Chapter 42 – A Dream
When Liu Ming’s eyes fell upon a wooden chest by his side, he regained some consciousness.
Surprisingly, there were still a dozen pieces of bright red rat meat inside the wooden chest. The color of the meat remained the same from when Liu Ming found them, there were no visible changes.
Liu Ming was amazed.
Since the meat of monsters had Fa Li infused into it, it kept fresh longer than normal meat. But naturally it would be a joke if someone claimed that it could still maintain its freshness after half a year.
Liu Ming’s expression changed several times. He then shifted his eyes to the nearby wooden barrel that was still filled with water. Afterward, he touched his back; it was still wet, as if he had just been sweating.
Liu Ming’s face became even uglier. Suddenly, he remembered something and quickly pulled out two items from his sleeves, a simple looking green wooden chest and a roughly made copper hourglass.
The green chest looked ordinary and the hourglass remained quietly in Liu Ming’s hand. All of the sand was cornered up on one end.
“So that’s how it is.” Liu Ming said while taking a deep breath. His face became flushed.
The chest and the hourglass were both tools that Liu Ming used for calculating time.
Liu Ming remembered clearly that when he left the area that he was stuck in, the surface of the wooden chest had been engraved with dense scratches.
The copper hourglass was made to conveniently track time and it was always left on the ground of that mysterious space. He never took it when he left.
The previous mysterious space Liu Ming had experienced seemed as if it was all an illusion, and Liu Ming thought that he had never been in any kind of space.
The half year that Liu Ming been trapped seemed all but a simple dream.
But the past six months he spent trapped in the foggy room seemed too real. Liu Ming could even clearly remember how he practiced his techniques everyday.
After Liu Ming had calmed down, he clenched his teeth and sank his consciousness into his body to take another check at the situation in his Spirit Sea.
He ended up feeling relieved.
Liu Ming’s Spirit Sea was empty and the broken little air bubbles had disappeared.
It was lucky that Liu Ming had gotten rid of this evil thing through just a heavy dream.
As Liu Ming thought about how lucky he was, he continued practicing the Dark Bone Method to give the Spirit Sea a slight push.
Liu Ming’s expression changed instantly and he yelled out by instinct.
“Impossible, how could the disappeared Fa Li be regained?”
After pushing the Spirit Sea, Liu Ming found that he had regained a lot of his Fa Li from before. More than half of the Fa Li that had been swallowed by that air bubble had returned.
What surprised him even more was that, even though he had less Fa Li than before, it was now much more pure.
Still amazed, Liu Ming quickly observed his Spirit Sea again.
Liu Ming’s Spirit Sea was still the same size as it was before, but the silver glow it gave off was much softer and it seemed as if it was slightly more solid.
According to the records, this was indeed an after effect of Fa Li being purified.
But purifying Fa Li was not only extremely dangerous, but also a very time consuming task!
Generally when a Spirit Apostle or Spirit Master has been stuck at a bottleneck for several years and there has been no improvements in cultivation, they take the risk and give refining their Fa Li a try.
A cultivator that had quite pure Fa Li would be able to store more Fa Li in his body than other cultivators of the same level. In addition, his spells and totem activations would be more powerful.
To Liu Ming, this was a very good thing!
Needless to say, this purified Fa Li was caused by the absent air bubble.
As Liu Ming’s happiness slowly faded away, he couldn’t help but wonder.
To figure all this out with the limited knowledge, Liu Ming meditated for an entire hour before coming back to his senses.
Where did that air bubble come from? Why did it swallow Fa Li? And after going through a dream, half of the purified Fa Li was returned. This was too complicated!
Liu Ming’s head swelled up, but he still couldn’t figure out the relationship between the events.
“Whatever. That thing has already disappeared. And losing half of the consumed Fa Li to gain back a purified half of it isn’t too much of a loss either.” Liu Ming thought, shaking his head.
At the same time, Liu Ming turned and looked at the only open window of the house.
The sun was high up in the sky, scorching brightly.
Liu Ming squinted his eyes.
If he remembered correctly, before he was pulled into that weird space, the sun was also in that very same position.
Thus, all that he had gone through happened in a short moment’s time.
Thinking of that, Liu Ming stood up, opened the wooden door and walked out of the house.
Liu Ming stood in the little garden and threw his arms wide open, embracing the warm sunshine. After that, he felt much better.
Having to live in that mysterious space for half a year was definitely a test of the will.
Even thinking about it now made Liu Ming afraid.
Thankfully, he came out of that space after six months. If he were to stay there any longer, even if it had only been a dream, he could become mentally damaged.
