A different plane – Juxian
The servant knew it was beyond her status, but she was still pouting.
Her master was comfortably rolling around on his bed. He hadn’t lost his mischievous grin and that sparkle in his eyes at all, even though he was punished.
“I believe it was worth it”, the Lord laughed, clearly pleased with himself. He looked at the rippling wall next to his bed, where a thin layer was showing the image of a black-haired cultivator. “Isn’t he just adorable? The cutest!”
The servant sighed again.
When that man’s soul had been here for cleansing, an accident had happened. Her Lord had picked the soul up and watched over it for a while before returning it to the reincarnation pool.
Now her Lord was attached.
Attached enough to even break the rules and enter the other plane!
“Lord”, the servant started chastising. “The timeline would have fixed itself anyway.”
“It would but it would have been slower and worse and don’t you think the little guy suffered enough?” The Lord sat upright, smirking. “Besides, now he owes me, which means I’ll get him to work for me for a while!”
“On the cost of losing your status”, the servant wailed.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
It wasn’t permanent and everyone knew it – the Lords were the Lords and the King was uninterested in exchanging his very valuable judges.
Dea obg atf wbwfca, tf tjv ibra tlr pby.
“Pa’r ollllcf, la’r olllllcf…” Ktf Obgv qjaafv atf ulgi’r tfjv. “Pa’r jii yfaafg cbk.”
Lf tjv tjqqlis tfiqfv bea. Rba pera ab tfiq atlr rbei atja tf delaf ilxfv – jirb ab olz atf alwfilcf.
Dfmjerf la kjr j afgglyif atlcu obg atf bcf kfjnlcu ojaf ab kjxf eq. Ktf qbbg atlcu. Ktfs tjv jii tfjgv atf mibmxkbgx ugbjc jr atja bcf rageuuifv jcv kbxf eq, offilcu atf qjlc bo j vfragbsfv alwfilcf.
No, they all disliked that.
There was no way for the Lord to have slipped out to help Xie Yi if his king hadn’t silently let him.
That was how he had slipped away to the other plane for a while, supporting and enjoying that world for a short time. He hadn’t planned for the end to happen that way – his king had been quite unhappy about him interfering this much, but personally he thought it was worth the result.
A deal made was a deal fixed, which meant that things couldn’t be taken back anymore. Xie Yi would be able to come here for a couple of years to work for him, and he genuinely looked forward to seeing that bright little soul again. It would be fun.
In the end, losing his status for a while was troublesome, but it wasn’t forever.
So the punishment was fake but the fix was real, and in the end, everyone was happy.
The Lord smiled quietly to himself.
Mmmh.
Finally, things were on track again.
A different plane – The last one
The King’s heart ached the whole time. Although he and the inhabitants of the Rooted World weren’t affected by the timeline changes of the Branched World, that didn’t mean he didn’t hate the fact that it happened.
The King’s eyes – glowing like molten lava – lowered. He gently touched the gigantic clockface in the center of the clockwork covering the endless wall in front of him.
The face – lacking any clock hands – turned transparent.
Behind it, hovering inside like submerged in water, was a genderless figure. The colorless person opened their blind eyes, reacting to the touch and likewise reaching out dazedly.
“It’s better now, is it?” The King’s voice was soothingly low. “Is it alright now?”
Time branched like a huge tree. All possibilities existed, and the branches that weren’t chosen would wither naturally. Time was meant to be linear.
The one in front of him was the one monitoring and governing it. Forever and ever, submerged in an ocean of choices and possibilities, every different word creating a new branch. Careful, endlessly careful, they’d nudge and push time into the best direction, the direction farthest away from the destruction of their world.
But no matter what, neither the King nor them could work against the sickness of the planet. Whenever it was involved, they were powerless.
Who would have thought that someone would use this sickness as a gap to change time so violently?
The King had felt his friend stir even at that change alone. A change in the past, distorting.
But the change had grown. Grown far too quickly, and, worst of all, grown to affect people that were supposed to become Immortals. That change was farlasting and destructive.
So the keeper of time used an even rougher method.
If they were forced onto a rotten branch, then that branch would have to be trimmed completely. The new branch might be affected, but it was healthier than the rotten one. It would only need some steadying and help, which was why the King turned a blind eye to one of his Lords running out.
The King’s coal-black hair gave off a faint glow, as if there were embers burning beneath. He closed his eyes, taking the moment to accept the feelings of the one before him.
Then he smiled, softly.
“That’s good.” The King took his hand off the clockface and looked at the sleepy figure inside. The person’s eyes were already falling shut. “Go back to sleep. I will send someone to retrieve the thing that caused this mess in the first place, and you can rest at ease.”
The figure’s lips curled into the softest smile. The clockface returned to its usual form, the ticking inside the room resuming.
The King folded his hands behind his back and walked towards the window, looking out.
He really didn’t need emergencies like this on the regular.
The other plane sounds extremely interesting. The way your mind works and constructs and paints your story is amazing. Personally, would love to get a continuation of some sort about the Rooted World and how it works. But maybe that’s just me 😁
Aaahhh this is so interesting. I’d love to know more about the different worlds