Master of Kaidan-Chapter 581: The Power of Time

"Phew, that should do it, right?" Feng Xue wiped away non-existent beads of sweat, squeezing a bunch of tiny separate pieces into one mass—gum, electronic watch cores, electrode needles, wires, and the like. If one couldn’t directly identify the materials, who would have thought these things could be put together to make a bomb?

"But to speak of it, the yield isn’t really that big..." Holding three packs of gum, Feng Xue shook his head. Although it wasn’t large, it was still possible to blow up one or two train carriages and paralyze the whole train.

After safely packing away these dangerous items, Feng Xue rearranged his previously packed luggage back to its original spot, and swept his gaze once more to make sure nothing was left behind. Then he turned and walked toward the rear carriages.

Although he had eliminated one problem, he didn’t believe it was the only danger on the train. Not to mention anything else, the man selling bullets at the station was a significant risk.

Arriving at the hard-seat carriage and seeing all the passengers fast asleep, Feng Xue released his Circle Realm, scanning over their luggage, hunting for dangerous items.

However, just as he walked into the second carriage where his own seat was located and expanded his Circle Realm to explore, the lights that should have been turned off suddenly came on. Not just in one carriage, the lights along the whole train were illuminated in an instant, starting from the front.

It wasn’t just the lights—almost instantly, Feng Xue’s Circle Realm felt a weird touch, and then, a voice followed his perception and directly entered his consciousness—

"Excuse me, Passenger, do you need any help?"

"Excuse me, Passenger..."

"Excuse me, Passenger..."

That voice, like a demonic chant, burst into Feng Xue’s consciousness from the end of his perception, causing his expression to abruptly change. He tried to withdraw his senses immediately but found they were being firmly grasped.

"What’s happening? Why are the lights on after midnight? Why are there attendants moving around at this hour? The rules of the first system should be the most complete and stable! It makes no sense that they’d break the rules themselves!"

Feng Xue’s consciousness was racing, and in his view, an attendant in a red uniform was slowly pushing a trolley towards him.

Without further thought, he instantly activated the Power of the Oathkeeper’s Appearance, locking his consciousness on a passenger in the hard sleeper of carriage five and initiated instantaneous teleportation.

In the very next instant, Feng Xue’s body crossed several carriages and appeared directly behind a passenger. Not allowing the passenger any time to wake up, he immediately leapt up from the hard sleeper, entering a state of ghostly stealth, but...

"Excuse me, Passenger, is there something..."

The voice still entered Feng Xue’s mind through his perception. It was as if those attendants had completely locked onto him, with inquiries continuously resounding by his ear, and the rumbling noise of the approaching trolley was driving Feng Xue into a corner.

"Ah right, right, right!"

Shaking the small quilt, Feng Xue muttered the Four-character Mantra, and in an instant, all the attention focused on him was erased. However, immediately after, new voices surged through his yet unretracted perception.

"Damn it!"

Seeing attendants in different colored uniforms approaching from both front and back, Feng Xue pulled out the pocket watch from his chest and forcefully pressed the button on it—

"Za Warudo, Toki yo Tomare!"

"Click!"

With the light sound of the pocket watch, the entire world seemed to lose its color, the voices by his ear frozen in that instant, leaving only the sound of a second hand ticking resounding by his ear.

Name: Phantom Item·Time Stop Pocket Watch

Elements: [Time], [Stop], [Timing], [Evil Spirit], [Mystery], [Tool]

Introduction: A silver pocket watch, inhabited by an evil spirit, was granted the magnificent power to temporarily stop time due to some magical force. However, one must restrain the use of this power, or they will be rejected by the entire world and ultimately lost within the gaps of time.

Remarks: Some people want to rule the world with a nine-second time stop, but all you want is to sketch.

...

Tick!

Tick!

With every movement of the second hand, Feng Xue could feel the disharmony between himself and the current timeline intensifying. Without hesitating further, he flung his quilt aside, uttered the four-character mantra to clear his focus, and at the same time, swung the chain to make the pocket watch spin counterclockwise around him—

"Halt, Ye Eternal Chronometer of Years!"

Instantaneously, a girl with white hair and red pupils, wearing a plain white robe, emerged from the pocket watch. Feng Xue issued a direct command:

"Sever all my sensations."

"Understood!"

The chill voice came from the expressionless "God of Years," who then dissolved from Feng Xue’s view, scattering as if a profound shadow descended from the sky, covering the entire train carriage with a heavy pressure. In an instant, Feng Xue felt dizzy.

His torn and reluctant perceptions were forcibly severed in a moment, the darkness before his eyes nearly causing him to vomit blood.

With a thought, he leaped again, and in the next moment, he arrived at the end of Carriage No. 6.

Brushing past the overbearing passengers, Feng Xue moved through the connection and reached his room. Only then did he press the button on the pocket watch.

The deathly ticking that had been echoing abruptly stopped, and the train’s vibrations once again emanated from beneath his feet. Everything around him came back to life.

"Seven seconds? This level of disorientation should only be limited to the sensation of time, still within the range of tolerance."

Feng Xue felt the repellant sensation on himself relax slightly. The side effects of the pocket watch sounded dire, but weren’t irreversible. Apart from spending time to gradually diminish it, traveling through the portal was also a good solution.

According to his tests in the supernatural game world, this kind of repulsion, if left alone, could recover about one second per day. However, through the portal, a single crossing could refresh it directly. The principle seemed to be that when crossing between realms, the door (or rather Infinite City) automatically adjusts the relationship between the time differences.

Nevertheless, this adjustment must have its limits. At least Feng Xue did not know, nor dared to try, what effects piling up this repulsive sensation would bring.

After all, the phrase lost in the time gaps was not something to be experimented with lightly.

At least until he possessed the power over time, he absolutely would not dare to attempt it recklessly.

Shaking his head to dismiss the insignificant matters, Feng Xue pondered the rules. Looking at the still brightly lit carriage, he couldn’t help frowning:

"What’s the deal with this broken Kaidan, I’ve heard of being punished for triggering rules, but I’ve never heard of the rules of Kaidan automatically breaking... Huh?!"

Subconsciously glancing at the pocket watch, Feng Xue’s inner self suddenly jolted because, in his view, the hour hand on the pocket watch was not pointing at the 12 from a few minutes ago, but—7!

"Fuck, what’s this situation? The loser bites the dust?"