After discovering the space, how could Lou Xingyao spare even a single thought for that so called Dao and Heaven Aligned?
His entire heart and mind had been swept away by the image of the personal space blooming open in his consciousness.
This was a personal space!
For years he had envied even Madam He’s pathetic storage pouch and that shabby little thing could only hold lifeless objects.
Now, here he was, with a vast pocket-world entirely his own. How could he not be overwhelmed?
Though, the soil within that stretch of land looked utterly hopeless at first glance. The dirt had dried and cracked, as if it might crumble to dust with a single breeze.
Yet Lou Xingyao, who had read the original novel, knew perfectly well that all it would only take a few days of watering with the well inside the space and this barren land would come back to life. Fertile and ready for planting!!
And honestly, what child of Huaxia could possibly resist the temptation of a portable farm?
If not for his last shred of rationality, Lou Xingyao would have rushed in immediately, desperate to see with his own eyes this tiny heaven that now belonged entirely to him.
But he restrained himself. Dangerous! far too dangerous!
He was still under the Lou family’s constant surveillance and who knew if there were guards standing just beyond the door?
What if someone suddenly noticed his aura vanishing without explanation? The consequences would be catastrophic.
Lou Xingyao had lived long enough to understand that wealth and fortune thrive in silence.
Stirring up waves too early only invited disaster. So he forced down his impulse and merely allowed his consciousness to explore the space instead.
His awareness lingered first upon the cracked soil. Such tremendous potential lay dormant there.
A flicker of regret crossed his heart, if only he had already drawn spiritual energy into his body, then with a thought he could manipulate the items inside.
As things stood now, the land would have to remain parched, beyond his reach.
After watching it for a long while, he reluctantly shifted his focus toward the well nearby.
It looked ordinary, almost rustic, as if dug by some farmer’s hand. But Lou Xingyao knew this was the most precious treasure within space.
The well water could moisten the withered soil but more than that, It could accelerate the growth of plants.
Soil and water together created a perfect harmony, a result far greater than the sum of its parts.
And the most astonishing feature?
This water carried the ability to cleanse and temper the body.
It wasn’t the instant, heaven-defying transformation of myths, but with long-term use, the results were undeniable. Impurities would be washed away, the body strengthened, the meridians toughened.
In other words with this well water, his frail meridians, the very flaw that had crippled Lou Xiaowu’s life could be healed.
Perhaps in a single year, at most three, his weakness would vanish without the aid of any medicine.
At this realization, Lou Xingyao’s emotions surged chaotically.
Who would have imagined it?
The very affliction that had tormented Lou Xiaowu for nine long years, the root of all his suffering and bullying, its cure had been within reach all along, hiding so close he never discovered it.
If Lou Xiaowu had found this space, with his dual spiritual root talent, the boy’s fate would have been completely different.
In fact, given how often he was beaten bloody in the Lou household, the bead would surely have absorbed his blood sooner or later.
If only he hadn’t hidden it away so carefully, if only he had worn it on his body. The discovery would have been inevitable.
But Lou Xiaowu was gone now. All such “if onlys” had dissolved into dust.
Instead, Lou Xingyao felt a sudden clarity strike him. This was what the novel always described as qi luck, wasn’t it?
For the fortunate, treasures appear of their own accord and for the unlucky, even a heaven-bestowed artifact remains forever out of reach.
Lou Xiaowu had never awakened this space not because it wasn’t his but because his luck had always fallen just one step short.
Understanding this, Lou Xingyao let go of the regret that had tugged at him. He turned his attention back inward.
The well was marvelous but right now, without the ability to move items by thought and unwilling to risk entering the space directly, all he could do was look.
This was the true torment of “sitting atop a mountain of treasure yet unable to use a single coin.”
Lou Xingyao sighed softly, a long, helpless breath. All he could do was comfort himself: Patience! The days ahead are long. The space is mine now. One day I will have the strength to use it fully.
Pulling his awareness reluctantly away from the well, his focus drifted toward the only structure in the entire realm.
A small wooden hut. Its footprint was modest, its furnishings plain, a soft couch for rest, a low wooden table, a cabinet of drawers for herbs, and a simple meditation cushion tucked into a corner. That was all inside it
But if the well held a secret, then surely the hut did too. And indeed, the hidden marvel was inside the medicine cabinet that occupied an entire wall.
