I still truly hope that I could walk hand in hand with you…
Outside the pagoda.
“How long has Azhen been on this floor?” Hua Fan muttered, glancing toward Xian Yuyi, only to find that Xian Yuyi was looking at Li Changshuang instead.
Then, Hua Fan sensed a soundproof barrier descending around those two, sealing him out.
Hua Fan: “…”
What the hell! Are they secretly forming a clique or something?!
If he weren’t outmatched, he really would love to punch that hypocrite Li Changshuang in the face!
“You came to ask about this too?” Xian Yuyi rubbed her temples in mild exasperation. “Seriously, what’s going on with you two lately? One after another, why are you both looking for Kongling Xudan? What’s so important that this young lady can’t know about?”
Li Changshuang keenly caught the word “too” in Xian Yuyi’s speech. After a pause, he asked, “He came to you after the auction to ask about Kongling Xudan as well?”
Xian Yuyi realized she had let slip quite a bit of information about Weisheng Zhen just now, and felt a twinge of guilt. But emboldened by the fact that he was in the middle of the competition and Hua Fan couldn’t hear them, she nodded and said, “That day he asked me to look into Yue Bai’s whereabouts, right? So I took the opportunity to dig through the previous auction records, and that’s when I discovered that after the auction, the seller of Kongling Xudan had contacted the steward, hoping to pass a message to Weisheng Zhen.”
“Basically, he said he knew Weisheng Zhen needed five drops of Kongling Xudan, and he knew what he intended to use it for. But he asked Weisheng Zhen to go to Buzhi Continent and speak with him face to face.”
“Buzhi Continent?” Li Changshuang’s brows were already furrowed. “That place is mostly filled with criminals and scoundrels, or demons and monsters of all sorts. If Weisheng Zhen truly accepts the invitation and goes to Buzhi Continent.”
He didn’t finish his sentence, but Xian Yuyi knew perfectly well that if he really went, he might end up dead without a complete corpse.
Or he might run into some pervert who would turn Weisheng Zhen’s exquisite features and body into a shell for someone’s amusement.
Either way, by any measure of reason or decency, none of them could stand by and watch Weisheng Zhen actually go to Buzhi Continent.
“So he refused at first,” Xian Yuyi said. “But I suspect Weisheng Zhen might actually be considering taking the risk. Otherwise, why would someone who never cultivated seriously before suddenly start training so diligently all of a sudden?”
“That’s totally out of character for him.”
Xian Yuyi casually threw in that jab, only to realize Li Changshuang wasn’t really listening to what she’d just said. Instead, he was staring at the Buddhist pagoda, lost in his own thoughts.
Li Changshuang did know what Weisheng Zhen needed Kongling Xudan for he just had originally assumed that a single drop would be enough.
He suddenly recalled a conversation a few nights ago, when he had deliberately gotten Weisheng Zhen drunk and heard his answer.
“Thirty more years.”
That was what he said, yet there was a trace of unwillingness to concede defeat in his eyes.
“I am @%*! How could I possibly be trapped by the settings I wrote myself! I will defy fate and change my destiny, forging my own path!”
Weisheng Zhen laughed in exasperation, reached for the cup again, and took a fierce gulp. But he drank too fast, choked on the liquor, and burst into violent coughing.
Li Changshuang patted his back to help him catch his breath, then took away both the wine and the cup. Only after that did he carry the now-asleep Weisheng Zhen back to his room.
Fortunately, it was late at night and quiet, so not many people saw what he did.
Seeing Li Changshuang’s brow furrow deeper and deeper as he thought, Xian Yuyi suddenly reached out and patted him on the shoulder. “I’m warning you, you absolutely must not secretly help Weisheng Zhen go to the Unknown Continent. You know yourself just how chaotic that place is. Someone like him would be tortured to death by those demon cultivators the moment he stepped in. No matter how monumental the matter is, it’s not worth rushing over this one moment.”
“And of course, you’re not allowed to go either. Don’t think that just because you’re already at the Void Refinement stage, you can go to the Unknown Continent in Weisheng Zhen’s place. Who knows if you’d even leave behind a complete corpse.”
The moment Xian Yuyi saw Li Changshuang’s expression, he knew the man was harboring some crooked idea, and he nearly laughed in exasperation. After issuing his repeated warnings without receiving any response from Li Changshuang, he could only sigh and pull out his trump card: “If you dare secretly go in Weisheng Zhen’s place, I’ll tell him!”
As he pointed at the Nine-Turn Buddhist Pagoda, the position of Weisheng Zhen’s small space finally climbed to the ninth floor.
Inside the pagoda.
No matter how much he yearned for the warmth of the eighth floor, he understood that it was merely an illusion.
The longer one lingered, the easier it was to become lost in delusion.
So he stepped out of his room, using nearly all his endurance, and with a smile, bid farewell to his parents in the illusion.
“This floor is the final level of the Nine-Turn Buddhist Pagoda the Trial of the Heart.”
Weisheng Zhen sat cross-legged before a golden, radiant phantom whose features were indistinct. Though he cultivated the Dao, he respectfully pressed his palms together and bowed. “This disciple has come to seek your guidance.”
“You carry the aura of Xing Tan. You must have met him a few days ago.” The golden phantom sighed. “He too came to this place before, and like you, sat here discussing the Dao with me.”
