They had been carried away while floating through the air.
"Those are people from the laboratory. We have to save them."
Theresa pulled out Judas, while Cecilia took out Black Abyss White Flower.
Then... then the two of them were tied up by Ye Chang'an.
Judas was powerful, but Theresa of 1997 still could not use its Zeroth Power.
Black Abyss White Flower was powerful, but twenty-one-year-old Cecilia simply could not touch Ye Chang'an.
How were the two of them supposed to fight an Arbiter stacked upon another Arbiter?
Otto Apocalypse lost a large Destruction energy research facility, along with two of the only S-rank Valkyries under his command.
PS: Thanks to @{"reader_id":"2926882","reader_name":"I Am Kyubey, Sign a Contract"} for the tip of one pair of panties. An extra chapter.
I made a group called Arbiter upon Arbiter. Group number: 635131416. Password: Chang'an Melody. It was just created, so anyone interested can join and chat.
Song of World Destruction: Displaced Time: The Arbiter Was Smashed to Pieces by Chi Yuan's Punch
Looking at the Destiny Valkyrie squad that had all fallen unconscious, Ye Chang'an rubbed his chin in puzzlement.
"Are they too weak, or am I too strong? I took them all down that easily."
The battle just now could be summed up in one sentence—instant kill upon meeting.
He had not even used the Void Archon Authority. He had merely used the Authority of Reason to create a Mimic Feather Dust, and before long, every Valkyrie was lying on the ground asleep.
Even Cecilia was no exception.
This girl had clearly been able to withstand the illusion Sirin created.
"Take them all away. That way Otto won't send them after us to cause trouble later."
With a sweep of his hand, Ye Chang'an had countless chains coil around the Valkyrie squad and load them onto new vehicles, advancing in grand procession toward Starlight City.
Naturally, he did not idle away the journey. Using Feather Dust to connect their dreams, he pulled the two S-rank Valkyries, Cecilia and Theresa, into the group chat.
"(⊙o⊙)... Where is this? Wasn't I outside Babylon Laboratory just now?" Cecilia looked utterly baffled upon entering the illusion, and Theresa, who entered the group soon afterward, was equally confused.
"Cecilia, you're here too?"
The two met up, but even after exchanging information, they could not draw any useful conclusions.
Just as they were troubled, piano music reached their ears.
Confused, they followed the sound to a large tree, where they saw a white-haired young man playing the piano beneath it.
The music was beautiful, the young man handsome. It was a picturesque scene.
The two women watched in bewilderment. When the music ended, they applauded in praise, and Theresa stepped forward to ask,
"Um, hello. Do you know where this is? How do we get out?"
"Hello, Theresa, and Cecilia." Ye Chang'an, disguised as a young man, smiled and nodded in greeting.
Ignoring the surprised expressions on the two women's faces after he called them by name, he continued, "This is a dream, a dream for us to talk in."
"Once our conversation is over, you will naturally be able to leave."
"...A dream?" The two women were bewildered, but accepted the fact for the time being.
"Sir, may I ask your name?" Cecilia asked.
"My name is Chang'an. I'm an Arbiter." Ye Chang'an introduced himself without concealing his identity as an Arbiter.
Why hide it? It would be exposed sooner or later.
"An Arbiter? You?" The two women were startled and assumed combat stances.
But seeing Ye Chang'an sitting calmly without any intention of attacking, they awkwardly lowered their guards.
"Sorry, Mister Chang'an. We took your joke seriously, but please don't make that kind of joke again."
Cecilia smiled apologetically, only to receive a strange look from Ye Chang'an.
"I wasn't joking."
"(⊙o⊙)..." Cecilia was dumbfounded, while Theresa could not help saying,
"That is a joke. If you were an Arbiter, how could you possibly talk to us properly? Arbiters are beings beyond communication. It's impossible to reason with them."
What a strange notion. At least, it was strange in the Current Civilization.
"...Don't you know that Anti-Entropy's leader is an Arbiter?" Ye Chang'an asked with an odd expression.
"Hm? Anti-Entropy? What's that?" Theresa asked in confusion, and Cecilia was equally lost.
"...Another anti-Destruction organization formed after Destiny's North American branch split away." Ye Chang'an tried to explain, only making the two women even more confused.
"The North American branch never split. It has always remained under the management of Destiny headquarters."
Theresa, head of the Apocalypse family, said so, and Cecilia, saintess of the Shaniat Family, nodded seriously.
Then it was Ye Chang'an's turn to be baffled.
"Wait, wait. Let me sort this out." Ye Chang'an raised a hand, clutching his head as he thought through the problem.
He was certain he had not used Feather Dust to alter the two women's memories. Their memories were intact; there was absolutely no possibility that they had been modified.
So their understanding was not wrong. Ye Chang'an's understanding was wrong.
In this simulated future, Anti-Entropy did not exist.
But why?
"Do you know about the Great Collapse of Berlin several decades ago?" Ye Chang'an asked.
