Chapter 532: New Divine Power (Two in One)

His previous battle with Merkel made Yan Jing realize his biggest flaw at present.

If his speed had been fast enough back then, that fight likely wouldn't have been so difficult.

Upon hearing his words, the various Rituals began picking and choosing across the paper.

"Rustle, rustle, rustle—"

The silk thread spun the notebook pages like a windmill. A second later, a branch whipped it, making it shiver.

The silk thread seemed to grow angry and tangled with the branch in a scuffle. Before long, the branch caught it by the "neck," leaving it gagging. The scissors couldn't stand watching anymore and joined the fray.

Seizing the opportunity, the Piano began to play a tune off to the side.

The melodious tune flowed, and the notebook flipped open, stopping on a specific page.

The Immortal Stone and the Chongming wings also found their target. Both selected the same one.

The Crown wobbled back and forth, eventually settling on a name.

The moment it made its choice, Yan Jing felt the Heart of God on the right side of his chest begin to thump, as if highly approving of this option.

Then, a speck of red gathered at the tip of Yan Jing's right index finger. He gently sliced a small cut into his fingertip. Blood flowed down like silk, crawling into the notebook and coming to rest on a page.

Meanwhile, the scuffling branch and silk thread finally ceased their argument. Surprisingly, the two actually chose the same name.

Yan Jing tallied up all the names selected by the Rituals.

Fear Tree and Lord of Execution Silk Thread: The tier-two Deity of destruction, [Corpse of Silence] (suspected to share the same origin as the Corpse of Incompleteness).

Immortal Stone and Chongming wings: The suspected Great Desolation tier-two Deity, [Nanming Kun].

Moonlight: The tier-two Deity governing February, [February Violin].

Crown and Heart of God: The tier-two Deity of theft, [Heaven-Stealing Emperor].

Demon Blood: The tier-two Deity governing death, [Mass Graves].

Yan Jing looked at the array of names placed before him, his brows furrowing slightly.

Just looking at these [True Names] and their functions, Yan Jing really couldn't figure out their connection to speed.

And in terms of tier, these Deities were all about the same. None of them had reached the end of their path.

After a moment of hesitation, he set his sights on the Deity [Nanming Kun].

The name of this Deity reminded him of an entity he had heard of even in his previous world: the Kunpeng.

Rumor had it that when a Kunpeng flapped its wings, it could cross a thousand li in an instant.

That should be the absolute pinnacle of speed.

But—

He looked at the other names.

He figured that if he made connections like that, a thieving Deity like the Heaven-Stealing Emperor should also have extremely fast hand speed.

"Teacher Shen, which one do you think is better?"

Yan Jing looked at Shen Youran.

Shen Youran couldn't make up her mind either.

The archives on the Computer contained records of some of the Deities before them, but nothing related to speed.

She actually felt an inexplicable urge to pick the February Violin.

But if she had to give a reason...

She couldn't.

It was purely intuition.

So she simply didn't mention it to Yan Jing.

"Eya, eya~"

Right at that moment, Xiao Xin, who had been staying to the side playing by herself, suddenly opened her messenger bag.

Her eyes then widened in surprise.

She pulled a letter from the bag and handed it to Yan Jing.

"Eya, eya!!! Zhu Leng, there's a letter here!"

Yan Jing looked at the letter that had appeared before him, feeling a bit confused himself.

"Xiao Xin, did you go somewhere just now?"

"I didn't! There were no letters in my pocket before."

His guard up, Yan Jing placed the letter on the floor and stepped back to a safer distance with Shen Youran and Xiao Xin. Channeling his weird energy, he slowly unfolded the letter.

"February Violin."

"Wasteland."

"Chasm."

"Save."

There were only a few sparse words on the paper. The handwriting was crooked and the ink so faint it was nearly invisible.

Xiao Xin tilted her head in confusion.

She completely failed to understand the letter's meaning.

Shen Youran was equally baffled.

But Yan Jing seemed to comprehend it. He mobilized his weird energy and directly devoured the letter paper.

If anyone in this world could bypass everything to place something directly into the bag of Xiao Xin—who governed the delivery of letters—it was likely only that Deity trapped in a certain location.

Speaking of which, he was only one of three candidates. Aside from him, there were two other candidates for the Messenger.

Back when he used the God's Candidate Ticket, he had received a prompt: only by killing the other two candidates, or by being the first to find the Messenger's location, could he become the sole candidate.

So this right now was—

Leaking the answers to the exam?

Yan Jing recalled the weak seventh gaze he had sensed when he received the Deities' attention, and temporarily shelved the thought.

