Chapter 373

Increasing the intensity of time talent, this completely exceeded Luosen's current cognitive limit; he had no clue at all.

Fortunately, he had just gained an extremely reliable attendant Sage.

He then turned his head to look at Tilalin.

The other party also furrowed their brows slightly, looking at Patenalusi with a very distrustful gaze.

"Sage, you don't trust me?" Patenalusi said directly.

Tilalin also nodded readily: "Exactly, I don't trust you."

Patenalusi then looked toward Luosen: "Then what about you, Your Majesty?"

Luosen's fingers danced, constantly playing with the newly obtained meteorite dagger.

He knew it was again time for a personal decision, and he often faced such moments.

Most of the time, his decisions would affect countless lives, but basically they were others' lives.

Occasionally, such as this time, it would affect his own life, so he naturally had to be extremely cautious.

He asked: "First, I need to know how to increase it."

Patenalusi flipped her hand and, unbeknownst where from, produced a bead similar in material to yellow crystal jade, about the size of an adult's fist.

But unlike yellow crystal jade, this stone emitted a faint golden glow.

"Sunstone, also called time treasure bead, is gathered by eternal powerhouses piloting the empire's specially made star‑realm spacecraft from the outer layer of the solar magic ring."

"Because the solar magic ring is extremely dangerous, even eternal powerhouses risk falling at any moment."

"So this thing is extremely precious; the entire Eternal Empire has fewer than ten pieces. I possess one because of my exalted status in the empire and some sheer luck."

While speaking, she shook the time treasure bead toward Tilalin: "Great Sage, I know you've surely heard of this fine thing, but you're surely hearing for the first time about its origin and use."

Tilalin nodded slowly: "I have indeed heard of it, but how is it used?"

"It's very simple: just projection."

"Find someone with strong time talent, like me."

"Sage, don't look at me like that; I know your time talent is strong, but surely not as strong as mine, for my time talent is projected from an eternal powerhouse."

Saying this, Patenalusi's face showed a hint of pride she could not conceal.

Tilalin was stunned, then immediately reacted: "You mean the eternal powerhouse, the Empress of Pain from the Abyss, Aigedelin?"

"Exactly, she is the greatest sovereign in the Solar Star Realm."

Tilalin immediately corrected: "She is one of the sovereigns."

Patenalusi curled the corner of her mouth, but did not bother to argue this minor detail, continuing: "She bestowed upon me strong time talent, and it was also she who, in her final moments, ordered the sealing of the three great Abysses, preventing the disaster from spilling over, thereby preserving the civilizational spark of our Solar Star Realm."

Luosen listened curiously: "Disaster? What disaster?"

He knew only fragments about the Abyss, but also knew the Abyss is self‑sealed, which matched what the other party said.

As for the reason for the sealing, he had always been curious.

Patenalusi lightly sighed, tilted her head to think, and on her delicate, maiden‑like innocent face appeared a thoughtful expression, as if she were organizing her words.

After several minutes, she spoke.

"Your Majesty, spacetime is a most fundamental existence; its intensity can be increased or decreased."

"In fact, a current is weakening, a backwater is strengthening."

"But the spacetime ocean is unfathomable; under normal circumstances, no matter how we cast spacetime arts, even high‑energy time arts, we can only disturb the surface layer. To the whole spacetime ocean, it's merely insignificant ripples."

"But curiosity is human nature; as exploration of the world deepens, people increasingly want to know the depths of the spacetime ocean, even the seabed conditions."

"It started as merely an idea; after hundreds of years of argumentation, the idea gradually turned into a super‑high‑energy spacetime laboratory called the Eternal Eye."

"The laboratory underwent one super‑high‑energy experiment after another, consuming immeasurable resources and time."

"Finally, we succeeded in reducing spacetime intensity to zero, or rather, we touched the seabed of the spacetime ocean!"

Saying this, Patenalusi's deep violet eyes, like an ancient well, actually showed fear that could not be concealed.

Tilalin let out a low cry: "A spacetime void?"

Patenalusi nodded: "Exactly, a spacetime void!"

"When all known fundamental existence disappears, what could still appear?"

"What kind of existence is a nonexistent existence?"

This sounded like a philosophical question, but unlike idle philosophical debate, the Eternal Empire truly achieved this through arcane arts.

Luosen and Tilalin exchanged a glance, seeing shock in each other's eyes.

The arcane arts of the Eternal Empire have truly reached an inconceivable height.

The problems they encountered were also truly terrifying to the extreme.

Patenalusi let out a light sigh.

"No one knows the answer."

"But after that experiment, countless people began to hysteria, countless people went mad, and finally even the ruler of the Splendid Glory Plane — that is, the current ruler of the Nightmare Abyss, Emperor Antowanji — went mad."

"He stubbornly believed that life's existence had no meaning, and insisted on erasing all civilization in the Solar Star Realm, even the Eternal Empire itself."

The fear on Patenalusi's face grew ever deeper.

"Antowanji not only said that, he did it, forcing the Empress to activate the empire's ultimate defense system, the Black Sun Shield."

"As for me and my sister Adaila, we come from an ancient family of the empire and are also close attendants of Empress Aigedelin." "We obey the Empress's command, flee the decadent empire, seek a nascent high‑energy civilization, to atone for the Eternal Empire's sins."

