Is this what a zombie is?

62. Stillness, Rewind, and Acceleration

A vortex, in a state of absolute stillness.

The other vortex, however, is incomplete.

Two vortexes appeared before Jiang Chen, giving him the feeling that you had broken apart a coil of mosquito coils.

One circle is perfect, without any breaks or defects, while the other circle looks like it's been chewed by a dog, with many broken and incomplete parts, and no discernible pattern.

What's even stranger is the way it rotates.

At first glance, Jiang Chen thought it was rotating clockwise, so it appeared to be rotating clockwise.

When Jiang Chen thought it was rotating counterclockwise, it began to rotate counterclockwise.

Therefore, its state is entirely determined by the observer's will.

Jiang Chen's gaze fell on the incomplete vortex.

A bold idea arose in his mind.

He concentrated and silently chanted in his mind, "Reverse rotation!"

The next second, an amazing thing happened.

He could clearly sense that his body, the meridians that had just been destroyed and broken by the electric current, were instantly restored to their original state.

No, to be more precise, it returned to the state it was in just a few seconds ago, completely undamaged!

Time... can be reversed, or reset.

Jiang Chen was overjoyed. As long as he kept reborn and didn't keep trying, this was a cheat code that allowed for infinite trial and error.

Cheating is shameful, but it's useful.

He immediately wanted to use this ability to repeatedly rewind time and try to guide the current.

Given enough opportunities to try, he will eventually find patterns and develop a feel for it.

But Jiang Chen quickly discovered the problem.

Because this vortex is incomplete, the process of time reversal is extremely unstable.

Like a badly damaged DVD, it can still play normally, but many parts of it are indeed damaged.

Therefore, whenever the playback reaches that damaged area, it will freeze or even skip directly.

Therefore, this is why the efficacy of the incomplete Resurrection Incense is unstable.

The efficacy of the Resurrection Incense is time-dependent.

He had already guessed this when he came into contact with the female corpse under the bed in the old house and experienced the historical illusion for the first time.

But what exactly is the relationship, and what are the patterns?

Jiang Chen, who lives because of the Resurrection Incense, has never figured it out; it all seems so random.

The only common thread is the shared phenomenon of historical illusions, and now Jiang Chen seems to have grasped this pattern.

Jiang Chen's gaze turned to the other side, to the intact Resurrection Incense.

Why is this complete and stable entity in a static state? Is it because it is charging up?

Jiang Chen's intentions were completely ineffective against it, unable to make it rotate forward or backward at all. So he still tried to work on the incomplete part, making it rotate forward, and attempting to accelerate time.

The moment this thought arose.

The still, intact vortex seemed to have been flipped by a switch, and trembled slightly.

An indescribable feeling of weightlessness came over me.

Jiang Chen felt his soul being slowly drawn from his body by a gentle force, floating upwards.

He floated in mid-air.

Looking down, he could clearly see everything below.

I saw myself sitting cross-legged on the ground, enveloped in gray smoke.

She also saw the cat lying on her head, silently protecting her all along.

The whole world has become a still painting.

Even the dust particles flying in the air seemed to freeze in mid-air.

Time, at this moment, is infinitely stretched, slowed down, and almost stopped.

In this strange dimension, Jiang Chen discovered that his thoughts could operate at an extraordinary speed.

With just a thought, he can "see" what the result will be if he guides the electric current.

He tried again to guide that tiny current.

The result appears in the blink of an eye.

The current shot out of the heart, struck the walls of the meridians, and then exploded.

failure.

Jiang Chen's soul showed no fluctuation.

His mind raced again.

Time seemed to be reset to the moment before the electric current shot out of the heart.

Again.

This time, he adjusted the angle and intensity of his guidance.

The results were presented again.

The current surged a little further, but it still went out of control at the second bend.

If you fail, try again.

If the meridians are broken, start over.

Energy conflict, start over.

……

In this suspended world, Jiang Chen's consciousness transformed into the most sophisticated supercomputer.

He tirelessly conducted thousands, tens of thousands, and hundreds of thousands of trials. Eventually, the number of trials became meaningless; all that remained was continuous trial and error and deduction.

Each failure deepened his understanding of the power of lightning.

Each time he started over, he gained a thorough understanding of the structure of the meridians in his body.

His soul, like a sponge, frantically absorbed these experiences of failure.

Finally, after who knows how much time had passed.

A flawless and extremely complex energy circuit diagram, connecting all 365 acupoints in his body, was imprinted firmly into the deepest part of his soul by his pure will.

The moment the simulation was completed.

That static world shattered with a deafening roar.

The sheer volume of information, coupled with the instantaneous return to normal time flow, creates a tremendous sense of dissonance.

It's like forcibly stuffing a high-definition movie of several terabytes into an old USB drive.

Jiang Chen's consciousness was roughly forced back into his body.

His brain almost instantly shut down, leaving only a buzzing sound in his head.

Black blood gushed from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose; bleeding from all seven orifices truly happened to him.

His brain was completely overloaded and shut down. He didn't know how long it took before he finally recovered.

"Kid, are you alright?" Cat asked with concern. "I suggest you play it safe and don't risk your life like that. That kid is lucky and won't die."

"I'm fine, I feel great now."

As he spoke, Jiang Chen reached out and lightly pressed his hand against his chest.

Construction began, following the blueprint imprinted in their souls.

This time, it was no longer a tentative glimpse.

Instead, it divides the massive overload of electricity in the plasma heart into hundreds of parts.

Simultaneous traffic diversion!

Hundreds of azure currents, like well-trained soldiers, precisely rushed into their respective predetermined meridian pathways.

It flowed smoothly, without any obstruction or delay.

The chaotic electric shock patterns that originally appeared on Jiang Chen's body surface resembled an art painting.

While the circuit was being constructed, it was also artistically processed until the moment the circuit was completed.

It transformed into a real network of meridians, radiating a deep blue light and as dazzling as a galaxy.

At this point, it can be officially renamed "Lightning Strike Pattern".

The rampaging plasma heart finally calmed down completely.

The terrifying hole in his chest, the size of a bowl, was visibly healing itself with flesh writhing wildly, leaving no scar.

Jiang Chen slowly stood up.

He gently stretched his muscles and bones, and a series of crisp, thunderous crackling sounds immediately erupted from his body.

An unprecedentedly powerful feeling filled his entire body.