192: Chapter 192 Ninth-Tier Rainbow Card! The Substitute Insect Arrow Completes its Final Upgrade

Inside the nine-layered Card-Making Room under a Time Stop.

Tens of thousands of Stand phantoms were sealed away in different spatial layers.

Strength.

Speed.

Time.

Space.

Causality.

Healing.

Foresight.

Tracking.

Some of those abilities were powerful enough to tear apart laws, some looked completely devoid of offensive power, and others could not even be understood by existing detection arrays.

They represented every form a Stand could possibly possess.

It was precisely because there were too many possibilities that the Tier-9 Stand Arrow completely lost control during the final stage of its ascension.

A single card could not simultaneously accommodate tens of thousands of conflicting laws.

Even if the philosophers stone could ignore part of the equivalent exchange, it could not allow Time Stop and future foresight, damage feedback and life restoration, absolute strength and intangible incorporeality to exist stably at the same time.

If all abilities were forcibly engraved into the card, what would ultimately be obtained was not a Stand Arrow.

It would only be a collection of laws that could explode at any moment.

Su Bai stood within the first layer of space.

A strength-type Stand standing hundreds of meters tall was frozen right ahead.

Its fist had already pierced through the spatial barrier, and pitch-black cracks filled the area around its knuckle peak.

Judged solely by destructive power, this Stand was not even inferior to [The World].

"It cannot be left behind."

Su Bai raised a hand and pointed.

The body of the strength-type Stand rapidly turned transparent.

It was not destroyed.

The strength laws constituting the Stand were dismantled layer by layer by Su Bai, reverting back into the most basic mental particles.

Then came the second layer of space.

A time-type Stand composed of countless silvery-white clocks floated mid-air, its thousands of clock hands pointing toward different futures.

It did not have the powerful close-combat capability of [The World], but it could move a target's time forward or backward.

Su Bai only observed for a moment before raising his hand once more.

"It cannot be left behind either."

The time-type Stand subsequently dissipated.

The third layer.

Space.

The fourth layer.

Causality.

The fifth layer.

Healing.

Su Bai inspected every manifested ability one by one, then dismantled them all without hesitation.

Li Qingyue's voice simultaneously echoed from all nine layers of space.

"Not leaving a single one?"

"They cannot be left."

While dismantling the Stand phantoms, Su Bai replied:

"As long as I leave a complete ability in advance within the Stand Arrow, it will become a fixed template."

"The Tier-9 Stand Arrow made this way has no fundamental difference from the original Tier-2 Stand Arrow."

The problem with the Tier-2 Stand Arrow was not that its power was too weak.

Its true restriction was having to write Stand templates like [The World] into the card in advance.

The user could only adapt to the existing template.

If suitable, they could awaken.

If unsuitable, they would fail.

Because of this, when Wei Xiaoyu underwent the test for the first time, she was driven to a breakdown by the mental interrogation of [The World].

It was not that she could not awaken any Stand.

Rather, she at that time could not bear [The World].

If it were changed to a Stand that truly resonated with her soul, the result might have been completely different.

And now, the greatest change the philosophers stone brought to the Stand Arrow was giving it the possibility of breaking free from fixed templates.

The Tier-9 Stand Arrow did not need to prepare Stands in advance.

It should only begin generating abilities after contacting the user's soul.

"It should not be a warehouse filled with weapons."

Su Bai said:

"It only needs to possess a furnace capable of forging weapons."

Li Qingyue understood.

"Therefore, you are going to clear away all existing law templates."

"Only retaining the ability to generate laws."

"Correct."

Su Bai walked into the next layer of space.

His speed was not fast.

Every Stand phantom corresponded to a large amount of complex structures.

Wanting to clear the results without damaging the underlying rules that formed them required him to personally reverse-dismantle each ability.

Fortunately, Li Qingyue had already stopped time for the entire Card-Making Room.

Everything in the outside world was completely frozen.

Su Bai did not need to worry about law conflicts erupting early, nor did he need to worry about Tier-9 materials losing their activity during the long wait.

He now possessed nearly infinite processing time.

The hundredth Stand phantom vanished.

The thousandth.

The three-thousandth.

Su Bai's Mental Power was continuously consumed, yet slowly recovered through the philosophers stone arrow embryo.

Not knowing how much time had passed, more than half of the densely packed Stands within the nine layers of space had disappeared.

Those dismantled powers were not wasted.

Time, space, strength, and causality were all reverted into pure law particles, orbiting around the Tier-8 Stand Arrow.

They no longer possessed fixed attributes.

Nor did they conflict with one another.

Just like blank paper that had not yet been written on, waiting for future users to personally give the answer.

The final phantom was located in the ninth layer of space.

That was not humanoid.

Nor was it some kind of observable special ability.

It was merely a constantly changing transparent outline.

For a moment turning into a sharp longsword.

For a moment turning into a bird spreading its wings.

Then turning into a breeze, a door, or even a fragmented sound.

Su Bai stood in front of it, remaining motionless for a long time.

This phantom had no fixed laws.

