Chapter 68: Useless?

Chapter 68: Chapter 68: Useless?

「Night fell.」

An attendant brought them dinner.

Only cultivators at the Nascent Soul Stage and above could Fast, sustaining their bodies with Spiritual Qi.

Li Ye was bound to a demon and had no need for food or sleep, but so he wouldn’t seem out of place, he ate with Yang Tianrui anyway.

He had to admit, the food in the cultivation world had effects comparable to Spirit Medicine. Once eaten, it transformed into wisps of Spiritual Qi that nourished his meridians—on a level countless times higher than in the Martial World.

...

After dinner, Yang Tianrui taught Li Ye the first three levels of the Cyan Yuan Heart Method. After making sure Li Ye had no further questions, he began his own cultivation.

A genius he might be, but diligence was still essential. Yang Tianrui was extremely self-disciplined and wouldn’t let curiosity delay his own training.

As Yang Tianrui began to cultivate, Li Ye clearly sensed Shen Weifeng and his Fourth Senior Brother, Ge Rui, arrive one after the other just outside the cave residence.

Their movements were light, but they couldn’t escape Li Ye’s perception.

Li Ye shook his head to himself. ’These guys really don’t trust me. Even if I were a spy, I wouldn’t make a move against Yang Tianrui on the very first day!’

Pretending he was unaware of the two people outside, Li Ye sat down cross-legged and began cultivating the Cyan Yuan Heart Method.

’The Cultivation Techniques in this world are limited; maybe they only go as high as the Harmonization Realm. Still, having something to cultivate is better than nothing. I’m in no position to be picky.’

’After all, back home, the Demon Hunting Bureau considers even the Five Elements Mutual Production Technique a priceless treasure!’

The Spiritual Qi on Changding Peak was more abundant than at the foot of the mountain. If the Spiritual Qi at the base was ten times that of Earth, the concentration inside Yang Tianrui’s cave residence was at least thirty times greater.

As Li Ye completed a Circulation, the liquid Inner Strength in his Dantian began to convert, bit by bit, into Spiritual Qi.

The Cyan Yuan Heart Method was far more effective than the Five Elements Mutual Production Technique. Combined with the abundant Spiritual Qi here, his Inner Strength converted at a rate at least fifty times faster than on Earth.

Even so, after Li Ye completed one full Circulation, less than one-ten-thousandth of his Inner Strength had been converted.

The sheer volume of Inner Strength Li Ye had amassed in the last world using his Derived Skills was simply monstrous. He could complete ten Circulations in a single night, at most.

At this rate, it would take at least a thousand days for Li Ye to convert all his Inner Strength into Spiritual Qi.

’A thousand days?’

Li Ye stopped his cultivation.

’I’m only in this world for a year. If it takes a thousand days just to finish converting my Inner Strength, by the time I get to a more advanced Cultivation Technique, it’ll be far too late.’

In this world, cultivation progress was typically measured in years. Taking three years to convert Inner Strength into Spiritual Qi and evolve from a Martial Artist into a cultivator was already an incredible feat.

’But I can’t afford to wait that long!’

’Demon Qi is the universal catalyst. To advance quickly, I’ll have to find a way to increase it.’

At some point, Shen Weifeng and Fourth Senior Brother Ge Rui had left. The cave fell silent, the only sound being the nearly inaudible rhythm of Yang Tianrui’s breathing as he cultivated.

Li Ye gazed at the watch on his wrist, pondering how to unlock its full potential.

Before arriving, he had been ambitious, hoping to use the watch to create one or two time-based Derived Skills.

But as for how to actually use it, Li Ye didn’t have the slightest clue.

Time Stop!

Li Ye activated the watch’s Time Stop function.

「The next instant.」

Li Ye felt as if he had entered a vacuum.

’No, it’s not quite a vacuum, either.’

It was a very peculiar sensation; everything around him, except for his own thoughts, seemed to have frozen solid.

Including his blood and his heartbeat.

Dead silence!

That was perhaps the only word to describe his current state.

CLICK!

