Age of Evolution

Chapter 480: 480: Time Deceleration

This was a Permanent Crystal Battleship, specifically built for war. It was dozens of times larger and more expensive than Lin Zhen’s Perpetual Crystal Spaceship.

Not only could it travel at light speed, but it was also equipped with powerful firepower and a Trap Web. Even the army of the Tianhe Empire would have to retreat when faced with its formidable might.

Inside the control room of the battleship, a Martial Artist with a sinister face and an eyepatch was standing opposite another Martial Artist.

This Martial Artist was none other than Tianci, whom Lin Zhen had encountered in the World Stone.

Tianci had now become a super expert at Star System Level 1, his face full of confidence and radiance.

However, the one-eyed man standing in front of him was no less imposing, also a Star System Level 1 master.

“Mr. Xilanke, is everything ready?”

“Tianci, don’t call me Mr. Xilanke, I’m just a despicable bastard that everyone hates. The title ‘Mr.’ sounds disgusting to me.”

“Haha! Straightforward, alright, Xilanke, there must be no mistakes this time.”

“Rest assured, if I, Xilanke, were an idiot, I would have been caught and executed by the Tianhe Empire’s army long ago. The fact that I’m thriving to this day speaks for itself.”

Tianci nodded but still looked concerned. “You said you’ve been in touch with your former subordinates, but have you considered that they’ve all been mentally controlled by Lin Zhen? They won’t speak for you; only Lin Zhen, who holds their lives in his hands, is worthy of their loyalty.”

“Hehe! I’m well aware of that. But what I told them was that I would go to the Solar System on the eve of New Year’s Eve. With that in mind, what do you think Lin Zhen’s reaction will be?”

Tianci pondered for a moment: “If I were Lin Zhen, I would definitely seize the time to cultivate and then, when the New Year approaches, call on my friends for help, waiting for you to fall into my clutches.”

Xilanke laughed loudly: “Exactly, that’s what any normal person would do. But he would never expect that I would attack four months ahead of time. At that moment, he probably wouldn’t be fully prepared.”

“You’re indeed scheming. I guess I found the right person.”

“Even if you hadn’t come to me, Tianci, I wouldn’t have let Lin Zhen go. He dares to take over my Black Pearl and my subordinates; that’s a challenge to me. I won’t let him off the hook. Besides, there’s your commission; I have to do this deal.”

“I originally planned to use a sub-light speed spaceship, but since you provided me with this Permanent Crystal Battleship, I’ll be able to reach the Solar System tonight. Don’t worry, as soon as I arrive, Lin Zhen and his Solar System realm are done for, not a single dog or chicken will be spared!”

“Very well, then… I’ll leave it to you, Mr. Xilanke.”

With that, Tianci turned around, ready to leave the spaceship.

“Wait for my good news. I’ll return to the Solar System tonight; perhaps by tomorrow morning, you’ll see news of the Solar System realm’s destruction in the Dimensional Universe.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

Tianci teleported away, leaving Xilanke’s fleet behind.

Witnessing twelve massive spaceships departing, Tianci coldly muttered, “Lin Zhen, you killed my avatar, and I must avenge it. I had initially thought that if you could make it into the training camp for those under 100 years old, I would deal with you there. Unfortunately, you disappointed me. I had no choice but to resort to this, gifting away a Permanent Crystal Battleship just to avenge my avatar.”

Pluto, the edge of the Solar System.

This planet was very far away from the sun, so much so that it was once kicked out of the Solar System by astronomers, claiming it was not one of the nine major planets of the Solar System.

But Lin Zhen wouldn’t think so; this was a star in the Solar System. In the past, humans couldn’t venture into cosmic space and thought it was too distant. However, nowadays, Pluto was definitely considered close.

The surface of the planet was covered in perennially frozen ice, which, under the influence of 15th level hurricanes, morphed into a bizarre array of shapes.

From Lin Zhen’s position, the sun appeared as an almost imperceptible pale blue dot, barely larger than the stars in the sky.

Sunlight had never visited this desolate, icy wasteland.

The minus one hundred degrees Fahrenheit temperatures made it devoid of life. However, Lin Zhen’s true form was a Black Hole Beast, a variant of the Fire Kirin, which was not afraid of such extreme cold.

His body gently breathed in and out while his attention was entirely focused on the Dark Star Space.

In the center of the Dark Star’s mainland, the Star Fruit Tree towered into the clouds but could not penetrate the atmosphere, which was several times thicker than Earth’s.

His gaze passed through the tree’s branches and leaves and arrived at the central area.

Sky Dome.

This architectural complex, constructed by an unknown War General, had once again become the dwelling place of Lin Zhen’s avatar.

At this moment, however, his avatar was silent, waiting for the maturity of a group of Star Crystals in front of him.

