Chapter 298: Chain Enlightenment Triggered by Applying Sunscreen
As all the food in front of her vanished, Tohka's eyes instantly lost focus. Only when Franklin held a small sundae right in front of her did her blank gaze gradually sharpen again.
Franklin rubbed her head helplessly.
"It's not that serious—just temporarily erased them. No need to act like you've lost the will to live."
At his weak complaint, Tohka's cheeks puffed out as she glared at him.
"Lin's a meanie. Besides liking Lin, food is my only joy in life."
Thinking about it, that really was true, leaving Franklin's earlier complaint even weaker.
To quickly finish this egalitarian sunscreen routine while still satisfying everyone,
Franklin turned to Kotori and Reine standing nearby.
"Need sunscreen? If so, we can handle it all together in a bit."
Both Kotori and Reine shook their heads lightly.
"I already asked the Commander to help me. Little Lin, just take care of Tohka."
"Though I'd love to ask you, big brother—after I helped Reine, she did mine too."
Getting the answer he wanted, Franklin smiled and nodded.
"Good. Then only Tohka's left. Once we're done, I'll add the upper-layer protection for you all too.
Think about any special abilities you might want.
Of course, before we start, I have to say—
Kotori, this swimsuit looks amazing on you. Thank you, dear little sister, for indulging my hobby."
Kotori, who had been lost in thought, instantly flushed.
"Hmph. Big brother's a total siscon. This is the only time. Next time I won't just casually feed your perverted tastes."
Franklin smiled. Looking at Tohka lying excitedly on the yoga mat while eating her sundae, he murmured a soft apology, then snapped his fingers lightly. Following what You Wange had once mentioned, he applied the maximum time deceleration within the domain to Tohka.
In an instant, Tohka's entire body slowed dramatically. Franklin then tried accelerating himself.
His palms gently glided over her smooth skin, satisfying his own desires while quickly applying the sunscreen.
When everything returned to normal, Tohka was still lying on the mat in the same position.
Her originally excited expression rapidly shifted to pure pleasure. Her cheeks went from normal to gradually redder, until she finally let out a soft moan and collapsed limp on the yoga mat.
Sensing the explosive surge in Tohka's yin energy, Franklin's eyes widened in disbelief.
"Lin, what did you just do? It felt so weird. Only a moment passed, but it seemed like everything slowed down for you guys—taking forever for the next movement.
It felt like that slow-motion lasted days before it went back to normal. What exactly did you do?"
Hearing Tohka's words, Franklin's mind went blank. He had clearly slowed time for her—yet from her perspective, everyone else had slowed to an extreme.
Not only that, because of her subjective consciousness, her yin energy had skyrocketed. This gave Franklin a sudden epiphany.
He lifted a finger lightly, and Tohka flipped over to sit up. Franklin gently touched her abdomen—the strange pattern instantly appeared.
Right now, except for the very top portion which was faintly dim, the rest of the pattern was nearly filled with pink glow.
A quick calculation told him that by tonight, Tohka's yin energy would reach its peak.
"Lin, what are you doing? Why are you suddenly touching my stomach? It tickles."
At her words, Franklin grew curious.
"You can't see anything on your stomach?"
Tohka smiled faintly and shook her head. "Nothing at all. I just feel your hand is really warm."
Looking at the pattern glowing pink, Franklin turned to Kotori and Reine beside him.
Both shook their heads.
"Big brother, is there something on Tohka's stomach? Tell us—we can help."
At that, Franklin gave a heartfelt smile.
"No, nothing. I just figured out a way to rapidly boost my yang energy in a short time. Give me a moment."
As he spoke, he set the domain to reset after five seconds, then decisively applied maximum time deceleration to himself.
His mind worked normally. Everything his eyes perceived was in extreme slow motion.
Counting silently in his head, Franklin carefully sensed the changes in himself.
Finally, he saw through it all. The domain's time deceleration only affected the body's time flow, slowing the speed at which consciousness and soul received information.
But since the domain couldn't influence the soul or consciousness, thinking speed remained unaffected—causing everything he saw to appear in slow motion.
Because his own consciousness still followed the normal world's biological clock, yang energy recovery on the soul level continued at the regular rate.
After silently counting fifty thousand seconds, everything returned to normal.
1:1 time flow. His body subjectively felt like over a dozen hours had passed, yet the ethereal yang energy had recovered at the normal pace. Discovering this new continent, Franklin was exceptionally excited.
In his excitement, he also realized how little he truly understood about consciousness and soul-level information.
As his heart demon had said, he still knew too little. His mastery of Illusory World Genesis and the domain was still far too weak.
Especially Illusory World Genesis—the heart demon had influenced his mind and directly created Doraemon's "What If" phone booth.
No—thinking back over everything again, Franklin felt his brain tremble.
He had still fallen into the heart demon's mental trap. The heart demon hadn't created the phone booth through him,
nor had the booth actually taken him to the To Love Ru world.
He had never truly believed the phone booth was real.
He had simply been influenced by the heart demon's fabricated booth.
When he spoke into it, saying "end all this,"
deep in his heart he had unconsciously believed Frieza had truly invaded Earth, and that he had returned to the To Love Ru world.
This indirectly enabled the heart demon to invade reality directly, breaking free from his body and vanishing without a trace.
Right now, Franklin's entire body trembled. He finally understood what true enlightenment was,
and why cultivators, upon reaching certain realms, must enter the mortal world and interact with ordinary people.
Even small matters could, at any moment, become the breakthrough point to surpass one's ability limits.
Something as trivial as applying sunscreen had indirectly revealed a way to rapidly recover yang energy through the domain, and even more indirectly allowed him to see through the heart demon's tricks during the Spirit Severing stage. It also made him realize just how heaven-defying Illusory World Genesis truly was.
Just because of his subconscious belief, he had not only crossed countless dimensions to return to a main world the Dimensional Tome couldn't even locate, but the elusive heart demon had appeared directly in that world and completely escaped him without a trace.