Epiphany (頓悟), State of Nirvana (涅), or Trance (入道), in cultivation they are just different words for the same thing.

The most commonly known meditative states are the pure-self state of cultivation (純我境界) and the selfless state of cultivation (無我境界).

However, there are also plenty of lesser known ones.

A cultivator may gain enlightenment from a mere spark of inspiration and attain bottomless wisdom in the path of Dao or gain a completely revolutionary idea.

This is the kind of trance that Kairos had entered.

As he chased after the ways to improve his technique, he had caught onto a lead and fervently followed until he could reach his goal. In his quest to find a solution amidst the countless mysteries, he couldn’t spare even a strand of attention.

This isn’t just because it is unsafe to err when creating new Ki pathways, but more importantly in order to save precious time.

Kairos is already considerably fast. Few could match his ability when it comes to things like customising techniques or making new ones.

Fewer have his confidence.

The cost of failure is great enough to deter most from even trying.

If one’s Ki moved into a wrong passageway within the countless meridian channels in the body, the lightest kind of rebound damage would be a regress in years of cultivation, but the more common result would be overcome by madness and tormented till death or turn into a great explosion after one’s Ki destabilised.

But despite these dangers, Kairos felt certain to continue as though it is the only way.

Unfortunately, his speed is still nowhere enough.

When he was forcefully awakened from his stupor, his chain of thoughts disappeared like the morning mists before the rising sun.

Kairos looked around, uncertain of how much time had passed. From a glance he could tell that the position of the sun had barely moved, at most it would’ve been a couple of minutes.

At the same time, he took in the changes in his surroundings.

*Bam Bam Bam*

*Bam Bam Bam*

*Bam Bam Bam*

His heart is already pounding loudly long before his mind recognised the scene.

Each bang in his chest sounded like a hammer striking a nail into his soul.

The screams of the dying around him, tunnelled into his ears like vengeful ghosts that refuse to part.

It echoed into his soul and cold sweat rolled off his brows.

It’s one thing to be in such a slaughter, and entirely another thing when he had a torch of hope in this nightmare that refuses to light.

He could stop all this… no, he must.

But, the trail had ended once his trance disappeared.

Without a workable Immolation Rain or some other ways to protect themselves, they must fight until the War God Tattoo loses its might.

Perhaps they might not have that time and even more barbarian soldiers will come.

Who knows how many teams are prepared to sacrifice themselves to kill them?

Though the Frosthrals wouldn’t have as many B rankers to waste like Saint Empire, with this strength they only needed less than a tenth of their number to wipe out this army.

It will be a massacre. In the grand scheme of things, the north will lose a fraction of their forces, but they will deter the south this time. The next war Saint Empire will be ready for these suicidal troops, however, by that time the Snowdrifts and the frontlines team led by Esley will no longer exist.

As panic raise in Kairos’ chest, his Dao heart was shaken, and he felt that he needs to slow down. It’s counterintuitive but nevertheless it may be the only way to calm his nerves.

He slowed his heart down and his thoughts became clearer all at once. The roar in his head shouting for him to hurry up turned into a whisper that died away.

He was surprised to discover that it isn’t the only noise that diminished.

Kairos looked around.

Everything is still going on in its terrible destructive might but it now seemed a little quieter; the cries of battle and the clash of weapons dulled, even muffled.

He could see blades still flashing swiftly and blood spilling everywhere, yet at the same time, each droplet of crimson red that were spilled seemed to take forever to fall from a wound onto the ground.

Kairos could tell that everything is moving at the same speed as they were, but it just felt infinitely slowed down.

In that instant, his interrupted epiphany returned like an explosion.

One phrase remain repeated in his mind: Time is relative.

Is time real? Yes. But seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years… these things are not, and never were.

They are quantitative terms created to measure time yet easily made inaccurate.

In his mind, time became like a dial where he could tune to speed things up or slow them down.

It is perception that made time relative.

A child’s minute may only be seconds for an adult, because the young one had little experience of time.

Likewise, a man’s years may only be the blink of an eye for a dragon which had persisted through the ages and watched the countless wax and wane of the sun.

But time is different from the ‘speed’ that he is searching for right now.

He knows that speed is the measurement of movement over a period of time.

If everyone appears to be infinitely slow in his mind, yet he knows that time is passing at the same rate, then what truly is happening?

