Chapter 664: The Transformation of the Sense of Time
“Xiao Han, what happened to you just now?” Sister Bai asked me as we got off the car and left the station.
After all… the situation that occurred on the high-speed train was truly bizarre; it was as if Xiao Han had fallen into a time freeze, her gaze fixated on the phone screen, yet she did nothing, and by the end, even the phone had run out of battery…
“I… my sense of time seemed to have lost control…” I shook my head, still trying to adapt to the missing time.
With Sister Bai, I chose to be completely candid, including the fact that I had the early form of a sense of time, which I had also mentioned to her before.
“Is it serious?” Upon hearing about the loss of control over time perception, Sister Bai’s expression turned somewhat grave; the sense of time… that’s something even she has yet to master.
Currently, she only controls the heart sense and possesses the heart realm field, but… that field is not yet a rudimentary form…
“Um… it’s okay.” I shook my head, “Don’t worry～ mainly it’s a mindset issue. After going through these experiences, I’ve come to understand some things; I can only say I’ve gained from misfortune.”
“Alright～ then I’ll trust you, okay?”
“Of course, Sister Bai, you should trust me.” I said firmly.
This unexpected incident indeed brought me significant gains, but it wasn’t the kind of accomplishment that Knowledge Shadow described as the perfect two-way control of time perception.
In the past, I was in desperate need of time, and the sense of time carved out time for me, so my perception of time stretched out long, but I could only “slow down time” to utilize my sense of time; at that time, I thought this was the reason why my sense of time was still only a “rudiment.”
But now, I managed to compress time and achieve “fast-forward time.” Regardless of the cost of doing so, at least I know the function of this action, yet the sense of time remains a “rudiment.”
Even though I had mastered the two-way adjustment of time, I could not escape the foundation of the rudiment, which means that complete sense of time must exist at a higher level.
What I gained this time was not the experience and ability of reverse adjustment of the sense of time, but the understanding of one thing.
Whether it is what I experienced or what I controlled, my perception actually originates from… “heart sense.”
Heart sense is the sixth sense, above the five senses, representing perception and understanding.
The five senses plus heart sense allow for the understanding of non-intuitive information entirely reliant on heart sense.
Including… the perception of time.
Because the changes in time I experienced were not objective changes in time, but rather my subjective slowing down; heart sense carried the most critical understanding hub; only by understanding time could I perceive it.
The most critical aspect of heart sense is understanding; therefore, it has no phase divisions, meaning no rudiment.
So what about the sense of time?
Since the perception of time being slow or fast is a function of heart sense, then what exactly is the sense of time?
The answer is something I guessed a long time ago: it is “control,” or rather, “manipulation.”
The sense of time is merely the most standard ability to control perception, and it manifests most obviously in time perception. Only through absolute control over perceptual adjustment can one claim perfect mastery over the sense of time.
Moreover… the sense of time can also be compatible with the perceptions of the five senses just like heart sense.
This means that the ability to manipulate the perception of time can also be applied to manipulate the perception of the five senses.
Basic application examples.
The sense of time can weaken the special feedback of touch, “pain,” or stretch the pain out, and it can also selectively block out the noise of hearing; this is far more convenient than soundproofing spells. The sense of smell can also control the perception of not smelling a bad odor or modify the foul smell into a pleasant fragrance?
Thinking about it this way, the capabilities of the sense of time are indeed terrifying, and its derived control abilities are even more fearsome!
At this moment, I understood why self-awakened body cultivation was an excellent talent for body cultivation; absolute control and dominance over the body achieve dual control over the physical body and perception!
Or perhaps the ability mastered by self-awakened body cultivation is an enlightenment of perception above the five senses.
At this moment, I felt I had grown, but it seemed as if nothing had changed, as though I were missing something.
Even though I understood what the sense of time represented, it was still a rudiment.
I hope no more accidents occur…
After following Sister Bai out of the station, we chose to take another vehicle.
As the scenery outside the window gradually became familiar, the streets filled with memories…
After a sudden brake from the driver, Sister Bai pulled me to the starting point of my fate’s turning point.
“Xiao Han, let’s go…”
Sister Bai led me toward a nearby building complex; the houses here resembled single-family homes. Most of the people who could live here were relatively well-off, but I didn’t want to ponder why this world developed in such a way.
