vncnus Chapter 81 Gu 1's Plan
Chapter 81 Gu 1's Plan
The horse symbol on Stephen's forehead became clearer, his eyes began to glaze over, and finally his head slumped down, and an octagonal stone carved with a horse fell from Stephen's forehead.
The Holy Lord picked up the stone, and his long-lost power returned. He couldn't help but show a look of enjoyment.
"Congratulations, Master, on reclaiming your power." Wanda immediately flattered the Holy Lord.
The Holy Lord pressed his finger on Stephen's forehead, and the remaining power of the Horse Charm restored the light to Stephen's eyes, though the light was completely different from before.
"Master," Stephen knelt on one knee, his voice devout.
Wang closed his eyes; he didn't want to watch this anymore, but he was powerless to do anything about it.
Mordo watched all this in silence, dark magic surging within him. He suddenly realized that in the eyes of the Holy Lord, he and the King were no different from these marked mages. It was only because they still had value that the Holy Lord had not attacked them.
"What are you thinking about?" The Holy Lord's voice suddenly rang in Mordo's ears.
Modu was startled and looked up abruptly to find that the Holy Lord was already standing in front of him at some point.
"Hmm, I'm thinking." Mordo paused for a moment, carefully considering how to answer next: "Has our mission been completed?"
The Holy Lord looked at Mordo: "Mission? You think your mission is to save this timeline? And it seems we're still a long way from successfully saving it."
Mordo lowered his head, not daring to look into the Holy Lord's eyes that could see through people's hearts.
Shendu chuckled softly: "You know very well that if the Ancient One didn't want you to, you wouldn't be able to observe this timeline. The Ancient One didn't send you here to save anything; she just needed a reason for you to leave the main universe."
Shendu patted Mordo on the shoulder: "Otherwise, why didn't the Ancient One appear immediately to eliminate you when you absorbed dark magic?"
Wang approached Mordo and, looking at Mordo's unusually grim face, asked the Holy Lord, "What exactly do you want us to do?"
The Holy Lord did not answer, but looked at the King with a mocking expression. But the King and Mordo both understood that the Holy Lord wanted to conquer this timeline, and they were now just tools of the Holy Lord, tools that could be discarded at any time.
"Xiao Wang, you are a smart man. You must already know what I'm going to do next. You can choose to stay and become the king and Mordo in this timeline."
Wang and Mordo both fell silent. If they chose to stay, they would never be able to return to the main universe. They wanted to escape back to the main universe on their own, but those cleaners were far beyond their ability to deal with.
They had no other choice.
"I can give you a day to consider." Shendu turned and walked to the bridge, with Wanda and Stephen following behind him. "Next, I will go to Kamar-Taj to retrieve the Time Stone, and I hope to see you in the central courtyard of Kamar-Taj tomorrow."
As soon as the Lord finished speaking, Stephen wisely opened a portal to Kamar-Taj.
After the Holy Lord disappeared with the mages who had become his servants, only the King and Mordo remained on the bridge.
"What should we do?" Mordo asked hoarsely first.
Wang sighed: "I don't know, but I do know one thing: whether it's the Ancient One from the main universe or the Ancient One from this timeline, they knew from the very beginning that this would happen."
"What did you say!" Mordo couldn't believe the king's conclusion.
Wang continued, "She sent us here perhaps not because she needed us to save this timeline, but simply because we were the most suitable people to stay here."
Mordo was stunned. He wanted to refute it, but what was happening now proved that the king's guess was correct.
Mordo was silent for a while: "I have another question. Did the Ancient One know this from the beginning, or did she only find out after we entered this timeline?"
"I think she knew from the beginning," Wang replied. "The Ancient One never does anything unprepared. Our bringing Shendu along to this timeline should all have been part of her plan."
Modu felt a surge of frustration: "Then why did she do this, treating us like expendable pawns?"
Wang lowered his head, his eyes dimming: "I don't think we're expendable pawns. We're the price to pay. She'll need the Holy Lord's power to fight even greater threats in the future. We're the price to get the Holy Lord to intervene."
Mordo opened his mouth, but remembering the Ancient One's usual calm and composed expression, he didn't utter a single word.
Kamar-Taj, early morning.
The Holy Lord stood in the center of the courtyard of Kamar-Taj, with Wanda and Stephen standing behind him, and two neat rows of people standing on either side.
Stephen raised his hand, and a yellow magic circle unfolded in front of the Holy Lord. On the other side of the magic circle was a secret room.
"Master, the Time Stone is kept in the secret chamber."
Stephen knelt down respectfully and said, "The Ancient One set up twelve magic arrays before she died. I have broken eleven of them. I cannot break the last one with my own strength. It has divine grace on it, no, it has the power of the master. It should be something that the Ancient One specially left for the master."
The Holy Lord stepped into the secret chamber, which was much larger than it appeared from the outside. The walls were covered with ancient Vishanti runes, and an ancient and enormous magic circle was rotating on the ceiling.
The Time Stone floated in the center of the secret chamber, enveloped in a magical shell.
The Holy Lord squinted at the outer shell, and he could clearly feel the aura of the horse and rabbit talismans emanating from it.
"Master," Stephen said, standing behind the Holy Lord, "the final layer of the magic array requires your personal activation."
The Holy Lord raised his hand, and the power of the Horse Talisman surged from his palm, instantly filling the entire room. The magic circle that enveloped the Time Stone seemed to have lost its balance, and the power on it began to surge wildly. Finally, it completely lost its balance, and the magic circle turned into a burst of golden light and disappeared with a bang.
Stephen's pupils contracted slightly. He had spent so long breaking through the final layer of the magic array, but now the Holy Lord had broken through it so easily.
Shendu placed the Time Stone in his palm. Unlike the two stones he had absorbed before, this stone did not have the aura of a talisman. Just as Stephen had said, the Ancient One rejected the divine grace, but she still could not avoid having a trace of Shendu's aura remaining on it.
"Interesting." Shendu looked at the gem in his hand: "The Ancient One in this timeline specifically left this gem for me."
Wanda leaned closer to the Holy Lord: "Master, this gem only carries your aura; there are no other impurities."
Shendu nodded, and the power of the Mind Stone and the Space Stone surged from his body, enveloping the Mind Stone. The stone melted in Shendu's palm, eventually turning into a pool of green liquid that merged into Shendu's body.
Shendu closed his eyes and felt this new power. He saw the past, present, and future of this timeline, and he saw the expression on the Ancient One's face before she died.
"A wise choice, but unfortunately your disciple doesn't have that awareness." The Holy Lord said to the ancient Daoist in his eyes.