Has his thought sped up?

Was his mind in a state where time had been dilated?

Or perhaps everything is just an illusion and doesn’t have to process uniformly?

For the first time since Kairos became a cultivator, he touched upon the mysteries of a member of the transcending elements: Time.

It isn’t to say that the past few years where Kairos had been studying the ancient texts and the thick books in the library that he hadn’t come across it.

Years ago, the great researchers of Gaia had openly declared something called the Caustic-effect cycle.

It is through their observation that cause and effect are infinitely linked. However, they also mention a strange observation: Sometimes, effect can happen before the cause.

Of course, Kairos delved into this subject with great interest and tested it of his own, but lacking the necessary data and the precision of tools that the great researchers had used, he only managed to form the conclusion that the future can definitely affect the past.

Besides this piece of mystifying research, there is another subject about Time that popped out in Kairos’ memories.

When particles are separated by great distances they still act in reverse movements of each other as if cancelling out the energy contracted by the other.

Not only do they ignore the space in between, they act in accordance at the exact same moment.

Time, at least for the separated particles, existed entwined no matter the location.

Perhaps Time is unrestrained by Space? If that’s the case, then speed may become infinite by controlling time.

A third research also exist, and this one is regarding the dark pit that lives in the skies. As cultivators, they have very good eye sights. Since the first cultivator looked into the heavens, they have gazed upon the countless lights gleaming from the stars. Not long after, many discovered that there are certain spots completely absent of light. At those places that was named the Black Holes, there is a strange observation that so frequently happened.

Whenever something came close to a Black Hole, it will start to slow down, then completely disappear when reaching the event horizon. It’s unknown what happens after since it can no longer be seen, though some claims to have the answer using other means.

According to ancient texts, stronger beings once walked on Gaia were powerful enough to observe the movement of light through their eyes or could do so with magical tools that aided them.

It is said that those beings observed that even bright rays started to slow down when approaching the Black Holes, before disappearing.

Now, the question is, can light change its speed?

Or is it that it was time that was slowed?

Kairos’ evaluation is that time is possible to be concentrated or dilated.

To view things slowing down when being sucked in by a black hole is because, in comparison, time is dilated where they are, therefore they are moving at a slower pace, while things move far quicker in the black hole where its great power could absorb anything that even time had been compressed.

In his search for speeding up his Immolation Finger technique, he is certain if he could dilate time for his foes, or concentrate time for himself, it is possible to carry out the impossible.

No, if he had total mastery over the time element, perhaps even before using an attack, the barbarians would be vanquished.

As everyone watched, Kairos slowly closed his eyes and once again entered into another trance.

Unease entered the minds of his closest companions. They are worried for his safety. If history repeats itself, this time there will not be another Martial General Gu to save Kairos.

All of a sudden, Vouno appeared next to Kairos to guard his son.

Those on the battlefield had not seen or felt this man since the battle started because despite all his abilities, he had a hard time fighting against external practitioners on drugs.

However, if he doesn’t want to be found, not many could discover him.

The barbarians might have heightened senses and elevated Time-Space affinity, but Vouno is still able to safely walk past them. Of course, that is assuming that he seen, because although he have the ability to absorb wild energies in the air and neutralise all kinds of energy perception, he haven’t found a way to turn himself invisible.

And perhaps, he never will.

If he trained until reaching immortality or perhaps godhood, he would be able to absorb even light itself, but appearing as complete darkness is different from bending light and turning invisible.

Meanwhile, even if his close companions and those who had been in the Snowdrifts long enough had no doubt on their leader, those less familiar with Kairos felt angry at him.

Many are still dying, General Gu even sacrificed himself to save Kairos, but their ace remained unmoved and continued standing there like a dummy.

It was at this time that a deep groan together with a loud burst of shockwave came from a deep within the ranks and it stole their attention.

With the first defensive lines broken, the battlefield had become chaotic after the ambushers leapt into their midst, but amongst all the fighting, there is one place with far louder clashes than others.

Where there is a ruckus, there is fighting. Therefore the noisiest places are where the most action are seen. At that place a single person stood against countless others.

Alan stood fearlessly while surrounded by a beautiful blue glow. Above him, they could see the silhouette of a goddess, Minerva (九天玄女). She held her hands together in prayer, and for a moment none of the physical attacks could reach him.

