The corridor contained no unnameable grotesque creatures, no terrifying transparent-bodied specters, not even anything with a discernible form.
There was nothing in the candlelit, swaying corridor.
And in the depths of the corridor where the firelight had completely extinguished, the wall glowed faintly, a luminescence almost merging with the darkness, flickering with a rhythm akin to a beating heart.
the moment Xia De stared at those faint glows, he truly felt as if he heard the thumping of a giant heart. At this moment, his body and soul were completely frozen by Time-Space, and he vaguely understood something.
What he was looking at was Terror Castle; nothing had been chasing him from the very beginning. The thing emitting fear, the thing that seemed to want to expel any Outsider, was Terror Castle itself.
Those deep glows represented Terror Castle itself. And the so-called “Terror Castle” actually possessed consciousness—it was a living being.
Overwhelming fear instantly caused Xia De to almost completely lose consciousness; the impact of the fear even made him feel as if he was about to fall into an eternal Sleep from which he could never awaken.
“No, will I fear fear?”
Memories flooded into his mind: under the trees of Thousand Tree Forest, after the deity had temporarily departed, he stood shoulder to shoulder with two witches against boundless terrifying darkness. This fear seemed to have stimulated some latent power within his soul; the 【Kiss of the Tree】 Ling Rune, which had never been associated with any Miracle, trembled slightly within his soul.
At this fragile moment, close to complete emotional collapse, the primal fear his body was plunged into, and the clarity of his soul’s resurgence in courage, formed a distinct sense of dislocation, making Xia De clearly feel the abnormality of his soul for the first time.
Not only were two drops of divinity protecting him within his soul, but he also felt as if something warm yet somewhat cool was embracing him from behind.
“That is—”
Even though facing the source of Terror Castle’s fear froze his body and soul, a momentary impulse and desire miraculously made him turn his head.
In front of him was Terror Castle, but what he saw when he turned his head was endless white mist. Within those glowing white mists was a giant tree whose full extent could not be seen even by looking up.
That tree seemed to connect heaven and earth, and also to support heaven and earth. Its roots were developed, its canopy luxuriant, and the transparent tree rings on its trunk seemed to record the stories of an entire civilization.
Looking at that tree, a warm sensation washed over his body and soul, quickly bringing him out of the negative state of seeing the source of fear. But at the same time, the most authentic soul sensation he had perceived at the brink of his soul’s fragmentation also vanished.
The transparent canopy swayed gently in the white mist. Xia De, feeling somewhat lost, reached out and caught two swirling green leaves.
“What I felt just now, was that you?”
He asked softly.
The surrounding white mist contracted into the doorway of a door-shaped pendant that had appeared beneath his feet at some unknown Time, and the scene of the clearing in the center of the dark cornfield slowly emerged as the white mist disappeared, with darkness invading the space around Xia De’s body.
Receiving no response, he sighed, wanting to bend down and pick up the 【dice of destiny】, as the battle with that powerful demon was not yet over.
But unexpectedly, before the surrounding white mist had completely vanished, the demon, holding a black fire human bone, charged forward, as if impatiently wanting to make Xia De Sleep here forever.
【Outsider, you have returned to the present Time.】
【Message from the Old God “Father of Infinite Trees”:】
“You don’t want to answer my question?”
Xia De remained in a bent-over posture, ready to stand up and throw the dice. Because once the dice was thrown, it would definitely be twenty points.
【Infinite Time protects you.】
The demon, enveloped in darkness and suppressing the silver moon’s radiance on Xia De’s body, finally arrived before him.
At this point, a few last wisps of white mist around Xia De had not completely disappeared, and the demon’s appearance seemed to have disturbed something. Behind Xia De, the giant tree phantom that seemed to pierce through heaven and earth, which had faded with the white mist’s disappearance, actually reappeared at this moment.
Thick mist instantly surged from behind Xia De, as if he had returned to the 【Time Corridor】. But the target of this white mist was not Xia De; as the branches of the giant tree behind him swayed, the white mist lunged forward, engulfing the demon in front of Xia De, and then quietly disappeared into the surroundings.
The disappearance of the white mist brought darkness back, but there was no demon around anymore, not a trace of it.
“What does this mean?”
Xia De straightened up, holding the die he had picked up, and looked at the metal door-shaped pendant at his feet; it had returned to normal.
【Infinite Time protects you.】
She repeated the sentence, and Xia De nodded thoughtfully:
“So, every Time I complete a key mission and return from the past Time, anyone who tries to attack me in that brief moment will be met with a counterattack from the residual power of the Father of Infinite Trees?”
But this seemed useless; not only was this treatment only available each Time a key mission was completed, but also, not every Time would there be a fool who would attack Xia De at such a moment.
