469: Chapter 469 Trial of Time and Space

She took a step, and the flow of time changed along with it; she took another step, and it changed again; she took yet another, and the flow of time gradually stabilized.

When she walked out of the second layer, she had initially grasped "Perception of Time Flow"—the foundation for learning "Time Reversal". She did not realize that her cultivation had quietly advanced to the Late Stage of the Foundation Establishment eighth level during this process.

The third layer involved simultaneous chaos of space and time. Su Ning needed to perceive both space nodes and time nodes simultaneously to find the correct path. This was the ultimate test of her talent for time and space.

She sat cross-legged, sinking her consciousness into the Void Realm, using spatial perception to fix her direction and temporal perception to calibrate her rhythm, drawing a "Time-Space Map" in her mind.

Every node was an intersection of the spatial coordinates and temporal flow rates she perceived; connecting them formed a twisted path. It was like a snake, winding its way forward.

This process lasted for three days. Three days passed within the maze, and her spiritual sense was mostly exhausted; her face was pale, and fine beads of sweat seeped from her forehead. But she did not give up. On the third day, she finally found the exit—a glowing stone door, the light leaking through the door gap warm and not blinding. Su Ning stood up, pushed open the stone door, and walked out.

Master Void was waiting outside. He looked at the time, his eyes full of surprise. "Three days inside the maze, six hours in the outside world. You are the Disciple who has passed through the maze in the shortest time since the founding of Taixu Palace." Su Ning asked: "Can I learn the secret arts of time and space now?" Master Void nodded: "Yes. And you can directly learn the complete version of 'Time Stasis'. This is the most profound secret art of time and space in Taixu Palace, and only three people have learned it in the past thousand years."

When Su Ning walked out of the maze, her face was pale but her eyes were bright. Master Void asked her what she saw in the maze. Su Ning said she saw her companions. "Gao Feng is always charging at the front, blocking all dangers for us. I want to become stronger, strong enough to share the burden for him. Tianxin, Luo Li, Chu Lan, Yaoguang, Lin Yue, Lin Jingyu, and Situ Lan are all working hard to become stronger, so I cannot fall behind."

Master Void smiled. "You have changed. Before, you were a piece of ice; now, you are water, and you have warmth." Su Ning did not deny it; she lowered her head, the corners of her mouth curling slightly.

That night, Su Ning was arranged to rest in the Immortal Cave of a Guest Elder at Taixu Palace. The Immortal Cave was located in an independent space fragment, surrounded by a void starry sky, with a floor made of transparent Spatial Crystal under her feet. She sat cross-legged in the center of the Immortal Cave, operating the Starry Myriad Arts obtained from the Battlefield of Ten Thousand Races. This supreme secret art of the Star Clan was of the same origin as the time and space Spells of Taixu Palace; the two verified each other, allowing her cultivation to achieve twice the result with half the effort.

Her cultivation improved from the Middle Stage of the Foundation Establishment eighth level to the Late Stage. Closing her eyes, Gao Feng's face appeared in her mind. He stood on the city wall of Meteor City, golden sword light cutting through the night sky. He said: "Protection is not the business of one person; it requires all of us together." She opened her eyes and whispered: "Wait for me to return."

The next morning, Master Void officially taught Su Ning "Time Reversal" and "Time Stasis".

Time Reversal could briefly reverse the temporal state of oneself or a target, used for healing injuries or avoiding fatal attacks. The incantations, gestures, and spiritual power circulation routes all had strict requirements, and Master Void demonstrated them one by one. Su Ning carefully recorded every detail, repeatedly deducing them in her mind. Time Stasis was to pause time within a very small area, lasting for one to three seconds. A Golden Core Stage Cultivator could perform it at most once, consuming immense energy, and it must be used at critical moments.

Master Void handed her two Jade Slips, saying that they recorded the complete cultivation methods and the insights of past Seniors of Taixu Palace. "Learn them, and you will be able to travel freely in the Void Realm, and even manipulate time to a certain extent." Su Ning took the Jade Slips and carefully tucked them into her sleeve.

In the following days, she Cultivated time and space Spells during the day and pondered the Starry Myriad Arts in her Immortal Cave at night. The progress of Time Reversal was faster than expected; half a month later, she was already able to perform it briefly—reversing her own time by a few breaths to repair some minor injuries. However, Time Stasis was extremely difficult, and multiple attempts all ended in failure. Master Void told her that she needed a large amount of actual combat experience and suggested she enter the "Time-Space Battlefield" to Cultivate.

Su Ning nodded in agreement. The Time-Space Battlefield was a practical combat training ground provided by Taixu Palace for its Disciples, a simulated battlefield constructed by time and space Spells, with various time-space turbulence and space traps inside. She stepped into the battlefield and began her new training.

The starry sky of Taixu Palace flowed slowly overhead, and the bell of the Time-Space Hall echoed in the mountains. Su Ning's figure flickered in the Time-Space Battlefield, silver-white light drawing arcs in the darkness like meteors streaking across the night sky. She wanted to become stronger, strong enough to protect them.

The entrance to the Time-Space Battlefield was a silver-white light gate, the door frame carved with time-space formation patterns; those lines flowed slowly, like countless silver rivers converging and then diverging. Su Ning stood in front of the light gate, took a deep breath, and stepped inside.

