Time Twister

After a few minutes, a figure of a delicate, voluptuous female appeared, sitting on one of the armchairs, looking like she came out of a painting.

Xander looked at her, giving her a do-over look, before saying,

"You must be Demeter. Do you have any more seeds you want to know how to grow?"

"…" Silence was what was given in reply. Xander rolled his eyes, impatient with these kinds of hijinks and the like. If you want to talk, fine. If you want to intimidate, go somewhere else, I still need to sleep, jeez, Xander said to himself.

"…Well? Are you mute?" Xander prodded Demeter, whose eyebrows twitched for a bit before returning to its place. She was trying to control her impatience towards Xander.

"…Who was the person you were referring to when you sent me that parchment?"

"…And I should answer your question because…?" Xander said, yawning, really not giving a f.u.c.k. She wasn"t the same as the other one who was acting in the shadows; although they were both Sage cla.s.s cultivators, it was quite easy to identify whether or not one was more of a threat than the other and clearly, Demeter was less of a threat.

"…How dare a puny cultivator not even a sage act this way to me." Demeter finally replied, her voice trembling. She felt quite humiliated to be looked down by someone like Xander.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, you"re going to threaten me, my family, my friends, bla bla bla, kill all in my generation, yada, yada, yada. Esperanza Svensson, dear, please make sure you have the capacity to kill me first, ok?" After saying his piece, Xander erupted with his s.p.a.ce-time powers, covering the entire room and isolating it from the universe.

Demeter, who heard her full name come from an unknown man, coldly gazed at Xander for a moment before recognizing the power that was coming from him and surrounding the whole room.

"Y-you! You"re a s.p.a.ce-time cultivator!"

"Do you want cookie points for that? Pity, all you"re going to is to the void where you won"t be able to return… or even survive, for that matter. See ya!"

Xander immediately cast [Void Hole] in front of him and Demeter, before raising his hand.

However, Demeter quickly spoke out, as she realized he was not joking.

"Wait, wait! Stop! I"m not here to harm you or threaten you! I needed to know if you knew who that other cultivator is that you said was just like me!" She valued her life over pride; and was a flexible woman. She knew when to stand her ground and when to bow in defeat.

Xander, seeing her give up so easily, tsked and canceled the spell. However, the room was still isolated. Although if Demeter used her full power and a bit of her lifespan, she could break the s.p.a.ce and escape, but will she? Based on the initial encounter, she gave up quite easily.

Demeter, seeing Xander close the void crack, heaved a sigh of relief. She could feel the oppressive power from the other side of that crack. Although it wasn"t that powerful that she would immediately die, but her powers would be halved or suppressed even more than that.

"Ok, so I just came for a friendly visit-"

"An unannounced visit? Really? Try again."

"…Fine. I came here originally to threaten you to divulge the information about that person you were referring to in your message to me."

"Now, wasn"t that easier? Good girl." Xander responded, his voice tugging one"s heartstrings with its deep tones. Even Demeter was momentarily affected by his voice, before waking up from the daze a second later. Before she could shout at Xander, the latter spoke up.

"Now, concerning the person you wanted to know, he"s one step away from G.o.d cla.s.s. How do I know this? His data in Carpal Empire is quite extensive; most likely, that"s where he currently is in. I"ve crossed paths with that person via proxies; he was very stupid to set forth his a.s.sistants to trail and track me."

When Demeter heard this information, her face fell, as she knew she couldn"t compete with someone that powerful. After all, she was just a Sage-8. At least she has a general place where she should start avoiding: Carpal Empire. It was roughly the same size as Cerulean, Helennic, and Nemean empires, but less known.

"Since I"ve told you the information you wanted, I"m genuinely curious: What wish did you ask from the being that transmigrated you here?" Xander said, posing quite a personal question to Demeter. The latter, hearing this, had her entire being turn cold, before looking at Xander coldly with a hint of wariness.

Looking at her expression, Xander shrugged, before waving his fingers to cancel the spatial isolation.

"Meh, whatever. Go away already."

Demeter seeing that Xander wasn"t pushing for answers, slowly faded from the room, turning into motes of green light.

