"What do you think? It's easy to progress? A thousand years is nothing. Even experts take tens of thousands of years to grow as much as I want to make you grow. Moreover, growing in the early stages is easy. But it gets harder in later stages. That's why it takes longer," the old man exclaimed.
"Moreover, it's not just about Cultivation since you can achieve that even outside. But it's about skills and time as well," he further added.
"Nope. I don't care how you put it; I can't spend a thousand years here. I have many things to do. They can't wait!" Long Chen responded.
"Things like what?"
"Things like finding my tamed beast which was left behind! He might die by the time I'll leave! I also need to kill three people. I took a Heavenly Oath that I'll kill them! If I'm late and the Blood Dragon Emperor kills them, I'll die!" Long Chen explained. 'I already spent so many years in the tower! Can't waste more!"
"Only that? That's easy to solve. I can adjust the speed of time here. One second outside will be a hundred years here. Does that sound better? Only ten seconds will pass in a thousand years. So it'll be the same as you going out ten seconds later," the old man suggested.
"Thing again. If you go out now, you'll have to waste a lot of time trying to escape the prison. Instead of that, why not give ten or even twenty seconds of the outside world here?" he asked.
"Is that really possible?" Long Chen asked, frowning.
"Of course it is. In fact, the same thing happened in the Dark Tower. My other half had modified the time in the tower since someone was trying to intrude on the tower, and my other half didn't want to interrupt the trials to handle that matter. So he slowed down time inside to let you finish," the old man answered.
"How can you do that? You can control time?" Long Chen asked, frowning.
"Of course not. We can only use the Law of Space, and that's what we use."
"It's possible to achieve that through the Law of Space?" Long Chen asked.
"Of course. We're inside a space we created. We can't control time in the real world, but we can make the space to follow the time as we want. It's a pretty high-level skill though."
"But this is also the reason why I was so strong. While others cultivated for a hundred years, I cultivated for a hundred thousand years at the same time to keep up since I was always bad in cultivation. Maybe I'll teach you this trick as well near the end."
"So you also cheated in a way?" Long Chen asked.
"Of course. Why else do you think I'll let your cheating slide? Like disciple, like master." The old man laughed heartily.
"So, do you accept now?" he asked. "Shall we start, or do you still want to leave?"
Long Chen nodded; however he suddenly thought of something. "We can start, but I have one more request."
"What?" The old man asked.
"I have a family. I was wondering if you could train them as well? Let them be stronger in a thousand years here as well. With your guidance, their growth will be immeasurable." Long Chen suggested.
"What? No. I only accept one Disciple. I don't accept any more. And I can't train them."
"Then I don't want to train under you. Let me leave. It's better to leave than stay away from my family for a thousand years. You can send me away."
Long Chen knew that the old man wasn't going to send him away since, after a long time, he accepted a disciple. He could see the old man accepting his demands in the end instead of sending him out.
Just as he expected, the old man went silent as soon as he talked about leaving.
His frown deepened. "Are you really trying to blackmail me?"
"You can take it the way you want," Long Chen replied calmly.
"Fine! I'll tutor them, but they won't be my disciple. If anything, they'll be like my outer Disciples." The old man firmly stated as he folded his arms.
Long Chen simply smiled. "That would be enough. I know they can't be as strong as me at the same time as me, but as long as they can get some advantage as well, it's fine."
"Good. So, where are they?" The old man asked.
"They're in my Inner World. Shall I bring them out?" Long Chen asked.
"Yesh. Bring them out. In the meantime, I'll correct the space to make it comply with the time we want."
The old man turned around and started changing space. A ground appeared under their feet. A beautiful sky also appeared above their heads.
The ground was covered in beautiful green grass. In the distance, some mountains also appeared.
The old man had brought something akin to a real-world in this space so he could train everyone better, especially Long Chen.
Multiple towers came out of the ground, reaching the skies.
In the meantime, Long Chen sat on the ground and sent his consciousness inside his Inner world.
He appeared in the mansion of his clan and walked straight to meet his Grandpa.
He informed his grandfather about everything and asked him to shift the clan duties to someone else since he was going to be absent for a thousand years.
After clearing up with the grandfather, he went to his father and informed him. He didn't tell him though. He just told his father to take his mother and Long Xue Ying to the room of his grandfather and that it was urgent.
Next, he walked to the training arena where Ji Shan was practicing.
"You've grown pretty strong," Long Chen complimented.
"Strong? Hah, you jest. This is nothing before you. Welcome back though. Did you find the man who you said was going to teach you?" Ji Shan asked. "I've been really excited to train more."
"I couldn't find him," Long Chen shook his head.
Ji Shan was slightly disappointed, but he smiled only. "It's alright. I guess that man wasn't available. It doesn't matter. I can train alone as well to grow. It's no big deal."
He covered his disappointment pretty fast. "Anyway, why don't you practice with me for five minutes today? Let me see the gap between us?"
"Heh, my friend. Will you let me finish first?" Long Chen asked, chuckling. "What I was saying is that I failed to find that guy. But I found someone even better for you."
"No, not just for you. I found that person for all of us. He's a literal god in a sense. And he'll be training us all. By the time he's done, you'll be so strong that you can't guess yourself.. So stay excited."