Chapter 394: I Really Hate Digging a Hole yet Not Filling It
Translator: Subudai11 Editor: Chrissy
After coming out of the immortal dream land, Wang Lu suddenly felt particularly tired, like when he was drilled in training by his Master all night long in Non-Phase Peak in the past one year.
After two consecutive chains of immortal dream lands, Wang Lu really needed a period of rest. In addition to psychological exhaustion, he has also burned some of his innate vitality to power his Non-Phase Sword to contend against Yunkongjun, which was an amazing feat in itself. Thus, he needed a long time to recuperate… However, properly going to sleep or perhaps using the high price meditation spot for cultivators to restore magical power in Plentiful City were too inefficient. Let alone, he still needed to confirm some things as quickly as possible, which he did not want to delay even for a moment.
Therefore, he directly went to the sub-branch of Great Arrangement Travel in Plentiful City. Using his privilege as one of the Plentiful City Management Committee Members, he opened a low cost transmission array in this organization that specialized in logistic towards Grand Cloud Mountain.
This long distance transmission array was not so easy for cultivators. The distance itself was not the problem. The problem was that, for such a large continent like Nine Regions, its topography sometimes change, so two transmission spots would often have peculiar circumstances, which made it difficult to have a stable spell to ensure the safety in long-distance transmission. Great Arrangement Travel has been delving deeper in this field of endeavor and had run the longest. This made them nearly monopolize the logistic business in Nine Regions.
After passing through the transmission array to Grand Cloud Mountain, Wang Lu immediately looked for that lake.
When he arrived at the spot where he left just a moment ago, Wang Lu immediately looked for his once-buried treasure.
In the immortal dream land, he buried the artifacts and spirit seeds in a spot concealed by jagged rock where the vegetation was sparse. However, it was also a spot where the strength of the Feng Shui line was relatively weak, which would not attract people to come. Moreover, for the safety's sake, Wang Lu used the assistance of precious talisman to complete a hidden treasure array.
The so called hidden treasure array was a special storage concealed by a spell, which was used by cultivators to protect and conceal the designated treasure. Only by the use of specific password and spell could the concealment be removed. This was usually used by big sects to store their strategic resources. By using the hidden treasure array to conceal his artifacts and spirit seeds, as long as there was no unforeseen circumstances, even if he left it for thousands of years, they wouldn't be found.
As a matter of fact, the immortal cultivation world of Nine Regions was filled with stories where, through luck, some cultivators found hidden treasure arrays in some barren mountains or wild hills left behind by people in the past. There were the strategic resources left by some sects thousands of years ago. However, these resources couldn't be used by their original owner because of accidents that caused the sects to vanish...
By burying the treasures for thousands of years, Wang Lu had actually taken a great risk. After all, the Nine Regions was vast, wondrous things happened one after another incessantly, and in several thousand years, anything could happen. However, this move from Wang Lu was not so much an investment or speculation, but rather a confirmation, a necessary confirmation.
He wanted to know whether the action in the immortal dream land would really affect what happened later. On the first chain in the Peach Garden Village story, the establishment of Yin and Yang School at the last act brought him such a huge shock that it subverted his view on how things should be in this world… Could time travel really exist? This was a miracle that hasn't been clearly recorded in any historical data. It was a concept that only existed in the story. Even the most powerful cultivators could not really control the time. Amongst the immortal method that circulated in Nine Regions, the strongest one could only time travel to the past as much as the time to finish a cup of tea, which was why it was called "Immortal Tea". In the legend, when Immortal Qin had a great decisive battle, he used this "Immortal Tea" to crush six great Supremes and unified the entire Nine Regions for the first time.
Immortal Qin could only time travel to the past up to a tea time, could the group of immortal tombs have millions upon millions of the power Immortal Qin had that they could go back in time for several thousand years? And this was just the outer part of the group of immortal tombs?
It was difficult for Wang Lu to logically accept this reasoning. Therefore, he had to make a confirmation… Of course, if it was purely just to confirm, a small stone marked with special mark would do the trick, but to do it as well as making an investment, a small stone would not just cut it...
Unfortunately, when he went to the location of the hidden treasure array, he somewhat frustratingly discovered that he didn't seem to get the desired result.
It was no longer the image of a stony ground, but rather a huge pit. The lake area had actually expanded by a third. Wang Lu tried to dive to the bottom of the lake but still found nothing.
This made Wang Lu rather depressed. From the traces and evidence on the scene, he deduced that around a hundred years ago, there was an unusually large energy explosion. At least it was a full power strike of Jindan Stage or even Yuanying Stage cultivator, which eliminated a big piece of land near the lakeside, making the lake water pour into the resulting pit, expanding its size.
During that time, Wang Lu's buried objects weren't spared either.
All his investments vanished in a puff of smoke, which was admittedly discouraging. However, for Wang Lu, this actually didn't hurt his bottom line. Although these relics were precious, the majority of them were only useful to ordinary mortals. As for spirit seeds, the true rare one would only mature into spirit plants in thousands of years, and these seeds were many in the possession of his Seventh Uncle.