Thinking of his mental strength, Liu Ming opened his eyes.
He realized that his mental energy was slightly stronger now than before. It wasn’t obvious, but it did indeed increase in strength.
Liu Ming smiled bitterly.
So in the end, he had received a blessing in disguise.
Still musing, he turned his glance to a big tree outside his courtyard.
Beside the tree there used to be a smaller tree. But now all that was left was a bare trunk.
TL: He cut the small tree with wind blades a few chapters earlier
Seeing it, Liu Ming laughed inside. He lifted his arms and casually murmured a spell.
“Tut Tut,” two fireballs appeared on Liu Ming’s palm. And in a flash, they became two glowing light balls racing toward the big tree.
“Boom! Boom!”
The big tree was eaten up by flames and instantly burned to ashes.
Liu Ming’s smile disappeared from his face. He froze.
This was the “Fireball Technique” that he had practiced to Initial Spell Mastery in the mysterious space. Wasn’t it all a dream? How could he so skillfully display this technique here?
Liu Ming’s mouth twitched. Suddenly, he changed the incantation, flung his arm, and shot out a white streak of light.
A flash soared!
Two little holes the size of thumbs appeared on a big rock beneath the burned tree.
This was the “Water Arrow Technique” that Liu Ming had practiced to Initial Spell Mastering.
Liu Ming licked his chapped lips. His eyes were filled with a fiery expression. Without pausing, he chanted another incantation and lifted his arms.
“Pu, pu, pu!” Six green wind blades were shot out in the blink of an eye, instantaneously slicing the big rock into a dozen slices.
This was the “Wind Blade Technique” that Liu Ming had practiced the most.
“So it is true, the training on the techniques in the mysterious space was effective.” Liu Ming murmured. His face was filled with excitement.
Liu Ming continued to cast different techniques in the courtyard until he had exhausted all of his Fa Li. He then stopped with exhaustion, laid down on the grass and closed his eyes.
“What a pity. If only I knew that the mysterious space had this effect, I would have stayed longer.” Liu Ming sighed, slowly opening his eyes.
Liu Ming clearly knew that what happened in the mysterious space was much more complicated than just a mere dream.
However, the little bubble did not exist anymore, which was a pity.
Liu Ming could probably never repeat this experience again. He could only pretend that what happened in the mysterious space was a destined chance.
Finally, Liu Ming recovered a normal state of mind and returned to his training room.
A few days later, when Liu Ming finally ate and refined the last of the rat meat, he stayed in his accommodation and continued to train for a majority of a month.
After a few months, Liu Ming felt that he had made all his preparations and finally, he left his dwelling and went to the Duty Hall.
Four months later…
A few hundred miles outside of the Barbarian Ghost Sect’s gate, at the edge of a pool which emitted a strange coldness was a bamboo pole. One of its ends was thrust a few inches deep into the mud and on the other end hung a white rope.
At the bottom of the rope hung a fat gray rabbit!
This rabbit only kicked lifelessly once in awhile. How long the rabbit had hung was unknown.
With a “huala” sound, a strange fish — which had an eagle’s mouth and a snake’s body — emerged from the pool and bit at the fat rabbit.
With a “pu” sound, a black rope shot out from the bush near the pole and wrapped around the strange white fish in the blink of an eye. Afterward, it pulled the fish until it was in front of the bush.
Under a feeling of fear, the strange fish let out a weird “gugu” cry and opened its mouth to shoot out a spout of white water, which made the surrounding ground into a hideous mess.
After some hard struggles, the weird fish became dispirited and stopped moving. In the end, the spout of water coming from its mouth stopped and it could only lie on the ground, unmoving.
“This Eagle Beak Fish is actually really crafty but after waiting two days and two night, it still obediently took the bait.”
The sound of light laughter spread from the surrounding bush; an average looking teenager in green robes stepped out with a smile on his face.
It was Liu Ming.
He walked in front of the weird fish and only after kicking it with his feet did he take out a fish basket from his back in no hurry and put the weird fish into it.
Just when Liu Ming wanted to turn around and leave, he suddenly noticed the gray rabbit on the bamboo pole and couldn’t help say to himself.
“This time, it can be said that you helped me big time, so I’ll let you live.”
Just when Liu Ming finished speaking, he raised his arm and a slightly green wind blade suddenly shot out, cutting the rope in two.
Once the fat gray rabbit in the air was free, it immediately splashed down and swam to the shore, before leaping into the nearby underbrush with surprising speed.
Seeing this, Liu Ming smiled a little. He then immediately formed a hand sign, and was about to start flying while carrying the fish basket.