“Xiao Han～ this is our destination.” Seeing my intent to head straight inside, Sister Bai quickly grabbed me and pointed to the house beside us, which was… Sister Bai’s former residence.
Right… wasn’t Sister Bai’s previous home just nearby?
Returning here again, Sister Bai opened the long-closed door, using a cleaning spell to sweep away all the dust.
The internal space of the house wasn’t very large, and looking at the familiar layout, I even felt a warmth.
When I had left initially, I had almost taken everything, but seeing the living room sofa and those familiar decorations made me involuntarily recall some memories.
This was a harbor where I once escaped from reality…
At this moment, Sister Bai lay back on the sofa, even her expression becoming languid. “Xiao Han, do you remember here? You told me you applied to the Witch Academy just like this.”
“Yeah, I remember…” I nodded and sat in my usual position, looking at the distance between me and Sister Bai; I seemed to feel the distance that was unintentionally created between us due to the gender difference back then.
“So, Xiao Han, do you have a plan in mind? Now that you’re here, how do you want to say goodbye to your past regrets?”
“I… I haven’t thought it through…” I shook my head to indicate that I hadn’t considered it; I had no plans at all, just… came directly. I thought that when the time came, there would surely be a way, but unexpectedly, I still had to figure things out myself.
They say that life, aside from experiences, ends in d*ath; on this journey, I’ve experienced too much, but I realized that aside from amplifying my inner feelings, I hadn’t done anything.
“It’s okay, I’ll help you think it through.”
Sister Bai also sat down beside me; perhaps she realized that the distance between the two of us was just right for their past selves but felt a bit distant for the present.
“Um.”
“Since we are back, how about… following your heart’s wishes and returning to your former home to take a look? What do you think?”
“Go straight there?!”
“What? Wasn’t that your plan when you got off the car? Besides… I can sense that right now, that home is unoccupied.”
“Unoccupied…” I fell silent for a moment, quickly coming to a realization.
At this time, they should be at work; my cheap younger brother would soon be preparing for the college entrance examination. At this point, he should be at school, and I don’t know if he is staying in dorms or commuting.
But I strongly suspect he is staying in dorms; commuting would be too much hassle.
However… I remember that “mother” of mine, she must have been pregnant, right?
It seems… it’s been nearly a year; I don’t know if she gave birth to another cheap younger brother or a younger sister.
But shouldn’t there still be a bit of recovery time after giving birth?
“Okay.” I nodded in agreement with this idea.
…
“Is this your former home, Xiao Han?” Sister Bai led me into this house.
The area isn’t large, but the internal layout starkly conflicted with my past memories.
“They are still followers of the Holy Light Church?” Sister Bai walked over to pick up a prayer for the Holy Light, which was slanted on the table; this is something that only exists in Holy Light Churches, and there are many different versions. These are all books for praising and singing the Holy Light and faith, filled with strong brainwashing suggestions.
“No, they are not believers; they are gamblers.” I shook my head and picked up a Holy Light cross pendant from the side, a golden accessory with no function; I could only feel a trace of residual light elemental energy.
This isn’t even the Holy Light attribute; light and holy light are two different concepts. Pure light elemental energy is no different from the light of a light bulb, used for illumination, while holy light carries sacred attributes and has a natural dispelling effect against curses and impurities.
“Then why are there so many things from the Holy Light Church in this home? And it can be seen that they have some imitation of ascetic family styles, but it appears very simplistic and somewhat like a mixed breed,” Sister Bai asked in confusion.
She had never been to this home before, not even once. At that time, Sister Bai had more than once sent me back or tried to persuade them; they would not even invite Sister Bai home for a cup of tea to show their gratitude…
“Perhaps they turned to the Holy Light midway?” I shook my head, still unable to imagine what they looked like when they believed in the Holy Light.
“Wait… is this really still where they live?” I casually toyed with this low-quality cross and suddenly thought of this question.
But after using the Earth Vein Identification Technique to check, I finally breathed a sigh of relief; they had indeed been living here and hadn’t come to the wrong place.
