Time is neither sacred nor cruel. It is simply the most valuable currency that exists.
Every living being spends it from the moment they are born. The difference between the strong and the weak is not talent, destiny, or morality. It is how they spend that currency.
Most people waste time without realizing it. They wait for opportunities instead of creating them. They hesitate, doubt, and chase comfort. By the time they understand the value of time, its already too late.
Every cultivation breakthrough, every skill mastered, every fragment of truth understood requires time as payment. Without paying this price, no amount of intelligence or talent can replace it.
Time exposes the biggest lie that weak people tell themselves. They believe failure is caused by lack of ability. In reality, most failures are caused by wasted time disguised as preparation, hesitation, or distraction.
Talent only determines how efficiently time can be converted into power. A genius may need ten years to achieve what an ordinary person needs a hundred years to accomplish. But if the genius wastes those ten years, while the ordinary person uses their hundred years without pause, the final result becomes obvious.
Even immortality does not remove the importance of time. It only removes the limit on supply. Immortal beings still require time to comprehend laws, refine techniques, and accumulate strength. An immortal who wastes ten thousand years is no different from a mortal who wastes ten years.
The cruelest aspect of time is not its passage. It is its irreversibility. Lost strength can be regained. Destroyed wealth can be rebuilt. Even broken bodies can sometimes be restored.
But, lost time cannot be recovered under any method.
Because of this, the most dangerous enemy is not death, fate, or rivals. It is complacency.
Those who understand the value of time treat every moment as an investment. They are willing to endure suffering, isolation, and risk if it allows them to transform time into strength.
Those who fail to understand it spend their lives chasing temporary satisfaction, only to realize too late that satisfaction does not accumulate into power.
In short, time does not favor anyone. But it always favors those who refuse to waste it.
And now Ash was truly understanding the importance of time. He was also beginning to understand the vastness of the goal he had set for himself, a goal that was far greater than simple ambition and demanded unwavering dedication.
For him to become the Strongest of all time, comprehension of the Runes was the first and foremost important task in his journey. It was the very foundation upon which everything else depended.
But the sheer amount of time required to accomplish it slowly made his mood turn sour, as if an invisible weight had settled upon his heart and mind.
His heart felt heavy and his thoughts slowly began drifting toward depression and despair, like clouds gathering before an unseen storm. As if responding to his feelings, the Soul Sea inside his soul space began to churn violently.
Once, the Soul Sea had been clear and calm, reflecting stability and purity. But it had transformed into a dark ocean filled with despair and negativity, formed from the accumulation of all the suppressed emotions and thoughts of Dark Ash.
For a long time, it had remained silent and motionless, as if it was simply a forgotten part of his existence. But now, sensing Ash’s unstable emotional state, it began to stir as if the waters themselves had gained life and intention.
Unknown to Ash, the dark waters began to gather together and condense slowly. They twisted and stretched in unstable motions, moving like a mass of living slime that was repeatedly struck yet refused to lose its shape.
Slowly, but surely, the outline of a humanoid figure began forming from the shifting darkness, its shape incomplete yet disturbingly persistent as it tried to stabilize itself.
-SLAAAAP!!!!!!!!!!
Suddenly, Ash slapped himself with all his strength, the force causing his upper body to crash to the ground. Even within the hidden depths of his soul space, the pain shot through his consciousness sharply, pulling him back from falling deeper into the path of depression and despair.
As clarity slowly returned to his mind and his scattered thoughts began to settle, the black humanoid figure instantly lost its unstable features and dissolved back into the dark waters of the Soul Sea, as if it had never tried to take form in the first place.
Maybe it was luck, or maybe it was sudden realization that saved Ash from forming a Heart Demon on his path.
But if Ash had not awakened at that moment, he would have soon realized how terrifying his Heart Demon would have been if it had fully taken shape.
Augmented by the Black Soul Sea, it would have given his Heart Demon a real body, a physical existence capable of interfering with his cultivation.
As the lingering pain sharpened his awareness, Ash realized how dangerously close he had come to deviating from his path and forming a Heart Demon.
He had read about such things in books, so he was familiar with their dangers and consequences. Still, he had never imagined that he would stand so close to forming one without even realizing it.
Though, he took a deep breath and cleared his mind.
Why am I even thinking about the future? What is the point of doing something like that? It will not change the reality, nor will it change the future if I refuse to act now.
I need to live in the present, not in the future. The troubles of the future shall be handled by the future me, not by the present me. What I need to do now is to stay true to my path and complete the task that I have assigned myself.....and that is to comprehend the Runes.....
So what if the path is long and lonely? I already knew it would be like this when I vowed to become the Strongest. No one becomes truly strong unless they face their own share of tribulations on their path and overcome them through their own efforts.
Solidifying his heart and strengthening his resolve, Ash erased even the smallest possibility of forming a Heart Demon if in future he would lament about the immense time required to comprehend the Runes. His determination settled deep within him, calm yet unshakable.
Putting aside all distracting thoughts, Ash once again activated his skill and directed his focus toward the Rune of Truth. His vision pierced through layers of illusion and complexity, reaching toward the hidden knowledge contained within its glyphs.
