RE: LORD OF TIME

William frowned deeply when the creature suddenly disintegrated after its death.

”What the hell was that thing...” He muttered with a confused look on his face as his eyes fell on the gray-colored crystal the creature had left behind.

Just to be safe, he didn’t immediately pick up the crystal.

He first poked it several times with his sword, and only after confirming that there was nothing unusual about it did he bend down and pick it up.

The crystal was slightly smaller than the size of his palm, and upon closer inspection, William noticed a peculiar kind of energy flowing inside it.

The energy seemed slightly different from Aether Energy, but for some reason, it gave him a strange sense of familiarity.

Just as he was staring at the crystal, the small white pearl inside his Sea of Consciousness flashed faintly, and another piece of information appeared directly in his mind.

William paused for a moment and after processing the information that had just entered his mind, his expression darkened.

”You fu*king needed to tell me such important information earlier,” William couldn’t help but curse as he clenched the crystal tightly in his hand.

The information he had just received was related to the worm-like creature and the reason it had suddenly appeared to attack him.

The creature was called a Time Worm.

It was a very special creature that naturally lived within cracks in time.

The purpose of these creatures was to maintain the stability of time, ensuring that powerful beings did not tamper with the world by changing the past, the future, or anything else related to time.

Of course, the Time Worm William had just killed wasn’t the only creature that lived inside the cracks of time to preserve its stability.

There were many others, but all of them shared the same purpose.

Collectively, these creatures were known as Time Devourers.

The reason the Time Worm had suddenly appeared earlier was because of the reward William had received after completing the trial.

His soul had finally been anchored to the current timeline, causing a disturbance in the flow of time that the Time Worm had detected.

In reality, the disturbance had been extremely minor because the small white pearl—the Soul Armament of the God of Time had concealed most of it.

However, this particular Time Worm had happened to be very close to William when his soul was anchored.

Because of that, it sensed the disturbance and came knocking at his door.

If the white pearl hadn’t concealed the disturbance caused by his soul being anchored, then the creature that came wouldn’t have been such a weak Time Worm.

Instead, it would have been a terrifying existence capable of killing him with a single finger.

Not only that, all the changes William had made in this timeline—becoming a Star Warrior far earlier than he originally should have, destroying the Astral Rift in the Kolva Mountain Range, killing those people from the Abyss inside the rift, and countless other events were completely different from what had happened in the original timeline.

As such, every one of those actions had also caused disturbances in the timeline.

The only reason no Time Devourer had come looking for the person responsible for those disturbances was because William was being concealed by the white pearl.

However, the information he had just received also stated that if a sufficiently powerful Time Devourer happened to pass close to him, it might still detect the anomaly surrounding him.

”I was literally walking on a tight rope this whole time, and this thing didn’t bother informing me about something this important.”

A Soul Armament was called a Soul Armament because it was directly connected to a person’s soul and had the potential to give birth to an Artifact Spirit once it reached a sufficiently high level.

Since the pearl was the God of Time’s Soul Armament, William was certain it possessed an Artifact Spirit.

It was this spirit that had transferred all the information regarding the inheritance and the Time Devourers directly into his mind.

If the spirit had informed him about the existence of the Time Devourers earlier, he would have been much more cautious.

Although being cautious wouldn’t have changed much as even after knowing about the Time Devourers, there was nothing he could do against them, he could have at least been mentally prepared instead of being completely caught off guard when a strange creature suddenly appeared before him out of nowhere.

Just like the Time Worm earlier.

God knew how shocked he had been when it suddenly emerged from a spatial rift and even used Time Acceleration.

If it hadn’t been for his strong mental fortitude, he would have definitely been caught off guard and injured when that creature suddenly accelerated time and attacked him.

William waited for the spirit inside the white pearl to respond to his complaints so that he could shamelessly demand compensation in the form of five or six time-related skills.

Unfortunately, the thing simply played dead and completely ignored his complaint.

When no response came, William finally snorted before lowering his gaze toward the gray-colored crystal in his hand.

He had also received information about it earlier.

”The Core of a Time Devourer... It contains Time Energy, huh.”

This core was comparable to an extremely high-grade material that contained the power of time.

It could be used for many purposes, such as forging artifacts, brewing potions, setting up arrays, and countless other applications.

”I bet this thing is worth a fortune.”

As someone who was currently completely broke, William couldn’t help but smile happily after obtaining such a treasure and immediately stored the core inside his storage device.

At the same time, he reminded himself to be extra careful in the future and avoid attracting the attention of any Time Devourers.

Looking around, he noticed that the surrounding area had suffered some damage, mainly because of the collision between the two energy attacks during the battle.

”It’s a good thing I came this far away to test the Seven Steps of Supreme. If that Time Worm had appeared where I broke through to the Star Warrior Realm, the commotion might have attracted some unexpected guests.”

Taking a deep breath, William began operating the Supreme Star Scripture to recover the Aether Energy he had consumed during the fight.

Since he had come specifically to test the Seven Steps of Supreme, he wasn’t planning to leave without trying it.

Half an hour later, some people living within the Rosco Barony faintly heard the sound of an explosion echoing through the night.

However, because the sound was extremely distant, none of them paid much attention to it.

Meanwhile, in a barren area of farmland on the outskirts of the Rosco Barony, William staggered forward with unsteady steps.

Although his footing was unstable, anyone who looked closely would notice that his eyes were filled with intense shock and excitement.

”Now I understand why this skill refused to stay in the same section as the other skills...” He muttered as his figure soon disappeared into the darkness of the night, leaving behind a crater five meters deep and over one hundred meters wide.

The entire area looked as though it had experienced an apocalypse, with every boulder, tree, and rock within the crater having been crushed into dust.