Time Theory

"Hopefully, they will hold down those two puppets until I return." While looking back at the door, Gu Tan couldn't help but mutter. As he was running, there was nothing but an empty ground in front of him.

But, the problem was there was no end to this ground. He run for a while until he finally saw five different plots of land filled with small faunas. Seeing this, a smile appeared on his face.

"At that time, I was a Saint and had no restriction but thanks to that, I learned something. To get here, I need to defeat or at least make the puppets busy. But, once I get here, there will be a time limit."

He continued as the smile on his face got wider.

"Four years ago, I almost risked the lives of every child. I didn't take that old geezer's words seriously but he was right. If I do something that wasn't supposed to happen, it will create a disturbance in a timeline. I have already made too many changes even though they are small, they are still the changes."

"And, that incident with the village made me sure of this. I need to make my village stronger quickly otherwise the consequences of tampering with the timeline are not something I alone could possibly bear. With these many herbs, I can definitely awaken the elemental veins of every person and with proper resources, we will definitely get stronger in four years."

Mumbling to himself, Gu Tan rushed to the first plot and instantly started picking up the herbs from the ground. This place was the inheritance of an Alchemy King. He seems to have abandoned this place though Gu Tan never met him in his previous life, he is sure Alchemy King was not dead.

After all, there was no dead body of the alchemy king inside and he seems to have created quite a difficult but also something that a strong person can easily cross. And, once they cross the trial, they will get some benefits but not all of them.

But, nobody seems to have reached here because Gu Tan couldn't find a single plucked herb or piece of land.

Whoosh! Bang!

Suddenly, a cold glint appeared in his eyes as Gu Tan jumped to the right and dodged an arrow that struck the ground where he was exactly standing.

Gu Tan turned his gaze at the enemy who shot the arrow and his eyes widened. It was a man holding a bow but this man had a lower body of a horse.

"Centaur! What the hell? Why is a centaur here?"

For a moment in time, he couldn't wrap his head around this discovery. He didn't find any opponent inside in his previous life and thus the appearance of the centaur shocked him.

"Damn! Did my actions change timeline once again?"

Gu Tan couldn't help but curse himself as he moved to another position while dodging the arrow. The Centaur was simply shooting an arrow again and again without even giving him time to think properly.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Suddenly, the centaur shot three arrows at once. The arrows moved at great speed making Gu Tan curse.

"Damn! Three Arrows!"

"Six Character Mantra!"

Hu!

"Wu!"

Gu Tan released his internal energy into his mouth and inhaled some air, fusing the internal energy with air. Upon doing so, he screamed with a strange word coming out of his mouth. The air and internal energy formed a massive word 'Wu' that moved straight towards the arrows and collided against it.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Ugh!" Gu Tan grunted in pain as he stepped back. The power of those arrows shattered the word but the power of the word also shattered the arrows.

'Damn! Did I mess up once again? But, this shouldn't be happening, right? That theory was something I came up with and it should be right. Now, it's not about changing the future. It's all about shaping the future. Our decisions make the future for us.'

'And, the decision of coming here shouldn't be the decision that molded the previous future. So... it must be the restriction. Yes… I did come without defeating those puppets. And, this puppet could be the last defensive form.'

'That means whoever that Alchemy King is? He wants to spread his medicinal herbs to as many people as he wants. That makes sense as to why the doors will close after a certain range in time once those puppets are defeated. Let's test if my theory is correct.'

Although Gu Tan instantly came up with the concept for everything that was happening at the moment, he knew he had to test it out in order to prove it. Because he could be very wrong.

Gu Tan presses his foot on the ground, releasing a burst of internal energy from his sole. The internal energy took the shape of a whirlpool that pushed him forward without needing to touch the ground once again.

"Floating Steps!"

