Time Hourglass

The Time Hourglass is a sovereign-level treasure whose interior is a world of innumerable hourglasses, each imposing a different flow of time. Bai Xiaochun discovers the apparently ownerless region in the void and uses it to deepen his understanding of gravity and time. Years later he summons the entire treasure into his battle with the Mortal Renegade, despite explicitly not owning or fully controlling it. Its ancient owner is ultimately identified, but the object's post-battle location and custody are not stated. (Chapters 1231–1235, 1295, and 1312)

History

Discovery in the void

Bai finds a sunken region filled with hourglasses and detects a sovereign aura from a strange area within it. He reasons that the visible world lies in the middle of one enormous hourglass, whose other half may be hidden, and initially assumes the treasure is ownerless. He tries to determine whether he can take it, but its intact condition, dormant spirit automaton, and sovereign scale make forced acquisition too dangerous. Even an attempted onefold enhancement with the Turtle-Wok has no useful effect. (Chapter 1231)

Instead, Bai enters the hourglass world to seek enlightenment. Different local hourglasses make time move from near-stillness to ten, one hundred, or thousands of times its normal flow. He proceeds cautiously because he does not know how extreme temporal differences would affect his longevity, Daoseed, or obligations in the Eternal Immortal Domains. The environment therefore serves as both a cultivation opportunity and an uncontrolled hazard. (Chapters 1231–1232)

Enlightenment in gravity and time

Meditating beside increasingly powerful hourglasses, Bai first interprets flickering vestiges and spatial distortion as signs of time. He then recognizes gravity within them and concludes that the local relationship between gravitational strength and temporal flow is the key to the phenomenon. The experience builds on his earlier protomagnetic research and develops into an understanding that connects gravity with the Essence of time. (Chapters 1232–1235)

The world is later shown to exist on a plane separate from the surrounding void, almost as though transcending it. Bai creates a generally similar area through his own insight, which Bai Xiaochi identifies as an Essence-level Daoist magic rather than an act of copying or controlling the original treasure. Bai later names that technique Gravitational Extermination and uses the Hourglass World as the model for a grand time formation around the Eternal Immortal Domains. (Chapters 1235 and 1278)

Summoning the treasure against the Mortal Renegade

After becoming a sovereign, Bai activates preparations he made earlier and uses his Essence of time to summon the entire hourglass region to the former location of the Eternal Immortal Domains. He openly acknowledges that he does not own the treasure and lacks complete control; with no time to refine it, he uses its mass and available power directly. Countless hourglasses appear around the Mortal Renegade, alter the flow of time, and form a seal that can restrain him temporarily but not permanently. (Chapter 1295)

The Mortal Renegade recognizes the treasure as one left by his Master, which had vanished after that Master's death. Later, Bai meets the same ancient owner in the River of Time and Space: the Master of both the Worldly Daoist and the Mortal Daoist, who became the Mortal Renegade. The old man has transformed himself into time itself, but the meeting does not document a transfer of the hourglass back to him or a completed claim by Bai. (Chapters 1295 and 1312)

Abilities and properties

• Variable temporal domains: The interior contains hourglasses of many sizes that impose different rates of time, ranging from near-stillness to enormously accelerated flows. The exact full range and the rules governing safe entry are not stated. (Chapters 1231–1233)

• Gravity-time structure: The treasure's temporal differences correspond to gravitational changes that bend or distort the surrounding space. Bai uses these conditions to understand a connection between gravity and time; the text presents his realization in the context of this treasure rather than as a complete universal specification. (Chapters 1232–1235)

• Separate-plane existence: The hourglass world does not occupy the same plane as the surrounding void and is described as almost transcendent. This makes ordinary physical access and removal an unreliable guide to ownership or control. (Chapter 1235)

• Large-scale relocation: As a sovereign with the Essence of time and advance preparation, Bai can call the entire region across the starry sky. The feat does not confer ownership, and the corpus does not show a weaker cultivator duplicating it. (Chapter 1295)

• Temporal sealing: When summoned in battle, the treasure manifests many hourglasses that alter time around a target and create a powerful seal. Against the Mortal Renegade the restraint is temporary, establishing a limit even under Bai's sovereign-level use. (Chapter 1295)

Ownership and custody