The world outside was buzzing with activity, all thanks to her tinkering with the Originium.
Yet, the culprit was blissfully unaware, having drifted back once more to the fringes of IX—the borders of Nihility.
There, she found Acheron, wandering and lost in thought as usual.
"Back so soon?"
Acheron looked on with curiosity at the withered, golden tree root resting in the other's hand.
It looked vaguely familiar, reminding her of the time she first met her other self on the Xianzhou Luofu. That severed segment of the Ambrosial Arbor had looked much like this.
However, compared to the Arbor, this particular root system was severely desiccated, appearing as though it were on the verge of being utterly consumed by Nihility.
While Acheron didn't know why 'Georios' had collected a piece of the Ambrosial Arbor, she assumed the woman had her own reasons.
"Yeah, I mainly went out to grab this. I figured I'd bring it back to use as a reference for my research."
"...If I remember correctly, the Ambrosial Arbor is a product of Abundance, isn't it? Aren't you studying Propagation?"
Acheron turned a puzzled gaze toward 'Georios.' In her understanding, Abundance and Permanence didn't seem to have much of a connection.
"Right. They say Abundance was torn away from the Path of Permanence. Well, that's the rumor, anyway—I can't personally guarantee it's true."
'Georios' smiled, weighing the fragment of the Arbor's root in her palm.
To be precise, she couldn't be certain about the origins of Abundance and Propagation either. She could only say there was a probability, one she intended to verify.
Acheron didn't know much about such things. She was the type to immerse herself entirely in Nihility, paying little to no mind to the secrets of other Paths.
She only knew the information available on the surface, so she didn't have much of a reaction to 'Georios's' statement.
"So, will it be like before? Are you going to expand your pocket world to begin?"
Instead of answering directly, 'Georios' looked at Acheron and asked, "You don't plan on staying inside the pocket world, do you?"
Acheron nodded.
Watching over this place was a responsibility Acheron had set for herself.
She couldn't simply hide away in that small world forever, refusing to face the Nihility.
She had stayed inside long enough; lately, she intended to wander these borders more often. She wanted to see if there were any Sin Thirsters or lost souls who had wandered into this void.
Seeing Acheron's intent, 'Georios' also scrapped the plan for the pocket world.
"Then I'll just stay here with you. It'd be so boring being in that little world all by myself."
Acheron let out a faint, nuanced smile. This was the edge of Nihility—what kind of person would consider "hiding in a pocket world to escape the erosion of the void" a boring thing?
Sometimes, Acheron truly felt that spending time with her was a constant challenge to common sense.
Regardless, Acheron didn't refuse the company. The two of them began to wander the borders of Nihility together.
'Georios' took the opportunity to continue her research on the Equation of Permanence, using the Arbor root as a reference.
Compared to Permanence, the pure power of Abundance didn't trigger the same violent reaction when facing Nihility as Permanence or Elation did. Of course, that was within her expectations.
'Georios' was focused more on trying to use Permanence and Abundance in tandem.
She attempted to analyze the nature of the Abundance Path and compare it with the specific inclinations found within the Path of Permanence.
Time flowed by in the quiet focus of her research.
After cross-referencing her findings, 'Georios' began to realize that something felt "off" about the Equation of Permanence.
She had originally intended to use Abundance to indirectly verify certain leanings of Permanence. Once a Path is split, its concepts are divided, but it seems some inclinations remain.
These inclinations don't form a full concept, yet they still exhibit traits of individual eternal prosperity—traits that align with certain aspects of Abundance.
Studying them this way helped 'Georios' better understand the Equation of Permanence. But as she delved deeper, she suddenly hit a snag.
Within the Equation of Permanence, the sections related to Abundance didn't look like mere "inclinations" lacking a concrete state.
On the contrary, well-known concepts and abilities of Abundance could be found—mapped out perfectly—within the equation. It wasn't a vague tendency; it was the specific "code" for those abilities.
The moment she realized this, her heart skipped a beat.
What did this mean?
Could it be that the Equation of Permanence carried by this Earth Titan was actually the state of Permanence before it had ever been split?
This discovery was well beyond her expectations. But amidst the pleasant surprise, 'Georios' couldn't help but feel a bit of a headache.
If this were true, it meant the content she had to decipher had suddenly increased by the weight of two entire Paths.
Perhaps Abundance and Propagation had added new concepts after the split that didn't belong to Permanence originally, but the difficulty spike was certain.
However, the silver lining was that if she could fully solve this equation, 'Georios' might even be able to scheme a way to directly seize the Path of Propagation.
Though, when that time came, she'd likely end up butt-locking with Nanook.
