The air atop Mount Baijin crackled with energy. Zhen Ruhan stood amidst swirling time mist, breath steady but shallow. His robes fluttered unnaturally caught between the mountain's peak winds and the distortions of time still unraveling around him.
He raised his hand.
A faint ripple flickered at his side and then it appeared.
His clone.
Not a simple illusion, but a mirrored version of himself made from compressed seconds. It blinked into place with his same stance, same clothes, same intent but no emotion.
Skill Activated: Temporal Clone (Lv. 1)
— Duration: 10 seconds
— Cooldown: 2 minutes
— Current Sync Ratio: 78%
Ruhan circled it slowly. The clone followed his movement with eerie perfection.
"Not bad," he muttered. "But will it fight?"
He clenched his fist and the clone did the same.
Then, suddenly, it vanished into dust.
Skill Ended: Temporal Clone
"That's going to take training."
A small ding echoed in his ear.
System Task Completed: "Touch Time"
— Reward: Skill Insight Token (Common)
— Hidden Path Progress: 3%
Below the notifications, a faint line of text pulsed.
"The seed has awakened. Now it must root."
Mei Lin appeared beside him, as silently as always.
"You've awakened your first offensive temporal skill," she noted, scanning him. "Your compatibility is higher than expected."
"Compatibility?"
"You're syncing with the Temporal Layer. Every moment you absorb deepens your presence here. But there's danger in that too."
"How so?"
"Stay here too long without anchoring to a reality, and you risk… fading."
Her voice was serious now, more so than ever.
Ruhan frowned. "So what anchors me?"
"Purpose. Conflict. Bonds."
She paused.
"Or blood."
They descended the mountain slowly. The time distortions grew calmer the lower they went, but something had shifted in the air.
The trial had activated something greater.
When they reached the base, a translucent glyph hovered mid-air shimmering with inscriptions like ticking glyphs.
Mei Lin stepped aside. "Place your hand."
Ruhan did so, and the glyph burst into thousands of spinning letters before reforming into a small crystal.
Chrono Core Fragment Acquired
— System Enhancement Unlocked
— Passive Ability Gained: Temporal Resistance (Lv. 1)
But with the reward came a message that chilled his spine.
Another seed has sprouted.
Ruhan turned to Mei Lin. "What does that mean?"
She met his eyes.
"You're not the only one chosen."
Two days passed.
Ruhan trained. He practiced invoking Temporal Clone repeatedly learning to split his actions, how to attack in tandem, and how to fake his movements using delayed seconds.
At night, the Memory Bead continued to show him flickers of the Chrono Monarch. More fragments. More trials from the past.
He saw the Monarch walking across a battlefield of still corpses.
He saw a golden hourglass breaking in reverse.
And once… he saw a woman, cloaked in time-fire, whispering his name through eternity.
"Ruhan..."
When he awoke, a single phrase appeared in his system:
Hidden Name: "The Echoed One" (Unawakened)
On the third day, the peace shattered.
A ripple passed through the realm sharp and cold, like someone slashing a mirror.
Ruhan stood and felt the pull. Something was wrong.
Mei Lin rushed toward him. "A rift has opened. Near the Hollow Vale."
"What does that mean?"
"Someone entered this world... who doesn't belong."
The Hollow Vale was a land of dead trees and pale light. Time moved strangely here shadows sped forward, then reversed. The sky flickered between day and night without rhythm.
In the center of the vale stood a portal raw, unstable, and screaming with chaos.
And from it, a figure emerged.
He was tall, clad in crimson armor veined with black. His face was obscured by a horned mask, but his presence
was like gravity.
Mei Lin paled. "A Fractured One…"
Ruhan narrowed his eyes. "What's that?"
"A cultivator lost to time. One who defied fate… and was cursed by it."
The Fractured One raised his head and pointed a finger at Ruhan.
"You carry the Seed," he said in a voice that sounded layered like multiple versions of him speaking at once.
"You will hand it over."
Ruhan stepped forward, heart pounding.
The system flared.
Emergency Task Issued: Defend the Seed
— Objective: Survive the assault
— Bonus Reward: Temporal Core Purification
— Risk: Memory Corruption on Failure
He didn't hesitate.
"Try and take it."
The battle began in an instant.
The Fractured One blinked forward teleportation through seconds and slashed with a curved blade made of mirrored metal.
Ruhan activated Temporal Clone and dodged in tandem. His clone took the hit, dispersing instantly.
He followed with a Moment Step, appearing behind the attacker and striking but hit only an afterimage.
"Too slow," the Fractured One said and kicked him through a time-warping tree.
Ruhan coughed blood.
The system buzzed.
Warning: Temporal Integrity Falling
— Delay Breach: 5 seconds
— Chrono Vision Boost (Temporary): 20%
Ruhan activated everything.
His vision slowed. The enemy's movements stretched like molasses.
He read the next attack and moved early.
The blade missed.
He struck the Fractured One in the chest where the core should be.
And for a brief moment he saw something inside.
A seed like his own. But cracked. Broken.
The Fractured One staggered. "You… saw it…"
He backed away then raised his hand.
Time distorted violently.
"Next time… I'll take it."
And he vanished shattered into fragments of time that scattered to the wind.
Ruhan fell to his knees, drained.
The system chimed:
Battle Survived.
— Task Complete.
— Reward Granted: Temporal Core Purification
— New Passive: Phase Stability (Lv. 1)
— Hidden Thread Unlocked: "The Fractured Seeds"
Mei Lin walked over slowly.
"There will be more," she said.
"I figured."
"They were all candidates once. Chosen like you. But time broke them."
Ruhan looked up at the swirling sky. "Then I'll have to become something time can't break."
And far away deep in the celestial reaches someone laughed.
End of Chapter 5