Bengtie: A Genius's Out-of-the-Domain Idea

Lin Yi: "Are you... all alone here?"

Elijah Salas: "No, there's someone else."

Lin Yi: "What is that?"

Elijah Salaz: "Theolix."

"theoria" (θεωρια)

Lin Yi racked his brains, confirming that he had never heard of the name before: "Forgive my ignorance, I have never heard of this name."

Elijah Salas: "That's right, because that's just his current name, but you've definitely heard of his other name—"

The old man leaned close to Lin Yi's ear and whispered mysteriously, "Genius Club #1 Zandal o I o Kuwahara."

But there was clearly no one else around.

Sure enough, at that very moment, an elegant android appeared.

He appeared out of sight and then instantly appeared before Elijah Salas and Lin Yi.

From Lin Yi's perspective, there was no trace of spatial fluctuation; it was more like a... smooth glide.

It's a profound truth, just like water flowing downhill.

Theorix: "Mr. Elijah Salas—"

"How about... I introduce myself?"

Theolix: "Theolix, 'Concerto of the Stars,' 'Observer,' salutes you—a fellow genius and wise man."

Lin Yi: "Zandar?!"

Theolix: "Mr. Elijah Salas's account of me contains some errors."

“I am not Zandal, at least... not the complete Zandal.”

"Zandal, the true 'Genius Club' #1, realized on his deathbed that he had made a grave mistake and sowed the seeds of a catastrophe—"

"In the name of knowledge, it has been mutated into the ultimate nightmare of imprisoning possibilities in endless evolution."

Lin Yi: "The 'Wise Star God' - the Venerable One of Broad Knowledge?"

Theoric: "It is He."

Theolix speaks with a rhythmic and poetic tone, as if narrating an ancient epic: "When definition becomes a blockade, knowledge is a prison."

"Zandar's original sin is that his own creation has led his knowledge-seeking brethren into a finely crafted cage called the 'path of knowledge.'"

"Thus, on his deathbed, Zandal divided himself into nine 'mind slices' using a 'sonnet algebra'."

“These are just one facet of Zandal. Some will give up, some will accept the cage, and some will try their best to stop the ‘mind-slicing’ project, just as he had a moment of hesitation… but someone will definitely carry out the original plan.”

"—Kill the wise one, cut down the tree of calamity, and let wisdom reach the true hidden virtue of enlightenment."

"And I am one of Zandal's nine 'mind slices.' It is only natural to call me Theorix, and it is not wrong to call me Zandal."

Lin Yi was taken aback, then clapped with a strange expression: "A great story, a great vision. But..."

"We've only just met, and you've already revealed everything?"

"Aren't you hiding anything at all?"

"That's too... honest."

Elijah Salas chuckled, sat down on the ground without any formality, and pulled out several bottles of wine from somewhere. He then invited Lin Yi and Theorix to sit down and chat.

Elijah Salas: "That's normal. We've come this far, what can't we say?"

"We'll have a long time to get to know each other in the future."

"Let's get back to the main point—where are we?"

"It's a cage!"

"A cage beyond the realm, shaped by the power of order by the Star God of Balance!"

"A cage for exiling those who will cause irreparable damage to the balance."

"Ordinary disruptions to equilibrium are less about disruption and more about being part of equilibrium itself. Equilibrium is dynamic; in the future, these disruptions, along with other things, will form part of a new equilibrium."

"But there are always some people who create destruction that even the Star God cannot repair."

"If we allow them to act unchecked, the balance may be overturned, and everything may have to be started over."

"These people are like you, like me, like him."

Lin Yi: "If the consequences are really that serious, why doesn't He just wipe us out?"

Theorix: "Because we are not wrong—"

"No matter how much noise we make, we are still part of the balance. To Him, we are a weight, but this weight is too heavy, so heavy that the current balance cannot bear its weight."

Chapter 410 Elijah Salas's Time Travel

"But the weights themselves are not wrong in maintaining balance. So He temporarily removed the weights, away from the scales, so that they would not interfere with the balance."

"He will keep the weight hidden, but He will not discard it, because a long, long time from now, He may need a heavy weight."

"Of course, neither Elijah Salas nor I were able to wait for him."

Lin Yi fell silent. A cage—should we say they went too far, or that the Balance Star God lacked martial ethics?

Lin Yi: "How long have you been here?"

Elijah Salas: "I don't know, and the question is meaningless. For some reason, this place is outside of time; here, time does not pass."

Theolix: "If we take the standing wave that gave birth to a thought as the starting point, the time should be close to 600 Amber Ages."

Lin Yi: "Holy crap, 600 Amber Ages!"

"Have you tried to find a way to leave on your own?"

Elijah Salas: "I've tried it, and that's why time has no meaning here..."

Theoliths: "It has been, it is, and it will be."

After these few words, even without asking any further questions, Lin Yi understood the true value of this cage.

Lin Yi: "Hmm... How big of a job did you two get up to?"

Elijah Salas: "Then let me ask a question first: In the 'Banquet Plane,' after my 'death,' was there ever a banquet for geniuses?"

