The image in the cup is still changing.
Shattered continents, extinguished cities, and crustal debris drifting in space.
Chen Mo saw himself standing at the end of each destruction, with hardly any injuries on his body, and even appearing to have received many new enhancements.
He touched his chin, somewhat puzzled.
"Since I survived to the end in each of these future scenarios, why did the Earth still explode?"
Chen Mo raised his eyes and stared at the Ancient One.
"Did someone raid my base, or did I accidentally destroy my own fountain while fighting?"
A golden magic circle hung above the stone table, silently rotating several visions of the future.
The Ancient One shook her head.
"You are indeed very powerful, but that's different from protecting everyone."
The scene slowly rotates, revealing Chen Mo holding Thanos's purple potato head in his hand, his gaze tearing apart countless starships, but the Earth behind him is also shattered.
"You can defeat the enemy before you, or you can survive destruction alone, but some endings don't depend on how many battles you win."
Chen Mo tapped the side of the cup lightly with his finger.
"Old man, can you be more direct? What exactly does it depend on?"
"A crucial choice."
What choice?
"I have no idea."
Chen Mo looked at him for two seconds.
Are you trying to make me happy?
"I've seen the results, but I can't be sure which path will get you there," The Ancient One said. "What you really need to win might just be one game, or perhaps just one thing at a certain moment."
"So what the hell is that? Tell me!"
"You'll have to find that yourself."
Chen Mo looked down at the teacup in his hand.
The cracks in the cup had extended to the bottom, and tea seeped out from the cracks, dripping down his fingertips into the snow.
"Here we go again?"
"An answer presented prematurely might make you deliberately approach it, or it might lead you down a wrong path in an attempt to avoid it."
The Ancient One raised his hand and dispelled the magic array.
The countless futures within the cup vanished together, leaving only Chen Mo's own reflection.
Click.
The teacup shattered into powder in his hands.
"OK."
Chen Mo clapped his hands.
"If the Earth really explodes in the future, you'll be held fully responsible. Our great Sorcerer Supreme knows the answer, but he deliberately leaves things unsaid, ultimately managing to steer the only person who could save the day into a ditch."
The Ancient One nodded calmly.
"Can."
Chen Mo stopped himself from saying anything more.
The Ancient One looked at the snow piled up in front of the stone steps.
"I have witnessed your efforts to prevent those future events. You have tried many methods and paid a heavy price. If in the end it is too late to reverse the situation, I will take responsibility."
A gust of wind blew through the eaves of the temple, carrying down a few snowflakes.
Chen Mo stared at the Ancient One.
He had only intended to use a couple of sentences to tease the Riddler, but he didn't expect the other party to accept the blame so readily.
That's very unruly.
"Forget it."
Chen Mo stood up, and the snow under his feet scattered to both sides.
"By then you'll be a corpse, and it won't be your place to take the blame for me. If the Earth gets blown up right before my eyes, it just means I wasn't strong enough and didn't fight cleanly enough."
He raised his right hand, and dark red veins of blood emanated from his palm.
"Crucial choices, forks in the road of fate—that's all bullshit. After I level up a few more times, Dormammu, Thanos, the Celestials —whoever dares to come near, I'll kick them to death. Bricks flying with sheer force—that's the most reliable method."
The Ancient One did not argue with him.
Chen Mo closed his eyes, his consciousness rapidly sinking into the Blacklight Network.
The exploration clones scattered across different worlds responded one after another. A large number of fragmented coordinates unfolded in his mind, spatial parameters overlapped with each other, and some channels had completely collapsed, leaving only chaotic energy aftershocks.
Soon, a faint spatial fluctuation was extracted.
The exploration clone had disappeared, and the last information it transmitted was incomplete, but the passage still maintained the minimum intensity required for a single person to traverse it. The spatial structure on the other side was relatively stable, and no high-energy reactions sufficient to instantly kill the clone were detected.
Chen Mo opened his eyes, and the dark red blood vessels at his fingertips pierced into the void.
Ripples spread across the surrounding space.
"Are you leaving now?" The Ancient One asked.
"Anyway, we can't dig out the Celestials right now, so I can't just sit here and drink sugar-free tea with you forever."
Chen Mo pulled his hands outwards.
A thin crack appeared in front of the stone steps. There was no light inside the crack, but its edges constantly released distorted spatial fluctuations outward.
Golden patterns covered his arm, quickly stabilizing the closing passage.
"The signal over there has just stabilized, so it's a good time to go and scout it out. If we're lucky, we might find something usable. If not, we'll just consider it a business trip across the world."
The dark red substance spread outwards from the chest, quickly covering the entire body and forming a protective armor that fit snugly.
The spatial rift was gradually widened.
A cold wind, tinged with the smell of gunpowder, rushed out from the opposite side, scattering the snow on the stone steps.
The Ancient One looked into the depths of the crack.
"Strength can help you find the door."
Chen Mo paused for a moment after taking a step.
"But it may not be able to tell you which door you should go through."
"Don't worry, I usually go in and check first."
Chen Mo turned around and said, "If there's a scam behind that door, I'll tear down the door and the scammer together."
He stepped into the crevice.
A spatial fluctuation instantly enveloped his entire body, and the stone steps of Kamar-Taj vanished from his sight.
The next second, a piercing roar came crashing down on us.
Chen Mo raised his arm.
A shell landed dozens of meters ahead, sending dirt and gravel flying into the air. The Shockwave, carrying shrapnel, swept across his armor, producing a series of fine, clattering sounds.
Chen Mo stood there, pondering where he had ended up.
The sound of cannon fire could be heard again in the distance.
The sky was overcast, with low-hanging clouds pressing down on the wilderness. The ground was riddled with craters, charred tree trunks lay across the mud, and several tanks with their tracks detached sat by the roadside, still emitting black smoke.
Further away, two armies were exchanging fire.
Machine guns swept across the position, tracer rounds piercing through the smoke. Soldiers wearing helmets huddled in the muddy trenches; some charged forward with rifles in hand, while others, having just climbed out of their bunkers, were thrown back into the craters by explosions.
A propeller-driven fighter jet swept past below the clouds, the swastika symbol on its wing clearly visible.
Chen Mo glanced at the wrecked tanks, then looked at the soldiers' uniforms.
This equipment, this battlefield...
World War II?
Just as he confirmed the era, a young soldier rushed into a nearby shell crater, frantically raised his rifle, and pointed the muzzle at his chest.
The soldier's face was covered in mud, his hands gripping his gun were trembling, and he was shouting for him to raise his hands.
"They checked my documents as soon as I landed; your customs here are quite dedicated."
The soldier didn't understand what he was saying.
He only saw the black figure that suddenly appeared in the gunfire raise its hand and then gently press down on the muzzle of its gun.
The steel rifle was bent in the middle.
The soldiers stood frozen in place.
Chen Mo walked past him and looked towards the battlefield covered in artillery fire.
Several kilometers away, a life force far exceeding that of ordinary people suddenly erupted.
Immediately afterwards, a tank weighing tens of tons left the ground, rolled, and crashed into the German positions.
Chen Mo's eyes lit up.
It seems that this war is not entirely fought by ordinary people.