Date: Unspecified
Ti: Unspecified
Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Central Region, Central Academic City, Morningstar University District, Morningstar University Campus, Garden of Beginning, Ti Vestige, Morningstar University 2nd Campus
"No, that can’t be right. I already calculated the output of your ti-rule power refineries. With your current consumption rate, if you divert even a small portion of the ti-rule power you’re sending to the reserves, you can easily supply the amount needed to elevate the Triunion four-petal demonic veins to the devil realm. You wouldn’t even have to touch your main reserves," I said, baffled by how unreasonable Lucine sounded. I didn’t doubt that she was lying to . She could be many things, but a liar wasn’t one of them.
The mont I stepped into the ti vestige, the Hive AI—assisted by my primordial soul pupils—was already scanning and recording everything: the entire structure of the vestige and every modification Morningstar University had made. That was how I knew all of this. I was gathering the data because I intended to build an artificial ti vestige of my own.
Was it even possible?
I believed it was. Especially with the help of the devil rchant code. After all, it was the architect and builder of the inter-realm city in the spiritual plane, and the Dual World that existed in both the spiritual and physical planes.
Why would the devil rchant code help ?
It was no secret that any demon or devil rchant could hire it, as long as they were willing to pay the proper offering. I had already employed its services several tis to construct SSS-rank array formations at a low cost, mostly because they were based on my own personal designs. But if you wanted it to act as both architect and builder, then it would certainly make your wallet bleed.
"How did you reach that conclusion?" Lucine asked, stunned. But she knew it was pointless to expect an answer from , so she shook her head and said, "Never mind. Just understand this—there are no reserves of ti-rule power. That’s tribute. Now, redo your calculations and you’ll see I wasn’t lying to you."
"Tribute? To whom—the Central Governnt?" I asked at once.
She was right. If I stopped treating the ti-rule power stored by the refineries as reserves, then the amount needed to elevate the triunion four-petal demonic veins to the devil realm would indeed equal nearly three years of their net profit. Which ant I would have to restructure my entire treatnt plan for Lucine.
"That’s not sothing you need to worry about. All you need to know is that we can’t touch the tribute. No matter how much you threaten, it’s not going to happen. You might as well try it yourself and see what happens," Lucine said, her tone firm as her lips curled into a mocking sneer. She practically dared to destroy the ti vestige. Her confidence was unsettling—she sounded certain that the vestige wouldn’t be hard, and that I would be the one to face the consequences.
If she was so sure, then why had she caved to pressure earlier and sworn an oath before the card world’s will? Maybe that whatever gave her courage now had been her last resort, sothing she never wanted to rely on. And now that I had touched that boundary, she was suddenly being cryptic and even provoking to test my luck.
Noticing my thoughtful expression as I tried to figure out what made her so confident, she smiled and said teasingly, "How about I make it a little easier for you? The tribute isn’t for the Central Governnt."
I had already ruled out the Central Governnt. This wasn’t the Five Regions—this was the temporal river, the ti-rule stream of the card world, where they held no authority at all. The idea that the Central Governnt or its Masters could protect the ti vestige here was absurd. And the fact that Lucine dared to destroy it now, while we were sailing the temporal river itself, only confird it.
So who was giving Lucine this sudden confidence?
Who was the tribute of refined ti-rule liquid ant for?
It clearly wasn’t anyone inside the ti vestige. The strongest person here was Lucine, followed by a handful of elite demigods. None of them could guarantee protection in a place like this.
Only one existence could—
the spirit of the card world’s ti-rule stream itself.
No, that didn’t make sense. I had t the spirit of the blood-rule stream before—by copying the blood-rule power resonance Bloodette used to comprehend the blood rule anings and communicate with it. From that encounter, I learned that the rule-stream spirits of the card world were indifferent to card apprentice. If not for its need to address its herald’s wellbeing—Bloodette’s condition—it would never have answered my call. In fact, it had slapped out of the ti-rule stream for daring to mimic its herald’s resonance in the first place.
So it definitely wasn’t the spirit of the ti-rule stream.
Then who could it be?
Yes... that was the only answer. It had been right in front of the whole ti. No one else would dare to guarantee protection for soone within the temporal river.
It was the herald of the ti-rule stream—the Ti Supre.
If Morningstar University had the support of the Ti Supre, then everything suddenly aligned: the ti vestige, the temporal anchors, the ti tunnels, the Labyrinth of Myriad Pasts, even the imnse tribute of refined ti-rule liquid. All of it made perfect sense now.
I finally understood why Morningstar University—despite creating the Labyrinth of the Myriad Pasts—wasn’t ruling the Five Regions and was only considered one of its top forces. It was because they hadn’t built the Labyrinth themselves. Soone else had constructed it for them, and that sa being was maintaining and protecting it in exchange for a hefty tribute.
But that raised an even more puzzling question:
How did they find the Ti Rule Supre and convince it to help them in the first place? Especially when there had always been deep, long-standing tensions between the supre beings and card apprentices.
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