"You took the system away? I thought I wanted to transcend it and not rely on it. I didn’t want to completely get rid of it since some people may need it." Shiro furrowed her brow.

  "It’s more complicated than you expect. Anyways, I don’t think it’s good for you to stay in soul form for a long period of time. For now, you’ll have to put up with being in my daughter’s body and if you can, please don’t shock Yin and the other’s too much ok? They don’t need a heart attack after everything that has happened so far." The older Shiro shook her head as Shiro’s soul retracted back into Tia’s body.

  "Urg……" Groaning softly from the discomfort, Shiro watched as her collar disassembled itself.

  "Now be an obedient daughter for mommy ok?" The older Shiro said with a smug grin.

  Carrying Shiro into her hands, the older Shiro laughed at Shiro’s complicated expression.

  Walking downstairs, she opened the front door with a confident stride.

  "There she is!" One of the people shouted out as they immediately aimed their spells towards her.

  Seeing this, Atesh glared at the man with rage.

  Before fire could erupt out around him, the older Shiro placed a hand on Atesh’s shoulder.

  "Don’t mind them. I’ll deal with it." The older Shiro said with a smile.

  Since her younger self was here with her, this was probably a good time to make a comeback. Who knows, perhaps her younger might be able to give her new ideas.

  "So why have you ’kind’ gentlemen and gentlewomen come to my humble abode?" The older Shiro called out with a chuckle.

  "Shut up witch! Prepare to die!" One of the adventurer’s shouted out in anger as the spells launched towards her.

  Shaking her head with a smile, the older Shiro narrowed her eyes.

  "Sorry, I must ask you to leave me home if that is your intent."

  Flexing her fingers, a giant tier 6 magic formation split the sky open as swords appeared as far as the eye could see. Pointing it towards the adventurers, she swiped her hand down.

  Watching the carnage happen, Atesh, Yin and Lisandra were quite surprised by their mother’s actions. After all, she would normally threaten them a little before letting them go. Seeing this change in attitude was quite refreshing.

  "Right then. It’s been a while but how would you kids like to have a homework assignment?" The older Shiro asked with a smile.

  "Sure." Atesh nodded his head eagerly.

  "Attie, I want you to go over to Lyrica and the other’s and see if you can help them out. You’ll mostly act as an intermediary between us since I’m going to be trying to establish a domain if I can."

  "Yin, I’ll need you to grab samples of each of the anchors and domains that are scattered around this world. I need all of them, from the small anchors to the big ones."

  "Lisa, I want you to go help Lil’ Tian evacuate the sect since we’ll be needing the sect’s help. Plus, there is also the god grade anchor in China so if you can, help Yin collect a sample since I know you two sisters work well together." The older Shiro said with a smile.

  "Some exercise after food is just what I want. What kind of samples do you want me to get mum?" Yin asked with a small smile.

  "Any. From pieces of the anchor itself to images of the magic circles. I want everything you can get your hands on so that we can compare it to the past samples and see what’s changed."

  "Got it. Since I need to go to China, I might as well get that out of the way first. Lisa, let’s go." Yin said as she put her apron away in the house.

  "Mn. I’ll miss you Tia." Lisandra smiled as she waved to Shiro.

  Before Shiro could respond, her older self grabbed her hand and returned the wave.

  Once Yin was ready, a pair of blue and purple wings unfurled behind her as Lisandra followed up.

  Surprisingly, the older Lisandra had 3 pairs of wings rather than one. Her pristine white feathers had now disappeared and were replaced with black ones instead.

  "Take care you two." The older Shiro waved as her two daughters flew off into the distance.

  "Mum, is there anything else I need to do when I go over to the rest of the party?" Atesh asked as he stretched his body.

  "Just help them out if you can." The older Shiro shook her head.

  "Ok, I’m heading out mum." Atesh smiled and gave her a hug.

  "Stay safe out there."

  Watching Atesh leave, the older Shiro walked back into the house before tracing her fingers along the side of the walls.

  Nanobots started to appear as it converted the living room into a command room with monitors and different consoles.

  "Right then. I suppose you want to look through the records so that you can see what the anchors and domains look like right?" The older Shiro asked as she pulled back a baby stool for Shiro.

  Pausing for a slight moment, Shiro sighed before climbing onto the stool.

  Walking behind Shiro, the older Shiro wrapped a necklace around her neck.

  "This should help you talk without looking like a slave collar."

  "Pretty nifty." Shiro shrugged.

  "Indeed. Anyways, do you want to look through every single record that I’ve collected since the start of the age or just the anchors and domains?" The older Shiro asked while walking over to the fridge. Pouring herself two cups of juice, she passed one to Shiro.

  "Hmm…… just the ones about the anchor and domains." Shiro replied after a sip.

  "Oh my, this is rather tasty." She raised her eyebrow.

  "So you just want to know abouIt the anchors and domains? What about the rest, do you not want to know about them?" The older Shiro asked with curiosity.

  "Oh you already know don’t you? If I followed the guideline, I wouldn’t be able to improvise as well as I can if the situation goes south. Plus, my actions of trying to follow the path may cause a butterfly effect which changes the future more so I might as well not have done anything to begin with." Shiro shrugged her shoulders.

  "True."

  "Before we start, if you don’t mind me asking, where’s Nimue, Iziuel and Estrella? Knowing Nimue and Iziuel, they should be around shouldn’t they?" Shiro asked curiously.

  Hearing those three names, the older Shiro paused for a moment before looking towards Shiro.

  "They’re in a state of comatose right now."

  "Huh??!! The f*ck?"

  "Listening to me swear in my daughter’s body is weird as hell. Anyways, do you want to know about why they’re in a comatose or do you want to go in blind?" The older Shiro asked.

  "Well since you’re me, you also know that I’m a hypocrite when it comes to my friends. What happened to them?" Shiro shrugged before looking towards her older self with a serious gaze.

  "The spirit capital was attacked by the Dragon Empress. Since I did not have a domain nor an anchor, it was hard to fend her off. Our fight was futile and the three of them tried their best to defend the city with the spirit council but in the end, they failed. Right now, the spirits are scattered throughout the world with danger lurking everywhere. Unless I can establish a domain and bring the spirits under my protection, I’m afraid they’re going to be exterminated within a few years."

  ". . ." Staying silent, Shiro looked down at her own cup.

  "Question from me. How are you alive? Wouldn’t the queens and gods target you?" She asked.

  "That’s thanks to the contract that I had obtained not too long after the new age started. Owners of anchors cannot kill me unless I attack them first. So unless I attack them, I can roam this world without too many worries. However, that does not protect the people around me so we’ve been on the run for quite a while now. There have been a few close calls but thankfully, we’re all alive." The older Shiro replied with a smile.

  "I see…… This new age is quite a hassle huh?"

  "Tell me about it." The older Shiro chuckled.

  "If you could change one thing in the past, what would you change?" Shiro asked.

  "Nothing. I caused all of this so to make up for my actions, I must accept the consequences and work towards a better future."

  "Hm, you’re really me huh?" Shiro laughed.

  "No sh*t. I know you’ve been testing me just as I have been testing you ya know?"

  "Mn, true. But enough testing each other for now, we got a few magic circles to decipher. Hopefully, we can figure out why we can’t establish a domain." Shiro smiled and placed her cup down. Bringing the keyboard in front of her, she started to tap away.