It looked unimpressive at first glance, like any cabinet an apothecary might own. Yet within, each drawer contained an independent storage space, no smaller than a normal pouch.
And the most astonishing thing was that within those compartments, time itself stood still. Anything placed inside would never decay, never wither, never rot.
Even more convenient! The cabinet’s power was separate from the personal space.
Even though Lou Xingyao had yet to draw spiritual energy into his body, he could still use it without entering space directly.
He tested it. Taking the flat stone,he put it into one of the drawers. A heartbeat later, he saw it resting there, perfectly stored.
The sensation was strange, familiar. If he had to describe it, it was almost like a backpack in a game, an inventory screen where items could be placed or retrieved at will. Far superior to any storage pouch.
Lou Xingyao chuckled under his breath and withdrew the test stone. This time, he placed inside the crude wooden box, the one that had once belonged to Lou Xiaowu.
The items inside were worthless by ordinary standards, yes. But they carried the boy’s entire childhood of emotions, and they remained the only proof that Lou Xiaowu had ever lived.
Perhaps Lou Xingyao could never take this box out and tell its story to the world. But at the very least, in his space and in his heart, there would always remain a place for that boy.
The boy who, even in his own suffering, had apologized for the inconvenience he caused.
His awareness lingered on the wooden box within the medicine cabinet. Just as he was about to pull back, something caught his eye.
In one corner of the cabinet, a drawer glimmered faintly. A dim, almost imperceptible green light pulsed there, hidden, waiting.
What was that?
With a flick of his mind, Lou Xingyao lifted the faintly glowing object from the medicine cabinet and to his surprise, it was a jade slip.
Having read the novel, he immediately understood what it was.
In the world of Tianming Continent, jade slips were used by cultivators to record information.
Though small and unassuming, their storage capacity rivaled even the largest hard drives of the modern world.
Lou Xingyao also knew that all it took was to press a jade slip to one’s third eye to access its information.
What puzzled him was that in the original novel, when Ye Hantian acquired his personal space, the medicine cabinet had been empty. There had been no jade slip at all.
Ye Hantian had complained more than once, feeling that a personal space of his stature should contain at least some rare spiritual herbs or cultivation manuals.
A bare, empty space simply didn’t match the image of a heaven-chosen transcendent.
Even later, when those items had become easy for Ye Hantian to obtain, he would still pull out the once-empty personal space to critique it, while reminiscing about his difficult journey from zero.
So now, facing a jade slip that had never existed in the original novel, Lou Xingyao was momentarily unsure of its origin.
As he held the jade slip in his hand, a sudden realization struck him. Ever since discovering that he had “entered the novel” and acquired this personal space, he had been relying too heavily on the novel’s descriptions.
He trusted the well completely because it appeared in the story. Yet he doubted the jade slip simply because it hadn’t been mentioned.
In truth, both items came from the same personal space. There was no essential difference.
Even the matter of He Wanqing proved that the novel’s depiction wasn’t always fully accurate.
Outside the story, Tianming Continent was a real world. A real, living world couldn’t possibly be described completely in a few million words of fiction.
With that thought, Lou Xingyao tensed and raised his guard. He resolved that in the future, he could no longer react to events solely based on the novel. It could be referenced, yes, but he needed to make his own judgments first.
He quickly formed a decision regarding the jade slip that if the personal space was safe, then anything within it, including this jade slip should be safe as well.
Still, he did not immediately attempt to access the information. He remembered the experience of absorbing Lou Xiaowu’s memories.
How an overwhelming surge of information had burdened the brain.
Though he didn’t know how much data the jade slip contained, he resolved to wait until he had drawn spiritual energy into his body and could control the flow of information, ensuring there would be no risk.
Just as he prepared to return the jade slip to the cabinet, his eyes widened in shock. The once-smooth jade now displayed fine cracks, spreading like the pattern of a tortoise shell across its surface.
Before he could react further, the jade slip began to disintegrate.
Yet the fragments did not fall. Instead, they transformed into countless points of light, as tiny as fireflies.
When the final shard vanished, the scattered lights gathered, coalescing into a single stream of teal light that shot straight into Lou Xingyao’s third eye, like a meteor plunging from the heavens.
