Me! Cleaner!.

Chapter 1258 Decisive Bull and the Ultimate Mission
Got it!

In the instant he lost his balance and plummeted into the mountain pass, Leon instantly understood the cause and effect of everything.

There is one thing besides the mortal world that is worth Frederica sacrificing hundreds of true gods and giving up a large amount of Root as a price!
The gods who came in a line to deliver the Origin, the ravens that refused to escape and even provoked her, and the time outside the Ring of Time that was disrupted... all the arrangements that seemed to be to hold her back so that she would have time to launch a sneak attack on the mortal world were just illusions to make her lower her guard.

Her goal has never changed; it has always been me!

With great effort, he turned around and looked up, imprinting the figure at the mountain pass deeply into his mind. Then, with a tense expression, Leon immediately activated one of his trump cards, pushing the Dream Source in his hand to its limit and teleporting it towards the distant dream called "Old Ox".

As Lyon's personally protected "mount," the old ox's body is entirely composed of false dreams. For the master who controls the source of dreams, stepping from reality into dreams is easier than breathing, and it is almost impossible to stop.

Even with the raging temporal currents below and the strongest of the Roots, Number One, blocking his path above, Leon could still cross the barrier between reality and dreams in an instant with a single thought, escaping the danger of being pushed off the Ring Mountain...

In theory, this should be the case!

Goodbye... no, let's never see each other again.

Seeing Leon's eyes widen in astonishment below, Frederica at the summit of the Ring of Time smiled slightly. She then continued to activate the Truth she had extracted from the raven, casting a layer of [Leon's Disaster Avoidance] over everything in the Ring of Time, including the old ox climbing upwards.

Even if he had let his guard down, given Leon's extremely cautious nature, he would still have ways to save his life in critical moments, and most likely more than one. However, no matter how many contingency plans he had made, he would still need to rely on the help of others to escape from the mountain pass of the Ring of Time.

So as long as you spread the power of [Disaster Avoidance] as much as possible the moment you push him down, and then bless anything that has come into contact with him, keeping everything around him away from "Disaster", it's equivalent to erasing all the "handles" he can use to climb up.

Lyon, who fell from the top of the Ring of Time and was temporarily and completely isolated from this world... naturally could only go and never return!
……

"Moo moo! (Hahaha, I've found my body again!)"

Just as Frederica stood at the edge of the mountain pass, gazing at the figure falling into the temporal turbulence below, fearing another reversal, a joyful moo suddenly came from behind her.

"Moo moo moo! (Quickly! Revive me quickly, then I'll carry you out!)"

With a bouncy gait, the old yellow ox climbed up the dark mountain path, its eyes brimming with excitement as it rushed toward the figure at the mountain pass, mooing and urging Leon to revive it quickly, eager to regain its body.

However, when the figure at the mountain pass parted the clouds and turned around, smiling as he looked over, the old ox felt as if all the blood in his body had turned into ice crystals in an instant, and even the two fresh testicles he had just found shrunk to the size of quail eggs.

Me! Beep! Mom! Oh my god!!!

Looking at Frederica, who had replaced Leon on the mountaintop, and remembering how she had looked down with her back to him, the old ox's brain seemed to shudder as if struck by lightning. In an instant, he understood what had just happened...

Leon has probably already been pushed down by her! Isn't that just asking for trouble?!

Have you caught up?

Turning back and seeing the terrified old ox, Frederica, having finally defeated her greatest adversary, hesitated for a moment before gently comforting him:
"Don't worry, now that Leon has returned to his original world, there's no need for me to... hmm?"

To Frederica's astonishment, the old ox that saw her did not slow down; instead, with a resolute look in its eyes, it took off with all four hooves and leaped into the air at the fastest speed a cow could ever go, soaring down the dark mountain pass of the Ring Mountain!

"..."

You really are... really quite decisive...

After taking a couple of steps toward where the ox had jumped off the cliff, Frederica could only stop and shake her head helplessly as she watched the old ox tumbling down below, its hooves flailing and swallowed by the turbulent currents of time.

