Chapter 37 The Door to Time and Space

Billy raised his hand, extending his only four fingers: thumb, index finger, middle finger, and ring finger, but missing his little finger.

He tried to slip his index finger under Lisa's clothes, unbutton the top button, and then kiss her lips.

Lisa bent her upper body low, bent her knees, and squeezed her legs into her husband's shadow, wrapping them around her body and twisting them constantly.

But Billis didn't react at all!

"What exactly is going on with this body double?"

"Shall we try again?"

Billis looked at himself lying on the stand-in workbench, then at his hands, which now seemed as wide and flat as mud walls. He walked to the mirror and stared at the square poker face in it for a long time.

"This stand is so lifelike! Although I can't feel the pain from the magic, I can't feel your love for me either!"

Lisa picked up the scalding hot coffee cup and poured it over the entire Mark 2, asking, "Can you feel that this is liquid?"

Billis's four fingers immediately retracted into his palm, becoming a round tin block, and then a cup-like opening appeared, piercing through his palm.

Lisa then asked Billis to put his hand in the fireplace so she could warm it with the fire.

The Mark II seemed to understand the word 'roast' on its own, and its arm quickly transformed into a shield that could withstand a wall of fire.

Billy shouted, “Hey, see that, honey? It can generate self-protective measures against threats without human judgment.”

Just as he was saying this, everything suddenly went black. It seemed as if Billis's eyes had fallen into a vortex of time and space. And the moment his eyes emerged from the vortex, the environment had changed, and so had the person.

He saw a pile of dry wood next to the barn, the cartilaginous tree roots covered with soil, moss and withered leaves, emitting a strong smell of decay.

In the distance, houses of equal height and length, having just been drenched by a heavy rain, grew increasingly wet and brighter along the paths between the fields behind them, until they merged into the vast expanse of the horizon.

Billy shifted his gaze to the left and saw sheep pens and cattle pens, with sheep ears peeking out of the fences as they lazily grazed. He also saw a sloping outhouse with a dilapidated wooden plank covering its roof, and several hens running around the outhouse, playing on the ground and in the sparse grass, pecking at the food and clucking.

Then, Billy shifted his gaze to the right and saw a pile of stones behind the barn, surrounded by deep ruts. Behind the pile of stones stood a spire, and behind the spire were still distant farmlands.

Just then, a coachman, his body half-leaning against the carriage, drove the carriage from behind the farmland. He was dressed in coarse cloth clothes, with a long turban wrapped around his forehead and a short knife sheath protruding from his waist.

The contents of the carriage seemed very heavy, making a metallic clanging sound, causing the wheels to sink deeply.

The coachman struggled to move, each gesture conveying weakness and submission. A mournful cry rang out from the city behind the fields, urging the coachman to spur the horse on. The carriage shook violently, and the hard object that could no longer be concealed suddenly pierced the window, revealing half a twisting shadow from the side.

It looked somewhat like an arm, several times longer and wider than a human arm, and was bound tightly with iron hooks, steel wires, ropes, and every imaginable binding material.

As the carriage drew closer, Billis could see more and more clearly that it was freshly forged ironware, with sparks from the anvil floating in the air. In particular, the pair of leaky iron wings, which had not yet cooled and solidified, could be seen struggling in the molten iron.

Stop the car!

Three soldiers in full armor, wielding short halberds, chased after them from behind.

The driver was clearly frightened after hearing the shout, and disregarded the depth of the farmland, desperately trying to make the horse run faster.

"I told you to put the golem down!"

The coachman, perhaps having lost his sense of direction, found the wheels stuck in the farmland. Soldiers quickly caught up, and the sound of clashing blades filled the air.

Thick blood gushed from his throat, then he swallowed it, the blood flowing along with the sound. The soldier finished quickly, leaving with a key he had pulled from the golem.

This is a three-foot-long gold key with a stamp engraved with an octopus head.

Billis had seen this kind of seal in the underground city of Gupodelot, and he quickly realized that the two soldiers came from there.

"Hey, can you see me?"

