After an unknown amount of time, Angor fell out of the golden light.
His eyes were tightly shut, and his cheeks were pale.
Several seconds later, Angor opened his eyes. Before he could check his surroundings, he felt something pressing on his chest. He held his chest, pushed himself up from the ground, and began to retch.
It took him more than half a minute to do so.
However, he did not have anything in his stomach. All he managed to vomit was some sour gastric juice. Still, he felt better than before.
"It's the second time … the second time …" Angor's voice was filled with resentment.
Previously, when he was swallowed into the dalmatian's stomach, he experienced an unprecedented tumbling. At that time, he felt very uncomfortable. This time, it was even worse. Angor lost count of how many times he tumbled. It felt like he had been tumbling from last year to this year.
Even with Angor's current body condition, he still felt like puking. It was obvious how unforgettable the experience was.
Feeling better, he lifted his head and looked around.
What he saw next made him completely dumbfounded.
Clocks.
Countless clocks.
Round, square, flat, slanted, as big as a morning star, as small as a ring, with cracks on it, half-buried in the void, glowing, dimming …
There were all kinds of clocks in this unknown space.
Angor was in a corner of this "forest of clocks".
Beneath his feet was the void, but inexplicably, there was a patch of faintly glowing grass growing where his feet landed. Angor tried walking around. The glowing grass would follow his steps and automatically grow around his feet, so he did not have to worry about falling into the void.
It was strange to see grass growing out of nowhere, but since he was inside the dog's stomach, anything could happen. Angor did not pay much attention to it.
He believed that the glowing grass was just an insignificant detail.
Maybe the dog wanted him to see this "forest of clocks".
There were all kinds of clocks. Some were exquisite, some were simple. Angor did not see anything special about them. The only thing they had in common was that they were all still.
Since Zebra Dog brought him here, he was sure that Zebra Dog planned for him to come here. Zebra Dog probably wanted him to see or do something.
With that in mind, Angor stood up.
He walked to the nearest clock.
It was a rather dim grandfather clock, the hands of which had decayed. It was located at the edge of the forest, which looked like something a fallen noble would use to keep up appearances.
No matter how he looked at it, he could not find anything special about it.
He hesitated for a second and decided to touch it. Previously, he had touched the clock outside to cause the change. Perhaps the clock here was the same.
But when Angor reached out his hand, he realized that he only grabbed empty air.
This clock did not have a physical body.
It was illusory.
Angor was surprised. As an Illusionist, he did not see anything illusory about the clock. Apart from the fact that it looked a little old, Angor could see nothing but a real clock in his spirit vision.
He couldn't help but wave his hand around the clock. Even though his hand was only touching illusions, he still couldn't find any traces of illusions.
Could this be a higher level illusion technique?
Or maybe it wasn't an illusion at all, and Angor simply couldn't touch the real thing yet?
Angor could not come up with an answer. He could only blame it on the dog's ability.
If this clock was illusory, then what about the other clocks? Angor did not stay in one place for too long. He moved on to the next one.
The square clock … was illusory.
The heart-shaped pocket watch … was illusory.
The ornate wall clock … was illusory.
Angor kept touching the clocks and pocket watches as he moved forward. None of them were real. They were all illusions.
The clocks all looked special, but Angor did not see anything worth studying. He had to keep moving.
As he moved on, he noticed that the clocks around him became more exquisite. There were also more shining clock wheels.
However, no matter how exquisite and dazzling the clocks were, they only had a beautiful outer layer. The inner layer was still illusory.
Maybe it was because there were too many illusory clocks, and he could not find anything worth paying attention to. Angor's mind began to wander in a strange direction. For example, if he was a clockmaker, he would have a great time here. He could design clocks for people without having to think twice. He could come up with different designs every day.
Angor kept moving forward with all kinds of random thoughts in mind. After walking for a while, he suddenly saw a giant clock with a pointed tip in the distance.
The clock was so big that it looked like it was holding up the sky.
When he saw the clock, an idea popped up in his mind. That … That might be the destination!
Angor did not care if it was just a hunch or something the dog forced on him. He had nowhere else to go anyway, so he might as well go there. Maybe he could find something.
Angor did not hesitate. He even picked up his pace.
The shimmering grass grew and disappeared under Angor's feet like a beacon. He reached the giant clock.
Angor quickly realized that he had come to the right place.
This was because when he entered the range of one li around the clock on the top of the spire, the hands of all the still clocks began to move.
Tick-tock, tick-tock —
The ticking of the clocks echoed across the sky.
However, the clocks were still illusory. At least, Angor could not touch them.
He had no choice but to keep moving forward. Following the ticking of time, Angor slowly approached the pointed clock.
There were fewer clocks around him. Normally, he could see a large number of clocks every one or two steps. But in this place, he might not see any clocks even after several hundred steps.
However, as long as there was a clock around that huge clock, it was bound to be dazzling and incomparably beautiful.
Angor walked around the illusionary clocks and stood under the giant clock.
When he arrived here, he seemed to have triggered some sort of mechanism. A deep, tall shadow slowly emerged from the top of the huge clock.