“But in any case, getting rid of the enemy is a good thing.”
He bent down to pick up his own relic and casting materials from the ground, then looked at the two leaves he held in his palm.
After a brief thought, he casually placed one of them over his right eye.
The veins on the leaf shimmered with golden Ling light, which gradually gathered and entered Xia De’s right eye, and a new power surged into Xia De’s soul.
“Breath of Years?”
It took him at least half a minute to remove the leaf from his hand, and the voice in his mind was already providing specific information about the Miracle.
【Breath of Years】 is a Miracle corresponding to the 【Time-Space】 Ling Rune. This is an active release Miracle that requires casting materials.
The Miracle has two effects, corresponding to the actions of “exhale” and “inhale” respectively. When Xia De uses the Miracle and “inhales,” he can restore an old object to its appearance from an earlier Time.
Xia De took out his pocket watch, which had been damaged by water in Coldwater Port, summoned his Destiny Ring behind him, and activated the Miracle. As he inhaled deeply, some gray air currents separated from the pocket watch into two streams and entered his nose. The rust on the surface of the pocket watch peeled off, and at the same Time, the hands began to turn again.
“For ordinary items, with my two-ring Ling, I can restore them to a state of up to three months ago. It’s ineffective on relics, but effective on living beings and other special items, because I’m interfering not with the item itself, but with Time, though it consumes more Ling.”
Of course, Xia De’s interference with the pocket watch only brought it back to the moment he jumped off the ship with Leia; he couldn’t expend all his Ling just to test the Miracle.
And when Xia De uses the Miracle and performs the “exhale” action, he can cause the target item to rapidly corrode over Time. This doesn’t mean moving the item’s Time point to the future, but rather accelerating its natural decay. If the Miracle is used when the target is in the air, it’s rapid oxidation; in the wind, it’s rapid wind erosion.
Although he didn’t waste Ling to try again, accelerating the target’s Time was easier than restoring it. If restoring an ordinary item currently maxed out at three months, then accelerating could reach up to a year. Of course, causing the target to decay could also be used on living beings and some special items, but the corresponding difficulty would increase significantly.
The most crucial information about 【Breath of Years】 is that the casting material is lifespan. There’s one free cast per month, which was Xia De’s recent use. Before the end of this natural month, meaning before the end of today, influencing Time will consume one-tenth of the influenced Time’s duration as casting material.
“Although it sounds miraculous, even allowing a low Ring術士 like me to directly influence Time, isn’t the cost too great? Even if I have enough Ling, the longest Time I can influence at once is only about a thousand years... Hmm, thinking about it that way, the cost doesn’t seem that high.”
Xia De sighed inwardly, but he didn’t place the other leaf, representing 【A Piece of True Information - Dark Dungeon】, over his eye to read. A leaf can only be used once, and he wasn’t in the mood to memorize complex information right now.
Regardless of what help this information could give him, he planned to investigate it after the adventure in the Darkness Domain was over.
Confirming that all items had been picked up, Xia De turned and entered the cornfield, finding Luvia curled up next to the god's gift box.
She was sleeping soundly, which greatly alarmed Xia De, who thought she had fallen into that eternal Sleep again. But hearing footsteps, Luvia stirred slightly, and although her mental state was still very poor, she was surprisingly a little better than when Xia De had left.
She managed a faint smile at Xia De:
“You’re back? Oh, I actually fell asleep.”
“Something happened, but there’s no danger now.”
Xia De carefully helped Luvia up, then turned and put the box back on his back. The god's gift box glowed very quietly, with no abnormalities.
“Come with me, I’ve found the location of your divination guidance.”
Having Xia De by her side greatly improved Luvia’s spirits. The two of them returned together to the center of the cornfield where Xia De had just fought the demon, and Xia De briefly explained his brief encounter of a few minutes.
Subsequently, Xia De, who was particularly sensitive to spatial traces, found the spatial rift connecting to an unknown location. They held hands and stepped into the rift together. It was just like using Raglai's Leap, with no special sensation at all.
When he lifted his leg, the surroundings were the cornfield, and when his leg touched the ground again, the surroundings were a flat road in the darkness.
Behind them was a forest, and on both sides was the direction in which the road extended, with some past figures floating around, too blurry to discern. Xia De raised his hand and pointed forward; by the faint light, his eyes could barely make out a manor quietly standing in this deep darkness.
“This is Miss Jialinna’s manor! We’re at Miss Jialinna’s manor!”
The witch’s manor, like its surroundings, had no light, but seeing a familiar building in this darkness still brought a smile to Xia De’s face. He didn’t believe for a second that this manor had also fallen into darkness.
