Chapter 573 – Fishing
Chrono Element Continent couldn't be cultivated normally as its foundation and power were a lot different than ordinary elements.
The cultivation method of this element required time and effort. It required more than Life Essence, Soul Qi, or Providence Qi.
Miaomiao had investigated his lifespan after he had sold all centipedes. He tested the time-stopping skill and monitored his remaining lifespan.
His theory was correct. Whenever Miaomiao activated a time domain, he lost lifespan! Life Essence was also consumed every second as the skill upkeep.
Cultivating Chrono Element Crystal also consumed lifespan. The elemental crystal already took countless years of lifespan from Miaomiao to complete. And now, it required more lifespan to complete the continent.
Fortunately, Chrono Element Continent could be cultivated one layer at a time. A total of four layers was necessary to perfect the continent.
The first layer was a flat oval ring around the Chrono Element Crystal. It represented the flow of time, which could only flow forward.
However, Miaomiao had to accelerate time inside him to comprehend the Law of Time Flow to complete the oval ring. In short, he had to waste his lifespan to feel and get used to the flow of time! Then, the oval ring of time flow could be created, using Miaomiao's comprehension.
'Tsk! How annoying.'
Miaomiao started working. He tried to cheat by using the memory of other counterparts of himself to complete the first layer.
Unfortunately, it didn't work. Miaomiao's soul didn't resonate with the Chrono Element Crystal even though he could easily create a time domain and accelerate time.
Since cheating was not working, Miaomiao decided to cultivate normally. He accelerated time inside him to let his soul adapt to the power.
The feeling of getting older was not pleasant. Miaomiao sensed that some of his muscle fibers were weakened, and several blood cells rapidly died. He also lost Life Essence, and his dantian slowly shrank.
Everyone in the dantian world could feel it, too. They looked at Miaomiao, who was meditating in the sky. They thought that he was cultivating something dangerous again.
RUMBLE
Trees inside the dantian world grew bigger. Some withered, but the majority of plants got healthier.
Flowers died and new ones grew. The circulation of the ecosystem continued to evolve and change in front of the residents.
Miaomiao's appearance also changed. He looked young at first, but he rapidly aged. A few seconds later, Life Essence rejuvenated him and returned his youthful appearance. Then, he got old again.
The loop repeated as Miaomiao invested his lifespan to comprehend to Law of Time Flow.
As Miaomiao continued meditating, his heart bled. Within 10 minutes, he lost 10,000 years of lifespan. Yet, his comprehension progress didn't improve much.
He could only create a strange rock that orbited around the 100-meter-diameter Chrono Element Crystal.
'This can be tedious.'
Miaomiao embraced the task and continued.
Behind Miaomiao, Xie Tian had been stabilizing the Chrono Element Crystal. He also kept an eye on Miaomiao's condition.
Everything was smooth. The lifespan consumption rate was within Xie Tian's calculation.
Xie Tian felt bad as well since he owe a lot to Miaomiao. He wondered how he could ever pay for this debt of kindness.
The protagonist closed his eyes and bit his lower lips. He made his decision.
Once he managed to rescue Xie Qingtian, he would persuade his father to become Miaomiao's Dao Sentinel as well. Also, he thought of his little aunt, who was the youngest daughter of Xie Xuanyuan.
The little aunt used to be his rival in the previous timeline, but they reconciled after the evil deeds of Xie Xuanyuan were exposed. The little girl's behavior also changed for the better after that.
Later on, that little girl got a strange idea from somewhere. She snuck into Xie Tian's bedroom one day and attempted to become his wife!
Unfortunately for her, she was only 15 years old! As Xie Tian was a man of integrity, he kicked her out.
Xie Tian snickered as he wondered if this timeline events would be the same. He hoped to see his little aunt and his father again soon.
RUMBLE
Unfortunately, Xie Tian's fantasy was cut short. Miaomiao seemed to grasp on something, and his time flow accelerated. The previous orbital rock also grew larger in size, and more objects were created.
Miaomiao's skin wrinkled and his muscle thinned. His cheek sank into his face, and the smooth skin withered. Even Life Essence failed to keep up with Miaomiao's aging speed.
Xie Tian started to get worried. He injected Life Essence into Miaomiao's dantian, hoping to recover his physique.
But Miaomiao rejected it. He muttered in a hoarse voice.
"Don't bother. I can do this on my own."
"M-Master, but you're…"
Xie Tian couldn't say it. At the moment, Miaomiao looked like a dry mummy!