Nearly thirty Planet Crystals were about to evolve into Constant Star Crystals.

Faint starlight scattered on his body, and Lin Zhen seemed to merge with nature.

This feeling of quietly waiting for the flowers to bloom filled Lin Zhen with excitement.

He was about to reach the Constant Star Stage!

In his previous life, Lin Zhen had failed to break through the Meteor Stage and died. Back then, someone at the Comet or Satellite Stage seemed unreachable.

Having said that, in this life, he was about to advance to the Constant Star Stage, and his combat power was incomparable. Other Constant Star Stage cultivators appeared as weak as mortals in his eyes.

Even a Black Hole Stage would no longer suffice; his enemies were now at the Star System Stage.

What did the Star System Stage mean?

In the vast Milky Way spanning a hundred thousand light-years, among countless billions of people, the strongest was the Emperor – and the Emperor was at the Star System Stage!

Most importantly, he accomplished all of this in less than ten years.

Looking down at the nearly mature Constant Star Crystals, Lin Zhen couldn’t help but feel anxious.

Whether or not he could confront the Star System stage depended on the result of this breakthrough, and he couldn’t help but be impatient.

However, just as this urgent thought began to grow, Lin Zhen suddenly realized that his mentality had become unstable.

“No! This will not do!”

“It’s just breaking through to the Constant Star Stage, how could it shake my resolve?”

“If I try to break through in such a state of impatience, I won’t be able to achieve a good result. I must calm down.”

Lin Zhen forcibly suppressed his excited thoughts and still felt it wasn’t enough, so he simply took out the Time Stone from his pocket watch.

“The more crucial this moment, the calmer I need to be. I’ll just slow down the passage of time a bit more and take this opportunity to train my mind.”

After adding the Cosmic Crystal to the pocket watch, the flow of time around him slowed down suddenly.

With the speed of time reduced to one-tenth, it seemed as if the surrounding air had frozen.

His mind also calmed down along with it, and the urgency to break through seemed to have subsided, allowing a better state of mind to take hold.

Gently holding the Time Stone in his hand, his spiritual power swam back and forth, and Lin Zhen was a bit dazed in this moment.

The howling hurricane on Pluto became viscous like a gentle spring breeze in the small town of Jiang Nan, brushing warm wisps against his face.

He could even see the faint, barely visible sun in the distant sky, as strands of light quietly fell onto Pluto unnoticed.

The sunlight hit the nearby ice peak, emitting faint rainbows. If one’s eyesight wasn’t keen, they wouldn’t be able to see it at all.

“It turns out that when time slows down, everything looks so beautiful….”

A gust of wind blew, and a thick layer of ice was broken off in the distance, heading straight for the colorful light.

Lin Zhen couldn’t bear to see the beauty be destroyed and couldn’t help but raise his hand, pointing to the flying ice, “You better slow down.”

A miracle occurred!

At that moment, the speed of the ice really slowed down, dropping by ten times!

With its speed reduced and impact force lost, the ice leisurely collided without causing any visible change and fell back down.

At that moment, Lin Zhen’s heart was shocked!

He succeeded!

He actually managed to slow down time!

Within the Time Laws, acceleration is the easiest, stopping is extremely difficult, and reversing time is the ultimate secret.

In the process from acceleration to stopping, there is a deceleration phase. To comprehend time stopping, you must first slow down time.

Only when time slows down more and more does stopping become possible.

However, grasping time deceleration isn’t easy, and being able to slow it down by a little on the first try is considered heavenly luck.

But with a stroke of luck and the aid of the pocket watch and Time Stone, Lin Zhen managed to master ten times deceleration on his first try in this state of profound insight!

Knowing how precious this opportunity was, Lin Zhen didn’t dare to be careless and tried to maintain the sensation, letting his thoughts spread out.

He wanted to firmly grasp it and not let this rare opportunity vanish. Since it had appeared, he would completely master time deceleration.

“I must calm down, I must absolutely calm down!”

With his eyes slightly closed, he cast aside all personal thoughts. He even disregarded the nearly mature Constant Star Crystals and immersed himself in the insight.

As the sun disappeared in the distance, Pluto welcomed a colder night.

The snowstorm turned Lin Zhen into an ice sculpture, a snowman.

In the pitch-black night sky, only the howling cold wind remained.

At midnight, Lin Zhen’s closed eyes finally opened!

With divine light flickering in his eyes, he raised his head and let out a clear cry, echoing in the night sky of Pluto.

Whoosh!

With just a wave of his hand, a cluster of mature Constant Star Crystals were plucked and subsequently absorbed by him.

“I did it! I’ve mastered time deceleration!”

“So now, I’ll seize this momentum and break through to the Constant Star Stage right away!”

While Lin Zhen closed his eyes and practiced, in the distant parallel universe space, a Permanent Crystal Battleship was rapidly approaching!