Tavern of the Spear: Desire for Pleasure

Cheng Yu looked at the scene before him, his heart filled with doubt. He turned to look at Kurosawa and asked, "Kurosawa, why is the scene we see completely different? And why is this temple here? According to my memory, there are no other temples around these two tribes besides the one dedicated to the god of pleasure."

Cheng Yu's words were filled with confusion. He recalled the ruins he had encountered when he left the tribe. He had entered the ruins to explore, but afterwards forgot everything he had experienced, only remembering some initial fragments. Although the two encounters were not exactly the same, they were both equally bizarre; things that shouldn't have been there were there, which made Cheng Yu even more bewildered.

Bai Yu showed no surprise after hearing the three different answers. He began to ponder the reasons for this outcome. In his view, the three timelines of this world were too chaotic, and the arrangement of these times baffled him.

In his understanding, the correct sequence should be a past filled with destruction, a present filled with hope, and a future filled with uncertainty. But why is this arrangement broken? It completely contradicts the laws of causality and time. With the God of Time as his master, he is always sensitive to time; he is absolutely certain he is not mistaken—time in this world is flawed.

Regardless of whether time in this world is in a loop, based on the information currently available, this is definitely not good news. It's fair to say that the world isn't just experiencing one temporal collapse, but rather two or more, which Bai Yu hasn't yet discovered.

Kurosawa watched the two quickly begin to think and nodded in satisfaction. He then looked at Heavy Fist, whose eyes were filled with nothing but admiration for him. He shook his head helplessly. It seemed that this guy might really be a servant from another dimension of his own, and he didn't expect him to understand anything.

However, he still had a lot to tell Bai Yu and Cheng Yu. Then, he pulled the two of them out of their extremely complicated thoughts. They were going to the next place, the place where he stored the fragments of "now".

After some time, the group arrived at one of Kurosawa's residences in the Black Dragon Tribe. Upon entering the residence, Kurosawa didn't waste any words and led them directly to a secret room in his house. After passing through several intricate tunnels, they arrived at a place filled with miscellaneous items.

There were countless items here, of all kinds, encompassing almost every profession's tools. As the group followed Kurosawa deeper into the space, the number of items decreased until the final stretch, where both sides of the path were lined with wooden puppets, mostly in the shape of dragons or beastmen. The further they went, the more refined the puppets became, like the progression from beginner to master.

Bai Yu looked at the items around him and asked with some confusion, "Kurosawa, you still like these things?" In his opinion, making puppets and the props he had seen before did not seem like things that a black dragon should use.

Kurosawa simply smiled faintly, then countered with, "So what do you think a black dragon should like?" He continued, "I've heard this kind of talk many times. The image of the black dragon is deeply ingrained in people's minds, but that's just a stereotype. And isn't the white dragon the same now? In the eyes of the people here, the image of the white dragon is that of a slave. Can you say that all white dragons are slaves?"

Bai Yu fell silent when asked the question, gave an awkward laugh, and then stepped aside.

Cheng Yu watched their conversation, lost in thought. He felt that Kurosawa's words made a lot of sense; everyone has their own preferences and characteristics, and one shouldn't judge a person based on race or other labels.

“Alright, let’s keep going,” Kurosawa said. “The place where the ‘present’ time fragments are stored is just ahead.”

The three followed Kurosawa forward, passing through a passage filled with wooden puppets, and arrived at a huge stone gate.

“This is it,” Kurosawa said, pointing to the stone door. “Go in; the fragment of ‘now’ time is inside.”

Cheng Yu stepped forward and pushed open the stone door, a powerful energy surge rushing towards him. Behind the stone door was a vast space, in the center of which floated a huge crystal, shimmering with dazzling light.

"Is this a fragment of 'now' time?" Bai Yu asked in surprise.

“That’s right.” Kurosawa nodded. “Through it, you can return to the ‘present’ timeline.”

"Back to the 'present' timeline?" Cheng Yu asked, puzzled. "What does that mean? Aren't we currently in the 'present' timeline?"

