As a result, when confronted with the raised fist of the Grim Reaper Titan, she didn’t make any attempt to struggle, but instead closed her eyes, appearing ready to embrace death.
The Grim Reaper is utterly pitiless, not swayed by any emotions. The Titan’s fist swung down with force.
However, just as the giant fist was about to strike, Mu You felt a strange wave of energy. The fist stopped mid-air, absolutely still. Not only that, but everything around him -- the plants on the ground, the dust in the air, the energy that was rippling endlessly over the Grim Reaper -- everything froze.
Mu You was shocked. Could this be time stop?
Mu You wasn’t sure who initiated the time stop this time, the question was, how could he still be conscious after time was frozen?
Not only was he conscious, but he felt as though his body was entirely free to act!
Just as he was about to try to take a step forward, Vivian’s voice suddenly echoed in his mind: "Don’t move! Hold your breath, try to slow your heartbeat."
Mu You was taken aback and hurriedly retracted his foot, doing as she said.
At the same time, he noticed Red Sleeve, who was kneeling in the distance, seemed to move all of a sudden. However, it wasn’t her but her stomach that was moving.
In her bulging belly, something ripped open a hole from the inside and two tiny hands emerged, forcing the hole wider. A small head covered in fluid poked out from the opening.
A seven-month-old fetus, its features still not fully formed. But moments after its emergence, the baby’s face rapidly changed, becoming an ancient face and opened its eyes.
After the baby’s head emerged, Red Sleeve who had been frozen, suddenly began to move. But instead of standing up normally, she jerkily rose from the ground like a mindless zombie, picked up the body of a fallen World Walker, and with a zombie’s gait, staggered off into the distance.
Not too far ahead, an elliptical teleportation gate had mysteriously appeared.
At this point, with Vivian without giving the go-ahead, Mu You did not dare to move. He could do nothing but watch as the two stepped into the teleportation gate and disappeared.
Just a few seconds after they vanished, Mu You saw two floating ghostly figures suddenly appear out of nowhere in the spot where Red Sleeve had been.
They had familiar upper bodies with human forms, lower bodies made of smoke, wielding a knife and fork and a giant axe respectively.
One of them went straight for the teleportation gate that hadn’t yet disappeared.
The other surveyed the surroundings first and looked at each of the few people present. After confirming that nothing was amiss, it followed the steps of the previous figure, disappearing into the teleportation gate.
With those two strange creatures also gone, the teleportation gate in the distance started to shrink and disappear, and time quietly resumed its flow.
The Titan’s fist in the distance came crashing down, naturally hitting nothing.
Mu You didn’t have time to ask Vivian what happened because right after the time stop ended, the Grim Reaper’s shadow on Lin Xue started to fade away quickly until it disappeared completely.
Lin Xue turned to look at them, as though she wanted to come over. But she could barely take two steps before she lost her balance and fell to the ground, motionless.
Mu You and Shadow Wolf hurried over, helped her up and checked her condition.
Thankfully, she just seemed to have lost consciousness and there were no wounds on her body.
However, through the Omniscient Crystal, Mu You saw that all of Lin Xue’s stats had dropped to one point, with agility being the only exception staying in the double digits. Next to her name, a ’Weakened State’ tag was appended.
"What on earth just happened? How did time stop all of a sudden? And how come I seem to be immune to it?"
After confirming Lin Xue was safe, Mu You finally had the chance to ask about what had just happened.
"You’re immune to time stop because of the thing you just got." Vivian said.
Mu You quickly took out the hollow cube he’d gotten earlier. He noticed that there appeared to be even more cracks on the cube’s surface now.
"That shell is called a ’Time Receptor’. It’s a tool specifically used to resist time stop." Vivian explained.
"So, as long as I hold this, I’ll enter any time stop initiated by someone else, no matter where I am?" Mu You asked.
"It’s not that powerful. It’s simply a passive receptor. It will only trigger if someone near you initiates or is in the middle of a time stop. This is just like my capability." Vivian replied.
Mu You understood immediately; just like the case with the World Walker - only when this creature decides to stop time while in their proximity, is Vivian able to enter the stopped world.
Otherwise, considering the number of times the World Walker had stopped time in the Star Spirit World in the past, wouldn’t Vivian have been forced to enter the time stop every time?
Earlier, it was the same situation; only when that baby and those two strange creatures were present did he get to see the spectacle of time stop. The moment they departed, the time stop ended instantly.
"This receptor is already damaged; a damaged Time Receptor will continue to deteriorate with every use until it completely shatters. You can only use it a few more times."
Vivian glanced at the object in his hand before continuing, "What’s really useful to you is not the receptor itself, but what’s inside it."
"Yes, try taking it out and merging it with your Pocket Watch." Vivian suggested.
Mu You immediately did as told, picking up the cube, carefully using the Levitation Technique to extract the shard little by little from the crevice.
Then, taking his Pocket Watch, he moved the shard towards it.
Upon touching the surface of the Pocket Watch, the shard instantly gave off a slight glow as it seamlessly merged with it.
Mu You hastily looked at his Pocket Watch using the Omniscient Crystal and saw the following information:
[Time Pocket Watch: Press the watch to turn back ten seconds. The cooldown time is ten seconds.]
Mu You was shocked- such a tiny shard had doubled the watch’s function!
Retracing five seconds was now turned into ten seconds, hence allowing for more complicated tasks.
Forget about anything else, just in terms of brewing Magic Potions, the combination of the Pocket Watch and Fool’s Card could extend one rewind to last for up to an hour. Now he would be able to practice some higher-level potions with more complex procedures!
"What exactly is this thing?" Mu You asked Vivian anxiously.
"It’s a fragment from the Heart of Time." Vivian responded.
"Heart of Time...Where can I get more?" Mu You enquired.
Something that could upgrade the Pocket Watch was undeniably alluring.
Vivian gave him an odd look, "No need to bother, unless you want to be perpetually hunted down by the Time Guardians, just like that old man."
"Old man? Time Guardians?"
Mu You froze momentarily.
"Old man" cleary referred to the strange baby that had just crawled out of Red Sleeve’s stomach, while "Time Guardians" were likely those two floating creatures.
So they were in a hunter-prey relationship, it’s no wonder they appeared consecutively.
"Time Guardians are creatures tasked with maintaining the order of time. Anyone who stops time without permission will become their prey. However, that old man made an even bigger mistake by stealing fragments from the Heart of Time. He probably stole more than one, hence, he will forever be hunted down. As long as he dares to reveal himself in any area of the real world, the Time Guardians will immediately pounce." Vivian explained.
"Wait, if those who arbitrarily stop time are hunted down, why hasn’t the World Walker been hunted down?" asked Mu You.
If stopping time randomly was indeed a crime, then that World Walker was undoubtedly a serious offender - he treated the stopped world as his home and stopped time recklessly and blatantly, yet, nobody ever came to restrain him.
"I’m not sure about that either; perhaps there’s something special about him."
Vivian shook her head, "This is probably the reason why that old man chose to cultivate him..."