Chapter 864 - Seize the Present
The transparent shadow didn’t attack. Instead, it tilted its head with what seemed like genuine curiosity before it spoke. At first, the garbled sounds were incomprehensible. However, as the shadow continued talking, its voice gradually became clearer until it shifted into a language they could understand.
“You’ve finally come, my future inheritors.”
All three of them looked confused. Only one thought crossed their minds. This thing is trying to manipulate us.
Their guard rose even higher.
Meanwhile, the shadow seemed to have finally found its voice. “Relax. I know full well that this is no longer my era. What little power I have left isn’t enough to kill any of you. Aren’t you even curious who I am, what I did, or why my soul remains here?”
The trio stared at the shadow the way one stared at a noisy parrot. It was talking way too much.
“You’re really no fun at all. Not a single question? I’m going to get depressed,” the shadow said, scratching its head.
Han Wu finally spoke. “State your purpose.”
“Ha! You finally responded!” The shadow perked up. “Let me introduce myself. My name is Shi Nan. I’m a handsome man who’s been dead for a very long time. My power allows me to control time to a certain degree.”
The moment he mentioned controlling time, all three widened their eyes. In any civilization, time was the single most precious attribute. It wasn’t because time had overwhelming offensive power, but because it could produce miraculous effects in virtually any situation.
Their reactions pleased Shi Nan. “But I still died. I fought to the death against a tyrant who treated everyone’s emotions as commodities to be bought and sold. Before I died, I calculated my own future, and what I saw was your arrival. Seeing you now puts my mind at ease.”
Han Wu’s expression softened slightly. What Shi Nan described matched the murals on the Past path, which gave some credibility to his words.
“I’m willing to share a portion of my power with you, but I have one condition,” Shi Nan said.
Han Wu could barely contain his excitement. “What’s your condition?”
Time abilities were exceedingly rare, even rarer than spatial ones. If he could obtain even a single time-based skill, the benefits would be enormous.
“My request is simple. Save every living being on this continent. Because of my battle with that tyrant, this entire continent suffered catastrophic damage. Every living being was affected. By all rights, they should’ve died long ago.
“But in my final moments, I couldn’t bear to watch them suffer. So I used every last bit of my power to freeze the entire continent within a single day. Now that you’re here, there’s hope for them,” Shi Nan revealed.
“How do we do it?” Han Wu asked.
“Seize the present,” Shi Nan said with absolute certainty.
“What does that mean? Explain!” Han Wu pressed.
Shi Nan said nothing more and faded from view. The crystal coffin dissolved along with him. Beneath the floor, the great clock’s hour, minute, and second hands transformed into three beams of light that each entered a different member of Han Wu’s group.
Steely received the second hand. After feeling its power, he understood its use. It could store one second of time. By channeling his power into it, he could save that second and unleash it during any battle. One second didn’t sound like much, but for someone as powerful as Steely, it was enormous. His strikes were so fast that some fights could be decided in a single second.
The minute hand entered Han Wu. He needed to charge it with energy, and once fully charged, it would grant him an extra minute of time. It was neither especially long nor especially short, but if Han Wu wanted to kill, one minute would be enough to take many lives.
The minute hand had plenty of advantages, but also carried one major drawback. Its charging time was extremely long. By his calculations, he would need three full days of continuous channeling just to get one extra minute. As such, the minute hand could only serve as a secret weapon rather than an ability he could rely on regularly.
The Origin of Mutation received the hour hand, the one capable of storing the greatest amount of time. Its benefits were even greater, but its drawback was proportionally worse. The charging time was absurdly long. At the Origin of Mutation’s power level, it would take at least 200 days to fully charge it. There was nothing it could do except accept it.
After Shi Nan’s gifts were distributed, the chamber started to collapse, and the trio rushed toward the exit.
Along the way, Han Wu kept thinking about Shi Nan’s final words. “Seize the present? What does that mean? Could it be connected to the Present path?”
He relayed everything to the Han Wu on the Present path.
***
On the Present path, Han Wu and his units were facing a massive problem.
Evilspawn had caught up to them. Worse still, Evilspawn seemed to have merged with some form of energy native to the Present path, making him incredibly powerful.
Han Wu had no choice but to stall and wait for the other two avatars to arrive.
