Chapter 1677: Chapter 1677: The Impossibility of Time
Early on, when Sha Chuan left, Nie Xuan applied to the military for a Class A Instrument he just acquired that is specifically used to detect Time Force. As for why not look for instruments or props that can interfere with Time Force, it’s simple: because they can’t be found. Even if found, no one would sell them.
Time Force itself is one of the game’s foundations. Other than game companies that publicly sell such instruments and props, almost no division government or force they could contact has similar instruments or props—of course, this might be due to good confidentiality measures.
However, compared to the easier-to-obtain Spatial Instruments and Props, Time Items and Instruments are extremely rare. Many props and instruments classified as time-related don’t directly interfere with Time Force. They are mostly ordinary props made from Secondary Stone or Primeval Stone with certain effects, similarly, in the game, those who can truly begin Time-Directed Super Evolution are very few. The active Super Players at Level-E Wormhole Points are not Time Evolutionaries. It’s said there is one super player in Zone 011 who has begun Time-Directed Super Evolution, but they are very mysterious, hardly showing themselves, their traces are elusive, and truth is hard to discern.
In other words, those that can truly affect time, be it players, props, or instruments, are extremely rare. The instrument Nie Xuan holds would never have been acquirable by military players if not for its rather superficial function.
Yet even an instrument that seems so superfluous was acquired by military players at a high price after gathering information from various channels, and wouldn’t be used unless in special situations.
Now is precisely that special time.
This suddenly appearing wandering space contains Time, Space, and Spirit Super Evolution Powers; it’s a high-risk Super Evolution Site. While the risks are high, they hold a value worth taking a gamble. Nie Xuan is here to pave the way. The military and Special Defense Department have already secretly sent all the Super Evolvers they currently have, including but not limited to Psychic and Spatial Evolvers, as well as reserve Evolutionaries, outside the space, waiting for him to find a potential path for them to evolve.
However, Nie Xuan’s situation is not optimistic.
In Spatial Evolution, he is weaker than Xu Huo. The deeper he goes into the Nine Great Divine Paths, the more his perceivable Spatial Range gets compressed. Thus, when subjected to interference of Psychic Power, he lost a teammate and had to send another teammate away.
His journey is difficult, but choosing the Nine Great Divine Paths has allowed him to see a greater number of time fragments containing important information earlier; hence he got a glimpse of the "Divine Eye" and the city destruction event’s edges, and it was these bits of information that kept him lingering.
It is unclear whether he’s lucky or unlucky. Though he didn’t encounter Baoyu’s corpse, he was struck by a Time Ray first, hitting precisely the right foot that had been struck by a Spatial Ray before. Of course, there’s no difference between the right and left foot; both legs now exhibit spatial characteristics.
Nie Xuan’s evolution status is one of Country X’s top secrets. Usually, besides protective clothing, his legs require special gear to prevent information leaks. But now, here, he hasn’t switched gear, letting his feet remain exposed.
His legs are no longer part of a normal human body. After being hit by Lawrence Lee’s Spatial Ray, his legs and feet began showing cracks, not actual flesh splits but lines resembling transparent hard lines growing on the skin.
Actually, these hard lines were evenly distributed within the muscles and bones, initially seeming to naturally be there, as they increased, they turned from lines to patches, once causing difficulty in Nie Xuan’s movement, requiring props and instruments for daily life assistance. When these crystalline-like entities began growing onto the other leg, he even sniffed the scent of death.
Fortunately, misfortune turned into fortune; after suitable treatment, his legs regained normal functionality, but those scattered crystal fragments connected, appearing like Lawrence Lee’s Spatial Ray, becoming something that looked like transparent crystals made of diamond-shaped blocks.
Nie Xuan’s legs may still retain some human skin, but overall, they have actually turned into a thickened version of Spatial Ray, and of course, it’s the exclusive dazzling version owned by super player Lawrence Lee.
Regardless of the pain these rough "Crystal Legs" brought him, when faced with the Time Ray just now, those legs saved him; also, as they were permeated by the Time Ray, small holes were left on the foot surface—these holes are hard to spot with the naked eye, but they made some diamond-shaped crystal pieces show cracks, and traces became visible at once.
Nie Xuan can still feel faint pain, although the Time Ray did not cause other impacts; it seems the collision between the two forces offsetting resulted in the current circumstance, but he cannot be sure whether this protection will cover his entire body, so he must use instruments to probe the general areas, avoiding places where readings fluctuate strongly on the instruments before moving his legs cautiously.
As he steps slowly, he doesn’t forget to check on Xu Huo’s condition. No feedback from the Special Defense Department there; Xu Huo himself hasn’t replied either, but earlier, there was a random movement of a Spatial Body, indicating he’s still here.
With time ticking, Nie Xuan, who initially led the way, gradually fell behind. Not to mention avoiding the floating Spatial Bodies, even aiming for a straight path, preliminary analysis and inching forward are not fast either, so their positions gradually shifted.
Xu Huo carries "Angel’s Eye," unlocking the Spiritual World, even allowing Time Ray to be visualized within his spiritual power domain. Given Time Ray itself isn’t dense, and rarely abruptly assaults, his journey is relatively relaxed.
On the segment of the Nine Great Divine Paths, he randomly viewed some past images, but didn’t find much useful information; mostly believers and local residents expounding the prowess of the Divine Eye and Divine Envoy to the later-come curious outsiders. As for what’s great about them, it’s still the old three: healing diseases, revealing truth and falsehood, reversing aging.
Of these three effects, aside from reversing aging being somewhat challenging, the other two are not difficult for players, while the so-called reverse aging, after seeing Baoyu’s corpse, Xu Huo dared not assuredly claim it’s impossible.
After the initial shock, calming down, he gradually explored a hint of possibility that aging instantly is actually just time advancing faster on the person. Players might enter and exit game zones with differing time speeds, such as Base W37 City, spending a month there equals to seven days in E27. Due to the hard rule in the game necessitating entering an instance monthly, some instances that require prolonged completion obviously conflict, resulting in such time changes.
But returning doesn’t mean reversing aging; the time spent on a person doesn’t change; living as long as within the instance is just that, time merely being a measurement tool.
Yet from this perspective, to E27, when returning from Base W37 City, isn’t one suddenly older by a month? Maybe Time Ray operates similarly.
However, reversing aging means time going backward, which seems impossible from any angle of understanding, but if truly achievable, perhaps it would be the ultimate pursuit for someone like Dr. Wu.