The Awakening Ceremony was held in the square in front of the Lord's mansion.
All six-year-old children in Qingshi City gathered there that day, waiting to be tested by the Lingyuan Master sent by the Lord's mansion. The square was packed with onlookers, the air thick with tension and excitement.
"Next: Ye Chen."
Hearing his name, Ye Chen took a deep breath and stepped onto the testing platform.
On the platform stood a crystal stele about waist-high. It was said to be a high-grade testing artifact brought from the imperial capital, capable of precisely measuring the attribute and potential of one's Lingyuan. The Lingyuan Master presiding over the test was a middle-aged man. He glanced at Ye Chen, a faint trace of disdain flickering in his eyes.
The decline of the Ye family was common knowledge in Qingshi City.
"Place your hands on the stele. Concentrate your mind and channel the Lingyuan power within you," the man said mechanically.
Ye Chen did as instructed, pressing his palms against the stele.
In an instant, he felt a faint power stirring within him—an innate energy dormant in his bloodline. Following the guidance techniques he had learned, he tried to channel that power into the stele.
The stele lit up.
But the light it emitted left everyone frozen.
It was not any of the colors associated with the nine basic attributes—Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, Thunder, Light, or Dark. Instead, it was a strange, nearly transparent radiance, flickering within the stele as if it might go out at any moment.
"What attribute is that?" someone whispered in the crowd.
"Never seen it before. Could it be a variant attribute?"
"A variant attribute? That would be valuable!"
The middle-aged Lingyuan Master's expression, however, grew increasingly grim. He stared at the stele for a long time before finally speaking, his voice cold:
"Lingyuan attribute: Space-Time. Grade… None."
"None?!" The crowd erupted.
Lingyuan grades ranged from lowest to highest: Mortal, Earth, Heaven, King, and Emperor. But "None" was a rating no one present had ever heard of.
"What does that mean?" Lin Wanqing rushed out of the crowd, her voice anxious.
The Lingyuan Master replied flatly: "It means this attribute has no offensive power and no auxiliary capability. Time and space are intangible, elusive concepts. They cannot be used in battle. In short, it's a useless attribute."
Useless attribute.
Those four words stabbed like a blade into Lin Wanqing's heart. She swayed, nearly collapsing.
Below the platform, the crowd buzzed with speculation.
"The Ye family is finished."
"Exactly. They couldn't even produce a decent attribute. Worse than an ordinary person."
"I heard Ye Haoran was a Heaven-grade Lingyuan Master back in the day. Who'd have thought his son would be so useless."
"A tiger father, a dog son. It happens."
Ye Chen stood on the testing platform, listening to the cutting remarks, his face expressionless.
He looked down at his hands, his mind racing.
Space-Time attribute?
In his previous life, time and space were the fundamental dimensions of the universe. Einstein's relativity, Hawking's models of the cosmos, the spacetime concepts of quantum physics… any physicist knew exactly what the power over time and space meant.
Time could be accelerated, slowed, even reversed.
Space could be folded, sliced, even created.
How could this possibly be a useless attribute?
"Interesting," Ye Chen murmured to himself, the faintest trace of a smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.
He stepped down from the platform, steadied his faltering mother, and said softly, "Mother, let's go home."
Lin Wanqing looked at her son's calm face, her heart filled with both sorrow and pride. She nodded, took Ye Chen's hand, and walked away from the square amid the murmuring crowd.
Behind them, the Lingyuan Master shook his head and wrote four words in his record book:
"Ye Chen: Useless."
On the way home, Ye Chen kept thinking.
His past life's knowledge told him that the reason people considered Space-Time power "useless" was that they had not yet found the right way to use it. Just as ancient people did not know uranium could generate electricity, ignorance did not equate to worthlessness.
The question was, how could he develop this power?
The cultivation system of this world was built around the use of Lingyuan, yet his attribute was unheard of, with no precedent to follow. That meant he would have to forge his own path.
"First, I need to figure out what I can do right now."
Once home, Ye Chen locked himself in his room and began experimenting with channeling his Lingyuan.
He closed his eyes and focused on the faint power inside him. Unlike during the Awakening Ceremony, this time he tried to actively control it.
At first, nothing happened.
But he did not give up, trying again and again.
Finally, after countless attempts, he sensed something strange—the world around him seemed… slower.
Not actually slower, but his perception had sharpened.
He could clearly see every trajectory of the fallen leaf drifting past the window, hear every word of the conversations on the distant street, even feel the rhythm of his own heartbeat with startling clarity.
"Time perception?"
Ye Chen's eyes flew open. He realized the burst of perception had lasted only two seconds, but he had undeniably achieved it.
This was the initial form of Space-Time power—enhanced perception of time.
"If I can apply this in battle…" A gleam flickered in Ye Chen's eyes. "I can predict my opponent's moves and react before they strike."
And this was only the beginning.
He believed that as his strength grew, he would be able to do far more.
Outside the window, the setting sun bathed Qingshi City in gold.
Standing before the window, gazing at this unfamiliar world, a thought arose in Ye Chen's mind:
Since fate has granted me a second life, I will use these eyes to see the truth of this world.
Useless attribute? Declining family?
One day, I will make everyone understand that the power of Space-Time is the greatest power in this world.