For the next year, Luo Chen divided his time between his public face as an outer disciple and his secret cultivation in the temporal acceleration chamber.
To the sect, his progress appeared normal but impressive. He advanced from the first stage of Qi Gathering to the fifth stage in the course of a year. This was fast, but not so impossibly fast as to seem inhuman. It fell within the range of what a talented outer disciple might achieve, especially one who had received guidance from the sect master.
He continued to win sparring matches, continued to study in the library, and maintained his friendship with Qing Xue, which had become increasingly close over the year.
In reality, he was cultivating at an accelerated rate that far exceeded anything the sect imagined possible.
Inside the temporal acceleration chamber, where time flowed three times faster, Luo Chen had effectively experienced three years of cultivation in the span of one year. His understanding of both the Space Law and the Time Law deepened exponentially.
He learned to create spatial anchors—specific points in space that he marked with his consciousness, allowing him to return to them with a thought and a moment of concentration. He practiced until he could anchor dozens of locations across the sect without any of them leaking power that might be detected by senior cultivators. He created anchors at the library, at the garden where he met with Qing Xue, at key points throughout the outer disciples' dormitory, even in the sect master's tower (with the sect master's knowledge and permission).
He developed techniques for moving through space more efficiently, effectively teleporting short distances by folding the space between two points. At first, such teleportation was only possible within extremely short ranges—a few feet at most. But as his understanding grew, he extended his range incrementally. By the end of the year, he could teleport up to thirty meters while maintaining perfect control and accuracy.
He also made significant progress with the Time Law.
Using techniques derived from the old texts and his own insights, Luo Chen learned to accelerate his personal time—speeding up his perception and thought processes while maintaining normal physical speed. This allowed him to think through complex problems at incredible speeds, essentially giving him extra thinking time without actually requiring extra time to pass. However, this was exhausting, and he could only maintain it for short periods before needing to rest.
More dangerously, he began experimenting with localized time manipulation. By manipulating the rate at which time flowed in specific areas around his body, he could slow his opponent's movements from their perspective while maintaining his own normal speed. This created an effective speed advantage that was incredibly difficult for others to counter. However, this technique was also dangerous—if he lost concentration or control, he might reverse the effect and slow his own movements instead.
His Celestial Eye became stronger as well. By regularly activating it during meditation and using it to perceive the structures of space and time, he developed better control over its power. He learned to focus the eye on specific areas, allowing him to see the temporal flow of a single object or the spatial connections between distant locations. He even discovered that by using the Celestial Eye in combination with his spatial anchors, he could perceive what was happening at those anchored locations from a distance.
Most significantly, by the end of the year, his cultivation base had advanced to the ninth stage of Qi Gathering—a level that put him well into lower inner disciple territory in terms of pure power, even though his official rank remained that of an outer disciple.
At the year's end, Sect Master Tian Qing summoned him again and asked about promotion.
"Are you prepared now to accept inner disciple status?" the sect master asked.
Luo Chen nodded. "I believe I am ready, Sect Master. My foundation is stable, and I am confident in my cultivation methods."