"Of course. I heard the disaster was especially severe, and more than three hundred thousand people died."
"What about the fact that an Arbiter was born during that incident?"
"Oh, I think that did happen, but he was eliminated before he could cause any secondary disasters." Despite looking small, Theresa had learned quite a lot.
"What? The Arbiter was eliminated?" Ye Chang'an was stunned.
"Yes, within days of that Destruction outbreak." Theresa nodded and added.
Cracks began to form in Ye Chang'an's worldview as he earnestly asked about historical matters.
He realized that he knew nothing at all about this simulated future.
He had assumed that the absence of one Li Sushang would not change the world's overall structure. At the very least, the broad picture should have remained the same.
But Theresa's extensive knowledge made him realize one fact—everything he knew was completely useless.
The structure of this world was entirely different from what he knew.
The First Herrscher was dead!
Destiny's North American branch had not become independent!
Anti-Entropy had never appeared!
That was the world as it stood now.
"...In that case..." Ye Chang'an carefully assessed the butterfly effect created by these three pieces of information, then looked at Cecilia and asked, "Cecilia, are you married?"
The opportunity for Cecilia and Sigfried Kaslana to meet had been created by Welt Yang, the second Arbiter of Reason.
If the first Arbiter of Reason had died so early, then there would have been no second Arbiter of Reason.
Cecilia would not have been injured during that mission in 1991, and she most likely would have missed those two days she spent with Sigfried.
So the answer was...
"No."
Just as expected!
"Then do you know Sigfried Kaslana?" Ye Chang'an asked again with an odd expression.
"I've heard rumors about him. Apparently, he ran away from home many years ago and still hasn't returned." Cecilia answered honestly, her tone carrying a trace of dissatisfaction.
After all, as a member of one of the three great families, he should have devoted his life to fighting Destruction.
Yet Sigfried had run away from home for ten years without returning. There was no way Cecilia could have a good impression of him.
Good heavens, what exactly happened to this future?
Ye Chang'an wailed inwardly, regretting that he had not learned about the state of the world sooner.
This future had long since become a tangled mess.
And whatever had disrupted everything might have to be traced back to the cause of the First Herrscher's death.
So he asked.
"Please tell me, how was the First Herrscher eliminated?"
"..." Theresa and Cecilia both wore strange expressions.
They hesitated to speak, until Cecilia finally said, "I heard that the Immortal Chi Yuan punched him to death."
"What? Chi Yuan?" Ye Chang'an's voice suddenly rose. This was the most horrifying news he had received.
Chi Yuan in the twentieth century.
She had not changed her name to Fu Hua. She was still called Chi Yuan.
Song of World Destruction: Displaced Time: Chang'an, Who Died Five Hundred Years Ago
Every one of Fu Hua's names represented a period of her life.
Hua had been a warrior of the Previous Civilization; Phoenix had been a pioneer of the Current Civilization; Chi Yuan had been the guardian of Shenzhou; and Fu Hua, the final name, had become the title of her life after the immortal fell.
The name Chi Yuan, which should have ended in the sixteenth century, had continued all the way to the end of the twentieth century.
What exactly was going on?
Could Chi Yuan's sword heart still be intact? But those people's fates weren't changed.
Ye Chang'an was somewhat confused. After calming himself slightly, he continued speaking.
"You two, could you tell me about the Immortal Chi Yuan?"
"...The Immortal Chi Yuan, she..." Cecilia and Theresa still wore the same strange expressions as before.
"Grandfather said the Immortal Chi Yuan used to be a very great person, but now... she's become very dangerous." Theresa chose her words carefully as she recounted what she had heard from Otto.
Ever since the Tai Xu Sword Sect disbanded more than three hundred years ago, the Immortal Chi Yuan had become very dangerous.
She no longer lived on Tai Xu Mountain, instead traveling across Shenzhou. Whenever she discovered someone who had fallen into madness, she would kill them without hesitation.
That had been the case before, and it was still considered normal.
But as time passed, even people who had not fallen into madness were killed by Chi Yuan.
As long as the concentration of Destruction energy in someone's body exceeded the limit, they would be met with Chi Yuan's iron fist.
To Valkyries, Chi Yuan was the most dangerous enemy.
Thus, the Valkyrie squads had one clear prohibition—never enter Shenzhou, and never concern themselves with the Destruction disasters there.
The Immortal Chi Yuan alone was enough. If Valkyries went there, they would only be throwing away their lives.
After the First Great Collapse in 1951, this prohibition further expanded into a rule that they must avoid the Immortal Chi Yuan at all costs.
Destiny constantly monitored the Immortal Chi Yuan's movements. Once it discovered that she had left Shenzhou, it would urgently order any Valkyries who might encounter her to withdraw and relocate.
This was also why Valkyrie squads could be mobilized with such astonishing efficiency, allowing Cecilia and Theresa to reach Babylon so quickly.
"This... Sigh." Ye Chang'an sighed, feeling a headache coming on.
Chi Yuan's madness had become even more severe, far worse than he had imagined.
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