In the depths of space in the Light Source Star System, a pale golden, triangular spaceship floated silently.
Inside the ship's cultivation chamber, Silver Pupil stood about two meters tall. Layer upon layer of dreamy, clear light shimmered around him, filling the chamber with a hazy glow.
Yu Duan sat cross-legged in front of Silver Pupil. A virtual projection appeared at his sides, displaying annotations for two secret canons.
"Senior King Qiongtao, which secret canon do you think I should choose as the path for my future cultivation?"
Yu Duan looked toward the burly figure beside him, who had a serpent's head and a human body.
King Qiongtao grinned with his fearsome serpent's head. "If it were up to me, I'd definitely choose the Nine Interpretations of Time. Progress will be ten or even a hundred times slower at first, but the deeper your Law Comprehension gets, the faster you'll advance along the path of analyzing its essence."
"Your Highness's Law of Time is still at the most basic stage. Even if you progress ten or a hundred times slower, that just means cultivating for a few tens or hundreds of thousands of extra years."
"But once you begin studying the mysteries of the Law of Time's transformations, you could spend tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of years comprehending them. The time you save then won't be just a few tens or hundreds of thousands of years."
Yu Duan nodded at that.
In truth, he had already made up his mind. He had only asked out of habit.
The advance he received from his Book of Causality also depended on the speed of his actual comprehension.
The more time he saved later on, the more efficient he would be at grinding through progress.
Besides, the path of analyzing the essence of the laws demanded far more insight than talent for the laws.
Yu Duan's insight was vastly superior to his own talent for the laws. Taking the path that placed greater emphasis on insight would let him play to his strengths and compensate for his weaknesses.
The hardest part of analyzing the essence of the laws wasn't comprehension, but analysis.
The analysis could take ten or even a hundred times longer than the comprehension itself. How long it took depended entirely on one's insight.
That might sound a little abstract, so here's an example.
Suppose you wanted to find the circumference of a circle. If you knew nothing, the simplest method would be to trace the circle with a piece of string.
The circle's circumference would equal the string's length, and the whole process would take just a few minutes, or even less.
That was the conventional path of comprehending the laws: knowing what happened without knowing why.
The path of analyzing the essence of the laws was more like a mathematician studying the formula for a circle's circumference for a thousand years.
Getting the answer wasn't important. What mattered was why that was the answer and what rules lay behind it. That was what it meant to analyze the essence of the laws.
The example was a little ridiculous, but the logic was the same.
One had to do more than figure out the answer—the mysteries of the laws. One also had to understand the deeper logic behind it—the essence of the laws.
"Actually, the two secret canons don't conflict. When you comprehend the Origin Law of Light, focus on the Purification Secret Canon. When you comprehend the Time Origin Law, concentrate on analyzing the essence of the Origin Law."
King Qiongtao offered the reminder out of goodwill.
Yu Duan replied politely, "Thank you for your guidance, Senior King Qiongtao."
Virtual Universe, King Qinghuan's palace.
Seeing Yu Duan appear again, King Qinghuan smiled. "My disciple, have you made your choice?"
Yu Duan nodded solemnly. "Teacher, I want to take the path of analyzing the essence of the Law of Time. Please guide me!"
"Hahaha..."
King Qinghuan laughed. "With your current attainments in the Law of Time, you're qualified to try comprehending its first essence."
"Once you master the first essence of the Law of Time, you'll be able to perfect the third level of the Light and Time Sword Technique."
"Watch closely. I'll demonstrate how the first essence of the Law of Time operates..."
King Qinghuan raised a hand. Brilliant starlight intertwined in his palm, forming strands of crystalline lines. They wove together and flowed along a profound trajectory.
"The first essence of the Law of Time is the mystery of 'motion'!"
"Time is the measure people use to gauge the motion of all things, but time itself also flows and moves. This is the absolute foundation of all the mysteries of the Law of Time."
"Your comprehension of the Law of Time is still at the most basic stage. In fact, the mysteries you've comprehended are already the mystery of 'motion,' the essence of the Law of Time. It's just that your understanding is unsystematic and vague."
"With your ability to use the third level of the Light and Time Sword Technique, all you need to do is analyze and reorganize what you've already comprehended. That will give you a certain understanding of the first essence."
"By my estimate, while you're at Star Level, it'll take you a few decades at the fastest, or a few centuries at the slowest, to reorganize your comprehension of the Law of Time and master the first essence."
"By then, even if your progress in comprehending the laws doesn't noticeably increase, the power of your application of them will soar tenfold. You'll also be able to perfect the third level of the Light and Time Sword Technique."
"Watch closely. I'll demonstrate the first essence again. Comprehend it carefully, then tell me what you're unsure about."
Yu Duan's expression turned solemn. "Yes, Teacher."
