One hour earlier.

Chen Xiang was feeling a little troubled.

He had discovered something quite serious: no matter what he tried, he simply couldn't strike the Bell of Universal Silence!

Yes, no matter what.

Both he and Lu Saleng had subconsciously overlooked an innate problem—it was utterly impossible for a non-deity to ring an outer god weapon. Even just ringing it lightly required at least someone at the level of a pseudo-god!

Chen Xiang had even hurried back to the Wu Manor to retrieve his mirror, then rushed back to the Academy ruins. He tried using the mirror and the cane to strike the Bell of Universal Silence repeatedly.

However, as the name of the bell suggested, no matter how hard he hit it, there was no sound at all.

The mirror was almost knocked senseless, but it was still no use.

Frustrated, Chen Xiang returned the cane to the mirror and threw the mirror back to Wu Manor. Then he returned to the Academy ruins, sitting helplessly near the dimensional rift, enduring the terrifying pressure of the Gun of Dimensional End.

During this time, Lu Sangdou, who had been watching outside the Academy, was utterly confused. He couldn't understand why this terrifying giant was running back and forth.

So frustrating.

Chen Xiang sat by the edge of the time-space rift for nearly an hour, his body cracking under the immense pressure.

With no other options, he opened his Eye of the Thinker, confirmed that no one was watching, and ensured that the dimensional rift and the Gun of Dimensional End would shred any prying eyes.

He then found a suitable angle, placed the Bell of Universal Silence near the rift, and lay down on a relatively flat broken wall, falling fast asleep.

In his dream.

Upon awakening, Chen Xiang immediately called out to Dumb.

"Dumb," he asked solemnly, "Do you have any way for a creature below the divine staircase to strike the Bell of Universal Silence?"

Dumb, pushing up its glasses, replied in a daze, "Mother, no."

"Really none?"

"Really none!"

Chen Xiang sighed deeply, asking one last time, "But what if, just hypothetically, the Bell of Universal Silence was right below this hole, at the edge of the cave's exit—would you have a way to ring it then?"

"You should've said so earlier!" Dumb exclaimed seriously. "Of course there's a way! Fool! Idiot! Come over here!"

At Dumb's command, Fool and Idiot rushed over. Dumb leaned over the edge of the hole, squinting, and then looked up, saying, "Hmm, I can vaguely see the Bell of Universal Silence. The distance is just right!"

"What distance?" Chen Xiang asked curiously.

"This one!" Dumb pointed at the horn hanging around Idiot's neck, more precisely, at the string tied to it. "The string is just long enough. Pull the string to lower the horn, and it can reach the Bell of Universal Silence. Then it's up to who's pulling the string!"

"There's a trick to it?" Chen Xiang inquired.

"Mother, of course! If you want the bell to ring softly, I'll pull it. For a medium sound, let Idiot do it, since he's the horn's owner. And if you want the loudest sound, let Fool do it—he's the bell's owner!"

After a pause, Dumb added, "To maximize the sound, it's best if you do it yourself. But you won't be able to stretch your hand into the hole, so the distance will be much shorter!"

Chen Xiang nodded thoughtfully, pondered for a moment, and then decisively said, "Hmm, I'm not sure how to break the Gun of Dimensional End. Let Fool do it. By the way, one more thing."

He added, "One of my ant avatars is near the bell. Will I be affected when the bell rings?"

"No," Dumb shook its head firmly. "We're your children. How could we harm you? Even if it's just an avatar."

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As it spoke, Dumb pushed up its glasses, seeming to read some related information, and explained, "Unless, like the forsaken Confused, we actively sever our connection with you."

Chen Xiang's heart stirred, making a mental note of this information. He then calmly said, "Since that's the case, let's begin."

Idiot removed the horn and handed it to Fool. Fool comically lay by the edge of the hole, gripping the string tightly as he lowered the horn into the hole.

As he did so, Fool asked, "Dumb, is this good?"

"Deeper!" Dumb instructed.

"How about now?"

"Even deeper!"

"Still not enough?"

"Alright, you can let go of a small section of the string now!"

Fool did as Dumb instructed, letting go of a small portion of the string before gripping it again. A faint sound of contact came from the hole.

"That quiet?" Chen Xiang frowned slightly. "I'm afraid that won't be enough."

"Then do it again!" Dumb ordered Fool. "This time, grab a longer section and then let it go!"

Fool followed the instruction, and the bell's sound became a little louder.

But only a little.

"Once more, a bit louder this time!" Chen Xiang commanded. Fool followed the directions, pulling the string even higher before releasing it, letting the horn fall into the hole with a thud!

'Boom!'

This time, the muffled sound was much clearer.

