I! Cleaner!-Chapter 1227 - 1115: The Way Home

"Evangelin!"

Unaware of the thoughts emerging in the heart of the mermaid statue, after reluctantly accepting the hypothesis of possibly having crossed time, Leon supported the small mermaid in his palm and asked eagerly:

"If the situation is really as you say, and I’ve actually been sent to the Sea Abyss Realm from the future, do you have a way to send us back?"

The small mermaid thought for a moment, then nodded slightly:

"In theory, it’s possible. Although I’m dead now, I’m still the root controller of the Sea Abyss Realm. As long as you provide enough root essence, I can still fiddle with time a bit."

Even though he received an affirmative answer, Leon’s expression didn’t turn joyful; instead, it became rather grim.

"In theory... meaning it doesn’t work in practice?"

"That’s right... By the way, you seem very familiar with my way of speaking~"

Understanding how important the matter of returning to the future was for Leon, the mermaid statue put away its abstract personality for once and didn’t take the opportunity to tease, directly replying:

"For me, sending you to the future itself is indeed not difficult, but although I can send you back, I may not be able to send you accurately back to your original time."

Unable to send back to the original time?

Leon pondered for a moment at these words, then frowned and said:

"Is it because you haven’t seen the future?"

"Yes."

After giving Leon a somewhat surprised look, the small mermaid nodded and said:

"People cannot imagine what they haven’t seen, and you and your future happen to be things I have never seen.

I can send you to the future of the Sea Abyss Realm, but even this Sea Abyss Realm doomed to destruction has a future that is unimaginably long. Having not experienced the future, I can’t determine which stage of the future to send you to."

"What if we don’t require such precision?"

After thinking it over, Leon suggested:

"For example, we could roughly calculate how many years I am in your future, and instead of returning to the exact moment I passed through the sea eye, allow for some variation of a few weeks or months. Would that work?" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"Still won’t work."

The mermaid statue shook its small head and replied helplessly:

"If the time of your original world is like a string hanging from past to future, then the time of Old Soil is like a tangle of knots with hidden dead ends of various sizes.

Without a reference point, not to mention precisely pinpointing a segment on it and sending you back there, we would even struggle to determine the start and the direction of time.

Even if we further lower the standards, using a year as a unit and trying to send you back to the future, it would be like answering a multiple-choice question with over ten thousand options.

Without any reference point to even start filtering, the possibility of randomly guessing the correct answer and sending you back to your original time can be said to approach zero."

"..."

A dead end...

Pondering the mermaid statue’s words, faced with the dishearteningly low success rate, Leon’s heart tightened, feeling like he was in a significant predicament this time.

"How about... I send you to a few material planes I know?"

After a moment of silence with Leon, the small mermaid tilted its head and suggested:

"Although you haven’t fully mastered the root and have departed from your world, having once entered between the roots and faced the root of an entire material world, the life and death of a material plane is no longer an entirely insurmountable barrier for you.

Even if you live until this body’s lifespan ends, as long as you’re careful, you probably won’t die completely and could still retain your will intact... Perhaps you should spend some time in other worlds first?"

"Let me think about it."

Facing the mermaid statue’s suggestion, Leon closed his eyes slightly and started to ponder hard about finding a way to break the impasse.

If this "Evangelin" wasn’t lying, returning through the sea eye would indeed be difficult. Even with the badge panel and the confidence to survive until the future to "connect" with the original time, it was still too long for him.

Moreover, even though the time between Old Soil didn’t "interfere with each other," and changes might not disrupt the set future, if he inadvertently caused too significant an impact on the past, would he enter a different future like Joshua?

Even if that new future still had Anna and Veronica, with no changes to his family and friends, what would the world line that lost him become?

"Let’s give it a try."

After a period of silence, Leon took a deep breath and clenched his hands under the mermaid statue’s surprised gaze, saying:

"Didn’t you say that without a reference point, it’s impossible to return to the original timeline? What if there is a reference point? To what extent can you do it?"

"If there is... it would be much simpler."

The mermaid statue thought for a moment, then confidently said:

"Sending you back isn’t difficult; the hard part is that even if the Sea Abyss Realm hasn’t been destroyed, there won’t be much change within it, and I can’t tell which part of the time belongs to you.

As long as there’s a clear reference, I’m confident I can send you directly to a relatively precise future, with a margin of error no bigger than a month... But how do you plan to find a reference point?"

"Do you know demons?"

After some thought, Leon described:

"The kind born of original sin, mostly inherently evil..."

"I know about demons."

Interrupting Leon, the mermaid statue blinked and said:

"They were originally creatures unique to the 6th root, but later, like angels between the 5th root, they spread like locusts across all material planes... What do you mean by bringing up demons? Planning to use them as a reference point?"

"Yes."

Secretly noting the information about angels in the 5th root and demons in the 6th, Leon nodded and said:

"Among the two directors I was looking for earlier, the Cancer director carries a lot of demons and likes using them for tasks.

And just as I would try to find them after they disappeared, after I lost my trace, the Cancer director will surely try to find me. If they find the Sea Abyss Realm..."

"I see what you mean!"

Upon hearing this, the small mermaid’s eyes suddenly lit up, and it exclaimed in admiration:

"There are no demons in my Sea Abyss Realm, and as long as they come to the Sea Abyss Realm to find you, they’ll surely bring demons with them, so all I need to do is pay attention to the futures stained with demon aura to roughly locate your time!"