There were more than five A-class players at the Mountain Villa. Two A-class players and ten B-level players had already been stationed outside; the five in the room had arrived later, and their duty was to protect Third Master at close range. So when something went wrong at the Mountain Villa, their first instinct was to get him out of there. They had just started to move when they saw three B-level players patrolling downstairs suddenly turn to ash. It happened in an instant. The next moment, the room they were in was engulfed by the Time Power!
This was different from the frozen time produced by ordinary artifacts. Frozen time was actually a connection to time flowing at a slower rate, creating the illusion that everything had stopped. But frozen time itself could not kill players; they still had time to react. Even wearing time-and-space artifacts could, to some extent, interfere with the effects of an artifact that froze time.
But the Time Power that suddenly descended upon the Mountain Villa was wildly unstable—and overwhelmingly strong, surging down like a flood from the sky and engulfing everyone in an instant. The five A-class players, unable to escape with a Space Teleport Artifact, and Third Master all visibly aged at an alarming rate. One of them managed to force his way free of the Time Power with the help of a life-saving artifact, but he had taken only two steps when he broke a bone. When he looked up again, his four companions had all withered and died, while all that remained of Third Master was his chair and a pile of ash on the floor.
The Time Power soon vanished. Apart from the dead, nothing in the Mountain Villa had changed.
Unsure whether their assailant had left, the sole