The light of the violet crystal had fused with his blood to form a life lamp. After doing some study, Xu Qing was convinced the life lamp’s ability had something to do with time itself. However, he still wasn’t absolutely certain of the details. The soul-protecting properties of the black umbrella had not gone away just because he melted that life lamp. They still existed. As a matter of fact, those properties had improved compared to before.

And the time indicated on the sundial seemed to be fourteen hours off real world time. Xu Qing didn’t know what mystery was contained in that difference, not even after putting a lot of thought into it.

Over the seven days he had spent studying the new life lamp, he’d attempted to speed up the sundial. But it was impossible to get the ball of light, which of course contained a nascent soul, to either speed up, slow down, or stop. The sundial was obviously part of him, but at the same time, acted independently. In fact, even when Xu Qing took control of the nascent soul, for instance by taking it away from the sundial, the ball of light would stay behind and continue its prescribed movement.

In that manner, it was very much like the violet crystal.

Eventually, Xu Qing came up with an idea.

He couldn’t alter the movement of the ball of light, nor could he rotate the plate, but he could manipulate the gnomon! After all, fundamentally speaking, the gnomon was made from his blood. With some experimentation, he realized that he could detach the gnomon from the dial plate and send it flying around. When he did that, the dial plate then lost its guiding element, and the ball of light stopped moving. That, in turn, removed the sensation of time from the sundial. The ball of light still shone, but it didn’t cast any shadow. In fact, it was possible to see faint signs of degradation on the dial plate.

Xu Qing quickly put the gnomon back. The dial plate returned to normal, and the ball of light continued orbiting. The shadow of the gnomon went back to normal. As for the time notation, it began to move from the exact spot where it had stopped. To some extent, it was as if the time that had passed between removing the gnomon and replacing it… had disappeared.

I guess it makes sense to say that time stopped?

Xu Qing’s eyes gleamed as he came to the conclusion that his assessment wasn’t entirely correct. Regardless, he had at least unlocked the first function of the life lamp.

When he had removed the gnomon, stopping time, Ling’er had been climbing out of his sleeve to whisper something in his ear. He had looked down at her, and then she had stopped moving. She’d just remained in place completely motionless. It was almost as if time had ceased flowing for her. She had existed in that state for only a brief moment. Once Xu Qing saw the degradation of the disk place, he’d returned the gnomon, sending everything back to normal.

That discovery caused his heart to leap in his chest.

When I take out the gnomon, time stops moving for whatever I look at?

Xu Qing did a few more tests. The entire time, Ling’er had no concept of the fact that she was remaining in place, motionless. It was as if she was working very hard to reach his ear, but kept stopping along the way. Eventually, she reached his ear and looked at him bashfully.

“What are you looking at little old me like that for, Big Bro Xu Qing?”

Those words seemed somehow familiar to Xu Qing, but his mind was reeling so dramatically that he didn’t put any thought into it. 1

Nodding, he said, “Ling’er, did you notice anything unusual just now?”

Surprised, Ling’er shook her head.

Xu Qing continued doing some more experiments.

Ling’er was curious about what was going on, but could tell that her Big Bro Xu Qing was busy, so she settled down in a comfortable position and then rocked back and forth as if playing.

Meanwhile, Xu Qing’s mind was racing.

Ling’er didn’t sense that time stopped for her. I can think of a lot of applications for this function….

Stepping out of the mansion grotto, he looked up at the evening sky and the lands surrounding him. Sensing the heat on the breeze, he looked in the direction of the Heavenfire Sea.

After some thought, he decided not to do any larger experiments.

Given the low level of his cultivation base, and the fact that he’d only just created the sundial, he had the feeling that if he tried to use the time-stopping function on a large scale, for instance to stop the starry sky from moving, or cease the flow of the wind, or orbital track of the world itself, he would probably end up killing himself in body and soul. If the movement of Revered Ancient was likened to that of a massive running animal, then one of the magical laws governing it would be akin to the energy in that animal. Given his current state, he was like a flimsy rope. It was easy to imagine what would happen to a flimsy rope if you tried to use it to restrain a huge animal.

Might as well forget it for now….

However, Xu Qing could imagine how useful and shocking this ability would be if he used it in the middle of a fight.

I’m going to call this ability Time Lag!

Xu Qing had the feeling the sundial life lamp had more functions which would be revealed over time with further study.

There’s no rush. The most important thing now is that I have four more life lamps to melt.

In the seven days that had passed, he had fully recovered, and was back in his peak state, leaving him ready to go back to the Heavenfire Sea to further his cultivation. What was more, he had improved his resistance to the heavenfire.

