RE: LORD OF TIME

The night wind howled wildly as the somewhat cloudy sky hid most of the shining stars behind thick clouds.

On the outskirts of the Kolva Mountain Range, a blurry figure moved, its movements completely unpredictable.

At times, the figure would run in a straight line. But the next instant, it would suddenly appear several meters to the left or right.

The strange thing was that despite shifting its position while running, the figure didn’t lose any speed whatsoever.

On top of that, the figure would occasionally even leave behind an afterimage after changing its position, making its movements even more difficult to predict.

Although the afterimage lasted for only a second, it was still enough to confuse its opponents.

Suddenly, the figure stopped, its body bending slightly forward with one hand resting on the hilt of the sheathed sword at its waist.

Click!

A metallic clink echoed through the darkness as the sword at William’s waist was unsheathed.

As the blade slowly emerged from its sheath, cyan-colored wind wrapped around it, making it appear extraordinarily bright amidst the darkness.

William’s movements looked slow to the naked eye. But in reality, his sword emerged from the sheath at a speed that even some Star Warriors couldn’t see clearly.

Swish!

As the sword was fully drawn and swung horizontally, a sharp cyan-colored sword arc shot forward at an astonishing speed.

Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! — — —

The sword arc passed through several trees standing in the distance, cutting all of them down in an instant as effortlessly as slicing vegetables with a sharp knife.

Boom! Boom! Boom! — — —

The sound of the falling trees echoed throughout the surroundings, startling the birds that had been sleeping peacefully.

William slowly exhaled and sheathed his sword once again, his entire body soaked in sweat from his training.

”Both Phantom Steps and Wind Cutter have finally reached the limit of what I can currently use,” He muttered under his breath as he looked at the fallen trees before him.

It had been almost two weeks since William had used his True Wisdom Trait to connect with the Source of the World.

During this time, aside from focusing on merging the Timeless Scripture with the Supreme Star Scripture, he had also been practicing several Battle Arts.

Battle Arts were techniques that allowed a person to utilize their Aether Energy in extraordinary ways.

They used the Aether Core as a medium to circulate Aether Energy in special patterns that produced astonishing effects.

For example, the Battle Art William had used earlier while running was called Phantom Steps.

It was a low-level movement-type Battle Art that allowed its user to move in unpredictable ways, confusing their opponents.

Every Battle Art had four levels of mastery—Beginner, Familiar, Experienced, and Perfection.

Every time a person’s mastery over a Battle Art increased, they could bring out greater power through it.

For William, mastering low-level Battle Arts to the Perfection level wasn’t an issue.

Not to mention that he possessed the True Wisdom Trait, he had already practiced these Battle Arts extensively in his previous life and was extremely familiar with them.

However, because he was currently only a Star Warrior, he could only bring out power equivalent to the Familiar level of mastery.

Using power beyond the Familiar level would place tremendous pressure on both his Aether Core and his Aether Energy reserves since the Aether Core served as the medium for executing Battle Arts.

As for Battle Arts above the low-level rank, he couldn’t use them yet because they required an enormous amount of Aether Energy.

Both Phantom Steps and Wind Cutter were low-level Battle Arts that William had already mastered in his previous life.

As such, with only a little effort, he easily adapted them to the limits of his current strength.

At the Beginner level, Phantom Steps merely allowed its user to move unpredictably while changing directions during movement.

However, at the Familiar level—the highest level William could currently use without placing excessive strain on his Aether Core and Aether Energy reserves, not only could he move unpredictably, but he could also leave behind an afterimage while moving.

While Phantom Steps was a movement-type Battle Art, Wind Cutter was an offensive Battle Art.

This Battle Art had only one specialty.

Speed.

Every time his mastery over Wind Cutter increased, the speed of his attacks also increased.

At the Perfection level, he could unleash three Wind Cutters within a single second, demonstrating just how terrifyingly fast this Battle Art truly was.

Although William could currently utilize only the Familiar level of mastery, even that was incredibly powerful. It could easily kill even mid-stage Star Warrior-level monsters that specialized in defense, such as the Iron Pig he had encountered in the Astral Rift.

Not only that, under the effects of Sword Dominator, which allowed him to perfectly comprehend any low level sword-type Battle Art with just a single glance, he had even modified the technique slightly.

Originally, Wind Cutter was a technique that utilized only wind-element Aether Energy.

However, because of the Supreme Star Scripture, William could wield many different elemental attributes.

As such, he felt it would be a tremendous waste if he didn’t take advantage of that versatility.

By making slight adjustments to the circulation route of his Aether Energy, William transformed Wind Cutter into a Battle Art that could utilize other elemental attributes as well.

If he infused it with fire-element Aether Energy instead of wind, Wind Cutter would become an attack with overwhelmingly destructive power.

If he used the earth attribute, the attack would become incredibly heavy, making his opponents feel as though they were being struck by a giant warhammer instead of a sword.

If he used the water attribute, its cutting power would rise to an entirely different level.

Wind for speed.

Fire for destruction.

Earth for overwhelming force.

Water for unparalleled cutting power.

He had transformed an ordinary low-level Battle Art into something completely different.

Of course, while focusing on these things, he hadn’t neglected either the Timeless Scripture or the Supreme Star Scripture.

Just a few hours earlier, he had successfully merged the two cultivation techniques and renamed the result Time Star Codex.

(A/N: Should I keep the name Supreme Star Scripture, or change it to Time Star Codex? What do you guys think?)

Now, in addition to retaining all the qualities of the Supreme Star Scripture, his cultivation technique also possessed the powers of the Timeless Scripture.

The Aether Energy flowing within William’s Aether Core had become noticeably different from before.

Previously, his Aether Energy had resembled a flowing river filled with countless shining stars.

Now, it resembled a river of stars shrouded in a hazy mist, giving it an extraordinarily mysterious appearance.

That hazy mist was the effect of the Timeless Scripture.

Just like the Supreme Star Scripture, which allowed its user to transform their Aether Energy into different elemental attributes after reaching the Star Warrior Realm, the Timeless Scripture also granted a unique ability.

That ability was called Temporal Perception.

Upon using it, the user’s perception of time accelerated tremendously.

It allowed William to perceive his opponents’ attacks as though they were happening in slow motion, making it easier to read their movements while dramatically increasing his reaction speed.

If he combined this ability with the Time Acceleration skill, the results would become even more terrifying.

Not only that, according to the Timeless Scripture, once he reached higher realms, Temporal Perception would even allow him to glimpse fragments of the future.

Before his opponent even launched an attack, he would already know how they intended to attack, what technique they would use, and many other details.

At the early stages, it was merely a supportive ability.

But at the higher stages...It would become every opponent’s nightmare.

=====

---) Name: William

---) Realm: Star Warrior (Early Stage)

---) Cultivation Technique: Time Star Codex

---) Traits: Sword Dominator (Ancient), True Wisdom (Ancient)

---) Title: God of Time’s Heir, Favored by the Supreme

---) Bloodline: None

---) Skills: Eyes of Insight (Rank One), Time Acceleration (Growth-Type)

---) Battle Arts: Phantom Steps (Low Level), Wind Cutter (Low Level)

---) Ability: Overload

---) Seven Steps of Supreme (???)

======

William looked at his status window, and aside from his cultivation technique and the addition of his Battle Arts, everything else remained the same.

Because he had been busy merging his cultivation technique and practicing Battle Arts, his realm hadn’t advanced during this period.

However, now that the Supreme Star Scripture and the Timeless Scripture had been successfully merged, the power of his new cultivation technique was nothing short of terrifying.

Even without using any cultivation resources, simply by absorbing the surrounding Aether Energy, William was confident that he could break through to the middle stage of the Star Warrior Realm in about fifteen days.

One had to know that William’s foundation was extraordinarily solid, meaning he required a tremendous amount of Aether Energy to advance.

For someone like him to increase his cultivation by an entire minor realm in only two weeks was nothing short of a miracle.

”The Aether Affinity Test is tomorrow. Once it’s over, I will finally be able to leave for the Sun and Moon Academy...” William muttered under his breath as he turned around and began walking back home.

”I wonder if anything will be different during this Aether Affinity Test.”