The environment slowly returned to its original state, and Nezuko reverted to her usual timid, teenage self.
Meanwhile, the Pillars of the Corps—who had been entirely unable to contribute to the fight—slowly and cautiously gathered around Li Ke's position.
Drifting golden light particles filled the air as the local landscape began its rapid recovery process. Under their watchful eyes, the white-hot lava gradually lost its violent, bubbling intensity and steadily hardened into solid stone.
However, Li Ke could clearly feel that this specific territory had become a permanent geographical scar on the earth. It would suffer from random seismic instability and volcanic eruptions for years to come, lasting until the tectonic shifts from this battle finally balanced out.
The entire nation of Japan would have to pay a steep price for this singular cosmic event. But there was simply no avoiding it; the otherworldly monsters had chosen this specific island as their beachhead, leaving the planet with no other choices.
The legendary Seven-Branched Sword in Li Ke's hands began to slowly dissolve into flecks of light. This mythical shape had only been manifested by the cosmic entity to help channel the local planetary energy more efficiently. After all, a god capable of deleting deep space sectors wouldn't actually care about local human legends like the Three Sacred Treasures; it had simply weaponized the raw conceptual power of human faith rooted in this region.
"It all feels incredibly surreal... But thinking about it logically, it makes total sense. Our enemy was an entity capable of corrupting an entire universe, after all."
Li Ke let out a quiet sigh. He couldn't help but feel a minor sting of defeat. If the previous two monsters had given him the arrogant impression that he was strong enough to go anywhere he pleased across the multiverse, this final aberration proved that his current strength wasn't even a drop in the bucket.
Its impossibly vast size, absolute kinetic power, and the terrifying library of hidden abilities it likely commanded meant that if Li Ke had been forced to fight it entirely on his own, his survival rate would have been basically zero.
Fortunately, with the monster's definitive destruction and the retrieval of the golden dimensional shards, the spark of World Power residing deep within his soul flared up once more. The entity immediately transmitted a crisp, system-like message to his brain.
As long as Li Ke chose to hand over these newly acquired World Fragments, the system would be fully capable of transporting him right back to his original home world. Furthermore, it would drastically increase the frequency at which it could locate other missing World Fragments across the cosmos.
Right now, the system's core couldn't provide Li Ke with an immediate, massive transformation because it needed to funnel the majority of the materials into self-repair. However, it could now consistently generate ten points of World Power for him every single month.
On top of that steady passive income, there were special physical rewards up for grabs.
Consequently, Li Ke didn't hesitate for a single second to hand over the gathered World Fragments. He honestly had no practical clue what he was supposed to do with the raw dimensional debris anyway; the energy was completely locked up, and keeping it in his personal inventory generated absolutely zero practical response.
A brilliant burst of golden light flashed in his palm, leaving behind an elegant, golden pocket watch. The moment Li Ke clicked it open, he noted that the device featured two distinct internal faces.
One face functioned as an ordinary mechanical clock, while the other side looked remarkably like an intricate navigation compass.
The very millisecond his fingers wrapped around the metallic frame, a clear understanding of the device's exact utility crystallized in his mind.
The mechanics were straightforward, acting essentially like a localized Cheat Code.
While carrying this golden pocket watch, he could choose to forcefully rewind the timeline of exactly one specific target by a maximum of ten seconds!
He could instantly force a bullet that had already cleared the barrel to fly backward into its cartridge. He could yank a falling artillery shell right back into the muzzle of a cannon. He could even cause an object that was already heavily engulfed in flames to seamlessly revert to its pristine, undamaged state.
However, the absolute limit was ten seconds, and the effect could only be anchored to one singular entity per activation. Furthermore, deploying the rewind would actively drain his physical stamina based on the complexity of the target, with the energy cost scaling up exponentially with each consecutive activation. Fortunately, this stacking stamina penalty would completely reset back to zero every 24 hours.
Meanwhile, the compass dial on the pocket watch served a completely different function. It operated almost identically to the famous compass carried by a certain pirate captain in Pirates of the Caribbean.
The needle would always point directly toward the thing he desired most in the world.
However, it strictly responded only to his absolute deepest, most genuine desire.
This pocket watch was completely indestructible. It would only take on a physical form while remaining on Li Ke's person. Even if it were smashed to pieces, it would instantly reform the moment he wanted to use it. Even if he threw it away, it would seamlessly reappear back in his hand whenever he needed it.
Without Li Ke's explicit permission, absolutely no one else could activate its mechanics. Even if he willingly handed it to another person to use, it wouldn't matter. Unless he truly gifted the artifact away for good, the device would instantly teleport right back into his palm the moment he willed it.
Furthermore, the precious gemstones and real gold on the outer casing were completely authentic. He could actually pry them off to use as currency, but the very instant the watch underwent a structural self-repair, those separated gems would vanish out of thin air.
This mystical tool could be used across the vast majority of universes. Unless a specific world possessed incredibly rigid laws regarding timeline manipulation or heavily policed the flow of time, he could activate it freely.
Therefore, rather than calling it a mere item, it was far more accurate to view it as a permanent bonus ability. The scaling power it offered was locked at a fixed, high tier, requiring absolutely zero personal grinding or training to master.
Essentially, he had just gained an extra tactical utility and a powerful trump card.
