91 Problematic Situation

Once they landed on the ground of Eta, it was Parker who asked the two analysts the burning question lingering in their minds: how did they know it was a fake God cultivator?

It was Hailey who answered, saying,

"He suddenly appeared near our vicinity, with no fluctuations, meaning either he was waiting for us nearby, or he wasn't really alive, and what we saw was just a puppet."

"He then began to reminisce about the past, and when he asked about what year it was, Calissa answered with 2057, the year in Eteria, rather than the Universal Time Year. When he didn't react to the mentioned year, we were both sure that the person in front of us earlier was just a fake. After all, the Revised calendar only came about 2,057 years ago in Eteria. If he was really a slumbering cultivator, why didn't he clarify the date or request for the UTY?"

When the others heard Hailey, their eyes brightened, realizing that they were suspicious from the very beginning, even with their responses towards the mysterious being!

It was Calissa who then spoke to Brutus, her voice containing a curious tone.

"Brutus, can you clearly describe what happened the moment that finger of his touched your shoulder? We need to know the necessary information to combat it if we face him again."

It was Brutus, however, who looked flabbergasted and confused.

"I would love to tell you, but whenever I attempt to remember the feeling of the spell in my body, it just places me into panic and alert mode. I don't think even hypnotism would work, and I might unconsciously hurt the one doing it," he said to her, his voice apologetic and frustrated.

He truly couldn't remember for some reason. He wasn't sure if this was done by that cultivator or because it was the side-effect of the powers of his returning.

Calissa nodded and began to talk with Hailey and the two information collectors about the data to be processed.

As the sages were resting and talking to one another, waiting for the final sage cultivator meeting place to be decided, they had an inconspicuous looker nearby, hearing and seeing everything they were discussing.

After a while, it disappeared, unnoticed by the sage cultivators.

Xander opened his eyes and sighed. It was already past midnight, nearing 1 am. The moon was brightly shining up in the night sky.

When the dreamscape activated, it was around 7 pm yesterday, when he had just exited the laboratory. He had to immediately contact his friends, his subordinates to act naturally in the dream, which they had gained partial immunity. If they were able to gain complete immunity, they wouldn't be affected by it at all.

Anyhow, after contacting them, he contacted Jacks, instructing him to barricade the whole house property, ensuring that everyone inside the house and on the premises were not to fall asleep, including his parents who are currently taking a work leave as they had promised him.

He then went to check remotely the situation in the university; if worse comes to worst, he would eliminate all the professors that were nearby his location when he activated the spell by accident, or transport them to a different planet with a humanoid civilization.

He was quite surprised that the university teachers and faculty members weren't affected, and saw that there was an invisible power warding off the mist from entering the campus. When he attempted to trace it back, he saw the librarian who was moving about his fingers while his eyes were closed and lightly snoring away.

Xander was quite surprised by the librarian. He had initially thought that this person was a Divine magician. It seemed that this person was stronger than he originally looked. At least he doesn't seem to be his enemy.

He left his remote viewing and headed to Eden. Although time seemed precarious now, he could still delay facing the enemy for around 3 hours. He would rather spend time in the garden, talk to them, play with the newborn sprites and magic beasts, and fight with the demigod sprites and magic beasts. This time, he teamed up with his contracted beast and sprites, to help them train against sieges. He didn't need to train them individual fights since they challenge the other sprites and magic beasts all the time, improving and revising their battle techniques.

This lasted for around 2 hours in the outside world. He headed out after his obligatory product collection. He then fashioned himself a middle-aged looking mirror-clone, getting inspiration for its looks from the demigod who tried to kidnap him in his villa. There were footages of a refined-looking, middle-aged man giving orders to him and to other people, indicating that this person might be the transmigrator he was looking for. Xander tweaked the look a little bit, hoping the sages who had encountered this person have an idea who he was.

He then placed it near the sages, in which, he followed the script he made early on. He was confused about why the sages didn't react towards the middle-aged man since this seemed to fit the mysterious person that they were discussing in the underground chamber before the operation began.

Then, as he was about to disappear after disrupting the dream searching spell, those two women attacked him, confusing him on how they discovered a flaw in his acting. It was only after the battle he discovered that he was too careless with the responses he made, and how little he knew of powerhouses above Divine class.

Xander, when he stopped spying at the group, sighed. When he heard the statement Brutus made, he was confused because this time, he didn't do any memory or mind manipulation. He could only think that when the time-reversal ended, the ordered system, or the universe, returned a copy that had no prior experience of the spell, so he had no memories of it whatsoever. Could it be a self-defense mechanism? Maybe, or possibly a way for the data not to duplicate or cause errors when merging with a recent one.

He then contacted Jacks that everything was ok now. Once Jacks heard the command, he removed the binding force surrounding the property. For his subordinates, he questioned them concerning their dreams and if they acted accordingly. According to them, they did so, to the relief of Xander. At least they won't be taken in for interrogation.

