Chapter 1226: The Mystery of Time

Scattered among the hundred‑person squads, Lin An kept his mind in two halves: constantly mapping the surrounding terrain in his head, and pondering his gains.

Time.. can be controlled through mass..

Is it because time and space are originally one entity, so space represents mass?

Or rather, time does not exist?

Constantly thinking, with his brain operating efficiently, Lin An was like a supercomputer, continuously re‑experiencing his previous sensations.

Can I understand it this way..

Time is like a river; each person is a stone in the water.

Under the river's (time's) scouring, everyone's time moves forward.

The flow speed of time, or rather the river's flow, is steady. But the lighter the stone, the faster it is swept away, drifting farther than other stones...

Conversely, the heavier the stone, the slower it is swept; even with infinite mass, it would get stuck in the sum of time, as if stationary.

For example, a black hole...

If understood this way, it actually matches.

He pondered deeply.

Lin An continually supplemented his logic according to the rules of the Heavenly Ghost.

Before, he always regarded time as an untouchable, unchangeable supreme existence. Apart from using the Causal Sequence, he had no idea how to comprehend it.

But now..

It is obvious that this logic works.

Compressing my mass will slow my body's flow speed.

This can be verified from the rules of the Constant State.

Silently activating the Constant State, Lin An clearly felt that the dark‑gold ripples on his body's surface were pulling something inward from the outside.

It was as if squeezing him, yet it brought no pressure.

I don't yet understand the means by which the Constant State compresses, but the principle is this principle.

In other words, the reason it can remain constant is purely that, after various negative‑effect attacks hit me, the closer they get to my true body, the more they fall into stasis, causing them to fail to take effect after a delay.

Just like being stuck in front of me, over time it naturally dissipates.

So another rule of the Eternal Body is to allocate damage to past and future..

This amounts to complementarity, forcibly dispersing the halted attacks.

The Incessant State follows the same principle, only reversed...

In the Incessant State, my mass decreases, which equals my true body's time flow speed increasing.

Thus my self‑healing speed also increases..

Hum

Taking advantage of the Incessant State before it was replaced, Lin An instantly activated it and silently sensed the changes he had never noticed before.

Exactly!

I always thought the attribute boost of the Incessant State was purely a leftover from the previous Celestial Human Form.

But.. not!

The increase in speed comes from the reduction of mass! Moreover, the Blink ability might also stem from this!

A flash of long‑absent excitement crossed his eyes.

As his train of thought grew clearer, Lin An felt as if he had found the right direction, and he became somewhat excited.

Because mass is 'reduced', time accelerates! Because time accelerates, the Incessant State can only distribute damage to the future!

And the Eternal Body becomes past and future because it can both increase and decrease mass!

What would it become if it continued to evolve?

If my mass were infinite, would that mean I could travel back to the past?

Constantly speculating on various possibilities, Lin An couldn't help but clench his fists silently.

He thought of his own rebirth.

Is it an 'instance' reset, or a mass increase that sends him back?

The Second Will once said he had devoured the entire Huaxia war zone..

Could it be that at that time he incarnated as infinite mass, thereby traveling back?

A sudden new line of thought left him somewhat bewildered for a moment.

Time, is the hardest thing for people to comprehend.

Half an hour later, Lin An let out a helpless sigh.

He rubbed his swollen brow, and inevitably a hint of fatigue appeared in his eyes.

As one of his greatest secrets, he truly wanted to know the truth.

Moreover, if he could master this ability, wouldn't it mean he would forever stand invincible? Any mistake or shortcoming could be made up..

At worst, endless rebirths..

Forget it, the possibility of infinite mass is too small..

Even a planet‑devourer cannot be called infinite.

He shook his head, tossed some wild ideas out of his mind, and turned to consider how to effectively use this rule.

Increasing mass is hard to achieve in combat.. and it leans more toward defense.

What about decreasing mass? When I enter an accelerated state, can I bypass the restraints of rule‑power and use the Fourth Stage's rule ahead of time?

Bang

Bare‑handed, he generated an arcane orb, Lin An gazed thoughtfully at the dark‑purple light sphere.

Superimposed..

Compressed..

Expanded..

How to reduce weight? Enlarging speeds up, only effective within the Heavenly Ghost Space..

After repeated trials, he wondered whether enlarging himself again could regain the time acceleration effect.

However, after several attempts, Lin An could only helplessly declare failure.

Even if he dispersed the internal structure to the extreme, it was still useless.

Within normal space, his cells and molecules must maintain a certain range of connection; otherwise, it's hardly different from being torn apart.

His enlargement at most merely regenerates a large amount of bodily tissue via spiritual energy, but instead makes him heavier.

Being useful in the Heavenly Ghost Space is simply because enlargement breaks through compression, restoring to the normal state.

I want mass to become extremely small, but then it would be impossible to maintain a normal form..

Unless I discard flesh and exist as a gaseous state with extremely low mass?

No, even the mass of a gaseous state is too great.. as a spiritual energy form?

In an instant, several images suddenly popped into Lin An's mind.

That was a Fourth Stage Awakened One he had heard of in his Past Life!

Time Walker..

He had actually seen this title in the rewards before! It belongs to a pretty good title!

What form is he!?

He strained to search his memory; after a moment, Lin An's eyes lit up.

Energy conversion!

He appears in the form of an energy body!

So if I could also become an energy body, could I also gain time acceleration ability!?

Even if it's just a brief acceleration, it would allow premature use of the time rule!

Even if only a 0.5× time acceleration, even if only 1 second.. the resulting combat power increase would be enormous!

Clenching his fists silently, Lin An's heart burned with fervor.

But upon realizing this, his brows furrowed tightly.

The difficulty is extremely high.

In his Memory, all similar energy-body Awakened Ones achieved it solely through talent.

For example, some fire-system Awakened Ones can briefly turn themselves into a mass of fire element, thereby harming enemies.

But if you ask them how they do it, probably no one knows.

Just like using a skill, most Awakened Ones basically let the system help release it, while they are responsible for providing spiritual energy.

How can I become an energy body..

That Fourth Stage became an energy body with the system's help.. how can I simulate it?