Did the time wells on those Demon Mountain lunatics really only trigger when they dealt with intruders like him?
For Fu Qian, blind optimism had always been a bad habit.
So after gradually grasping the severity of the current situation, he had not overlooked an even grimmer possibility.
At first glance, now that he had confirmed four days had indeed passed, Madam Tracy had fully served her purpose, and there was no need to waste any more time on her.
Either leave directly, or take things a step further—replace the hand chop with a real blade and strike again. Both would have been fairly rational choices.
Yet while Fu Qian had genuinely said his farewells, he had still added a few more words. The point was to create enough chaos to leave Madam Tracy deeply confused, thereby putting her into an alternative stable state.
If he openly admitted that he was the observer, then to Madam Tracy, regardless of his motives, those eyes had indeed appeared on the first anniversary.
And if he denied it, claiming that he had merely been joking before, then she would naturally reach the opposite conclusion—but that was still a conclusion.
Given Madam Tracy's mental state, Fu Qian was somewhat concerned that either possibility might lead to uncontrollable developments and further disturb time.
Yes, even if he was no longer there, time could still be pushed forward in leaps.
In theory, that concern lacked any basis. After all, no similar case seemed to have appeared so far.
And from what the Old Man, the recorder, had said, it was clear that "intruders" were indeed rather special individuals in this place.
But these people's astonishing adaptability to temporal leaps, as though they had long grown accustomed to such a life, kept Fu Qian from easily dismissing