Endless Journey: Infinite Realms

Chapter 315 How deviated can you be? Please no more!

"Trash Prefecture, you say?" Professor Frances replied after hearing what Elise just said. "That’s... a trashy name."

"Now that you are here, it will be difficult for you to leave." Elise said as her wariness against the professor disappeared entirely. "I... just wish you luck."

"Hey, from the way that you talked about this place, it was as if you are saying that this place is a hellhole." Professor Frances commented as she watched Elise’s every movements "Is this place really bad as what you are making it to be?"

Of course Professor Frances knew that the place that she’s in now was bad. Just the presence of trash around her was enough to prove that!

But Professor Frances needed to gather information immediately, and her best source right now will have to be Elise.

As such, the professor has no choice but to ask Elise questions, no matter how much it will make her look stupid.

"Are you serious?" As expected, Elise seemed to be bothered by Professor Frances’ question, as if she did not expect her to ask it. "You think this place is not bad? Oh my, don’t tell me that you don’t have any knowledge about the Trash Prehecture?"

"Yeah, I don’t have any knowledge about this place." The professor replied honestly as she shrugged her shoulders. "Why? Got any problem with that?"

"No, I don’t have any problem with that." Elise replied as she placed a palm on her forehead. "I knew that at this day and age, there will be a lot of people who does not have any knowledge about this place."

"..."

After all, those TimeMasters made it sure to fill this world with propaganda." Elise continued saying as she let out a sigh. "Only cultivators like me know the whole truth. As for mortals? They are in the dark about any of this..."

"Well, hahaha, just treat me like one of those mortal women." Professor Frances said as she adapted a sheepish look.

Elise gave the professor a momentary suspicious gaze, but that disappeared at the former started talking again.

"This place that we are in right now is the Trash Prefecture." Elise said as she prodded the trash beneath her feet. "This is the place where the trash from all around the world were dumped. Biological waste, industrial waste, and even hazardous waste, Name any trash that you know, and you can find them in this in this Prefecture."

"...What a fitting name then." The professor commented as she looked at the Trash around her. "But what do you mean about this place housing people that are all looking for scraps of Time?"

To the professor’s worry, she saw Elise’s face contorting again, as if what she said triggered an emotion inside Elise.

This reaction only lasted for a second before Elise gave her reply.

"....As you might know, everything in this world is dictated about the Time that an individual has." Elise said as she took a deep breath. "The properties, the power, and even the status of a person, all of that will depend our his/her Time."

"..." Professor Frances did not interrupt Elise as she kept on listening.

"If you have large amounts of Time, then you are bound to be happy in this world, especially if you are a powerful cultivator." Elise said as her face turned downcast. "But no matter how much time you have with you, one mistake can make you lose all of it."

"..."

"No matter how rich you are, if you violate a rule in this world and you were caught violating it, then you will be punished heavily." Elise said as she started clenching her fists. "And the punishment will be..."

"Most of your Time will be stripped away from you and you will be dumped here?" Professor Frances said before Elise could continue talking. "That’s the punishment, right?"

"E-exactly." Elise commented as she nodded her head. "And if it was a cultivator who was caught violating a rule, his/her cultivation will also be weakened."

"Which was just like what had happened to you." Professor Frances said as she now understood the sudden regression of Elise’s power. "So you were caught and brought here?"

"...Yes." Elise replied as she let out another sigh. "You know, I fought back against them at first. But it was all futile in the end. There was just... a lot of them."

"Hey, wait a second." At that moment, Professor Frances remembered the fact that Elise was part of the Covenant of Immortals. Since this group was a rebel group, then maybe the reason that Elise was placed here was....

"If you were brought here, then does that mean that the whole Covenant of Immortals were also arrested?" Professor Frances said as the gears in her mind began to turn. "Is that the violation that you got punished for?"

"...Yes." Elise meekly replied as she looked down again. "After we met with your Emperor, a large army of TimeMasters attacked our base. We were caught off-guard by that, since our base was supposed to be hidden. A lot of my comrades died, and those who survived like me... had their cultivation damaged and their Time stripped away. We were then dumped on this Trash Prefecture, all left to rot here!"

At this time, any bravado in Elise was already gone, as only a shell of her former self could be seen by the professor. Elise’s fierce look was no more, as only a face filled with despondence and hopeless was displayed by her.

"This is bad." Professor Frances thought to herself as she heard Elise’s answer. "If the whole Covenant of Immortals was already gone, then that means that Alex’s plans was already wrecked. Not only that, but there is also the fact that Queen Mother and I were at this place. Were we also attacked by the TimeMasters? But I do not remember anything from that."

