Once caught in that trap, its fate will be even more terrifying than that of the old Dog King.
Erica’s refining technique must have advanced further, becoming even more cruel and exquisite.
"No, I absolutely cannot repeat the mistakes of the former Dog King!"
The Dog King curled its body tighter, dozens of strong tentacles hugging closely.
The majestic Time Hound King, at this moment, looked more like a curled-up caterpillar.
The flow of time around sensed its fear, starting to become more chaotic and unstable.
"Forget about them, even if that young wizard kills a few more, or even dozens of hounds, I can raise new ones again.
The reproductive ability of Time Hounds isn’t particularly bad, as long as they are given enough time, the population can always recover."
"But if I die, then truly nothing remains."
This consideration out of survival instinct provided a rational excuse for the Dog King’s fear.
"I must hide deeper..."
The Dog King began to move into the deeper layers of the river of time.
There, the flow of time became extremely slow, even close to complete stasis.
Although it was difficult to maintain normal thinking activities in such an environment, it provided the maximum concealment.
Even for Erica, it was hard to perform precise tracking at that depth.
With the increase in sinking depth, its consciousness also began to blur and slow.
This was the necessary cost of surviving in deep time, having to sacrifice mental activity for the stability of existence.
Before sinking completely into dormancy, the Dog King glanced at a signal from its subordinates one last time.
Those flickering light points appeared so small and fragile in the stream of time, like candle flames swaying in the night.
"Sleep a bit more, once awakened everything will pass, just like last time..."
It voluntarily cut off all external connections.
......
Consciousness slowly surfaced from deep Meditation state, like a diver swimming from the deep sea towards the surface.
Ron opened his eyes, finding himself still seated on the meditation cushion in the Meditation Room, but his body was completely soaked in cold sweat.
Though the intense battle occurred in the Consciousness Space, the fatigue left behind felt so real.
He slowly stood up, feeling the faint stinging pain from the yet-to-heal cracks deep in his consciousness.
"Seven cracks... looks like no high-intensity spirit activities can be conducted during the recovery period."
Ron walked to the washbasin in the Meditation Room, and washed his face with cold water.
The reflection in the mirror appeared exceptionally tired, with tension from the battle still lingering in his eyes.
After dealing with his personal state, Ron took out the Paradox Dice.
The polyhedron lay quietly in his palm, the blood-red infinity symbols on its six faces continued to slowly writhe.
"This thing is indeed dangerous... but also indeed useful."
He carefully observed the dice’s transformation, recalling the various anomalies of the night.
The first time was during the conversation with Cassandra, the dice ignored the seal and automatically popped out, providing a strong boost to divination.
The second time was during the battle with Time Hounds, he actively activated the dice, using the paradox power to turn the defeat around.
Between the two uses, Ron vaguely sensed some sort of pattern.
"Accumulation of paradox power..."
He carefully analyzed this phenomenon in his heart:
"Like a constantly charging capacitor, when the energy accumulates to a critical point, it must be released."
"If not actively used, it will find an opportunity to trigger itself, causing unpredictable consequences."
Clearly, when the King of Absurdity crafted this item, some sort of "safety mechanism" was set within.
Forcibly releasing paradox power, to prevent excessive energy accumulation from causing direct harm to the user.
"Since that’s the case..."
Ron took a deep breath and made a decision:
"Rather than passively waiting for it to trigger itself, it’s better to actively master the usage rhythm."
He took out the astrological carpet from the Storage Bag, embroidered with most common constellations observable in the Main World.
After spreading the carpet on the ground, those mysterious constellations began to reveal themselves autonomously:
"Eye of Truth" located at the center of the carpet, was a large eye-shaped pattern, its pupil shimmering with silver light that foretold the future;
Surrounding it was the "Wheel of Fate," twelve spokes representing different possibility branches;
Various symbolic constellations distributed on the outer layer: "Iron Guard," "Seat of Blood," "Wandering Companion Star," ...
Each constellation was a living entity, which would react accordingly based on the divination content.
Ron also took out a few special candles, arranging them at key nodes of the constellations according to a specific pattern.
At the moment the candles were lit, the whole array seemed to come alive.
The pupil of the "Eye of Truth" began to rotate gently, scanning everything around;
The "Wheel of Fate" emitted a low humming sound, twelve spokes rotating rhythmically like clock hands;
The various constellations on the outer layer also began to flicker, like real stars blinking in the night sky.
"Tonight’s divination question..."
Ron knelt at the edge of the array, holding the Paradox Dice in his hand:
"About the subsequent threat of Time Hounds, and whether the Dog King would personally take action."
He closed his eyes, repeatedly chanting this question in his heart, allowing his consciousness to establish a deeper connection with the Paradox Dice.
The dice slightly trembled in his palm, the infinity symbol on the surface began to spin faster, exuding an increasingly intense paradoxical aura.
"Go ahead, tell me the truth."
Ron gently tossed the dice into the air.