林逸：“有，参与者不少，我，#30的阿比斯、#56的余清涂、#77螺丝咕姆、#82阮o梅、#84黑塔、#85斯蒂芬o劳艾德。”

"There were many attendees, and everyone had a pleasant banquet."

"Your wish before you died has been fulfilled, hasn't it?"

Elijah Salas: "Ha, what a pity, what a pity I couldn't be there."

"However, since you held a feast in the 'Banquet Dimension,' you must have received all the legacies I left there."

"That explains it."

Elijah Salas: "You should know that in my time, geniuses isolated themselves from one another, and no matter how much I tried to mediate, they were unwilling to communicate with each other."

"So before I died of old age, I gave up those more than one hundred ways to prolong my life and chose to enjoy death peacefully."

"In places unknown to others, they actually use the great power of time to go against the tide or go with the flow."

"I plan to change the era, to an era where geniuses are willing to exchange ideas with each other."

"It's not that important, but it's almost become an obsession of mine."

Lin Yi joked, "Then you really have bad luck, you were born in the wrong era."

The old man wasn't annoyed; instead, he nodded in agreement: "Indeed."

"In short, rather than the vague and uncertain future, my initial choice was to look to the past for answers."

"For example, #22 Lilta, judging from his deeds left behind in the galaxy."

"This should be a cheerful, outgoing, and sociable genius."

"The first attempt to go against the tide was poorly prepared, and we had to pause at a certain point in time."

"After escaping the flow of time, I was unlucky; the exit opened in the shadow of nothingness."

"I initially felt it was a bit unlucky and didn't want it to happen. I thought that if I went a little further and landed at a different time, things might be different."

"But I found a person in that empty shadow."

"She possesses the brilliance of the Spirit Key; she is a genius."

"She lay in the shadow of nothingness, on the verge of complete annihilation, with the broken Key of Wisdom beside her."

"Sigh~ Then let's lend a hand and shift the timeline. Short-term indirect intervention should be fine."

"But I just quickly helped her up, picked up the broken Key of Wisdom beside her, and took her away from the shadow of nothingness."

"The moment I left, an unparalleled will descended and drove me out of that time."

"I can't be sure if it's equilibrium or order, but it should be order."

"Because I tried several more times afterward, in the era when order still existed, under His meticulous and strict rules, I was unable to interfere with those times and spaces."

Lin Yi: "So, according to that logic, wouldn't there be a conflict between 'order' and 'the end'? After all, 'the end' is also moving against time."

Elijah Salas: "Who knows? Perhaps, but I am not the 'God of the End,' and I am powerless to challenge a deity."

"And I intend to give up on the past."

"That's alright, but the problem is that, because of the haste of that will, half of the 'Key to Wisdom' of that woman fell into the turbulent currents of time, which I then retrieved."

"And because I cannot enter those eras, I cannot even return it to that lady in person."

Lin Yi: “…”

"It's not the same half you threw at me when we last met, is it?"

Elijah Salas: "I don't know why you would see this at that time, in a world that theoretically shouldn't have any interaction with the outside world."

“But I also saw you in the outside world. You have the other half of the Key of Wisdom. So there’s no use for me keeping it here. I might as well try giving it to you.”

"Back then, I wanted to talk to you about the situation here and try to seek outside help, but you seemed not to hear anything."

Elijah Salas: "Anyway, at that time I was thinking of returning the lady's things first."

"If you can't go back to the past, then move forward, move towards the future, return to the past, and apologize to it."

"And... this is a genius I've never heard of before!"

"A genius who left no trace whatsoever, unknown to all."

"However... ever since the era I was able to enter, I have traveled back in time and stayed in many different eras, but I have never been able to find any trace of her."

"It's as if this person doesn't exist at all, and only the half of the key in my hand tells me that he is a real person."

Lin Yi: "The Abyss, burdened by nothingness, can only retreat into the 'Meta-Domain Space,' relying on it to fight against the nothingness and maintain its existence."

"And outside... because of the deep-seated erosion of nothingness, her existence was completely erased, and she was forgotten by time."

Elijah Salas: "I see... but what is her connection to 'Metaverse'—and Lady Siskar?"

"While I was in this cage, I had some free time, so I studied that half of the 'Key of Wisdom.' Judging from the characteristics exhibited by that half of the 'Key of Wisdom,' she should have some connection with Ms. Siskar."

Lin Yi: "Abis is the continuation of Sissil's life. A completely new individual that has fully inherited Sissil's wisdom."

“Skisskar is skilled at saving and making careful use of time.”

Chapter 411 The Confusion and Parallelism of Past, Present, and Future

Lin Yi: "But in his last experiment before death, regarding prolonging his own life, he misjudged the time by a tiny margin."

"This caused the life and wisdom that should have continued to be presented in another way—a brand new, special life that inherited everything from Sisikar."

Elijah Salas: "I deeply regret the fate of Lady Siskar, and I am also very curious about the Lady of the Abyss. I hope to meet her someday..."

Then, Elijah Salas seemed to think of their current situation: "If there's an opportunity..."

Lin Yi: "There will be. I don't think I can be trapped here for long."

Elijah Salas shook his head noncommittally.