Miaomiao cackled. He took a deep breath and roared.
BOOM
The pieces of rocks around the Chrono Element Crystal got flattened. They also expanded and connected each other like a web.
A ring around the crystal was formed!
But before the first layer of the continent was completed, a new giant rock was created. This time, it orbited anti-clockwise, moving in the opposite direction of the first incomplete ring.
The two orbital objects should have collided as their orbital path was overlapping each other. Yet, they moved through each other as if they were on a different dimension!
"HAHAHAHAHA!!"
Miaomiao burst into laughter for no reason. He opened his arms and stood up.
The dry mummy from before suddenly got younger. Miaomiao reverted back to his youthful self, and the outline of the continent's second layer was formed, reverting the time backward.
The dantian space also expanded, and the plants flourished. The dead flowers returned to life while new lives continued to be born.
The dantian world was evolving!
BOOM
The oval rings around the Chrono Element Crystal shone in silver light.
Xie Tian widened his eyes in astonishment. This sign indicated that Miaomiao was about to complete two layers of Chrono Continent at once.
Unfortunately, the light dimmed, and the two rings suddenly stopped moving. Miaomiao also stopped cultivating.
"M-Master?" Xie Tian was afraid that Miaomiao might have suffered a backlash or an accident. He rushed to see his mentor's condition.
Miaomiao's expression looked ugly. He grumbled while he gazed at his left hand.
No skin, flesh, or blood remained on his left arm. Only bones remained.
"My lifespan isn't enough. I spent 2.8 million years, but I can only complete 80% of both layers."
Xie Tian frowned, "Why did you try to complete both layers at once? You could have completed the first one with 2 million years of lifespan!"
"Had I kept accelerating time, my soul would have permanently transformed into a geezer. But I used this method to maintain my youthful appearance and keep things in balance. Also, I managed to decrease the lifespan consumption rate by cultivating the backward flow while I cultivate the first layer."
"Y-You can do that?"
Xie Tian used to cultivate one layer at a time. He was aware that the task was dangerous and time-consuming, but he never thought of this method.
After all, in the previous timeline, Xie Tian completed the Chrono Element by sacrificing a million evil cultivators that had picked a fight with him. He never used his own lifespan to cultivate anything.
"Yup. Okay. Now, I need to find a dumbass in the real world to hatch more centipedes. It's about time I go out and provoke a few arrogant motherfuckers."
Miaomiao hummed as he shifted his consciousness to his real body.
…
In front of Miaomiao's Stable
Despite knowing that Miaomiao lived there, many cultivators stalked around the building, spying on Miaomiao's activities.
These people had the same goal. They wanted to find out about Miaomiao's taming technique or secrets.
Ta Dun, a burly rogue cultivator, was also one of the greedy opportunists. He had been stalking the building ever since the departure of Sun Yang.
Ta Dun was confident in his strength. Even though he walked the ordinary immortal path, he didn't think that the overall power of Immortal Knight, aka the 2nd-rank of immortal saint path, would lose to candidates or initiates from the Eden Garden Sect.
'What does he do with all those lifespans? Is it related to his secrets?'
Ta Dun was curious. He wondered why Miaomiao needed lifespan as all cultivators had a long life. Even if Miaomiao was talentless or required extra time to cultivate, he shouldn't need several million years to advance to ascend.
After all, the most talentless cultivators here only required 5,000 years to ascend! Two million years was overkill.
CREAK
"!!!"
Suddenly, Miaomiao opened the door and left the stable. He walked toward the city center, where the public market was located.
Strangely, his left arm looked a bit thin. It was as if he had lost his left arm.
Many stalking cultivators grinned. Some of them trailed Miaomiao while the rest barged into the stable to search for valuables.
Ta Dun was among the stalkers. He followed Miaomiao with the others.
While they were at it, Miaomiao suddenly ran into one of his customers, who had bought adult centipedes. The customer was riding his new mount and flexing to his friends.
"Oh, that's the pet merchant! Hello, sir! Are you here for shopping?"
Miaomiao nodded, "Yes. Well, I see that you're happy with it."
"Haha, of course! It's a good mount! Well, we're visiting the market, too. Do you want to come along with us?"
"No, thanks. I want to look around the city. I still haven't explored every place yet."
"Are you sure? There aren't many good places to sightsee other than the central market and the gambling arena."
"Sometimes, inspiration comes from solitary and uniqueness. I need that sort of inspiration."
