Chapter 391: Undercurrents at the Eastern Suburbs Duelling Grounds (12)

Ooo~~~

The rooster crowed at dawn, and the horizon gradually whitened.

Luosen lay on the inn's crude wooden bed, letting out a long sigh.

"Time Treasure Pearl, truly a genuine divine artifact!"

"Insight Spike, too, truly deserves to be called a divine technique."

"Unfortunately, my soul strength is still too low; even after optimizing my Time Talent to the current limit, I can only fail to break the divine-mortal boundary."

The blood-drinker Ziluokaweide said that, taking the scale of basic elemental particles as the baseline, with his 13-ring soul strength and Time Talent, he could at most probe down five orders of magnitude.

He wasn't wrong.

This great being from another world also said that the situation in the sub-element realm is extremely complex and fine, making it difficult for mortals to explore, and the speed of exploration cannot be increased.

That statement isn't wrong either, but it doesn't apply to Luosen.

He spent about five hours condensing over 1300 major Insight Spikes for coordinated probing.

This is equivalent to 1300 ordinary mages with top-tier Time Talent working in near-perfect harmony for five hours.

Then, leveraging this ability and with the aid of the genuine divine artifact on hand, the 《Time Treasure Pearl》, he developed the 《Iterative Focus Technique》.

Furthermore, based on this achievement, Luosen repeatedly iterated his own Time Talent until reaching the mortal limit.

The result was that, without the aid of Insight Spikes, he could directly perceive as many as 22.999 orders of magnitude of microscopic spacetime structure, nearly eight orders of magnitude higher than a 23rd‑order Eternal Powerhouse.

He naturally wanted to go deeper, but 23 orders of magnitude is already the limit of mortal cognition.

Because he discovered that the sub‑elemental structure of spacetime is closely related to the structure of magic rings.

Or put another way, the structure of a magic ring is essentially the macroscopic inversion of the microscopic spacetime structure.

Though describing it is cumbersome, its manifestation is simple and brutal—just one sentence.

Any mortal of 23 rings or below, no matter what means they use, even if they wield an immensely powerful divine artifact, cannot directly observe the microscopic world below 23 orders of magnitude.

As he was pondering, Adele's psychic voice rang in his mind.

"Your Majesty, the situation has changed somewhat; the target has gone ahead to the Eastern Suburbs, riding in a deep‑blue carriage bearing a deep‑blue hexagon‑gem flag, and is accompanied by twenty guards."

Luosen blinked slightly: "Hexagon gem… that looks like the crest of the Duke of Blue Stone City, doesn't it?"

Adele smiled lightly: "That's right, it's someone from the Blue Stone Ducal family. More precisely, it's one of my daughters."

"Oh~ so that's your identity—I see, you're the duchess of Blue Stone City!"

Who would have thought that the wanted devil's apostle, Adele, Daughter of Life, would actually be a renowned duchess of high status, watched by countless people? Indeed, the most dangerous place is also the safest.

Luosen felt curious: "So, that really is your daughter? I mean, did you actually give birth to her?"

"Of course not; I secretly adopted her."

"By the way, her name is Aoluoliya; she has a somewhat willful temperament, so if she has offended Your Majesty in any way, please don't hold it against her."

Luosen laughed heartily: "I've seen plenty of willful girls; one more doesn't matter. I'll set out now."

He quickly got up, hastily filled his stomach, mounted a thin horse, and raced toward the Eastern Suburbs of Blue Stone City.

The Eastern Suburbs is a broad plain; the venue for the upcoming knightly tournament is set there, so it is very lively.

Upon arriving in the Eastern Suburbs, looking around, one sees many temporarily erected structures (facilities.

There are stands, tracks, arenas, tents, and so on.

Moreover, many people have come just to join the fun.

Individually there are bards, merchants, adventurers, wandering knights, etc.

Organizationally there are mercenary troupes, song-and-dance troupes, circus troupes, etc.

All of these are here to seek opportunities or make money.

Besides that, there are also many who simply come to watch the spectacle.

Among them are many officials and nobles riding in carriages with guards.

Upon arriving here, Luosen instantly became inconspicuous, because everywhere are people just like him—wandering knights seeking advancement.

The roads in the Eastern Suburbs are wide, but there are also many people; to avoid bumping into anyone, Luosen slowed his horse and proceeded at a leisurely pace.

"Adele, I've reached the Eastern Suburbs and also seen the deep‑blue carriage; it's about a li away. Around it a circle of wandering knights has gathered, everyone seeking opportunity."

Adele quickly replied: "Your Majesty, did you bring a bow and arrows?"

"I did."

He hastily crafted one with Transformation Technique; its power is adequate, enough to deal with ordinary beasts.

"Aoluoliya said she wants to go to the circus to watch the show; later, the giant bear performing in the circus will go berserk—that will be Your Majesty's opportunity."

Since that's the case, Luosen kept about a 200‑meter distance, trailing behind the carriage from afar.

After following for a while, a man dressed as a wandering knight approached and greeted: "Hey~ buddy~ you also looking for an opportunity?"

Luosen glanced at him; he looked about thirty, also a sorry sight with a thin horse and broken armor.

