Catastrophe Containment Facility
Chapter 685 - 675 Stein. Markul

Chapter 685: Chapter 675 Stein. Markul

After listening to what Old Tings had said about time travel and Hounds, the Demon Hunters felt somewhat oppressed.

This represented the most brutal aspect of the world of superpower users.

Many hoped to traverse time and space, imagining countless wonderful possibilities, but no one knew that realizing you could travel through time meant you were destined to face a horrific death.

Additionally, Wen Wen was very interested in the ritual to obtain power over time that Old Tings had mentioned.

Signing a contract with a great existence beyond the world, did "beyond the world" refer to the Inner World, or beyond even that?

The real world is the Earth Federation and the universe where the Federation exists, while the Inner World is a realm with entirely different rules that continually invades our reality.

According to scholars within the Hunters Association, the real world and the Inner World are like the yin and yang on the Taiji diagram, interdependent and inseparable.

But is the real world truly equivalent to the Inner World?

To call our side reality, could that just be human arrogance?

If the great existence beyond the world that Old Tings spoke of is real, does it mean that besides the Inner World and the real world, there are other worlds that exist on an even higher plane?

As for the ritual to gain power over time, Wen Wen thought that the Secret Organization was extremely foolish; the superpower users of that era had no proper understanding of the dangers of such a ritual. If they’d been slightly more rational, they wouldn’t have met with an annihilation.

Many who couldn’t acquire Superpowers sought various methods to gain strength akin to that of superpower users or Monsters.

But the dangers involved with acquiring extra powers were usually beyond the comprehension of ordinary people. A list of their actions could easily make up a compendium of human follies.

For instance, the most straightforward method, performing a ritual to pray for strength from an "Evil God," is a typical suicidal act.

As long as the ritual is correct, anyone can get a response from an Evil God, but to them, ordinary humans are like ants by the roadside begging for candy, and the sugar cubes carelessly tossed by an Evil God can crush a human to death.

Most humans who conduct these rituals end tragically like the Bewitching Clown Grandi, and the few survivors become Puppets without free will.

There are many other methods, but none of them are without side effects.

To Wen Wen’s knowledge, the safest way for an ordinary person to acquire supernatural power is through the use of certain special Extraordinary Objects.

For example, Wen Wen’s Philosophy Bracelet, X Iron Wings, and Xiong Ying’s "Devil’s Heart" obtained from the Museum of Truth, including the power bestowed on Wen Wen by the Sanctuary, also belong to this category.

Then there is the study of forbidden knowledge, but this study is also fraught with danger.

Learning from relatively safe texts like the Book of Thunder is no problem for one or two volumes. But if you so much as sneak a peek at some of the more dangerous material, you might attract the attention of some perilous entity.

Last is the "New Human" that Song Ling accidentally stumbled upon.

After a comprehensive examination by the Capital Hunter Association, the power within Tao Wen was confirmed to have originated from himself, gentle in nature and without any side effects. It’s predicted that his lifespan could be much longer than that of an average superpower user.

That’s why Song Ling received significant attention from the Capital Hunters Association. He’s expected to stay on Hunter Island for research, but who knows if there are any undetected future problems within Tao Wen.

Everyone was digesting the information Old Tings had shared, George stood up and asked, "The question I’m most concerned about now is, who is the person that attacked Boyeve, and how can we catch him."

Old Tings’s expression became grave as he said, "That is exactly what I want to tell you. The person you’re looking for is named Stein Markul, and like me, he is a descendant of those ten families from the past."

"However, unlike our family, one individual from their line awakens the ability of a Time Traveler, becoming a traveler through time, in each generation."

"Because of the archives passed down through generations, the Markul clan try to avoid time travel as much as possible. Should they encounter a Hound, they would face death calmly, not involving others."

"But Stein not only actively time-traveled, he also, after having attracted the attention of the Hounds, used forbidden methods to deceive their perception, transferring the pursuit of the Hounds onto others."

"More than twenty days ago, I received a plea for help from the Markul Family. They felt that Stein had become a devil, so they asked me to ’persuade’ Stein to accept his fate and not involve others."

Chaikov asked, "What happened after that?"

Old Tings replied with sorrow, "After that... by the time I arrived, the Markul Family had already been annihilated. The perpetrator was Stein, who is now the last of the Markul clan. With his death, there will be no more hereditary Time Travelers."

"I was also coincidentally on the trail of Stein when I came upon Boyeve being attacked by the Hound..."

Xun Qing stood up, flicking his Longsword as he said, "His name is Stein Markul, right? It shouldn’t be difficult for us to find him."

Although Old Tings made time traveling sound incredibly terrifying, a superpower user capable of traversing time held significant meaning for the Hunters Association.

He planned to capture Stein and confine him to a secret Sanctuary. By using Stein’s ability to predict the future and understand history, the Association, with its resources, might find a way to defend against such Hounds.

The other True Sequence members were also eager to try. If harnessed correctly, the ability to travel through time could have a very positive impact and help them win the competition between regions.

As everyone was eager to get going, Old Tings hastily said, "With your abilities, finding him won’t be difficult, but capturing him will not be easy."

"Stein’s own strength isn’t much. He might not even be able to beat a farmer, but the Stein you see might be him from five minutes in the past, or it might be him from five minutes in the future."

Wen Wen frowned, "Didn’t you say that time travel has strict restrictions, that once you change the future or the present, you would encounter the Hound?"

Old Tings shook his head and said, "He’s already encountered the Hound. He survives only by continuously shuttling through the nearby temporal ends to avoid being detected by the Hound."

"When you find him, try to capture him without his knowledge and wait five minutes. This will increase the likelihood of catching him."

"Also, don’t get too close. Even if you must approach, ensure there is no angle smaller than 120 degrees nearby that a Hound could use..."