The thing that really made Wang Lu depressed was that he was unable to confirm with certainty whether the group of immortal tombs could really turn back time or not.
Even more depressing was that, from the traces, the history of this new lake should be around a century. In other words, when he last came to Grand Cloud Mountain to deal with the Beast Master School, this pit had already appeared, and he should've seen it. However, in the immortal dream land, Wang Lu really has no impression of it, unable to remember it at all.
Now that the thought about it, when he initially obtained the baptism of the millennium of ripple of Grand Cloud Fairy in the middle of the lake, which caused his cultivation base to skyrocket, during which, his primordial spirit refined, clearly sensing all around him. Although the lake was vast, it should be barely covered by an all out effort from a Xudan Stage cultivator. Moreover, Grand Cloud Mountain also has significant meaning for Wang Lu, thus his memory of it should be profound… Unfortunately, even a profound memory could not resist the infection from the passage of time. The voice and the smiling face of Grand Cloud Fairy have become blurred, let alone a calm lake?
Perhaps when he achieved the Jindan Stage and his primordial spirit further refined and condensed could he truly have a photographic memory. For a Xudan Stage cultivator, Wang Lu's memory was already amazing enough. It was just that, by picking an area to bury his treasure that would be destroyed in the future, for the top student of Spirit Sword Sect, this was truly somewhat ironic.
"... Forget it, I'll just try it again when there's an opportunity."
After wandering by the lakeside for a moment, Wang Lu no longer wasted his time. From his mustard seed bag, he took out a new flying boat and then flew south, returning back to his sect.
—
"Those are my experiences in the two chains in the group of immortal tombs."
Inside the bamboo room of the Sect Leader at the Stellar Peak of Spirit Sword Mountain, the Heavenly Sword Hall Elders gathered there to quietly listen to Wang Lu narrating his adventure. Most of their complexions ranged from approval to in awe.
In successfully passing through the two chains and perfectly completing the storyline there, not to mention also experiencing the miracle of going back in time, the means and achievements of Wang Lu were truly astounding. Currently, the group of immortal tombs had been explored by the elite cultivators of Nine Regions for a year, yet nobody could achieve what Wang Lu was able to accomplish. Qiong Hua, who led her team from Shengjing Sect, has explored most of the chains, and so far, she has passed through more than ten immortal dream lands, yet she never triggered any hidden plot. Moreover, Qiong Hua passed through the chains with her team while Wang Lu accomplished this alone… Although Qiong Hua didn't go all out in this was a factor, in contrast, Wang Lu was undoubtedly the more dazzling one.
However, there was not much praise for such an astonishing achievement—not that the Elders begrudged to praise him, but that everyone knew that it was unnecessary. It was normal for Wang Lu to achieve such a result. There was no similar result during the previous one year of exploration of the group of immortal tomb because Wang Lu simply wasn't there, nothing more.
"Uncle Sect Leader, this is a book of method that I got from immortal dream land of Cloud Country. By my initial judgment, this is a top rank method with considerable research value, but the side effect is too strong, so I don't recommend this to be rashly practiced by the other disciples."
The Sect Leader took the Nine Revolutions Undead Method book from Wang Lu, put on his Kunlun glasses, took a sweep at it, nodded, and then smiled. "Little Lu, you've really picked up a treasure. I'm afraid this is an improved method of the demon race."
The young Ninth Elder Hua Yun somewhat curiously reached out for that book and flipped it open. "Demon race method? Isn't that really rare?"
Feng Yin said, "After the war of immortals and demons, the demon race methods are basically destroyed. Although there are some in the private collections of many sects, they are just for reference only. After all, the difference in the physique between human and the demon race is too big, so their methods could not be practiced by human. The biggest role in collecting the demon race methods is to prevent our cultivators from knowing nothing about them and getting caught unprepared if in the future they make a comeback. However, this method is not the same as the common demon race method. This is already a finished product after being meticulously improved by people of great talents, which absorbed the classics of demon race method, but also based on the mastery of human race method through comprehensive study, thus allowing human to be able to practice it… Nevertheless, the side effect is a bit too much. Each revolution will greatly distort the mind, which is irrelevant to bloodthirsty demon. But human beings are not that simple, when their minds are forced to distort, would they still be called human?
Feng Yin Shook his head. "This Nine Revolutions Undead Method can indeed be used as a theoretical study for those great predecessors, but it doesn't have any practical value in practice. I've seen the eighth revolutions to the ninth revolutions, many of the training are simply whimsical. If someone train according to this, not only he or she will not get the longevity, it is likely that the body would explode instead…"
Upon hearing the Sect Leader saying that, Wang Lu was inwardly a bit startled. According to his assessment, the cultivator who could write this Nine Revolutions Undead Method is at least a Deity Stage cultivator, but in a single glance, Sect Leader could actually see through the actual situation… Sure enough, this old man really couldn't be viewed as a mere Deity Stage.
"However, this method does offer a lot of fresh ideas… Liu Xian, Hua Yun, I want you two to do an in-depth study of this method, so that you can perfect our Spirit Sword Sect Method. Then, Wang Lu, I still have some details that I need you to confirm during your so-called going back in time."