Chapter 1438 - 431: Xie Jiuyan Is Right

Chapter 1438: Chapter 431: Xie Jiuyan Is Right

Chapter 431 [Xie Jiuyan Was Right]

She had been walking in this forest for who knows how long...

The feeling was very subtle, and very uncomfortable—Zhan Li had once been a Cultivator of the Celestial Human Realm; even though she had fallen back to the Mortal Realm, her sensitivity to the outside world was still very sharp.

Yet precisely while walking in this forest, Zhan Li felt an especially bizarre sensation...

She had lost her perception of "time"!

To be precise... she had lost her perception of the "outside world."

To be precise, the concept of "time" actually doesn’t exist; it’s a pseudo‑concept. The so‑called

"time" is just a scale used to mark the process of material change.

Time is not seconds, not minutes, not hours, not days, months, years, nor hours of the day.

All of those are scales.

At this moment, Zhan Li felt extremely uncomfortable, as if all her senses were being veiled.

Her eyes could see the trees in the woods, could see the soil beneath her feet—yet somehow, deep inside, she couldn’t sense them!

Her ears could hear sounds, could hear the scraping noise of her soles stepping on the ground as she walked, but her heart couldn’t feel any of it.

When a person’s five senses are veiled, their perception of "time" naturally grows dull, or even... disappears!

So Zhan Li lost her sense of "time."

This kind of sensory chaos would cause changes to a person’s body. For example, when you can’t feel time, you gradually lose control of this thing called "speed."

Zhan Li’s steps began to turn alternately fast and slow.

East Sea clearly noticed this. He had originally been walking ahead of Zhan Li, but suddenly stopped.

With that sudden halt, Zhan Li almost crashed into East Sea’s back, then hurriedly stopped herself.

"Your perception is starting to go chaotic, isn’t it?" East Sea turned to look at Zhan Li and said slowly, "This is caused by a disruption of spatial rules. You’re in the Mortal Realm, so you’re easily disturbed by this kind of chaos.

I’m above the Celestial Human Realm, so the degree to which I’m affected is much lower.

From now on, fix your eyes on my footsteps. Watch the speed of my stride—when I step, you step; when I’m fast, you’re fast; when I’m slow, you’re slow!"

Zhan Li’s eyes lit up!

A point of reference!

So‑called senses, so‑called time perception—in truth, what the "scale" needs is a reference object.

With East Sea as a "reference," it was as if her veiled five senses had had a slit of light torn open in the darkness!

From then on, the path became much smoother for Zhan Li; at least that twisted, suffocating feeling in her chest loosened considerably.

Finally, when the two of them reached the edge of this forest, East Sea slowly let out a breath.

Beads of sweat had appeared on his forehead. Clearly, this Celestial Human Realm Cultivator was not nearly as relaxed as he appeared.

East Sea led Zhan Li to a tree at the very outer edge of the forest. One more step forward, and they would be out of the woods.

"Look at what’s outside the forest."

Following East Sea’s instruction, Zhan Li lifted her eyes.

Outside the forest was a sea of sand!

An endless desert, dune after dune, boundless, an expanse of despairing sand‑yellow.

She raised her head to look at the sky. The heavens were a dim gray, yet without a single cloud, and she couldn’t see sun or sky‑sun at all.

It was as if above the sea of sand and above the forest, a sharply divided boundary line had appeared in the sky!

On the sand‑sea side, the sky was gray, while above the forest two red suns hung on either side of the heavens!

East Sea reached out and grabbed Zhan Li’s wrist. "Hold onto my hand. Don’t let go!"

Zhan Li nodded, and East Sea took her with him as they stepped forward together!

A single step away!

·

The world spun, and Zhan Li felt everything in her field of vision flip in an instant!

As she took that step, even though she had mentally prepared herself, she still couldn’t help letting out a cry from her throat!

"Ah!!"

After that short cry, Zhan Li’s fingers clamped down hard around East Sea’s hand as she stared wide‑eyed at this world!

Beneath her feet was a stretch of gray void...

No, not void—sky!

And when she lifted her head, in that far‑off "sky" above, there was a boundless sea of sand and dunes!

Heaven and earth had actually turned upside down here!

"This, this..."

Zhan Li couldn’t help herself and reflexively uttered a question, but as soon as she opened her mouth, she abruptly snapped awake and reached up to touch her own lips. "I can speak?!"

In the next instant, Zhan Li joyfully stuck a finger into her mouth to feel around. "M‑my tongue—my tongue’s grown back, it’s back!"

"An effect brought by the chaos of spatial rules." East Sea glanced at Zhan Li, his expression and tone both very calm. "You’re lucky. The chaotic rules here happened, purely by accident, to alter your body and regrow your tongue."

"By accident?" Zhan Li keenly caught that phrase.

"It can’t be predicted, so it’s purely accidental." East Sea frowned and thought for a moment. "When different spatial rules collide, it’s like smashing dozens of marbles together with various forces—each marble’s direction and speed as it bounces away is impossible to calculate.

When rules collide with rules, it’s not one plus one equals two; there’s no fixed formula. Instead... a brand‑new result appears at random.

You’re fortunate—your tongue is healed. But once we leave this area, the rules in the next place may be different. When the rule that benefits you disappears, your tongue may revert to its severed state."