"If you got more seeds though, contact me through the communicator." Xander said through spatial communication, a nifty trick he learned. Even at her immaterial state, Demeter still heard the message Xander had left, which included the communicator"s number.

After that fiasco, it was silent once again, which Xander took the opportunity to force the puppet to sleep.

Xander himself then headed to Eden and the Laboratory to do his daily shenanigans.

_________________

The next day, last day of the auction.

The last day of auctions were always quite special. They allowed the consigned items to be exchanged for physical goods rather than money. This meant that they were not going to bid using money, but offer up goods that would entice the one that consigned the item to take their offer.

Xander had actually consigned 3 item sets: Fruit of Life, Dream, and Creation, 3 fruits each set. The effects of each fruit were listed down as well, and the items he was willing to exchange it with.

Fruit of Life: Can be used to subst.i.tute any ingredient in the elixir-making process lower than Cla.s.s 10, acting as a Transcendental quality plant material. (Note: It can only replace one ingredient; using two of them will not yield any results). Can also be consumed to instantly recover from any life-threatening injuries and curses, internal and external, as well as damage in one"s life essence dolls and magic foundation (Magic sphere, domain, elemental essence stone).

Fruit of Dream: Suitable for those who have elements in the Mind or Emotion series. Can be used to replace ingredients of the properties of Mind and Emotion elements lower than Cla.s.s 10. It can also be consumed directly, giving one of the following effects:

1. Become a Dream walker, granting you a random ability in the Dream dimension (19% chance)

2. Increase one"s comprehension of the Mind and Emotion elements series by 5-10% (40% chance)

3. Allows you to experience your deepest, greatest fantasies uninterrupted for 100 years in your dream, but a second in the real world (39% chance)

4. Causes you to fall into a state of reincarnation; you would experience a total of 108 cycles of lives in your dream within the span of a minute in the real world (1% chance)

5. Causes you to fall into a deep, dreamless sleep. You will not age nor will you die. Anything that your body is undergoing will be halted for the next 5 million years (less than 0.00001% chance of occurring)

Fruit of Creation: Suitable for Sages. Allows one to gain comprehension of the Creation element, improving one"s understanding of how the Order element functions in a newly-born universe. Must be consumed or meditated with its presence. The moment one meditates with the fruit, it would not end until the whole fruit is digested. If a person with the Creation element consumes this, their complete comprehension improves by 30%.

The only Items accepted for the exchange:

1. Two different 21-star pills of Perfect and above quality.

2. Two pages from the Eternity Codex

3. Two pages from the Infinity Codex

4. One page from the Eternity and Infinity Codices each.

5. Two to five grams, maybe even more, of Universal quality, elemental/magic crystals of any element.

6. One Magic Beast egg that is born as a DemiG.o.d or Divine cla.s.s with the potential to become a G.o.d cla.s.s magic beast, as well as the procedures to grow and incubate the beast.

7. A wisp of Immortal or higher type of flame (not a complete flame).

There was only 2 sets per Fruit type, a total of 6. It was set-up automatically to confirm the exchange once the item requested has been verified.

Once again, the mysterious Chronicler took the limelight, which was also good for the Koeman Group. This was because the old, influential masters of the VIP disciples who attended the auction were here, as well as other higher-ups from different organizations. Not only did it give Xander"s persona exposure to different people, the pseudonym of the Chronicler will also gain traction, which Xander can use once he began his adventures in s.p.a.ce.

One of the interested parties was the Aurora Order, who saw the Fruits of Dream as an interesting and worthwhile investment. Another interested party was the Magibiopharmacists" Hall a.s.sociation, or MHA. They were quite fond of the first two fruits as they can be used for ingredient subst.i.tution. Another group was that of the Harvesters. They were interested in all 3 fruits because of the potential it had if they could manage to understand how the fruit is formed and reverse-engineering it to produce the seed.

However, these organizations were not the only ones; there were many individual clans, conglomerates and groups that were vying for these items. The problem is that the items being requested were quite hard to fulfill.

Number 6 could probably be fulfilled by the Nemean Empire if they wanted these fruits. Number 1 could be fulfilled by the MHA if they were willing to exchange their reservoir of Artisan-made pills. The larger empires, on the other hand, could use number 2 to 5 for exchanging these items. The last item requirement, number 7, was far too precious and rare for the exchange to happen.

