Time Twister

In that 197 years, he digested his experience in the field today in less than 2 months; the remaining years and months were focused on reading research papers, books, and journals relating to magic research, magitech research, and scientific research. Of course, he only allotted 12 hours a day to read these things; the remaining hours were focused on tending the small garden where he was growing common plants, and visiting the small, but growing mountain. There were more and more minerals appearing, of different shapes and sizes, and functions.

The different plants growing in the laboratory were originally indigenous to that of Eteria, which can grow fruits. Due to the long period they had been in the garden, they were able to produce hybrids and descendants that were quite unique from their ancestors. As the plants have been here for 9,500 years, they have gained increased spirituality and elemental energy inside, but no indication of sprite formation or sentience can be seen for now. After all, when he broke through to Master-9 and fixed "Eden", he also checked the situation of the laboratory, and reinforced its ordered system. The size of the laboratory was technically a 1 light-year by 1 light-year, by 1 light-year cube.

He headed to the open-air laboratory set up where he usually mixed and played around chemicals he had created through [Material Transformation]. Material transformation basically takes advantage of the elemental interrelations.h.i.+p present and the time element. It is simply the accelerated process of s.h.i.+fting from one element to another. Turning metal into water? Possible. Turning air into a piece of non-living wood? It's possible.

The main experiment he did in the 197 years inside the laboratory was the Seed of Life. He wanted to find out if he could replicate it using [Temporal Replication], as well as Transform the Seed into another kind of seed if the first one succeeds.

Sadly, Temporal replication failed; so he had to wait for another two weeks before entering Eden and getting a seed from the Tree of Life that has matured long enough. Wait, does it reproduce as.e.xually or does it need another Tree of Life to produce fruits? Xander mused, before leaving the laboratory and heading to his second room. He then headed to Eden.

The travel was quite smooth, and he appeared high up in the sky. He had a bird's eye view of the whole garden. Numerous, tall buildings with a height of 2 kilometers could be seen on the surface, indicating the distributed libraries all over the garden. Some were hidden in cave systems underground, some were placed in the dark, deep waters, some were floating high up in the sky as well.

Around them, life bloomed; sprites and magic beasts alike entered and exited the library, coming out as a learned person. No one was restricted on entering. No one can monopolize the libraries.

He then moved to where the Tree of Life was growing. A day had already pa.s.sed, and it has been nearly 175,000 years inside this s.p.a.ce. Life was blooming all over Eden.

There, he saw some magic beasts, as well as some sprites, fighting with one another. There were other magic beasts and sprites that were looking at the group fighting, some of them cheering, while the others were yawning, bored.

As he moved out and about, coming closer to the tree, more and more sprites and magic beasts could be seen, talking, laughing, crying with one another. When he finally reached the center of the Tree, he saw how large it was. It was already 2 kilometers in height, and the width of the tree was around 300 meters. The roots extended to all directions, reaching a distance of 300 kilometers. When he looked up at the tree, he almost couldn't contain his laughter.

On one of the tree's large branches, Sam and Pan were hanging around, with Pan continuously trying to bite the small branches, causing it to retaliate by slapping him silly. Sam on the other hand, tried to help but was also quickly bound by the Tree before being waved around and around. Upon seeing this scenario, he wasn't worried that the tree was acting like a sentient being; it was after all, acting based on the defensive mechanisms the plant has.

It basically treats the two as annoying pests to be stopped, probably due to Pan attempting to take a bite of its roots or branches, most likely. However, it is still bound to me. The moment it recognized my existence in s.p.a.ce, it started to sway, its leaves..h.i.tting one another created a melodious sound to echo in the surrounding area, echoing throughout the garden s.p.a.ce.

Anyone who was nearby paused and looked around in surprise. Everyone proceeded to the base of the tree as fast as they could. They had heard the ancestors tell them that every 175,000 years there would be a grand meeting, where they could take a glimpse of who their creator was.

Everyone rushed quickly, trying to come as close as possible. Everyone knew that besides the Ancestors, within 2 kilometers of the tree, no one else was allowed inside. Anyone unauthorized was usually absorbed by the tree as nutrients. To prepare for the situation, Mary and Marie had already demarcated the circ.u.mference around the tree that indicated the 2-kilometer distance.

