Chapter 122 - 100: Real Time and Annihilation Particles

Chapter 122: Chapter 100: Real Time and Annihilation Particles

That night, Chen Shang returned to the laboratory.

Amy was still busy at the Recording Platform. Zhong Kui’s runes glowed quietly, and the Soul Core pulsed slowly within the protective pod.

Sitting at his desk, Chen Shang opened the Crystal Plate and began searching for information. The keywords were "Water-Fire Explosion," "Chaos-Colored Light," and "Unknown Energy." The results were sparse. Most were papers on Elemental Fusion, and not a single one mentioned the phenomenon he had witnessed.

He tried another batch of keywords: "Explosion, Brief, High Energy, Unknown."

The results were even fewer. A couple of articles on Forbidden Curse research mentioned "energy spillover under extreme high temperatures," but the described phenomena were completely different from what he had seen; those were merely cases of uncontrolled energy.

He scrolled for nearly the duration of an Hourglass before suddenly being drawn to a particular paper. Its title was lengthy: "On the Levels of Time Perception and Evidence for the Existence of True Time." It was published over three hundred years ago.

He clicked it open and skimmed through it quickly.

The paper’s core argument was this: In the eyes of ordinary mortals or Wizard Apprentices, time was continuous and coherent, measured by the ancient era’s system of twelve Hourglasses a day. However, certain Wizards could perceive the true time of this world.

Namely, time was not continuous; it pulsed. The entire world pulsed roughly once every one-twenty-fourth of a second, and each pulse was a "refresh."

This was the lowest frequency. Going down, it could be subdivided further, all the way to a certain indivisible unit of time. At that scale, all Laws completely failed, and a different set of rules was followed.

Chen Shang stared at that line of text for a long time.

One-twenty-fourth of a second. The mass of Chaos-colored light he had seen in the testing ground lasted from appearance to disappearance for roughly one-twenty-fourth of a second. It was the exact same every time.

This was definitely no coincidence. If, within that one-twenty-fourth-of-a-second "gap," certain Laws failed, the high temperature and pressure generated by the Water-Fire explosion could get stuck in that gap, releasing Energy far beyond what normal Laws permitted.

According to this hypothesis, that ball of light was a special Element born after integrating with true time.

Thus, he began searching for more papers on true time, but unfortunately, there were no more results.

This clearly belonged to higher-level knowledge. Even among Official Wizards, not everyone had mastered it, which was why Wizard Apprentices could not access it—not even if they spent money.

Chen Shang turned off the Crystal Plate and leaned back in his chair, recounting everything in his mind. Then, he reopened the Crystal Plate, created a new document, and typed in two words in the title bar.

Annihilation Particle.

He gave this phenomenon a name and detailed the observations he had made at the testing ground that day: the conditions of generation, duration, Energy characteristics, its color under the Eye of True Sight, and the speculated connection to the rift of true time.

Finally, he added a note at the bottom: "Currently unable to trigger proactively. It appears by chance when the Water-Fire explosion reaches a specific Energy threshold. The next direction for research is to lower the trigger threshold and attempt a stable capture."

Chen Shang was very excited, feeling as if he had glimpsed a corner of the truth of the Endless Star Sea world.

At a branch of the Elemental Storm Association, on the ground floor of a High Tower.

Reviewing Wizard Cedric Love brewed a cup of strong Refined Herbal Beverage as usual, leaned back in his chair, and opened the journal’s review system.

Elemental Storm’s database received dozens of papers submitted by members every month. He was responsible for reviewing papers from First Level Apprentices to Third Level Apprentices.

The quality of papers during the Apprentice stage varied greatly; he rejected a considerable portion just by skimming the abstracts. Incomplete data and repeating predecessors’ results were common flaws. Only a few could enter the second review, and an extremely small minority could pass the final review to be published in the association’s core journal.

He had already rejected seven papers today. When the title of the eighth paper popped up, he frowned.

"Preliminary Construction of the Fusion Model Between Samadhi True Flame and One-Element Heavy Water."

Samadhi True Flame? One-Element Heavy Water? Were these the author’s names for the Water-Fire Elements he had created?

Cedric did not really like flashy names. Such papers were often devoid of actual content.

Holding his teacup, he clicked open the abstract. After a few glances, he set down his cup and sat up straight.

The abstract was only a few hundred words long, but every paragraph was packed with solid substance. From combining Fire in the Stone, Fire in Wood, and Aerial Fire into one, to drawing inspiration from ancient Water Attribute Creatures, and finally to the Phase Angle Ladder, Frequency Transition, and the selection and verification of the Resonant Point—every single step was backed by detailed data.

Cedric realized that this might be a rare, high-quality paper.

He read it from beginning to end, verifying the points in his mind as he went. He even tested out certain possibilities before reading it from start to finish once again.

"Brilliant, what a brilliant train of thought!" He downed the Refined Herbal Beverage in one gulp and looked up the author. "Chen Shang, a Second Level Apprentice from the Starfall Laboratory? It’s a waste for this kind of talent to stay in Star Fall. He should come to our Elemental City."

He forwarded the paper to his mentor and left a comment: "The quality of this paper is extremely high. The content is detailed, and it has great developmental potential. I recommend it pass the final review."

Several days later.

Chen Shang’s Cultivation was advancing steadily. The completeness of his Force Touch Perception had risen to 94%, and his Micro-Repulsive Guidance and Micro-Attractor succeeded eight or nine times out of ten.

He visited the Repulsive-Attractive Training Ground once a day, practiced for an hour, and then left without ever lingering.

In addition to his practice, he was silently extracting other people’s progress.

The gazes others directed at him had shifted from curiosity to habit. Only Oleg occasionally cast a glance his way—his gaze complex, yet he never approached.