Chapter 218: Time

“It is absolutely impossible to be controlling time.”

That was Zuo Zhicheng’s thought and his judgment. If the other man truly could speed up or slow down the flow of time, the situation definitely wouldn’t be like this.

Because if time itself truly changed, he shouldn’t experience this feeling of noticing his own slowdown. Like a movie played in fast-forward, the characters in the movie couldn’t know their own time flow had gotten faster. For them, no matter how high the fast-forward speed, everything in their space-time still progressed at the original pace. So, he fundamentally couldn’t detect time being accelerated.

Only a third party, the person watching the movie, could perceive time speeding up or slowing down. The same was true in Zuo Zhicheng’s situation. He wasn’t experiencing time slowing down; he felt that everything else became slow. This meant he himself wasn’t in accelerated or decelerated time.

Just as Zuo Zhicheng thought this, Bai Yixin’s fist came at his face again. One felt his body slow down, the other’s body was frozen stiff; their speeds were almost evenly matched. But the slowdown in Zuo Zhicheng’s thinking made his reactions far too slow.

Every punch Bai Yixin threw maximized variation. His palms seemed blurred, twisted like a magic trick, creating a chaotic sense of warped time and upside-down reality. Bai Yixin thrust his shoulder and elbow forward, like a spear driving towards Zuo Zhicheng’s chest. Zuo Zhicheng raised his hands to block. The other changed elbows to fists, the punch carrying spiraling power like a giant hammer striking Zuo Zhicheng’s shoulder. Zuo Zhicheng lifted his hands to push upwards against the fist. But the moment Zuo Zhicheng made this change, Bai Yixin had already shifted again. Fingers splayed, they shot forward like a tiger’s claws clawing towards Zuo Zhicheng’s palm.

That claw aimed straight for his palm; it might rip off a chunk of flesh immediately. Zuo Zhicheng had no time to change his defense. He could only push his Yama Golden Body technique. Power blasted from his palm like detonated dynamite.

Bam! Several bloody gashes appeared on Zuo Zhicheng’s palm. His entire hand was instantly covered in blood. Meanwhile, the nails on Bai Yixin’s thumb and index finger were crushed by the power of the Yama Golden Body before splitting slightly. The continuous flow of fighting quickly overwhelmed Zuo Zhicheng’s slowed-down mind, leaving him no room to think about anything else.

Further away, Jin Shuixian and the others saw that even from a distance, Zuo Zhicheng facing Bai Yixin was seriously disadvantaged. Her lips curved into a smirk, a look of pure schadenfreude on her face as she watched Zuo Zhicheng.

“Master Bai’s Time Flow has been perfected. Even facing a siege by three Human Phase Masters, he can withdraw unharmed. That Heavenly Serpent King fellow is definitely going to lose!”

She thought to herself: Hmph, the Heavenly Serpent King… is not so great. Lucky this time master doesn’t plan to kill you. Once I achieve the Human Aspect, I’ll challenge you. I will defeat you personally.

At the same time, just as Zuo Zhicheng was starting to get used to the current state through successive exchanges, a blur below flashed — a shadowy image of a leg shot towards his knee. Normally, he could lift his knee to dodge, or use strength to resist, or directly intercept the kick to prevent it landing. But just as he prepared to move his leg, a dizzying sensation hit his mind. His vision flickered strangely. Time seemed to accelerate tenfold. When his focus returned, Bai Yixin’s foot was barely an inch from his knee. He barely managed to twist the muscles of his calf, bracing his knee to meet the sole, but he was ultimately not fully prepared, just a fraction too slow. Strong pressure built on his knee. Bai Yixin planned to snap his leg.

Reaching this critical point, Zuo Zhicheng had no time to keep thinking about what the Heartscape was. A light ignited in his left eye. The next second, a shrill, stressed groan came from his knee as a straight beam of light erupted from his left eye, simultaneously piercing through Bai Yixin’s cheek.

Light. Speed of three hundred thousand kilometers per second. No matter what Bai Yixin’s Heartscape was, if he couldn’t truly change time, unless he dodged beforehand, once the light was aimed and fired, it was guaranteed to hit.

