Chapter 171: Chapter 33: The Yellow Sparrow is Also Me
 

The massive White Dragon pierced through the water film, soaring into the sky like a silver ribbon.

The Dragon’s Might crashed down like Mount Tai bearing down with its weight.

Below it, countless cultivators also broke through the water film, deploying various Divine Skills to withstand the Dragon’s Might and rapidly pursued the White Dragon.

However, once they left the water film, both the White Dragon and the cultivators’ speeds in flight visibly slowed.

Within the Great Gorge, it was difficult to summon True Yuan. Thus, everyone relied solely on the initial velocity and inertia from breaking through the water film.

Seeing that their momentum was about to expire, the White Dragon funneled the last prepared bit of True Yuan at full speed into the shuttle-shaped Magical Treasure, activating it.

The Black Shuttle quickly began to vibrate, just for an instant, and then it exploded with a loud bang.

The body of the White Dragon had vanished from sight, and the Black Shuttle began to descend toward the ground below.

The cultivators below had already become thoroughly agitated—wasn’t the disappearance of the White Dragon the perfect proof that this black shuttle-shaped Magical Treasure was the key to escaping Gui Xu?

After a brief moment of chaos, an even greater turmoil and conflict erupted.

Luo Yan, carrying Shi Liuli, fled through the corridor, only to see the central courtyard outside the window almost bright as day, with countless Spell aftereffects falling to the ground like a meteor shower, as if they wanted to destroy the entire courtyard.

Fortunately, the structures of Gui Xu were sturdy enough to withstand the onslaught of Spell aftereffects, showing not even a tremor or shake.

Having escaped to a side hall, Luo Yan set down Shi Liuli, and both turned their attention to the scene outside the window.

By then, the brightness outside had gradually subsided, and dozens of fallen bodies now lay on the ground. The remaining were either blasted into the Great Gorge or had managed to seize the Black Shuttle Magical Treasure, activating it to transport themselves away.

Half a minute later, the Black Shuttle fell from the sky, landing right at the center point of the Gui Xu Grand Formation on the courtyard ground, where it remained suspended motionless.

Shi Liuli: ………

She wore a look of puzzled bewilderment, and after a long while, she said:

“They… they just teleported away without taking the Magical Treasure with them?”

“Teleported away?” Luo Yan glanced at her curiously, “How could that be? Borrowed time doesn’t need to be repaid?”

“Borrowed?” Shi Liuli asked, confused, “What do you mean?”

“Inside the Gui Xu Palace, time flows at a rate increased to one hundred and twenty times that of the outside world,” confirming there were no more cultivators outside, Luo Yan walked toward the courtyard and continued, “Three days have passed in the outside world, but a year has already gone by here. Yet, lifespan and cultivation are calculated according to the time of the outside world, what do you think is the reason for that?”

“In fact, if you delve deeply into the principles of the Gui Xu Grand Formation, you’ll realize that time hasn’t actually been accelerated but compressed instead.”

“A day in the outside world equates to one hundred and twenty days within Gui Xu. It’s not that time moves faster in Gui Xu, but rather, every hundred and twenty days of each cultivator here are compressed to match a single day in the outside world.”

“It’s just that because cultivators are within the time system of Gui Xu, their perception of time is similarly compressed, so they don’t notice the problem.”

“I don’t understand,” Shi Liuli said, somewhat getting it but not quite.

“Put it this way,” Luo Yan patiently explained, “think of it like this: inside Gui Xu, for every day you live, the Gui Xu Grand Formation additionally ‘borrows’ you one hundred and nineteen days.”

“That is, you actually only live through one day, but your perception feels like it has been one hundred and twenty days.”

“You mean…” Shi Liuli, though not understanding what “relativity of time” meant, did know about “what a loan was,” “those extra one hundred and nineteen days need to be repaid?”

“Once a cultivator leaves the Gui Xu Grand Formation and enters the time coordinate system of the outside world, a conversion is needed,” Luo Yan seriously explained, “the time originally compressed into a single day will then revert back to one hundred and twenty days.”

“In other words, the body will fast forward by one hundred and nineteen days.”

Shi Liuli was stunned for a moment, and after she understood the hidden meaning behind it, she immediately felt a biting chill rise within her.

“At one year here, only three days pass in the outside world, and the body ages only three days,” Luo Yan sighed deeply, “However, once you leave the range of Gui Xu, the year compressed into three days will burst forth, causing your body to rapidly age to one year.”

“And the cultivators here have lived for at least over a hundred thousand years…” Shi Liuli said in a daze, “Once they leave the range of Gui Xu…”

“They would instantly die of old age,” Luo Yan said in a low voice, “Even their bodies would directly rot away under the ravage of time—that’s why they seem to have teleported away, but the fact that they didn’t take the Black Shuttle with them indicates they have already perished.”

His tone was somewhat emotional, thinking to himself that he had realized it all too late: how could one have nearly infinite lifespan within Gui Xu?!

After all, in the world he came from, there was the folklore of “Urashima Taro”; even in this world, Ling Yunpo had experienced the Cloud Sea Realm with Senior Sister An, where they accelerated time by thirty years within a giant cocoon.

He should have long understood the principle of the Dao of Time, it’s like a commercial bank: only if you pay it the time, don’t even dream of earning even a second of time from it!

Even the Kunlun Mirror, which allowed him to hop across multiple timelines, still required him to pay the same amount of time. Playing four roles as one person meant that, in the eyes of the outside world, his lifespan was only a quarter of that of an ordinary person.

“Then we…” Shi Liuli fell silent for a long while before she finally exhaled in relief.

The two of them had stayed in Gui Xu for a month, which equated to only six hours passing in the outside world, and their lifespans were temporarily reduced by only six hours.

After leaving Gui Xu, it would just be an acceleration of one month, no big deal.

“Let’s go,” Luo Yan turned around, “Start packing up.”

“Mhm,” Shi Liuli was about to reach for his hand when she suddenly came to a startling realization.

Wait, does that mean I won’t be trapped here?

I don’t have to marry my junior brother?

As soon as this thought arose, all the grievances she felt from being neglected over the past month sprouted like bamboo after rain, one after another.

Today, she had finally gotten through it, and there was no need to endure anymore!

“Ah! Ah! Ah!” Shi Liuli suddenly roared and pounced forward, “Little thief Luo Yan, take my punch!”

…

Luo Yan couldn’t understand why Miss Shi had such huge resentment at this moment, to the extent that she tackled him to the ground, rolled a few times, and then randomly hit him with her dainty fists.

Fortunately, she hadn’t practiced her Body Refining Secret Technique for long, so her punches felt light and not painful at all. Luo Yan just assumed she was overwhelmed with happiness and let her vent her feelings for quite a while.

After retrieving the Black Shuttle Magical Treasure from the central courtyard, Shi Liuli clamored to see the treasure.

She took it over and examined it closely, noticing that it was engraved with a line of Immortal Seal Script.

If it was ancient seal script, Miss Shi could understand it, but Immortal Seal Script was beyond her comprehension. Even Yuqing View had only a handful of elders with hobbies in linguistics who had the capability to interpret it.

Thus, she returned it to Luo Yan, her interest waning.

Luo Yan took it back and asked the Kunlun Mirror in his Sea of Consciousness:

“Ah Jing, what’s written on this?”

“Its name is written on it,” Kunlun Mirror scanned for a while and said, “Its name is ‘Universe Creation Heavenly Weaving Divine Shuttle.'”

Luo Yan:….

This name, it’s like stacking BUFFs, right?