"And if that attack did indeed happen, then where the hell is Alex and Alina right now?" Professor Frances thought as she resisted the urge to snarl. "Why the hell did those two abandon me and Queen Mother in this place? Are those two planning something again?"

Right now, Professor Frances had no way of knowing what to do in her current situation. After all, she just found herself stranded on a new place with almost nothing to help her out here.

The only people that she knew were Queen Mother and Elise, who both seemed to be useless for now.

"Argh... What the hell should I do now?" Professor Frances thought to herself as she started pacing all around her.

She already forgot Queen Mother’s existence, and she also forgot Elise’s nearby body.

All that the professor could think of right now was a possible way to improve her current situation.

"Hey! Why are you suddenly ignoring me!" Naturally, this action of the professor had rendered Elise unhappy, although she did not really make her unhappiness that apparent. "Did you lose interest in me already?"

"Shut up please. I am thinking of a way to strengthen myself in this place." Professor Frances replied quickly to Elise. "You have no idea on what I am planning on, so you better keep your mouth shut. Or do you still want to get beaten up like what I promised earlier?"

The professor then released some of her killing intent again, making Elise freeze.

But this did not deter Elise at all, as she continued talking amidst the professor’s killing intent.

"T-t-there is no way that you can get stronger in this place." Elise said through her chattering teeth. "The TimeMasters made sure that the Trash Prefecture will be devoid of any Qi. That means we cannot cultivate here!"

"Oh well, thank you for that reminder, but I do not need that Qi to be stronger." Professor Frances replied absent-mindedly.

"You don’t need Qi? Does that mean that you are a Deviant Cultivator?" Elise said as her teeth continued to chatter. "Is that the reason why you are this strong even if you don’t emit any Qi at all? Is it because you practice a Deviant Technique?"

"Yeah, yeah, I’m a Deviant Cultivator." Professor Frances replied as she started to lose interest on Elise. "Now quit bothering me. I already got what I want from you. Go back to your house or hut, whatever that is."

"..."

But to the dismay of Professor Frances, Elise did not leave her at all. She just stayed in her spot as she stared at the professor.

Elise stayed this way for a few more minutes, which made the professor almost lose her cool.

"What the hell do you want now?" Professor Frances said with irritation as she glared at Elise. "You already told me about this place, so I have no more need for you. Just... get away from here. You are just bothering me."

Right now, the presence of Elise was just a nuisance to Professor Frances, so why does she even have to stay here?

Professor Frances was thankful for what Elise gave her, but she does not need anything more from her.

"If you don’t leave, I will really beat you up." Professor Frances said as she cracked her knuckles.

But instead of backing down, Elise actually moved a little closer to the professor, as some kind of fire seems to have been ignited in her eyes.

"...You need help getting your friend out, right?" Elise said as she seemed to have ignored the professor’s warning. "I can help you out. Just... let me call some of my comrades and we can all cooperate digging your friend from this trash mountain..."

"And why do you want to do that for me?" Professor Frances asked with suspicion on her voice. "Earlier you were warning me to not touch this mountain. But now you are volunteering to dig through it? What made you change your f**king mind?"

"Thud!"

Out of nowhere, Elise suddenly kowtowed in front of Professor Frances, with her head hitting the soft and squelchy trash with a thud.

Chunks of dirty matter clung on Elise’s face, but she ignored it as she continued on putting her head down.

"Please, make us your disciples!" Elise shouted out as she gave Professor Frances a pleading look. "Honorable Deviant Cultivator, your power is our only hope in this place! Please grant us that power too! I-If you give us your power, w-w-we will be your faithful servants! So please take us in!"

"....You’re saying that you want to be a deviant cultivator like me?" Professsor Frances asked as she gave a weird look at the kowtowing Elise. "Do you really mean that?"

"Our cultivations are already useless in this place, so only by becoming a deviant cultivator that we can be strong again!" Elise said as she touched Professor Frances’s foot. She then hugged the professor’s leg as she continued pleading to her.

"Hmm...."

The professor was taken aback with what Elise said at first. But now that she thought of her proposal more, Professor Frances realized that Elise actually gave the professor the way to get stronger in this place.

"So you and your friends want to be my disciples? Hehehehe, if you want that, then I shall happily accept you all..." Professor Frances thought to herself as her sadistic smile returned. "But my definition of a ’disciple’ is different from what you are thinking... So don’t blame me once you became my ’disciples’! Hahahaha!"