Chapter 1044: Something's Wrong — This Experiment Is All Wrong! |
All eyes turned to Galusha.
Everyone present knew that the only person in the room who wanted the experiment to fail and the Tower of Logic destroyed was this follower of [Folly].
But Cheng Shi didn't think Galusha could give him an explanation, because her reaction just now hadn't seemed faked at all — which meant that even Galusha herself didn't know why she hadn't died.
Since the person who was supposed to die had already lost every means of influencing the experiment, the one who'd carried out the mission had confirmed the task complete, and the one overseeing the experiment had verified all parameters were correct... the only logical explanation was that the experiment had encountered an unforeseen problem.
Cheng Shi didn't understand [Truth] experiments, but he did know a thing or two about [Time]. So when everything appeared fine yet the outcome was wrong, his mind went to one possibility — could this regression experiment have sent Chen Yi into a parallel timeline?
In other words, Chen Yi had indeed killed young Galusha, but it was the Galusha of another timeline who'd died, which was why the present Galusha was still alive.
He looked up with uncertainty and asked Volent whether such a thing was possible. Volent froze for a moment, then furrowed his brow in deep thought before answering:
"The question of parallel timelines has indeed been a subject of study for countless scholars. We've detected the existence of such timelines more than once in past experiments, which is precisely why we developed spatiotemporal anchoring as a calibration method.
Spatiotemporal anchoring was created to establish fixed coordinate points for the regression process, preventing the regressed subject from drifting off the temporal corridor.
"Are you saying this failure was just a deviation?" Hearing this, Cheng Shi's spirits lifted.
"Until other evidence proves the experiment was flawed, that's the only conclusion we can draw.
I must say — luck is also part of any experiment, and a critical part at that."
Volent reviewed the experimental data once more with a pained expression, then let out a despairing sigh:
"A deviation may be small, but it is often fatal.
It appears [Truth] has rejected us once again. There's no time left.
Between Galusha's machinations and the Afterglow Church's rampage, we've completely lost any chance to start over. The path of [Truth] is about to be severed. Everyone — pray with me.
May [Truth] still shelter us. May knowledge never be buried beneath slaughter.
Peer into essence, walk to find truth!"
"Peer into essence, walk to find truth!"
With that, all six Grand Scholars bowed their heads and began chanting the [Truth] prayer.
Clearly, the Erudition Presidium — standing tall for thousands of years — had, in this moment, surrendered in despair.
But...
'You're the ones out of time. What does that have to do with me — a Time Walker?'
A gleam flashed in Cheng Shi's eyes, and confidence surged back.
If one experiment had a deviation, then he'd run a second. If that didn't work, a third, a fourth — even if it took dozens of attempts, a single success would mean victory in the Trial!
Besides, deviations couldn't possibly happen every single time, and he only needed to win once.
With that mindset, Cheng Shi initiated the regression once more.
But what he never expected was that what awaited him wasn't that one successful experiment — it was an endless, bottomless streak of failure.
Experiment launched — Galusha alive. Launched again — still alive. Launch, alive. Launch, alive...
After the seventeenth regression — ten consecutive failures — Cheng Shi finally realized that something had gone terribly wrong.
It wasn't just the experiment. The Time Battlefield itself was beginning to malfunction.
His teammates' voices questioning the time resets were growing louder. Even right after a fresh reset, the moment Cheng Shi found them, they already had a vague sense that time had been rolled back.
Hu Xuan kept warning Cheng Shi to watch out for [Time] followers. Although the real [Time] follower was Cheng Shi himself, the fact that this was happening sent a chill down his spine — it meant the Time Battlefield was still functioning, but its effect on those within it was steadily weakening.
Why?
Was the power of [Time] fading?
There was another oddity — the Grand Scholars' responses were becoming increasingly mechanical. Volent's explanations were converging, growing more and more identical to what he'd said in previous iterations. Even the sentence lengths stayed the same, with only a few pronouns swapped out.
These robotic, NPC-like replies made Cheng Shi's frown deepen. He couldn't help but question whether the so-called "deviation" the Grand Scholars kept citing actually existed, and who was truly pulling the strings behind these puppet scholars.
At first, given how cooperative the Erudition Presidium had been with the experiment, Cheng Shi had assumed these puppets were simply husks the Grand Scholars controlled remotely for their own safety.
But as the experiment failed again and again, he was forced to scrutinize whoever was behind these puppets. Were they really the Grand Scholars?
Could it be someone else entirely — like... Galusha?
No — Galusha seemed unlikely. If she'd already seized control of the Erudition Presidium, there'd be no need for this elaborate theatrical performance. She could've just toppled the Tower of Logic directly.
But if not Galusha, then who else would want this experiment to fail?
Cheng Shi racked his brain but couldn't find an answer. However, he did come up with a method that could definitively eliminate the mastermind's influence — use the experiment itself as leverage to force the puppet master into the open!
As long as he could confirm that the person controlling the Grand Scholar puppets truly was the Erudition Presidium, then this experiment could only continue through infinite trial and error.
And so, after the eighteenth reset, Cheng Shi spoke to Volent before the experiment began:
"Grand Scholar, I know you're a puppet body. I can understand that you'd hide elsewhere for your own safety. But...
This is an experiment that will determine the survival of the Tower of Logic and the Erudition Presidium. I believe we should all face each other in our true forms.
Drop the puppets. Only when the real you personally oversees this experiment can the margin of deviation be minimized and the experiment's success be ensured. Isn't that right?"
Volent was silent for a long while before shaking his head. "The shift in spatiotemporal regression anchor coordinates is an absolute anomaly — it cannot be influenced by human will. Even if I came in my true body, it wouldn't change a thing.
And while you've come to help, your identities remain unknown. Cooperating with you through puppet bodies is already the greatest concession the Erudition Presidium can make.
In this hour of existential crisis, mutual understanding is the foundation of cooperation. This is all the Tower of Logic can offer.
Now — let us begin the experiment. There's no time to waste."
"Wait!"
Cheng Shi's expression suddenly turned grim. His startled gaze fixed on Volent as he raised one hand, clenching the Fun Ring and aiming it squarely at the scholar. His voice dropped to a cold, deliberate tone as he questioned, word by word:
"Grand Scholar — I only mentioned a deviation in the experiment. How did you know the deviation would specifically occur during the spatiotemporal regression process, and that it would be a shift in the regression anchor coordinates?
The experiment hasn't even started yet!"
"!!!"
The moment those words left his mouth, the entire room froze.
The faces of all six Grand Scholars turned gravely serious in an instant.
...
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