Chapter 96: Rapid Reaping
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 96: Rapid Reaping
As the last True God faded into nothingness, the already fragile protection surrounding the timeline completely dissolved.
Looking at the solitary Space-Time Fragment, a hint of disappointment flickered across Xie Bai’s face.
"I guess you can't cheese a bug like that out of the system after all."
Stowing the fragment away, she turned her attention toward the timeline itself.
"Two minutes left. Let's make this quick."
With a flick of her wrist, Xie Bai unleashed Annihilation, tearing a jagged hole in the fabric of space-time.
As a torrent of Void Power surged in, the world instantly began to collapse. Within moments, another timeline was erased by her hand.
【"Branch Timeline" cleared successfully. Time elapsed: 5min 25s】
【Proceed to the next "Branch Timeline"?】
Most of those five minutes had been wasted on travel and listening to the True Gods' prattle. The actual combat had been incredibly brief—so brief that calling it a "one-shot" felt like an understatement.
The Flowers Wither, Leaves Fall effect, which granted her Buff Nullification, had two minutes and thirty-two seconds remaining. Once it expired, she would have to wait twenty-four hours before she could use it again.
Xie Bai needed to clear the remaining twenty-odd timelines within this window.
Vroom—!
Upon entering the next timeline, she didn't bother searching for the Supreme Court's location.
The stats she had gained from killing True Gods in the previous timeline had vanished the moment she left. Now, she had to repeat the process: kill one True God to gain "starting capital," then trigger Echo to reap the rest.
Fortunately, after the destruction of the first two timelines, both Xie Bai and the Supreme Court overseeing the timelines had gained plenty of experience.
While Xie Bai was finishing off the previous timeline, the Supreme Court had already contacted the Gliese of the next one.
Whether every version of Gliese would calmly accept the destruction of his world was uncertain, but the Supreme Court ensured that every version of him would follow its directives. This was part of the price Gliese paid for wielding the Supreme Court's power.
As expected, a teleportation prompt appeared almost instantly.
【Detected: "Lord of Holiness and Light Gliese" is using the Stone of the Lonely Sky on you. Accept?】
"Accept."
Her vision shifted, and Xie Bai found herself back in the Supreme Court.
Gliese was fully prepared. He had already summoned every True God to the court. The deities were currently whispering among themselves, confused as to why they had been gathered, completely unaware of the fate awaiting them.
Watching the gods speculate about what "great event" was about to occur, a complex expression crossed Gliese’s face.
While he was still wrestling with his internal conflict, the weakest True God among them suddenly dropped dead.
Before the surrounding gods could even react, a terrifying shockwave erupted, instantly sweeping through every deity present.
Seeing the scene unfold exactly as the Supreme Court's intelligence had predicted, Gliese finally let go of his hesitation.
"Merging the timelines, is it...? Hmph... I really do envy the 'me' in the main timeline..."
A second later, Gliese was cut down by Xie Bai’s blade, exactly as planned.
No travel time, no nonsense. Every True God had been dealt with.
Only four seconds had passed since Xie Bai entered this timeline.
One second to teleport to the Supreme Court. One second to kill the first god. One second to replicate a True God’s AOE skill and sweep the room. One second to kill Gliese.
As for the God of Life—usually the hardest to kill—the Supreme Court had forcibly "cleaned up" that loose end before Xie Bai even arrived.
If they had left it to Gliese’s hesitation, it would have wasted far too much time. The Supreme Court knew Xie Bai was in a hurry; if she missed this window, there was no telling when she would return. Driven by an intense craving to merge the timelines, the Supreme Court had optimized every possible detail for her.
Xie Bai didn't leave immediately, however.
After a quick search, she located the Godhead of Time. Once she had recorded the Branch History and the True Scale, she swung her hand, unleashing Funeral Rites.
Leveraging the Space Breaker affix of the skill, she tore open a massive spatial rift in record time, allowing an endless flood of Void Power to pour in.
Annihilation was still on cooldown. Although the rift created by Funeral Rites lasted much shorter than the one from Annihilation, it was more than enough to destroy a timeline.
Moments later, under the erosion of the Void, the timeline fell into irreversible destruction.
【"Branch Timeline" cleared successfully. Time elapsed: 6s】
【Proceed to the next "Branch Timeline"?】
Through extreme time compression, Xie Bai had achieved a seamless flow of operations: slaughtering the gods, recording history, and destroying the timeline.
Leaving that world, she immediately plunged into the next.
The pattern repeated.
One second to teleport. One second for starting capital. One second to replicate a skill and sweep. One second to kill Gliese. Two seconds to record history and finish the job.
At a pace of six seconds per timeline, Xie Bai systematically dismantled them one by one.
By the time she reaped the final timeline, she had replicated twenty different True God-level AOE skills. She only used Echo five times during the entire process, relying on temporary replicated skills for the rest of the "sweeps."
If her clearing speed hadn't been significantly faster than Echo's thirty-second cooldown, she wouldn't have bothered stuffing her skill library with these True God-level AOEs.
While their range was massive and their power off the charts, their cooldowns were absurd. The shortest was six hours, while others required years.
For instance, she had replicated a skill called Era Destruction from a God of Destruction. Its cooldown was a staggering several million years, but its effect was equally ridiculous.
Fueled by Xie Bai’s insane stats, this top-tier destruction skill had successfully wiped the entire continent off the map in an instant, leaving only the Supreme Court floating lonely in the void.
Of course, she had only replicated that one because she was in a rush; most True God AOEs weren't quite that over-the-top.
With the destruction of the final timeline, Xie Bai successfully exited the Gate of Space-Time.
The continuous, high-intensity work left her—someone used to a more leisurely pace of combat—feeling a bit lightheaded.
"Whew... finally done. I'm not doing that again. It wouldn't have killed me to just wait for the cooldowns."
Back in the outside world, a dazed Xie Bai found a long sofa and collapsed onto it.
The area happened to be filled with a mountain of plushies. Buried among them, she instinctively grabbed a large doll and started rubbing her face against it.
"Mmm... so soft... quite comfy... wait a minute."
Realizing something was off, Xie Bai bolted upright in the pile of dolls.
"Wait, where did all this stuff come from?"
Before she could process the situation, two Gamies suddenly popped up from behind the sofa and hugged her.
"Sister Xiaobai, you're back! What do you think of the decorations?"
"Ugh... Sister Xiaobai came back way too fast. We still have so many spots left to decorate!"