“So it’s not wrong, is it?” Sister Bai saw my expression and also used the Earth Vein Identification Technique to learn about her past, which she had previously been unaware of.
“Yeah… so it’s strange.” I looked at the cross pendant in my hand, while the information displayed was all gathered from the Earth Vein Identification Technique, even showing images.
This cross pendant was either something they sought from the Holy Light Church or purchased for a considerable sum.
The Holy Light Church… a form of faith that spreads throughout the world. Although this place is not within the jurisdiction of Holy Angel Academy, it doesn’t prevent people from establishing churches here.
After all, matters outside of Extraordinary Academies are not governed by them, so establishing a church here should be the result of family negotiations.
Moreover, that church is not presided over by missionary angels from Holy Angel Academy, as there aren’t that many missionary angels distributed throughout the world; only the main cathedral within the radiating territory of Holy Angel Academy would have true missionary angels.
Such orthodox missionary angels correspond to the teaching assistant level of the Witch Academy.
In contrast, the majority of churches outside are often run by students who have mastered certain divine techniques, using extraordinary means to display miracles. Otherwise, it would be hard to explain why the pendant in my hand had traces of light elemental energy.
“Xiao Han, what do you want to do next?” Sister Bai set down the prayer for the Holy Light in her hands and straightened it. The fact that this item used for prayer could be set at an angle was enough to demonstrate the owner’s lack of piety.
“I want to find out why…” I spoke up.
Mainly wanting to understand how they managed after the call I received due to the destruction of the curtain wall when I arrived at the Witch Academy.
At that time, the inferior demon recruitment staff had knocked on the door; according to the nature of Inferior Demon Academy, if I left, would they take Yang Yunhan away to fill the numbers?
I don’t know, but the Earth Vein would provide the answer.
This time, I used the Great Knowledge Tree as a whole house as an anchor point to conduct a large-scale trace back of Earth Vein information; I really wanted to know what happened afterward.
This process lasted a long time, as this was information from nearly a year ago; after filtering out most of the meaningless information, only special events were worth me knowing what happened.
Eventually, I anchored this information, shifting from this house to the matters concerning the Holy Light Church at home.
And just as I was tracing the timeline forward, inexplicably, the scenes before my eyes began to “flicker”; several illusory figures moved swiftly at an imperceptible speed!
Even the light outside the window started to brighten and dim…
“This is…” I looked at everything in disbelief; am I going back in time?!
How could this be possible!
“Why not? Didn’t this happen?” At that moment, Knowledge Shadow reappeared just when I needed it most.
“Happened… but how is that possible? I cannot possibly have such an ability…”
“Isn’t that the sense of time?” Knowledge Shadow continued to prompt.
“Sense of time… how can it be the sense of time… the sense of time cannot make objective time regress!”
“What if everything you see is a result of Earth Vein information combined with a sense of time creating an illusion? The Earth Vein Identification Technique is a capability under the Great Knowledge Tree system; its ability to process information far exceeds that of you as the controller. The Earth Vein Identification Technique merely displays comprehensible information translated into visual information, but a vast majority of the information within the Earth Vein is an existence that normal understanding cannot comprehend.”
“Illusion? Earth Vein Identification Technique… sense of time… can it be used like this?” I inquired in shock.
“Your sense of time has been continuously transforming after you recognized the function of manipulation, and the controlling power produced has surpassed that of the Great Knowledge Tree, so even the Great Knowledge Tree must serve it. Don’t forget that your heart sense’s rudiment is still intertwined with two Great Spellbooks.”
“The current situation is that your control over the power you possess is insufficient to express the capability inherent to that power, which means you inadvertently produce manifestations of control that are detached from your intended wishes, getting closer to subconscious intuition.”
“So…” I found it hard to understand in a short time, but the event had already occurred, and I kept urging myself to remain calm.
“Stop with the ‘so’, you should now focus on the past that you neglected; this is a rare experience that can help you see details you hadn’t noticed before. Do you trust me? If you do, then listen to me.”
“Of course… how could I not trust my own intuition and subconscious…” I looked at Knowledge Shadow, a hint of complexity flashing in my eyes, and ultimately, I couldn’t help but say, “Thank you.”
“What are you thanking me for? Only when you sincerely say thank you to yourself will you truly grow.”