What it represented in itself was change.

[Undeveloped Stand structure detected.]

[Ability: None.]

[Form: None.]

[Law attribute: None.]

[Growth potential: Unmeasurable.]

Li Qingyue's voice came over:

"Does that need to be deleted as well?"

Su Bai did not reply.

He reached out, his palm touching that constantly changing transparent outline.

No attack occurred.

An extremely pure mental fluctuation entered his consciousness.

Su Bai saw the reason why this phantom was formed.

It was not a certain type of Stand.

Rather, it was a blank space left behind by the philosophers stone when the user could not be determined.

Only after the Stand Arrow truly pierced into the soul would the blank space read the other party's experiences, willpower, desires, and mental structure, completing the final shaping.

The light in Su Bai's eyes grew brighter and brighter.

"Found it."

"Found what?"

"The final missing thing for the Tier-9 Stand Arrow."

He did not dismantle the transparent phantom.

Instead, he guided all the law particles previously dismantled toward this outline.

Strength entered into it.

The phantom did not turn into a strength-type Stand.

Time entered into it.

Nor did it acquire time abilities.

Countless laws passed through the transparent outline, leaving only a trace inside that could be re-invoked.

Su Bai finally understood that the Tier-9 Stand Arrow fundamentally did not need to bear all laws.

It only needed to possess a blank core capable of translating mental traits into law structures.

This was the [Conceptual Adaptation] bestowed upon it by the philosophers stone.

"Stand abilities originate from the user's true self."

Su Bai looked toward the yet-to-be-completed Stand Arrow.

"In that case, the card should not choose abilities for the user in advance."

The mental carving knife reappeared in his hand.

Behind the third core definition, he carved brand-new rules.

[The Stand Arrow does not grant predetermined abilities.]

[The Stand Arrow only translates the user's true soul into laws that can reach reality.]

Boom!

All the dismantled law particles vibrated simultaneously.

Rather than continuing to impact the card body, they retreated into different blank spatial layers according to their respective properties.

Countless unfilled law slots were thus formed inside the Tier-9 Stand Arrow.

These slots did not store specific abilities.

Only when the user accepted the Stand Arrow would they combine according to the soul test results.

A strength-type user might obtain strength.

Someone who desired to protect others might obtain defense or healing.

Someone obsessed with a certain past might touch time.

Someone skilled at hiding themselves might even obtain a special Stand that not even detection arrays could directly perceive.

The result was not decided by Su Bai.

Nor was it decided by the Stand Arrow.

Everything stemmed from the user themselves.

[Fixed law template cleared.]

[Dynamic conceptual adaptation core established.]

[Law conflicts resolved.]

[Current card grade: Tier-8 peak.]

[Tier-9 ascension conditions met.]

Yet Su Bai did not immediately complete the final step.

There still existed a problem within the card.

Dynamic adaptation could only determine the form when the Stand awakened, but it could not guarantee that the Stand would always remain consistent with the user in the future.

A person's soul would change.

The mind would grow.

Willpower might also be worn down over the long years.

Qin Ye was precisely the best example.

When she first acquired [The World], her mind contained a large amount of fear, arrogance, and self-doubt.

Later, she gradually faced her own problems and truly gained the Stand's acknowledgment.

In the philosophers stone trial, she completed mental self-consistency once more, evolving [The World]'s time ability from a large-scale, crude halt into a precise, targeted Time Stop.

If the Stand only recorded the soul at the time of awakening, Qin Ye's subsequent growth could not be fed back into [The World].

The Stand would no longer be the real form of the soul.

But would instead become a tattered mental photograph.

"Master."

Su Bai suddenly spoke.

"I still need your help."

"Speak."

"I want the card to record not the user's soul at a certain moment."

"Rather, the complete self that grows over time."

Li Qingyue understood his idea in just a split second.

"A static soul anchor cannot shoulder this function."

"Therefore, I am going to change it into a dynamic anchor."

"Merely being dynamic is not enough."

Li Qingyue's figure appeared in the ninth layer of space.

Time in the Tier-9 Card-Making Room remained stopped.

She walked slowly out from the frozen torrent of laws, finally standing beside Su Bai.

"The soul is not a material."

"It will not change according to a fixed direction."

"Today's courage might become tomorrow's arrogance."

"Today's fear might also become tomorrow's reason to protect others."

"You cannot preset how it will grow."

Su Bai nodded.

"Then how should it be recorded?"

Li Qingyue raised her hand.

A River of Time shrunk countless times appeared before the two of them.

Within the river, blurred figures of Su Bai's past, present, and countless futures were presented.

In some futures, he became a Tier-9 Card Creator.

In some futures, he stood on an unfamiliar battlefield.

And even more figures were completely shrouded in fog, unable to be seen clearly even by Li Qingyue.

"Do not record the result."

She said:

"Record the connection."

"The Stand Arrow does not need to know what a person's future will become."

"It only needs to ensure that no matter how the future changes, the Stand always maintains a connection with that changing soul."

Su Bai was deep in thought.

