Zero-Hour Hourglass

"Speaking of which, Tamashi, why can you be affected by phantasm creations like the Shelter and the Kaleidoscope?" Outside the blue door of the ruined church, Yaxiu was deeply puzzled. "Yet most mind-type miracles that don't produce physical phenomena have no effect on you... and now even a barrier miracle like the Truth Mist Wall is practically nonexistent to you!" Just moments ago, Black Crow had walked straight through the mist wall in full view of everyone and retrieved an item from behind it. The sight had left everyone utterly numb—if you could cheat, why didn't you say so earlier?! Did you think we'd look down on a cheater? We'd only cling to your coattails! Black Crow looked a bit sheepish. "Actually, I never triggered the Truth Link in the first place. I'm just... not very educated, so I didn't think much about it. Besides, you guys had a way to solve the Truth Link. "It wasn't until just now that it crossed my mind: since I'd never triggered the Truth Link, wouldn't the mist wall be useless against me too? I didn't expect to pass straight through the moment I touched it." As a Void Realm insulator, Tamashi Slay-All-Crows had never been able to become a sorcerer despite his prodigious talent, nor could he be affected by most sorcery spirits. He even had to treat his own injuries manually—a fact even Chikala knew. Nobody had anticipated that Black Crow's immunity to sorcery spirits would produce such a miraculous result here... That was why Yaxiu had this question: why was Black Crow affected sometimes, but not other times? "It's because of the degree of fantasy," Igola surmised. "Creations like the Shelter and the Kaleidoscope already belong to the realm of pure idealism. The sorcery spirits inside are probably just there to set the mood and can hardly exert any real effect. "The more outrageous the phantasm creation, the harder it is for Black Crow to resist; conversely, the closer a miracle is to reality, the less effect it has on him." Regarding Tamashi's peculiarity, they could only speculate without confirming anything. After all, it wasn't just his personal matter—it also involved how he interacted with the world of Senluo. By comparison, everyone was far more interested in what he had brought out from behind the mist wall. In truth, he hadn't brought anything physical out; a faintly glowing hourglass icon had simply appeared on the back of his hand. According to him, there was a gigantic hourglass behind the mist wall. When he looked at it, he felt a wave of heat on the back of his hand, and then this mark appeared. And after Yaxiu and the others saw Black Crow's hourglass, a sudden warmth also flared on the backs of their hands, imprinting each of them with an hourglass tattoo of their own—from that alone, they realized this was unmistakably a hyper-phantasm creation. A trait that copies and spreads merely by being seen is typically only used in combat scenarios, such as an auxiliary delivery method for debuffs like diseases and curses. Applying such a property to an ordinary tool was an extravagance only an idealistic Senluo could indulge in. After acquiring the hourglass mark, information regarding this single-use item entered their minds. "Shelter: Zero-Hour Hourglass: Uses remaining: 1/1." "Effect: Upon activation, physical time ceases to flow, and the soul falls dormant, remaining so until awakening twelve hours later. "While the hourglass is active, the user is immune to all damage. After the sand runs out, the user will be immune to all external influences for the following six hundred seconds, and their spirit body will be cleansed of all negative statuses, restoring them to absolute health." Yaxiu exchanged glances with Igola and Harvey, uncontainable delight gleaming in their eyes. This item didn't just mean they could escape the Dead City's "time cage"—setting aside the six hundred seconds of total immunity to external influences upon waking, simply sleeping for twelve hours would allow them to bypass the Dead City's night. More importantly, "spirit body cleansed of all negative statuses, restoring them to absolute health"! Damaged souls and crippled physical vessels could be completely restored! No wonder the proportion of legends among Grey Fox sorcerers had been so extraordinarily high. Even if they drowned in the Void Realm, were devoured by a Fishcleaver Dragon, or were trampled by the Heroic Spirit Legion, they could use this kind of idealistic creation to rapidly mend their spiritual wounds, clocking in for their Void Realm shifts every night without ever having their training disrupted—of course! Since they could produce idealistic creations without restriction, they would naturally prioritize making tools to assist their cultivation and learning! Grey Fox sorcerers weren't fools. Regardless of their beliefs and ideals, they knew that greater personal strength brought them closer to their goals. And they understood that their idealistic creations only functioned in "reality"; the Void Realm wouldn't recognize the modded items they conjured out of thin air. Therefore, the right approach for Grey Fox sorcerers was to use idealistic creations to offset their disadvantages in the Void Realm and compensate for their lack of innate talent! That was why the Truth Link existed to force-feed conceptual mastery, and why the Shelter: Zero-Hour Hourglass existed to repair spiritual trauma! Yaxiu and the others had simply arrived more than two hundred years too late. Had they lived during the zenith of the Grey Fox God Era, they might have seen fantasy amenities specifically designed to aid sorcerers in exploring the Void Realm—things like a "Wind, Flowers, Snow, and Moon Harmonization Forbidden Rite Sauna," a "Flowing Gold River Swimming Pool," or a "Fishcleaver Dragon Combat Club." Ordinary people who wanted to study any sorcery school wouldn't need to fear lacking talent; they could just use a Truth Link to forcefully get started! That was a glorious era, a golden age for sorcerers. Igola, privy to deeper secrets, felt this even more profoundly. Compared to Senluo, the Blood Moon Extreme Lord interfered the least with the Blood Moon, which was why the Blood Moon Country's development was the poorest. The Weaver had dispatched gods to manage the Gospel, but because of that, the