He checked the time and realized that he needed roughly 16 more hours before the Garden can be grown and launched towards Eteria. He decided to sleep for now since he had nothing to do, and go back to the dream dimension and check the progress of the two seedlings._______________________8 hours later. Around 9 am, Friday. The sun was brightly shining high up in the sky.

However, this wasn't the case in the international underground meeting room. Inside, all of the sage rank cultivators were present, and all of them were discussing with one another in very low voices, their faces showing a myriad of expressions from being mad, confused, startled, shocked, and fear, creating a heavy and panicked atmosphere.

The investigatory team was standing in the open ground stage, waiting for the decision and response of the rest of the sages. For the past 3 hours, they had been explaining their results as well as giving each one a copy of the data to check for themselves. They also showed the recording of their battle with Xander, releasing several conclusions from their fight.

One, the target is proficient in magic concerning the mind and emotion element series. That would explain the initial setbacks they had with the dream searching spell, as the target is proficient in manipulating the mind and emotion elements.

Second, the target is no weaker than a Sage class and probably stronger. The only reason he didn't use any of the spells he had was probably for damage control, based on what he mentioned during the fight. Which meant, the target was looking for something important on the planet.

Third, the target exhibits spatial power. He can do a group or self teleportation, and it is unknown what is the range of his capabilities are. It is very likely if we don't manage to contain or restrain him, he can easily escape our encirclement. They are not sure if it is the work of a magic artifact or an ability of the suspect.

Fourth, the target exhibits powers that are under the life-death element series. Most likely, the situation that occurred with Brutus was a result of a spell that took advantage of one's life essence doll and physical body's degradation.

Lastly, the target fully revealed himself when they were testing Eta, which meant there's a high chance that the target may be residing in Eta and a small percentage that he is using this as another plot to stop us from checking the remaining countries and focusing on Eta.

However, things didn't go as expected by the investigation team. The sages were fully focused on the information that the target had revealed concerning the event last month, and that was their main target.

They wanted to obtain the experimental paper as well as recordings of the experiment, and if possible, the spell model that Xander had momentarily displayed at the tip of his fingertips.

"I think we should already surround and isolate Eta right now. Most likely, like what the investigators suggested, this is where the target is actually residing."

"And let the possibility that he is just delaying us and wasting our energy and time? I suggest we create two more investigative teams to focus on the Yggdras continent and in Nerzon country for the investigation. We would be accomplishing more in a shorter time-span."

"That would cause us to spread our forces thin, Garroud. After all, we just have a few magicians who are proficient in Mind or Emotion elements present, roughly 4 out of 300 that's present right now. If we follow the current structure, we can only make an additional investigation team that would process the said places, while the remaining would be in Eta and in the surrounding airspace of Eteria, ensuring no one escapes our perception." Another sage countered the frail-looking man, Garroud, her voice somber. She had a ghastly demeanor as if the spirits of the dead would rise up and begin their possession to those surrounding her.

"That's a great idea, Valak! I agree with her suggestion."

"Same. Seems feasible."

"Wait, do we still follow the same composition or change it up based on the experience of the first investigative team?" Asked Garroud, who quietly agreed with Valak's plan.

Valak nodded, saying,

"This is an optimal set-up, ensuring one can still function if ever one is incapacitated. At the same time, doing things by pairs would improve the output."

Upon hearing her reasoning, the other sages didn't have many qualms and were prepared to create another team.

In 30 minutes, another team was formulated and were to be sent to Yggdras, while the first investigation team had to head to Nerzon, far south of Eta country.

After everything had been finalized and everyone knew their tasks, they immediately dispersed from the place, the investigative teams heading to their positions and began their spells, while the remaining sages were on standby and surrounded the entire Eta country and the airspace of Eteria with their perception._______________________It was nearing 10 in the morning. Xander was merely lying down on his table in class, scribbling nonsensical stuff on the touchscreen projector. The rest were intently listening to Ms. Lim finish up her discussion of the midterm exam questions and the practical test.

There were roughly 7 more hours before the plan of his could begin, so he instructed the mirror image on standby to move to control the movement of the garden in 6 hours, heading to the direction of Eteria. He was surprised to see the size of the Garden; roughly 2.99 times the size of Eteria planet already.

Oh, right, before it goes I should disable its absorbance and gravitational pull once it reached 1 light-year from Eteria. Don't want to accidentally cause it to fall out of orbit, Xander thought to himself, pre-programming the instructions on the Garden and the mirror image itself.

He didn't bother spying on the sages, because he had already detected several waves of their magic perception scanning the entirety of the country for at least thrice, all from different sources._______________________Nerzon, Ete continent.

The investigative team had begun the spell, causing the entirety of the country to fall into slumber, and they began to harvest the data available and present in their dreams and their reactions.

For the next 5 hours, there were no anomalies whatsoever, but rather than assure the team, they began to be more alert than ever.

On the 6th hour, however, they received a call from Carolyn, whose voice was frantic.

