The God of Time

Luo Chen opened his eyes. He found himself lying on the cold ground, a narrow fissure in the ice above him letting in a faint sliver of blue light. The space around him was far larger than he had anticipated—this was no simple ice crack, but a massive underground cavern.

The walls of the cavern were covered in thick layers of ice, within which faint, strange points of light could be seen flowing, as if alive. The air was permeated with an indescribable power that made his martial soul heat up slightly.

"Where is this..." Luo Chen struggled to sit up.

"This is beneath that ice fissure." The Evil Emperor's voice rang out, carrying a rare hint of excitement. "Kid, do you feel it? The power of space-time... the power of space-time is everywhere here!"

Luo Chen closed his eyes; he could indeed feel it.

The sensation was just like the time he had spent in the small world within the spatial rift—the flow of time around him seemed different from the outside world, and the texture of space felt somewhat distorted. His martial soul was cheering, and the Seed of Space-Time within his body trembled gently, as if absorbing something.

"What about the Ice Jade Scorpion?" Luo Chen asked.

"It didn't follow," the Evil Emperor said. "This Seat told you, that beast wouldn't dare approach a place with such intense space-time fluctuations. You stumbled into the destination by sheer luck."

Luo Chen let out a long breath, only then feeling the pain radiating throughout his entire body. While the fall hadn't killed him, it had certainly been a rough one.

He struggled to his feet and looked around.

Deep within the cavern, a downward-sloping passage was vaguely visible. At the end of the passage, something seemed to be glowing—a soft, mysterious, silvery-white light.

"Let's go," the Evil Emperor urged. "We've come this far, aren't you going to go down and take a look?"

Luo Chen nodded and began to walk toward the depths of the cavern. As the silvery-white light drew closer, his heartbeat quickened.

What exactly was the source of that light?

The silvery-white light grew closer, and Luo Chen's heartbeat accelerated.

The cavern passage wound downward, its ice walls embedded with countless tiny crystals that emitted a faint blue glow. Those crystals seemed alive, flickering slightly with Luo Chen's footsteps as if welcoming his arrival.

"What are these?" Luo Chen reached out to touch the crystals on the ice wall.

The Evil Emperor's voice held a trace of awe. "This Seat has lived for hundreds of thousands of years, yet this is the first time I have seen such things. These crystals are physical manifestations of time energy condensed in an extremely cold environment; each one contains pure laws of time. Outside, a piece the size of a fingernail would be worth a fortune—yet here, they are everywhere."

Luo Chen's eyes lit up. "Can I take them?"

"You wish," the Evil Emperor scoffed. "These crystals have already fused with the ice wall; trying to dig them out by force will only shatter them. However... if you can cultivate here for a period of time and absorb the energy radiating from these time crystals, it will be of great benefit to your Seed of Space-Time."

Luo Chen nodded and continued deeper. At the end of the passage lay a massive ice grotto. The grotto was circular, about fifty meters in diameter, with countless icicles hanging from the dome; at the tip of each icicle, a silvery-white bead of light was condensed. The light emitted by these beads reflected off one another, illuminating the entire grotto like daylight.

In the deepest part of the grotto stood an ice wall unlike any other.

It was not crystal clear like the others, but instead possessed a deep, silvery-gray hue, as if another world were hidden behind the ice.

Luo Chen walked over and reached out to touch it—the moment his fingertips brushed the ice, a strange sensation flooded his entire body.

It was the power of time. Ancient, pure, and vast, as if it had been sleeping here since the dawn of time, waiting for something.

The silvery-gray color on the ice wall began to flow, as if it had been activated.

The ice layer slowly parted to the sides, revealing a narrow passage. At the end of the passage, a primitive stone door was vaguely visible.

"This is..." Luo Chen's heart raced.

He reached out to touch the stone door, attempting to push it open, but it remained unmoved.

"Why? Does it require corresponding soul power?"

The power of time...

His martial soul was primarily based on the power of space; was the time energy within it not pure enough?

Forget it, I'll give it a try. At some point, the Evil Emperor had fallen silent, and Luo Chen didn't overthink it.

He raised his hand and brought the King Ball close to the stone door. As he channeled his soul power, the door finally stirred, and an invisible power of time radiated from it.

The next moment, the stone door actually sucked Luo Chen inside. After an unknown amount of time, Luo Chen awoke from the chaos. As he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a circular object resembling a clock, and upon closer inspection, he realized it was a palace.

The dome of the great hall was embedded with countless silver gems, resembling an inverted starry sky. The floor was paved with an unknown black stone, smooth as a mirror, reflecting the starlight from above.

"You're awake?"

A grand and majestic voice echoed, startling Luo Chen. He looked around, but saw no one.

"Who is it?"

"It is I."

"Where are you?"

"Look behind you!"

Luo Chen turned around and saw a skeleton sitting on the throne at the head of the hall.

The clothing on the skeleton had long since rotted away, leaving only a tattered gray robe. Its right hand gripped a silver scepter, at the top of which was embedded an hourglass-shaped gem.

Luo Chen approached slowly and asked, "Is it you?"

The next moment, silver light surged from the scepter, coalescing into a phantom before Luo Chen. The phantom was an old man with a blurred face, though his eyes were clear—there were no pupils in those eyes, only two slowly rotating clocks.

"How many years has it been..." The old man's voice echoed throughout the palace, ancient and distant. "I have finally waited for you, fated one."

"May I ask, who are you?" Luo Chen asked cautiously; the old man's appearance was actually quite eerie, not much like a good person.

"I am the God of Time," the phantom said. "Or rather, a remnant shadow."

"The God of Time?" Luo Chen pondered. As far as he knew, there were at least two beings in the Douluo God Realm who mastered the power of time.

One was the God of Time, the other the Dragon King of Time. Compared to the two, the Dragon King of Time had more written about him in the original work, but the God of Time shouldn't have fallen during this current era. How could he be a remnant shadow? Logically, this should be a projection of the true self.

What was going on?

"I know what you are thinking, and I shall now explain the truth to you. In fact, it could be said that all of this is because of you."

"Long ago, I foresaw a great chaos in the God Realm. I struggled to find a solution, and finally, I saw a timeline—a timeline in which a variable appeared!"