In the blink of an eye, a day passed.
Virtual Universe Network, inside King Qinghuan's palace.
"Teacher, look. I feel like there's still something wrong with how this part works."
"And when I tried to verify the first essence by making the power of time's Origin revolve in the 3,451st way, I found that this part doesn't seem right either..."
"Also, the third level of the Light and Time Sword Technique mentioned the relationship between the cycle of day and night and the flow of time. Teacher, is the method I'm using correct?"
"..."
Yu Duan seemed to have become a walking FAQ, asking all sorts of questions.
The Glazed Light Sword moved in his palm.
Black-and-white radiance rippled from its tip, leaving complex traces in the air and stirring the power of time's Origin into ripples.
King Qinghuan stared at Yu Duan, looking uncertain.
Over the past few years, ever since the second Sacred Land Star Level student ranking battle had ended, Yu Duan had sought his guidance every morning about his movement technique and questions regarding his Law Comprehension.
King Qinghuan knew exactly how insightful his youngest disciple was.
Yu Duan himself might not have realized just how gifted he was.
To put it this way, from first crossing the threshold of Origin Laws to using the first level of the Light and Time Sword, An Yao—a genius ranked among the top ten thousand Star Level talents in the entire universe—had taken decades.
Yu Duan had used the Book of Causality to advance his comprehension of the Origin Law of Light until he had barely crossed the threshold. Then, relying on his own study, he had used the first level of the Light and Time Sword after just two months.
That speed rivaled Luo Feng's, with the boost of a Universe Level Golden Horned Beast.
Leaving talent for the laws aside and considering only insight, Yu Duan had the greatest insight of King Qinghuan's dozen or so disciples during their Star Level years.
Insight wasn't fixed.
An increase in willpower, more life experience, and a change in the soul's nature—the speed of thought—all affected insight.
So, if one looked only at their Star Level years, Yu Duan's insight was clearly greater than that of the other disciples, but only by a modest margin. There hadn't been a huge gap.
But in just one day, King Qinghuan could clearly tell that Yu Duan's insight had improved considerably.
It was hard to describe. It was as though Yu Duan had gained a new spark of inspiration, and ideas that even King Qinghuan considered ingenious kept popping up.
At this rate, it might take only a few years, or at most a decade or two, for my youngest disciple to reorganize and analyze the Law Comprehension he already has, and understand the first essence of time.
King Qinghuan made a rough estimate, finding it more and more unbelievable.
"My disciple."
"Hm? Teacher, is there something wrong with my understanding?" Yu Duan froze, then quickly asked with an open mind.
King Qinghuan smiled. "Nothing. I'm very satisfied. I just want to see you attempt the Eighteen Layers of Life and Death Illusion again."
"Yes, Teacher. I'll go try the illusion."
Yu Duan now understood why King Qinghuan had reacted that way.
He must have noticed the change in Yu Duan, especially the way his Heart of Innocence had enhanced his thought process.
Half an hour later, Yu Duan was instantly eliminated in the eleventh layer and teleported straight to King Qinghuan's palace.
The first nine layers of the Eighteen Layers of Life and Death Illusion corresponded to Universe Level, Domain Lord Level, and World Lord Level.
Passing the tenth layer meant that his youngest disciple's willpower was already comparable to that of the most ordinary Immortal.
"Child, you..."
King Qinghuan hesitated, then said, "The illusion places too much strain on your willpower. Leave the Virtual Universe and rest for a while. Continue tomorrow."
"Yes, Teacher." Yu Duan nodded, respectfully took his leave, and then exited the Virtual Universe.
After Yu Duan left, King Qinghuan immediately called King Qiongtao on video.
The call connected almost as soon as it went through.
"Qiongtao, tell me: when Yu Duan returned to his hometown this time, was there anything unusual? Or... did he come into contact with any special Star Level life-forms?"
Facing King Qinghuan's questioning, King Qiongtao hurriedly replied, "Master, from the moment His Highness left the Beiming Sacred Land, he never left my sight for even a second."
"Also, after he left the Sacred Land, the strongest people he met, aside from me and the escort, were just a few Planetary Level youngsters."
"I see."
King Qinghuan ended the call, then called Ku Mixiu.
A moment later, King Qinghuan learned from Ku Mixiu that Yu Duan had sat in meditation atop a snowy mountain for half a year and experienced an epiphany.
"An epiphany. That explains it."
King Qinghuan obtained the surveillance footage of Yu Duan sitting in meditation for half a year from Ku Mixiu, and the doubts in his heart were resolved.
King Qinghuan didn't ask any more about the details. There was no need.
He knew that his youngest disciple must have had his own chance encounter.
Or rather, any genius born only once in countless years would have their own chance encounters, to a greater or lesser extent.
Before you continue