101: Chapter 100 First Encounter with the Entropy Beast!! Returning to Jinyang City!! (3k words in one update)

Chapter 100: First Encounter with the Entropy Beast!! Return to Jinyang City!! (First release 3k)

Within the starry river of time, [Changyou] reverted to its card state.

The [water virtue stone of wuzhiqi] slowly sank into [Changyou]'s card.

On the card's face, tiny [Changyou] sat upright on the calm water surface with its eyes tightly shut.

Its reflection, however, was a giant white ape with golden eyes, snow-white teeth, a green face, and a bulging forehead.

This matched Sun Po's impression of [Wuzhiqi]. Rumor had it that he was the Water God of Huai River,

resembling an ape with a white head and green body, golden eyes, and white teeth. He was violent, possessed immense strength, and moved with incredible agility.

He could whip up monstrous waves and was regarded by the common people as the symbol of floods.

Legend has it that he interfered when Emperor Yu controlled the floods, and even Emperor Yu could not subdue him at first.

Only after joining forces with Yinglong was he finally subdued and trapped at the bottom of the Huai River.

Looking closely, Sun Po saw that the white ape's limbs were indeed bound by iron chains engraved with runes.

Yet he did not seem as ferocious as rumors suggested. Instead, his giant golden eyes were completely calm,

merely looking down at [Changyou], who was not even the size of a fingernail.

A rough voice suddenly echoed in Sun Po's mind, apparently coming from the white ape:

"Not bad, much better than that dead dragon. A top-notch successor indeed."

Suddenly, his golden eyes widened, looking at tiny [Changyou] in disbelief:

"How is that old fellow Six-Ears' destiny with you too?! How could the destinies of the Four Monkeys appear on a single person?"

However, before Sun Po could answer, his vision blurred, and the giant white ape was nowhere to be seen.

Everything seemed as though it had never happened; on the card, there was still only the tiny [Changyou] sitting upright.

Ranger Xuanyuan, driving the carriage ahead, suddenly said:

"Alright, we've arrived!

Remember not to barge recklessly into the river of time in the future. This isn't a safe haven like inside the domain.

Luckily, what you entered this time was merely a tiny tributary. If it had been the main stream, ten lives wouldn't have been enough for you to lose."

With that, Ranger Xuanyuan drove the carriage and suddenly veered,

crashing straight toward a massive star within the starry river.

Sun Po understood. It was just like when he had charged into the node containing the [water virtue stone of wuzhiqi] earlier.

Then, light flashed,

and after a wave of dizziness, the scene before Sun Po changed drastically.

It was still the devastated Jinyang City,

but everything at this moment seemed as though a pause button had been pressed.

Li Jiancheng's dragon eyes were filled with panic and confusion,

and the water-blue divine light coating its scales was gradually being stripped away.

[Xuanwu Gate] had vanished, and Li Tiance was slumped on the ground, though no panic could be seen in his eyes.

Li Jing, who had previously sent the White Tiger into battle, now stood in front of Li Tiance.

The golden pagoda in his hands had fallen onto the ground, and beside it lay a crimson bead.

Around the bead beat a layer of deep red flame,

the edges of which revealed a layer of black.

Looking closely, Sun Po realized that surrounding the black were dense transparent cracks,

looking as if the flames had burned right through space itself.

Aside from the crimson bead, which was unaffected by the pause effect,

and besides Sun Po and Ranger Xuanyuan, there was one other entity.

It was a strange creature that resembled a long-necked sea monster,

yet lacked a physical body, looking more like a bizarre creature formed from a black hole.

It was not large, only a little over a meter long.

Its pupils were like two brilliant stars, and its mouth looked as if a slit had been ripped across its head.

Like a newborn infant learning to toddle,

it crawled out of Li Jiancheng's dragon ear with difficulty and clumsiness.

Then, it actually began devouring Li Jiancheng's dragon head in large bites.

Ears, tentacle-like mane, scales, dragon horns.

The dragon head that Sun Po and Li Tiance had exhausted all their strength to barely damage,

was eaten by this monster as easily as tofu.

It seemed that as long as it touched something, there was nothing it could not consume.

Li Jiancheng was like a pig or sheep waiting to be slaughtered,

able only to watch helplessly as his divine power vanished,

his divine body shattered, and his divine spark gradually faded back into nothingness.

Being devoured by this strange creature, he possessed no ability to resist whatsoever.

Ranger Xuanyuan jumped off the carriage. With a wave of his hand,

the dragon-horse neighed and pulled the carriage toward a faint phantom of the long river in the sky, gradually vanishing.

Sun Po also jumped down. [Changyou] was still in card form, its card color gradually shifting from purple to orange.

Sun Po looked at all this bizarre sight before him,

especially at the strange small beast and the crimson bead,

feeling a chilling sense of dread wash over him.

Ranger Xuanyuan drew the longsword bound with straw rope from his back,

its blade carved with strange runes,

and sighed, "What a miserable life. They won't even let me enjoy my vacation properly."

Saying so, he casually slashed out an invisible sword glow toward the strange creature.

The strange small beast was silently slain by that single strike.

Ranger Xuanyuan patted Sun Po on the shoulder and said,

"See? That's the consequence of barging into the river of time recklessly.

You even lured an Entropy Beast into the domain. Luckily, this was just a juvenile."

Sun Po was utterly bewildered and couldn't help asking, "What is an Entropy Beast?"