Since Leon has already left, you can just hand over those true gods and everything will be fine, right? Do you think I could... Never mind... I've already jumped down, and judging from the reaction of the Ring Mountain, it's an escapee like Leon, so it's good that it's gone.

After letting out a soft sigh, Frederica, with a somewhat complicated expression, left the mountain pass and waved towards the lighthouse on the mountaintop.

"Come on, it's over."

"Uh-huh—(Okay!)"

With a loud bray, Lezi the Donkey, now saddled, emerged from behind the tower, riding a still-shaken thrush. It chuckled and hurried towards Frederica, its eyes full of curiosity as it asked:
"How did you do that? Can you tell me?"

Frederica glanced at it upon hearing this, and, considering that this amusing donkey had done some small favor, nodded and calmly asked in return:
"What do you want to hear?"

"Pah! I want to hear everything!"

After spitting out the remaining gag in his mouth, Lezi Donkey's eyes lit up as he said:
"How can you be sure he'll come up? What if he didn't expect you to launch a surprise attack on the mortal realm and is still focused on guarding against you? Wouldn't your ambush then fail?"

"It won't be in vain."

Frederica beckoned to the thrush, freeing him from under the donkey, and then calmly replied:

"Leon is a very suspicious person, so he couldn't possibly be unaware of this. Moreover, even the true gods I captured knew that I planned to launch a surprise attack on the mortal world. He could find out by just picking one of them out for interrogation."

Even if he never interrogates the prisoners, I can easily have the raven tell him the situation, letting him know that my avatar has disguised itself as the Lord of All Spirits and gone to the mortal world. Eager to return, he will surely lower his guard, and then I will have my chance to act.”

I see……

After listening to Frederica's explanation, Lezi Donkey nodded in understanding, then couldn't help but glance at the trail of footprints at the edge of the mountain pass.

Once the kid named Leon comes up, he will find that the thrush has suddenly disappeared and there is a series of footprints on the mountaintop leading to the mountain pass. He will definitely go forward to check immediately. Number 1, who is hidden in the footprints, only needs to come out and give a gentle push from behind, and the time turbulence below the mountain pass will immediately suck the kid away.

Tsk tsk tsk... This woman is incredibly cunning, arranging everything so meticulously. That kid either shouldn't have come to Huan Shi Mountain at all, or he's basically doomed to lose since he did. However...

"Is it okay to push him down?"

Ignoring the trembling thrush, and having never seen a local Lyon donkey before, he asked with a curious expression:
“That human named Leon carries more than one Root. If you just push him away like this, won’t we never be able to gather all fourteen Roots? What will happen to the ultimate mission then?”

"There will definitely be some impact, but the ultimate mission can still be accomplished," Frederica replied while checking on the thrush.

"Leon is not the real No. 3, so he only has the right to use the source of the living. As for the sources of good, evil, dreams, the ocean, etc., he only has a part of them. He does not have a complete grasp of any source."

So even if I push him off Mount Ring of Time, it will only have a slight impact. I will still be able to gather and absorb all fourteen roots, complete our ultimate mission, and bring all our people back!

"Ok."

Looking at Frederica, whose eyes were filled with eagerness and whose fair cheeks were flushed with a faint blush, Lezi Donkey couldn't help but click his tongue, then blinked and asked:
"What if... I mean, what if! What if that so-called ultimate mission is just speculation, and even if you really complete the ultimate mission and unify all timelines, what if your people, who have already 'spread out' into countless timelines, still can't return? Then..."

"No, the ultimate mission is definitely feasible!"

Her fiery gaze turned cold. After glancing at the amused donkey beside her who was waiting for an answer, Frederica said in a deep voice, her face expressionless:

"From man to god, from life to death, from good to evil, from earth to sky, from spirit to body... These fourteen roots that everyone originally designed are enough to encompass everything in every world, without any omissions."

As long as I can restore the worlds on each timeline to these fourteen origins as much as possible, and then unify all fourteen origins, the different timelines that were split off due to differences will naturally be reunited as the worlds converge.

