CHAPTER 2378  AN UNFATHOMABLE BEING

Lin Mu looked at the crest, finding it rather mesmerizing and intimidating at the same time.

The Scarlet Red Eyes were seemingly glaring back at him, while the body which could only be described to be made out of emerald green crystals exuded an otherworldly presence. Even though he knew that this was just a mere crest, Lin Mu didn't know why but it seemed like more.

And just as he was staring at him, a voice echoed within his mind.

"Another hand touches the Seal…" The voice was almost mechanical, bordering on monstrous.

Lin Mu's senses alarmed him, all the hair on his body standing up on their ends. He shivered and felt his breath turning cold.

The back of his body was covered in cold sweat while his forehead became wet as well.

"Wha…" After a few seconds Lin Mu finally took a breath, trying to understand just what was happening. His eyes looked away from the crest and towards his companions, only to be stunned.

"Everyone," Lin Mu called out, but found them frozen!

'What's happening?' He couldn't understand. He tried to move towards them but realized that he couldn't move his body either!

"This… what is this?!" Lin Mu questioned the reality. "Senior Xukong?" Lin Mu called out in his mind, but there was still no response, much to his horror. Têxt belongs to .

His eyes, that were the only part of his body that he could move, darted around looking at everything. He tried to find some external source of things, but simply couldn't.

'Wait… the dust…' it was then that he realized something. 'It's not moving.'

It wasn't just him and his companions that had been frozen still… It was the world itself that had frozen!

It was as if… Time itself had come to a standstill.

Understanding this could only be done due to one thing, the box in his hand, Lin Mu looked back at him.

"That voice…" He muttered voicelessly.

"Mmm, it's been a long time." Lin Mu heard the voice again. It sounded almost groggy, as if it had woken up after a long time. "This…" Lin Mu gulped.

"So you are the one who's obtained the Seal… Interesting." The voice continued without a care. Lin Mu could feel the scarlet eyes on the crest looking right into his eyes. Even if he wanted to he couldn't look away, as if the eyes had taken a hold of him.

He stood like this for an unknown amount of time, unable to do anything. The scarlet eyes were piercing, as if they were looking at his very soul, leaving all the secrets bare.

"Hmm… This is Acceptable." The voice finally said, releasing Lin Mu from his restrained state. "I'll look forward to the upheaval you will cause, hahahahaah~" the voice said before fading away.

~SHUA~

With that, the time started to flow again and Lin Mu saw the dust particles floating around.

"HAAAH!" Lin Mu gasped loudly, his body trembling uncontrollably.

He would have almost dropped the box, if not for the fact that it was stuck to his hand.

"Daoist Lin Mu?" Crown Prince Feng Shun was the first to notice the irregularity.

"Are you fine?" Lady Kang asked as well, noticing the horrified and sweat face of Lin Mu.

"I…" Lin Mu was barely able to catch his breath as he replied, but didn't look at the box.

~SHUA~

Instead, he quickly stored it in the ring, sending it far into a distant corner.

Lady Kang approached him and placed her hand on his wrist, checking his condition. "Your vitality is overflowing and your Qi is erratic." Lady Kang said with great concern. "What happened?" The others, hearing this, were surprised and used their immortal sense to check Lin Mu too, finding his condition to be exhausted. It was as if he had just gone through an intense battle.

"It was the box?" Monk Hushu asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Yes…" Lin Mu said, taking a deep breath. "It's not… Normal…" he said with each breath.

"How?" Crown Prince Feng Shun asked.

"How long… do you… think it has… been?" Lin Mu asked.

"Let me help." Lady Kang said, placing her hand on his back and guiding a strand of her own immortal Qi into Lin Mu's body.

Her Qi was rather calm and helped the erratic flow of Lin Mu's Qi stabilize.

"How long? For what?" Crown Prince Feng Shun asked feeling confused.

"Since I… got the… box." Lin Mu spoke, his breathing slowly getting stable

"It hasn't been long… barely a minute." Crown Prince Feng Shun replied.

