Chapter 8: Spending Money Is the Only Way to Grow Stronger

"It was supposed to be possible to travel ten times, but this was just an accident!" The young lady patiently explained, "The theories involved in temporal travel are complicated—I don't really understand them myself—but when passing through the temporal nexus, something interfered, the coordinates failed, and I just kept drifting and drifting. It was only after endless wandering that I finally found this universe, using up 99.99% of my blood to help you land safely."

Is that so?

So which powerful figure is so opposed to me?

"And the remaining 0.01%?"

Although it's only 0.01%, that's still dozens or hundreds of tons—nothing like the original Well of Eternity, but certainly superior to the Sunwell of the high elves or Illidan's version of the Well. Even Archimonde would envy it. Where did it go now?

"This universe is extremely dangerous. There are many beings not inferior to Archimonde or Kil'jaeden, and even some at our level. During the crossing, I saw a planetary lifeform's skull and something resembling a titan larva."

The young lady reached out and poked Old Wang's face with a finger. "To prevent you from being caught and used as a lab rat, I used 99.99% of the remaining 0.01% of my blood to disrupt and disguise your crossing. I erased all traces, so everyone will believe you're a native of this universe—including those capable of exploring the multiverse. There's even one on Earth."

Not inferior to Archimonde?

Such beings are abundant in the Marvel universe, countless in fact...

A planetary lifeform’s skull?

A titan larva?

Something about this rings a bell...

Traversing worlds carries risks; her actions were wise. Survival is paramount. Becoming a lab rat is out of the question. Dissection is impossible, unless it's dissecting others—like the purple potato spirit or the wooden giant.

Old Wang asked helplessly, "And the last 0.01% of the 0.01%?"

Even one hundred-millionth of Azeroth’s blood is considerable. How was that spent?

"I used it to reshape your body."

The young lady blinked. "Unless you want to live on Earth with panda eyes and a pot belly. You’d be sliced up for study!"

...Right, nearly forgot—in World of Warcraft, I was a Pandaren. More than thirty titles: ‘Heir of Shaohao,’ ‘Pandaria’s Star,’ ‘Dragon Master,’ ‘Panda Brewmaster,’ ‘Fist of the Heavens,’ ‘Grand Elder of the Shado-Pan,’ ‘Lifetime Honorary Chief Instructor of the Shang Xi Training Grounds,’ ‘Friend of Women and Children,’ and so on, beloved by the Pandaren masses.

Eighteen years away—who knows if Aisha and Lili still think of me.

Luckily, I was busy saving the world and had no time to sow seeds everywhere, or I’d truly be reluctant to leave...

All the ‘Blood of Azeroth’ is gone, so I can’t even stop the ‘Heart of Azeroth’ from being stolen. I must be the most tragic traveler in history.

"One last question," Old Wang sighed, raising his middle finger. "Reshaping my body is fine, but why make me a newborn baby?"

"...There wasn’t enough blood..." The young lady bowed her head.

Old Wang: "..."

So be it.

She meant well, after all; no point being ungrateful.

Back to reality.

"What am I supposed to do now?" Old Wang asked sincerely.

He didn’t believe the Pantheon had no contingency plan—after all, he’d been treated as a test subject from the start, with a chance of failure.

"Norgannon anticipated possible failure, so he designed a system—though I don’t know if it works."

The young lady snapped her fingers. "Look!"

Time shifted, and the Pantheon vanished.

All around was void.

Beneath his feet lay a vast circular interface stretching into the emptiness, obscured by void energy and infinite starlight—impossible to gauge its true size.

At the center was an embedded spherical space.

Surrounding it was a ring—the Azeroth First Ring.

Outside the ring were two identical spherical spaces, then another ring—the Azeroth Second Ring.

Beyond the second ring were three spheres—the Third Ring.

Then came the Fourth Ring, Fifth Ring, and so on.

Seeing this, Old Wang understood. "This is how I traveled worlds?"

"This is the temporal nexus designed by Aman’Thul and Norgannon, forged by Kaz’goroth—not the one you know," explained the Azeroth young lady. "The spherical spaces are reservoirs for my blood. When a ring is filled, a Level 1 temporal channel opens, consuming one microgram of my blood per second. Level 2 channel, ten micrograms per second, and so forth."

Storms must rage... So Level 3 channel: 100 micrograms per second. Level 10 channel... My math isn’t great...

Wait, that can't be right!

How could the price for the Third Ring be ten times that of the Second?

Old Wang didn’t dwell on this and quickly asked, "Besides traveling, what else can the temporal channels do?"

"A channel is for transport—your traversal was transporting you."

The young lady poked his face again. "Activate the channel, and you can bring items from our universe to this one—like your favorite staff you gave to Lili, or the banana grove you gifted to Tyrande. Skills can be brought too, like Archimonde’s Finger of Death or Kil’jaeden’s Dark of a Thousand Souls—one-time use."

"Of course, items and skills of different levels require opening channels of corresponding tiers."

Isn't this just summoning...?

But usually it's summoning creatures, or at most equipment—who ever summons skills?

Finger of Death and Dark of a Thousand Souls—could they defeat Thanos?

"Can I summon creatures?" Old Wang pressed.

"You can, but not permanently—only temporarily," the young lady patiently explained. "You must keep the channel open to maintain the summoning, which is costly."

So dragging Lili over for face and shoulder massages isn’t worth it—only in emergencies. Old Wang pondered, then asked, "How can I get more of your blood? Can you send me a few trillion tons?"

"...Titans represent Order. Norgannon always insists on equivalent exchange. He says you’re not trustworthy, always tricking me, so he set rules I can’t violate. I’m still young, and his rules are beyond my ability to rewrite. Everything you did for me and the Pantheon, the Heart of Azeroth and all my blood, has already been compensated. Besides, I’ve bled so much lately—I’m anemic, dizzy..."

She was a bit embarrassed. "So you must exchange something—preferably valuable, like the special substance in the planetary skull I saw during your crossing. Lower-value items work too, like gems or gold."

Low-value things like gems or gold—I have none...

So, in the end, it all comes down to pay-to-win.

How else does one grow strong?

Old Wang asked resignedly, "What’s the exchange rate?"

The young lady looked innocently. "I don’t know! The Heart of Azeroth I gave you is yours now—how would I know? Actually, you can’t know; even Norgannon doesn’t. You can send any non-living substance you encounter here, and the system will assess it... Look!"

She pointed, and an attribute panel appeared before his eyes.

"True Heart of Azeroth (Supreme Artifact)"

"Blood of Azeroth: 0"