Michael's consciousness gradually awakened. Within his murky line of sight. The monotone world had already vanished. What appeared before him was a four walled room. However, it was clear that this wasn't a room made from bricks. But rather, a tent.

Standing up. Intense pain filled his mind as he tried to recall the recent events that happened. Some pictures flashed by inside his mind but he still wasn't able to clearly remember what actually happened. 

The only subject that was clear to Michael was that he was the one who killed the centipede. And his body was somewhat being controlled by other entity. 

Looking around the room. He found a ragged backpack of which he immediately looked inside. There he found several necessary items of daily life such as water, clothes, and food. Adding all of this has the potential to last Michael for one week.

Beside the ragged backpack was a small sheepskin, embedded on a sheepskin were words that Michael couldn't clearly understand. But shockingly, as he blinked his eyes. The words before him became as clear as an azure sky!

Unknown sir, Please excuse us for leaving you abruptly, the goods the we carried were perishable so it was imminent that we fasten our pace towards the Golden Meadow City. If you happen to near this city. Please present this badge and the guards will give you warm welcome.

Michael issued a long lasting sigh. But he didn't say anymore as a refute as it was quite reasonable for them to do such actions.

To them, Michael was an unknown entity. And with the experience that Michael gained from reading chinese wuxia novels, He had already deduced their true intentions. 

They didn't want to risk their own group by carrying a potential bandit.

Raising his head up high. Michael decided to move outside of the tent and carried the backpack with him as he surveyed the surroundings. Sand Dunes... Sand Dunes were everywhere. There was even an area where the sand dunes soared up high that it formed a little mountain.

Looking around, the mountain filled with grasses disappeared from Michael's sight. It wasn't even there anymore, it was as if it didn't even exist in the first place.

A bleak helpless smile emerged from this place as he looked at the badge on his hand. How could he even reach this Golden Meadow City when he didn't even know its general direction? He really was a headless fly for this one.

Ding!

A sound akin to a glass breaking emerged within Michael's mind. The pain he felt became searing that he knelt on one knee as he gritted his teeth and endured the pain. Mixed emotions filled his chest as he waited for the monotone world to arrive.

Surely, after waiting for about fifteen seconds. The world around him became black and white. The whistling wind halted as if it lost its life. The scorching heat of the sun was lost.

Inside this monotone world. A feminine mocking voice resounded followed by a cold snort. "Hmmph! Why would you give up for just this little? This is just a small desert! To think that I've chosen you as my heir." The voice contained disappointment in it as it nagged.

Michael was dumbfounded. He surely heard the voice but it didn't resonated outside, it rang inside his mind!

"Sigh... Although I said that, It's still partly my fault. I didn't give you enough knowledge to use your newly awakened power. " As the feminine voice's sentence ended. Searing pain once again emerged and attacked Michael's head like a gnawing needle.

"AHHH!!!" Michael couldn't endure it anymore and fell to the ground. His body in a fetal position as droll came out of his mouth like river as he clutched his head in desperate pain.

However, Michael realized that as this pain entered his mind. Countless strips of information about the Eyes of Time and its history appeared inside his mind like a vivid crystal clear water.

After about two hours, the pain inside his mind subsided. However, he felt extremely dizzy due to the fatigue of absorbing too much information about the Eyes of Time.

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Some information in strips that he received was extremely muddled. That it looked like it was trashed around and coiled to a toilet paper before being placed in front of him to comprehend.

The only vivid information was the concept of time.

Michael closed his eyes as he chanted. "Time is eternal, time flows like a river... It's power covers everything inside this cosmos. All things created, was created by the use of time. Therefore, time is everything. The answer to life and everything is time."

When Michael opened his eyes. It flashed with deep profoundness in it as he stood up. He darted his gaze towards the horizon as determination filled his chest.

"Golden Meadow City, I'm coming." Murmuring, Michael clutched the backpack on the ground and proceeded onward.

...

After several days of walking and stopping on the way towards Golden Meadow City. Michael could finally see the hazy image of the city gates before him. And he was quite amazed.

Several bronze statues stood beside the city gates. The gates performed an attention stance as they wielded a spear in their right hand. Emanating an archaic feeling.

Michael revealed a small smile, judging from the distance. He could reach the city gates tomorrow. And so, Michael unfolded the tent inside his backpack and placed the remaining foods in a stack and rationed it to last tomorrow.

Unfortunately, though this backpack included daily necessities. It's set of clothes wasn't enough for Michael to last for about several days. And so, as he took the clothes off. He felt a small disappointment and unwillingness.

From now on. Michael would walk towards the city gates naked from his waist above.

In these past days, as Michael walked towards the direction of the Golden Meadow City. He didn't dare slacken and practiced his control of the monotone world. In that world, everything was in a halt and so, Michael could do anything he wanted in that span of time.

However, he could only maintain that situation for only about ten seconds. Anymore than that would cause him to feel extremely dizzy that the world around him would seem to revolve in circles.

"Following the instructions of that little loli, I should be able to do this." Michael murmured in a low voice as he fetched a handful of sand.

With a squinted eyebrows. Michael slowly closed his right eye. Of which he immediately snapped open. However, his previous brown eye became embedded with a pentacle engraving and a green light shot forth towards the handful of sand as it slowly enshrouded it.

According to the information inside his mind that he gathered. With his Eyes of Time. He could stop, reverse, accelerate the flow of time in any inanimate, or animate object. 

But he would need to pay a price for every time he ages, nourished, or destroy a living subject. That's the law that the Eyes of Time had. The law of equivalent exchange.

So Michael didn't even dare to use a living subject as a practice target since he still didn't have any Essence Crystals within him. That's what the information strip said that can be used as a sacrifice in case that he needed to kill using the Eyes of Time. 

And so, Michael could only use the sand as a test subjcet.

~Cracking sounds resonated... 

~Ding!

The previous noise akin to a glass breaking appeared as the handful of sand before him turned to water! With an accomplished smile. Michael closed in with his mouth as he tasted the water and revealed a bitter smile of success. 

"Saltwater..."

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Author's Note: Thank you for reading and sorry for the late releases! I've been focusing on my first project An Immortals' Interaction with Modern Technology. Thanks for reading and if you have any time to spare, please read my first project!

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