lucky, Christine wouldn't have died."

Strange was speechless.

After a while, he tentatively asked, "Do you think this method is wrong?"

"I can tell you with absolute certainty that this method is wrong." Helen stood up, walked in front of Strange, and looked into his eyes. "The biggest trap in this is that it told you how to draw the summoning array, but it didn't tell you the principles behind it."

Helen raised her hand, and the book flew into her hand. She pointed her finger at a part of the magic array and said, "See this rune? This is the directional entry for directional summoning, meaning 'of this universe,' 'of this place,' or 'nearby.' In other words, the creatures summoned by this array are all from this universe."

"And this one, this entry means 'unlimited energy level,' and this entry beside it means 'unlimited rule category.' Do you know what consequences this will lead to?"

Strange shook his head. After he became the Ancient One's apprentice, he was obsessed with saving his girlfriend, and the spells he practiced were all related to time. The knowledge of magic arrays and magic runes was vast and complex, requiring a very long time to master. Strange only wanted a quick fix and hadn't looked at these things carefully at all.

Helen closed the book, sighed, and said, "There are not only useless energy demons in this world, but also many rule-based gods. They are the very embodiment of certain rules of the universe."

"You might think you destroyed the Dark Dimension lord Dormammu, but in fact, as long as darkness exists in the universe, Dormammu is immortal. This isn't some cheap rule, but because the universe needs him; he is a part of the universe's composition."

"If you don't place restrictions on these two entries, the things you summon are very likely to include life forms that are integrated with important rules. After you devour their energy, you yourself cannot support the power of the rules, which is equivalent to knocking out a load-bearing pillar of a building."

"If you devour rule-based life forms in large quantities in a short period, it will lead to massive damage to the universe's structure. The universe's self-repair speed is measured in tens of millions of years and cannot keep up with your destruction speed at all. The only consequence of continuing like this is the collapse of the universe."

After Helen picked up the book and flipped through it again, she said, "There is one more crucial point: the method taught here for converting devoured energy into your own power is far too superficial. To put it simply, if you devour ten parts of power, you can probably only retain one. For the vast majority of less refined power, you can't even keep one-tenth."

"This is equivalent to being given only the nozzle of a vacuum cleaner without the corresponding pipes or storage equipment, yet being provided with a maximum-power motor. It makes you suck with all your might, but you can't retain much; all the power you absorb just spills out into the universe."

"In this way, you become a meat grinder, simply destroying the rules of the universe and producing meaningless, trash energy."

"Moreover, because there is no correct storage method, even if you were to drain every life form in this universe that could be summoned, the remaining power would absolutely not be enough to break an Absolute Point in Time."

Helen's attitude, so certain, really made Strange waver a bit, because she looked too proficient, and what she said really sounded like the real deal.

Helen snapped her fingers, looked at Strange's face, and said, "I can teach you how to 'shear the sheep' correctly. Not only will it not cause the universe to collapse, but it might even help the universe live a longer life, and you yourself can retain at least eighty percent of the power. You only need to shear it a few times, and it's possible to break the cycle."

Strange narrowed his eyes and asked, "And the price?"

"I've already said, we are currently hunting for the culprit, and your encounter is very likely a part of the mastermind's plan. If I help you, you must help us find clues about the culprit."

"Just that simple?"

"That's not a difficult task for me." Helen shook her head and said, "I'm afraid you've already sensed it; I am neither human nor of the Aesir. You cannot see clearly what I am."

"And if I must use an analogy, I am probably the largest-capacity, most powerful-suction, and smartest super-sized vacuum cleaner in this world."

Twenty minutes later, Helen stood beside the newly redrawn magic circle and pointed at the magic circle she had just drawn with Harley and Barry, saying, "See that rune? That is the rune that restricts energy levels and rule categories. This ensures we won't summon rule-based creatures that are important to the universe."

"And that rune there, its meaning is 'marginal' or 'distant,' and the one next to it means 'broken and dilapidated.' We will first pick up that broken and dilapidated trash at the edge of this universe."

"Don't look at me with that expression. To me, it's trash, but to humans, it's extremely precious energy, enough to last you for several lifetimes. This is the safest method for obtaining energy that the students of Kamar-Taj have summarized over countless class hours."

Strange, half-doubting, activated the magic circle. The next second, countless limb fragments surged out from the teleportation circle; some looked like tentacles, some like claws and abdomens, and there were many energy fragments that looked like building debris.

Strange didn't even need to absorb this energy; it surged directly into his body. He let out a pained cry, collapsed to the ground, and blacked out.

When he woke up again, the three children had already finished drawing a new magic circle. Helen rubbed her hands together, turned to look at him, and said, "The trash in your universe is a bit scarce, but it doesn't matter. Next, we will start shearing the energy of those demon gods who have spare capacity."

Strange climbed up from the ground with some difficulty, feeling the powerful energy surging within his body. He looked at his body left and right with some pleasant surprise. He looked at Helen and said, "This is too magical. So, can we devour powerful demon gods next?"

"Don't even think about it. Even if you picked up trash ten thousand more times, it would be impossible to devour Dimension Lords like Mephisto or Cyttorak; their energy is infinite."

"However, precisely because of that, we don't need to rob them openly. We can totally summon them over to talk, right? What is there that can't be discussed? Dormammu can also be talked to. As long as the conditions are generous enough, the energy will definitely be enough."

Helen counted on her fingers and said, "Besides, it's not just one universe. Once we've sheared the wool of this universe, we'll go to the next one. Shearing a little from each universe, we won't be afraid of making the sheep bald."

"Once you've sheared enough energy, feed this energy to those rule-based life forms to let them reinforce the universe's structure, so they can provide you with more room to maneuver."

Helen revealed a big smile and then said, "The Ancient One stops you merely because constantly resetting time might lead to an unstable universe structure, thereby inviting destruction."

"Once you have sufficient power and have reinforced the universe's structure to be indestructible, you can try as many times as you want. I don't believe that with the power of thousands of universes combined, you still can't resurrect an ordinary human woman?"

"As for 'Absolute Points in Time,' Dr. Schiller once said: 'Absolute' means your vision isn't broad enough, and 'impossible' means your equivalent weight isn't enough."

"Open your vision, get the equivalent weight in place, and there is no wall in this world that cannot be broken through!"