Thunder raged outside the tower, but a similar thunder raged inside Ning as well when he heard what the system had said.
"What do you mean I can afford to take some time. And what was that about time being relative?" Ning asked as hope brewed inside him that he thought would only bring his disappointment if he said it out loud.
<Time moves at different speeds at different places>
<Within the same galaxy, it's not very different, but when you move on to other galaxies, you can truly see how much difference there is in the speed of the moving time>
The hope only continued growing bigger and bigger. By now, Ning could understand what the system was trying to say, albeit he didn't understand why what it said was happening.
So, he took a deep breath and asked, "How many years has it been in Kumia since I left?"
Ning had until now based all bits of information he got from Kumia on his own time. In the last 300 or so years, Ely had advanced exactly 4 more times, reaching Spirit Transformation's 5th realm.
If she did access the Origin constantly, she should have been a lot higher in cultivation base. After all, Ning had managed to go up in cultivation in just a matter of years because of how dense it all was.
That was why he had assumed that she was likely not focusing on cultivation at all.
However if what he thought were true— He desperately waited for the system to answer.
The system, almost dramatically, took some time before answering. When it did, Ning's heart nearly stopped from the shock.
<58.2 years>
58 years. That was all the time that had passed in Kumia. To a cultivator, especially one so high in cultivation, that sort of time was nothing.
Going up 4 spirit transformation realms in less than 60 years… made perfect sense. It was fast by normal standards, given how long Nascent souls took to cultivate.
However, the Origin of Kumia couldn't be compared to the other random locations on the planet. It was a difference between heaven and earth.
Now that he did learn about this, Ning asked the reason behind this time difference.
"Why has such little time passed there, system? You said it was because we were in a different galaxy, but how does that work?" he asked. He had all but forgotten about the rain outside his window. No, he had forgotten about it.
He simply waited for the system to start speaking again.
<To understand that you need to know that mass affects time>
<Whenever you are close to a body of large mass, Time slows down. Currently, you are in a dwarf galaxy, one that is significantly smaller in size and mass compared to the galaxy Kumia is in.>
<Hence, time in Kumia moves at about 5 times slower than Vilmore's time>
<Thus, you do not need to hurry as much as you think you do>
Ning didn't understand why mass affected time. He didn't need to. All he needed to know was that he had time and could go back to see his loved ones without having to wait very long.
"You should have let me know about this earlier, soothe my inner turmoils," Ning said, but the system didn't respond.
Ning didn't care if it did. He just thought about how long he had before he could reach back.
'At 5 times the slowness, if I wanted to reach Kumia within 1000 years, I have 5000 years. That's… pretty long, even for me,' Ning thought. He was getting more and more hopeful that he would actually make it back in time.
At least, back before they all either died or the worse scenario, lived long enough to stop caring about him. He had never wanted to go back to a Kumia where Ely, Anya, and the rest didn't care about him.
"10,000 years," he said to himself. "I have 10,000 years to return back to Kumia. That should be about 2000 years for them, which I hope they can wait for."
<There is a flaw in your assumption>
The system chimed in right as Ning finished speaking. Ning frowned once again. "What is the flaw?" he asked.
<You didn't factor in that not all galaxies you will have to cross have the same mass. Some will have more than others, some less. As such the timing of your return to Kumia will change based on which galaxy you are in.>
"Oh!" Ning said with his hands on the chin. He hadn't thought about that. 'That's right. Other galaxies won't move at the same rate,' he thought.
He would have to go through 5 galaxies to reach Kumia. He was already on one, then 3 more in the way, and finally the last one where Kumia was located.
Since Kumia was in the 5th galaxy on the way, Ning didn't think the time difference there would be significant enough to factor into his calculations, but the others…
"The other 3 galaxies… are they bad for me?" Ning asked.
<The first and the third galaxy on the way have a slower time than Kumia, so if you stay in there for too long, you will actually lose more time than gain it.>
<Especially, the third one. The time difference is so bad that if you stay there for a day, you will lose almost a year in return.>
"Holy… that's quite bad. What about the 2nd one?" Ning asked.
<The second galaxy has less mass than the one we are on. There, the difference ratio should be something around 8:1>
"Oh, then that's better than Vilmore for sure," Ning said. He mulled on the information for a little while.
"That settles it then, I will have to somehow skip the 1st and the 3rd galaxy on the way back," he said.
<Are you sure about that?>
"Of course, what's there not to be sure about?" Ning asked.
<Are you sure you want to skip the 3rd Galaxy?>
Ning frowned. The 3rd galaxy especially made perfect sense to skip, but then why was the system asking him this?
"Why?" Ning asked. "What's so important about the 3rd Galaxy?"
<That is the galaxy where Earth lies>
