"Alright, boy, boy, even though I don't like being called that..."
The Wuxiang boy muttered a few more words, then suddenly burst into a roaring noise, and a strong light emanated from his body once again.
"Open!"
With a loud shout from the Wuxiang boy, a vertical pupil on his forehead slowly opened, and within his eyes seemed to be evolving chaos.
Puff!
The vertical pupil opened, and with two more sounds, a pair of colorful wings suddenly extended from the little boy's back.
Finally, the Wuxiang boy's chubby hands gestured repeatedly, and a well-fitting set of crystal-red armor was put on him.
After tinkering with all this, Ming Qi and the others were still stunned when they saw the Wuxiang boy suddenly turn his head and let out a beastly roar. Then, his head flashed and transformed.
"Qilin!"
Though the transformation was fleeting, he was no stranger to the Qilin's brain; it had been described in great detail in ancient mythology.
In a flash, the Wuxiang boy had returned to normal, save for the vertical pupil on his forehead and the wings on his back.
"Oh no, oh no, so many abilities are gone. Damn primitive..."
No one knew what the Wuxiang boy was struggling with; Ming Qi and the others were completely baffled.
Thankfully, his hesitation didn't last long. After more than ten minutes, he looked up and surveyed his surroundings.
"Oh, I see. You're trapped in here, unable to escape."
Ming Qi was struck by the precise word, and immediately asked, "Yes, do you have a way out?"
"Hehe, of course there is. But if it's that easy, wouldn't it be too easy for those who set up the formation? Watch me!" The Wuxiang boy smiled happily, as if he had discovered something amusing.
Upon hearing Wuxiang Tongzi say they could leave, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. However, thinking about the life force that had been drained away, they all felt a bit gloomy.
Decades, nearly a century, had vanished in the blink of an eye, and in a single day, they had gone from youth to old age. Even if they could escape now, they felt an immense weight hanging over their hearts.
"Wuxiang, is there any way to restore our lost life force?"
Seeing the fine wrinkles covering the girls' faces, Ming Qi felt a surge of worry. Touching his long beard, he realized that if he couldn't recover the stolen time, even escaping would be a horrible fate.
"Well, let me think about it..."
The Wuxiang Boy bit his finger and tilted his head back in thought for a moment, then said, "This is a bit difficult, but I can give it a try."
"Really?"
Hearing that the Wuxiang Boy possessed such magical powers, several people suddenly felt hopeful and eagerly waited for him to unleash his powers to restore their lost vitality.
The Wuxiang Boy remained silent, pondering intently. It seemed this was indeed no easy task.
After a while, the Wuxiang Boy finally said, "I can only draw on a little power from the Candle Dragon Realm's ancestor to perform the Time Reversal. As for whether I can recover it, I'm not sure. In my opinion, the key lies in your own hands. Are you all ready? I'm about to begin."
The Wuxiang Boy stopped laughing and moved, flapping his wings and soaring high. The third eye between his eyebrows suddenly opened, and a light of indistinguishable nature emanated from this vertical pupil.
At the same time, the Wuxiang Boy's entire body began to rapidly transform.
Just like before, after emitting a venomous dragon roar, the Wuxiang boy's face transformed into a ferocious, ancient dragon head, and his body, once clad in crystal-red armor, became almost invisible.
"Candle Dragon Realm? Could it be the so-called Candle Dragon? Possessing the power to control time?"
Ming Qi's mind fluttered, but before he could ponder further, he saw the light emanating from the Wuxiang boy's vertical pupils rapidly condense into a mysterious magic circle. A dazzling array of different colors swirled within, creating a breathtaking scene.
"Hurry, get inside the formation!"
At that moment, the Wuxiang boy's slightly hurried voice rang out.
Not daring to delay, the few who followed stepped into the shrouded formation.
Although Ming Qi still didn't know the Wuxiang boy's true origins, he knew at least that he had awakened from the Supreme Diagram, so he wouldn't harm them. Therefore, there was no need to worry about anything going wrong.
Upon entering the formation, Ming Qi noticed his surroundings shift instantly. Wei Silong, Mo Changli, and the others who had been standing with him were gone. All that remained was a hazy, shimmering space.
According to Wuxiang Tongzi, this was a time-reversal, a return to the time before their lives were stolen. As for how to control and adapt, that was entirely up to him.
"Time flows rapidly backward within the formation, but you must master the formation and completely dominate the space you occupy before you reach the ideal age. Otherwise, nothing will change once the formation expires."
At this moment, Wuxiang Tongzi's voice echoed in Ming Qi's ears again.