Angor froze when he saw the shadow.
He couldn't see the shadow's face, but he was very familiar with its silhouette and the way it sat on the clock. Backup Station
The first time he met the Time Thief, the Time Thief sat on top of the Wheel of Time in the same way.
Was he the Time Thief?
Did the Time Thief come to Dalmatian's stomach?
Did the Time Thief come for me? Don't tell me that I have to make an important decision now?
Angor was a little confused. He did not have to make a decision yet. Didn't the Time Thief always show up to steal a choice?
Or did the Time Thief see that he was going to make a choice and came here to wait for him?
But that did not sound like the Time Thief's style. Angor learned from many people that the Time Thief would not show up when you were making a choice. Once you made your choice, the Time Thief would naturally steal the other choice away.
This was the Time Thief's way of doing things, and it was also his way of doing things.
At least, no one had ever seen the Time Thief show up before a choice was made.
So what was going on here?
Before Angor could figure out what was going on, the crisp sound of a bell broke through the barrier and came from the distance.
For some reason, he felt his heart beating faster when the bell rang.
The Time Thief, who was sitting on top of the giant clock, suddenly looked up at the source of the sound.
"Something triggered the choice," the Time Thief muttered. "Let me see."
As soon as he said that, a round clock was suddenly pulled closer by the Time Thief.
It was the clock that was making the crisp sound.
Angor looked at the familiar clock and felt his heart beating faster. He had a feeling that the clock was somehow connected to him.
It was as if the clock represented him.
The clock in the Time Thief's hand suddenly began to release golden light. The Time Thief took a deep sniff and spoke in a teasing tone, "Tsk tsk. The honey of time is so sweet. I think I'll have to check it out."
Angor saw the golden light as well. For some reason, when he looked at it, a certain image appeared in his mind.
It was the image of when Sunders said goodbye to him when he decided to return to the Mist Zone.
Back then, Angor was speaking with a determined look in his eyes, "When I said that I'm going to observe the evolution process of an object of disorder, I just made up an excuse on the spur of the moment. But as soon as I said it, I had a feeling that I'm going back.
In fact, it's so strong that … I feel like I'm making a choice that will change the course of my life. "
"If you think the choice is important, then remove all possible distractions and follow your heart." Sunders pondered for a moment before he spoke again, "Since you think the choice is important, then remove all possible interference and follow your heart."
The golden light faded away, and so did the image in Angor's eyes.
Angor looked at the Time Thief in the sky and the glowing clock.
At this moment, he suddenly understood.
What he saw now was not something that happened in the real world.
It happened not long ago when he made the decision to return to the Mist Zone.
This was also the reason why he suddenly felt a sense of destiny when he chose to return to the misty belt. Because that choice had activated the mark of the Time Thief, causing him to pay attention to himself.
As for the clock, it was probably his own Bell of Fate, which the Time Thief made into a physical form.
Everything made sense now.
Angor also realized that the Time Thief in front of him was not real. He was just a Time Thief who was manifested by Dalmatian.
But Angor still didn't understand why Dalmatian would do something like this.
Was it trying to tell him that the Time Thief was watching him not long ago?
But if the Time Thief really did watch him and stole his choice … the Time Thief should have shown up, right? Even if the Time Thief didn't show up, he should at least give Angor some compensation. The Time Thief had to pay a price for stealing someone's choice. It was a kind of balance.
But when Angor made his choice, he neither saw the Time Thief nor received any compensation.
But why?
Why did the Time Thief suddenly stop paying attention to him?
Puzzled, he kept reading.
He saw that the Time Thief was indeed going to Angor's location. He even saw how the Time Thief controlled the clock and opened the Time Wheel gate.
But at the most crucial moment, the Time Thief suddenly withdrew his hand.
When his fingertips touched the Time Wheel's gate, he was pricked.
A drop of golden blood fell from his fingertip and into the void.
The Time Thief looked at the drop of golden blood and narrowed his eyes. "I have a bad feeling about this. Could it be that I'll run into —"
The Time Thief's words became muffled.
It was as if someone was disturbing time and space and didn't want Angor to hear it.
Angor saw that the Time Thief didn't open the gate again. Perhaps this was why the Time Thief didn't show up when Angor made his choice.
When the Time Thief returned to the top of the clock, the noise finally returned to normal.
Angor then saw the Time Thief looking at the clock with great interest.
"Let me see. Who does this clock represent?"
Next, the Time Thief slowly turned around and looked down at Angor from above.
At this moment, the past and present seemed to be intertwined.
The eyes of the current Angor and the Time Thief from the past met each other without any resistance.
"Woof!"
As soon as their eyes met, Angor heard a familiar dog bark. It sounded like a puppy barking.
At the same time, the images around him began to blur.
The forest of clocks, the giant clock wheel, the floating golden light, and the Time Thief's tall figure … all became blurry after the puppy barked.
Soon, all the images around him disappeared, including the clock and the Time Thief.
However, he still saw the Time Thief's grin at the very last second before the image disappeared. He could also hear the Time Thief's soft chuckle even though they were separated by both the past and the future.
"Oh, it's you, young man."
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