Luosen listened attentively, and after hearing said: "It sounds like the cause of the empire's decadence is completely unknown — how can we redeem it?"

Patenalusi sighed: "Yes, still unknown, but we surely can't just give up like this, can we?"

That's also true, after all it concerns the fate of countless billions of beings in the Solar Star Realm; we must give it our all.

He looked toward his most relied‑upon attendant Sage: "Lilin, do you believe Miss Patenalusi's words?"

Tilalin remained silent for a while, then said: "Your Majesty, please forgive my ignorance; this time, my knowledge cannot help you discern the way forward."

In other words, she was also somewhat persuaded by Patenuolus.

Luosen pondered a bit, then made the final decision.

"I agree to use this Time Jewel to obtain stronger temporal talent, but the provider of the talent is not you; it is my attendant Sage, Ms. Tirallin."

Patenuolus blinked slightly: "Your Majesty, my temporal talent is not—Empress Aigedelin possesses the strongest temporal talent; she is clearly stronger than Tirallin, and even Ms. Tirallin has nothing to say about that."

Tirallin said nothing; she acquiesced.

Luosen nodded: "You're right, but the strength is limited, isn't it?"

Tirallin immediately nodded: "Exactly, the strength is limited. If we compare only precision, it's only about 2% stronger, and in some aspects, such as perceptual ability, my talent is even stronger."

Patenuolus immediately said: "But compared to the upper limit of strength, it's higher by at least 20%, and even stronger than Cicero by 6%."

Luosen understood: "So, overall, the Empress's talent is only slightly stronger than the Sage's. I don't mind this gap at all, and I will continue to use Ms. Tirallin's talent projection."

Patenuolus frowned: "Your Majesty, you still don't trust me?"

Luosen immediately corrected: "I trust you, but I don't trust Empress Aigedelin, because I've never even seen her face."

Seeing Patenuolus still frowning, he pointed at the Time Jewel again.

"Let me be frank with you."

"I believe the Time Jewel has no problem; it is absolutely effective."

"But as fellow rulers of the Empire, I deeply know what qualities an emperor should possess."

"I think the temporal talent projected by the Empress for you, while perhaps indeed very powerful, is certainly not pure temporal talent; it must be mixed with something concerning the fate of the Eternal Empire. The purpose is to ensure the Empire's continued existence and to ensure the Empress can continue to rule the Empire."

"So, even if this talent were excellent, I cannot use it, because I do not want to become a puppet for no reason, nor do I want my Empire to become a tool for the Eternal Empire to possess a corpse and return to life."

"My Natural Empire is just the Natural Empire, not the Eternal Empire, nor the Dawn Empire."

Patenuolus understood, she gently rubbed the Time Jewel in her hand with one hand, sinking into deep thought.

Luosen, with the help of Laifu, carefully analyzed her microexpression and arrived at a conclusion.

He immediately pointed it out: "Actually you know this in your heart, but you could conceal it; you just want to get away with it, right?"

Patenuolus had her thoughts exposed; her body trembled slightly, and a wry smile appeared on her face: "Your Majesty, you win."

She tossed the Time Jewel to Luosen: "Your Majesty, aren't you worried that the Jewel itself might have a problem?"

Luosen caught the Jewel in one hand and laughed: "The Jewel is right before my eyes; tampering with it is far harder than meddling with temporal talent hidden deep in the soul."

"Tell me, how should this thing be used?"

"Just like this."

Patenuolus tossed another scroll to Luosen.

"The usage is written on it."

Luosen caught it in one hand.

"Not bad, I need to study it carefully."

"You can study it, but it's best to finish the talent projection quickly, because you will soon face wave after wave of challenges."

"That's natural."

He unfolded the scroll, immediately scanned it into Laifu's database for storage, and then pretended to examine it.

"Where has Miss Adella been lately?"

Patenuolus's face instantly showed a hint of wariness: "What do you intend to do?"

"I want to apologize to her in person."

"No need; my sister temporarily does not want to see you."

After a pause, Patenuolus added: "The elemental projections from the Abyss also possess temporal talent. There are two sources: one is the nightmare tyrant Antoine Ji of Glorious Honor, and the other is the former Infinite Power Plane, now the weak Abyss's supreme ruler, the 'Withering Death King Maximilian'."

"Gomel, Taros, and Karl are all Antoine Ji's men; they regard you as a must-kill target, and each of them has built a considerable force in this half-plane. You must be extremely careful."

Luosen's gaze remained on the magical scroll; hearing this, he shrugged slightly: "That's truly regrettable, but I will be careful."

Temporal talent is profound, but the talent projection technique itself is not difficult.

The principle is simple: just endow a special 'lens' between two souls, then project one soul's talent onto the other.

If the operation is perfect, it can be completely without error, and it may even be possible to achieve focus of talent.

Like a convex lens focusing, it can to some extent achieve enhancement of talent.

However, the projection difficulty is high, already at the limit of human capability; adding focus makes it absolutely impossible to achieve by human effort alone.

"But I have Laifu; I can use Laifu to assist control."

"Hmm~~ I need to experiment properly; if it succeeds, things could be wonderful."

(End of chapter)