Just as Asho was being labeled as irrecoverable residual waste, in the bustling imperial capital of “Nanamo Ul Namo” far away from them, there was a magnificent palace group. Among the palace group, the most eye-catching was the towering tower built on a small island in the middle of the Yalan Lake. With white walls, blue roofs, and the sound of orioles singing, surrounded by white doves, this building seemed to belong to a fairy tale world.

“…And so, the brave knight defeated the fire-breathing dragon and found the beautiful princess in the dragon’s lair. They returned to the capital together and received everyone’s congratulations. The king presided over their wedding, and the knight and the princess lived happily ever after. Congratulations, congratulations.”

The kind old grandmother closed the picture book with a smile on her face. At this moment, the clock in the room chimed, and a cute cuckoo bird popped out to announce the time.

“Princess, it’s already 12 o’clock. It’s time for you to sleep.” The old grandmother gently pulled the blanket, as if afraid that covering the princess with the blanket would hurt her.

The princess blinked her beautiful light green eyes, sparkling like stars. Her skin was pure white like snow, her lips were blood-red, and she had long, black, and beautiful hair that spread out like a fan on the pillow.

“Grandma Martha, when will the dragon come to capture me?”

The old grandmother smiled and touched the princess’s head. “The brave knights are protecting you outside, so the dragon can’t come and take you away, my lovely princess.”

“Oh? Won’t the dragon be disappointed?” The princess looked a little sad. “It wants to capture me so much, just like how I want to see Nina… Grandma Martha, when will Nina come to see me?”

“Princess Nina is very busy. When she has free time, she will definitely come to see you.”

The old grandmother turned off the bedside lamp and quietly left the room.

The princess lay on the bed, lost in thought. She imagined what the dragon would look like: it would have four beautiful horns, shiny scales, and sharp but neat teeth. Its eyes would be as big as a half-mirror, and I could see myself in its pupils…

When the princess turned over, she was stunned: a bronze dragon that perfectly matched her imagination appeared outside the window, gently flapping its wings in the air, and looking at her with vertical pupils.

The princess lifted the blanket and got out of bed. She was wearing a set of pure white cotton pajamas and walked barefoot on the cold marble floor, standing by the window and facing the bronze dragon.

“Are you here to capture me?”

The bronze dragon didn’t speak, just looked at her silently.

But the princess seemed to hear something and smiled brightly. “Okay, I’ll go with you.”

Compared to the knights who had been guarding her at the tower, the dragon in front of her seemed more like a hero who would save her. She would sit on the dragon’s back, fly in the sky, overlook the magnificent land, and experience thrilling adventures. This was the life she had been longing for.

She carefully climbed over the window, and the barrier that had blocked her seemed to disappear in that instant. She sat on the edge of the window sill, gently swinging her two cute and crystal-clear little feet, and embraced the bronze dragon. “Thank you, dragon.”

However, the knights at the tower were actually guards.

The bronze dragon did not exist in reality.

But the princess really jumped down.

With a piercing whistle breaking through the night sky, the entire palace was alarmed. The palace sorcerers were urgently summoned, and the sorcerers from the Three-Winged Sanctuary flew directly to the room at the top of the tower for a carpet search, but they found nothing.

“Where is the princess?”

“The princess is missing!”

“Quick, find her! Summon the divination sorcerers!… No, use the ‘Gospel Book’ to inquire about the princess’s location! Use as many points and gospels as needed!”

“No, the ‘Gospel Book’ is not accepting it!”

“How is that possible…”

The frustrated trackers quickly left the princess’s room, expanding the search range to the entire capital.

No one noticed that there was already an unexpected guest in the room, silently observing this spectacle.

He walked to the window, placed his hands on the windowsill, and leaned over to overlook the magnificent royal city below. Layers of aurora-like curtains gradually unfolded above the city, and thousands of “Eagle Eye” drones took off everywhere. Laser-like patterns appeared on the ground, and all monitoring systems were fully activated. Within a few minutes, every corner of the city was checked, and all spatial anomalies were purified, all in search of the missing princess.

“Well, that saved me some effort.” He rested his chin on his hands and smiled. “Educating the Sword Girl really took quite some ‘time’.”

“Who are you?”

A puffed-up voice suddenly came from behind. The observer turned his head and looked at the black-dressed girl standing by the bed. She had a beautiful face, with pure white skin like snow, blood-red lips, and gorgeous black hair.

But unlike the calm and lovely princess who had just jumped down, she seemed angry, with her hands on her hips and a puffed-up face staring at the observer, as if she wanted to pounce on him.

“Although I would love to say nice to meet you, we already made eye contact just now.” The observer shrugged. “Nice to meet you, witch. I am the Final Observer, you can call me the Observer.”

“I’m not a witch!” She walked directly in front of the observer and pointed her finger at his chest. “I am Princess Lisdiya, you can call me Princess Lis or Princess Diya. I have never been called a witch, such a strange name!”The observer looked up and asked, “So, should I call you Lis or Diya?”

