Chapter 180: Time Stop

Buzz—

A continuous sharp buzzing rang through the cavern, the remaining bulbous monsters were surrounded by red light, and the largest leader was cloaked in blinding red.

Hidden in the darkness, Sai Fa Er felt a deadly threat; he knew his spellcasting had revealed his position, and just as he was about to teleport to evade, the Mana's power had already manifested.

Eight-Ring Psychic Ability — 【Experience Death】!

The entire cavern was bathed in crimson Mana light, the incessant buzzing echoed in the seemingly stagnant air. Sai Fa Er felt an extreme sense of threat pressing on his mind.

The next moment, Sai Fa Er's skin turned a corpse‑like iron blue; he exhaled gently, and the cold condensed into mist in the air.

He was about to die; Mana altered his life traits, turning him from a living person into a dead one in an instant.

At the critical moment, the Divine Spell Ring on Sai Fa Er's left middle finger glowed, and a square barrier rose around him.

It was the natural enemy of instant‑death spells — the Four-Ring Divine Spell 【Death‑Prevention Barrier】.

Perhaps the Mana released jointly by the bulbous monster horde was too powerful, and the ring on Sai Fa Er's left hand kept cracking.

The red light lasted about three seconds before vanishing; the ring in Sai Fa Er's hand had burned to ash, but fortunately it blocked the power of 【Experience Death】.

Damn it!

The bulbous monster seemed not to expect that this strike failed to kill its prey; the enhanced Eight-Ring Mana left it temporarily rigid, and the freed Sai Fa Er muttered under his breath, hurriedly beginning to prepare a spell.

Nine-Ring Transformation‑type Spell — 【Time Stop】!

As the incantation completed, a green flash swept across Sai Fa Er's body; he instantly felt his neural response speed accelerate to an inconceivable degree, many times faster than 【Advanced Swift Burst】.

Everything around him seemed to freeze in his sight; Sai Fa Er could even see dust particles floating in the air.

It is one of the two great crowns in Transformation spells, alongside 【Form Transformation】; at this moment Sai Fa Er's speed approached light speed, and although real‑world time hadn't stopped, for his reference frame he was moving so fast it was nearly a time stop.

Sai Fa Er let out a cold snort, stepped before the leader monster, and gripped his staff tightly.

"You petty Monster, you think sprinkling a bit of Mana will do anything?"

The near‑death experience had pushed this good‑natured Sai Fa Er into anger; he aimed his staff at the monster before him, continuously chanting the incantation.

Seven-Ring Evocation‑type Spell — 【Delayed Explosive Fireball】!

After reciting the incantation once, Sai Fa Er repeated it two more times, until three basin‑sized fireballs hovered beside the leader monster, then he quickly ran to the cavern's edge.

【Time Stop】 is indeed powerful, but not without flaws; any physical contact Sai Fa Er makes with the real world alters his reference frame, thereby ending 【Time Stop】.

Simply put, during Time Stop, the Spellcaster cannot attack enemies.

Therefore, Sai Fa Er could not use a stronger spell to instantly kill the leader; he could only employ delayed spells, and when 【Time Stop】 fades, the pre‑set delayed spell will erupt instantly, leaving the enemy with no time to react.

And 【Delayed Explosive Fireball】 is the most lethal among delayed spells.

The next moment, when the green light on Sai Fa Er faded, his nerves returned to normal, and a lingering sluggishness instantly made his brain feel muddied; this is a guaranteed aftereffect of exiting 【Time Stop】, because ordinary beings cannot sustain neural speeds comparable to light, and after such an experience, a normal brain immediately feels maladjusted, even suffering nausea, vomiting, and similar symptoms.

Sai Fa Er felt exactly that, yet it was all worth it, for when time resumed, his pre‑set delayed explosive fireball detonated.

"Boom Boom Boom!!" The terrifying explosion reflected in the leader's terrified huge eyes; the deafening roar ripped the silence in an instant.

Three successive explosions, each covering a radius of 50 meters, nearly devoured everything around; the blast's shockwave instantly lofted the dust and rubble piled in the cavern, as if an invisible hand violently stirred a still pool. Stalactites on the stone walls quivered, teetering and chiming like panicked notes.

The cavern's temperature surged with the explosions, rolling heat waves as if the very air were burning. Flames illuminated everything, reflecting Xia Nai's unsettled terrified face beside the rubble. Fortunately she kept her distance, or she would have been doomed.

Explosion smoke and dust filled the air, the choking ash making people cough. As the smoke cleared, the terrifying bulbous leader lay reduced to bone, and the small monsters that had crawled up from below vanished with it.

"Cough cough cough… Mentor, what happened? How did these monsters suddenly get blown up?" Xia Nai coughed while pulling out a silk scarf to wipe the black ash from her face.

Sai Fa Er stroked his beard and smiled calmly: "That ugly thing tried to instantly kill me with an instant‑death spell just now; I was so angry I directly used 【Time Stop】."

The red dragon nearby, whose mind had recovered after the monsters died, licked its lips, somewhat embarrassed; it had claimed it was fine, only to be instantly seized by those monsters.

That feeling terrified the dragon; he could clearly hear, see, even smell everything outside, yet his body was unresponsive, forced to stand there dumbfounded.

These monsters are downright malicious!

Xia Nai's eyes lit up as she heard Sai Fa Er, exclaiming: "Time Stop?! That's the ultimate Transformation spell? The jewel among Nine‑Ring spells, alongside 【Wish Art】 as one of the two strongest spells—Time Stop?!"

!

"Mentor!" Xia Nai immediately knelt, shouting excitedly at Sai Fa Er: "You must teach me this spell in the future! Mastering 【Time Stop】 is the ultimate ideal for a Transformation practitioner like me!"

Sai Fa Er glanced at the excited Xia Nai, twitching the corner of his eye; his disciple is good at everything except that when rare Transformation spells appear, he gets so thrilled he forgets everything.

"Understood. We'll consider this when you reach level 17. For now, quickly find any remaining clues for me," Sai Fa Er said.

So the three searched the cavern ruins for a while longer, found nothing, and left; although they uncovered nothing, having slain the mastermind behind the destructive vanguard meant Sai Fa Er could report back to Bao Li Si.

What they didn't know was that after they left, a strikingly beautiful woman, dressed scantily like a black pearl, emerged from the ripples that suddenly appeared in the air.

She quietly observed everything around her, a smile tugging at her lips.

"Interesting, does anyone else notice these monsters? The ones we captured earlier are enough for the ritual; looks like we should start preparing."

"People from another continent. How foolish, your arrival changes nothing!"

The woman's emerald‑like eyes held vicious cruelty; she curved a breathtaking smile, swayed her waist and stepped back into the ripples, vanishing.

The principle of Time Stop is to accelerate oneself, thereby achieving the effect of stopping time.

Otherwise, truly stopping time would be a massive bug; with countless realms and characters immune to Time Stop, they'd constantly notice the surroundings suddenly halting.

Of course, future Time Gems won't be that low; for those immune to Time Stop, confronting a Time Gem would torment them like Duomamu.

(End of Chapter)