The process was seamless, completed in the blink of an eye, giving him no time to resist.
The moment the last flicker entered his mind, an overwhelming tide of information struck him like a landslide and tidal wave combined.
His capacity to think vanished instantly.
The next instant, he felt as if he had become a shooting star, hurtling through an infinite cosmos with no way to escape. He drifted endlessly through the unfamiliar star-sea.
The expanse of stars stretched infinitely, like a bottomless abyss. Over time, he began to forget his origins, his original appearance, his home, and his destination.
Even the movements of traversing the star-sea grew sluggish and robotic.
If it weren’t for a faint voice deep in his mind urging him on, Lou Xingyao might have succumbed entirely to this aimless and meaningless wandering, becoming just another part of the star-sea.
How long he drifted, how many stars he passed, he could not tell. Then, in his sight, a single, unique star appeared.
Vast expanses of blue ocean contrasted with yellow-green earth, instantly stirring memories buried deep within him.
He was not a star! He was human. And his name was Lou Xingyao.
As the memories returned in a flash, Lou Xingyao’s eyes shot open. He was no longer lost in the endless star-sea.
Outside the window, the previously dim sky had brightened without warning. And in his mind, a cultivation manual appeared out of nowhere, its name radiant and clear:
“Myriad Heavenly Star Technique” (Wan Tian Xing Fa Jue).
✦ ✧ ✦
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
(╯°□°）╯︵ ☕ — deploy caffeine!
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 1 · Crossing OverChapter 2 · Lu XioaWuChapter 3 · UncleChapter 4 · Substitute MarriageChapter 5 · Travelling Through BookChapter 6 · SpaceChapter 7 · InheritanceChapter 8 · ExplanationChapter 9 · He familyChapter 10 · CompensateChapter 11 · WeddingChapter 12 · LeavingChapter 13 · SuspicionChapter 14 · Change SurnameChapter 14 · Change SurnameChapter 15 · SummaryChapter 16 · Family BusinessChapter 17 · ResettlementChapter 18 · DeterminationChapter 19 · TreatChapter 20 · Enter the TaoChapter 21 · Private TrainingChapter 22 · BreakthroughChapter 23 · ExperienceChapter 24 Part 1 · Questions and AnswersChapter 24 Part 2 · Questions and answersChapter 25 · GiftChapter 25 Part 1 · GiftChapter 26 Part 1 · Sword IntentChapter 26 Part 2 · Sword IntentChapter 27 Part 1 · SelectChapter 27 Part 2 · SelectChapter 28 Part 1 · PastChapter 28 Part 2 · PastChapter 29 Part 1 · ConfessionChapter 29 Part 2 · ConfessionChapter 30 Part 1 · TradeChapter 30 Part 2 · TradeChapter 31 Part 1 · Male LeadChapter 31 Part 2 · Male LeadChapter 32 Part 1 · LuckChapter 32 Part 2 · LuckChapter 33 Part 1 · GuessingChapter 33 Part 2 · GuessingChapter 34 Part 1 · SystemChapter 34 Part 2 · SystemChapter 35 · OpportunityChapter 36 Part 1 · LingquanChapter 36 Part 2 · LingquanChapter 37 Part 1 · Hundred Flowers PartChapter 37 Part 2 · Hundred Flowers PartChapter 38 · Worth itChapter 39 · SaintessChapter 40 · ExperimentChapter 41 · Vampire SystemChapter 42 · NotesChapter 43 · WarningChapter 44 · PlanChapter 45 · Fellow VillagersChapter 46 · AssimilationChapter 47 · IlliterateChapter 48 · Pak WahChapter 49 · Sudden EnlightenmentChapter 50 · Wen ZhiChapter 51 · CarrierChapter 52 · LeavingChapter 53 · Follow UpChapter 54 · OutrageousChapter 55 · OnceChapter 56 · TeasingChapter 57 · Playing aroundChapter 58 · Beast fireChapter 59 · Watching a PlayChapter 60 · Extermination of the entire clanChapter 61 · ChoiceChapter 62 · PossessionChapter 63 · CalculationChapter 64 · GuaranteedChapter 65 · Grand OpeningChapter 66 · Grand OpeningChapter 67 · Protecting one’s ownChapter 68 · Secret RealmChapter 69 · BetrayalChapter 70 · DetailsChapter 71 · FramedChapter 72 · MeetingChapter 73 · KillChapter 74 · MapChapter 75 · FoundationChapter 76 · Strange Phenomenon!Chapter 77 · ExchangeChapter 78 · LetterChapter 79 · ShortcutChapter 80 · God of Slaughter!Chapter 81 · Poison PillChapter 82 · Lou ShuChapter 83 · ProgressChapter 84 · An attemptChapter 85 · Movement and StillnessChapter 86 · Good intentionsChapter 87 · ChangeChapter 88 · Childhood friendChapter 89 · ThoughtsChapter 90 · Old storiesChapter 91 · HeritageChapter 92 · TestChapter 93 · LoverChapter 94 · Heartfelt wishesChapter 95 · MasterChapter 96 · TeachingChapter 97 · IllusionChapter 98 · Mutual RestraintChapter 99 · ObstructionChapter 100 · PalaceChapter 101 · Core TechniqueChapter 102 · OathChapter 103 · Dual cultivationChapter 104 · AccessChapter 105 · VulnerabilityChapter 106 · DensityChapter 107 · WantedChapter 108 · EntrustChapter 109 · RevisitChapter 110 · MonitoringChapter 111 · Secret RealmChapter 112 · NourishChapter 113 · InventoryChapter 114 · Get Rich QuicklyChapter 115 · ElderChapter 116 · Grand FormationChapter 117 · Heaven’s WillChapter 118 · BountyChapter 119 · GainChapter 120 · BlameChapter 121 · ChattingChapter 122 · GuessChapter 123 · Zheng TianChapter 124 · SparringChapter 125 · Sword intentChapter 126 · KenshinChapter 127 · Auditing a classChapter 128 · CoincidenceChapter 129 · ContradictionChapter 130 · RouteChapter 131 · CostChapter 132 · ConfiscatedChapter 133 · Holding a grudgeChapter 134 · SupportChapter 135 · DeteriorationChapter 136 · Unable toChapter 137 · PriceChapter 138 · VariantChapter 139 · Start AnewChapter 140 · ShamelessChapter 141 · Black PotChapter 142 · Benefiting fromChapter 143 · PieChapter 144 · DifferencesChapter 145 · DetoxificationChapter 146 · Current situationChapter 147 · TeasingChapter 148 · IntelligenceChapter 149 · Returned GiftChapter 150 · Old debtChapter 151 · FleshChapter 152 · OpeningChapter 153 · GrudgesChapter 154 · RegretChapter 155 · Gang fightChapter 156 · GentleChapter 157 · ComplaintChapter 158 · ScreamsChapter 159 · GeniusChapter 160 · ConcernChapter 161 · Hidden StoryChapter 162 · StingyChapter 163 · Guilty conscienceChapter 164 Part 1 · StruggleChapter 164 Part 2 · StruggleChapter 165 · Win or LoseChapter 166 · TasteChapter 167 · Shifting The BlameChapter 168 · MoonlightChapter 169 · Past EventChapter 170 · RegretChapter 171 · RetributionChapter 172 · Cause and EffectChapter 173 · BackgroundChapter 174 · FlatteryChapter 175 · HonestChapter 176 · BookkeepingChapter 177 · FarewellChapter 178 · GuidelineChapter 179 · BottleneckChapter 180 · HabitChapter 181 · Casual ChatChapter 182 · Flowing WaterChapter 183 · RumoursChapter 184 · Seeking AdviceChapter 185 · PityChapter 186 · FormationChapter 187 · BasicChapter 188 · Fake TombChapter 189 · BewareChapter 190 · TraceChapter 191 · DiscussChapter 192 · Ancestral preceptsChapter 193 · Loose CultivatorChapter 194 · AllocationChapter 195 · Thank you for your kindnessChapter 196 · ExplanationChapter 197 · ErrorChapter 198 · Culinary skillsChapter 199 · Starry SeaChapter 200 · ComparisonChapter 201 · FrustratedChapter 202 · Don’t watchChapter 203 · LonelinessChapter 204 · NoChapter 205 · Exposing ShortcutsChapter 206 · CraftsmanshipChapter 207 · Bottom LineChapter 208 · StrikeChapter 209 · Ten GoldChapter 210 · Pretentious