The double pain caused by the installation of the two arcanas was simply unbearable. It felt as if a surging tide was assaulting his nerves. He wished he could just die.
But he was willing to endure it for the sake of the two powerful time arcanas.
Not to mention there were two of them. So he was determined to endure it, no matter how great the pain.
Fortunately, the pain went away just as quickly as it came. All the pain subsided like a tide after ten minutes.
Ling Jiu first studied Time Rewind. He once again saw the majestic, vast, and all-enveloping golden river.
Ling Jiu called this golden river the Torrent of Time. The torrent of time flowed slowly, signifying time had been passing and would never stop.
He could stop the Torrent of Time for a certain period after installing the Time Halt arcana previously.
Now with incorporating Time Rewind, he could rewind the Torrent of Time, allowing time to flow backward for a little while.
He found that, after some study, the time he could go backwards was fixed. Whether it was a powerful stellar being or a weak ordinary life form, time would go backward five seconds, which was utterly different from Time Halt.
Time Halt did not have a fixed amount of time. The more powerful the target, the shorter time would stop, and vice versa.
“It is Time Deletion at last.”
Compared with Time Rewind and Time Halt, Time Deletion was also a fairly buggy ability. It could directly delete a certain point in time.
For example, at 9:50 yesterday, Zhang San awakened an arcana. If Ling Jiu deletes the 9:50 time point, it means that Zhang San did not have this time point, and would not have awakened that arcana.
So the biggest indirect effect of the Time Deletion arcana is deprivation.
For example, if someone killed a bird at a certain point in time, and if you delete that point in time, you can deprive that person of the bird that was killed.
For another example, a certain player hit a three-pointer at a certain point in time. The deletion of this time point can deprive that player of the three-pointer.
There are countless similar examples, but in a nutshell:
All living beings live in the Torrent of Time, and each of them has a series of time points. As long as a certain time point is deleted, each living being can be deprived of what it did at that time point.
So this arcana is both nice-to-have and buggy.
“It is a good day today!” Ling Jiu let out a sigh of bliss. “You have done a good job this time, Leoux. Please find more such arcanas in the future.”
“I will. Don’t worry.” Leoux agreed happily.
Ling Jiu continued to practice self-cultivation subsequently.
He let his mind sink into the world of the elixir field where the old Gene Arcana core the size of a watermelon was still rotating at high speed, and surrounded by a large nebula and a new core inside the nebula.
“Since I have to evolve a perfect stellar system, I will start with another star, using the new core as a model.”
With just a thought, a steady stream of dark bio-energy was drawn out of the nebula and compressed into the new core.
The new core grew rapidly with Ling Jiu sinking into a state of self-cultivation.
He would swallow a dark bio-energy crystal to replenish the dark bio-energy once it was exhausted. In this way, the new core grew rapidly with this ‘spoon-feeding’ practice.
Time passed. A year had passed since then.
Today, as Ling Jiu exhaled slowly, a white vapor shot out from his mouth, drifting far and wide in the air.
“A second stellar core has finally taken shape after practicing for so long.”
Two watermelon-sized silverish cores were suspended in the vast world of the elixir field.
They were almost the same size, and all rotating at a high speed. Each core was wrapped in a nebula doing high-speed rotating motion.
At the same time, the two cores were interacting with each other and moving in a circular motion around the center of mass of the two cores.
This is a typical binary star system. Each star provides its own gravitational force to make it revolve around the center of mass.
“What stellar level I am at now?” Ling Jiu murmured to himself. “According to the classification method of the big brothers on Earth, one would achieve stellar Level-1 upon forming a stellar core. And each additional planetary core formed will one level up. It will be a stellar completion upon forming all nine planetary cores. I have formed two stellar cores. At what level I am now? It is confusing.”
He shook his head. “Forget it. I will follow what Leoux said to evolve a perfect stellar system. I still have a long way to go.”
With that, he got to his feet and habitually looked at Bai Ya.
She was still immersing herself in self-cultivation. Ling Jiu did not want to disturb her and just wanted to go out to get some fresh air. Just then, she woke up.
“You are awake, Honey.” Ling Jiu had a smile across his face.
“I woke up many times.”
Bai Ya threw herself into Ling Jiu’s arms.
He was randy after being abstinent for over a year. When he smelled her body scent, he immediately carried her into the villa.
After four hours of delight, the two of them lay on the bed, contented.
“Do you know how long we have been out, Honey?” Bai Ya asked with a soft voice.
“How Long?”
“One year, seven months, and eight days.”
“It is exactly five hundred and eighty days.” She counted with her fingers.
“Five hundred and eighty days?”
Ling Jiu nodded slightly. “It is less than six days on Earth. Tsk, tsk, only six days! Incredible!”
“It is.”
Bai Ya could not hide her amazement. “Leoux is right. The vicinity of the white hole is really a holy land of self-cultivation. The fast flow of time alone gives us an unfair advantage.”