Perhaps he wasn't the only one receiving leaked answers.

Perhaps that entity was just getting a little impatient.

"Teacher Shen, pull up the data on the Deity February Violin for me."

Yan Jing looked at Shen Youran.

"No problem."

Shen Youran quickly pulled up the exploration archives left behind by Father Shen.

Just like with the [Messenger], it recorded the Shen Family's entire process of exploring this Deity.

[Deity Record No. 017]

[True Name: February Violin]

[Confirmation Level: 92%]

[Stage A: Found several music-related professionals, all above the Third Tier, who stated they had dreamt of a violin. When the bow was drawn across the strings, they would wake up to find they had slept through an entire day. Stage B: Conducted surveys on the test subjects and preliminarily discovered that the time they dreamt of the violin was always in February.]

[Stage C: Conducted basic controlled experiments on the subjects, hoping to determine the specific conditions for dreaming.]

[Stage D: Continued expanding the experimental conditions.]

[Stage E: After further investigation, found that the test subjects generally possessed impatient personalities. If they experienced extreme anger on a given day, they were more likely to dream of that violin. Stage F: A test subject heard the name of the violin: February Violin.]

[Stage G: Discovered that the aging speed of all test subjects had noticeably accelerated. Stage H: Searched through ancient texts and found a relatively fitting Deity who was once the young master of Sky City, whose character flaws ultimately plunged Sky City into a massive crisis.]

[————]

[————]

"February Violin—"

Yan Jing read it over a few more times but still couldn't see the connection between the Deity's description and speed.

But at this moment, Shen Youran stepped forward.

"Xiao Yanzi, I actually had a premonition from the start to choose this one—"

"Alright, we'll pick this one then."

Yan Jing didn't hesitate.

He had always felt that Shen Youran's luck was exceptionally good.

He hadn't thrown away a single talisman she'd given him; he had saved them all.

He immediately picked up a pen and wrote the name of the February Violin on the Candidate Voucher.

"Hum—"

Soon, a burst of blindingly brilliant light erupted from the Candidate Voucher. A melodious violin melody drifted out from it, and within the notes, there seemed to be rapid, low murmurs that made one's blood rush backward, causing dizziness and ringing ears.

A second later, streaks of white light blossomed from the Candidate Voucher and arrived right in front of Yan Jing.

The white light first moved to Yan Jing's right hand, but it quickly changed direction. It lingered on the back of his hand for a few seconds before resentfully departing, flowing toward his chest.

The Heart of God let out a thunderous roar, blasting the white light away.

Left with no other choice, the white light had to continue downward, reaching Yan Jing's lower abdomen.

But the voices of Fei Yu and the Fear Bird rang out simultaneously: "Get lost."

The white light trembled with sheer anger. It looked at Yan Jing's glabella, where the mark of the Fear Sapling flickered faintly, and then at his right eye, which was wreathed in silk threads. Finally, it seemed to find a spot. It darted toward Yan Jing's right collarbone and vanished into it with a soft whoosh .

Several familiar lines of prompts appeared before Yan Jing.

[You have called out the True Name of an incomparably powerful Deity, becoming their first candidate.]

[There should be three candidates like you; you are the first.]

[There are two ways to become the sole candidate: One, kill the other two candidates. Two, play a piece of music recognized by the February Violin.]

[Note: Please play carefully. If the piece you play is not recognized, you will be punished. If the piece you play is only partially recognized, you will receive certain rewards.]

[Note: You will obtain one Divine Power, drawn from three Divine Power options.]

[Because you are the first candidate, you may first eliminate one of the three Divine Power options.]

[Divine Power: Playing the Violin]

[Divine Power: February]

[Divine Power: Double Speed]

Yan Jing looked at the descriptions of the three Divine Powers before him.

Unlike the previous Divine Power: Letter, the Divine Powers this time were all two words long.

But fortunately so, as their meanings were relatively much easier to understand.

If Yan Jing had been asked to guess what 'Letter' meant last time, he never would have guessed it meant summoning a cute little thing like Xiao Xin.

After a moment of thought, he ultimately eliminated Playing the Violin.

Double Speed seemed to be exactly the ability he wanted. Between the remaining two, Playing the Violin reminded Yan Jing of Moonlight.

Perhaps that ability would be very powerful, but it wasn't what Yan Jing needed right now.

Moonlight's time stop was also very strong, but the prerequisite was actually being able to cast it.

In contrast, the February ability was harder to guess, and it shared its name with the February Violin's True Name.

Coupled with the fact that February was mentioned multiple times in the archives, it made Yan Jing more willing to take a gamble on it.

