Kryptonite Is the Only Way to Grow Stronger

"It should have been possible to travel through ten times. This was an accident!"

Azeroth Miss patiently explained, "The theories involving time-space travel are very complicated. I don't understand them either. Anyway, when we passed through the Temporal Nexus, something interfered with it somehow. The coordinates failed, and we just kept drifting. We finally ran into this universe, and I used up 99.99% of my blood to help you land safely."

So that was it?

So which big shot had it in for me?

"Then what happened to the remaining 0.01%?"

Even if it was only 0.01%, it had to be at least dozens or hundreds of tons. It could not compare to the original Well of Eternity, but it was definitely far stronger than Illidan's version of the Well of Eternity or the High Elves' Sunwell. Even Archimonde would turn green with envy if he saw it. So where had it gone?

"This universe is very dangerous. There are many beings no weaker than Archimonde or Kil'jaeden, and there may even be some on our level. During the journey, I saw the head of a planetary life-form, as well as something like an infant Titan."

Azeroth Miss poked Old Wang's face with one finger. "To stop you from being captured and used as a lab rat, I used 99.99% of that remaining 0.01% of blood for interference and camouflage. I erased every trace of the crossing. Everyone will think you are a life-form native to this universe, including those beings capable of exploring the multiverse—there is one on Earth."

No weaker than Archimonde?

There were actually tons of people like that in the Marvel Universe. Too many to count...

The head of a planetary life-form?

Something like an infant Titan?

I seemed to remember something...

Crossing worlds was risky. Azeroth Miss had done the right thing. Staying alive was what mattered most. I definitely could not become a lab rat, and getting sliced up was out of the question. Slicing up others, though, was another matter—like that Purple Sweet Potato Head Wooden Man or something.

Old Wang asked helplessly, "What about the last 0.01% of that 0.01%?"

One hundred-millionth of Azeroth Blood was still no small amount. How had that been used up too?

"It reshaped your body."

Azeroth Miss blinked. "Did you want to live on Earth with panda eyes and a huge belly? You would have been captured and sliced up!"

...Right. I had nearly forgotten. In World of Warcraft, I had been a Pandaren. I also had more than thirty titles, including "Descendant of Shao Hao," "Star of Pandaria," "Great Dragon Hero," "Pandaren Brewmaster," "Fist of the Heavens," "Elder of the Shado-Pan," "Shangxi Training Grounds Honorary Head Instructor for Life," and "Friend of Women and Children." I was deeply beloved by the Pandaren masses.

After being gone for eighteen years, I wondered whether Aisha and Li Li missed me.

Luckily, I had been busy saving the world back then and had no time to spread my seed everywhere. Otherwise, I really would not have been able to bear leaving...

All the Azeroth Blood had been used up, so I could not even stop someone from stealing the Heart of Azeroth. I was probably the most miserable world-traveler in history.

"One last question."

Old Wang sighed and raised his middle finger. "Reshaping my body was fine, but why did you turn me into a newborn baby?"

"...There wasn't enough blood..." Azeroth Miss lowered her head.

Old Wang: "..."

Fine. Let it be.

She had meant well. I could not treat kindness like donkey liver and lungs to stew into soup.

Back to reality.

"What should I do now?" Old Wang humbly asked for advice.

He did not believe those guys in the Pantheon had failed to prepare a backup plan. After all, they had treated him as an experiment from the start, so failure had always been possible.

"Norgannon considered the possibility of failure, so he designed a system. I don't know if it still works."

Azeroth Miss snapped her fingers. "Look!"

Time shifted, and the Pantheon vanished.

Nothing but void surrounded them.

Beneath their feet lay an enormous circular interface that stretched into the void. Void energy and endless starlight obscured it, making it impossible to see how vast it truly was.

At the very center was an embedded spherical space.

A ring surrounded it: Azeroth's First Ring.

Beyond the ring were two identical-looking spherical spaces. Further out was another ring: Azeroth's Second Ring.

Beyond the Second Ring were three spherical spaces: the Third Ring.

Then came the Fourth Ring, the Fifth Ring, and so on.

Seeing this, Old Wang understood. "This is what I used to travel through worlds?"

"This is the Temporal Nexus designed by Aman'Thul and Norgannon, and forged by Khaz'goroth... not the one you know."

Azeroth Miss explained, "The spherical spaces are used to hold my blood. When blood fills the First Ring, it opens a Level 1 Time-Space Channel and consumes one microgram of my blood per second. The Second Ring opens a Level 2 Time-Space Channel and consumes ten micrograms per second, and so on."

Heroes of the Storm... So a Level 3 Time-Space Channel would use one hundred micrograms per second, and a Level 10 Time-Space Channel... My arithmetic was not that good...

That was not right!

How could housing prices in the Third Ring be ten times those in the Second Ring?

Old Wang did not dwell on that and hurriedly asked, "What else can a Time-Space Channel do besides travel through worlds?"

"A channel is naturally used for transportation. Your world-crossing was transportation too."

Azeroth Miss poked Old Wang's face again. "Once you open a channel, you can transport things from our universe to this one. Like that staff... that walking stick you used to be so accustomed to using, the one you later gave Li Li. Or the banana grove you gave Tyrande. You can even transport skills over, such as Archimonde's Finger of Death or Kil'jaeden's Darkness of a Thousand Souls. They would be one-use only."

"Of course, items and skills of different tiers require Time-Space Channels of different levels."

Wasn't this just summoning...

But usually, people summoned creatures at most, or perhaps equipment. Who had ever heard of summoning skills?

Could Finger of Death and Darkness of a Thousand Souls kill Thanos?

"Can I summon creatures?" Old Wang continued.

"Yes, but not permanently. Only temporarily."

Azeroth Miss patiently explained, "The Time-Space Channel must remain open continuously to sustain the summon, and the cost is enormous."

So it was not worth it to pull Li Li over just to pinch my face and massage my shoulders. I could only summon her at critical moments... Old Wang thought for a moment, then asked, "Then how can I get your blood? Can you give me a few trillion more tons?"

"...Titans represent order, and Norgannon always emphasized equivalent exchange. He said you were not a good person and were always tricking me, so rules that could not be violated had to be established. I'm still young, so I can't rewrite his rules. Everything you did for me and the Pantheon has already been offset by the Heart of Azeroth and all that blood of mine. Besides, I've lost too much blood recently. I'm anemic and dizzy..."

Azeroth Miss looked a little embarrassed. "So you have to exchange things for it. The higher their value, the better. For example, the special substances inside the head of that planetary life-form I saw when you crossed worlds... though lower-tier things are fine too, like gemstones and gold."

I did not have any low-tier stuff like gemstones or gold at all...

So in the end, I still had to spend Kryptonite.

How else could I grow stronger without spending Kryptonite?

Old Wang asked helplessly, "What's the exchange rate?"

Azeroth Miss looked utterly innocent. "How would I know? The Heart of Azeroth was given to you, so it's yours. How could I know? Actually, you can't know either. Even Norgannon doesn't know. You can send any nonliving matter you come into contact with here, and the system will evaluate it on its own... Look!"

She pointed, and a status panel appeared before them.

"True Heart of Azeroth (Supreme Artifact)"

"Azeroth Blood: 0"