Shen Qinyu looked up and could not see the top of the canyon anymore. On top of her head, she could only see the ice steps that she had previously dug out.
She had waited a few days next to the Transfer Array; however, she found no indications of anyone coming up. Seeing that, she immediately decided to dig the ice. For half a year, she dug out hundreds of ice steps. One after another, as she kept digging out those ice steps, the dugout steps started resembling a ladder that extended upwards.
Shen Qinyu could not use any kind of flight within this glacial gorge, and could only climb up or down one ice step at a time. Moreover, to climb up, she had no other way than to climb the ice steps that she had carved up.
Although a rational person, she did not have a cold-heart nor was she a cold-blooded person. She did not know if Wanderer was that fellow’s real name or not, but this fellow had fallen into the glacial canyon that had suddenly cracked open beneath them. If this fellow wanted to come out of the canyon, then he would also have to dig out the ice steps one after another.
When she dug out the first ice step, Shen Qinyu felt herself shivering with cold. However, she immediately recalled the method Ning Cheng had taught her to drive out the cold. She quickly stimulated her Celestial Essence according to it and continued digging through the ice. After a month of labour, Shen Qinyu finally started to adapt to the cold. Although it grew colder the lower she descended, she barely managed to block the cold from seeping into her.
Shen Qinyu only hoped that one day the ice steps that she dug out could connect to the ice steps that Wanderer would dig out. However, she understood it very well that it was just too difficult to even extract oneself from the grips of that raging whirlpool, let alone try to come up. Even a Celestial River-class Battleship would not help in this scenario.
In fact, deep in her heart, she had already come to a decision. If she managed to dig to the bottom and found Wanderer already dead, she would do everything in her power to take his body away from this place.
Since the moment she began cultivating, she had never felt so worthless yet so self-willed, not even once. However, this time, she could not stop herself from trying to dig out one ice step after another, all on the impulse to save Wanderer.
……
At this moment, Ning Cheng had once again appeared at the bottom of the glacial canyon in which he had fallen. He searched the canyon as much as possible, and apart from finding a dozen more pieces of Twilight Sand, he did not find anything else. Although he wanted to go out, Ning Cheng could not find any path that could help him leave this funnel-like whirlpool.
At first, he had also thought of digging out ice steps like Shen Qinyu; however, he found that the ice in this gorge had an extremely tough composition. Even after spending almost an entire day, he could not dig out even a single step.
Seeing such results, he tried to use his Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds repeatedly only to find himself failing time after time. Even with the help of his knockoff Celestial River-class Battleship, under this horrifying Time Whirlpool, it could not provide him with any support. In fact, it offered even less support than his Twin Wings of the Heavenly Clouds.
Despite trying out many methods that he could think of, Ning Cheng still could not get out of this funnel-like Time Whirlpool.
One month later, Ning Cheng finally gave up and took out the axe he obtained from the exchange with Tang Yu before starting to dig out steps from the glacial walls once again.
Ning Cheng and Shen Qinyu were different. Ning Cheng cultivated using the Mysterious Yellow Formless; therefore, even when he focussed all his efforts on digging out the ice steps, he could continue improving on the side. Moreover, if Ning Cheng chose not to actively cultivate, his Spiritual Consciousness still probed the raging Time Whirlpool around him. Even though he kept digging out ice steps with his hand, in Ning Cheng’s mind, he kept thinking of ways to go straight through this Time Whirlpool and fly out, which was the most direct way.
One ice-step after another stretched out under Ning Cheng’s feet. By this time, Ning Cheng had long forgotten about what he was doing and focussed all this attention on wanting to fly out of this place.
His consciousness had already immersed itself into the crazily revolving storm of time, one day, one month, one year……
Time slowly flowed, while Ning Cheng autonomously also moved up slowly one ice step after another. Beneath his feet was a long series of many ice steps.
On this day, Ning Cheng suddenly stopped his mechanical actions of digging the ice. He did not even take out the axe lodged in the unfinished ice step before he suddenly brought out his Nirvana Spear and blasted out a shot.
“Hiss…..” A weak thunder ray flashed by in the middle of this glacial canyon. After this shot flashed by, everything around Ning Cheng seemed to have come to a standstill. Even the whirlpool stopped, the storm around it froze, and even his breathing had suddenly come to a halt.
After this shot rang out, Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness suddenly felt utterly empty. Even his Celestial Essence had dried up. At this moment, if he had not kept himself rooted in the ice step below, he would have already fallen. This spear shot had drained all of his Celestial Essence and the Spiritual Consciousness birthed from his starry skies’ Sea of Consciousness.
“Katcha…..” The Nirvana Spear’s shadow ripped through the space in front of him, leaving behind only a faint afterimage.
A moment later, the whirlpool once again started rotating again, the storm around it once again began to wreak havoc, and his breathing once again resumed.
“Haha, I understand……” Ning Cheng shook his hand holding the Nirvana Spear while breaking into tears. He finally understood something; he finally managed to grasp the surface of the Laws of Time.
During the past few years, although he had touched upon the Laws of Time, he could never perfectly integrate the Laws of Time into his own spiritual techniques. He had heard Eldest Brother Cang Wei say that the vast void contained countless Law Worlds comprised of different laws. If one encountered a Law World with the Laws of Time, it was not impossible to experience a time displacement of several years.