“He actually passed the ninth floor, but he refused to leave. In the end, when time ran out, the pagoda automatically expelled him.”
“Why?” Weisheng Zhen was somewhat puzzled, but seeing that the golden phantom said nothing more, he pressed his palms together again. “Please, senior, make your move.”
“May your future cultivation be smooth and untroubled.”
The phantom nodded, and with a sweep of its robes, golden light scattered over Weisheng Zhen, drawing him into an illusion like the ones before.
Only this time, the content of the illusion was different.
It was not any space he had ever occupied, but the Unknown Continent itself.
His clothing suddenly became extremely revealing the fabric was pitifully scant, with strands of golden silk hanging loosely along the lines of his body, so that a hint of red at his chest was faintly visible. He found himself lying on a bed in a resplendent, palace-like room, where everything was exceedingly luxurious even the bed frame was made of ten-thousand-year thunderwood. Beneath him was spread the finest mermaid silk, and over him lay a golden silkworm quilt.
Weisheng Zhen actually possessed many treasures in his room at the Lingchao Sect, but none of them could compare to the opulence of this room.
Where was this?
And who had he become in this illusion?
Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly heard a familiar sound from beside the bed.
It was his jade communication disc someone had sent him a message. But aside from the time, he couldn’t use any of its other functions.
The time was already thirty years later.
Stealing a glance at the mirror beside him, Weisheng Zhen realized that he was now himself thirty years in the future.
Aside from the change in his clothing, his appearance was completely unchanged.
If that was the case.
In that illusion, had he already reached the point of death?
Could this illusion truly reveal the future? Weisheng Zhen could feel that his body was currently extremely weak, which meant that thirty years from now… he had failed to change his fate?
As he thought this, Weisheng Zhen suddenly sensed someone approaching the room he was in.
The door was pushed open, but the person who entered had no facial features on their face. Weisheng Zhen knew this was because he had never actually met this person in reality, and the illusion couldn’t fabricate someone out of thin air, which was why this situation had occurred.
“If you had come to Buzhi Continent earlier, your body wouldn’t be as weak as it is now, even after being reshaped.”
The person’s voice was low and hoarse. Though they had no facial features, their gaze greedy as if it had substance fixed intently on Weisheng Zhen, as if appraising some object.
Weisheng Zhen didn’t answer.
He still didn’t know how to leave this illusion. For now, the only method was to act out the plot he could see.
Fortunately, his body was weak right now, so not speaking wouldn’t arouse suspicion.
Seeing that Weisheng Zhen remained silent, the person shook their head and flicked their robe, seeming to carry a hint of frustration at his lack of progress. “Still thinking about him? I’ve told you countless times we are the ones… only if the two of us join forces do we have a chance to break through the shackles of this cultivation world!”
“Even if he is your… so what? Don’t place your superfluous emotions on him! He’ll soon die by my hand. Once I become a god, will you still worry about being trapped by this age limit? Will you still worry about not being able to return home?”
Weisheng Zhen merely gave him a faint glance and still said nothing. The person, growing irritated, reached out and grabbed Weisheng Zhen’s wrist from above, condescendingly.
“I’m sincerely advising you to come along, I hope you won’t be ungrateful!”
“In the final seven days, if you don’t agree, even if we are, I will still make a move against you.”
He seemed regretful, seemed wistful. “I still very much hope we can advance hand in hand.”
He reached out, and a hidden latch on the bed flipped open from somewhere unknown, revealing a crystal chain as thick as an adult’s arm. The person let out a cold snort and locked Weisheng Zhen’s wrist to one end of the chain.
The moment it was locked on, he felt the fatigue weighing on him grow even heavier.
Weisheng Zhen: “…”
Though he couldn’t tell the person’s age, this riddle-speaker’s style.
He really wanted to punch someone!
He hadn’t even said a word, yet he’d inexplicably listened to a long speech from a riddle-speaker, and then inexplicably been locked in a dark room?
After securing him, the person left, and an intense drowsiness immediately swept over Weisheng Zhen. He couldn’t resist it and soon closed his eyes, falling asleep.
The moment he sank into a dream, he was still thinking.
He was wearing too little, his spiritual power was sealed now he wouldn’t catch a cold, would he?
His worry turned out to be not unfounded. After sleeping for who knew how long, when he woke, Weisheng Zhen felt his head groggy and heavy, and his nose was somewhat stuffy.
The person sitting by the bed seemed to let out a sigh of relief upon seeing him awake, then said fiercely, “Your body is far too weak! Do you never train your physique? Spending every day clinging to him, your head filled with nothing but romantic fantasies, and not putting any effort into cultivation! And yet you’re called the hope of the cultivation world? If you’re not embarrassed, I am!”
Weisheng Zhen: “…”
Great, barely awake and not even speaking yet, and he’d already been scolded again.
It seemed he had already taken his medicine, as the soreness in his body quickly faded. After that person left, Weisheng Zhen finally had the presence of mind to think about what the key to breaking this illusion might be.
From the information known so far, he had apparently transmigrated into his own self thirty years in the future, residing in some unknown continent, living in a rather luxurious palace.
By common sense, that person might be some city lord of the unknown continent?
But judging by the familiarity in his tone when speaking, along with those words that sounded particularly like they were blocked by the Heavenly Dao.
Weisheng Zhen already had a vague suspicion forming in his mind.