Within moments, the overwhelming flood of information crashed into his consciousness, and he soon lost consciousness once again.
Ash had decided not to think about anything and simply jump back into Rune comprehension.
As for what would happen in the future, it would happen when the future arrived. There was no point in destroying the present over something uncertain and distant like the future, especially when his current actions were the only things that could shape what was to come.
And like that, time continued to pass without any disturbance. Silence filled his Soul Space, stretching endlessly in all directions like an unmoving ocean.
The only thing that never stopped was Ash, who restlessly continued performing a single task without pause, along with the constant trembling of the Soul Library that responded to every influx of knowledge.
As soon as he regained consciousness, he would activate his skill again and fall unconscious due to the overwhelming flood of information almost instantly.
The moment his mind recovered enough to think, he would willingly throw himself back into that crushing storm of knowledge, as if he had already accepted this cycle as a natural part of his existence.
And just like that, a year passed.
Not much happened during that one year inside his Soul Space. The monotonous cycle continued endlessly, repeating itself without variation.
Still, Ash occasionally took small breaks from that continuous cycle. During those rare pauses, he wandered around his Soul Space slowly, sometimes observing the calm and silent darkness, sometimes standing near the Soul Sea and watching its faint movements, and sometimes reading a few books inside the Soul Library.
Those short breaks never lasted long, but they were enough to keep his sense of self stable.
After those brief moments of rest, he would check his progress in his description before forcing himself to jump back into the same relentless cycle once again, knowing very well that stopping completely would only delay his goal.
**
[Rune Comprehension]
Rune of Space - 0.000000772% (0/25,920 glyph)
Rune of Truth - 0.00042267% (0/25,920 glyph)
Rune of Balance - 0.000000386% (0/25,920 glyph)
**
Although this method did not have any severe mental effects on Ash’s mind or soul, mainly because he spent most of his time unconscious, which unknowingly protected him from the crushing torture of extreme loneliness and isolation that such training would normally bring, it still left behind a quiet and lingering concern in the back of his mind.
But the real question remained... for how long this would last?
And like that, another eight years passed.
Including the previous year, a little over nine years had now passed inside his Soul Space.
For the first time in all those years, something was finally about to change, though Ash himself remained completely unaware of it.
Ash once again activated his skill and fell unconscious as usual. But this time, when he woke up, something felt different.
Information, knowledge, and comprehension flowed gently through his mind like a calm stream rather than a violent flood.
All the previously scattered and jumbled knowledge began shifting, rearranging, and connecting with each other as if countless broken fragments of a massive puzzle were finally finding their rightful places, forming a complete picture that had been incomplete for years.
Ash sat with his eyes closed, completely dazed. He allowed himself to remain in that moment, fully experiencing the strange yet soothing sensation of fragmented understanding becoming whole.
The feeling of clarity and realization flooding his mind was overwhelming, yet it carried a peaceful warmth that he had never felt before during his training.
The sensation felt similar to a tree that had been dying of thirst for years suddenly receiving rainfall, slowly absorbing the life-giving water and quenching its deep-rooted thirst while its branches regained their strength and vitality.
Finally, as all the knowledge fully connected, something changed inside his Soul Library.
All the hundreds of thousands of books that had been formed due to accumulated knowledge suddenly began shining with a golden glow.
Each book vibrated lightly as if resonating with one another. Within a single flash of light, they merged together, compressing themselves into one single Golden Book.
The book was thin in size, yet it floated calmly in the air as if patiently waiting for someone destined to take it and read it, its presence alone radiating an ancient and profound authority.
The feeling of euphoria slowly faded from Ash’s mind, replaced by pure astonishment as he instantly realized something extraordinary had happened.
He immediately appeared inside his Soul Library and grabbed the floating golden book with slightly trembling hands, feeling an unfamiliar sense of anticipation rising inside his chest.
The book had no name written on it, yet it shimmered with an unusual rainbow sheen layered beneath its golden radiance, giving it an appearance that felt both sacred and mysterious, as if it contained truths far beyond ordinary understanding and knowledge that could reshape his very existence.
Filled with curiosity and anticipation, Ash slowly opened the book and began reading.
And he instantly fell into a trance.
Pure comprehension began flowing directly into Ash’s mind. Unlike before, where knowledge felt forced into him through unbearable pressure, this time it felt natural, almost welcoming, as if the knowledge itself was guiding him toward understanding.
An unknown and gentle energy spread through his still reforming body, nourishing both his soul and existence while strengthening the very foundation of his being.
Ash remained standing in that trance-like state for nearly an entire day before he finally snapped out of it, his mind slowly returning to normal awareness.
With the book still in his hands, Ash stood frozen in place, completely dumbfounded, unable to fully believe what had just happened to him. His thoughts struggled to keep up with the sudden change.
To confirm whether what he felt was real or not, he immediately checked his own description and looked toward the comprehension percentage.
**
[Rune Comprehension]
Rune of Space - 0.000000772% (0/25,920 glyph)
Rune of Truth - 0.00386% (1/25,920 glyph)
Rune of Balance - 0.000000386% (0/25,920 glyph)
**
I comprehended the whole glyph....just like that? Why didn’t I know the Soul Library could do this?
****