Chapter 31 – Double-Speed Time Altar

“Guanqi! Guanqi! What happened to you? Gu Ran said that you went to the cliff behind the mountain!”

“Where is he?!”

Li Nanting yelled, looking around.

“

Don’t kill yourself! Just tell me if you have anything you’re unhappy about!”

Creak~

Li Guanqi opened his room door with an awkward grin and said shyly, “Uh... Master, nothing happened. I just went to the back of the mountain to throw away some trash.”

“Hey! Who are you calling trash?!”

Li Guanqi’s smile froze. He hadn’t expected Sword Spirit’s voice to suddenly ring in his mind!

Li Nanting came to his side in a flash and scanned him with his vital force to check his condition. When he found nothing wrong with him besides his aura being slightly weaker than before, he finally sighed in relief.

Li Nanting assumed his disciple’s aura had weakened because he had been too impatient with his cultivation, so he couldn’t help but remind him, “Don’t push yourself too hard. Your progress is already on par with the core disciples of powerful major factions. The path of cultivation is long—there’s no need to rush.”

Li Guanqi nodded with a grin. “I understand, Master.”

Relieved, Li Nanting chuckled. “If you have nothing to do during these two days, you can complete missions from the Mission Pavilion. You’ll get the chance to go down the mountain and explore the region. It’ll expand your horizons.”

Once Li Nanting left, Li Guanqi sighed in relief. If his cultivation level had dropped significantly, he had no idea how his master would’ve reacted—he might’ve lost his mind.

Sword Spirit’s voice rang in his head. “

Since you and I are bound together, I will do my best to help you grow stronger. Use your divine consciousness to scan the sword box—there is a special space inside.”

Li Guanqi’s heart skipped a beat.

“What kind of space? A storage space?”

Sword Spirit burst into laughter. “

Storage space?! You underestimate me too much!”

Li Guanqi didn’t argue. He extended his divine consciousness toward the sword box. As before, he couldn’t see what was inside. It was as if something blocked his perception, but he could sense the space Sword Spirit spoke of.

Buzz!

A mysterious energy rippled from the sword box, and Li Guanqi disappeared from the room.

Thud!

The sword box crashed onto the stone tile with a dull thud.

Li Guanqi gawked at the shining spirit lights around him. He was surprised to find himself standing on a ten-zhang-wide ancient altar.

“What’s this?”

Sword Spirit gradually materialized on the altar. “Try placing spirit stones on the array.”

Li Guanqi looked at a raised stone board on the altar. It had ten indentations.

He took out ten low-tier spirit stones and placed them inside. At once, the stone board lit up with countless mysterious patterns.

Buzz!

The pitch-black space around him trembled, and the altar erupted with blinding silver light. However, nothing happened after that, leaving Li Guanqi confused. The spirit stones on the altar were also depleting at a speed visible to the naked eye.

He could not help but ask, “Is this it?”

Sword Spirit pursed her lips and said, “Here, time moves at double the speed of the outside world.”

Li Guanqi frowned and asked cautiously, “Double? Did I hear that right?”

“Yes.”

“Damn! T-t-this is... Time... time flows differently here?! How is that possible?!”

Sword Spirit looked at the altar and said softly, “Why wouldn’t it be? Still... ten low-tier spirit stones will only last two hours at most. Mid-tier stones will last a day, and upper-tier ones a month.”

Li Guanqi felt a pang of heartache at the cost, but he knew this was an unbelievable opportunity. It was too powerful, and he couldn’t let anyone learn about it.

Then, his face fell as he quickly retrieved the spirit stones from the stone board. One-fifth of them had already been consumed. “It’s indeed amazing... but it takes up too many spirit stones.”

Sword Spirit rolled her eyes at his pained expression. “Work hard on your cultivation and reach the Foundation Building Realm as soon as possible. Once you break through, you’ll be able to wield the first sword in the sword box.”

Li Guanqi pursed his lips, his mind racing as he calculated the fortune he’d need for the stone board.

Whoosh!

He reappeared in his room, picked up the sword box, and rushed toward his backyard’s cultivation chamber.

In his room, he started to count his spirit stones. He still had a decent number left.

He took out around a hundred spirit stones and lit a sandalwood incense stick as thick as his finger. Then, he entered the mystical space in the sword box.

***

The next morning, Li Guanqi stepped out of the cultivation chamber. His gaze fell on the incense stick—half of it remained. The flow of time really was different.

A deep emotion surged within him. Two full days had passed in the altar’s space, yet outside, only a single day had gone by.

He clasped his fingers together and muttered, “This thing is terrifying. No one must know about the capabilities of this sword box!”

He washed up in high spirits, preparing to leave for his next class at Heavenly Metal Peak. The elder of Heavenly Metal Peak would be teaching a basic sword technique, so he wanted to listen in.

When he had just stepped out of his quarters, he met Yu Sui’an, who was holding a bao. When she saw him, she ran over to his side and asked, “Hey! Blind boy, what have you been up to? I haven’t seen you in days.”

He ruffled her hair with a grin. She rolled her eyes.

“Little Bao, why do you live so carefreely every day?”

𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Yu Sui’an furrowed her brow and answered seriously, “Isn’t that how it should be? Grandfather told me something once.”

“What did he say?”

She placed her hands on her back and paced around, just like Li Nanting would. She even comically imitated his facial expression.

“Even when sky-high waves crash above your head, you must still smile and live on!”

Li Guanqi froze for a second. The words struck a chord in him.

Yu Sui’an returned to her usual self and grinned smugly. “What do you think? Didn’t I act just like him?”

Li Guanqi was stunned. He felt it made sense. “Yeah, why should a kid be glum all the time? You’ve got a bao to eat every day. That’s happiness. What do you have to worry about?”

Yu Sui’an pouted. “I do have worries!”

“Oh? What worries you?” he asked curiously.

She replied with utmost seriousness, “When I can’t get a bao, I worry about what I’ll eat!”

“

Hahahaha!

Want to stroll around Heavenly Metal Peak with me?”

“Okay! Let’s go, let’s go! I want to ride on your shoulders!”

Then, the youth and the child ran like the wind toward Heavenly Metal Peak.