Hourglass of Time

Desert.

An endless desert.

Snow-white grains of sand drifted through the air, while heat waves swept across the land and the distant space warped again and again.

Gu Shen opened his eyes. His first reaction was to lower his head and inspect his body, only to see that his torso was still intact... He let out a sigh of relief.

Hah... At least I didn't get chopped into eight pieces this time.

Unlike the previous dice dream realm, the Hourglass of Time dream realm was incredibly vast, stretching beyond the limits of sight. Rolling dunes were everything that made up this dream realm.

"Chu Ling—"

Gu Shen spoke.

The Next Moment, the space beside him twisted. Countless strings of garbled code Appeared, forcibly carving out a pure oasis within the Hourglass of Time dream realm.

A barefoot girl in a white dress appeared out of thin air and slowly descended onto the scorching sand.

Gu Shen looked at the girl and gathered his thoughts for a moment.

He said seriously, "I'm sorry."

Chu Ling was somewhat surprised. Smiling, she asked, "Why are you apologizing?"

"I want to take back what I said in the Awakening of Insects Dream Realm... If given a choice, who would want to be dead last?"

Gu Shen said slowly, "When Nan Jin was in the hospital room, she told me something... He who would wear the crown must bear its weight. Back then, I only remembered it. I never truly took it to heart."

"At first, I only wanted to run away." He took a deep breath. "But now, I'm ready!"

"Besides, judging from Dream Interpretation... I'm not as terrible as I imagined."

The girl smiled and shook her head.

"Not as terrible?" Chu Ling said gently. "The examiners outside called you a once-in-a-generation genius."

Gu Shen had spoken the words in his heart, and the last stone weighing on him finally fell away.

"Alright, enough with the sentimentality."

He crouched down, stretched out his Fingers, and rubbed a few grains of sand between them. "I promised Senior Apprentice Sister Luo that I'd Take Down an S-rank in this assessment. I'll keep my word. Since I've already broken the record... I might as well give it everything I've got and show them what I'm really capable of."

The sand was white, with the same texture as what he had observed within the Sealed Item.

"What's the fastest record for the Hourglass of Time?" Gu Shen asked.

"The fastest record documented in the Deep Sea system is two hours and eighteen minutes." Chu Ling crossed her arms and asked with a bright smile, "Need help? If I go all out, I can get you through in ten minutes."

"Clearing it in ten minutes is too ridiculous..." Gu Shen gave a wry smile and shook his head. "I do want to speedrun it, but if I get a result of ten minutes, they'll probably drag me off for dissection research right away."

"Relax, relax. This is the final assessment." Chu Ling said lazily, "Other than you, a second person capable of cheating right under the noses of five chief examiners hasn't been born yet. If you really get that result, you'll probably be labeled a national treasure more important than an S-rank... As for dissection research, they won't even have time to protect you, much less be willing to dissect you."

"It's rare to encounter a dream-realm Sealed Item of this level. During the last Dream Interpretation, I seemed to gain some inspiration. This time, I still want to interpret the dream using my own strength." Gu Shen thought for a moment. "But the biggest problem is the consumption of Mental Power..."

After unraveling the Azure Dice, his mind was already somewhat exhausted.

"You just focus on Dream Interpretation. Don't worry about anything else. I've got everything covered."

After saying that, Chu Ling fell silent.

She returned to being that quiet spectator. Before her, fierce winds howled and countless grains of dust and sand swirled about, yet her Eyes held only Gu Shen.

So far, Gu Shen had remained standing in the Hourglass of Time dream realm without rashly moving forward.

He recalled what that Grand Arbiter had said.

The Grand Arbiter had said that the three dream-realm Sealed Items on the table all possessed extremely intense traits... Gu Shen had already experienced the Azure Dice's trait. It had immediately chopped him into eight pieces.

And this seemingly peaceful world of dunes gave Gu Shen the sense of danger lurking beneath hidden undercurrents of murderous intent.

This place was enormous, so he could not inspect it up close as he had the bronze object.

"Do I have to start moving?" Gu Shen cautiously took a step forward.

Just one step.

He immediately realized something was wrong.

Quicksand wrapped around his calves and dragged him downward... In the Hourglass of Time dream realm, the entire world was made of soft sand. With every step, he faced the risk of being swallowed by quicksand.

"As expected... this dream realm is extremely dangerous."

Seeing the quicksand swallow him, Gu Shen felt more at ease instead.