From the looks of it, Nanook probably had his eyes on the masterless Path of Propagation as well. But if it really came to that, she wouldn't necessarily be without the strength to fight back.
She shook her head, pulling her focus back. 'Georios' held complex feelings toward this unexpected find, but the task at hand remained the same.
Her life of research alongside Acheron continued until the expiration date of the Earth Titan character card arrived.
--+--
[Roleplay System]
[Name: Bai Ming]
[Lifespan: ∞]
[Transformable Characters: Big Herta, Acheron, Celenova, Jingliu, Ruan Mei, Sparkle, Hertatomb, Lord Ravager - Jingliu, Young Herta, Robin, Artoria, Cipher, Cyrene · Fuli (Charge: 17.2%), Georios (Active)]
[Available Draws: 4 (25.1%)]
--+--
[Reward Settlement: A mediocre performance, neither merit nor fault. However, enough emotional value was harvested to grant partial authority of the Earth Titan.]
--+--
During this cycle, Bai Ming had been almost entirely preoccupied with her research.
Since she spent most of her time at the border of Nihility and hadn't caused any trouble outside, the system's evaluation was average.
Bai Ming actually felt the system was doing its best to give her extra points; she had been prepared to walk away with nothing this time.
To her surprise, the system had thoughtfully included all the emotional value gathered during this period into the settlement—even though, strictly speaking, those points didn't have much to do with the Earth Titan persona.
Despite that, the system still gave a reward. And because she had gathered enough emotional value, she had racked up four draw opportunities in a single cycle. The rewards were unexpectedly decent.
"Partial authority of the Earth Titan" essentially meant she could wield some functions of the Equation of Permanence. More importantly, the system's rewards were "smart."
The settlement bypassed the parts Bai Ming had already deciphered herself and granted her entirely new sections.
And it gave her a lot. After all, this "portion" was a piece of an entire Path—the Path of Permanence before the Great Split.
As the rewards were dispensed, Bai Ming could feel her understanding of the Path of Permanence reach approximately 20%.
About 10% was from her own analysis, while the other 10% came from the system's bounty. The rewards also included a vast amount of data regarding Abundance and Propagation.
Of course, for now, Bai Ming could only grasp the rewards in a general sense. The knowledge had been poured into her mind, but she hadn't fully "digested" it yet.
To truly make it her own, she would need more time.
Once mastered, her grasp of the Equation of Permanence would sharpen even further.
It wasn't a big deal; with Bai Ming's current capabilities, turning the system's rewards into her own knowledge wouldn't take long.
But the greatest takeaway was this: once the Equation of Permanence integrated the concepts of Abundance and Propagation and handed them to her, Bai Ming realized she might actually be able to solve the problem of the Scions of Long.
She could fix their inability to reproduce—or at least the issue of having to sacrifice oneself to create new life.
Now, Bai Ming was curious about one thing.
The Equation of Permanence consolidated the major concepts of the other two Paths, but if she used that equation to manipulate those Paths in reality... would the two split Paths react?
If they did, would the effect be dampened because of the split, or would it produce some strange, unintended side effects?
Carrying these questions, Bai Ming planned to leave the borders of Nihility soon.
She would head to the Xianzhou Fanghu to try and solve the Vidyadhara's reproductive issues and see if the split in the Paths would cause any unusual results during the implementation.
But before that, she had to fully wrap her head around the system's rewards.
A few days after the roleplay ended, once Bai Ming had completely mastered the rewarded knowledge, she mentioned her plan to visit the Fanghu to Acheron.
"You're going to handle that matter you mentioned before?"
"Yeah. It's a good chance to verify what I've learned recently."
Bai Ming nodded. She kept almost nothing from Acheron, and since they had been together this whole time, Acheron knew the details of her deal with the Xianzhou as well as her recent gains.
"Are you sure there won't be any problems? Restoring the Vidyadhara's ability to reproduce and all..."
Acheron was a bit worried, but Bai Ming just smiled and waved it off.
"It'll be fine. At most, I'll just follow the agreement and restore the ability for a select group of subjects. It's not like I'm going to fix the whole species in one go."
"...I hope so."
Acheron couldn't quite put it into words, but she had a faint feeling that something unexpected might happen.
However, since Bai Ming herself had said this experiment might lead to unforeseen circumstances, Acheron assumed that's what she meant and didn't press further.
"Then... will you be coming back? Or are you going back to Amphoreus?"
Acheron likely didn't realize it herself, but her tone sounded less like a question and more like a soft plea for Bai Ming to stay with her.
"If nothing else comes up, I'll probably stay here for a while longer."
"Mhm. Then I'll wait for you."
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL