Chapter 117 - 116: Information Is Precious! It Cost a Life

Chapter 117: Chapter 116: Information Is Precious! It Cost a Life

About thirteen minutes later.

Ninth Elder caught up, and Li Ye found himself in the same situation as before.

As soon as he appeared within Li Ye’s range of perception, Ninth Elder’s speed exploded, and the Puppet Silk pierced straight through his body.

Once his body was pierced, Li Ye lost all control. He couldn’t even manually turn the knob on his watch. His only option was to rewind time by one second to escape the Puppet Silk’s control, regain command of his body, and then rewind further to get away from Ninth Elder...

This happened again and again.

Li Ye came to a conclusion.

He was about one-seventh slower than Ninth Elder.

Ninth Elder was faster than him, and his burst speed was even greater. At his own speed, Li Ye had no hope of dodging.

If he rewound time by two minutes, Ninth Elder would catch him in thirteen minutes.

If he rewound time by one minute, Ninth Elder would catch him in a little over six minutes.

If he rewound time by thirty seconds, Ninth Elder would catch him within three minutes.

...

Whether it was three minutes or one, it made little difference to Li Ye.

After all, his cooldown was only three seconds.

Rewinding time by one second allowed him to perfectly dodge the Puppet Silk.

But rewinding time by one second also reset Ninth Elder’s burst, returning him to his previous perfect state. This meant he could use his Forbidden Techniques for another burst without any backlash.

This led to a situation where Ninth Elder couldn’t kill Li Ye, and Li Ye had no way to deal with Ninth Elder either.

The two were locked in a strange, awkward stalemate where neither could kill the other.

Overall, however, Li Ye was at a disadvantage if the stalemate continued.

Every time the watch controlled time, it consumed a massive amount of Demon Qi.

Although its recovery rate was increasing with the Wenda Alliance’s expansion, it still couldn’t keep up with Li Ye’s frequent use.

This was why Li Ye had to be so meticulous when using the watch.

Moreover, Ninth Elder would unleash a burst of speed the moment he saw him. Li Ye couldn’t even get close enough to probe for a weakness.

If he was ever caught by the Puppet Silk, a one-second rewind wouldn’t be enough to escape the Elder’s burst speed.

He would become Ninth Elder’s puppet, with no hope of turning the tables.

Of course, it would be easy for Li Ye to evade Ninth Elder. If he changed direction every time he rewound time, he could complicate the pursuit and increase the time it took for the Elder to find him...

Using this method, he could allow the watch to recover its Demon Qi.

If he dragged this out for a few months, he would naturally return home. His life wouldn’t be in any real danger, and it’s not like the mission required him to eliminate the Demon Qi anyway.

But if he did that, he would probably only return with a single Derived Skill, "Stars Surrounding the Moon," while the watch accumulated a vast amount of Demon Qi from the Wenda Alliance’s expansion.

’For me, any venture without a profit is a loss.’

He had been busy for a year and taken such huge risks, only for the watch to get the lion’s share of the rewards. No matter how he looked at it, this was a bad deal.

’I didn’t bring this watch with me just to experience playing with time...’

Besides, if Ninth Elder figured it out and gave up on him, turning instead to destroy the Wenda Alliance and expand his own Puppet Silk network, the watch’s Demon Qi wouldn’t even increase anymore.

By then, Ninth Elder might have awakened a few more powerful Derived Skills.

Li Ye might not even survive long enough to return.

Judging by Ninth Elder’s methods, he was a sharp thinker. He would figure this out sooner or later...

Keeping Ninth Elder on the hook like this—’you can’t kill me, I can’t kill you’—and just grinding out the year was actually the best option.

To break the stalemate, one of them would have to be the first to awaken a new Derived Skill.

This was also why Li Ye frequently used the watch to manipulate time.

After all, Ninth Elder was just chasing him, so the probability of him awakening a new Derived Skill was extremely low.

The Wenda Alliance, however, was constantly growing. The watch’s Demon Qi would only accumulate, giving him more time to control and more tricks he could pull off...

...

Hard work pays off.

After two days of playing cat and mouse with Ninth Elder, a new Derived Skill suddenly appeared in Li Ye’s mind.

Precise Timing: A watch in your heart, not on your wrist. You can know the exact current time without needing any timepiece.

When this Derived Skill appeared, Li Ye was utterly speechless.

’What is this?’

’What the hell is the use of a Derived Skill like this!’

’Do I need Precise Timing?’

’First Stars Surrounding the Moon, now Precise Timing. This watch really can’t awaken any useful skills for me. Brother Watch really is a piece of junk!’

However, with this new skill...

Li Ye, who originally had to calculate the distance between himself and Ninth Elder using time, no longer even needed to look at his watch. He could now instinctively know the time-gap between them.

He could even calculate the exact time it would take for the Puppet Silk to entangle him after being shot from Ninth Elder, down to the millisecond.

’So, Precise Timing isn’t completely useless after all.’

At least in combat, he could now precisely calculate the moment an enemy’s ultimate move would hit him, allowing him to adjust the timing of his own moves for perfect execution and synergy.

After all, variations in Spiritual Qi output changed the speed of a technique, and all speed is related to time.

’I guess you could barely call it a Combat Skill!’

But in the fight against Ninth Elder, this skill didn’t provide much help.

Even if he could calculate the exact moment the Puppet Silk would reach him, he still couldn’t dodge it.

The Puppet Silk had a homing effect. His only option was to rely on rewinding time to stop Ninth Elder’s Puppet Silk before it was even launched.

"Alliance Leader, how long are we going to run?"

asked Song Liangrui of the Sword Sect.

Those following Li Ye were all in the Harmonization Realm.

A Harmonization Realm cultivator’s Spiritual Qi was self-sustaining, so simply running consumed almost none of their energy.

In their eyes, they had just been running nonstop for the past two days.

During that time, the Alliance Leader would occasionally rewind time once or twice, sometimes changing direction after a rewind.

A one-second rewind also erased their memories of that moment, so the group had never even seen a shadow of Ninth Elder. It was natural for them to ask such a question.

"Until the Wenda Alliance has developed," Li Ye said, glancing at him.

"Is Ninth Elder still chasing us from behind?" Song Liangrui asked.

"You want to see?" Li Ye smiled, turned the knob on his watch, and used Time Acceleration for three minutes.

A memory of the future flooded into everyone’s minds.

In the memory, Ninth Elder abruptly appeared one minute later, then burst forward with inhuman speed.

Li Ye teleported behind him, striking with both fists straight at the Elder’s temples.

Li Ye was sick of constantly running. He had wanted to do this for a while, so he decided to run a simulation using Time Acceleration.

Time Acceleration would play out a future corresponding to his thoughts.

Last time he had aimed for the heart; this time, it was the head. If he could shatter Ninth Elder’s head, it would all be over.

BANG!

His two fists smashed heavily into Ninth Elder’s temples.

Li Ye heard the faint sound of bone cracking. Ninth Elder’s head caved inward, deforming slightly. His eyes bulged out as blood sprayed from his mouth and nose...

But soon after, Puppet Silk shot out from Ninth Elder’s body, piercing Li Ye once again and bringing him under complete control.

Then, the thirty-plus Harmonization Realm cultivators also became Ninth Elder’s puppets.

In the remaining minute or so, Ninth Elder decisively used the Puppet Silk to detonate Li Ye’s body, not even leaving his Nascent Soul behind.

And after Li Ye died, the watch fell into Ninth Elder’s hands.

...

Time rewound.

Li Ye still hadn’t recovered from the agony of his body exploding. He was drenched in sweat, his hands subconsciously patting his own body to confirm it was still there. He breathed a sigh of relief, but the terror in his heart lingered.

This was the first time he had experienced death.

’It was terrifying!’

’There truly is a great terror to be found in the moment between life and death.’

Li Ye’s heart was POUNDING. He glanced in the direction Ninth Elder was coming from.

For a fleeting moment, he didn’t even want to fight Ninth Elder anymore. He just wanted to play hide-and-seek and scrape by for the remaining months until he could return home.

If he couldn’t kill Ninth Elder in a single blow, the Puppet Silk would take absolute control of his body. This thing was too damn hard to deal with.

He had just been incredibly lucky to deal with two sources of Demon Qi in the last world.

As time went on, the Demon Qi he encountered in future time travels would only get stronger. This Time Traveler gig really wasn’t a job for humans...

Mao Xiu, Song Liangrui, and the others all fell silent.

This time, they had personally witnessed Li Ye die right in front of them. The way they looked at their Alliance Leader was now inexplicably complicated.

’So Ninth Elder really is right behind us. No wonder the Alliance Leader keeps changing direction. The Alliance Leader’s Divine Abilities are truly beyond our comprehension...’

Li Ye used the time rewind, stepping back one minute, then pointed in a new direction. "Let’s go. This way."

He had originally been leading Ninth Elder in a straight line, but after dying once, his mind was in turmoil and he needed time to recover. That experience had been far too intense.

However, he hadn’t died for nothing.

Li Ye had learned several important pieces of information.

First, Ninth Elder’s head was extremely tough; he couldn’t shatter it with a single punch.

This was within his expectations. Demon Qi not only helped its wielder raise their cultivation realm, but it also improved their physical constitution. Ninth Elder had possessed the Puppet Silk for four years, so it was normal for his body to be tougher than that of an ordinary Harmonization Realm cultivator.

Second, if he died, the watch would not be recalled by the Demon Suppression Tower; it would be dropped.

This meant that in worlds where a Time Traveler had fallen, one of two things could happen. One possibility was that the fiend’s Demon Qi was devoured.

The other was a situation like Ninth Elder’s, where he possessed two fiendish items. When a fiend became powerful enough, it could actively sever its connection with the Demon Suppression Tower.

In a world with a powerful fiend, the more Time Travelers died, the stronger that world’s demons or fiend-wielders would become...

Fuck!

’The working conditions for a Time Traveler just got even worse.’

...

"Old Zhu, are there any Sects nearby? There’s still a gap between my realm and Ninth Elder’s. I need to find a way to make up for it through combat," Li Ye asked.

Although he had died once, he had also found a way to break the stalemate.

Having activated the Precise Timing Derived Skill, he no longer had to be constantly on guard against Ninth Elder catching him by surprise.

He could now calculate the time difference based on their speeds, find a Sect, and improve himself.

Beating up his teammates would simultaneously raise his Skill Level and his Body Attributes.

’One day, my power will grow to the point where I can shatter Ninth Elder’s head with a single punch...’