The Time Origin Law

"Whoosh!"

Yu Duan and An Yao appeared in the examination hall at the same time.

A dozen or so people had been chatting in the hall, but now they all turned to look.

"Light Splitting Stab... You're improving way too fast, kid."

An Yao looked at Yu Duan with a trace of emotion.

He knew very well that Yu Duan's talent far surpassed his own. It had taken him decades to go from first encountering the Source Law to reaching its entry level, while Yu Duan had needed only two or three short years.

By normal estimates, Yu Duan would likely master Light Splitting Stab within two or three years, perhaps even sooner.

But An Yao hadn't expected it to take less than two months.

"That still doesn't help. I lost too many matches in the past few days, so it'll be hard to climb any higher in the rankings."

Yu Duan shook his head, then asked An Yao, "What rank are you now?"

An Yao raised a hand and rubbed his smooth scalp, sounding a little disgruntled. "Fifth. Teng De's improving even faster than I expected. And there's another dark horse, too."

Teng De, who used the God-Splitting Weapon, had left a deep impression on Yu Duan.

After all, Teng De had been Yu Duan's opponent in his very first match on the first day, and Yu Duan had practically been taken out in an instant.

It was only natural that An Yao couldn't beat Teng De, but Yu Duan hadn't expected there to be another dark horse.

"Besides the two senior disciples who've mastered an Upper Law and Teng De, who else is there?"

"Delisi, an insufferably smug guy. You might meet him in a few days. He's reached the entry level in both the Fire and Earth Source Laws. If those two senior disciples weren't keeping him in check, he'd probably be invincible."

Just mentioning Delisi put An Yao in a bad mood.

According to him, Delisi hadn't even made the top fifty in the previous ranking battle.

Delisi's mastery of the Source Laws was clearly decent, but his application of them was awful. He wasn't much better than the Guardian at the final checkpoint of the first-stage assessment—in practice, it was almost as if he didn't know how to use them at all.

At first, An Yao had kindly reminded Delisi to pay a little more attention to actual combat. Delisi had simply ignored him with a cold expression.

Thinking about it now, Delisi was probably so bad at applying the Laws because he'd devoted all his energy to comprehending the mysteries of the two Source Laws.

Now that he'd reached the entry level in both, Delisi could wield the Fire and Earth Source Laws together to create an incredibly formidable "Lava" domain, with both offense and defense and almost no weaknesses.

"The competition in our class really is intense," Yu Duan couldn't help remarking.

Over the past few days, Yu Duan had also learned about the average standard of instruction at Beiming Sacred Land.

Generally speaking, Beiming Sacred Land's teaching standards ranked in the upper-middle range among the 1,008 Universe Countries.

Almost every Genius Tournament, one of its students made the top thousand.

Every so often, someone reached the entry level in two Source Laws and had a chance at the top hundred, like Delisi.

As for anyone reaching the entry level in an Upper Law, only one or two would emerge across twenty or thirty Genius Tournaments.

An Yao nodded. "Yeah, our class really did draw the short straw."

"The greater the pressure, the greater the motivation. I'm done with my matches today, so I'll head out first."

Yu Duan was eager to go home and review the day's matches.

There were many problems Yu Duan couldn't spot on his own, but Ku Mixiu could see them at a glance.

With Ku Mixiu, a teacher who specialized in the Light and Time Sword, Yu Duan had avoided many detours.

In a simply furnished hall, Yu Duan listened as Ku Mixiu explained the problems he'd noticed.

"Your Highness has reached the entry level in the first stage of the Light and Time Sword. The main issue now is that your movement technique is too weak and lacks flexibility."

Ku Mixiu put Yu Duan's shortcomings as gently as he could.

For a Fighter, agility was extremely important.

This was especially true when facing a Spirit Reader of the same level. If one's movement technique was inadequate, the pressure would be immense.

"My teacher's movement technique is too profound. To truly reach the entry level, I need to gain some understanding of the Law of Time."

Yu Duan was also a little helpless. He'd already given it everything he had to master the first stage of the Light and Time Sword in less than two months.

The movement technique manual King Qinghuan had taught Yu Duan was called Flowing Light of Years.

Flowing Light of Years was divided into four major stages and twelve minor stages.

The first major stage, "Time Flow Shadow," was only the entry level, yet it required a solid grasp of both the Origin Law of Light and the Time Origin Law.

Once someone mastered this stage, their speed would surge. While moving quickly, the effects of their own mass would be greatly reduced, and their inertia would be minimized. Their movement would become flexible enough to rival that of a Spirit Reader at the same level.

Of course, that wasn't the most important part.

After mastering "Time Flow Shadow," one could use the power of the two Source Laws to control every atom in the body's cells, making them vibrate at a specific frequency in response to the Laws' fluctuations. This produced an effect known as "quantum tunneling."

Put simply, it was like walking through walls, allowing one to pass through physical obstacles.

In battle, it could even produce an effect similar to "phasing," allowing the user to shrug off attacks.

As long as there wasn't too great a gap in level, against an opponent who hadn't reached the entry level in any Law, Yu Duan could simply ignore their physical attacks.