For now, Xander approached the tree trunk and gently touched it, infusing his magic energy and a bit of his life essence. Immediately, the tree responded jovially, sending a strong feedback of refined life elements and life essence energy towards Xander's body. It was its way of greeting Xander.

As Xander caressed the tree, he whispered, "Don't worry, you won't be lonely. You'll soon have a friend to talk to!" Hearing this, the Tree s.h.i.+vered visibly, and the leaves rustled and hit one another.

Xander then approached the 2 sprites still tangled up.

"Sam, Pan. Why are you even fighting against the tree? You know it can never develop a sentience or form a sprite. Why do you keep pus.h.i.+ng for it to do so?" He asked, quite annoyed and a bit disappointed that Sam and Pan weren't following his orders. Xander snapped and the branches entwining and hara.s.sing the two calmed down and returned to their original places.

Sam and Pan, after being freed, rushed towards Xander. Sam had tears in his eyes, trying to look pitiful, and bawled,

"Master! I don't want to stay here anymore! It's just too boring!!"

"Master, I want food. The only thing I haven't eaten yet in this world is this tree's roots or branches. Even the plants you placed around the world and gained sentience or sprites, I already tasted. I'm already bored." Pan said sadly, moving pitifully.

Xander sighed.

"Are you sure? You already

Sam and Pan slightly hesitated, quite torn with their decision.

"I promise, once you reach DemiG.o.d, I will allow you to explore some planets beside Eteria, ok? Allowing you to see other sprites and get some food as well."

Sam and Pan's eyes glistened, and hurriedly said, "fine, I'll stay here a bit longer then!"

"Just remember my mission. Emphasize my existence to the other sprites and magic beasts. Make sure everyone has entered and read the books inside the library."

"Yes, yes, we will do it 200% of our abilities!"

Xander then communicated to where Marie and Mary were staying. Marie was currently in the largest volcano in the garden, while Mary was swimming around and interacting with water magic beasts and animals in the deep seas.

"Marie, Mary, ensure that ever sprite and magic beast has entered and read the books in the libraries set up. Once you reach DemiG.o.d cla.s.s, you have an option to leave and join me and the other 2 sprites exploring the universe. Come to the tree once you are available. I'll stay here for a couple of years before leaving."

Xander then located where Fae was, and asked her how was the development of her hive going.

"Master, I have produced in the span of 170,000 years, a total of 25,000 Wasps with an age older than 10,000 years, and 5,000 wasps with an age older than 100,000 years. 3000 of the wasps are soldier wasps, 2000 were farmers. The remaining 25,000 wasps are currently younglings who haven't decided which path to take." Fae responded respectfully. Xander nodded at this and praised Fae, before saying to her the same thing he said to Marie and Mary.

Xander began to talk with the Sam and Pan about their experiences for the past 175,000 years. A few days have pa.s.sed, the border between the 2-kilometer radius was clearly demarcated with numerous beasts and sprites talking and laughing with one another, even sharing their ideas and thoughts.

Xander used this opportune moment to appear to them, looking like a normal, 7-year-old kid, but exuded an ancient, undying force that the sprites and magic beasts could sense. He looked at them with a sweeping glance. Although it felt like he only moved his head for a bit, everyone around the tree felt like all their secrets were laid bare to Xander, further emphasizing his strength and power.

"h.e.l.lo, my children."

"My name is Xander, and right now, although it might seem big, the world you are in is merely my personal garden. Outside this garden is a wider, larger spa.r.s.e of land that would seem incalculable." He paused for dramatic effect, letting his words sink in the minds of the sprites in the garden.

"I am here to visit you all, to understand and listen to your questions one by one and answer them. I also plan to tell you all that unless you breakthrough to the Divine cla.s.s, you would survive easily in the outside world. To be considered a Divine cla.s.s, at a minimum, you should be 10 million years of age. The ancestors you speak of, are my messengers. They follow my orders and enforce them in the garden, which is quite simple, really." He then continued to say, giving them the chance to explore the wild, wild world beyond the garden. He then emphasized once more the rules.

"You shall not kill a fellow magic beast or fellow sprite. You may fight, you may get severely injured, but you can never kill one another."

"You shall a.s.sembly at one of the Tree of Life available every 175,000 years, or when you hear the rustling of the leaves of the tree producing a melodious chime."