"No…" Lin Mu shook his head. "It was longer… much longer." He added.

"That can't be it." Crown Prince Feng Shun said.

"Hang on." But Ziran thought of something else. He took out a device from his spatial storage tool and looked at it. The others who saw it recognized it to be the Magic Pocket Chronometer Ziran had used before.

"What?" Ziran though, was shocked upon seeing it. "Something wrong?" Qiao De asked.

"The Chronometer… it's out of magic." Ziran replied.

"That's not bad, is it?" Qiao De asked in confusion. "It's not like its broken."

"No… You don't get it," Ziran said, taking a deep breath. "The Magic Pocket Chronometer had enough Magic to make it work for at least several more months." He stated.

"What?!" Crown Prince and the others were surprised.

"Are you sure you didn't forget to charge it?" Crown Princess Shang asked, just in case.

"No… I literally charged it yesterday when we took a break." Ziran denied. "And yet… it has lost all of its magic."

"Is it perhaps broken?" Daoist Chu asked, just in case.

"It's fine." Ziran said, checking it again. "It's definitely not broken." Hearing that, the group became silent as they pondered over the matter.

"We were… you all were… Frozen… in time." Lin Mu finally revealed.

"What!?" the group was shocked upon hearing that.

"For how long?" Lady Kang asked, narrowing her eyes.

"I don't know…" Lin Mu shook his head. "Days? Months… Maybe a year?" "How's that… even possible?" Qiao De couldn't help but ask.

It was the thing that everyone wondered about, as it was utterly terrifying.

"Stopping time is not something even immortals can do." Monk Hushu spoke. "Even Celestials cannot do it easily. Especially not for that long." He added.

"Yes… it is against the natural laws." Ziran nodded. "Even those that have an affinity to the Time Element cannot do something on a scale as large as that." He added.

Time was one of the three primordial elements and was also considered the most obscure of them all.

It was something that was so rarely seen among cultivators, it is said that in an entire generation there might not be more than one or two such cultivators in existence. Then there was the fact that, even if an individual had an affinity to the Time Element, they probably wouldn't realize it.

While it was incredibly powerful, controlling it was something that took millennia for even talented individuals. But those that could do that, were guaranteed to become the absolute rulers of that generation!

Still, even for such rulers, stopping the entire world was impossible.

"Time was stopped?" Lin Mu heard the voice he had been waiting for this entire time. "SENIOR!" Lin Mu called out in his mind, feeling incredibly relived.

Xukong was also very shocked once he awoke. A being of his level could very well tell when something as fundamental as time had been affected. This was why he had roused from his state of cultivation and immediately tried to sense what was happening.

"What happened?" Xukong asked, his voice serious. "Look at my memories!" Lin Mu immediately shared them.

Xukong looked through them, feeling more and more shocked.

"It really did… The entire immortal realm was frozen." Xukong confirmed much to Lin Mu's anxiety. "That box… I sense Karma on it." He said as he rushed within the ring's space.

He came to a stop before the box that Lin Mu had hurled far into a corner of the ring.

Xukong glanced at the box but didn't see the crest that he had seen in Lin Mu's memories. "The Karma's fading…" He stated, finding it surprising.

"If there was Karma… then there was really someone watching?" Lin Mu asked carefully.

"Indeed… And whoever it was… they were not a normal existence." Xukong replied. "Considering the fact that they could stop the time for the entire immortal realm and not alert the higher realms by now… They're far above it. An Unfathomable being." He added.

Every word from Xukong was stunning to Lin Mu, and he couldn't help but think over it again and again.

"What should I do with the box, Senior?" Lin Mu asked. "I haven't even seen the seal of it." He added.

"Let me check it first myself." Xukong replied, knowing this was far too dangerous than he had ever thought.

His body hovered over the box and a fine string extended from one of his legs.

It latched onto the box and sprang it open effortlessly, revealing the object inside.