If the opponent couldn't use mental attacks or the power of a Source Law, all they could do was stare helplessly. They wouldn't be able to hurt Yu Duan at all.

Against an opponent who had mastered the power of a Law, the technique could still greatly reduce the damage Yu Duan sustained.

Even that effect alone was exceptionally powerful.

As for the second stage, "Light Speed Storm," it was far beyond what Yu Duan could reach at present.

As its name suggested, this stage allowed the user's rest mass to become zero and enabled them to travel at the speed of light.

With Ku Mixiu's mastery of the Laws, he could just about manage to master this second stage.

The third stage was called "Years Flickering." Mastering it was the level of comprehension expected of someone at the Marquis Level.

The fourth stage was called "Time Crossing," also known as Time Stasis. The significance of being able to stop time hardly needed explaining.

"If Your Highness doesn't mind, I have a movement technique that should suit your current level of understanding of the Laws." Ku Mixiu bowed slightly, a respectful smile on his face.

Yu Duan smiled and waved a hand. "There's no need, Mr. Ku Mixiu. You've worked hard these past few days. I plan to get some rest early tonight and prepare for tomorrow's matches."

"Of course, Your Highness. I'll take my leave."

Ku Mixiu gave a very gentlemanly bow, then turned and headed to a side hall in Yu Duan's estate.

As the teacher and bodyguard King Qinghuan had specially recruited to guide Yu Duan in the Light and Time Sword, Ku Mixiu lived in one of the side halls of Yu Duan's estate.

That night, in a completely secure quiet room deep within the palace, Yu Duan sat cross-legged with his eyes half-closed.

Within Yu Duan's inner world, the Book of Causality, which shed brilliant rays of light, trembled slightly.

The characters on its pages suddenly faded and vanished. The brilliant rays then gathered, and new characters appeared on the pages.

[Origin Law of Light] Natural comprehension, level: entry-level. You may borrow "ordinary World Master Level" Law Comprehension. Repayment cost: 1,318 years of comprehending the Origin Law of Light.

[Light and Time Sword Art] Top-tier basic secret technique, level: first stage, entry-level. You may borrow the comprehension needed to reach the entry level of the "second stage." Repayment cost: 2,164,200 full-power uses of the second-stage sword technique.

[...]

"Ordinary World Master Level comprehension? What kind of level is that? It wants me to spend over a thousand years comprehending the Origin Law of Light."

This wasn't like sensing the fluctuations of a Law, as he'd done before. He would have to settle down and comprehend its mysteries, without letting himself get distracted by anything else.

The gap between World Masters could be countless times greater than the gap between a human and a dog. What did it even mean to be an ordinary World Master?

Puzzled, Yu Duan sent a thread of consciousness into the Virtual Universe Network to look it up.

A moment later, Yu Duan found the answer on the Virtual Universe Network.

After all, Yu Duan was now the disciple of a powerful King-level expert in the Virtual Universe Company, so he had far more access than before.

"Ordinary World Master Level comprehension" meant the average level an ordinary World Master could attain.

An ordinary World Master was someone whose talent had only been enough to barely reach the World Master Level, with all their potential exhausted by then. They might remain at the second or third tier of the World Master Level for their entire lives.

Their talent was inadequate. Without some special opportunity, even if they spent the rest of their lives wholeheartedly comprehending the mysteries of the Source Laws, their understanding of the Laws would generally reach only this level.

In the Virtual Universe, there was a special trial space. Anyone who passed the first level reached the standard of an ordinary World Master.

This trial space was called the Heavenly Bridge.

"Looks like, according to the Book of Causality, my talent and comprehension are already on par with the top thousand geniuses in the entire universe."

At the Star Level, it would take over a thousand years to reach that level of comprehension. Normally, once someone reached the Universe Level, it might take less than a hundred years.

That estimate was for the Original Universe. In Chaos City, the required time would be reduced by more than ten times.

And that didn't even account for the boost from comprehending the Chaos Tablet. In practice, the time needed would be far shorter still.

"The Origin Law of Light comprehension needed for the first level of the Heavenly Bridge is certainly tempting... but it would take too long."

After thinking it over, Yu Duan decided to borrow the comprehension for the second stage of the Light and Time Sword instead.

Practicing the Light and Time Sword technique more than two million times sounded daunting.

But Yu Duan already practiced the Light and Time Sword several hundred times a day. That was while the ranking battle took up much of his energy and he wasn't going all out, chugging recovery potions to keep up the grind.

If he went into "grind mode," a thousand repetitions a day would be easy. He could manage over 300,000 a year without breaking a sweat.

That meant that even without becoming more efficient, Yu Duan could borrow the third stage of the Light and Time Sword in about seven years.

Even if he couldn't pass the first level of the Heavenly Bridge with the third stage of the Light and Time Sword, the only gap would be in his application of the Laws, not the depth of his comprehension.

"Hum!"

Space and time seemed to ripple faintly around Yu Duan.

As Yu Duan opened his eyes, the fluctuations of the Origin Law of Light and the Time Origin Law burst forth, resonating with the Brilliant Silver Pupil at the center of the cultivation palace.