"Lastly, You are not to impugn on the life of another. Everyone is treated equally as long as they are of the same cultivation rank as you, no matter what their specific stage is, might it be Mythic-3 or Mythic-9. Anything else, you are basically free to do anything."

Xander than waved his hand, and hundreds of thousands of light orbs appeared and moved towards each and every magic beast and sprite.

"Each light orb contains a random number from 1 to 1 million. You must keep hold of the light orbs for 1 minute before it recognizes you as owner and gives you your number, and fades away into your body. If you fail to keep it for 1 minute, it resets again even if you get the same light orb. It will activate again once it is near your turn."

"There are around 4 million of you here, so the other 3 million will have to test their luck next time I come. You all have 30 minutes to gather a light orb. Good luck." Upon saying this, Xander disappeared from his spot, traveling to another section of the garden.

He found a spot, 108,000,000 kilometers away from the first tree of Life. He then released the Seed of Life and planted it there, causing another elemental fluctuation and stabilization to happen. He ordered Fae to relocate to this area to protect the tree as it grows up.

After 30 minutes, he appeared again on the Tree of Life, and saw that magic beasts and sprites had already gathered all the light orbs he released. He nodded subtly and said,

"If it is your number, you are able to enter the tree's area, freely and safely. I'll wait for you all in the tree's crown." Xander disappeared and reappeared on top of the tree, wherein there were a nice, living cottage and open s.p.a.ce clearing present. After a few minutes, the first one came up, and it was an amphibious magic beast.

Xander smiled and offered the magic beast a treat. Seeing the treat, the beast was quite happy and gobbled on it quite heartily.

Xander smiled once more and asked gently, "What is it that you wish to ask, or tell me?"

_______________________________________

Time pa.s.sed by and it has been 10 years. He had just finished talking with the last being, a poison sprite, and was quite worn down. After all, every day, he accommodated 273 beings a day, or roughly 11 per hour. During that time period, Marie and Mary had visited, informing him that they will wait until they were Divine rank before leaving. That would be around 57 days for Xander, so around one and a half months. Fae was also the same. She wanted to break through to Divine rank to ensure her safety and the safety of her brood.

Sam and Pan, on the other hand, will still leave once they broke through to DemiG.o.d rank.

After everyone has left, He asked Sam and Pan to tell the sprites outside that he already left. In truth, he just went to the secluded area where he planted those sentient, but non-sprite forming plants.

He headed there and began to talk and gather some fruits from the plants, tasting a few of them while saving the rest for his parents and friends.

He then waved goodbye to them and left the garden. Of course, he also sent a magic wave to the 2 trees of life telling them of his departure. All in all, it has just been 5 seconds since he entered the garden. He headed downstairs and began eating the dinner prepared by the twins.

Rosa was becoming better in cooking, getting closer to reaching the standard Esta has. Maybe this has something to do with her acclimatizing to her role? Who knows.

He wanted to spar with his bodyguards but at the moment, only peak Mythic cla.s.s magicians and some weaker demiG.o.ds were giving him a challenge. Instead, he decided to focus all of his remaining time and energy to creating a cultivation skill.

He headed to his room before teleporting to an unknown Exoplanet nearly 1/2 of the universe away. It didn't cost any magic energy to move, nor were there spatial, elemental, or energy traces.

He then accelerated the time of the whole planet, which had a circ.u.mference of 12,000 kilometers. 1 second in the universe was 10 years on the planet. He could maintain this state for nearly a millennium due to the area of being accelerated was quite small, but he didn't need that much time.

He began the process of creating a cultivation skill.

First, he scanned his body, understanding every inch of his body: His nerves, blood vessels, bones, muscles, tendons, organs, tissues, and cells.

To completely understand how his body worked, he referred to biology books as well as research papers, compiling, correcting, and reading them all again. It took him 10 years to do so.

Second, he explored the multiple ways magic energy, elemental energy, elemental particles, and matter circulate all over his body, both outside and inside, how they are taken in or expelled by the body. It took him 5000 years to explore all 108 million possible circulations for his body at the Elite cla.s.s, and another 7000 years for all 10.8 billion possible circulations at Master cla.s.s. It was harder to calculate for the Master cla.s.s, because the movement of magic and elemental energy, matter and elemental particles in the body have an additional part to pa.s.s through: The currently circulating Magic seeds and Magic circles around his Life essence doll.

