The Kōtetsujō, which was furiously spewing steam and roaring forward just a second ago, instantly solidified!
That's right, it was "solidified," not forcibly stopped.
The massive steel body maintained its forward charge, and all vibrations, all noises, abruptly ceased.
The orange-red sparks that erupted from the intense friction between the wheels and the tracks were now like the most exquisite ruby craftsmanship, each one, string by string, solidified in mid-air, maintaining their most fiery, most active momentary state, yet unable to advance an inch or dissipate a trace of heat.
The wind stopped.
The dust flying in the air, the withered leaves caught by the airflow, and even the white steam ejected from the steam pipes, all seemed to be embedded in solidified crystal, maintaining their most minute floating posture, unmoving.
The entire world was stripped of color and sound, leaving only a suffocating, deathly red.
Naruto, who had just finished using his second Blood Demon Art, didn't even have time to admire the strange sight brought by the Time Erosion Mark before his expression immediately changed.
He clearly felt his life force, like fine sand in an hourglass, rapidly draining away under that giant blood-red clock.
"Dong"
The second hand of the blood-red clock trembled and moved once.
This meant that one second of real time had actually passed.
One second.
Ten thousand years of life energy!
"One second consumes ten thousand years of life force. I currently have a million years of lifespan, so using the Time Erosion Mark once can maintain time stop for 100 seconds." Many thoughts flashed through Naruto's mind like lightning.
Fortunately, he had been relatively restrained back then. After awakening his second Blood Demon Art, he didn't get carried away and rush to use the Time Erosion Mark.
Otherwise.
A mere three seconds of Time Erosion Mark would have completely exhausted Naruto's life force!
"Let alone 100 seconds of time stop, even just a few seconds of time stop can decide the life or death of an opponent for powerhouses of our level."
He stood at the center of the absolutely still world, like the only living being.
Naruto rotated his eyes, looking around.
Inside the carriage, Unnamed was idly playing with a kendama, the red ball thrown into the air, stopping directly without moving.
Ikoma was still tinkering with his steam equipment.
Even though there was no battle, no Kabane to kill, he was still willing to mess with these things.
Ayame held a steam gun, aiming at a target in front, closing one eye and pulling the trigger. Just as the Time Erosion Mark activated, the loaded ammunition shot out of the barrel and then likewise froze in mid-air, unmoving.
Every warrior chatting casually with relaxed expressions, every commoner talking and laughing while envisioning the future, every child running and playing in the carriage—the expressions on all their faces were eternally frozen in the instant before time stopped.
In the distance, several startled crows, with their wings spread wide, were like nails on a blood-red canvas, solidified in the act of flying away.
Even the clouds drifting over the distant mountains had completely stopped flowing.
It was as if the time of the entire world had been completely stopped.
"Has time truly been stopped? Or has the movement and change of things halted?"
Naruto, like a deity in the blood-red world, moved without wind, his feet leaving the roof of the Kōtetsujō, standing in mid-air, overlooking the unmoving world.
He was also pondering what his second Blood Demon Art had truly stopped—time or something else.
Compared to the ethereal concept of time, he leaned more towards the cessation of change in things.
"7 seconds, seventy thousand years of life force, completely exhausted in an instant."
"There's no need to investigate further."
Naruto withdrew his gaze and deactivated his second Blood Demon Art, the Time Erosion Mark.
"Swish"
The blood-red world, like receding tide, rapidly retracted and converged, disappearing into the giant blood-red clock behind Naruto, and then the blood-red clock also vanished.
In an instant, everything returned to its normal state.
The Kōtetsujō rumbled forward with the roar of steam, and sparks flew as its wheels rubbed against the tracks.
Unnamed's kendama red ball dropped, Ayame's steam bullet fired, the running children started moving again, and warm, noisy sounds came from the carriage.
"The Time Erosion Mark is very powerful. I wonder what its upper limit is."
"But with the Time Erosion Mark in hand, let alone Silver Rank Underground Cities, even Gold-Grade Underground Cities can be explored."
A sharp, fiery glint flashed in Naruto's eyes.
He had not yet obtained a Silver Rank Underground City key, let alone a Gold-Grade one.
However, considering that the Goblin Slayer World belongs to a Bronze-level Underground City, a Silver Rank Underground City is probably quite formidable, definitely with true deities. He couldn't imagine what a Gold-Grade Underground City would be like, or which worlds it would contain.
"If there were a Gold-Grade Underground City key, the worlds it would open would surely be on the level of Dragon Ball or Gurren Lagann, capable of threatening a single universe or even a multiverse."
As Naruto grew stronger, a spirit of adventure was stirring within his bloodline.
He also looked forward to conquering more dangerous and powerful high-level Underground Cities.
"Calculating the time, the Human King of the Goblin Slayer World should be waking up soon, right? It's time to go accept the King's quest."
"And the 'Goblin God' above the Green Moon, I can also probe its depths."
Naruto left several hundred Shadow Clones in the Kōtetsujō World to harvest Kabane and absorb life force. His main body returned to the Fire Shadow World, then proceeded to the Goblin Slayer World.
Under the twin moons, the night sky was deep.
A mysterious and pitch-black Ghost Ship drifted above the vast sea of clouds, bathed in red and green moonlight, like a homeless ghost, aimlessly and eerily wandering.
Just then, an oval-shaped Uzumaki appeared out of thin air on the deck of the Ghost Ship.
Following closely was Naruto, who had changed into a white open-front divine robe with a blue shimenawa belt tied around his waist.
"First, I'll go to the Green Moon, deal with the Goblin God, and then I'll go to the Royal Capital to see if the new king has been enthroned."
With a shift in his gaze, Naruto made up his mind, took out the Green Moon Altar from his item bar, placed it on the deck, and opened the path to the Green Moon.
"Let's go, to meet the so-called Goblin God."
Naruto, covered in a Sage Mode Cloak and the streamers of his first Blood Demon Art, left a Flying Thunder God Mark on the Ghost Ship before stepping onto the Green Moon Altar.
Having learned Flying Thunder God, Naruto even saved the trouble of using the teleportation mirror to return.
"Swish"
Naruto disappeared into the emerald green pillar of light, carried by the torrent of light particles surging like a rapid, and was swept directly onto the Green Moon, far from the Goblin Slayer continent.
The Green Moon had no air; it was dead and cold.
However, the current Naruto had already evolved into a perfect life form, requiring no oxygen or breathing. By relying on his internal life force and Blood Demon Art to absorb external natural energy, he could supply all the energy his body needed.
"I remember it was on the dark side of the Green Moon."
With a thought, Naruto covered himself with the Shadow Instant Kill Array and directly "teleported" into a giant meteorite crater on the dark side of the Green Moon.
There, a huge card stood upright!