Yet he was considerably better off than Luosen, which gave the man a faint sense of superiority.

He replied casually: "These days, everyone is looking for a chance to get rich."

The young knight shrugged: "Indeed, everyone wants to get rich, but only those with sufficient ability can ultimately succeed."

Luosen listened with an indifferent expression to this bland chatter, his gaze wandering idly over the passersby beside the road.

Just as he casually responded to that familiar wandering knight beside him, his heart suddenly twitched slightly, sensing an extremely subtle and fine time‑wave.

"A completely unfamiliar wave, somewhat similar to the demon‑hunting warriors of the Eternal Flame Church, but far greater in intensity and fineness." He immediately recalled the matter of the Dawn Crown, instantly focused his mind, and traced the source of that wave.

Before, he couldn't have done this, because the wave was far too subtle, far beyond his limits; but after strengthening his Time Talent to the mortal limit, the difficulty dropped sharply.

Three minutes later, Luosen's gaze locked onto a bard by the roadside.

The bard is quite young, about twenty‑five or twenty‑six, with a regular appearance, currently sitting on a large stone by the road, playing and singing folk songs.

He sings well, his instrument playing is not bad either, and a large circle of listeners has already gathered around him.

Luosen glanced at the bard, then turned his head to look at the princess's carriage over a hundred meters away.

He could feel that the princess was very playful, so the carriage moved forward very slowly.

At this speed, it would take at least 20 minutes to reach the vicinity of the circus troupe, so he had plenty of time to act freely.

He turned the horse's head, shook off the overly familiar wandering knight, and walked slowly toward the bard by the roadside.

But he did not approach; he simply stood at the edge of the crowd, looking just like an ordinary listener.

Of course, this was merely a facade.

In fact, Luosen had silently cast the spell Undercurrent Surge on himself to avoid alerting the other party.

Then he carefully sensed the Time Power on the bard.

A few minutes later, his gaze settled on the bard's hat:

"It is a carefully disguised true divine artifact; I don't know if it's the Dawn Crown, but it's definitely a good thing."

Adela had once said, 'Beipanguizu' was wandering near Blue Stone City.

Luosen had reason to believe that the bard before him was the so-called 'Beipanguizu'.

He had indeed concealed himself very well; if Luosen did not possess the ultimate mortal talent for Time, he would have noticed nothing unusual about this person.

Now that he had discovered it, what should he do?

After a few seconds of thought, Luosen had an idea.

He focused for a few seconds and silently condensed a Spacetime Condensation Bead.

This Spacetime Condensation Bead itself is not particularly powerful; its only advantage is that it is tiny.

Tiny to the extreme! Unless the opponent possesses a Time talent comparable in strength to Luosen's, it would be absolutely impossible to detect.

Inside the bead are some fine structures that serve as a spacetime anchor and collect soul information.

Of course, because Luosen's current soul strength is limited, its information-gathering ability is not strong.

But it's better than nothing.

Soon, after the Spacetime Condensation Bead reached the bard, it silently drilled into his soul.

After doing that, Luosen spurred his horse away and continued to follow behind the princess's carriage of Blue Stone City.

After a while longer, the Blue Stone City Princess Aololiya finally arrived at the edge of the circus troupe.

She ordered the carriage to stop outside the circus troupe, opened the window, and watched the animal performances inside the circus troupe with great relish.

Luosen also went to the other side of the circus troupe and watched the circus with great relish.

At the same time, he had Laifu monitor the movements of the circus troupe and set up countermeasures, while he himself began to focus on sensing the earlier Spacetime Condensation Bead.

Soon he sensed the target, and then observed the bard's soul through the bead.

To avoid being detected, he only observed, without any interference.

The Spacetime Condensation Bead's ability is limited, so he could only see some fragmented information.

After watching for a while, Luosen obtained many information fragments.

After carefully piecing them together, he arrived at three highly valuable conclusions.

"Tsk tsk~The Dawn Crown is indeed a trap."

"But the Dawn Crown is real. Using a child to bait a wolf—ruthless!"

"However, the Dawn Crown is imbued with a very intricate and powerful seal; if the seal is not undone, it cannot be used and will instead become a time bomb."

Luosen is confident that, given enough time, he will surely be able to unlock the crown's seal and fully possess the crown.

The problem is, the Dawn Emperor probably won't give him that time.

"What should we do?"

After a little consideration, he had an idea: "Go to Blue Stone City and ask Tiralilin."

Having discovered the 'Beipanguizu' and also discerned Emperor Safinonos's plan, there was naturally no need to carry out Adela's plan.

Because the former is far more important and urgent than the latter.

Thinking this, he immediately intended to contact Adela and cancel the prearranged plan.

"Your Majesty, why?"

"Because there is something more important."

Before he finished speaking, Luosen's eyes flashed and he discovered another very unusual target.

It was a young woman, also watching the circus.

It is unusual because Luosen discovered that she also bore the spacetime characteristics of a true divine artifact.

He immediately said, "Adela, this martial arts tournament is very lively; I need to investigate it thoroughly."

"Don't worry about the giant bear either; I will quietly take care of it."

(End of chapter)