"I see that you've reached a bottleneck. Very well, good luck to you, sir! I hope you can find what you need."
"Hahaha. Don't worry. I'm confident that I can fish PLENTY!"
Miaomiao and the customer parted. But for an unknown reason, Miaomiao had a bright smile on his face.
After eavesdropping on their conversation, Ta Dun had a bad feeling about this. His immortal instinct told him to get away from here as soon as possible.
As a rogue cultivator, Ta Dun trusted his instinct. He decided to back away from Miaomiao and observe the other stalkers from a distance instead.
Miaomiao continued to stroll to a slum area, where the city public arena was located.
This place was commonly used to solve grudges. However, currently, it was used as a gambling den. Many rowdy cultivators gathered around the arena to cheer for their fighters.
Miaomiao stopped and looked at this place. He frowned for a moment and shook his head. Then, he walked away, heading toward another secluded area.
It was as if Miaomiao was tempting the stalkers to make a move!
The stalkers were confused by the obvious gesture, but a few of them rejoiced.
Ta Dun glanced at the black-clothed 9th-stage cultivator, who had just smeared green liquid onto his daggers and blades. Obviously, this guy was preparing to attack Miaomiao with poison.
'Dumbass. Do you think poison can kill that merchant? He used a mysterious power to reflect a 9th-stage cultivator's attack with ease, and he probably has a few tricks to counter that as well.'
Ta Dun scoffed, predicting that this poisoner would meet a bad end.
The group continued to follow Miaomiao while the cautious ones backed away like Ta Dun.
Now, there were two groups of stalkers. The first group followed Miaomiao while the other group followed the other stalkers.
As the first group followed Miaomiao, Ta Dun's sixth sense got even more tingling. He got mysterious goosebumps for no reason. His knee turned into jelly, and his feet couldn't move forward.
His instinct was scared of something ominous ahead of him.
'This dreadful feeling… This won't do! I must escape from here!'
Ta Dun slapped his thighs to muster his strength. He kicked the ground and fled from this place.
Then, he heard the loud voice of someone behind him.
"Mao Miaomiao, hand over your spatial rings and your treasures! Write down the technique that you used to tame the immortal centipedes! Then, this father shall let you live!"
As Ta Dun had expected, the first group finally made a move.
And as Ta Dun had predicted, Mao Miaomiao was bad news.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!"
BOOM
The same guy suddenly screamed, and the sound of someone getting detonated into blood mist was audible.
Ta Dun didn't need to look at the victim. He knew that the robber was already dead the moment he threatened Miaomiao.
The leg's strength of Ta Dun suddenly returned as if they wanted him out of there ASAP. Ta Dun kicked the ground as hardest as he could and flew to the sky.
WHOOM
A dark dome expanded and enveloped the place that Ta Dun had stood. The dome followed after Ta Dun for a few seconds before it stopped increasing its size.
Ta Dun glanced back at the dark dome. He could faintly see Miaomiao and others.
For a brief moment, Ta Dun's eyes met with Miaomiao's eyes. The latter smiled and waved his hand at Ta Dun before the darkness shrouded everything inside the dome. Even immortals couldn't see through the absolute darkness.
Ta Dun looked around. He noticed that several cultivators from the second group managed to get out of the domain range unharmed as well. Their pale face revealed their inner thoughts.
Those men were scouts from various clans, who came to watch over Miaomiao. But now, they were scared of something inside. Obviously, Ta Dun was not the only one with a sharp sixth sense.
One of them flew toward Ta Dun. He wore the uniform of the Eden Garden Sect's deacon. Also, he was a 10-Star Constellation immortal.
"Aren't you an immortal? Why are you stalking Mao Miaomiao?"
"Uh, I was just curious."
The deacon wryly smiled. He patted Ta Dun's shoulder, "You're lucky. Don't offend him if you value your life."
The deacon frantically flew away from the area. Ta Dun also noticed that the deacon's back was drenched in sweat.
"…"
WHOOM
A few seconds later, the dark domain was dispersed. Everybody and Ta Dun could see the aftermath.
Upon seeing the horrifying scene, they were flabbergasted. Surrounding Miaomiao was a million baby centipedes and a few adult centipedes!
They also clearly heard Miaomiao's complaint.
"Meh, what a bunch of small fishes. None of them is even an immortal. It would have been better if an immortal attacked me first."
"…"
Ta Dun and the immortals from the second group sweated profusely.
What fishes?
Were they the fishes?
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