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Chapter 562: Approaching the Truth

In this analogy, the universe was like a tree, every branch and every leaf its own world. Closer worlds were closer on the tree; farther worlds were farther apart.

Zhu raised her hand. "Mister, you said that there might be worlds where you met my father and worlds where you didn\'t?"

Zhu wasn\'t fully able to follow the conversation between the two men, but she did get the gist of it.

Zhang Lie\'s brows furrowed. "In other words, could the disaster-grade clam have sent me from world to parallel world?"

That would be truly disastrous.

Zhang Lie\'s main hypothesis was that all he had encountered was an illusion, but Sheng\'s words went completely against that notion.

Zhang Lie believed that the clam had forced him to restart his journey through the sea of mists three different times, but if it had truly moved him from timeline to timeline, if that room of corpses he had found truly contained hundreds of his own corpses from different timelines...

Zhang Lie trembled. He could hardly entertain such notions.

And what if this weren\'t his third attempt in the loop? What if he had looped again and again, thousands of times, but only three of those attempts were preserved in his memories? What if he began each loop anew but only managed to reach the clam three times out of countless tries, and were killed all other times...?

Given his strength, the only existences in the second realm that could kill him was the asura— or himself. No other lifeform could threaten his life.

Could it be that another him was trying to kill all the other copies of him that existed in the parallel worlds so that the worlds would collapse into one?

Zhang Lie asked, "Could multiple copies of me exist in this world?"

Sheng shook his head. "That\'s not likely."

"Why not?"

"Because of Zhu."

Zhang Lie understood Sheng\'s meaning within moments. Zhu had always been by his side; in some sense, Zhu was a marker for him within the sea of mists. Anything else in the sea of mists might have been an illusion, but not Zhu, for she had a soul.

"Indeed, there\'s only one Zhu..."

In that case, was there the possibility that even his dragon\'s eye soulshard was affected as well? Likely not—these soulshards\' effects weren\'t limited to the second realm, so they wouldn\'t be so easily subverted.

Sheng continued, "Of course, there\'s another reason. These \'disaster-grade lifeforms\', as you call them, are all very strong; according to your description, even the whirlpool strait was a result of one such lifeform. But no matter how strong they are, they\'re still bound by the rules of this realm. Being able to move a lifeform from timeline to timeline is beyond those constraints."

If the clam really were able to do so, why didn\'t it drag its corresponding branched selves into this world with it?

Sheng continued, "My other hypothesis is that the clam somehow makes use of these time loops to send its memories to another parallel world—but that it\'s only a side effect, not a desired consequence."

"That sounds plausible."

Sheng shrugged. "Regardless of what the clam\'s abilities are, we need only accomplish two tasks. The first is to leave the sea of mists."

As expected of a former explorer, Sheng was calm and collected despite the unusual nature of the predicament they found themselves in.

Zhang Lie shook his head. "I won\'t leave so easily."

The disaster-grade clam was a treasure beyond treasure; could he really leave it behind? Furthermore, after the clam had caused him so much trouble, he had to kill it at any cost.

"This is only ever going to end with my killing the disaster-grade clam," Zhang Lie announced.

Sheng nodded in agreement.

Zhang Lie continued, "I don\'t think that the clam can transport my memories to parallel worlds, but rather that it forces me to undergo a time loop. It can probably only achieve this effect by forcing me to come into contact with the five-colored mist that it expels—perhaps because of my own strength."

Zhang Lie possessed 21 disaster gene fragments, which gave him significant resistance to the abilities of disaster-grade lifeforms. Each time the loop reset, Zhu would lose her memories, but Zhang Lie himself didn\'t seem to be affected.

The warship was being dragged along close to the rim of a whirlpool. Zhang Lie flew to the prow and tried to push the warship away with his bare hands. This time, the warship didn\'t encounter the cruise ship; it had taken a different path entirely.

Sheng said, "I know where the clam is located. Let me be your guide."

With a seasoned guide around, Zhang Lie, Zhu, and Sheng found the clam much more quickly. A fleet of galactic battleships emerged arrayed around the clam, along with countless people—no, countless ghosts who should long since have perished: the monarch of stars, Shouta, Xueju, Xuechi, Musi Yu...

Figures who had been killed by Zhang Lie himself rose out of the water and stood by the galactic battleships.

The monarch of stars held his compass in his hands. "Zhang Lie, we meet again."

Xueju licked his lips. "I bet you have a beautiful body. Not being able to obtain it for myself was a pity for me in life, but it won\'t be one in death!"

Musi Yu shouted in rage, "Zhang Lie, I\'m going to kill you!"

These revived figures shared one thing in common—none of them had eyes, only empty sockets where their eyes would have been.

Zhang Lie snorted. "The dead should remain dead."

The galactic battleships opened fire on Zhang Lie, sending laser beams shooting toward Zhang Like like raindrops in a thunderstorm.

"[Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade]!" A black serpent shot out of Zhang Lie\'s fist toward the beams of light.

"Don\'t forget about us!" Xueju, Xuechi, Musi Yu, and all of Zhang Lie\'s erstwhile opponents shot their own techniques at him.

"You\'ve all lost to me once, and you\'ll lose to me again!" His blades swept through the entire battlefield like a hurricane, tearing the figures of his enemies to shreds.

The galactic battleships fell from the skies, crashing and burning; the only one who managed to block Zhang Lie\'s attack was the monarch of stars. Even so, his body was filled with wounds, from which mist continuously dissipated.

Zhang Lie had long since evolved in power and strength; the monarch of stars, with whom he had fought on equal footing, was no longer his opponent...