“Absolutely.”
Ling Jiu nodded in agreement. “Only six days passed on Earth while we practiced for five hundred and eighty days here. That means we have practiced five hundred seventy-four days longer than those cultivators on Earth.”
“Exactly.”
Bai Ya drew circles on Ling Jiu’s chest. “Do you know that I have become a Level-Ten arcanist, Honey?”
“You did?” Ling Jiu raised an eyebrow. “Which step is it exactly?”
It did not surprise him at all that Bai Ya could improve so fast. She was taking the dark bio-energy crystals aside from absorbing dark bio-energy from the surroundings.
In Leoux’s words, the existing dark bio-energy crystals were just enough for Ling Jiu’s self-cultivation use.
But things were different now. Dark bio-energy around the white hole was so rich that the Leoux could keep on producing new dark bio-energy crystals with no limit.
So there was no problem in sharing some with Bai Ya.
“I have formed a second planetary core.” Bai Ya told him frankly.
“Are you evolving the stellar system based on the solar system?” Ling Jiu frowned.
“I have read the self-cultivation insights of our seniors. Many stellar big brothers used the solar system as a template to evolve their stellar system,” Bai Ya said. “So, I am doing it too.”
“There is nothing wrong with doing so. But Leoux told me that a stellar system that evolves with the solar system as a template is just an ordinary stellar being,” Ling Jiu said. “It insists that I follow the perfect star system as a template to evolve the elixir field stellar system.”
“The perfect star system?” Bai Ya looked puzzled.
It stunned her after he explained to her the composition of the perfect star system.
“It will take such a long time to form a planetary core. How long will it take to evolve based on a perfect star system?”
“So it is tricky,” Ling Jiu said. “But this is not all. The trickiest part is, not only must I evolve a stellar system and accumulate dark bio-energy but also have to comprehend the laws.”
“The laws?”
He told Bai Ya about the laws that Leoux told him.
“How can you have time to evolve the elixir field’s stellar system and understand the universal laws at the same time?” Bai Ya frowned.
“That’s why I say your awakened Mimeograph Arcana is buggy,” Ling Jiu said. “The duplicates can help us do a lot of stuff, improving the efficiency of self-cultivation.”
“You are right.”
Bai Ya also breathed a sigh of relief. The Mimeograph Arcana was indeed buggy.
When Mimeograph ended, all the memories and experiences that the duplicates had experienced would become hers, as if she had experienced all that in person.
Tasking the duplicates to comprehend the universal laws was as if she had got a cheat code in her hands.
“The question now is, which law do you want to comprehend?” Ling Jiu asked. “The law that we comprehend will affect our entire lives. So choosing the right law is crucial. Choose wisely.”
“I currently have three arcanas: Annihilation Thunder, Mimeograph, and Ant-Aging. It is not like I have many choices.” Bai Ya frowned slightly.
“Why don’t I help you consult Leoux?” Ling Jiu said.
“Yeah, why not?” She nodded.
“Give me a moment.”
He contacted Leoux by sending a message. Leoux replied only after a long while. “You looking for me, Ling Jiu?”
“Where the heck were you, Leoux? Why did it take you so long to respond?” Ling Jiu frowned.
“I was collecting energy near the white hole,” Leoux said. “I have produced a batch of dark bio-energy crystals and will send it to you afterward.”
“No wonder.” Ling Jiu nodded. “I have something to consult with you. What law do you think Bai Ya should comprehend?”
“What else if not the law of destruction?” Leoux said with no hesitation. “Her Annihilation Thunder is extremely powerful and fits the law of destruction very well. The law of destruction is very suitable for her.”
“The law of destruction?” Ling Jiu nodded in agreement.
The law of destruction ranked third in the power list of the universal laws, second only to the laws of time and dimensions. It was definitely a powerful universal law. Letting Bai Ya comprehend the law of destruction made perfect sense.
“Send me the book on the stellar-class law of destruction afterward,” Ling Jiu said.
“No problem.”
Leoux agreed happily.
“OK, I will hang up now.”
As Ling Jiu was about to hang up, Leoux spoke again. “Ling Jiu, you might want to go home.”
“Why is that?” Ling Jiu frowned.
“Earth is having a minor problem,” Leoux said.
“A minor problem?” Ling Jiu asked. “What is happening?”
“There is a dimensional fissure at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Direbeasts, including many stellar direbeasts, have wiped out many coastal base cities.”
Leoux said in a nonchalant tone of voice, as if it was talking about something trivial. But it was a bombshell to Ling Jiu.
“Why didn’t you tell me earlier, Leoux?”
Ling Jiu was angry. As many stellar-class direbeasts as he had encountered on Ganymede and Whitehole-2 recently, they were not the same as those on Earth.
Earth was a human’s base, his home. It was different.
“For me, your cultivation practice is above all.”
