Three Thousand Times

In the distance, Little Drill Wind, who was chasing down another goblin, lit up with a flash of light as well.

Su Mu checked his status through their soul link... His level had also reached seven, and his health, attack, defense, and agility had all risen by a fair amount.

He made a rough calculation of the time.

Less than twenty minutes had passed since he left the city.

He had gained one level, and so had Little Drill Wind. In that time, they had killed around forty goblin skirmishers.

They occasionally encountered lone goblin archers or goblin scouts, also around level ten. Their stats were not much different from those of the skirmishers, so the killing efficiency remained extremely high.

One level in twenty minutes.

Su Mu silently ran the numbers in his head.

At this pace, going from level seven to eight would take about two hours, and going from eight to nine might take longer. But if he ventured deeper and encountered higher-level monsters, the experience bonus for killing enemies above his level would be greater, so the pace might actually be faster.

He was now somewhat glad he had chosen to come out.

If he had stayed in the city, the experience from tomorrow's trial dungeon would have been greatly reduced, making it far less efficient than the wilderness.

Out in the wilderness, Little Drill Wind gave him a monster-farming ability far beyond others of his level. With the experience and momentum bonuses for killing enemies above his level, the rewards here were far greater than in the trial grounds.

He was about to continue forward when a surge of scorching energy suddenly welled up in his soul space.

It was fiercer than any before, like a boiling river rushing into the depths of his soul space and pouring into the area where his momentum value was stored.

Su Mu stopped in his tracks. He closed his eyes and felt the change in his soul space.

Momentum value: one thousand.

It was full.

Su Mu stood where he was, his breathing growing slightly heavier for a beat.

Since leaving the city, he had killed just over forty goblin skirmishers. Each one had given him four momentum points for a kill four levels above his own, and with the few level-ten goblin archers and scouts added in, the total had come to exactly one thousand.

A full momentum value meant he could use Years Like a Blade once.

Su Mu did not hesitate.

He swept his gaze over his surroundings and, after confirming there were no signs of monsters nearby, hurried behind a rock half surrounded by low shrubs.

He sat down against the rock and sank his consciousness into his soul space.

Deep within the Dungeon Space, the Stone Left Over from Mending Heaven floated quietly atop Flower-Fruit Mountain.

Compared with before, the spiritual light on the stone's surface had grown denser.

The arcane patterns flowed slowly across its surface, seven-colored light shining through from their depths, as though a compressed rainbow lay hidden inside the stone.

But the stone's overall form remained unchanged. It was still a dull gray, utterly unremarkable rock.

Su Mu stared at it for two seconds.

"Years Like a Blade."

He murmured the words and drew upon the scorching momentum energy in his soul space.

A thousand momentum points evaporated in an instant, turning into an invisible ripple that surged from the depths of his soul space, passed through the dungeon barrier, and landed precisely on the Stone Left Over from Mending Heaven.

The ripple had no light, no sound, not even any change visible to the naked eye. But Su Mu could clearly sense it... Something inside the stone had been set in motion.

Like a drop of ink falling into clear water, it spread slowly and soundlessly.

The patterns on the surface of the Stone Left Over from Mending Heaven flickered, and its seven-colored light brightened for an instant before dimming again. The stone looked exactly as it had before, with no change whatsoever. Its health had not risen, its defense had not risen, and its stats had not changed.

Su Mu withdrew his consciousness and slowly exhaled a murky breath.

Years Like a Blade accelerated time for nonliving units by one year. For the Stone Left Over from Mending Heaven, one year was simply too short.

According to the original story, the Stone Left Over from Mending Heaven was a Five-Colored Stone Nüwa had left behind when she mended the heavens. It had existed atop Flower-Fruit Mountain since heaven and earth were first sundered, absorbing the essence of heaven and the splendor of earth, the essence of the sun and the radiance of the moon, before finally giving birth to the Lingming Stone Monkey after countless years.

On the timescale of the Journey to the West world, the era when Nüwa mended the heavens was at least as far back as the primordial age of antiquity.

The story of the journey to obtain the scriptures in Journey to the West, on the other hand, took place during the Zhenguan era of the Great Tang.

At least several thousand years lay between the primordial age and the Great Tang.

Su Mu silently did the math.

Judging by historical chronology, at least three or four thousand years had passed between Nüwa mending the heavens and the Zhenguan era.

And each use of Years Like a Blade could accelerate time by only one year.

In other words, to make the Stone Left Over from Mending Heaven truly "mature," he would need to use Years Like a Blade at least three to four thousand times.

Three thousand times.

It sounded like an astronomical number.

But Su Mu was not discouraged.

He had just gathered enough momentum for one use of Years Like a Blade in only twenty minutes.

Although farming monsters in the wilderness was slower than in a nest, it had the advantage of being steady and controllable, and it did not use up trial attempts. Besides, the monsters he was facing now were only ordinary wilderness monsters. If he encountered elite monsters or boss-level wilderness monsters, the rate at which he gained momentum would multiply.

A level-ten elite monster might give ten times as much momentum as an ordinary monster, or even more.

On top of that, as his level rose, Little Drill Wind's strength would continue to grow, and their monster-farming efficiency would only increase.

"Just a few thousand times," Su Mu murmured to himself.

At the current pace, gathering enough for twenty or thirty uses of Years Like a Blade a day would not be difficult.

If he farmed trial dungeons during the day and the wilderness at night, he could even save up forty uses in a day. Even at a conservative estimate of thirty a day, three thousand would take just over a hundred days.

Within half a year, he could bring the Stone Left Over from Mending Heaven to the "age" needed for Sun Wukong to be born.

And in reality, as his dungeon expanded, Lion Camel Ridge grew more complete, and more Journey to the West characters were created, his farming efficiency and the strength of the monsters he faced would increase further.

That time would only grow shorter.

Most importantly, farming monsters this way was not tiring for Su Mu.

He only had to let Little Drill Wind farm monsters like this, keep within a kilometer of him, and travel along at a leisurely pace.