In fact, Helena was quite tempted, and even contacted her cousin about it. The two, after talking for a bit, decided to opt for Number 4 option.

While others were hesitating, the panel for one of the sets for the Fruit of Life changed, turning from 2 to 1 set. What they saw was that the item number 7 that they were talking about to be nearly impossible to exchange for, was crossed out. They then realized something: they can only use one type of item to exchange and it can"t be used once again. When they realized this, the counter decreased once again, with Helena securing one of the fruits, the Fruit of Creation. The option number 4 was crossed out. Helena had the two pages delivered to her with the help of one of the s.p.a.ce-time magicians of the Cerulean Empire. In fact, she still had 1 more set of Eternity and Infinity Codex pages.

When they saw the counter decreasing, the representatives present were panicking. d.a.m.n it, they had no time to hesitate!

The MHA representatives immediately contacted the group of Ancestor-ranked magibiopharmacists for permission to proceed with the trade of a perfect quality, 21 star pill. They immediately agreed, and one of the ancestors, a s.p.a.ce-time magician, immediately teleported into the Galactic Empire. The specific ancestor in question was just two empires away, so it was easy for her to head to Elema Planet.

After a few seconds, she materialized in front of the MHA representatives, and immediately, they deposited the items and proceeded to get the Fruit of Life. The fruit of Life"s counter became 0 and disappeared from the available options. They also instantaneously received the item, and after giving it to the female Ancestor, she faded once again, teleporting quickly to their main headquarters.

There were only 3 more sets left. While they were panicking, another representative nabbed the last Fruit of Creation; she was from the Helennic Empire. It would make sense that the empire was interested in this fruit; if they could harness its functions they could improve their heir production for other empires. The representative exchanged for the fruit using option 2.

The last 2 sets were for the fruit of dreams. The dream walker present was quietly meditating, using his dream body to travel to the headquarters to report the situation.

After a few minutes, he was finally allowed audience and the woman known as her majesty was once again on her high throne. The dream walker respectfully bowed and stayed in a kneeling position, reporting the situation.

After a while, the woman gestured, her hands pointing in front of the man kneeling down.

Forces of magic and elemental energy began to converge, producing 2 pages. At the same time, there was one, brightly shining egg appearing in front of the dream walker.

"These are the pages from the Infinity Codex, as well as a magic beast egg that has the required specifications. The instructions for the beast egg"s growth and incubation will be known once it is touched. Use it to exchange for all sets of the fruits. Immediately head over to the palace once you have exchanged the items; I will personally collect them from your body." Her ethereal voice echoed in the palace chamber.

"Yes, your majesty!" the dream walker said reverently, holding the items and disappearing into reality, holding the three items.

He woke up and saw that the items were in front of him. After checking for any problems, he quickly exchanged for the items, and a few seconds later, the trade was accepted. The dream walker received the 6 fruits and immediately controlled his body to fall into the same state earlier, and appeared in the palace once again. The woman was still there.

"Your majesty, I have gotten the items."

"Excellent. Major Itou, your contribution this time was not small. Please collaborate with any of the Field Marshals for your reward. I would love to promote you to Colonel, however you are still too weak in terms of dream manipulation. You must train and improve, before the next a.s.sessment period."

Major Itou nodded, acknowledging his shortcomings. He knew he had a lot of catching up to do, and for him to reach the rank of Major in 100,000 years was a feat in itself.

The woman waved her hands, the 6 fruits appeared in the palace, wherein once they appeared, the dream energy of the dimension began to surge towards these fruits, continuously strengthening and refining them, a surprise for everyone present in the room.

After a few seconds of silence, the woman said to Major Itou, "You know what you must do about this information," who nodded in response, before extracting the memory of what had just happened from his mind with the help of the Field marshals on duty, causing him to faint, and his dream body returning to the real world.

He woke up a bit dazed, but remembered that her majesty will be rewarding him, causing him joy. Under the envious stares, the man began to check the other items up for trade, mingling into the crowd of DemiG.o.ds, Divines, and Sages.

