Chapter 1304

"The—key—is—the—increment?" In the void, the Undead Sovereign looked at Ang, who was tilting his head on the platform, and a thought-message was transmitted over, though it was stretched out quite a bit.

But since this was a thought-message, it wouldn't distort like sound when stretched; once fully received, all content could be restored.

"I don't know what the hell an increment is... what is an increment?" The Sovereign muttered to himself, struggling to think.

After absorbing all the death energy, the Sovereign still felt no change, even though his body was now so saturated with death energy that it was beginning to drift outward; he couldn't absorb this death energy quickly, only digest it bit by bit, much like the long soul-nurturing sleep of the past.

Realizing that he would need a very long time to digest this power, the Sovereign asked Ang directly: "You can reverse time, can you accelerate it? I'll go outside, and you accelerate time so I can digest this properly."

Ang nodded. Not only could he accelerate it, but this acceleration didn't consume much of his power—far less than reversing time.

So the Sovereign went outside, preparing to digest this chaotic power, but Ang had thrown him that line: "The key is the increment." What was an increment?

The Sovereign certainly knew the definition of an increment, but knowing the definition didn't mean understanding how it was produced. How is an increment produced?

In a closed system, when there is no external power, how can an increment be generated?

In a closed system, all matter and energy move from order to chaos. An increment implies that the process from order to chaos has been halted or even reversed; therefore, it is not just an increment, but also the power to reverse chaos.

So, where does the increment come from? With this thought, the Sovereign fell into a deep sleep.

The sleep of an undead being is not like that of a living creature, losing consciousness; in reality, it is a low-consumption dormant state to reduce the expenditure of soul energy.

And the Sovereign's sleep, no matter how low the consumption, would not stop his thinking; it was more like a drunken state, where thoughts turned slowly but were exceptionally clear.

"What is an increment? Forget it... what was the key to my breakthrough to Lord of Mourning back then? The Soul Network... I had thousands of nodes in my soul network back then, and then I broke through naturally... nodes... souls with brains are called nodes..."

The Undead Sovereign muttered in his sleep, emitting scattered soul fluctuations. In a normal person, this would be considered talking in one's sleep.

However, time had already been accelerated. There were different time flows on the platform and in the void of the domain. The fluctuations flashed by, and no one could hear clearly what the Sovereign was muttering.

Switching back to the perspective of those on the platform, they only saw the Sovereign moving as if accelerated, every movement flashing by in a blur. Then his head drooped, the soul fire in his eye sockets dimmed as if he were asleep, and he maintained that posture.

After a long while without any movement from the Sovereign, Negris turned to Anthony and asked, "What was it you said you discovered just now?"

Wuersiman also turned his head and said, "Let me guess: you went outside, took a look, and found that time outside hadn't changed, still frozen at the moment we entered?"

Anthony stared at Wuersiman in shock upon hearing this: "How did you know?"

*Damn it, * Anthony cursed inwardly. He had wanted to use this major discovery to shock everyone, but he hadn't expected Wuersiman to have already figured it out.

Wuersiman said, "I guessed. You asked how long it had been as soon as you returned, and you weren't surprised when I said nine months. Instead, you asked us to guess what you had discovered, so your discovery must be related to time."

Anthony couldn't help but give a thumbs up: "You really are a Sage. I only said two sentences, and you deduced this major discovery. It's true—time outside is still frozen at the moment we entered. Yenaifa had just left the dimensional space; when I caught up to him, he hadn't even returned to the dragon kin's settlement yet."

"I spent over ten minutes outside, but nine months had passed here. Even if it isn't frozen at the moment we entered, the difference in time flow must be enormous."

Wuersiman said thoughtfully, "That's exactly why we often ignore the passage of time. If we didn't count intentionally, we wouldn't know how long had passed. Actually, after you left, I made several timers using simple materials—water clocks, escapement types, and a gnome timer I brought with me."

Saying this, Wuersiman took out all the timers and handed the most exquisite one to Anthony.

This was naturally the gnome timer, about the size of an ordinary person's thumb and very delicate. However, when Anthony looked at it, he found that the timer had stopped.

Seeing this, Anthony looked at the other, cruder ones. In one of the hourglasses, the sand was suspended and wouldn't drip down.

Seeing Anthony shift his gaze, Wuersiman took out some sand grains, held them in his hand, and the sand flowed smoothly through his fingers.

Anthony stared in shock. He realized what Wuersiman meant. Negris's reaction wasn't as quick, and it asked with some confusion, "What do you mean?"

"The sand can leak in my hand, but it won't leak in the hourglass. The moment they are fixed into a timing tool, their physical reactions disappear," Wuersiman said.

"Are they all like this?" Anthony pointed to all the timers in his hand.

Wuersiman nodded: "They are all the same. Time does not exist here, so they cannot calculate time. I can only count in my heart."

"This is my discovery: time does not exist in the Space-Time Domain. I didn't expect you to verify it with tools. You truly are a Sage," Anthony had to admire him.

Just a moment ago, he had thought Wuersiman had only discovered the problem because of his two sentences, but it turned out the man had already verified it with tools.

Negris nodded in realization: "So time doesn't exist here. However, since the Space-Time Domain can reverse and accelerate, it's reasonable that time doesn't exist."

After a pause, Negris suddenly thought of something and said, "Time doesn't exist here, and no timer can be used, but you can count time with your consciousness. Does that mean the only thing producing an increment here is our consciousness?"

Anthony and Wuersiman stared at Negris in shock and joy: "Lord Negris, you... you..."

Negris didn't understand why they were so excited. Suddenly, a strong soul fluctuation erupted in the void. Looking back, they saw the Undead Sovereign, who had been sleeping with his head drooping, now lifting his head and walking toward the chessboard with a very normal gait.

Ang tilted his head in confusion and looked at his hand; it was still turning.

(End of Chapter)