entire nation's civilization was built upon the Gospel system; once that system was compromised, the whole country would collapse and regress. The Senluo Azure Lord had utterly reshaped Senluo, even becoming the dream lord of Senluo's fleeting bubble. As a result, Senluo had erupted into several golden ages, achieving a level of development that was likely the greatest of all nations. Yet when a problem arose with the Senluo Azure Lord, the entire nation was dragged down as collateral. Perhaps the Divine Lords had no love for mortal beings, but when faced with the examination known as civilization, they had all answered diligently. For Yaxiu and his companions, however, the phantasmal healing effect of the Zero-Hour Hourglass meant they could cleanse the blood seed curse even without slaying Silver Lantern. After a grueling pursuit lasting nearly two months, they had finally achieved half of their goal. "Besides the Zero-Hour Hourglass, what else was behind the mist wall?" Igola asked. Black Crow shook his head. "Nothing else, just a gigantic hourglass. And I tried many ways, putting all my strength into it, but couldn't dislodge it. However..." He paused. "A few lines of text appeared beside the hourglass." "What did they say?" The moment Yaxiu asked, he realized his mistake. "Can you write those words out from memory?" Black Crow fell silent. Though no one could see his face, they could all imagine the embarrassment beneath his mask. He crouched down and began scribbling on the floor. Igola walked over to look, only to see a crooked, bizarre symbol that matched no known script. Sensing something, Igola asked, "In your eyes, does all text squirm and crawl?" Black Crow nodded gently. No wonder! Igola had long found it strange that a combat prodigy like Black Crow was illiterate. The Kill-All-Crows Cult wasn't without basic education, and Black Crow's combat intellect was proof enough of a sharp mind; learning to read should have been effortless for him. Even if complex characters eluded him, he should at least recognize basic numbers. Yet he couldn't even make sense of numerals! As it turned out, his illiteracy wasn't due to external factors—he suffered from severe dyslexia! Igola had read about similar conditions in the past. It was said that people with this affliction could understand simple pictures, but were utterly incapable of reading any text laden with information. To them, words weren't static shapes waiting to be recognized, but living things that wriggled and crawled! Were such sufferers also rejected by the Void Realm? Igola had no idea. After all, unless one's talent was so monstrous that failing to become a sorcerer defied natural law, nobody found it odd when an impaired person with severe dyslexia never became a sorcerer. As for whether Black Crow was truly spurned by the Void Realm, nobody really knew. Perhaps sorcerers simply needed an explanation for Black Crow's anomalies; after all, they couldn't bear the thought of being utterly crushed by a mere "ordinary person," could they? Especially those sorcerers whom Black Crow had beaten half to death—how could they possibly accept that they had lost to a mortal? And so rumors arose of the "Void Realm insulator, fanatic of the Kill-All-Crows Cult." Igola even suspected that Tamashi had initially been nothing more than an ordinary person barred from becoming a sorcerer by dyslexia. Yet as the rumors spread, he gradually developed traits like "immunity to sorcery spirits," truly becoming an insulator. In the idealistic world of Senluo, the sanctification or demonization of him by the populace and scoundrels alike was more than enough to become the very source of his power. Even so, this meant they had no way of knowing the message left behind the mist wall—unless they waited for Yaxiu to obtain citizen status and go in to check. But not just Yaxiu; none of them were necessarily willing to endure three years holed up here. "Still, we should test the effect of the Zero-Hour Hourglass first..." Ever cautious, Igola naturally wouldn't place blind faith in this phantasm creation. He glanced toward the outsiders of the group: Gwen and Chikala. The beastman scratched his head. Since he had already surrendered, he was prepared to do the dirty, exhausting grunt work. But Gwen raised her hand. "Let me test it first." "...Alright." Having received permission, Gwen pressed the hourglass mark on the back of her hand, but nothing seemed to happen. It was only when Igola waved a hand in front of her face that they realized her hourglass had already taken effect. The mind sorcerer inspected her closely and found that although Gwen's eyes were open, there was not the slightest ripple of thought in her mind; her soul had fallen entirely dormant. He then had Black Crow test her, only to discover that even a Grey Fox blade couldn't scratch her in the least, nor could he bend a single one of her fingers. Gwen was like an object fused unyieldingly into time itself, immune to all external influences. Igola laid her down flat on the ground and said, "It basically matches the description. Though falling into the hourglass countdown renders one completely unconscious, it is also completely safe. Even Silver Lantern wouldn't be able to harm us. "Which means we can leave the Dead City at any time. "However, it's rare to find an environment completely free from outside interference and detached from the normal flow of time." Igola looked around at everyone. "You probably want to take this opportunity to get some serious cultivation done, right?" Everyone nodded in agreement, especially Black Crow, whose knuckles were already popping loudly. Only Yaxiu's face instantly fell. "Um, I feel a bit sleepy. How about—" "Yaxiu, didn't you say earlier that you wanted to learn combat battle-energy and mental techniques from me?" Black Crow grabbed Yaxiu's arm. "We never had the chance before, but tonight I will pass down my life's ultimate skills to you!" "If I say that was just polite small talk, will I get beaten up?" "Yes." "Fine. How do you plan to teach me? You're not going to start with basic physical conditioning, are you?" "No need. Your physical foundation is decent; we can jump straight into practical combat training." "Practical combat training... meaning...?" "You get beaten up."