Chapter One: Flow Rate Chapter Two: Flow Rate Chapter Three: Flow Rate
“You don’t have to share the money with me... Besides, it’s just a formula for the Dragon’s Blood Elixir. There’s no way it’s worth tens of tons of gold. Don’t ask for an outrageous price; a token amount will suffice.”
Huang Ze stroked the little red dragon’s head, trying to reason with her.
Although the central bank of the Xia Kingdom’s treasury held a considerable amount of gold, it wasn’t something that could be handed over so easily in such a huge quantity.
Even if the nation didn’t mind, Huang Ze certainly did!
“Oh... then how much do you think it should cost?”
The little red dragon was surprisingly obedient, immediately leaving the pricing decision to the black dragon.
“I think thirty to fifty... no, three to five hundred jins should be enough. Let’s just consider it as making a friendly connection with the people of Xia.”
Huang Ze spoke without hesitation, throwing out a bargain price.
“Three to five hundred jins... that’s far too little!”
The little red dragon jumped up excitedly, feeling wronged. “Mr. Dios, please don’t think that the Dragon’s Blood Elixir formula is something you can casually sell!”
“I had to spend a lot of effort to smooth relations to quell the wrath of the Dragon God and the Goddess of Life, to forgive me for spreading forbidden knowledge and disturbing the order of the material world. Otherwise, I would surely face their punishment!”
“Those two big shots actually care about this?”
Huang Ze was curious. Weren’t these two deities usually very low-profile and mysterious, even ignoring their own devotees? Why would they bother with this?
“Of course! It is their duty!”
The little red dragon nodded solemnly. “In the material world, not only the Dragon’s Blood Elixir, but even ordinary magical knowledge cannot be spread casually. One must follow specific rules and procedures, or else face divine retribution!”
“Alright then... how much do you honestly want at minimum?”
“At least... at least two tons!”
The little red dragon thought for a moment and gave a bottom line. Worried the black dragon wouldn’t believe her, she quickly explained:
“Hibernion is very difficult. You have to offer him a sacrifice of at least 600 kilograms of gold to appease him.”
“Though the Goddess of Life is a bit easier to negotiate with, it’s still hard to settle matters without two or three hundred kilograms of gold for her.”
“The remaining ton or so isn’t all mine either. It’s to grease the palms of the God of Commerce, Volkin, the Goddess of the Night, Lilith, and other deities I’m close with, asking them to watch over me...”
“In other words, out of these two tons of gold, I might only make three to five hundred kilograms at most, and I’ll have to endure a lot of effort and risks... it really can’t be less!”
Wow... it’s this complicated and this costly?
Huang Ze was taken aback but ultimately had no choice but to accept this bottom price from the little red dragon, deciding to secure the Dragon’s Blood Elixir formula first.
Having reached an agreement, Huang Ze naturally wanted to slip away, but the little red dragon clung tightly, begging:
“Mr. Dios, don’t rush to leave... You’ve come all this way; at least stay a little longer, just a bit more...”
“...”
Huang Ze wasn’t mistaken. Their communication was on a consciousness level, expressing the truest feelings. The little female dragon was plainly hoping to ‘spend’ more time with him!
“No, no, I have urgent matters to attend to. Next time... definitely next time!”
Huang Ze struggled to free himself from her claws, brushing her off.
“It won’t take much of your time; just stay with me a bit longer.”
The little red dragon grabbed the black dragon’s claw tightly, shouting excitedly, “Don’t you know... time flows much faster in our spiritual space compared to outside?”
“If you stay here for an hour, outside may not even have passed an hour!”
“Really?”
Huang Ze, who was nearly pulling the little red dragon down, stopped immediately at this.
He had always been fascinated by the laws of time, and now that the little red dragon seemed to possess some mastery over it, he naturally wanted to learn more.
“Of course it’s true!”
The little red dragon explained, “The spiritual space exists independently from the material world. Time flows here much faster than in the material realm!”
“It’s like normal human communication speed is at most a few dozen bytes per second, but at the consciousness level, it can reach several megabytes or even gigabytes per second!”
“Time is a relative concept. Our perception and judgment of it mainly depend on how fast our brains receive information from the outside world!”
“And the speed of information exchange within the spiritual space is obviously much faster than that in the material world, which naturally means time flows much faster here!”
“Wow... I didn’t expect your level of knowledge to be so good. Did you secretly study the Xia Kingdom’s theory of relativity?”
Huang Ze was genuinely impressed. He had thought the laws of time were complicated, but after hearing the little red dragon’s explanation, he felt it was actually quite straightforward.
After all, during his spaceflight with the dragons, he had experienced something similar. When his brain was overclocked, time in the material world slowed down by hundreds or even thousands of times!
“That’s right!”
The little red dragon proudly lifted her head. “Actually, I have always liked the Xia Kingdom’s people and greatly admired their civilization and scientific knowledge. I’ve secretly studied many of their books!”
“But isn’t Xia Kingdom’s knowledge forbidden to spread outside its borders?”