The soldier passed through Billy's body, the illusion vanished, and the winding darkness drew a wall, then a ladder, a fireplace, and finally the entire castle.

Billis finally returned to reality.

Lisa's expression subtly changed, and she asked, "You look like you've encountered a ghost."

“Darling, you would never have imagined that this stand-in could also show what happened in the past.”

"It lets you see things it has seen before, right?"

"Is that so? Maybe not. Through its eyes, I did see the existence of the ancient Podrolite dynasty. At that time, right here, there was no castle yet. There was a barn, and beyond that were farmlands. Further away was the city. I followed the double to the farmlands and saw two soldiers chasing a coachman who had stolen a golem, but they couldn't see me."

"It's about looking back at history."

“I also thought of a cooler word to describe this new feature: Time Portal.”

"This is your substitute, do as you please."

Just as Lisa was about to lay Billis back down on the stand-in workbench, someone knocked on the castle gate, and Billis had no choice but to take his stand-in to open the door.

However, upon opening the gate, they found no one outside, only a gust of wind passing through the gatehouse and blowing into the inner fortress.

This strange wind entered the hall, kitchen, dining room, and bedroom, and finally tried to enter the tower where Elsa lived.

Perhaps because the Stand was so useful, Billy suddenly arched his arms into a trumpet shape and sucked in the shameless wind, actually pulling the other party over.

"Wait! It's me! It's me!"

"I knew it was you. If it were anyone else, I would have buried him long ago."

Billis released the wind from the horn hole, and gradually swirling hands and legs emerged, with a dark belly appearing and disappearing. Although there was nothing on the face, strange shadow structures could be seen.

With a violent, high-speed rotation, a wind element was formed.

The wind elemental looked at the golem in surprise, but the golem ignored the wind elemental.

"Don't be in such a hurry to kick me out. You can tell who I am, right?"

"Besides Mr. Richie, there is no one else in the world who is so passionate about Elemental Stands."

"I never expected you to live in such a high-profile castle. The castle is a symbol of status for the Faan nobility, and also a beacon of civilization in another world. Uh, but your new outfit is probably quite out of place with the castle. Where did you get this double? Is it a combination of ancient equipment and modern technology?"

"Don't ask so many questions, and I won't tell you. Anyway, you'll see it often in the future."

Richie swayed the shadow that looked somewhat like a head.

The wind elemental has very keen ears and can hear things that are far away and high up, such as angels living in towers. He had just wanted to go upstairs to check.

But Billy stopped him from going upstairs.

"That's not your wife. Are you hiding another woman?"

“She is my family member, she is fine, and she will not leak information.”

"You can promise that, because I don't want outsiders to hear the conversation. You must remember every word that follows. I will only say it once."

"I promise."

Billis gave a serious, slight smile, indicating that he was ready to accept the mission.

Richie gently pushed open the window, mixing the sound of the wind with the sound of air circulation, so that only Billy could hear Richie's voice.

"Have you heard of the Magic Path Development Bureau? It's an emerging energy industry, unlike oil and minerals. It's like a river in the air, a magical transport guide to another world. Simply put, the Magic Path is transportation. We can build airships or pipeline trains based on the Magic Path."

What do you want me to do?

"The Abyss of Eva is the largest known underground transportation route. The Merloy Company is the transportation company responsible for the Abyss of Eva. There are hundreds of magical paths inside the Abyss, but only two have been fully developed. Just last month, one of the magical paths suddenly became blocked. In the four weeks that followed, five accidents occurred in the Abyss of Eva, but the locations of the accidents were not the same. In the words of the passengers, the Merloy Company's tube train was like hitting some huge living thing."

"Is this living thing moving underground?"

"Yes, it is enormous and severely obstructs traffic. Your task is to clean up the filth in the abyss."

"Is that thing connected to the Demon King?"

"Investigating the truth is also part of the mission."

"Mia is still my partner, right?"

"No, of course not. She is still practicing her studies in the forest. We will arrange another partner for you."

"Then I'd better go with your wife."

"Only one person can take on the mission, and I think it's best if it's you."

"Why?"

"Because the new identity we assigned to our agents was that of a pipe cleaner."