On top of the goddess’ head rested a tiny turtle, as though sleeping. Whenever an energy-infused attack flies over, the lazy reptile will open its mouth and the attack will be devoured with a whoosh.

Below the avatar, Alan likewise has the same creature on his head, except it was a shell helmet that wasn’t so much as much as covering his head as it looked like a turtle was hugging his face.

Of course, it properly protected his entire head, but the rest of his body was unprotected.

He pushed up his visor, but it immediately slammed back down, flattening his nose.

Sighing, he gave up and left his helmet as it was.

This is the fusion form Alan has with his contract beast when using it with his Secret Art.

He looked into the eyes of the attacker closest to him, a barbarian is born with a rare constitution called the Golden Leo body.

His body had a metallic shine and his muscles overly pronounced, making him look more like a beast than a human.

It wasn’t strange that unlike the others, he started off with Beast instead of Human rank physique.

Not only does his unique constitution grants him greater physical abilities, it also make the Metal elements to gather around him. Every one of his attacks is covered with the glittering elemental energy, forming a kind of razor sharpness that is found on blades.

He once tested this power on a boulder. When he smashed the rock with his fist, it exploded like it would, but he found out that every small pieces of stone looked as though they were cleanly cut by a fine edge.

With the War God Tattoo, even his special constitution gained incredible power.

Every strike made Alan feel like he had been struck by a shredder.

Fortunately, his turtle requested to fusion, and afterwards, the excessive Metal Element that assaulted him with every punch was gobbled up by his pet… ahem… his contract beast.

However, the physical strength that the barbarian gained from the Golden Leo body had also been tuned, and thus Alan was forced to unleash his Secret Art.

The tonfas in Alan’s hands had already became a blur from spinning them around. At the two ends of each stick was an orb of light that trailed round and round.

The long end had a white glow that caused all who look at it to feel purified and full of life, while the short end was covered by a menacing black glow that seemed greedy to absorb all energy and bring them to a quiet end.

Using it like two shields, he had managed to repel all the attacks before. His Secret Art is one of the few that could interchangeably attack or defend as he wished.

As he whirled both weapons expertly, the air around him caught flames and started burning.

The heat was enough to cause the Golden Leo to roar out in pain and forced him back.

Of course, in the War God Tattoo mode he wouldn’t die now from a little bit of flames. However, he had been knocking on Alan’s defences for a while now and the blue glow that came from Minerva had stopped all his attacks.

If he still stood there in the flames trying, his life force will be burnt out before long, but it doesn’t mean that there isn’t other ways.

A long spear appeared in his hand, then without waiting he hurled it at Alan, aiming for the heart.

It’s better than throwing it at the protected head, but the long spear only bounced off Alan’s chest and flew away.

Alan pushed up his visor and proudly exclaimed, “Hah… You can’t hurt me now…”

Just as he was saying, over ten barbarians attacked him.

But just like before the attacks bounced off harmlessly, it only managed to slam the visor down on his face, smashing his nose.

Alan pushed up his visor again, this time his nose has become red. Normal helmets would have a protruding section for the nose, but his is as flat as a plate.

Despite the obvious sting and the teary eyes, he laughed at the barbarians before him and said loudly, “You guys can attack harder, I can last thirty minutes more…”

The barbarians looked at him without speaking.

“I’ll really be fine for at least half an hour, try it if you don’t believe me.”

Both his Secret Art and beast fusion is incredibly sturdy. Moreover, after combining with the little turtle, he found out that he can absorb all kinds of energies to sustain himself, and that includes physical force.

Surprisingly the barbarians looked at him twice, then all of them started to ignore him and turned to attack the others.

They could tell whether he is lying simply by the tiny signals that his body is giving off, and after determining he really could hold them off for such a long period of time, they decisively changed targets.

Watching them go off, Alan started panicking.

He wanted to keep as many of them here as possible, but who can expect that after being taunted they will really back off?

He threw out one of his tonfas in front of someone who was attacked. The spinning weapon flew out like a boomerang, defended against an incoming blow, then returned quickly to Alan’s hands.

The attacker smiled, then attacked again.

This time, Alan wasn’t in time to act again and he watched with wide-eyes as the life of a subordinate of his was taken.