What? Zoran couldn't believe what he heard. Could the old man have heard it differently? Or could he have been talking about a new accident that occured after the cave-in that led Zoran to the Miasma?
"Three days ago? Are you sure you're not talking about something from three months ago?" asked Zoran.
The old man looked at Zoran like he was crazy. "I may look like I'm decrepit, kid. But I'm not senile. I still remember when the cave was destroyed, there was an earthquake that almost destroyed my cabin."
Zoran was still a little bit skeptical, but the old man's next words made things a bit clearer.
"Are you part of the Primordial Sun Dynasty? They're looking all over for guys like you. Seems that their guys are missing. I think his name was Hethios? Hemios?"
Zoran looked back at the old man and said, "Helio?"
"Ah yes. That's the name. That damned dynasty nearly destroyed my forest interrogating me. Oh, don't tell them I said that."
Zoran had only been gone from the overworld in 3 days even though he knew that he had spent 3 months inside that dark void of Miasma. The journey up to the surface took much longer than 3 days, how could such a discrepancy occur in keeping time?
Zoran was a master cultivator, which meant that his internal body clock was more accurate than normal humans and even more precise than mechanical watches. This was a must-learn skill for people spending months and months inside a dark cave, alone with nothing but their thoughts while meditating for a breakthrough.
He could not believe that he would have miscalculated the time to that degree. Even a normal human could tell the difference between a day passing and a month passing.
There was a possibility that he could have gone insane inside the Miasma and possibly miscalculated time because of that, but that was quickly disproven when Zoran looked at his cultivation core. It had filled up with condensed Miasma energy, which could not be gathered in such a short amount of time—especially in three days.
Then there could only be one possibility; time moves differently in the Miasma realm.
Judging from the discrepancy, it seemed that one month spent inside the Miasma was equivalent to one day in the overworld. This cannot be explained by normal logic and could only be thought of as an after-effect of the destructive decay of Miasma which alters even time itself.
The more Zoran thought of it, the more it made sense. His mind immediately thought of the 4th dimensional leap. If the Miasma was potent enough to break through the very fabric of reality itself, then it was possible that it could temper the very flow of time as well. After all, they were just different layers of the space that the Universe was in.
But did time slow down in the Miasma or does it just move in a different time?
This question was answered when Zoran looked at his hair and nails. It was true that he spent three months inside the Miasma, but there was no evidence of that time passing on his physical body. The keratin in his body hasn't lengthened his nails and hair to a degree that would indicate that three months had passed.
Usually, nails grow at 2.5 millimeters every month while hair grows at 12.7 millimeters per month. But Zoran's nails didn't have the whitish boundary at the ends and his hair were freshly cut when he rebuilt his body in the Miasma.
This meant that although Zoran spent three months in the Miasma, his body only grew three days—the same rate as the days in the overworld. However, that was not the same for his cultivation; he received three months of energy in that time.
This was a discovery that would send the whole cultivation world into a storm. If they knew that they could suspend their days in the Miasma but still have the benefit of cultivation, then they would jump into that decaying pit for that chance even if they knew that their bodies would most likely disintegrate.
Dynasties spend an enormous amount of money to create the perfect conditions for cultivating. They create Yi foundations to concentrate Yi energy into one room and they give their students the best pills, all to make sure that they don't waste their time.
This was especially true for those old geezers nearing their lifespans but were stuck in a bottleneck as well as those prodigies who spend their youth advancing as fast as possible to be crowned the ultimate genius. All of them want to cultivate to the utmost of their ability while spending as little time as possible.
If they knew that the Miasma had that kind of effect, they would not hesitate to challenge the decay of Miasma. Unfortunately for them, decay does not discriminate between the old and young or between the rich and poor.
"Hey kid. Wear this." While Zoran was contemplating on the mysteries of Miasma, the old man had come back from his cabin to gave Zoran spare clothes. It was just a plain white shirt and brown cargo shorts.
Zoran took the clothes and quickly changed to it. He now knew what to do.
With the advantage of the Miasma, he would be able to contend with the geniuses of cultivation and speed up his revenge on the Supreme Beings. He especially needed this because his SSS-class cultivation core needed more energy than others, which would slow him down compared to his peers. With the time difference in Miasma, he would be able to advance even more than his fellow cultivators.
However, he could not simply go back to the Miasma pit that he was in. His satiated cultivation core told him that the Miasma in that realm cannot improve his physical body any more. He needed a Miasma more potent than that.
"Thank you. Can you point me where Griedsoil town is?"
Griedsoil was the town closest to Draco's cave, and it was where Zoran spent many years living in agony. It was his home while he mined in the cave and it was where a subclan of the Primordial Sun Dynasty was located.
From his memory, he remembered that there was another Miasma pit under the very town itself. He knew the exact location of the pit. However, if he were to go there, then he would have to face one of his demons in his previous life, the one who led him to changing his dynasty, the one who destroyed his cultivation core.
He smiled and walked towards the town.