When all the timelines that were fractured by these differences collapse and mend back into one… no! Even if they only mend into hundreds, thousands, or even millions of different timelines! The consciousness of everyone scattered in different worlds will surely be awakened once more!

"Ah, I know, I know, this should work, you're almost there."

After giving a reply, seeing Frederica's unfriendly expression, Lezi Donkey tentatively continued:
"But are you really sure that you could do this in every different timeline? What if one of you fails?"

"It's okay if I fail at one point."

Frederica said calmly:
“As I just said, we don’t need to merge all the worlds into one. With the will of our people far surpassing that of the Pillar God, as long as there are enough of us who have completed our ultimate mission and enough of the worlds that have collapsed after converging, that will be enough to allow their scattered wills to be reunited and awakened.”

That being said, you'll probably be the one who fails in the majority...

After shaking his head slightly, Lezi Donkey's expression turned slightly serious, and he spoke again:

"Let's take another step back and assume that every different version of you has the ability to do this, and that you can succeed as long as you want to. But that's different versions of you on different timelines, and there will definitely be many versions of you whose experiences are very different from yours."

A person's personality and thoughts are almost entirely determined by their experiences. Do you really think those with different experiences than you would share the same vision and be willing to sacrifice everything for the ultimate mission?

"Yes, because I'm different from you."

"what?"

“Although you are also descendants of the Roots, you only left behind power and not memories, so you don’t really identify with your identity. I am different from you.”

Although I am a descendant of the Roots, I didn't "leave" myself from the past into the present. Instead, I first went back to the past from the present, and only after accepting my identity did I finally become Number 1.

"?????"

"You didn't understand, did you?"

After glancing at the raven beside her, which, following Leon's "departure," had finally taken the final step and exuded the aura of "one of their kind," Frederica sighed softly, then lowered her eyes and explained:

"The place where I truly became a descendant of the original inhabitants is not in the distant past, but in the sacred land where humanity's hope lies."

When I, the 'final saintess,' complete the ritual and plunge a knife into my heart in the sacred ground, my will will be carried along the traces left by countless ancestral saintesses in time, all the way back to the distant past, to a time before my people were torn apart by time.

what? ! ! !

Upon hearing this, Lezi the donkey hissed and then couldn't help but ask:

"So you...you were controlled by them after you went back in time? Or did you sign some kind of special contract that requires you to complete an ultimate mission in order to return?"

"No."

After glancing at the bewildered donkey, Frederica shook her head and said:
"My will spans too long a period of time. Any control, contract, or promise is meaningless in the face of such an excessively long period of time. Therefore, they did not try to control me, but chose the only means that could make me willingly complete the ultimate mission."

"What means?"

"accompany."

"what?????"

After briefly closing her eyes, Frederica said indifferently:
"To complete the ultimate mission, I must merge the roots of all worlds into one, which means destroying everything I know in exchange for the reawakening of a group of complete strangers. I absolutely cannot accept this outcome."

But when I returned to the distant past, they not only did not try to control me by any other means, but instead recognized me as one of them, as the simplest and most ordinary member of their tribe, and spent an incredibly long time with me.

This period of time was so long that I almost forgot who I was, so long that it completely submerged my short life of the past ten years, so long that I really thought I was one of them.

Eventually, it took so long that they accepted me, so long that they began to regret their initial decision, thinking that sending me back to complete the ultimate mission was too cruel. One by one, they came to persuade me to give up on waking them up if I ever returned to the future.

However, just as I finally let go of my resentment because of their regret and dissuasion, and began to treat them as my own people, my will completely completed the ritual and returned to the sacred land once again, across an incredibly long period of time, back to the moment when I plunged the knife into my heart.

After emerging from the holy site again, and washing the blood from my heart in the river, each of me regained everything that had been taken from me, but at the same time, I completely lost everything I had. I am still me, yet I seem to no longer be me... Number 2, I ask you."

Looking at the stunned donkey beside her, Frederica said softly:

"If you were me, would you be Frederica, who regained everything, or Number 1, who lost everything again and now only has the ultimate mission left?"

(End of this chapter)