Huang Ze asked, puzzled. “Those highly advanced and influential Xia books, if they spread abroad, would be targeted by the Sun God and Moon Goddess. How did you evade their attention?”
“That’s easy. Just don’t get directly exposed to their light, and bribe one or two other gods to cover for me.”
The little red dragon seemed completely unconcerned, then leaned close to the black dragon’s ear, whispering mysteriously, “I’ll tell you a secret... many gods are actually curious about Xia’s knowledge and have asked me to send them quite a few books!”
“Which gods?”
Huang Ze immediately became serious. If these gods were actively engaging with Xia’s knowledge, they might be potential allies!
“I can’t say. They’d find out.”
The little red dragon shook her head stubbornly, refusing to reveal their identities.
Still, the black dragon could guess these gods must be close to her; otherwise, she wouldn’t dare undertake such a thankless task.
...
“What’s the ratio of time flow between your spiritual space and the outside world?”
Huang Ze asked curiously.
“I can’t say for sure.”
The little red dragon replied, “It’s not fixed. It’s like humans dreaming—sometimes fast, sometimes slow... I don’t know exactly how fast it is now.”
“Can’t you make a clock?”
Huang Ze couldn’t help but say, “Since you’ve studied the Xia Kingdom’s knowledge, making two clocks here shouldn’t be difficult for you.”
“One clock would record time here, the other outside. Comparing them would reveal the time flow ratio, right?”
“That makes sense! I’ll try now!”
The little red dragon’s eyes brightened and she busied herself immediately. Soon she concluded that time here flowed about thirty times faster than outside!
“That’s not very fast after all...”
The little red dragon muttered, “This means if you, Mr. Dios... wanted to watch my entire past life, it would take at least thirty years!”
“Why would I want to see your past life?”
Huang Ze was confused. He knew that extraordinary beings often had excellent memories, and if one could enter their consciousness deeply, one might find memories from hundreds or even thousands of years ago, with vivid clarity almost like being there.
“If you don’t look through my memories, how will you understand or trust me?”
The little red dragon bounced onto the black dragon’s head and said earnestly, “Mr. Dios, you don’t need to worry about my privacy. I am completely open with you!”
“...”
Faced with the little red dragon’s heartfelt words, Huang Ze was at a loss for words and could only sigh. Dragons’ perspectives were truly different from humans’. The shame and ugliness humans felt were trivial to dragons, who might even want to show those things off to their mates!
Honestly, Huang Ze was quite curious about Isolde’s nearly thousand years of memories and had thought about browsing through them. After all, it was a precious treasure that could greatly enrich his experience!
But his humanity was still intact, and he felt some resistance to invading someone else’s memories.
Moreover, he worried that Isolde’s enormous memory might overwhelm him, causing his experience to grow too fast, but his character might not keep pace—unintentionally turning him into a little red dragon himself.
After all, a person’s true age isn’t judged solely by years lived but by their life experience and the information they’ve absorbed from the outside world!
So, even though the little red dragon’s memory vault was wide open to him, Huang Ze never intended to explore it thoroughly.
...
“Can ordinary people enter your spiritual space?”
Huang Ze suddenly thought of a question and asked curiously.
“I haven’t tried...”
The little red dragon thought for a moment. “It should be possible.”
“How many people can it hold at most?”
Huang Ze continued.
“I just said I haven’t tried... how would I know?”
The little red dragon jumped down from the black dragon and looked at him curiously. “Why do you suddenly ask this?”
“I want to see... if I can make use of your spiritual space.”
Huang Ze stroked Isolde’s little head. “You know, the Xia Kingdom’s people are smart, but their physical conditions are poor. Their lifespans are short—not just compared to us dragons, but even to many ordinary intelligent beings.”
“Moreover, they spend a lot of time sleeping in their lifetimes, which wastes a lot of time.”
“So I was wondering if their consciousness could come into your spiritual space. That way, one minute here counts as thirty minutes outside, which would be great for studying or researching!”
“...”
The little red dragon stared at the black dragon for a long time, as if trying to figure out how his mind worked!
For a dragon to open their consciousness and soul to humans, letting them run around inside and take advantage of the faster time flow for science and learning—that was quite a concept!
“Mr. Dios... I have to admit, your idea is very constructive.”
The little red dragon said seriously, “But have you thought about whether an ordinary human brain can handle such a time flow?”
“I know human brains, especially those of the Xia people, are excellent but very fragile!”
“Why do they need sleep every day? Because their brains are overworked and need rest... They barely manage the normal flow of time. If they came here to a world flowing thirty times faster, their brains wouldn’t be able to cope. They’d suffer from brain fatigue or even brain death!”
“...”
Huang Ze immediately understood. Sleep was essential for humans, a vital protective mechanism. If seriously disrupted, the body couldn’t endure it—at best, they’d get sick; at worst, they’d die suddenly!
...
Apologies, a few hundred words remain unfinished; will update shortly.