The other person blinked and said, “…Diya.”

“But I think Witch sounds better.” The observer turned around and looked at the bustling imperial city in the distance. “So, Witch, how does it feel to be free?”

“Are you mocking me?” Diya grabbed the observer’s collar and turned him around, almost lifting him up. “Who are you? How can you break through the barriers and enter the royal city, even my tower? If it weren’t for the help of the Bronze Dragon, I wouldn’t have been able to leave this prison!”

“If a legendary sorcerer can infiltrate here, then seeing me means you have completely surpassed the realm of ordinary people.” Diya said seriously, “I am not a soul, not a spirit, not artificing, but an illusion, a thought, a mood… Besides Lis, no one else can possibly notice my existence. No one in this world can see me.”

“How can you see a thought?”

Diya carefully examined the observer’s misty appearance. “Are you the Divine Lord?”

“I’m sorry to disappoint you.”

Even though Diya was holding him up like this, the observer didn’t seem annoyed at all and calmly said, “I am not a god, at least… not yet. On the contrary, I have come to ask for your help.”

Diya tilted her head. “What kind of help?”

“Be my companion and accept my arrangements.”

“Can I take that as a declaration of enslavement?”

“I swear to defend your right to free imagination.”

“Absurd.”

Diya suddenly pushed the observer out of the window, and a pure white light radiated from her, instantly turning the whole world into a white void, with only Diya standing and the observer falling.

As the observer’s dark red and gradually changing coat slowly turned gray, he froze in place as if time had stopped.

“Although I don’t know who you are or how you can see me, since you can communicate with me, it means you are within my thoughts.” Diya said word by word, “Intruding into someone else’s realm of thoughts is a dangerous thing.”

She clasped her hands together. “Be shattered into countless fragments of time, Observer!”

As soon as Diya finished speaking, the observer’s whole body shattered like a mirror, becoming smaller and smaller until it turned into a pile of sparkling sand.

Hmph, is that all… Just as this thought arose in Diya’s mind, cracking sounds suddenly came from all directions!

Crack!

Diya looked up and found that the pure white world she created was filled with countless cracks like a broken mirror! In each fragment of the world, the blurry appearance of the observer appeared!

From above and below, from all directions, endless and ubiquitous!

“Not illusions, not illusions, each and every one of them is the real me.”

The voices of the observers resonated like thunder, shaking Diya’s figure. “We come from the previous second, the previous nanosecond, the previous one millionth of a nanosecond… Instead of using time to kill, you should learn how to use time to avoid death.”

“It seems that I can’t save any effort.”…

When Diya came back to her senses, she found herself sitting on the edge of the bed, and the observer was still next to the window, as if nothing had happened.

But Diya knew that in the mental confrontation just now, even in her own realm of thoughts, she had lost, lost completely. She couldn’t describe this feeling – her free thoughts were actually defeated!

She rolled on the bed and hid behind it, avoiding the observer’s gaze. Like a startled little rabbit, she cautiously asked, “Do you really need my help as such an existence?”

“You seem to overestimate me.” The observer smiled and said, “I am actually just a distant memory. If it weren’t for certain special methods, I wouldn’t be able to see you at all. My true self has just entered the Time Continent, without even a single golden feather. My strength is even weaker than yours. With your help, the exploration of the virtual realm will be much easier.”

How is that possible… Diya didn’t believe that the observer only had two wings, but she quickly noticed the key words mentioned by the observer: “Exploration of the virtual realm?”

“Yes, you will join my team to explore the virtual realm and rampage through the Time Continent.” The observer nodded. “But don’t expect me to provide any information. You know more about the virtual realm and the Time Continent than I do.”

Explore the virtual realm together? Diya instinctively wanted to deny this strange idea, but as she thought about it, teaming up in the virtual realm with someone who could see her actually seemed ordinary.

The key point was that the observer had no reason to deceive a mere two-winged sorcerer, even if she was favored by the Bronze Dragon.

However, if the observer’s strength was really weaker than her own, then…

“By the way,” the observer suddenly remembered something and said, “I also have a swordsman companion. We have traveled through the Knowledge Sea together and killed many enemies.”

Diya pointed at the observer angrily and shouted, “Are you threatening me?”

“I prefer to call it an enticement.” The observer tilted his head. “But I swear to defend your right to free imagination.”

Diya seemed to want to say something else, but her face suddenly changed, and she quickly disappeared, becoming blurry.”Not even a word of goodbye, such an impolite princess.” The observer lazily sat on the chair by the vanity table, “She was just captured by the heresy, why so nervous? She should have known that the favor of the Bronze Dragon is not so easy to bear.”

“Compared to you, she is really much more mischievous.”

Sword Girl sat on the edge of the window, her long black silk legs gently swaying in the air, her expression somewhat worried, “But she is too mischievous, I’m more concerned about whether Asho can handle her.”

“Don’t worry.”

The observer said with a playful smile, “Isn’t Sonia still there?”