He should not leave a fixed track for the future.

But should instead let the Stand and the main body share the same timeline.

The main body changes.

The Stand changes accordingly.

The main body grows.

The Stand grows together with it.

Even if the user's future mind is completely different from the beginning of awakening, as long as both parties still belong to the same self spanning past and future, the soul connection will not break.

Li Qingyue extended her right hand.

Silver Law of Time condensed into a thin thread, slowly drawing out from the River of Time.

One end of the thread connected to the past.

One end stayed at the present.

And the other end plunged into the unobservable future.

"This is called a Temporal Anchor."

"Ordinary Tier-9 mental cards do not use this kind of structure either."

"It cannot fix a certain ability, but it can keep the card and the target's time always consistent."

Li Qingyue handed the silver thin thread to Su Bai.

"Write it in."

Su Bai took the Temporal Anchor.

The moment their fingers touched, he saw Li Qingyue's full understanding of the Law of Time.

That was not a few formulas.

Nor was it a circuit diagram that could be copied.

Rather, it was a cognition that could only be produced by truly touching the River of Time.

The past cannot be changed.

The future is not yet determined.

Only the present is happening.

So-called growth was not walking from one fixed state toward another fixed state.

But rather every single present moment collectively composing the self that is still continuing.

Su Bai closed his eyes.

A moment later, the mental carving knife fell once more.

[The Stand and the main body share the same chronology.]

[When the main body's mind undergoes changes, the Stand structure will synchronize adjustments.]

[Adjustments must not overwrite the main body's true willpower.]

[Adjustments must not sever the soul continuity between past and present.]

The final stroke was completed.

The silver Temporal Anchor thoroughly integrated into the Stand Arrow card.

All blank law slots inside the card stabilized simultaneously.

[Dynamic growth structure established.]

[Soul temporal anchoring completed.]

[Tier-9 ascension beginning.]

Li Qingyue looked toward Su Bai.

"Are you ready?"

"I am ready."

She raised her right hand.

"Then let time continue."

Snap!

Li Qingyue snapped her fingers.

The static nine-layered Card-Making Room resumed its flow.

The law phantoms sealed into different spatial layers did not continue to conflict.

The laws of strength, time, space, causality, healing, and foresight flowed back simultaneously, turning into rainbow-colored light without fixed attributes, pouring into the interior of the Stand Arrow.

The aura of the Tier-8 peak card instantly broke through the final boundary!

Boom!

The nine layers of space violently vibrated.

A pillar of rainbow-colored light soared into the sky from the highest level of the Truth Sanctuary.

Above the Imperial Capital, the originally calm clouds were forcibly torn apart.

Nine law halos unfolded one after another, spanning across the entire city.

Countless professionals looked up simultaneously.

They did not know what had happened in the Truth Sanctuary.

Yet they could clearly feel that a card capable of affecting the laws of the world was being born.

Outside the Card-Making Room.

The [The World] Tarot card on Qin Ye's chest flew out on its own.

A dark golden Stand appeared behind her, looking up at that rainbow light.

The vine mental fluctuations that had once appeared inside Wei Xiaoyu also produced a slight vibration at this moment.

Everyone with strong Mental Power across the entire world seemed to hear the sound of an arrow piercing through the soul.

Hum——

Inside the highest Card-Making Room.

The original Tier-2 Stand Arrow floated in mid-air.

Its appearance did not undergo too much change.

The card face remained dark red.

In the center remained an arrow that looked somewhat eccentric.

But around the arrowhead, nine layers of constantly transforming rainbow-colored law halos were already orbiting.

[The first layer reflects the soul.]

[The second layer connects to reality.]

[The third layer anchors the main body.]

[The fourth layer converts laws.]

[The fifth layer adapts concepts.]

[The sixth layer records chronology.]

[The remaining three layers have no fixed form, reserved only as blank spaces yet to be defined by the user.]

[Card ascension completed.]

[Independent conceptual system detected.]

[Conducting highest-level authentication.]

[Card Name: Stand Arrow - True Meaning.]

[Grade: Tier-9 Rainbow Card.]

[Original Grade: Tier-2.]

[Card Status: Historical Continuity.]

[Ascension Method: True Meaning Law Recasting.]

[Lead Card Creator: Li Qingyue.]

[Conceptual Designer: Su Bai.]

[Assistant Card Creator: Qi Yuan.]

[Core Law Source: philosophers stone.]

[Ability One: Mental Reading.]

[Ability Two: Conceptual Adaptation.]

[Ability Three: Law Conversion.]

[Ability Four: Soul Anchoring.]

[Ability Five: Dynamic Growth.]

[Ability Six: Temporal Synchronization.]

[Special Effect: According to the target's true self, awaken an exclusive Stand possessing Tier-9 law potential.]

[Special Effect: The Stand will grow together with the host.]

[Warning: This card does not guarantee the awakening result.]

[Warning: This card does not guarantee the target's survival.]

[Warning: Mental adaptation failure may lead to soul collapse.]

[Remaining True Meaning Origin: One Hundred Percent.]