"Begin draw."

Two glowing spheres suddenly popped out in front of him, blinking continuously.

An ominous premonition rose in Yan Jing's heart.

This scene—

He felt like he had seen it before.

And more than once, at that.

If his guess was correct—

The blinking stopped.

A glowing sphere fell to the ground, and the words 'Double Speed' inside it gradually shattered.

Shattering right alongside it was Yan Jing's heart.

Yan Jing let out a deep sigh. He just knew it.

[You have obtained Divine Power: February.]

[Divine Power: February]

[February is the shortest month of the year. Sometimes, it is one day short of thirty days, and sometimes it is two days short. But this does not mean it is the weakest month. On the contrary, from a certain perspective, it is actually the month that passes the fastest. Because it moves fast enough, it stole the days. Not every music score can be played step by step. Can you imagine playing a triplet all at exactly the same time? On a piano, this is naturally not difficult, but for a violin, that is not the case.]

[Of course, there is nothing a Deity cannot do. Since there is no way to play enough notes within a single second, then simply turning one second into two seconds easily resolves the problem. When you use the Divine Power of February, you will gain a [Faster Time]. This time can be used at any moment. When this time is activated, others' time will relatively become a slower time. Taking the common unit of a second as an example, others' time flows as one second, two seconds. But when you use [Faster Time], within the time synchronized with your opponent, your time becomes one second, [Faster Time], two seconds. You can accumulate up to three charges of [Faster Time]. Whenever you use any twelve abilities, it is regarded as having passed a year, and you will gain an additional [Faster Time].]

[Sometimes, time will always be one step ahead of you. Perhaps, you should focus more on the present.] Yan Jing finished reading the ability description, and the disappointment in his heart over losing Double Speed vanished into thin air.

In fact, what he lacked wasn't physical speed.

Rather, it was casting speed.

Evidently, this was an ability that perfectly met his needs.

"Teacher Shen, you're my goddess of luck, aren't you?"

Yan Jing looked at Shen Youran with a smile.

Shen Youran's face flushed red.

No one had ever called her that before.

Yan Jing's joy wasn't faked. He was genuinely extremely worried about this upcoming trip into the Dungeon.

He might be able to defeat a Ninth Tier, but a Ninth Tier could also kill him.

Counting his life-saving skills, only Chongming and Divine Heart - Frost's reboot were triggered passively. If his opponent's speed was fast enough, even Praying for Death Evolution might fail to activate.

It was only with the appearance of the Divine Power [February] that he finally felt much more at ease.

He walked over to the window. Without him realizing it, the sun had already cast the morning dawn. A golden world replaced the shadows, and all living things began to breathe anew.

The two of them ate breakfast.

A countdown appeared before Yan Jing's eyes.

"Have we really never met before, Teacher Shen?"

Before entering the Inner World, Yan Jing asked with a smile.

Shen Youran blanked for a moment.

Actually, after Yan Jing had asked this question the day before yesterday, she had gone back and thought about it carefully. Though she still hadn't a clue, while half-asleep that night, she had indeed seen Yan Jing's figure in her dreams.

But she didn't know how to bring it up with him, because she had frequently dreamt of him in the past as well.

In those dreams, they—

Yan Jing smiled. "Tell me when I get back."

As his voice faded, Yan Jing's figure vanished from where he stood.

When he opened his eyes, he was back in that spotless study.

Back before the tall figure sitting behind the desk.

"It's been a while, Boss."

Yan Jing smiled.

"It's been a while."

Having not seen him for a few days, the complexion of Mu Tian before him didn't seem to have changed much from before.

It hadn't gotten worse, nor had it gotten any better.

But Yan Jing furrowed his brows.

He had only been at the Seventh Rank before, so the feeling hadn't been obvious, but it was different now.

"What is your mission this time?"

Mu Tian asked calmly.

"The Great Prison is on the verge of destruction, and all of it is irreversible. I need to keep the person I chose alive."

With enough confidence under his belt, Yan Jing directly stated his mission.

Mu Tian's expression remained calm. "Is that true?"

"It is."

Yan Jing nodded.

"But it might not be right."

Mu Tian fell silent for a few seconds before speaking.

"Perhaps."

Yan Jing nodded. Mu Tian had once said that the system wasn't omnipotent. After reaching the Tenth Tier, even for humans in the Surface World, the concept of a system would cease to exist.

"You've advanced to the Eighth Tier."

Mu Tian let out a sigh, one that contained far too many meanings.

Yan Jing smiled faintly. "Yes, so my approach to this mission has to change."