Zhou Weiqing nodded, and though he couldn’t bear the thought of such waste, he threw the ruined paper to the side. From the other side of the table, he took a new sheet from the stack that lay there. Huyan Aobo said: “You just keep practicing slowly, I will call you when it is time to eat.”
“At least creating Consolidating Equipment scrolls will not be a complete waste of time in terms of training; although it will not help you improve your cultivation level, it is very good training in terms of cultivating your heart and spirit, and will also improve the control of your Heavenly Energy. As you practice creating Consolidating Equipment Scrolls, you will also find that your control over your Stored Skills will be much finer. Alright, you go ahead and practice, I’ll go rest first.” Huyan Aobo was no longer young, and he still needed time to recuperate from his two years of painstaking effort.
After Huyan Aobo left, Zhou Weiqing started on his second attempt at creating a scroll. This time, he still failed after barely an inch of drawing, though the failure was due to him being too slow and causing the Ink to gather. He could actually distinctly feel the time taken for the Consolidating Ink and Paper to fuse, and Huyan Aobo had also pointed out the several points he needed to take note of, but when he was actually doing it and when he circulated Heavenly Energy into the brush, he found that it wasn’t as easy to control as he felt. Just like what Huyan Aobo said, it was a rather strange and profound feeling when the two fused. It could be said that almost every Consolidating Paper, even when made from the same nucleus core, had a very minute difference, but sometimes even those extremely minute differences could cause the entire creation process to fail.
Zhou Weiqing continued trying for the next seven sheets, all resulting in failure, and by now his entire forehead was coated in sweat. Due to an over concentrating and focusing of his spirit, his eyes were stinging.
Putting down the brush, he muttered to himself as he thought through his experience: “The grasp of the timing… perception… timing… perception… How can I use my perception to master the timing? That’s too difficult, no wonder Teacher said it requires at least ten thousand sheets of practice before having the possibility of success. I’ll need to rest my spirit for a while, so I can focus properly once again, otherwise there’ll be even less chance of success.”
As he thought that, Zhou Weiqing just lay back onto the ground, releasing his Heavenly Energy and Jewels. As he rested, a sudden flash of brilliance struck him.
Colourless… Time. Zhou Weiqing suddenly flipped back up into a seated position, glee in his eyes. “That’s right! Isn’t the key to this the grasp of timing? If I can’t control the perception, then why not control the time directly. My 6th Attribute is Time after all!”
As he thought of that, excitement filled him. Since he had gained his second set of Jewels, the Absolute Delay Stored in his first Jewel had evolved, but its effect was still paled in comparison to his other Skills. Its range had increased from 5 yards to 6 yards, as well as improved in terms of the control time. The only good point about the skill was that its cooldown was very low, being only 3 seconds. However, it did take up quite some Heavenly Energy, and with his current cultivation level, he could only use it 8 times in succession; with the recovery of the energy whirlpools, it was still only 9 times at max. With such a range and only a second delay, Zhou Weiqing had not found much use for it in battles, at least not yet. He had always felt that there wasn’t much of a point with just a second of delay.