# 1358
Chapter 1359: Accelerating the Awakening
Shangjing City.
Golden leaves scuttled across the fresh brick ground with the cool autumn breeze.
In the courtyard, Li Zhenzhen gripped a wide broom, sweeping the golden carpet aside with rhythmic rustling sounds.
Knock knock knock—!
The sudden knocking startled Li Zhenzhen. She set down the broom and hurried to the vermillion-red gate, pulling it open.
On the steps covered in fallen leaves stood a familiar young man, smiling at her. Behind him was a petite young girl with two colorful braids, curiously surveying her surroundings.
"Commander Lin?!"
Seeing the person at the door, Li Zhenzhen first froze, then broke into a delighted smile. "What brings you here?!"
Li Zhenzhen quickly pushed the gate wide open. Lin Qiye led the girl behind him through the threshold, squinting and speaking loudly:
"Li Zhenzhen! Speak up!"
After returning to Great Xia, Sun Wukong had immediately gone to the Heavenly Court to fetch spiritual medicine for Lin Qiye to repair his deaf ears. However, the sound that had shattered his eardrums was far too strange—the medicine's effects were greatly diminished, and the repair would take much longer than he had anticipated. At present, Lin Qiye could only barely make out a few sounds.
Conventional spiritual medicine had proven ineffective, so Sun Wukong had gone together with Yang Jian to seek Lord Taoist, begging him to refine a special elixir. But refining medicine took time, and for now Lin Qiye could only strain his ears to barely communicate with others.
Seeing Lin Qiye suddenly shout, Li Zhenzhen was startled. She gazed at his ears with a peculiar expression, seeming to understand something, and shouted at the top of her lungs:
"Commander Lin! What brings you here?!?!"
"No need to shout so loud! I'm not deaf!" Lin Qiye rubbed his ear, speaking helplessly. "I just happened to be passing through Shangjing on my way back from a mission in the Mist, so I came to take a look... Also, I'm here to take Jialan with me."
"Commander Jialan? Did you find a way to wake her up?" Li Zhenzhen asked happily.
"More or less."
Lin Qiye turned to Skuld, who was curiously surveying the surroundings. "Come on—the person I need you to help save is inside."
Lin Qiye led Skuld through the center of the courtyard, walking directly to one of the rooms. He pushed the door open, and a faint, ethereal fragrance wafted out to greet them.
On the bed lay a young woman in a blue Hanfu robe, lying perfectly still. Her silk-like black hair cascaded down the edge of the bed like a waterfall.
Skuld's gaze fell upon that exquisitely beautiful face, eyes closed. Her mouth parted slightly:
"This sister is so pretty..."
Lin Qiye walked to the sleeping Jialan's side, gazing at that jade-like, delicate face, his eyes filled with complex emotions.
From the battle at Takamagahara to now, more than half a year had passed. Jialan still showed no signs of waking. Time had not left the slightest mark on her face. At this rate, she might sleep until the end of eternity...
"Well? Can you speed up her awakening?" Lin Qiye looked at Skuld, his voice tinged with urgency.
Skuld's brow furrowed slightly. She raised a finger and traced a gentle arc above Jialan's body. Time atop the bed instantly accelerated.
After contemplating for a moment, she spoke with some uncertainty:
"This sister's body... seems to be consuming time?"
"More or less." Lin Qiye recalled Jinian's description of her condition and nodded. "She's using time to complete the 【Immortality】 within her body, thereby breaking through to godhood... It's just that this process takes far too long. I was hoping you could accelerate it, so she can wake up sooner."
Jialan needed to use time to break through to godhood, while Skuld was the goddess who governed the flow of time. Having her accelerate this process was like a form of "feeding"—theoretically, it could awaken Jialan in a short period.
"It's possible, I suppose." Skuld carefully sensed for a moment. "But..."
"But what?"
"But she needs far too much time. At the natural flow of time, she'll need at least several centuries to complete this process. Even I can't compress that time too much."
"How short can you make it?"
"Accounting for the time needed to recover my divine power... this process will still take at least two years."
"Two years?" Lin Qiye's brow furrowed. Compared to a century, this was much shorter, but still seemed rather long. "What if we solved the divine power consumption problem?"
Lin Qiye recalled that Yang Jian had once told him the Heavenly Court had a spring that could greatly accelerate divine power recovery. If Skuld were stationed by this spring, the problem of rapid divine power consumption could be solved... He had infiltrated Asgard for Great Xia and opened Bifröst for them—a great contribution like that should make borrowing this sacred spring no difficult matter.
"If we didn't have to worry about divine power consumption, and I could accelerate time from morning to night..." Skuld tilted her head, thinking carefully.
"Three months... No, two months should do it!"
Two months...
Upon hearing this answer, Lin Qiye's eyes lit up. "Good! I'll handle that. The rest is up to you."
Lin Qiye asked Li Zhenzhen to take care of Skuld, then left the courtyard alone. Although he had promised Skuld she wouldn't need to worry about divine power, he had no direct way to contact the Heavenly Court right now. After a moment of hesitation, he made a phone call.
After a brief dial tone, Zuo Qing's voice came through the other end.
"Hello?"
"Hello? Commander Zuo, I have something to..."
...
"Deck."
"Pair of twos."
"Full house!"
An Qingyu flicked the last two cards onto the table, smiling as she watched Baili Pangpang and Cao Yuan, whose faces were plastered with paper strips. She raised an eyebrow slightly. "Sorry, I win again."
"Tch, I'm telling you, we shouldn't bring Qingyu when playing cards—her calculation ability is just too变态!" Baili Pangpang slammed his remaining cards onto the table, somewhat frustrated.
"Are you sure it's a calculation problem?" Cao Yuan glanced meaningfully behind them at Jiang Er, floating in mid-air. "How do I feel like they've completely seen through our hands..."
Jiang Er blinked innocently, casually turning her head away.
Creak—!
Just as they were chatting, the door opened and Lin Qiye walked in from outside.
"So how did it go, Qiye? Can Jialan wake up?" An Qingyu stood up and asked.
"She can." Lin Qiye nodded. "I've asked Commander Zuo for help—he'll contact the Heavenly Court for us. If all goes well, Jialan will wake up in two months."
Hearing this, joy spread across everyone's faces.
"So what do we do next? Did Commander Zuo assign any missions?"
"...Not yet." Lin Qiye's expression turned somewhat odd, as if remembering something. "I asked Commander Zuo on the phone, and he just told us to stand by... Something feels rather mysterious about it all."
"Isn't that a good thing?" Cao Yuan lounged lazily on the sofa. "Both the Sun City and the Norse pantheon have been destroyed, Olympus tried to invade Great Xia a few days ago and failed—they won't return in a short while. There's only the Indian Temple of Heaven and Earth left.
Great Xia is very safe right now. There won't be any wars breaking out in the short term. We even have time to enjoy our vacation..."
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Today's votes rank second place, still nearly two thousand votes behind first... Originally I should have posted three chapters, but Sanjiu still hopes everyone can push harder. Four chapters again today—let's fight to get back to first place tonight!