An Wen asked calmly, “Then have you realized the limitations of the Rule Sublimation Stone?”
Zuo Lin'an was taken aback, then began to ponder carefully.
He quickly understood the logic behind it.
“Yes.”
“The Rule Sublimation Stone can only make minor refinements based on my existing Death Rule, and all those refinements revolve around the time being on the hour.
“But what I need is a flexible attack window, like when it isn't on the hour.”
Saying this, Zuo Lin'an suddenly had a vague idea.
Seeing this, An Wen smiled faintly.
“What is it? Did you hit on a key point? Let's hear it.”
Zuo Lin'an nodded, then shook his head.
“I have a bit of an idea, but it's not fully formed yet.”
An Wen tapped his finger on the table.
“Your Death Rule is related to time, so your auxiliary rule must also be related to time.
“When it comes to time, what can you think of?”
Zuo Lin'an blurted out,
“Time pause, time acceleration, time deceleration, and time reversal.”
There were certainly more than just these four applications of time.
But these four were probably the most common and practical. Besides, he could only customize a maximum of three auxiliary rules, so there was no need to be greedy.
An Wen nodded in approval.
“Then, considering your current needs, which one is the most suitable?”
After pondering, Zuo Lin'an suddenly realized a difficult point.
“Instructor An Wen, I think this might be a bit difficult.
“Once my rule is formulated, I have to go to Sin Hunter City and transform it by hunting the criminals there. But how am I supposed to pause, accelerate, decelerate, or even reverse time?”
Hearing this, An Wen suddenly laughed.
“I knew you would ask that. I've already prepared everything for you.”
As he spoke, he pulled something out from his shirt and placed it in front of Zuo Lin'an.
Zuo Lin'an stared blankly.
He could prepare this in advance?
Looking closer, he saw that what An Wen had placed in front of him was a pocket watch!
The pocket watch was made of an unknown black metal. On its cover was an incredibly delicate and complex hollow engraving of a demon, with blood-red gems embedded where some of its eyes should be.
One glance was enough to tell that it was a specter object.
He leaned in to observe it closely, and through the hollow spaces, he could see the dial and hands inside.
The faint ticking of the watch hands gradually grew clearer.
Zuo Lin'an flipped it over, only to find the character “Zuo” engraved on the back.
“This is...”
This was clearly not something rushed together recently.
An Wen took a deep breath.
“The day after you and Xu Youyou graduated and left the training base, I went to place an expedited order.
“It was custom-made for you.
“I knew you would definitely need it!”
He pointed at the pocket watch in Zuo Lin'an's hand.
“This thing is meant to help you complete your rule transformation in Sin Hunter City.
“In Sin Hunter City, you don't actually need to achieve real time pauses or anything. You just need to operate this pocket watch.
“If you want to pause time, just make the pocket watch stop ticking. You can decide the duration yourself.
“And it can adjust how fast or slow the hands move, allowing you to simulate time acceleration and deceleration.
“As for time reversal, that's actually very simple too.
“You are already a Human-Specter Symbiont, so your living body won't truly die.
“So you can die once first, then operate the pocket watch to reverse time—say, by one minute.
“Then, you restore your own state to how it was one minute ago.
“Just try it a few times, and you'll get it.
“Of course, for the final rule transformation, you must hunt enough criminals during this process.”
Zuo Lin'an blinked, extremely astonished.
“That actually works?”
An Wen glanced at him.
“Under normal circumstances, of course not.
“This counts as taking a shortcut, exchanging the least effort for the greatest reward. During the rule transformation process, it will consume several times more energy than others.
“You also know that our supernatural world doesn't have much energy left to begin with.”
Zuo Lin'an certainly knew that.
Sin Hunter City was the place where Human-Specter Symbionts were created, and all rule transformations relied on the energy provided by the World Furnace.
The more powerful a rule was, the more energy it would consume during the transformation process.
“Then what about me?”
An Wen leaned in and whispered,
“You must have met some incredible figure recently, to the point where they can still give you the maximum amount of help even during such a difficult time.
“Fortunately, it's only an auxiliary rule. So even if the transformation energy consumption doubles, in the grand scheme of things, it's not a big deal.”
Zuo Lin'an immediately thought of Bai Mo.
Earlier, Bai Mo had given him permission to focus on improving himself, exempting him from participating in the closing stages of the 【Wuxia World】 dungeon.
And now, this...
An Wen patted his shoulder and did not pursue the topic further.
“So, have you made up your mind?”
Zuo Lin'an nodded.
“I've made up my mind.
“The auxiliary rule must be based on my Death Rule, extending and expanding upon it.
“So, it still can't escape the concept of killing on the hour.
“And if I want to kill outside the hour, then I just need to accelerate the non-hour time to the hour.
“Let's set this auxiliary rule as...
“‘Can accelerate any non-hour time to the hour.’ What do you think?”
An Wen nodded. “It's pretty good, but you can't actually accelerate the time of the entire dungeon. So, how about adding ‘only effective on yourself’ at the end?”
Zuo Lin'an was taken aback.
Right.
His time acceleration was merely a rule. When actually put to use, it would definitely be impossible to truly speed up the time of the entire dungeon.
“You really think of everything, Instructor.
“By the way, in that case, does it also need a duration?
“How about a duration of one minute?”
An Wen said, “That's not bad.”
However, after some thought, Zuo Lin'an slowly shook his head.
“Is one minute a bit too short? Should we add a bit more?”
An Wen did not directly object.
“It can be longer, but my recommendation is not to do so.”
Zuo Lin'an looked at him.
“Is it because of the energy?”
An Wen nodded, then shook his head.
“That's part of it, but not entirely.
“After all, you have to go to Sin Hunter City and transform your rule by hunting criminals. The more perfect the rule is, the more people you will need to kill, and the longer you will have to spend in Sin Hunter City.
“Furthermore, the energy required to transform the rule will be greater. And once the rule is formed, because it is too powerful, it will automatically and randomly generate anywhere from one to several restrictions.”
Restrictions?!
Zuo Lin'an was startled!
An Wen's expression grew serious.
“Since the automatically generated restrictions are random, they are highly unpredictable.
“So my advice is to impose restrictions on your rule right from the start. This way, you can at least set them yourself instead of having them randomly generated.
“Who knows what kind of random restrictions you might end up with.
“In my opinion, even one minute is too long. You'd better change it to thirty seconds, or even ten seconds!”
Rate on N.U.
