Chapter 2615: Resonance of Time in His Hands
Sensing the gaze from behind, Xu Huo slightly lowered his head and shook it at the Girl in the painting.
The Girl in the painting, disappointed, pouted and ran off to play with the other apprentices. It seemed that, apart from these three players, everyone else was from District 001, and they could play with Xiao Chuan, taking advantage of their break to go to the entertainment room upstairs.
At dinner time, the apprentices ate in the large dining room. Xiao Chuan was responsible for hosting, and the Girl in the painting joined them. Mr. Xi and Master Cong each ate alone in their rooms, while Xu Huo dined with Jing Shi in a small dining room on the second floor.
The topics of their conversation mostly revolved around time. After experiencing the special space of the Night Tour Dungeon, Xu Huo connected this special space with the Time Force.
The last time the Time Force evolved, he felt the strength of the Time Force. The time force the Evolver mobilized couldn’t even be avoided by similar props. At that time, he thought the Time Force far surpassed Spatial Power, at least in the game world involving players. However, this recent encounter refreshed his understanding; a higher Spatial Power not being present in daily game routines was actually not perceived by players, much like how ordinary players were unaware of Time Force.
"These two forces must be able to interfere with each other," Jing Shi said, "Time only has meaning for humans. When the Dimension Train crosses different spaces, the folding on space will also interfere with time, similar to how the new time covering the old time causes the old time to hide in the spatial corner. In the intersections of spaces, such times must exist; it’s just difficult to say how they intertwine."
"Could this be what’s truly meant by curve time?" Xu Huo seemed to ask, yet it sounded like he was talking to himself.
Jing Shi chuckled, "Very few people can capture reality; my understanding of them partly comes from imagination."
"If it were you, what kind of space would it be where Time and Spatial Power interfered with each other?" Xu Huo asked.
"If such a place truly existed, it would certainly be an exceptionally peaceful place," Jing Shi said.
Xu Huo paused for a moment, then understood. A place where time and space interfere with each other, like a dimensional storm, would definitely be destructive and couldn’t possibly exist for long. If such a place could exist, it would mean time and space were maintaining a balance that couldn’t be easily broken, and they would be in a state of silence.
Thinking of this, his shoulders slightly sank. The space channel was special, so his common knowledge about the Time Force could also be wrong, and miscalculating the point where the Time Force acted was just the least costly mistake...
"What’s wrong?" Jing Shi watched him, "Is this matter so hard to understand?"
"No," Xu Huo shook his head, "I just realized I’ve inevitably made a mistake, yet luckily the worst didn’t happen."
Jing Shi smiled gently, "That’s your luck. I hope you always have such luck."
After dinner, Master Cong scheduled an hour for component polishing, during which the apprentices had to learn by following along. Jing Shi had informed them in advance, so Xu Huo and the Girl in the painting were allowed to visit.
As coincidence would have it, today Master Cong was polishing a clock hand.
Although machine precision now far surpasses human craftsmanship, the handmade marks left by master craftsmen are pursued by many. Therefore, the incredibly skilled Master Cong is in high demand. Xu Huo had checked his profile on the Collection of Information Terminal. Many masters in the same industry had noted that, whether it be in material selection or craftsmanship, he had extraordinary talent. His crafted timepieces have a special arc glow that no one else, no matter how they try to mimic it or how machines are adjusted, can achieve.
In the room, there was a simple grinder. Master Cong, dressed in work clothes, sat there repeatedly placing the clock hand on the grinder to roll. The repetitive motions, although looking at them for a long time can make people feel weary and impatient, did not cause him to pause at all, as he methodically repeated without stopping, even though to others the clock hand seemed perfect already.
The entire process took place in silence, the apprentices merely held terminals for recording and observing without asking questions, each person focused intently on watching.
The first to become restless was the Girl in the painting. She watched for a moment, found it uninteresting, and quietly slipped out of the room. Xu Huo wasn’t genuinely there to learn craftsmanship skills either, so after a while, he sat in a position at the back, listening to the grinding sounds again and again.
Soon, the female player and her companion also sat beside them, sipping tea, listening to the monotonous noise, yet their attention remained on Master Cong.
Xu Huo realized that overly exquisite skills alone wouldn’t be worth the long-distance journey for Rank-A Wormhole Point players to learn here. There had to be another reason.
"Buzz!" Accompanied by the sound of grinding, Xu Huo’s motion of drinking tea suddenly paused, then he looked above the crowd. Despite being more than ten meters away, he distinctly felt a vibration in the Time Force in the air.
His initial understanding of the Time Force was based on Spatial Power; thus, his basic conceptual framework was also ray-like. Activating Time Rays to cause resonance with surrounding Time Force was his earliest learned method of directly using Time Force. At this moment, although no external space’s Time Force was drawn in, Master Cong indeed set off the Time Force.
Why?
Master Cong, by all appearances, was just an ordinary person merely grinding a tool in a usual manner. Why would it trigger the Time Force? Was he aware of it? Could he sense it himself?
Xu Huo observed the elderly man’s expression. Because of long periods of mental concentration, his forehead was already sweating, and his skin on his face and hands was slightly flushed. He wasn’t simply repeating the polishing process; he was excitedly perfecting an object bit by bit, and in his eyes shone some delight...
Regardless of whether Master Cong could perceive the vibration of the Time Force, the resonance with the Time Force achieved during this mounting perfection was extraordinary. Because Master Cong himself wasn’t trying to mobilize Time Force, he was merely repeating the act of grinding the clock hand.
Yet soon, the time force surrounding him vibrated again, and as he became more and more enthusiastic in his grinding, the vibration frequency increased. Initially, only a very few singular time rays vibrated, but they gradually expanded like a web being guided. A few minutes later, each time Master Cong swept the clock hand across the grinder, the time rays resonated, gradually covering the entire room.
Xu Huo leaned back in his chair, supporting his chin with one hand, feeling the Time Force resonating again and again, feeling the pull from the clock hand, gradually immersing him into this peculiar flow of time.