Chapter 452: Time - 452
After a night of sleep, Zhu Yi told his idea to Zhou Fan.
"You can sense people's cultivation, right?" Zhu Yi asked.
"Indeed."
"And how far is that range?"
Zhou Fan responded. "I'm not sure. I've never tried it out."
Zhu Yi spoke. "Can you try it out right now?"
Zhou Fan nodded and began to sense the people's cultivation around him.
After a moment, he spoke. "I can sense about half a mile away."
Zhu Yi was excited. "In that case, you can help me make sure that nobody else is around when I assassinate someone."
Zhou Fan nodded. "Good idea."
Zhu Yi left his house and made his way to the rogue cultivator guild. He would use the same tactic of waiting for his target to enter and following him.
As he waited, Zhou Fan spoke. "Don't you think this is a bit conspicuous?"
Zhu Yi was confused. "Huh?"
"You're just staring at the entrance. I feel that it would be easy to pinpoint you as an assassin after a few times. At least sit in a different building."
While Zhu Yi felt it was unnecessary due to the large number of people inside at all times, he left the rogue cultivator guild and moved to a restaurant across the street. Although it was expensive, it was still a mortal restaurant.
That meant that if night fell, Zhu Yi would have to leave and watch the entrance somewhere else.
Zhu Yi sat in the restaurant all day, but he saw nothing. He sat in the rogue cultivator guild while night passed, and sat in the restaurant for another day.
At this point, he was wondering if he had been scammed and returned to the assassination guild.
He looked at his mission profile on the crystal pad, but the mission had been canceled. Apparently, his target had been killed during a mission.
Only now did Zhu Yi remember that the rogue cultivator guild missions were not safe either. They were just safer compared to the assassination guilds missions.
Zhu Yi found another mission with the same specification as the last one.
3rd level Qi gathering, no sect affiliation, male.
This mission had precise information on the target's habits. Clearly, someone valued the target's death very much.
Zhu Yi waited outside the city on a specific path. According to the information, the target would pass by here soon.
The information was so specific that it made Zhu Yi worried that it was a trap. As a result, he hid himself while the time passed.
Luckily, it was not a trap. His target walked by and Zhu Yi cleanly decapitated him from behind.
As he put the head in his sack and the sack in his bag, Zhu Yi turned around and saw a figure from afar.
For a second, Zhu Yi was worried he was caught.
The figure in the distance solemnly bowed. His eyes were bloodshot as he looked at the headless body.
Although the figure was a mortal, he gave off a feeling of pure hatred.
"Thank you." The figure mouthed before turning away and leaving.
Zhu Yi hid the body and returned to the city.
Everyone had their own story, and although Zhu Yi was interested in that mortal's, he had his own job to fulfill.
"One more mission." Zhu Yi said in excitement.
If Zhou Fan's words were right, one more Foundation Establishment realm beast core was enough to create a qualitative change in recovery.
Zhu Yi accepted another mission.
This one was easy and quickly fulfilled without issue. In a room below the assassination guild, Zhu Yi stared at a Foundation Establishment realm beast.
He excitedly stabbed and sliced at it. When everything was done, he held the beast core and Zhou Fan cleaned it with the river of cultivation.
Touching the ring with the core, it was sucked into the ring.
Zhu Yi expectantly stared at his master. Zhou Fan waited for a moment, and after a second, he felt as if his mind had entered a different state.
Only his mind and soul remained, but if he had been in his body, it would have been an out of body experience.
He instinctively felt possibilities all around him as he broke through a recovery threshold.
Using a sudden burst of energy, much like when someone broke through, Zhou Fan began to use that energy to increase Zhu Yi's talent. Suddenly, his mind moved and an idea popped up in his mind.
Zhou Fan laughed. "Haha. I almost forgot about that. I suppose it will work now. I should have thought about it earlier. Sorry Zhu Yi, your talent will not increase as much as I hoped."
Zhou Fan used the remaining energy and activated the river of cultivation in one last burst. Then, everything receded.
Zhou Fan found himself on Zhu Yi's shoulder. Only a moment had passed.
Zhu Yi was about to speak when a warm feeling appeared inside his body.
"Master?" He asked with excitement.
"Your meridians have been upgraded to mortal rank." Zhou Fan said.
Zhu Yi's excitement suddenly lowered and dwindled out. "Well. I guess it's an upgrade."
He didn't want to be ungrateful, but he was expecting more.
Meridians went: Trash, Weak, Mortal, Great, Spirit, King, Emperor, God, Supreme God, Immortal, Immortal King, Immortal Emperor, Immortal God, Immortal Godking.
Although Zhu Yi did not know about anything above emperor rank, he was still disappointed.
Zhou Fan laughed. "Don't feel disappointed yet. It could have been higher, but I suddenly had an idea that will benefit you much more."
Zhu Yi felt excitement once again. "What did you do?"
"I gave you an affinity." Zhou Fan smiled.
Zhu Yi questioned. "An affinity? A good one I hope."
Zhou Fan could not stop himself from laughing. Zhu Yi had no idea. He wanted to play around a little more, but cut to the chase.
"I gave you an affinity to Time Qi."
Zhu Yi paused and his face became blank. He felt as if the entire world had stopped moving.
