Sa picked up a message transmitted from the Imaginary Tree.
There was something a little off about this message.
Because it was a string of curses.
[Kiana Kaslana! You Paramecium, moron, idiot, pig-head!]
Anyone who came into contact with Imaginary power could feel this potent message being broadcast publicly.
And Sa was one of them.
She had been immersed in the universe for billions of years and had never seen anything so astounding.
After this person obtained Imaginary power, they neither hid away to develop their strength nor went on an arrogant rampage across worlds. Instead, they used their Imaginary power to create this untraceable resonance, all for the sake of cursing someone named Kiana Kaslana in the Imaginary universe.
Sa didn't understand it, but she was deeply shocked.
Using such immense power for this? Wasn't that a bit much?
What on earth did that young girl do to deserve being etched onto the Imaginary Tree like this?
What Sa didn't know was that the being who inscribed these words came from a world with no Imaginary power at all.
---||---
The people of the native world didn't understand Sa's thoughts, but there was no doubt that the Imaginary Tree could be used to create influential resonances.
Su's observation of parallel universes relied on the Seed of Sumeru, and the Seed of Sumeru's power relied on the Honkai.
Whether it was the parallel nature of parallel worlds or the very foundation of the Seed of Sumeru's power, neither could escape the Honkai's constraints.
The kind of universe you see depends on the kind of eyes you have.
This fact pinned down the scope of the Seed of Sumeru's use; it could only touch worlds governed by the logic of the Honkai. To truly transcend the Honkai's influence, the power of the Seed of Sumeru alone was far from enough.
This was the conclusion Su had reached after communicating with Kevin and learning about Noldrei.
It was just like the fate of Kallen's inevitable death that Otto had observed in parallel worlds.
As long as the Honkai, Schicksal, and Kallen existed in a three-way relationship, Kallen's death was a certainty, which in turn led to the birth of the current Otto.
"Kevin, do you think the plan Noldrei announced will actually work? At least, I've never experienced anything similar in other parallel worlds."
Kevin gazed up at the high-hanging moon, silent for a long time before saying, "I don't know. This is their world now. It has nothing to do with us anymore. I will only do what I'm supposed to do. The rest can be left for future generations to discuss."
His heart was already dead, unable to accommodate any more extraneous thoughts.
Su had no better solution. He sighed, "I should have known. The observation itself becomes part of the observation's result. The Seed of Sumeru can only observe the parts that the Seed of Sumeru can see. This is the most classic conclusion of quantum mechanics in reality. Yet, for tens of thousands of years, we were all trapped in it, and no one ever cracked this secret. I'm sorry... Kevin... I was wrong back then."
Su himself had fallen into this trap. He suddenly understood that his attempt to stop Kevin back then was somewhat baseless.
"People don't learn to reflect without experiencing pain, and reflection without pain has no power. Pain can be forgotten, but it cannot be absent. And reflection isn't something you can achieve just by thinking about it."
"Our Previous Era died the moment we stopped to question whether our actions were right and reasonable, not after so many people died fighting the Honkai."
"What remained was just the Honkai sweeping away the last vestiges of the Previous Era."
The more Su understood the direction the current civilization was heading, the more he understood Noldrei's choices.
Kevin, however, could understand this outcome. He said calmly, "It's too late for us to say anything now. The lives that have vanished won't come back, and that's the truth. The memory constructs in the Elysian Realm have already become new individuals; their fate belongs to the current era. The future's development has nothing to do with us anymore."
"Su, we're actually the same. We just can't accept that the Previous Era ended in such a tragic, bleak, and weightless manner. Just like me right now..."
Kevin's heart was increasingly turning to nothingness. He didn't know what meaning his future actions held anymore; he was just numbly carrying out what his partners and lover from the Previous Era had left behind.
Like a shadow of those people, the current Kevin was the shadow of the Previous Era's humanity cast upon the wall of the cave.
The group led by Noldrei were the ones who were truly alive. They could freely and wantonly look in any direction, and if they weren't happy, they could even get a new pair of eyes and look at the world anew.
Kevin seemed to think of something and asked, "Su, do you think Imaginary lifeforms, Quantum lifeforms—do they see the world the same way we do? The things they see must be different from ours, right? And the things they control through their methods must be different from what we imagine."
Su thought carefully for a moment, then frowned and said, "What do you mean?"
Kevin remembered something. "Do you still remember the person who was hunting you? I mean, the being that was revealed after your observation—the one you called Sa."
Su nodded. The memory was still fresh.
"Since Sa's power is somewhat similar to the Honkai's, why not make use of her? I'll go discuss it with Noldrei and see if we can get her under control. I need to see if he can truly control a Cocoon. Since it's an experiment, we might as well use a less powerful Cocoon to practice on."
Kevin's words somewhat stunned Su.
Su pondered for a long time before understanding what Kevin meant. He was suggesting they use Sa as a substitute for a Cocoon, allowing Noldrei to practice and test his skills.
It would both determine the upper limits of Noldrei's power and provide a replacement for a Cocoon.
In any case, Sa had no chance of winning against the current civilization. So, they might as well just capture her and use her for experiments.
Look at him. Just look at him. Even the honest big brother Kevin was being unconsciously influenced by the people of the current civilization.
But you know, he had a point...
Once they had Sa, it would be like getting another tool that could freely travel between the "Leaves" of the Imaginary Tree. If they had implemented this plan earlier, Otto might not have had to go to the trouble of charging the Tree.
Unfortunately, the Overseer's charge against the Tree wasn't just to go to a parallel world, but to obtain the Imaginary authority to create a parallel world. The two weren't on the same level for discussion.
"You know, you've got a point... you really do..."
Su thought of his own miserable state when he was "fleeing" back then and immediately agreed to Kevin's plan.
The two old seniors from the Previous Era, their minds polluted by the ideas of their juniors from the current era, hit it off at once and became the super-scammers of the parallel worlds.