"Time Game?"
"Yes," Kori nodded. "Spatial Ancient God is an ambitious and capable guy. He knows very well that anyone who can successfully break Law of the Space-Time Continuum must have outstanding talent or extraordinary luck in some aspects. Therefore, he designed a method to try to take the knowledge of these people as his own."
The great elder paused for a moment and gently shook the glass in his hand; the glass should be filled with wine, but the dark purple liquid had something strange about it.
"He created this 'Time Game', nominally to give these time criminals a chance to escape imprisonment. Well, at least that's what it seems on the surface.
"To survive in the game, any criminal only needs to show him an unknown or unique understanding of 'time', thereby defeating him in the game. You should be able to understand the deep meaning behind this method, right?"
Ian nodded; this approach was exactly the same as the way he established Empire and used the wisdom of others to help him collect magical knowledge.
"I have to say, you are very unlucky. To be precise, all time criminals in this era have very bad luck," the Great Elder continued. "In ancient times, it was much easier to survive Time Game. But now, after billions of years of extracting and accumulating knowledge from countless time criminals, almost nothing can really surprise him."
Ian frowned, and he realized the core of the problem. Time Custodians has lived for too long, and has the authority to travel through Multiverse, and can communicate with his variants.
After such a long time, this guy may have mastered all the secrets and knowledge about Time Authority. It is almost impossible to impress him with new knowledge. Even knowledge from other planes may be commonplace to him.
'My first reaction was to use Void Energy and its spatiotemporal properties. However, it is very likely that Time Custodians has also been exposed to Void Energy.'
He came to this conclusion because he first discovered Void Energy in the space-time rift discovered in the Rowena timeline. After Wizard Race left this universe, Ian had no doubt that some Void Energy had infiltrated here.
As an ancient being who can travel through Multiverse and has lived for so long, he must have experienced that era and will definitely have the opportunity to come into contact with Void Energy.
'In this case, I have to change my strategy,' Ian thought. 'He wants a unique understanding of time? I can think of a few: Time Stone of Marvel Universe, TARDIS of Doctor Who, even Speed Force of Flash, etc.'
Ian sneered in his heart, 'This so-called Time Game is the perfect opportunity for me to get close to him. As long as I operate properly, I can not only make him pay the price, but also capture him for experiments.'
Ian knows very well that as long as he can find a way to break Soul Limitation (Soul Limit), he can quickly climb to Tenth Tier. His only worry is how to break through to Eleventh Tier, which seems to be a more difficult challenge.
Spatial Ancient God is a perfect example that proves how difficult it is. Such a talented ancient being who has mastered Law of Time to the extreme cannot reach Eleventh Tier, which shows how difficult it is. What's more, Ian's goal is to become a flawless and perfect Eleventh Tier.
"So, are you confident?" Kori asked.
"Confidence? Not to mention. But it's better than me being like a headless fly and not knowing anything."
"It's a good thing to stay in awe. In the worst case, you can escape to other planes, or hide in this layer of the Quantum Realm. Although it cannot guarantee absolute safety, it can at least allow you to live for a while."
"What do you mean?" Ian asked.
"He is not a simple character. He has spread countless powerful clones throughout the Astral Realm. So, even if you escape to other planes, he can find and kill you by tracking your soul mark.
"If you don't participate in the game, your best chance of winning is to defeat him in the Quantum Realm and use the special rules here as your advantage. But even so, there is no guarantee that everything will go wrong."
Ian took some time to digest this information. If he escaped to other planes, he would have to face the pursuit of countless Tenth Tier clones of Time Custodians.
'No, he doesn't need to use such laborious methods at all. He only needs to disclose my identity, and those top planes will hunt me down like a mad dog to please him or for the secrets I have,' Ian analyzed. 'As for the Quantum Realm, if a war starts there, it will be a war of attrition for the sake of information.'
Due to the restrictions and rules here, the battle on the first level is not about personal strength, but the foundation of the power. For example, if Ian wants to invade here, it is undoubtedly stupid to send people whose upper limit of strength is suppressed at Fourth Tier. The best way to fight is to use technology spaceships or magic Divine Artifact.
However, Scholar Race has been entrenched in this place for countless epochs, and Empire's current weapons reserves are simply not comparable to them.
Therefore, if he wanted to conquer this place, he would have to spend several years frantically manufacturing Sixth Tier spaceships, and then continuously send them to attack his opponents, hoping to slowly wear them out.
In other words, if he chooses to hide in the Quantum Realm, he will also have to face this embarrassing situation. Spatial Ancient God is most likely older than Scholar Race, so Ian simply cannot imagine how many terrifying resources he has in his hands.
'The conclusion is that if I don't want to take the whole Empire and run away to another universe in despair, I have to win that Time Game,' Ian concluded.
"Thank you for the information."
"My pleasure."
"If you don't mind, I still have some questions," Ian continued.
"But it doesn't matter."
"Why does it seem to me that you are reluctant to say his name out loud?"
"He is very observant," the great elder nodded. "Some things are taboo, and his name is one of them."
"In other words, as long as someone pronounces his name, he will sense it?"
"Yes, especially when pronounced by a time criminal like you."
"What about writing it down?"
"Okay," Kori said, and wrote a word in mid-air: [Cosmos].
Ian silently wrote down this name.
"Second question: Why did you tell me this confidential information so easily? You didn't even propose any conditions in exchange. My intuition tells me that this is not just because I solved your previous mystery."
"Your intuition is very accurate," Kori said. "The reason why we show goodwill to you is because you are also a member of Akashic Records."
Ian frowned at first, then felt relieved. He guessed that Scholar Race tried to investigate him through records, but just like he couldn't query Scholar Race, because he was also a member, they also found nothing.
"Is that really the only reason?"
Kori did not answer immediately, but took a sip of wine slowly. "Have you ever heard of Heavenly Dao Plane's concepts of 'luck' and 'fate'?"
"Know a thing or two."
Ian lied. He actually knew very little about that plane. However, he guessed that the concept should be similar to the "luck" he had read in the novels of his previous life.
"We have conducted in-depth research on this concept, so we can see many things that ordinary people cannot see. For example, we can see that you are a person with great luck."
When Kori said this, his eyes clearly saw a golden dragon hovering above Ian's head, and the dragon's body was still faintly Blink with purple light.
"We can conclude that you are a person destined to achieve great things - especially after seeing Klonai against you Grace. Our race has suffered an extremely painful blow at the hands of Wizard Race, and we never want the tragedy to happen again.
"So, after seeing your fate clearly, we unilaterally decided to make friends with you, which can even be said to be an investment in your future. Maybe, through cooperation with you, we can finally realize our dream."