In other words, Ning Cheng had initially believed that people proficient in the Laws of Time could potentially turn back time.
Although what Cang Wei spoke was right, what Ning Cheng understood, however, was wrong. The reason he understood things wrong was due to his low cultivation at that point. In other words, he realised that he had tried to run before he could even learn to walk.
Although one might possess the capability to reverse time, Ning Cheng, at least, did not have such an ability. Even if it was Eldest Brother Cang Wei himself, Ning Cheng guessed that even someone like him did not have such a skill that could reverse time.
Ning Cheng recalled a movie that he had seen in the past. The film contained a saying that went like this: ‘Time is relative, it could be stretched or compressed; however, it cannot reverse.’ This saying implied that it was impossible to reverse time.
Whether this sentence was correct or not, Ning Cheng definitely felt that this sentence aptly described the Ning Cheng’s current attainments. He had touched upon the Laws of Time; as such, he understood a lot more about the Laws of Time compared to the past. Therefore, although he could not turn back time, he could at least stretch or compress time.
When one compressed time to the extreme, it would result in a pause. Understanding this, Ning Cheng felt very excited; yes, it definitely was a pause. This pause did not mean that time itself had come to a standstill, but it caused all the senses around one to feel as if time itself had come to a halt, or at least came infinitely close to complete stillness.
It was just like the individual frames of a movie. Although the different picture frames remained static and unmoving, when one moved the frames continuously, it caused one to feel as if the scene itself was in motion.
The shot that he had just erupted with clearly demonstrated the static nature of time, in other words, the stillness produced from compressing time to the extreme. Besides, by squeezing time to the extreme, he managed to come up with a technique that contained the Laws of Time. This would become his powerful strike and would become his biggest trump card.
“From now on, I’ll call this technique as ‘Dusk’.” Ning Cheng, after recovering a part of his Celestial Essence, put away the Nirvana Spear in his hand and excitedly murmured to himself.
Once he used this technique, the opponent would feel like he or she was facing the sunset at dusk; apart from despair and waiting for eventual death, there was no other choice. Whatever be the case, Ning Cheng finally managed to obtain his third technique, Dusk.
“When this spear technique reaches major completion and can reverse time, I would then call this spear technique ‘Celestial’s Dusk’.” Ning Cheng looked at the whirlpool and the storm surrounding it and spoke with an aggressive tone.
Even if this spear technique consumed a significant portion of his Celestial Essence and Spiritual Consciousness, Ning Cheng still could not help but howl out in joy after putting away the spear.
……
Shen Qinyu suddenly stopped digging out ice steps. She felt as if she heard a vague howl. Was it Wanderer? However, she could not listen to it clearly and thought that it was just a hallucination. In any case, even though she could somehow manage to resist the ice-cold aura in this place, after digging out ice steps for a few years, her present body had turned extremely frail.
She wiped her eyes and looked up at the ice steps that extended out above her head. Seeing this, she realised that she could no longer continue digging ice steps to reach the bottom. Her ring was a unique device that could also help her gauge the time she had spent in this place. Looking at it, she knew that she had been digging in this place for quite a few years, and the Time Wilderness’s 10-year period was about to come to a close.
Giving out a sigh, Shen Qinyu left behind a few lines on the last ice step that she had dug out and started her slow climb to the top. If she ended up missing the moment when this place transferred out the people inside, she would end up trapped in this place forever until she died.
Any cultivator who entered the Time Wilderness, if they remained within the hidden realms of the Time Wilderness during the transmission time, they would end up trapped inside until they died or the next time it opened.
Shen Qinyu did not know if she could come out after missing the predetermined time, but if she wished to come inside again, she had to bring out all the Time Stones she obtained.
A few days later, Shen Qinyu finally reached the Transfer Array again. With a head full of silver hair, she sported a pair of eyes filled with extreme exhaustion. She quietly looked at the unfathomable icy canyon right outside the Transfer Array with a heavy sadness. She gave out a final deep sigh, took out a few Celestial Essence Stones, and placed them in the Transfer Array’s grooves.
A white light flashed, and when Shen Qinyu landed on the ground again, she found herself at the periphery of the Sea of Twilight.
Shen Qinyu remained standing at the periphery of the Sea of Twilight and silently looked at the static yet overlapping images of dusk in the deeper regions of the Sea of Twilight, which showed no movement. A few years ago, after Wanderer saved her, the two of them had teamed up to enter the Sea of Twilight. A few years later, she came out alone.
If it were just an ordinary collaboration, although she would have felt a bit of sadness, it at least would not have transformed into grief.
Not knowing for how long she stood in that spot, Shen Qinyu once again felt a layer of light covering her body. Sensing this light, she knew that the time to transfer out of the Time Wilderness had arrived.
After the white light finally dissipated, Shen Qinyu’s Spiritual Consciousness immediately spread out for the first time; she longed and even prayed to sense the familiar shadow of Wanderer suddenly appearing amongst the crowd.
However, she felt only disappointment. Standing on the small temporary public square constructed in the void, she could not find the familiar figure she wanted to see.
