Another of my "Does this even exist" recommendation threads. In Cultivation Novels, and some RPG System Novels where the RPG System is universal, it is not uncommon for the Main Character, and everyone around them, to be able to move any part of their body, or all of their body, faster than the speed of sound or have thoughts faster than a Super Computer, by the end of the first Quarter of the story (if it takes takes that long, in some cases). With Cultivation Novels, 90% of the time, if it's not in the first quarter, it's still going to happen during the story. That the MC, and everyone relevant to the story around the MC, will reach a realm where surpassing the sound barrier is a fundamental part of combat, and thinking quick enough to keep track of 200+ things at a time is taking it easy. Thing is, despite this, they keep on communicating via speech. Despite that speech requires one to communicate at a speed so slow that many of the cultivators could have a nap in the middle of a one-syllable word and wake to hear the end of it, I don't remember any story having their cultivators use any other form of basic communication. Even in battles, talking is often used as a delaying tactic to earn a scant few seconds to recover, or demand that the person about to die be spared. And, despite everyone moving at supersonic speeds, it's never explained HOW they hear the demands to "STOP" before they take the action they were about to take. So, this time, I'm looking for stories that DO explain that. Something like the MC having to talk through Spirit/Mana/Other rather than through their voice. And, no, I don't consider the "everyone learns how to throw their whispers so only the people they want to hear them can hear them" as doing this. Keeping your words private and learning how to verbally communicate in a different manner are two completely different things.
Paradise of Demons and Gods have people exchange information currents. That said, it still has the peanut gallery flaw where people can use speech to tell a person's life story before the quick surprise attack hits. But if you ignore the peanut gallery stuff, information currents is used to communicate instead of speech when they fight each other at speeds faster than sound.
I would suggest that the talking is happening at supersonic speeds and why wouldn't it. If you can individuate any part of your body to work at a higher speed, then why not your lungs, mouth, lips and tongue. This would allow conversations to be carried out lightning fast. So while you think they are talking so slow that one might be able to take a nap during the enunciation of a single syllable, rather they have just taken 3 seconds to carry on a 4 chapter conversation. As to explaining this, how exactly would you go about this little bit of exposition in a book? No matter how you tried to, I think it would come across rather ham-fisted and unnecessary. They could also be communicating via mental telepathy, at least some form of it, assisted by Qi or Spirit Sense as they talk about many cultivators doing, though usually this is done more by people who know each other as I imagine it could be easily used as a subtle attack so you would not want any random cultivator being able to contact you in this manner. Another one is the communication jades and the like which are similar to mental/Qi communication but put the user at a remove with the jade thus lowering the likelihood of an attack through communication and increasing the common use of this method.
You can try Divine Throne of Primordial Blood. It haven't got to the level of supersonic fights as of yet (and perhaps it never will), but I would say it's one of the best cultivation novels right now. It starts out the same as other novels, but if you get through the first 100-200 chapters, it gets better and better, and the MC is not stupid. Yep, you heard me right, the MC is NOT stupid. Hard to say how the author will handle the fights on the higher level though.
The issues with "they just talk faster" are numerous. Firstly, it doesn't change the fact that sound, itself, has a limited speed. As in, it only goes a set speed though a medium, and is dependant on that medium. Secondly, when words are spoken too quickly and too closely, they get jumbled together. Speaking at supersonic speeds would result in mixing an entire sentence into a single word, resulting in it being a jumbled mess, no matter how dexterous their tongue. Mental Telepathy isn't likely to be a solution, either, given how often things being said "Publicly" is important to the story and the fact that Telepathy is usually made out to be a personal thing. That is to say, nothing said through Telepathy is "Publicly" said. The other "could be utilised solutions" you suggested have similar issues, particularly when it's never stated. That is the issue that I have with what's happening in those stories, yes. Except that it never actually suggests that they ARE talking faster, sometimes assumes that they AREN'T talking faster for plot points, pretends that the speed of sound is the speed of light (or faster, in some cases), and, like that, pretends that words won't get merged together if said at rapid speeds. That sounds like a story where this issue may not even come up, not a story that explains it. Thank you for that suggestion. It sounds like it might fit my request.