"There's an approaching danger! Danger! Be careful! Everyone is in grave danger!"

Before they could ask more, the connection was cut, leaving them confused and unsure of what to do.______________________Yggdras continent, land of the elves and sprites.

The second investigatory team was having an easier time since they were under a monarchy, the queen basically declared a holiday for all jobs and required everyone to stay in their homes. The investigative team began their spell, with the Heavenly Tree sprite acting as nodes to ensure that every part of the continent was affected by the spell equally, so there wouldn't be any side-effects.

For the next 5 hours, they quickly finished up because their population was not as high as the major cities, and the thought processes of elves and sprites were pure and honest, so their reactions in the dream was a guarantee. Even the Heavenly Tree sprite aided by subtly influencing them to tell the truth, nothing but the honest truth.

On the 6th hour, they were already done and had disassembled the spell. As they were packing up and thanking the queen and the Heavenly Tree Sprite, they received a video call from Carolyn, with the same content as what she had said to the first investigative team.

Before they could ask clearly what was coming, the connection was cut, leaving them confused.______________________The 30 sages in Eta country were quite bored in the past 5 hours of continuous scanning, that they communicated with one another via magic perception.

"Hey, Barry, have you discovered anything anomalous yet?"

"Nope. How about your scan? Did you discover anything?"

"None as well. Sigh, this target of ours is quite slippery as hell. We can't even detect any magical fluctuations that fit the results taken by the investigative team."

"Hmm, I had an idea, but it's quite outrageous…"

"Eh? Shoot. We have nothing to do until our scans pick up something, anyways."

"What if the person is capable of decreasing the magic fluctuations to a minimum? Remember the video, where no spells could even reach him, as according to him, none of our spells would penetrate the barriers he made."

"What if the same goes for our scans? He's basically invisible to magic perception if this is the case."

"Well, let's say that's true. What should we look for in the magic perception? When it hits an inert or empty object or space? Or when it just disappears? Or when there's a space it cannot enter?"

"Come on, Andrews. That was quite imaginative of you, but you know none of us here is that talented in manipulating magic perceptions. Maybe if we had an infernal or a celestial here, we might find the target easily, haha.��

"Pfft, they never leave their dimensions anyway, and if they did, they were arrogant and overbearing to us that reside in the physical dimension."

"Truly. Oh well, we can't test out Barry's hypothesis, let's just do this task then until the others are finished with their jobs."

"Yep, that's true, Harold. The hypothesis he posed was interesting, but if that kind of being was here, in this small planet, most likely none of us are going to survive if the target was really a God class cultivator."

"Same sentiments, brother. I-" another sage spoke up but was interrupted by a call.

The other sages also received the call and it came from Ms. Carolyn, who warned them of danger that was fast approaching, that there is a grave danger and everyone is going to be affected.

Before they could even react, the call was cut off, confusing the sages.

It was Barry that spoke up first.

"So, um, what do we do now? Do we continue the job or meet the other sages?"

"Of course we're going to meet up the sages!" Harold said before the other sages could see a figure rise above high in the sky.

The other sages followed suit. After all, this was Eteria. In some planets, there were flight restrictions for those even in the Sage class; here, such rules don't apply to them, as they were already beyond them.

After a while, no one was left in Eta to do the magic scanning, and if someone would closely listen to the winds, they would hear something similar to that of a sigh of relief. ____________________5 pm, Eta. Xander's villa.

Xander was quite amused with the current state of the sages. Upon hearing the message of Carolyn, the sage that was proficient in Future-1 element, as well as Pandora-Grief and Fear-5, making her a formidable magician amongst her peers.

As long as it was going to happen in the near future and that she was going to be affected by it, she will sense it. She would only get a clear picture of the situation when it is already in front of her. In battle, this was a powerful trait of hers, allowing her to evade attacks by a fraction of a movement, and doesn't use up too much energy.

Xander was sitting in his room, excited about how the situation would unfold. The garden was going to reach Eteria in 40 minutes from its current location.

He briefly headed to the Laboratory, checking the situation of the trees. He also planted 3 more Trees of Creation, situating them in the third layer surrounding the 6 trees. He then placed another seed of destruction in the area where the two other trees of Destruction were located in, forming a triad.

What happened next surprised Xander. The third seed, upon going under the influence of the other trees, rapidly took hold and began to sprout, faster than usual. Xander's eyes turned glassy, his breath turning heavy, his cultivation skill began to run on its own.

In the span of 14,400 years, the tree rapidly grew to the same size as the two other trees, and the power of destruction and chaos in the area, and Xander was merely standing still in where he was, unaffected by time and space turbulence.

When his eyes turned to pure silver and black, everything in the laboratory stopped moving for a moment, all fluctuations frozen in the air, the breeze that came from nowhere stopping. The vibrant trees of creation, destruction, evolution, dream, dimension, life, and order were all frozen as well, like everything was a snapshot.