It was a reward truly fitting for the massive hardships of this journey.
"Hmm? The thing I desire most..."
Li Ke focused his mind, trying his hardest to think about methods to become stronger. However, he watched as the compass needle in his hand began to swing wildly. Following the direction of the arrow, his eyes tracked the needle as it consistently bounced right back and forth between the chests and backsides of Mai Shiranui, Shinobu Kocho, Mitsuri Kanroji, Nezuko, and Kanae Kocho.
"What about a legendary treasure trove of gold?"
Li Ke tried his absolute best to visualize a massive mountain of sparkling wealth. Yet, the stubborn pointer on his watch dial refused to budge, firmly locking its gaze onto those beautiful women without a single shred of hesitation.
Apparently, the logic of the compass firmly believed that Li Ke's ultimate, true desire at this exact moment was the beautiful bodies of these women, rather than some useless blocks of gold.
If his initial attempt to search for a path to get stronger failed because he harbored absolutely zero interest in learning more native breathing styles, that was one thing. But wanting to grab a massive pile of gold to take home with him was a genuine, real desire of his!
"Ugh... This function must be broken."
Li Ke narrowed his eyes in denial.
There was absolutely no way his brain was filled with nothing but chests and backsides, okay?!
Deciding to test the other feature, he casually drew his samurai sword. The next moment, Li Ke targeted the blade and triggered the time-rewind ability.
In an instant, he felt a sudden drain on his stamina. The energy cost felt equal to twice the physical effort required to carry and unsheath the weapon. He couldn't help but click his tongue at the steep conversion rate.
This mechanic meant that if he wanted to rewind an enemy's incoming strike, he wouldn't just have to rewind the physical sword itself. He would also have to pay a stamina fee equivalent to the kinetic force required to move that blade to its current position.
Furthermore, only the specific object he targeted for the rewind would actively travel back in time. Any physical marks or damage it caused during those ten seconds would remain completely intact. And what's more...
Li Ke looked down at his sword sheath, which had just been sliced open. He had intentionally shifted the angle of the sheath while the blade was snapping backward through time. The result was clear: the rewinding sword still physically cut through the material during its journey back into the past.
"So an object moving backward through time still creates normal physical reactions? How fascinating."
In other words, until he possessed the cosmic strength to physically push the planet with his bare hands, he could never use this pocket watch to rewind the entire Earth by ten seconds!
"Within ten seconds, the energy cost equals the target's own weight plus twice the total energy consumption of its movement? It looks like I can't use this as a standard, everyday tactic."
Clearly, until the Energy inside his body grew vast enough for him to act completely without restraint, this pocket watch could only be treated as a specialized Noble Phantasm or a high-tier trump card.
Even so, it was still incredibly broken.
For example, if he were locked in combat with Yoriichi Tsugikuni, the absolute millisecond their blades clashed, he could choose to forcefully rewind Yoriichi's sword by ten seconds. During those ten seconds, Yoriichi wouldn't be able to use his weapon effectively, and his body would instinctively be pulled off-balance by his own rewinding sword. A single sliver of a second like that was more than enough time for Li Ke to secure a fatal strike!
With a trick like this up his sleeve, as long as he didn't run into a monster with an even more bizarre, supernatural concept, Li Ke was essentially invincible against anyone in his own power bracket.
"This thing is a spectacular Cheat Code."
Although he had spent a moment testing out his new artifact, the entire process had only taken a few seconds. The surrounding Pillars didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.
Li Ke casually slipped the golden pocket watch into the sash around his waist. He then turned his gaze toward the surrounding warriors, who were staring silently at the devastated landscape, and flashed them a bright smile.
"Everyone, the threat of these otherworldly monsters is officially over."
A gentle breeze swept across the scorched earth, bringing with it a heavy, dense scent of sulfur. The Pillars, their expressions a complicated mixture of awe and lingering shame for their own helplessness, finally let out a long, collective sigh of relief.
"Yes, it's finally over."
They gazed out at the messy ruins of the battlefield. Just by feeling the erratic, unstable vibrations pulsing deep within the earth beneath their boots, they knew the people of this island nation would still face a grueling, harsh life in the near future. Natural disasters would likely continue to plague the country for quite some time. But as long as hope remained, the vast majority of the population would find a way to survive.
The immediate apocalypse had been successfully averted, but the road ahead remained incredibly steep. They would simply have to keep moving forward.
But right now...
"Let's head back and share this incredible news with everyone else, shall we?"
Shinobu Kocho reached out and gently took Li Ke's hand. Right next to her, Mitsuri Kanroji let out a joyful cheer and happily lunged forward to hug his other arm, instantly burying his sleeve deep into her ample, pillowy chest.
"The disaster is over!"
Looking at their beaming faces and the bright smiles returning to the rest of the Pillars, Li Ke went slightly quiet. He debated whether he should ruin the mood by telling them right now that this island would suffer from endless natural disasters in the years to come. But seeing the pure happiness on their faces, he decided it could wait. It was better to let them enjoy a moment of absolute joy before they had to face the next round of hardships.
Besides, after being brutally ravaged by these invading cosmic horrors, one had to wonder how many living humans were even left in this country anyway.
"Time to celebrate!"
Li Ke threw his hands up and joined in on the roaring cheers.