In this high-stakes crisis, Zuo Zhicheng had no time to care about hiding his strength or the existence of his Dao Arts. He unleashed the Divine Light Sword through Night Sea instantly. Because firing the Divine Light Sword from Night Sea was unquestionably the fastest option. Bai Yixin didn’t possess the invulnerable body like the Dharma King of Destruction. The proteins in his cheek were almost instantly vaporized and penetrated by the Divine Light Sword, exposing his teeth. Just as Zuo Zhicheng propelled himself forward, trying to slash the Divine Light Sword further to vaporize, push back, and penetrate, he felt that dizzying sensation again. Time seemed to accelerate instantly. When he snapped back to awareness, Bai Yixin had already leapt backward like a startled baboon, landing over ten meters away.

He stared at Zuo Zhicheng in surprise, his breath wheezing through the small hole in his cheek. “Never imagined you wield a Dao Art like that.”

Seeing Bai Yixin dodge, Zuo Zhicheng immediately withdrew the Divine Light Sword. He rubbed his aching knee, circulated some qi and blood to ease it, and asked coldly, “What’s up with your Heartscape?”

Of course, Bai Yixin wouldn’t tell him directly. Zuo Zhicheng himself only asked casually, not expecting an answer. But during this rare pause, he gave it serious thought and had begun forming some educated guesses. Since the Divine Light Sword was unaffected, it meant the other man couldn’t truly control time. The sensation he felt—sudden speeding up and slowing down of time—must instead be because his perceptual abilities had been tampered with.

Thinking carefully, it’s not impossible. Since the Power of Mind and Spirit can twist a human’s mind and will, some sects might possess a Heartscape specifically designed to distort a person’s sense of time.

Time sense was naturally the human perception of time. Time, including space—these measurements aren’t objective realities existing independently. They are defined by humanity based on their own perceptual abilities. If Bai Yixin’s Heartscape could forcibly distort another’s time sense, it naturally plunged the person into an illusion of temporal distortion. Had Zuo Zhicheng not possessed the Divine Light Sword technique, encountering Bai Yixin for the first time without knowing his background would clearly have been incredibly dangerous.

In the distance, Jin Shuixian and the others stared toward Zuo Zhicheng in utter disbelief. She shouted, “How is this possible? What Dao Art did he just use? He forced Master back!”

They were too far away. They only saw a flash of light, then Bai Yixin swiftly retreating. They couldn’t see what actually happened.

Over there, Bai Yixin naturally had no clue that Zuo Zhicheng had already formed his own theory about his Heartscape. Bai Yixin held supreme confidence in this peak Heartscape art, passed down by the Heavenly River Sect. Though struck sneakily by Zuo Zhicheng’s Divine Light Sword, he maintained a dismissive expression, like someone merely stung by a mosquito.

“Heavenly Serpent King, for someone so young to achieve Dual Cultivation of Dao and Martial Arts… you truly might have no equal at your age in all of Southern Bay… no, perhaps in all Xinlu.”

“Pity. Truly a pity. The fiercer the flame, the quicker it burns out…” At this, Bai Yixin lowered his eyelids, spreading his hands out strangely, palms up. “…Is another peerless genius about to fall beneath my hands?”

With these words, Bai Yixin’s killing intent became starkly apparent. The previous aura of an immortal sage was ripped away ruthlessly. Clearly, Bai Yixin, fearful of Zuo Zhicheng’s potential in Dual Cultivation of Dao and Martial Arts, had resolved to permanently eliminate him here.

This also revealed Bai Yixin’s own spirit wasn’t great; he held grudges easily and was quite petty. This was actually pretty normal. Not every powerful master possessed vast magnanimity or grace, readily pointing out tips to talented youngsters and offering them the chance to challenge them later. Someone like Bai Yixin, who usually acted noble, but upon seeing a gifted genius with immense potential only felt the urge to snuff him out—this was, in fact, the mindset of the majority of people. After all, the level of one’s cultivation in Martial Arts or Dao Arts held no absolute connection to their character.