Based on Ming Qi and the others' current abilities, they would have been unable to understand the concept of time. However, now they were within a formation that allowed them to travel back in time, a rare and precious opportunity for any cultivator.
Amidst the vast, radiant formation, Ming Qi could immediately sense the vitality stolen by the Origin Power rapidly recovering, infinitely faster than it had previously been lost.
Time rewinded rapidly, which Ming Qi considered a negative development. Rapid recovery meant he had very little time left. Once time completely rewound to a time before his birth, and he hadn't fully mastered the entire space, everything would be over.
"Don't hope for the best. Time rewind can only be used once. If it fails, you'll never recover."
The Wuxiang Boy spoke from outside.
Ming Qi now concentrated his consciousness, radiating it into every inch of the surrounding space, attempting to access the hidden power of time.
Ming Qi didn't have high hopes for mastering the power of time. He simply wanted to temporarily control this space, returning to his desired age.
A vast expanse of vastness continued to appear around him, various illusory images circulating and alternating like flowing water, and from time to time, bursts of long dragon roars could be heard.
After dozens of minutes, Ming Qi found himself completely restored to his previous state.
"How fast!"
Without time to ponder the reason for such a miraculous event, Ming Qi unreservedly dispersed his spiritual consciousness, permeating the entire space, attempting to grasp the laws governing its operation.
One minute, two minutes, five minutes.
Five minutes later, under the power of time travel, Ming Qi had transformed into a child of seven or eight years old.
"Hmm..."
"It seems to be working..."
A sudden thought struck Ming Qi, and he manipulated his spiritual consciousness to violently radiate a vibration towards the surrounding space. The space shifted, and the alternating images suddenly jumped and rapidly rearranged themselves.
Mountains, water, earth, dragons—these images had been arranged in a random pattern, but now, under Ming Qi's control, they could be reordered at will.
"I see!"
While manipulating his spiritual sense to alter the order of these images, Ming Qi also felt clearly that these were the key factors affecting the flow of time.
"Time, forward!"
Having grasped this, Ming Qi naturally had to make some changes.
He was only a 16-year-old boy at the moment, and this was not what he wanted.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The images flowed, rapidly changing and arranging themselves. The original backward movement of time was transformed into a forward movement of time.
Second by second, Ming Qi, trapped in this illusion, was also rapidly growing.
"Good!"
Feeling that his body had completely recovered to its previous peak condition, Ming Qi's mind moved, and he frantically activated his spiritual sense, controlling the images' rapid arrangement once again.
Before coming to the Imperial Mountains, Ming Qi had been only fifteen or sixteen years old, but now he had recovered.
"Stop!"
With a jolt of inspiration, Ming Qi's heart froze, and all the images froze, completely ceasing to flow.
Then there was a loud bang, as if something had shattered. Ming Qi watched the illusory space around him rapidly vanish. In the blink of an eye, the magic circle surrounding him vanished.
Success.
Although the surroundings still held that eerie pale silver hue, Ming Qi could sense that the once terrifying Origin Power had lost its effectiveness, having no effect on him at all.
"Use this moment to improve your strength. This is a rift in time. Your cultivation speed will increase hundreds, even thousands, of times!"
The Wuxiang Boy exclaimed upon seeing Ming Qi being the first to successfully exit the magic circle.
Seeing that the Wuxiang Boy remained in his dragon form, his vertical pupils continuously radiating an intense light, he nodded.
Hundreds, even thousands of times—that number alone was enough to drive people mad.
Sitting cross-legged on the ground, Ming Qi raised a finger, and a fruit appeared before his eyes.
The Alsophila sacred fruit, the very fruit he had obtained from the Blood Sword mercenary earlier, could accelerate cultivation, stabilize the mind, and calm volatile energy. For cultivators seeking to advance across levels, it was truly a treasure.
The Alsophila sacred fruit hovered quietly beside him. Ming Qi didn't immediately choose to refine it, but instead frantically gathered his energy and began striving for the fifth level of the Innate Realm.
It had been some time since he had reached the fourth level of the Innate Realm. While common sense wouldn't allow him to advance yet, the current situation was unique and only happened once in a thousand years. It would be a waste not to seize this opportunity.
Pah, pah, pah!
Ming Qi quickly pulled out a large pile of pills and devoured them recklessly. At the same time, he grasped a Fire King Crystal in each hand, desperately absorbing power.
In the blink of an eye, the medicinal power of the pills unleashed, a tremendous force rapidly coursing through his body. Simultaneously, the energy generated by the Fire King Crystal flowed through his arms and into his limbs.