This was the second time Sun Po had heard the term Entropy Beast. The previous time was from Nezha.

Ranger Xuanyuan leisurely sheathed his longsword and said,

"Entropy Beast is a name passed down by the ancestors of our Xuanyuan Family.

Some members of our Xuanyuan Family are born with the talent to traverse the river of time and enter various parallel timelines.

In this process, altering timelines is naturally inevitable.

These clansmen discovered that whenever a timeline was altered,

it would attract monsters with black hole bodies and starry eyes.

These monsters are extremely bizarre; energy below Level 4 is completely ineffective against them.

Even Level 4 energy like divine power can only lightly injure them.

Aside from the [Power of Time] and energies on par with the [Power of Time], almost nothing can kill them. Even deity cards are far from a match for Entropy Beasts.

They are like predators roaming the river of time.

Whenever abnormal fluctuations occur in a timeline, they swarm over like sharks smelling blood.

The greater the timeline fluctuation, the more Entropy Beasts are drawn, and the stronger they are.

When Nezha in that parallel line sent you into the river of time, it had already attracted a large swarm of Entropy Beasts.

It's just that he blocked them, and I dealt with the few that leaked through, which is why we remained safe along the way."

Receiving so much information at once, Sun Po was deeply shaken, instantly feeling the unfathomable depth of this world.

"The Xuanyuan Clan, ranked first among noble families yet always low-profile, actually possessed the innate talent to traverse the river of time since ancient times?"

He recalled that carriage, which looked as though it were made of ordinary wood,

and legends of the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan from his past life flooded into his mind.

According to the Records of the Grand Historian from his past life, the surname Xuanyuan was founded by the Yellow Emperor.

The Yellow Emperor was originally surnamed Gongsun and was called Xuanyuan Shi because he invented carriages.

In ancient times, there was a tradition of taking surnames based on inventions,

such as Youchao Shi, Suiren Shi, Shennong Shi, and so on.

But he never expected that the Xuanyuan Family in this world

possessed carriages built to traverse the river of time.

Combined with the pointing figure on the carriage and the dragon-horse pulling it,

Sun Po realized that it was very likely the south-pointing chariot of this world.

Sun Po had already witnessed how brokenly overpowered the [Power of Time] was.

Returning to the past and changing causality.

If it weren't for attracting monsters like Entropy Beasts, this ability could truly be considered invincible.

Yet even being this powerful, the Xuanyuan Family was still merely the top noble family and not the official authorities?

Just how powerful must the official authorities be to suppress all noble families?

And why would such a powerful official faction accord special privileges like autonomy over Jinyang City to noble families like the Li Family?

Sun Po felt enveloped in dense mysteries that were hard to grasp, so he simply stopped dwelling on them.

Hearing all this, besides his awe toward the Xuanyuan Family's talent,

Sun Po also felt deep gratitude toward Nezha and Ranger Xuanyuan.

Using [Time Traveler] this time was truly a risky move. Originally, he thought that since he could jump into the river of time,

the [Time Traveler] skill would naturally confer a certain degree of control over the river of time.

Who knew he would suffer from a lack of understanding?

Had it not been for the help of Nezha and Ranger Xuanyuan, whether he could have returned safely was truly an unknown.

Ranger Xuanyuan, seeming to sense Sun Po's gratitude, said,

"Don't sweat it. The captain originally sent me here to handle this Jinyang City matter anyway.

The pollution of a Great Old One is of a very high tier. Even if I killed this [Evil Dragon],

those citizens wouldn't turn back into humans. To turn the situation around, I would still have had to enter the river of time and break its divine spark.

You took care of it on my behalf, so I should actually thank you. As for saving your life,

well, I do work for the officials after all, so I couldn't just stand by and watch you die.

And kid, don't thank me too soon. There's still something I need your help with next." Hearing this, Sun Po couldn't help asking, "What?"

Ranger Xuanyuan smiled mysteriously, then stepped back and vanished.

Sun Po immediately realized what favor he was needed for.

The crimson bead that fell to the ground earlier was now enveloped in extremely intense flames.

From the moment Sun Po returned to Jinyang City, he had guessed that this was most likely the so-called "demon pill".

Even though everything around was frozen in time, the flames around the demon pill still beat slowly. The Entropy Beast was unaffected because it was inherently a creature roaming the river of time, but for this demon pill to remain unpaused was likely purely because its flames were too terrifying.

The demon pill was now vastly different from before. It seemed some kind of restriction had been removed.

The flames danced wildly, and the bead itself shot straight into the clouds, painting the sky bright red.

Before long, two familiar red-gold fire wheels emerged from the clouds, slowly descending.

The same blazing spear, the same crimson ribbon, the same red lips and white teeth with a handsome countenance,

but his eyes were not cold like Nezha's in the parallel line, but filled with a scorching madness.

The heatwaves emitted by the flames around him were almost too much for Sun Po to handle.

"[Black Rhino Armor]!! Combine!!"

After summoning the [Black Rhino Armor], Sun Po finally felt a bit better.

At this moment, a grand and majestic surge of energy suddenly came from Sun Po's [Tianhe Budu].

[emperor yus ding] automatically floated up from the water's surface, flying into midair.

The [Calamity Heavenly River] manifested out of thin air, and a familiar voice suddenly echoed in Sun Po's mind:

"Master! It succeeded!!"