Perhaps. I don't really understand why somebody would talk during the fight, not before or after, especially considering the speed of fights...
What I'm actually talking about isn't the speed of the fights, but the speed of the conversations. Given that everyone in a city can move, and think, at supersonic speeds, why is restricted-to-sonic-speeds conversations still utilised? Why are people having troubles following conversations or predicting where the conversation will go if they literally have sufficient time to be doing seventeen things at once and still participate in the conversation without issue, and all they're doing is having said conversation? As for conversations in the middle of fights, themselves, it's either monologuing, "buying time to recover", or something else along those lines. Individual's speed never reaches high enough for this to be a potential issue in that. This request thread is about people who can move the speed of The Flash being commonplace, having superpowers beyond that speed that can often do practically anything with, given enough time and practice, and still talking through verbal, sound-wave based communication. And, despite moving significantly faster than the speed of sound, despite distance between individuals, sound itself seeming to be instantaneous, without any explanation whatsoever.
Outside of for comedic purpose, I don't think any author would say that "they are talking so fast no ordinary person could understand them". Also, hyperrealistic situations don't fit well with fantasy. It would break the story apart.
To this I would say that if your body can move at supersonic speeds, then your brain should be able to easily differentiate words also said at that speed. So it would not actually be a jumbled mess to people capable of the same feat. There is actually the concept of Broadcast Telepathy which is sent out to a group or area where anyone, even those without telepathic abilities can hear it as long as their mental walls are not stronger than the person transmitting. Broadcast empathic abilities have also been used in stories over the years as well not to mention wide band receptive telepathy and empathy. Why would you stop to explain that? And how would you work it into the normal exposition without seeming forced. In most of these novels it would be extremely commonplace for the people of the setting so they would have no need to explain it to each other. Sure a transmigrator might ask someone how it works which would allow an explanation, but haven't you noticed that most transmigrators like to just sit back and wait for info dumps that frankly call for disbelief in how they are executed. Now something in a more modern setting, like say Cultivation Chat Group where a normal person finds out about cultivators living in a modern world, that would be a scenario that lends itself to an explanation by one of his seniors or just to him asking the question. Also why assume they have to communicate at high speed. They may just want to slow down, take a deep breath and have a conversation at a normal speed for a change of pace. Not to mention cultivation novels always have these guys going into seclusion for years if not decades or longer, wouldn't you think they'd want to take their time and savor the human interaction rather than find some excuse to get the conversation done with in 3 minutes so they can go back to seclusion.
"Supersonic" is, quite literally, "Faster Than Sound". If you are making sound at a speed faster than sound, it is comparable to making two sounds at once. Or more. Basically, turn on five different radios at the same time, and try to listen to them all at once, all at the same volume, all in the same voice, all coming from basically the same place. THAT is what you're saying wouldn't be a jumbled mess, due to the speed at which people can think? That is a good point. The fact that it never gets even a half-sentence explanation is what I have an issue with. Because the delay becomes a plot point. When you can, and regularly do, multiple complicated things beyond the speed of sound, possibly to 20 times the speed of sound, spending the personal equivalent to five hours getting through a single sentence sounds... wasteful. And that not only happens, it can be a bloody plot point that the conversation takes that long. "I have a super incredible healing factor ability, it'll just take one minute to heal sufficiently to stand a chance. What's that, I'm in a fight where every second counts, and we were both moving at supersonic speeds, so hiding doesn't have a chance? Better try to get my opponent to Monologue in order to buy the time I need to recover! Only 55 seconds left." The amount of times that scenario has popped up is staggering. Particularly in stories where it's regularly implied that a single minute could be, for the MC at least, and, by implication, everyone else, at least an hour, if not a few of them to a few dozen hours. It's ridiculous that people take that long for a short conversation. Because there's many different types of humans, and while some would, others would get annoyed at the waste of time. Even those who would enjoy the interaction have things they would, occasionally, rather be doing and want to get back to. I just can't see taking that long, subjectively, being seen as anything more than a waste of time, on the mass scale.