A soft click, like the tick of a second hand, sounded in Li Ye’s mind.

The air began to move again. The sound of his own heartbeat, the rush of his blood, the sound of Yang Tianrui’s breathing—it all flooded into Li Ye’s ears. The entire world came back to life, and everything returned to normal.

The Time Stop was over.

Li Ye felt a nearly imperceptible sliver of Demon Qi manifest inside his body, but the Demon Qi connection to his watch had grown incredibly faint. He could no longer activate the Time Stop.

He tried using the Demon Qi left in his body by the badge to control the watch, but it didn’t respond. The two sources of energy were not interchangeable.

...

’What the hell was that?’

Li Ye’s brow furrowed. ’No wonder this thing was considered useless. What damn good is this broken Time Stop function? And most importantly, there’s no Demon Qi feedback...’

’No, wait.’

’That can’t possibly be how you’re supposed to use this thing.’

As he waited for the watch’s Demon Qi to recover, Li Ye quietly contemplated its purpose.

’One, telling time. Two, decoration. Three, showing off. Four, collecting. Five, retaining value...’

’Fuck!’

’I’ve got it all wrong!’

’A watch never had a time-control function to begin with. I can’t just assume it gained one simply because it was corrupted by Demon Qi.’

’Everyone has been looking at this from the wrong angle.’

’Once cell phones became widespread, watches became luxury items to a certain extent—a status symbol for the successful. Ordinary people rarely wear them anymore...’

Li Ye looked at the watch on his wrist.

It was a Vacheron Constantin Overseas, supposedly worth over four hundred thousand. While it couldn’t compare to the multi-million-dollar celebrity watches, the price was by no means low!

’On an Earth not plagued by Demon Qi, wearing this would absolutely be a status symbol...’

’But here in the cultivation world, even if I paraded it around on my wrist, no one would give it a second glance. After all, it’s not even as useful as the lowest-grade Magical Treasure.’

’Then again, that’s not quite right either.’

’It really did stop time for a second just now.’

’Which means it *can* control time...’

’Its hands are frozen, so its time-telling function is broken.’

’In this world, its brand value is zero, so its investment and collection purposes are gone.’

’Is this useless ability to control one second of time all that’s left?’

’What am I missing here?’

Li Ye stared at the watch, his brow tightly furrowed, completely stumped.

Time ticked by, second by second.

About an hour later, Li Ye re-established his connection with the watch and activated it once more.

This time, he didn’t use the Time Stop function. Instead, he drew a pattern on the ground and activated the time reversal function.

CLICK!

There was another soft click.

Li Ye felt a moment of disorientation. The pattern he had just drawn on the ground had vanished completely, as if it had never existed.

In his mind, however, he clearly remembered drawing it.

’So, time reverses, but my memory doesn’t.’

Li Ye glanced back at Yang Tianrui, who was still cultivating. Neither the Time Stop nor the time reversal had affected him in the slightest.

’Okay!’

’This function has potential.’

The watch’s cooldown period was about an hour. Instead of wasting time staring at it, Li Ye began a second Circulation.

By the time his second Circulation was complete, the watch had finished its cooldown, and Li Ye used the time reversal function again.

After the click,

Li Ye immediately checked for any changes in his body.

The converted Spiritual Qi in his Dantian hadn’t disappeared either.

’In other words, it wasn’t just time that reversed. My body and memories traveled back in time together for that one second.’

A smile crept across Li Ye’s lips.

’Now this is getting interesting!’

’It’s only one second now, but if I can extend that duration one day, it would be like having the ability to see the future. I could do so much with that.’

Next,

Li Ye tested the function to jump forward one second in time.

With no frame of reference, he didn’t feel any significant change even after jumping a second into the future. He assumed it was the same as moving backward—his memory and body traveled through time together.

Because the duration was so short, he had no idea what happened in the skipped interval. That, too, would require a longer duration to properly test.

For now, it seemed that reversing time was far more useful than stopping or advancing it.

The question, then, was how to cultivate the watch’s Demon Qi. Only by strengthening it could he increase the duration of its time-manipulating effects...