Where had that one second gone? Li Lei's eyes widened. He thought that he had seen wrongly. He even thought that the device might have malfunctioned. However, when he studied it properly and found that there were no problems whatsoever with the device, it became clear to him.
His heart jolted furiously. "Could it be…"
"That's right," Chen Feng stated proudly. "Bi Quzhi created a spatial shroud. This time, after some modification and improvement by me, time shroud was created. The ability of this shroud is to take one second of time from its target." Chen Feng paused slightly. "Regardless of the occasion, regardless of time, regardless of the target, regardless of whether the target is a human—or any kind of life-form—or an item, one second will be lost. This is my version of the true Shroud Art!"
Chen Feng's confidence surged. Numerous tests had been performed by him and Spirit. He was the only one who knew how terrifying this ability was. Even if the time deducted was only one mere second, which might seem rather weak…
Li Lei's eyes widened. Time shroud? He stared at the data from the robot and blanked. So it turned out this was the actual result of Chen Feng's research for the past few days? Time… had always been the most unfathomable of all abilities in existence. At present, the Genetic Union paid close attention to all genetic warriors with time-related abilities. They received help in increasing their level to study the concept of time. However, the efforts of the Genetic Union had not borne any fruit. After all these years, the most those time specialists could do was speed up or slow down time. This was the limit of what they could accomplish.
For example, when one attacked, the attack that was supposed to be fast and imposing was suddenly slowed down. In this situation, this might be the work of a time-related ability. Or perhaps one could further increase the speed of time, and so on. Time was the most unfathomable of all abilities, yet it was also the ability that couldn't be researched at all. All humanity had been able to do all this while was regulate it in some crude manner. Humanity had never been able to truly alter time itself.
But now Chen Feng had achieved what humanity had failed all the while.
With this mysterious Shroud Art, Chen Feng had truly caused that one second to disappear. Li Lei had no idea where the stolen one second had gone, though.
"So… this is the power of the time shroud?" Li Lei exclaimed in admiration.
"That's right," Chen Feng exclaimed in admiration. This was the strongest ability he had ever created. Even if Gou Li and the rest were the ones who had completed the first step and he had only further improved on the ability, that still did not stop him from feeling admiration for this ability.
"It is indeed astonishing," said Li Lei. "If so… at present, I have one question."
Chen Feng looked at Li Lei. "Huh?"
Li Lei sighed. "What's the point of this ability?"
Chen Feng blanked. "Ah?"
"What can we do with the reduction of one mere second? If you could increase time by one second instead, I would most certainly be convinced, but to reduce time by a second? What's the point? Moreover, you can only use it against a single person, right? What's the point even if you can take away one second of your target's time? Of course, if you could actually spam the ability and use it continuously, I guarantee you could spam it to the point your target started doubting life itself…However, looking at that terrifying energy cost, this is an ability you can only use once, right? During battle, when you use this ability, you can at most make your opponent older by one single second. What's the point of that? It still won't change anything," Li Lei berated endlessly. Was this a powerful ability? Yes, it was. Any ability capable of altering time itself was the apex of all abilities. However…not all powerful abilities were applicable in battles. For example, the Genetic Union had some mysterious abilities capable of nourishing one's skin and improving one's beauty. What was the point of such an ability in a battle? At present, Chen Feng seemed to have created something similar as well.
Li Lei sighed.
"Oh." Chen Feng scratched his head. "It's not that weak, right?"
Li Lei sneered. "How is that not weak? Come, try using it against me."
"Fine." After fully recovering his energy, Chen Feng cast his time shroud on Li Lei.
"Mhm…"
Li Lei fixed his gaze at the time. Indeed, during that instant, he felt like time had mysteriously leaped one second forward.
"I have no feeling whatsoever." Li Lei shrugged. "As for the disappearing second, honestly, if I wasn't looking at my watch, I wouldn't even know what had happened… This ability…" Li Lei had a worried expression. "Naturally, this ability is not totally useless. If a huge amount of beyond A classes were to cast this ability on a single person, perhaps, one or two seconds could be instantly taken… Mhm... Perhaps around 100 beyond A classes would be required for that. But then, if we had that many beyond A classes, we can instead use regular methods and kill the target instead. Besides that, the Genetic Union has gathered statistics on time travel before as well," Li Lei stated with a solemn tone of voice.
"Oh?" Chen Feng was astonished. There actually existed a record detailing time travel?
"Of course." Without a change in expression, Li Lei continued, "After our investigation, we noted that at present, the only successful example of time travel is in the morning before one goes to work. When one is awakened by the alarm clock, one can try taking an extra one or two minutes of sleep. At that point, there is a high chance that one will mysteriously travel directly to two hours in the future. One has obviously slept for only two extra minutes, yet one was able to travel forward two hours. When that happens, that person will most definitely be late to work. Is this not a mystical phenomenon?"
"…"
Chen Feng rolled his eyes. This bro here was actually joking around with him? What a damnable English-textbook main character! [1]
"You feel like I'm telling you something useless, right?" Li Lei curled his lips and stated helplessly, "This time shroud of yours is similarly useless as well."
Chen Feng raised his brow. "That's not for sure."
He recalled that during his series of tests with Spirit, countless different situations had been tested. Theoretically, this ability to take one second might seem useless. However, if it was used during a crucial moment…
Chen Feng suddenly asked, "Do you have any powerful burst abilities that required the power to be gathered first?"
Li Lei nodded. "Yes."
Chen Feng pointed at the robot. "Use it against him."
"Fine." Li Lei was also curious about what exactly Chen Feng was trying to prove.
Shua!
Radiance started converging in his hand. A boundless and terrifying power started gathering around him. An ability that required even a powerful beyond A8 like him to condense energy before using was most definitely an extremely powerful killing move. After ten whole seconds, he finished his condensation.
Go!
He pointed, aiming the attack straight at the robot. It was certain that with his present attack damage, this terrifying ability he launched would be sufficient to blast this robot into nothingness. In order to avoid receiving a scolding from the Research Agency for wasting resources, he had even intentionally aimed sideways so that his attack would miss. Right at this instant, Chen Feng made a move as well.
Chen Feng pointed midair. "Time shroud!" Once again, the same ability was used on Li Lei.
Hum—
A faint wave of light undulated out. And then… nothing happened. As usual, nothing had happened after the usage of this ability. The activation of this time shroud seemed as bland as ever. However, this time, Li Lei's eyes opened wide.
Li Lei was dumbstruck. "Where's my attack?"
Chen Feng beamed. "It has been released by you."
Li Lei was somewhat dumbstruck. "Where has the attack gone, then?"
Chen Feng maintained the wide smile on his face. "I have no idea. After all, that one second has vanished…"
Shua!
Instantly, Li Lei started sweating. Only now, finally, did he gaze at Chen Feng with an unbelieving gaze, staring at that ordinary and mediocre-looking hand of Chen Feng's. Time shroud… could actually be used this way? Nobody knew where that one second had gone. Nobody knew what happened to that one missing second. Just like that, that one second was gone from existence. This…was the time shroud!