Chen Xiang was satisfied. "Hmm, that should do. If it doesn't work, I'll come back again!"

With that, he shook his head, his vision becoming blurry. In a few moments, he woke up from his dream.

...

Opening his eyes, he found himself still lying on the relatively flat, broken wall.

Chen Xiang got up, and the first thing he saw was the Bell of Universal Silence floating in mid-air, trembling slightly.

Looking up, he could see that the dimensional rift had stopped spinning. The Gun of Dimensional End had detached from the rift but didn't fall—it hung eerily in mid-air.

At this moment, he could barely make out the form of the massive spear through the thick light and mist. The spear was enormous, its shaft covered in indescribable colors, entwined with countless dimensional rifts.

But those rifts were strange, frozen in a state of stasis.

It had worked.

Chen Xiang exhaled softly, his expression brightening, though a slight sense of confusion lingered.

According to Professor Suluo's explanation...

As soon as the Ancient Altar broke free from the sealing of the End of Dimension Spear, the runes engraved on it, long dormant, were supposed to automatically activate. The altar would then be banished into the void storm and, after that, transported to a basement beside Saint Luo Square.

But now, the temporal rift showed no movement. It hung there, completely still, no longer rotating, and the swirling chaotic colors around it had ceased their twisting.

"So... was it a success or a failure?"

Chen Xiang frowned, muttering to himself. He walked forward, just about to put away the Silent Bell of the Cosmos, when his expression suddenly changed.

Heat.

Intense heat.

An overwhelming energy surged within him, on the verge of eruption!

"This feeling…"

His face changed color. He was stepping into the realm of the transcendent!

How could this be?!

According to the Giant Principal, once he reached transcendence, he would have already been banished into Lost Time. Unless he received the blessing of a Great Being or even The Greatest One, or somehow entered Lost Time itself, there was absolutely no way for him to ascend into the transcendent realm!

He tried desperately to suppress the terrifying, turbulent energy raging inside him, his mind racing. Where had things gone wrong?

"No…"

"I cannot transcend right now!"

Once he transcended, he would no longer be a vessel. His plan to take control would fail!

If that happened, he would waste an enormous amount of time on cultivation, time he simply did not have!

What had gone wrong?

Chen Xiang, barely holding back the explosive, volcano-like power inside him, flushed red as he scanned his surroundings with great difficulty.

He saw a few fallen leaves.

Leaves suspended mid-air.

To be precise, they weren't falling—they were frozen, suspended in the sky, utterly motionless.

"What… is this?"

Stunned, Chen Xiang felt a chill down his spine. He kicked up a handful of dirt and sand, only to watch them hang in the air, as if frozen, just like the leaves—as if time itself had been paused!

Time stop?

But what did time stop have to do with his impending, uncontrollable transcendence?

Unless…

Right now…

Could it be…

Was he in Lost Time?

Chen Xiang raised his head, carefully scrutinizing the sky. Sure enough, something was wrong.

Even the dazzling burst of light in the sky had stopped, and through the radiant halo, two figures could be vaguely seen, frozen in place.

As he continued to suppress the overwhelming power surging through his body, he opened his Eye of the Thinker.

In that moment, an immense flood of identical information rushed into Chen Xiang's mind!

[Lost Time]

[Lost Time]

[Lost Time]

…

Just as he expected. Right now, at this precise moment, he was indeed in Lost Time. In this extra twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth hour beyond the regular twenty-four hours of the day, time no longer flowed. Everything was frozen!

Chen Xiang, enduring the enormous influx of information, quickly sifted through it and found the answer.

[The Arrival of Lost Time: The Silent Ruler blows the Horn of the Life Sovereign and strikes the Silent Bell of the Cosmos three times. The echoes of time are forcibly silenced, and time enters Lost Time, which will return to normal after two hours.]

"Just as I thought!"

By this time, Chen Xiang was drenched in sweat, his muscles and skin rippling like waves as he desperately suppressed his breakthrough.

Panting, he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"Two hours... I have to hold on for two hours? When the echoes of time are silenced, that's when Lost Time begins?"

Exhausted, Chen Xiang glanced around again, searching for more information, but all he saw was [Lost Time].

He forced himself to raise his head and look toward the sky once more.

And then, he froze.

"What… is that?"

In this moment of frozen time, during this lost hour, his Eye of the Thinker pierced the atmosphere as always, seeing far beyond what was ordinarily visible.

But this time, it revealed something different.

A corpse.

A massive, semi-transparent corpse, drifting at the edge of the atmosphere. Its sheer size was indescribable, nearly covering half the Earth.

A flood of information crashed into Chen Xiang's mind.

[The True Remains of the Pure White Sovereign]