Not wanting to waste any time, he sped through the night toward the glow of the sea of flames.

This time, Xu Qing adjusted his tactics based on his previous experience. He picked a very remote area, and made sure to immediately put away any of the red crystals that formed. That would ensure this session of cultivation was much safer. He had no idea if another 3,000-meter vortex would form.

Since there was nothing he could do to hide the vortex if it appeared, he picked the remotest location he could find.

Twelve days passed.

Perhaps because of the sundial, or perhaps because of other reasons, the seven-colored wind-chanting lamp melted a lot faster than the black umbrella. As it dripped into his blood, and the life lamp elements gathered, he could sense that another personal life lamp was about to form.

Eventually, in the evening of the twenty-third day, Xu Qing opened his eyes in the depths of the lava. A 3,000-meter vortex swirled around him as the seven-colored wind-chanting lamp completely vanished, and a second sundial life lamp formed in the life mist of his sea of consciousness.

It looked exactly the same as the first sundial! This was what lamps looked like that were formed from his blood. That was what always happened with Imperial Sovereigns and their descendants. For other people to later acquire a full set of the same type of life lamp was incredibly, incredibly difficult.

When the new life lamp formed, and the gnomon shadow started moving, it was exactly fourteen hours behind that time indicated on the first sundial life lamp. Both sundials moved in unison, causing the vortex to spin even faster. It was even possible to see spatial rifts forming.

As Xu Qing took in the astonishing sight, he could sense that this second life lamp’s powers still contained the fleshly body protection from the seven-colored wind-chanting lamp.

What was more, the augmentations of the two lamps were astonishingly beyond anything from before. After some study, he realized that the strength of Time Lag was double that of before.

Meanwhile, he had long since stowed all of the red crystals that formed, cutting off their aura using the same box from before. It seemed reasonable to conclude that this session of cultivation had remained completely undetected by anyone.

Although the vortex could theoretically attract attention, given his remote location, it wouldn’t be easy for people to detect it the way they could lock onto the heavenfire crystals with a geomantic compass.

Xu Qing had planned things out in this way thinking it was the best way to keep a low profile. But sometimes, fate can operate in mysterious ways. For example, as the 3,000-meter vortex spun, three red crystals suddenly emerged from the lava and flew into the vortex.

Xu Qing’s expression flickered and he reached out as if to grab them. But then, he reconsidered and pulled his hand back. At this point, they were already out in the open and flying around, so it was a bit too late to think about preventing people from noticing them. Gritting his teeth, he turned and flew away.

He didn’t need heavenfire crystals, and besides, if they drew people to that spot, it would make it easier for him to stay out of sight by moving in a different direction.

Although the incident the month before didn’t amount to much, the Mirrorlings and Skyfaces hadn’t given up. After all, both groups had already calculated that dozens of heavenfire crystals had appeared recently. Although some of the readouts might have been duplicates, they knew for sure that there was one instance of more than twenty appearing at once. Considering that they viewed those crystals as precious treasures, it was no wonder the royal preceptor had personally come to take charge.

When the heavenfire crystals appeared in that vortex, they quickly locked onto that location, assuming that the crystals would disappear quickly like they had in the past. But when they didn’t, it quickly became very clear where they needed to head to.

Meanwhile, Xu Qing was already a good distance away from the vortex, traveling at top speed. But soon, he realized that something was going on.

There was a group of Mirrorling cultivators who seemed to have locked onto his position, and were moving to intercept him. The group had four Gold Core cultivators and two that emanated the fluctuations of Nascent Soul. Of the latter two, one had passed a single tribulation, the other had passed two.

Upon catching sight of Xu Qing, their faces lit up. The Gold Core experts fell back to notify other members of their species, while the two Nascent Soul cultivators shot toward Xu Qing.

They still found me? Xu Qing frowned. He was really coming to understand how frustrating it was to be in a strange location with no background information or intelligence reports. Don’t tell me they can sense the heavenfire crystals even inside the box?

Xu Qing’s eyes glittered with killing intent. After all the running and fleeing he had been doing, his killing intent had been building up to a very high level.

Since I don’t have any intelligence reports, then I’ll kill some of them and see if I can figure out what’s going on!

Xu Qing released the power of his taboo poison, let the shadow free, released the strength of the Spike of Misfortune, and let loose the fluctuations of all his nascent souls.

1. Ling’er’s words are the exact same words spoken by Ding Xue in chapter 542.1. ?

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