New World

The endless desolate plains stretched as far as the eye could see, with the ruins of a city reaching all the way here. Countless fragments of rubble littered this deathly silent land, slowly buried beneath yellow earth by the howling cold wind.

Within the ruins formed by a collapsed building, a small bonfire was the only source of light. The flames flickered constantly, and the shadows cast upon the walls twisted and trembled without cease.

This was the only patch of light on this lifeless land. Though the fire was not large, it could still illuminate the darkness and warm the heart.

Zhang Ye pulled his trench coat tighter around himself and used a stick to turn over the firewood in the bonfire.

Two young people lay quietly beside him: Pietro and Kara. They were still unconscious.

Zhang Ye had only just arrived in this world. After sealing the contaminated reality, he used the last of his strength to "peel" Kara and Pietro out of two different reality dimensions.

Fortunately, they were not natives of that world and had not suffered overly severe contamination. Once Zhang Ye had completely severed the connection between that chrysalis and the outside world, the contamination on them vanished entirely. However, such a forceful method had also dealt a violent blow to their minds.

As for Mephisto and the Great Old Ones, Zhang Ye had not contacted them since everything ended. Still, he guessed that they had already obtained gains that satisfied them.

Just as they had agreed before, Zhang Ye had only sealed the contaminated timeline. Beyond Earth’s dimension, beyond that timeline, there were still countless uncontaminated souls. In addition, the shattered world and fragments of the universe would all be divided up between the two Lords.

But those matters had nothing to do with Zhang Ye anymore. Having lost his supply of power, he urgently needed to find a world where he could rest and recover, so he had Miss Minutes activate a random traversal.

Zhang Ye simply had not expected the Time Twister to send him to a place like this.

No matter how bad the previous universes had been, they had at least given him time to prepare. But this time, damn, it had directly thrown him into a field of ruins. From the looks of it, the world-ending crisis had already happened, and everything was over.

Of course, Zhang Ye had ended up in such a state partly because he had brought it upon himself.

He touched the Time Twister inside his coat through the fabric and let out a heavy sigh.

When he ended that reality and was preparing to leave with the unconscious Pietro and Kara, an idea suddenly occurred to him—something he had always wanted to do but had never dared to do: look into the Time Twister’s history.

Zhang Ye had long harbored such doubts. The Time Twister’s secrets had always lingered in his mind. Even though it and Miss Minutes were now bound to him, he still could not be certain. He wanted to know more about the secrets behind the Time Twister.

Since the Time Twister had appeared in the Ruined Universe for unknown reasons, and since Zhang Ye now controlled the Ruined Universe, he could search that universe’s timeline and see exactly how the Time Twister had appeared.

Originally, it had been only an idea. Zhang Ye knew his own strength was limited. Anyone with eyes could see that the Time Twister concealed an enormous secret, and that meant there was also an unimaginable danger behind it. At the time, he could only bury the question in his heart and keep it hidden.

But later, things became different. Having grasped power from beyond reality’s dimensions, Zhang Ye could feel the terrifying energy he wielded then. Every movement he made could cause reality to collapse and planets to be annihilated.

Bolstered by such immense power, the thought he had buried deep inside resurfaced. He wanted to know the Time Twister’s origin. He wanted to know who its previous owner was and how it had appeared in the Ruined Universe.

Yet that single action had nearly detonated the entire Ruined Universe.

It was as though someone had poked a hole in a balloon. The Ruined Universe originally possessed no magical energy; the entire universe was utterly shriveled, with everything devoid of vitality.

But Zhang Ye’s gaze brought with it countless streams of complicated information-energy. Logically, this energy could neither be seen nor touched, and it should not have had any effect on the Multiverse. Yet strangely, it rapidly filled the Ruined Universe and expanded it like an inflating balloon.

That was when the danger of that "hole" emerged. The Time Twister’s history seemed to have been deliberately erased. The blank historical void tore continuously along that timeline and was about to collapse.

Seeing this, Zhang Ye could only withdraw his gaze and use every bit of energy he had to mend the gap. Fortunately, he reacted in time and plugged the nearly collapsing breach with even more violent magical energy, preventing the Ruined Universe from spiraling out of control.

That was also why Zhang Ye had ended up in his current state and arrived in an even more dangerous universe.

Still, Zhang Ye’s actions had not been without gains. In that fleeting glimpse, he saw a blurry fragment from beyond time, from within history itself. And within that fragment, he vaguely saw a pair of eyes.

They were eyes Zhang Ye could not forget. He could not remember the color of their irises, nor could he remember anything besides those eyes, as though it had all been nothing more than a dream.

All Zhang Ye remembered while awake was the existence of those eyes, and the surprise they radiated.

Who was the owner of those eyes?

Were they the previous user of the Time Twister?

Or was that being something even more indescribable, hidden beneath the Ruined Universe, surprised that Zhang Ye had discovered its existence?

Zhang Ye knew none of this. But he did know that these were not secrets he could uncover yet. If he wanted to understand them, he needed to gain even greater power.

"Ugh."

Pietro’s groan instantly drew Zhang Ye’s attention.

"You’re awake. I thought Kara would wake up before you."

"…Don’t underestimate my super speed." Pietro shakily sat up, refusing Zhang Ye’s offered support before asking, "Do you have anything to eat? I’m starving to death."

"I prepared some a long time ago." Zhang Ye took out some instant food from his magical storage space, mostly donuts, hamburgers, and pan-fried dumplings.

These things should originally have been stored in the Bottomless Void Universe. But ever since Zhang Ye had thrown Deadpool’s contaminated head in there, he had stopped wanting to use it. He was afraid that anything he placed inside would be contaminated as well.

Later, Zhang Ye threw the sealed timeline in there too. Now the Bottomless Void Universe was completely unusable.

Fortunately, as a wizard, casually opening up a small personal space was easy enough. Like Doctor Strange or Loki, its capacity was not large, but it was convenient.

Taking the food, Pietro immediately began devouring it in great hungry mouthfuls. As he ate, he asked,

"Where are Moon Knight and the others?"

"They’re still ‘alive,’ living in the universe that belongs to them," Zhang Ye said flatly.

"What did you do? I feel like I’ve lost part of my memory."

Pietro rubbed his head.

"You didn’t lose your memory. You passed out. Your minds couldn’t withstand the force of crossing the barrier of reality while conscious. If I wanted to save you, I had to do it this way," Zhang Ye answered.

"So that’s how it was." Pietro nodded, then asked again, "Then where are we?"

"This is a new world, and it is where we’ll be living for the time being."

Zhang Ye looked at Pietro wolfing down the food, let out a long breath, and smiled.

"Don’t worry. It’s very safe here."

"…"

Pietro stopped chewing.

He looked around.

"Bullshit."

(P.S. You’ll never guess what universe this is. Well, maybe it won’t be that hard to guess.)