“It seems you’ve misunderstood. ‘Now’ is just a definition of time, while all the time fragments you’re looking for refer to three points in time after a certain thing or person has been defined. If you want, you can define yourself at this moment as ‘now,’ yourself at that time as ‘past,’ and yourself a few dozen seconds later as ‘future,’” Kurosawa explained. “The timeline of this world is already in chaos. You need to return to the ‘now’ timeline to find a way to solve the problem.”

"I see. So what should we do?" Cheng Yu asked.

“It’s very simple,” Kurosawa said, pointing to the crystal. “All you need to do is place your hands on the crystal, concentrate, and think about the time you want to return to, and you can return to the ‘present’ timeline.”

"It's that simple?" Cheng Yu was somewhat incredulous.

“It’s that simple,” Kurosawa said confidently. “However, I must remind you that you may encounter some dangers after returning to the ‘present’ timeline, so you should be mentally prepared.”

"Danger?" Cheng Yu frowned. "What kind of danger?"

“I don’t know either.” Kurosawa shook his head. “The timeline is already messed up, and I can’t predict what will happen in the future. But I believe you will be able to overcome all difficulties and find a way to solve the problem.”

"The danger of time is not a danger to me. Don't worry, leave it to me. I think if I can solve this time problem, my control over time will be even stronger." Bai Yu took a deep breath and placed his hand on the crystal first.

Cheng Yu and Chong Quan also placed their hands on the crystal. The three of them closed their eyes, concentrated, and thought about the time when they needed to return.

Suddenly, the crystal emitted a dazzling light, enveloping the three of them. A moment later, the light vanished, and the three disappeared into the void.

Kurosawa looked at the empty space and muttered to himself, "I hope you can succeed..."

Meanwhile, Bai Yu, Cheng Yu, and Chong Quan had returned to the "present" timeline. They found themselves standing in a place they could never have imagined, a situation that was completely beyond their comprehension.

Although the three of them have completely different definitions of "now," they have still arrived at this point in time.

"Isn't this just us going back to where we started? This fragment must have locked onto a specific time point a long time ago, which is why we've ended up back here." Bai Yu looked around and asked speechlessly.

"I don't know." Cheng Yu shook his head. "But...it seems like Kurosawa isn't here. Where could he be at this time?"

Bai Yu and Cheng Yu looked around and quickly noticed the subtle changes in their surroundings. Although they were still in the original underground room, there were many more things in the corridor leading to this room, and some of the items were more complete.

At this moment, his powerful punch finally came in handy. He quickly recalled his memories of this place, then ran swiftly into the corridor and carefully examined the surrounding objects. Just as he had expected, there were 12 complete puppets, and the further away from the room the corridor went, the fewer items of other professions there were. This indicated that Kurosawa had already taken on 11 apprentices, one of whom was himself.

At this moment, Chongquan was overjoyed. If that were true, then his master would definitely know who he was. If he went to find his master now, perhaps he wouldn't be turned away. Thinking of this, like those crazy fans, he dropped everything and rushed out of the place.

Watching the heavy punch disappear into the corridor, Cheng Yu and Bai Yu exchanged a helpless glance. Just how much did this guy idolize Kurosawa to drive him to this point of madness? And shouldn't he have considered that another heavy punch suddenly appearing might cause panic? Wasn't he afraid of being treated as a suspect and punished by the other 11 White Dragons for rushing in like that?

Bai Yu glanced at Cheng Yu, signaling whether they should follow. Cheng Yu shook his head, stating his thoughts: "Let's stay here and study them. I have a feeling there's something wrong with these puppets." Bai Yu nodded in agreement; he thought so too. The two then began to carefully observe the surrounding puppets, trying to find anything unusual about them.

These puppets are incredibly lifelike, each one looking just like a real person, dressed in exquisite costumes and holding various props. Some puppets hold long swords, some hold staffs, and others hold paintbrushes, each representing a different profession.

"Do you think these puppets might be the incarnations of Kurosawa's disciples?" Bai Yu said thoughtfully, stroking his chin.

“Possibly.” Cheng Yu nodded. “Look, the costumes and props of these puppets correspond to the professions we’ve seen before.”

