Flipping the Table

"This method will work, right?"

Standing in the house, Zhang Ye slowly spoke alone, as if talking to himself.

As soon as his words fell, the room sank into silence again. But the quiet atmosphere did not last long. After only a few breaths, Miss Minutes ‘jumped’ out of the air.

"There are no records, so we can’t be certain yet. But this is the best method we have so far, isn’t it?" Miss Minutes said with a smile, standing on Zhang Ye’s shoulder.

Perhaps Miss Minutes’ smile had rubbed off on him, or perhaps he had confidence in the plan. Zhang Ye smiled faintly as well and nodded. "Yes. It’s the best method, at least for the Multiverse."

The man and the clock fell silent, calmly watching the sunset beyond the window, just as they had when they first arrived in this universe. The same place, the same sunset.

Only, everything was different now.

After a moment of silence, Zhang Ye asked, "Have you identified the exact timeline anchor point?"

"I have. Although there hasn’t been enough time to record every file from this timeline, I’ve identified a historical moment within it that has not yet been contaminated."

Miss Minutes answered quickly.

"According to your plan, if we travel to that time and alter history, we may be able to create a fulcrum and split this timeline, causing it to branch at that moment and give birth to two entirely different parallel universes—one contaminated, and one uncontaminated."

Yes, this was the best solution Zhang Ye had come up with. Since he could not eliminate this universe’s contamination, he would do the opposite: tear the universe in half and preserve the world that had not been contaminated!

That bizarre insect chrysalis had given Zhang Ye the idea. Since its goal was to invade reality and use one contaminated reality to overwrite the reality of another Prime Universe that had not yet been affected, he could use the same principle to peel the reality that had already occurred away from this universe.

With that thought in mind, Zhang Ye had Miss Minutes secretly record this universe. Fortunately, Miss Minutes was of a high enough rank that her record of this universe attracted no one’s attention. Not even the entity parasitizing the timeline noticed it.

After paying a sufficient price, Miss Minutes had finally found that absolute temporal anchor point!

"It’ll take a lot of power, won’t it?" Zhang Ye murmured.

"Thirty percent. That isn’t too much, but we can’t guarantee the safety of the parallel universe. That would require far too much power. I can’t help you with that." Miss Minutes shook her head, but quickly added, "Perhaps magical energy can."

"Perhaps. But to complete such a vast spell, my power alone is nowhere near enough." Zhang Ye fixed his gaze on the sunset, silently watching it sink bit by bit below the horizon.

Splitting a timeline was by no means easy. Zhang Ye had just experienced a Flashpoint Universe that had been split away, so he had become even more cautious about altering timelines.

To carry out this plan, he had to find uncorrupted history. Zhang Ye had originally worried that the thing parasitizing the timeline might contaminate the entire timeline.

But to Zhang Ye’s surprise, it had not contaminated history at all. Instead, it had contaminated the future!

Whether it was the Cognitive Contamination of reality or the killing of the future Spider-Man 2099, that indescribable entity had shown no intention whatsoever of meddling with history that had already happened. It had not even turned its ‘gaze’ toward the past.

Zhang Ye had been deeply puzzled by this, but he soon understood its purpose.

Because that thing’s ultimate target was the Prime Universe, and the layer of reality it intended to overwrite was also the Prime Universe’s future reality, it would not alter any past history at all. That was so the realities of the two worlds could merge more smoothly.

Do not forget: what was the history of the All-New, All-Different Universe?

It was Secret Wars 2015!

At the moment the All-New, All-Different Prime Universe was born, parallel universes based upon it began to emerge one after another. That history was the foundation, and it absolutely could not be affected. Once history became contaminated, this timeline would not be accepted by the Prime Universe.

And then the insect chrysalis would be unable to achieve its goal. In the end, if not for the fact that the thing was plotting something so enormous, it would never have left such a huge flaw for Zhang Ye to discover.

So long as he could find a way to travel to that uncontaminated point in history and alter its development, creating a new timeline, then in a sense, he would have "saved" this universe that was headed for destruction.

But while it sounded simple, actually doing it was incredibly difficult. Unlike the Flash’s brutal alteration of timelines, Zhang Ye had to wield far greater power to control the stability of the timeline if he wanted the new one to be relatively safe.

In other words, Zhang Ye did not want to change this universe’s development, because that could easily cause a Flashpoint Paradox. If heroes who should have existed no longer did, it would have no small impact on this universe’s future development.

Zhang Ye’s goal was to copy and paste this universe, except the villains in that universe would not have any intention of brainwashing Deadpool. That was all.

And the energy required for that was terrifying. Even holding an entire Ruined Universe in his hands was far from enough, which was why Zhang Ye found this so difficult.

Perhaps if he could use the great powers that existed in this universe—such as the Cosmic Cube, the Infinity Stones, and other treasures beyond the Cosmic Level—he might be able to accomplish this grand objective.

But things were not that easy. The insect chrysalis parasitizing the timeline was still there. It might disdain to closely observe the ants within this universe, but it was not stupid.

Its attention should currently be on Kara, Doctor Strange, and the others. But once Zhang Ye actively touched those powerful things belonging to this universe, he would inevitably draw that thing’s attention. Then all of Zhang Ye’s plans would be ruined.

For things to have developed this far was already due to how well Zhang Ye had hidden himself and avoided detection. But if that entity discovered him, it would naturally learn of his plan. And if, at that time, it abandoned its invasion of the Prime Universe and instead contaminated this universe’s history—

Then, in a situation where both sides were destroyed together, Zhang Ye would no longer have even the slightest hope of saving this universe.

"Have you thought of a good idea?" Miss Minutes blinked.

Zhang Ye fell silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Can we still observe those two Hell Dimension anchor points?"

"Of course. Although those dimensions have separated, as long as their anchor points have been recorded, they will remain forever under the Time Twister’s observation."

"That’s great." Zhang Ye’s lips curled upward.

"Open a portal.

I’m going to flip the table!"