It was a movement martial art that helps him become as flexible as he could while moving. This is necessary especially when the arrows are poured at him. He swiftly dodged the arrows as he kept moving forward.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

As soon as he reached near the centaur, he clenched his fist and a bit of internal energy disappeared from his sole and reached to his hands. Because of the scarcity of internal energy, he was masterfully using his immense control over internal energy to use it once again.

The internal energy slowly infused with his hand. To use the previous attack, he had spent one point of internal energy. From the perspective of Ace, he only has six points of internal energy.

And, using the Floating Steps, he used up another point but because of his masterful control, he reused some of its remaining internal energy for the next attack.

Because there was no internal energy remaining in his leg, his speed decreased and the centaur instantly realized it. He locked his fingers from both hands and positioned them in front of Gu Tan's fist.

"Arhat Fist!"

Bang!

Using the Arhat Fist from Arhat Scripture, he hardened his fist before punching the centaur. His punch waggled the centaur's hands as he retreated a few steps. Upon punching him, Gu Tan slowly raised his head and smiled.

'So, my theory was correct. This was a puppet indeed set for an unpredictable situation like mine. Damn that Alchemy King! I never thought he could even think of something like this. Guess I need to find out everything about these herbs before using them.'

'No man will do so much planning without any goal. I can't take any risk especially when there is an eighty percent chance for his goals being impure. In my previous life, I didn't use them since they are basically useless for me.'

'Anyway, before I do anything, I must defeat this centaur.'

Tick! Tick! Tick!

The centaur instantly rushed towards Gu Tan while shooting arrows at a faster pace. Seeing this, Gu Tan spread his arm and spoke.

"Hua! It's your turn to shine."

"Battle Soul Ability- White Dragon Transformation!"

Suddenly, the white gas burst out of him and covered his body. As the white gas slowly fades away, Gu Tan's figure got covered with white scales around his body, and a white tail on his back appears. His claws around his foot and hands were much bigger and the head was only covered with a white scaled helmet.

As soon as the centaur saw this, it immediately stopped as the blue light fell on him.

"Oh no! You are not going to get any power-ups."

Bang! Whoosh!

He smashes his foot on the ground as soon as he saw the blue light. He exactly knows what this blue light means. The puppets inside this inheritance place have a mechanism that restricts their strength to the cultivation of their opponents and once the change in pure strength is detected, their strength also changes which means certain restrictions are limited as soon as the blue light falls.

'1'

"White Dragon Fist!" Gu Tan reaches in front of him in less than a second and smashes his fist on its body. The hard scale instantly breaks its bones and the muscles get all wiggly as he flies back.

'2'

Bang!

"White Dragon Cleaving Claws!"

Splash!

He smashes his foot on the ground and jumps above the flying centaur. He raises both of his hands and sharpens his fingers as he slashes his claws on the chest of that centaur.

Thud! Thud! Crack!

The centaur falls on the ground as the blood gushes out of its body. Gu Tan lands next to the centaur and says.

"3. Thank god, I reacted fast. My transformation can only raise my strength by three stages. If I had waited for four seconds, his strength would've been raised to the fifth stage."

Gu Tan reverts his white dragon transformation and crouches down as he touches the blood gushing out of the centaur.

"A real blood, huh! The outside puppets were made out of metals but this puppet had bones, muscles, and blood. It seems this Alchemy King or whatever really pushed puppetry to the limit. Man, he must be awesome to have such an understanding of both Puppetry and Alchemy. Anyway, I need to grab more herbs."

After taking a few breaths, Gu Tan returns back to the plot and starts picking up the herbs. While picking, he couldn't help but think while raising his head at the small statue which was beyond the plot.

'Hmm! He did leave an inheritance under the statue. Although I do have a knowledge of ingredients, I need a proper technique for alchemy if I want to grow alchemists in my village. I should check it out as soon as I collect these herbs.'

Suddenly, the sound of a rock sliding rang in his ears which instantly made him turn his head at the back. His eyes widened like his mouth.

"Don't tell me those puppets were defeated so fast?"