Chapter 453: Foundation Establishment Realm - 453
Although Zhu Yi had never even heard of Time Qi, it wasn't hard to understand what it meant. Fire Qi represented fire. Ice Qi represented ice. In that case, then Time Qi represented Time.
"You mean Time as in… you know… Time, right?" Zhu Yi asked.
Zhou Fan nodded. "Although you won't be able to do much before the foundation establishment realm, I've given you a great opportunity."
Zhu Yi was very excited. This affinity would redefine his entire life.
Zhou Fan continued. "Now, just focus on cultivating. Once you reach the Foundation Establishment realm, I have a few ideas."
Although the power of time was incredible and affected everything in the universe, it was also weak.
There was nothing that strengthened the power of time, and theoretically, it could be affected by any strong cultivator as easily as space.
Luckily, the Cosmic Dao had forbidden its usage, and Zhou Fan's river of cultivation had done the same. In Zhu Yi's case, Zhou Fan was the owner and creator of the river of cultivation and was naturally exempt from the rules.
As a result, Zhu Yi would be able to use Time Qi, and he would be able to use it very well.
After calming down, Zhu Yi took the beast parts and left the room. He soon returned to his house and began to cultivate. Before, he had focused on increasing his talent through Zhou Fan. Now, he could focus on getting stronger. After all, once he entered the foundation establishment realm, he would be able to hunt foundation establishment realm beasts on his own.
After recovering, Zhou Fan also gained the ability of increasing Zhu Yi's cultivation speed, even if not greatly.
Zhu Yi stayed inside and entered seclusion. Every week, he would go out and participate in an Assassination guild mission. He now completed missions for spirit stones to increase his cultivation speed.
His life continued in this fashion for 2 years before Zhu Yi reached the absolute peak of the Qi gathering realm. He had enough Qi to break through at any time, but he faced an issue that Zhou Fan had never encountered. A bottleneck.
It was a natural phenomenon that limited the advancing of a cultivator. Many would need to cultivate for a long time or gain an enlightenment before breaking through the bottleneck.
Zhou Fan sneered. "Nonsense."
He waved his hand, and Zhu Yi's bottleneck vanished. Doing this much was without issue.
Zhu Yi bowed to his master, extremely grateful, and cultivated again. In a few minutes, he easily surpassed the Qi gathering realm and entered the Foundation Establishment realm.
Zhu Yi opened his eyes.
He stood up and bowed to his master. His master had completely changed his life and he was eternally grateful.
"Don't bow at me." Zhou Fan said.
Zhu Yi stood up. "Can I use Time Qi now, Master?"
Zhou Fan nodded. "Although I've never used Time Qi myself, it shouldn't be too much different from space Qi, in terms of difficulty at least. The effects, on the other hand, will differ greatly."
Zhu Yi nodded and played with time Qi in his hands while his master thought. Although he could not currently use Time Qi, he could still control it. It was like moving wind around but not actually using it for anything.
Zhu Yi watched his master think. Zhu Yi had a lot of questions. His master seemed unfathomable and shocked him more and more every day. He sometimes did things that did not make sense to Zhu Yi, such as clearing away someone's bottleneck or giving Zhu Yi an affinity and increasing his talent.
He wanted to ask questions, but decided to hold his tongue. His master would tell him when he wanted to.
He could only confirm that his master had been far more powerful than he could understand.
After a few hours, Zhou Fan spoke. "Alright. Try this."
Zhou Fan spoke while Zhu Yi listened. Zhou Fan had not created an offensive or defensive technique, but a supporting technique. It was what he had had in mind when giving Zhu Yi Time Qi.
Zhu Yi used his Qi according to Zhou Fan's words, and a bubble appeared around him. At the same time, he saw a bird fly over his house.
He looked at the bird, and it was clearly moving slower than usual
"This is the Time bubble, a technique so advanced that very few people could have created it even with access to Time Qi. Inside the bubble, Time passes faster. Within, you can cultivate faster."
Although the Qi in the world was about one tenth of the Qi from Zhou Fan's time, it was still all pervasive.
In other words, no matter how time was affected, unless Zhu Yi could use all of the Qi within the world in an instant, he could always cultivate at the same speed within the bubble.
If the Qi was not all pervasive, then he would cultivate slower due to cultivating too fast in the Time bubble.
"The Time bubble speeds up Time by two times. In other words, 2 days inside the bubble is one day outside."
Zhu Yi was impressed as usual, but he was getting used to his master's unfathomableness.
The only issue with the Time bubble was that it used Qi to maintain itself.
"You need to learn arrays." Zhou Fan said.
If Zhu Yi could implement Time Qi into arrays, everything would be much better.
Due to using up Qi maintaining the Time bubble, Zhu Yi could only technically cultivate 1.5x faster in the environment. Still, it was a great boost.
"Where can I get materials for arrays?" Zhu Yi asked while scratching his head.
"You're asking me? Who am I supposed to ask?" Zhou Fan responded.
Only then did Zhu Yi remember that Zhou Fan was not omnipotent. He had gotten too used to his unfathomableness.
Zhu Yi moved to the Assassination guild. After spending so much time, he had ranked up to E rank. Like the Rogue cultivator guild, the Assassination guild had the same rankings.
This gave him minor access to the crystal pad network. If he needed information, then the crystal pad network was the place to go.
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
121 Power
stone 
Paragraph comment