_________________

Dream dimension, the Main headquarters.

The queen had finished isolating the fruits, ensuring minimal absorption from the dream dimension, but it was not completely sealed. This was an unfortunate thing, yet at the same time, a blessing in disguise. The fruit is refined by the dream energy, but it also releases the refined dream energy, making the main headquarters a cultivation heaven for those with Mind and Emotion elements.

She dismissed the Marshals guarding her, leaving her alone to ponder the situation.

_________________

Xander, who had received the items, was grinning widely.

He had gotten a large harvest today. Not only did he get a 21 star pill and 3 pages from each Codex, he also got a wisp of Immortal Flame and a magic beast egg. When he touched the egg, he knew what this magic beast was: A Dream Tapir. It was capable to transitioning from material to immaterial to the dream dimension.

He was now quite interested with the Aurora Order; this was because in every fruit, he placed a spatial tracker embedded in the very essence of the fruits, so he knew who were the ones that exchanged for it and where these were placed.

Of course, the lady Ancestor from MHA was quite formidable; although she had a lower comprehension of s.p.a.ce-time, she noticed the anomaly in the fruits, but upon further checking, she still didn"t recognize what was wrong with them.

The Blueborn lady on the other hand didn"t realize anything wrong with the fruits, even when it was handed to the s.p.a.ce-time cultivator of the Cerulean Empire. The same went for the one from the Helennic Empire. It was still weird seeing large empires using s.p.a.ce-time magicians as couriers for long-distance empires. It just feels…demeaning, I guess? After all, we had a lot of skills up in our hands; why not take advantage of that repertoire, Xander mused.

On the other hand, the man who exchanged using a wisp of Immortal Flame was quite…average, so to say. There wasn"t much redeeming quality except for one point: he was unbelievably surrounded with a halo of good fortune. In fact, he was so lucky that he accidentally sneezed and with that sneeze, he destabilized the spatial tracker embedded in the fruits without damaging the essence of the fruits. It was now, in terms of computer coding, garbage code that doesn"t do anything.

Going back to the Aurora Order, their headquarters was actually like his garden Eden; it was an independent s.p.a.ce that had its own set of rules but was still subject to the rules of the Dream dimension and the universe. Of course, it was far off from his Laboratory which was completely isolated. It made Xander think that there must be someone in the organization with s.p.a.ce-time powers like his. Hopefully, that person"s friendly.

For the next 10 hours, he continued to check the different items available for trade, yet nothing caught his attention. He really wanted a Universal quality magic/elemental crystal so that he could attempt to study it and replicate its process of formation. What a pity, oh well. The immortal quality crystals will have to do for now.

Xander, seeing that he was going to waste his time in the auction house, decided to leave early, giving his farewell greetings and heading off. The Koeman Group, hearing that he was about to leave, proceeded with the exchange of his dual Eternal item, giving him a total of 8 pages from each Codex.

Before he completely left Elema, however, the information about his pseudonym, Mr. Homer Simpson, was forcefully changed to that of Xander Cloverfield in the memories of the auction managers who were DemiG.o.d-9 cultivators as well as in their servers, and the term "Homer Simpson, Mr. Simpson, and Homer" were removed and replaced with "Chronicler".

Even his identification card in the Galactic Empire was modified in such a way that it now registered Xander Cloverfield, and no one can access his data, not even the Highest council or the A.I. Celeste itself. If someone would look at his identification, it would only show his pseudonym "Chronicler," giving him the same access rank that the Koeman Group gave.

Xander felt it was time to retire the Homer Simpson ident.i.ty. Should I create another persona? How about a woman this time? Or maybe a girl roughly my age, Xander mused. After all, his time clones actually existed not only in male form, but also in female form, as well as a magic beast form, weirdly, and all of them were in Eteria. Anyways, he had a lot of time to think about this once he broke through to Legendary.

He hurriedly returned to his villa in Eta, his mirror image dissolving, making it impossible to be traced or located. This was a precaution for that Demeter woman and other transmigrators who have gotten a quirky ability that could track him down or something. After all, unique body const.i.tutions existed like Glaucia"s, making it a possibility that a body exists with the ability to track anything and anyone.