From there, he utilized the calculating capacity of the System to choose the most optimal circulation, wherein the possible calculations for the Elite cla.s.s perfectly suited the Master cla.s.s, while retaining high efficiency of cultivation. Now he all he needed to was to test the combined circulation.

Xander took a deep breath, began to circulate accordingly to the cultivation skill:

1. From outside, to the first layer of the skin. A large, indiscriminate absorption.

The body opens up every single pore, directly allowing matter, elemental particle and elemental energy to enter the body and rapidly converted by the Life essence doll, before being distributed as a reinforcing force, or as magic energy.

2. Conversion of matter to elemental particles.

3. Conversion of elemental particles into elemental energy.

4. Conversion of elemental energy into magic energy.

5. Conversion of magic energy into reinforcing force.

6. Cycles through all Magic circles, before extending to the Magic seeds, before being distributed to the rest of the body.

7. Absorb to every single cell, reinforcing the cells' form, stability, strength, defense, magic, and elemental energy capacity, life expectancy, genome quality, elemental affinity, elemental comprehension.

This is done through:

7.1. Absorb to the nerves, to the blood vessels. Enter blood circulation.

7.2. Cycle through the nerves, cycle throughout the body. Heightens all forms of sensation. Improves all brain functions. Improves all circulation functions.

7.3. Absorb to the bones, breaking and reforming, modifying and strengthening the structure and quality. Stimulated by the nerves and the blood vessels, improving the speed of breakage and reformation, as well as absorption.

7.4. Absorbed to the muscles, strengthening them and improving their holding capacity. Stimulated by the nerves and blood vessels, improving the speed of absorption and cycling.

7.5. Absorb to the tissues, strengthening them and improving their holding capacity.

7.6. Absorbed to the organs, improving their function, state, and overall quality and holding capacity. Stimulated by the nerves, and the blood vessels, improving the speed of absorption and cycling.

7.7. Absorb into the 2 deepest layers of the skin.

7.8. Cycle throughout the 2nd and 3rd layer, strengthening and revitalizing the nerve and blood vessel endings.

7.9. Absorb to the first layer of the skin.

7.10. Cycle throughout the first layer, strengthening and revitalizing the skin.

8. Convert the remaining reinforcing force back into Magic energy, and store to the cells, life essence doll, magic circles, and magic seeds.

9. Repeat.

The initial cycles were quite rough for Xander, causing him to cough out blood at some points, as well as his skin tearing open and causing blood to flow out. Xander, however, didn't reverse time but rather utilized the life elements to heal his body. This was a form of tempering for his body, which wasn't initially made to handle a large volume of matter, elemental particle and elemental energy at one point.

This cycle of destruction and healing continued for a few more hundred cycles, until his 999th cycle, where the cycling of reinforcing force was successfully done, converted to magic energy, and then stored. At this point, Xander's body was quite adapted to the large bulk flow of elements and matter entering his body.

Xander was elated, since it took him around 120 days to do 999 cycles. He continued to cycle the cultivation skill, making his body adapt to the skill.

After 1080 complete cycles, his body had already adapted to the skill, and had improved by many folds. He was proud with the current state of his cultivation skill, so he then did the last step: Integrating it in his Magic meditation. Xander calmed himself and his body was restored to his most optimal condition after a few minutes of cycling, before heading into deep meditation, allowing the cultivation skill to power his process of comprehension.

After 50 years... after 100 years... after 200 years.... after 1000 years.... after 5000 years inside the accelerated time-s.p.a.ce, the world had rapidly changed. Xander's s.p.a.ce was covered by mud, rock, plants, and more soil, creating a small hill. He opened his eyes once more and realized that his body's strength, resilience, elemental affinity had improved. He moved a bit and the entire hill that was covering him immediately shattered, before being absorbed by his body and rapidly converted into pure magic energy. His overall comprehension of the Life-Death and Yin-Yang elements had also increased by 5% each. His overall comprehension of Order and Chaos elements had improved by 2% each, while s.p.a.ce-Time elements improved only by 2%. It was as he had expected since, during the deep meditation, he didn't just focus on one element, nor did he focus on just a representation of a certain element, or a rule it controlled or presided over, but rather on the overall understanding of the origin elements.

Most likely, if he did the same Magic meditation again, the effects would be weaker unless Xander has items that can boost his comprehension nearby.