What he feared was the unknown danger that came from failing to figure out the dream realm's rules!

"As long as I wrap myself in Mental Power, I can temporarily stop the quicksand... So every step forward consumes Mental Power." He gradually understood the rules of this dream-realm Sealed Item. A dream entrant might quickly discover the trick, but to complete Dream Interpretation truly required a solid foundation of Mental Power. The Hourglass of Time dream realm before him was the best example.

Gu Shen guessed that there might be an exit here, one that pointed in the correct direction.

Even if one walked the right path, one still needed enough Mental Power to reach the end.

"Crackle..."

Gu Shen felt himself sinking. Just as he was about to use his Mental Power, the quicksand around his calves slowed dramatically... invisible garbled code appeared within the sand.

Chu Ling had acted.

The speed at which the quicksand enveloped him instantly dropped severalfold, and Gu Shen easily pulled his legs out of the sandy mire.

He turned back to look at the girl smiling at him, once again feeling sincerely astonished... Chu Ling could actually alter the rules of the Hourglass of Time dreamscape... Had she done it through Deep Sea? It was an inconceivable technical method.

This meant he could explore the Hourglass of Time dreamscape without restraint.

Without needing to consider the expenditure of Mental Power, Gu Shen immediately felt much more relaxed.

He observed the wind direction and decided to run in the direction the sand grains were drifting... If "inversion" was the sign of activating the Sealed Item, then perhaps the direction of the sand's movement could serve as a breakthrough.

Ten minutes later.

Gu Shen returned to the same spot.

Chu Ling merely smiled in silence, quietly watching him.

"What if I change directions and try again?" In the vast, boundless Hourglass of Time dreamscape... Gu Shen made a second attempt.

Ten minutes later, he returned to the same spot again.

This seemingly "boundless" world actually had an invisible Air Wall. Both attempts had ended with him returning to the same spot. Whenever Gu Shen traveled a certain distance, sand and dust would envelop him from every direction. Whether he followed the sandy wind or fought against it, the outcome was the same... he returned to the same spot.

And Chu Ling had not moved a single step from beginning to end.

Clearly, she knew the properties of the "Hourglass of Time."

"If I were alone... it would take a long time to discover that this world is 'looping.'" Gu Shen realized a very serious problem. "Without Chu Ling, I might have believed I was heading in the right direction and kept moving forward... when in reality, I would only have been uselessly repeating the process of returning to the same spot."

He silently counted in his mind.

Each time he returned to the same spot, it took roughly six hundred seconds—ten minutes.

Did this mean... the boundary of this world was the distance he could cover by running at full speed for six hundred seconds?

"Wait..."

Gu Shen thought of another possibility.

He crouched down and began digging a pit. The quicksand in the dreamscape was already surging violently, and after he dug the pit, its flow became even faster. After seeing what Gu Shen was doing, Chu Ling's gaze flickered slightly.

This time, no garbled code appeared to stop the quicksand or slow its collapse.

Gu Shen finished digging the pit, then jumped into it and began waiting for the quicksand to swallow him bit by bit. At the same time, he silently counted down in his mind. Wind and sand swept over him. First, his calves were swallowed, followed by his thighs. His lower body lost all sensation, as though it had been tightly bitten by two heavy walls. Gu Shen closed his eyes.

"600... 599..."

"120... 119..."

With two minutes remaining, the quicksand rose past his neck. Gu Shen felt as though a powerful hand had gripped his heart.

The pressure was immense.

Just then, garbled code appeared!

A string of blurry symbols materialized out of thin air and circled Gu Shen's neck. The sensation of the quicksand's encroachment greatly weakened, keeping him from suffocating. He looked like a diver wearing a breathing mask—though disheveled, he was safe.

He closed his eyes.

And sank into the quicksand.

This world was pitch-black... even blacker still...

"10... 9... 8..."

The final few seconds.

Both the suffocating sensation and the feeling of restraint vanished.

Gu Shen opened his eyes. He easily raised both hands, with no quicksand hindering him in the slightest... because he had not been buried beneath the sand at all. Instead, he was standing atop a small sand dune, and the pit he had dug earlier had already disappeared.

This world had been leveled by the wind and sand, stretching endlessly into the distance—a sight that inspired despair.

"Ten minutes..."

Gu Shen looked toward Chu Ling and murmured, "I know the characteristics of the Hourglass of Time dreamscape now."