"But why make them into puppets?" Bai Yu asked, puzzled. "Does Kurosawa have some kind of peculiar fetish?"

"I don't know about that." Cheng Yu shook his head. "However, I have a feeling that these puppets are not simple. We should be careful."

As they talked, the two carefully examined each puppet. They discovered that the joints of these puppets were connected by a special material that emitted a faint glow, seemingly containing some kind of energy.

"What kind of material is this?" Bai Yu asked curiously.

"I don't know." Cheng Yu shook his head. "However, I feel that this material is somewhat similar to the seal on the previous box."

"You mean, these puppets were also sealed away?" Bai Yu asked in surprise.

“It’s possible.” Cheng Yu nodded. “Let’s try to see if we can break these seals.”

The two began trying to remove the special material from the puppet's joints, but no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't budge the material at all.

"It seems these seals aren't so easy to open," Bai Yu said.

"Yes," Cheng Yu sighed, "it seems we'll have to think of another way."

Just then, they suddenly heard a commotion coming from the corridor.

"That's the sound of a heavy punch!" Bai Yu said. "He seems to be in trouble!"

"Let's go take a look!" Cheng Yu said.

The two quickly ran out of the room and ran down the corridor toward the direction from which the sound came.

They saw Heavy Fist being besieged by a group of white dragons, all of whom were disciples of Black Swamp. They were wielding various weapons and constantly attacking Heavy Fist.

"Heavy punch, are you alright?" Bai Yu shouted.

"I'm fine!" Heavy Punch said while parrying the attacks. "Come help me!"

"We're here!" Bai Yu and Cheng Yu quickly joined the battle to help Chong Quan fight against the white dragons.

The battle was extremely fierce. Although the white dragons were numerous, Bai Yu and Cheng Yu were also quite strong, and for a time the two sides were evenly matched.

"How are these guys so strong?" Bai Yu said while fighting.

“They’re all Kurosawa’s apprentices, so of course they’re powerful. But this isn’t their prime yet. They’ve probably only just started learning the techniques they use and aren’t very proficient yet, so we still have a chance,” Cheng Yu said. “We must find a way to subdue them!”

The all-powerful narrator: ...Please stop pretending to be weak to fool others! Going up there and taking them down in one move will kill someone!

Cheng Yu: Oh, no, no, it's just that the author realized my abilities are too overpowered and is going to reduce my strength. (Manual doge emoji expressing helplessness)

The all-knowing narrator: And what about you?

Bai Yu: Uh hahaha, as everyone knows, I'm a time traveler. Look at that blond guy next door, isn't he as weak as a piece of paper? Is it wrong for me to be a little weak? (Manual doge head, also expressing helplessness)

The all-powerful narrator: 666

... (There is absolutely no suspicion of water quality data, haha, it seems like I've added a few more words to fill space (o?n))

Let’s get back to the topic.

"I know!" Bai Yu suddenly thought of something. "Let's try using that crystal!"

"Crystal?" Cheng Yu was taken aback. "You mean that 'present' time fragment?"

“That’s right!” Bai Yu said, “We’ll use it to disrupt these white dragons’ sense of time, preventing them from attacking us!”

"Great idea!" Cheng Yu said, "Let's give it a try!"

Bai Yu took out the crystal from his pocket and held it high. The crystal emitted a dazzling light, enveloping everything around it.

"What is this?" The white dragons felt dizzy when they saw the light of the crystal.

"Now!" Bai Yu shouted. "Cheng Yu, let's go!"

Bai Yu and Cheng Yu seized the opportunity to rush forward and subdue the white dragons one by one.

"We succeeded!" Bai Yu said. "We've finally subdued these guys."

“Yes.” Cheng Yu breathed a sigh of relief. “However, we still need to find Kurosawa quickly and ask him what exactly happened.”

“That’s right.” Bai Yu nodded. “Let’s go!”

The three continued walking down the corridor and soon arrived at a huge room.

“Kurosawa should be inside,” Heavy Punch said. “I can sense his presence.”

The three of them pushed open the door to the room and went inside.