Chapter 1176: Forbidden Ground Rowan's sight zoomed toward the various streams of time around the rotating cogs and gears in his blood, and he began to follow the flow between all these chaotic streams of time. It did not take long for him to notice that there was a pattern here, it was grand, spread across a distance that could be considered infinity, but Rowan had already conquered the Supreme Circles, and this would be easy for him to decipher. Yet he stopped himself from following this path, not because it would not lead him to the truth, but because he wanted to feel time. He was not a soulless machine that grew just by gathering data, he wanted to experience it in its entirety, he wanted to love his powers in a way he had never set out to do before and Rowan disregarded all that he knew and he allowed his senses to fall deeper into himself. Every moment after this one was a revelation to his senses, and Rowan delighted in it. If not for the vastness of his soul that made such a thing impossible, he could become a cultivation zombie, endlessly chasing the high if delving into the plane of the mysterious. For the first time in a long time, Rowan held nothing back, previously he would always have an eye out watching for dangers, no matter how deeply he entered any sort of meditative state. He could never truly devote himself to a single thing, and although that should not matter as much for him, there were certain experiences that could not be appreciated if one had to hold back. His paranoia and the state of his consciousness which was similar to a Hive Mind would never allow him to place himself in such a compromising position, but there was a reason he came to find the Shiik, and it was not just to prepare her for the coming battle. If there was anyone in the entire realm who he could depend on to protect him when he was this deep into his mind, it would be her... although, thinking about the Shiik angrily tapping at the throne without considering anything else made him sigh once more... at least if danger unexpectedly came, it would go a long way to resolve her boredom. The thought occurred to him that perhaps the Shiik might have trouble with his other children, especially the Lady of Shadows when he freed them all from his dormant dimension, but he shrugged, knowing that such conflicts would most likely be minor. With these last thoughts, he allowed himself to sink deeper. Time took him and tore his mind to pieces. His senses entered all 33,000 streams of disjointed Time, and even with his powerful soul, Rowan had to take a while before his mind could fully accept being split into all these different streams of time. One part of his mind saw a million years go by in a second, another saw a second move so slowly that a million years would have to pass before it was completed. As soon as he could perfectly grasp all these different time streams, the chaotic nature of Time in his soul ceased to exist and he began to glimpse the pattern that governed them all on an instinctive level. This was different from his usual intellectual understanding of power, this state was deeper. Almost like breathing, all 33,000 streams of Time were known to him and he knew that this was a power that was unique to him, like a fingerprint. He smoothly ascended to the second-dimensional Will level for the Will of Time, and his control over his bloodline deepened, and he felt the fourth dial in his eyes beginning to loosen, and he knew that if he wanted he could forcefully move it. A little bit of pondering on this issue made Rowan realize how lucky he was to have acquired his bloodline of Time while inside Doom Star. If he had acquired his bloodline inside a material universe, the streams of Time he could have gained would be pathetic, smaller than a puddle, and the number of separate streams in his soul might not even exceed a single digit. If he had acquired this power in the reality outside, whether it be inside the Great Darkness, or the larger realms outside of it, his soul would have been torn to pieces because there would have been too much time for his nascent soul to consume. Inside a closed-off realm like Doom Star was just right for him, it contained an impressive stream of time that could rival a million material universes combined, and its laws of power were severely skewed toward Aura, leaving a large gap in its power infrastructure that Rowan had easily been able to come into and fill it up. A thought suddenly came to him that made him shudder and then he dismissed it as he strove towards the third dimensional level for his Will of Time. "Luck or Design?" R Across the vast stretch of land and ocean that had been vaporized by the red sun of Hate that Shisu had unleashed, the scars remained, even after nearly a month. The primary reason for this was the Calamity gods that were revealed below the ground, their pervasive essence had begun to corrupt reality on a large scale. The frightening sights of countless eyes and tentacles that waved out from the earth, all possessing the desire to drag down the heavens and corrupt every living thing in existence held sway. Now a great truth was revealed about the endless ocean and the folly of Shisu because it was the presence of the ocean that suppressed these Calamity Gods underneath and stopped their Aura from staining reality. With the massive explosion that cleared out a massive wave of the ocean and allowed the Aura of the Calamity Gods to build up, even reality could no longer hide their presence. The darkness that their presence generated had stopped the ocean from filling the millions of miles of barren ground, and from afar this region was like a black hole in the center of the endless ocean, although many Explorers and even Ascendants had entered this region, none of them left alive, causing this area to be labeled a forbidden ground, and despite how terrifying it was, it was not given as much importance because the might of the Ascendants were focused on other matters. The ongoing battle in the Time-blight region, the death of an Ascendant Sun, and the loss of the infinity bubble were all terrifying situations, and the only good news to emerge from this debacle was that the Ascendants still held onto the power of their Wills, any other situation and their entire power base would have collapsed. This entire region was dangerous, but since its influence was reduced to a single location and with the area surrounded by the ocean and no indicators that the Calamity gods below intended to spread their domain, it was considered that it was best to be left alone, but not for long as a powerful team of Ascendant was being set up to investigate the location and disperse the newly created forbidden ground.