In the gray sky, there was no sun and no clouds, only countless space cracks hanging on the dome like scars. The rocks on the ground were sometimes large and sometimes small, sometimes present and sometimes absent—that was the work of time turbulence. In some places, the time flow was fast, and the rocks weathered and collapsed in an instant; in other places, the time flow was slow, and the rocks solidified in mid-air like frozen spray. The air was filled with a disturbing silence, occasionally punctuated by the "hissing" sound of space cracks closing.

Master Void's voice came from behind, becoming ethereal and distant after passing through the light gate: "There are twelve time-space Puppets in the Time-Space Battlefield, each with the strength of the first level of the Golden Core Stage. Your task is to defeat them using only time and space Spells, without using any other Spells."

Su Ning frowned: "Only use time and space Spells? I haven't learned 'Time Stasis' yet."

"Then use 'Time Reversal' and 'Space Cutting'. Your Space Cutting is already powerful enough, and Time Reversal can help you avoid fatal attacks. Go." Master Void's voice disappeared.

The first time-space Puppet turned out from behind a giant rock not far away. It was a humanoid Puppet made of Spatial Crystal, about a zhang tall, entirely silver-white. Its arms were transformed into two Spatial Blades, with fine silver patterns flowing on the blades; every strike could tear space apart. It had no eyes, but Su Ning could feel it staring at her—that feeling of being locked on made her back feel cold.

The Puppet rushed over, its speed shockingly fast. The Spatial Blade slashed toward Su Ning's neck; Su Ning dodged to the side while simultaneously casting Space Cutting. Silver-white spatial power condensed at her fingertips, turning into an invisible sharp blade that collided with the Puppet's Spatial Blade. A harsh metallic sound echoed across the empty battlefield, sparks flying. The Puppet's strength was far greater than hers; she was shaken back several steps, the web between her thumb and forefinger numb.

The Puppet did not give her a chance to catch her breath; the other Spatial Blade had already slashed down. Su Ning could not dodge in time and blocked with her arm—the Spatial Blade tore through her sleeve, leaving a deep bloodstain on her forearm, blood dripping down her fingers. She gritted her teeth and cast Time Reversal. Silver-white light enveloped her arm; time flowed backward on her for a few breaths, the bloodstain healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, and her sleeve also returned to its original state.

She readjusted her tactics, no longer clashing head-on with the Puppet. The target of her Space Cutting shifted from the Puppet's body to its joints—wrists, elbows, shoulder blades. Several Spatial Blades slashed continuously at the Puppet's left shoulder joint; the crystal shattered, that arm lost power and hung limply. The Puppet's movements began to slow down; Su Ning seized the opportunity, condensed Space Cutting into a line, and slashed off the core crystal on its chest in one blow. The Puppet collapsed with a bang, splashing up a cloud of dust.

Su Ning panted, extending her spiritual sense toward the depths of the battlefield. The second Puppet was already rushing toward her.

The second Puppet was adept at Spatial Imprisonment. It raised its hand and released a silver-white light shield, trapping Su Ning inside. The space inside the light shield was compressed; Su Ning felt as if she had been stuffed into a transparent box, unable to stretch her limbs. She attacked the inner wall of the light shield with Space Cutting; the light shield vibrated a few times but did not break. She tried Time Reversal again, only to find that Time Reversal was ineffective against Spatial Imprisonment—this was suppression at the spatial level, not damage at the temporal level.

She calmed down and carefully probed the structure of the light shield with spatial perception. The spiritual power distribution of the light shield was not uniform, and several nodes were clearly weaker than others. She condensed Space Cutting to the size of a needle tip and precisely stabbed those nodes. The light shield shattered, and the imprisonment was released. Before the Puppet could react, Su Ning's Space Cutting had already severed its core crystal.

The third Puppet was adept at time deceleration. The moment it cast the Spell, Su Ning felt her body become incomparably heavy; every movement required several times the effort of normal times. She countered with Time Reversal, attempting to reverse the time deceleration effect on her body, but her Time Reversal could only act within a few breaths, and the effect was limited. Her movements became slower and slower, while the Puppet's attacks became faster and faster.

She suddenly thought: Time deceleration and Time Reversal are essentially both manipulations of the flow of time. She applied the power of Time Reversal to herself, making her own time flow "accelerate" to counteract the Puppet's time deceleration. The two forces collided within her body, and her movements returned to normal. The Puppet clearly did not expect this move and had its core crystal severed by her Space Cutting in one blow.

After continuously defeating three Puppets, Su Ning's spiritual power was largely consumed, but her eyes were brighter than before. Every battle deepened her understanding of time and space Spells by another level.

The fourth Puppet was adept at spatial teleportation. It flickered left and right, front and back on the battlefield, making it completely impossible to lock onto.

Su Ning's several Space Cuttings slashed into empty air. She did not panic but instead closed her eyes, using spatial perception to capture the spatial fluctuations when the Puppet teleported.

The essence of teleportation was opening a spatial channel to jump from one place to another; the moment the channel opened, there would be faint spiritual power fluctuations. Su Ning's perception captured those fluctuations.