Name: Tri-Flower Capitulum Focus
Skill Card Type: Passive, Permanent
Skill Type: General Ability
Effect: Increase the recovery rate of Life Points, Stamina Points, and Sorcery Points by fifty percent.
Learning Requirement: None. This skill card is bound after acquiring it.
Remark: Human Flower, training center to focus qi; Earth Flower, training qi to focus godliness; Heaven Flower, training godliness to focus formlessness. Gathering the Tri-Flower, shed your fear, hatred, vengeance, stubbornness. The greatness of this power will train one to shed one’s shell to return to the state of non-being.
———
When Laughing Soul obtained this item and saw that it could not be traded, she decided to learn it. The book again morphed into white light before disappearing. One second later, it became a row of data in her menu. The power and effectiveness of this skill was undeniable. Ninety-five percent of players would not hesitate to pick it as one of the twelve skill bars. The remaining five percent would be stray cases like a player coming across an interlinking set of skills in the later part of the game that needed all twelve skill bars. Minus this kind of situation, this skill would probably accompany a player for the rest of the game. Other than that, since recovery rate changed based on the players’ level, specialty focus, and various data, Tri-Flower Capitulum Focus did not have a learning requirement.
Laughing Soul was glad when she obtained this skill. Finally, she had something to show after falling through the ground. The hard work and effort that she and Xiao Tan had put in did not go to waste. After she read all the skill explanation, she turned to look at Xiao Tan, thinking to herself, Your Mantra of Heaven and Earth Inversion shouldn’t be so bad, right? I’m sure you’re over the moon now.
But to her surprise, Xiao Tan’s face was filled with consternation. He was not the kind who would hide his emotions, so his expression had expressed the problem…
———
Name: Mantra of Heaven and Earth Inversion
Skill Card Type: Active, Permanent
Skill Type: Fighting
Effect: Turning the heaven and earth, reversing Qiankun. (No cooldown)
Consumption: Two percent of maximum Stamina Points
Learning Requirement: Fighting B, Sorcery C, and level above thirty. This skill card is bound after acquiring it.
Remark: The practitioners of kung fu should first ask for the training of self and then the mastery of the opponent’s skills. This mantra provides a short cut. Using the mantra, inverse the properties of the human body and the outside world to create an undefeatable skill.
———
Xiao Tan not only could not understand the skill’s effect, he did not reach the learning requirement. So, he could only pout as he placed the skill card in his inventory.
“What’s wrong?” Laughing Soul smiled wickedly. “Is it because it said that if you wish to learn this kung fu technique, you have to…”
“You have to reach level thirty first,” Xiao Tan said.
“Oh, so you are unable to learn it.” Laughing Soul smirked.
“Now that I’ve given away all three books, it’s about time I leave this world,” the stone said. “Master is waiting for me in the upper dimension. Farewell…”
“Wait a minute!” Laughing Soul quickly shouted to stop him. “Can you answer a few of our questions?”
“Why? Do you wish for me to teach you the kung fu techniques in detail?” The stone responded with impatience. “You humans are getting dumber by the generation. I do not have any workable limbs. Even if I am willing to teach you by words, how is that different from just reading from the book? Are you illiterate?”
“We want to ask, who is your master? What are you? Why are you here? Why would you hand over these powerful books to us strangers?” Xiao Tan asked all the questions that he had in one go.
Laughing Soul added, “Also, if you’re okay with it, might you tell me how this cave formed, and is the Chang Lin Town above really haunted? What kind of person is the individual who came and took the Shapeless and Formless Law?”
It was little wonder that the stone referred to the players as normal humans and dumb. After listening to the string of questions from the two players, he managed to remember each one and started to answer them systematically. “My master’s name is Zuo Dao, commonly known as The Unconstitutional God. It was how many years ago… I can’t even remember the details now. In any case, at the time, I was just a rock on the northern side of Chang Ling Town.
“One year, the villagers killed a little girl called Ling Er. After she died, she turned into a feral Specter, hiding inside the Temple of the Hidden Bell. The entire mountain was affected by her hatred. I was influenced by her aura and turned into a monster rock. Then, I became her underling, and my task was to capture the villagers that came into the mountain and the monks that they hired. Just like that, after many years, Ling Er’s murderers and their families all died. All the enlightened people that came into the mountain to capture the ghost died. But Ling Er’s hatred was still burning, and the murder spree continued.
“Until one day, my master was passing through Chang Ling Town. After hearing the stories from the locals, he trekked up the mountain and ran into us. He took away the bell that Ling Er curled around me and went to visit the Realm of the Bell. Then he returned. He was the first living person to return after seeing Ling Er. My master said that Ling Er was not a common folk, so the Specter she became after her death was very powerful. Even though all the murderers had been killed, the sins committed by the ancestors would harm the descendants. Chang Ling Town was doomed, and the village needed to be evacuated or more people would die.
“The villagers believed master, and under his arrangements, there was a massive migration. The government sealed up the road, and the town was abandoned. The master stayed in the town alone. He spent several months and used his magic and magical treasures to reach deep underground to create many tunnels. This changed the town’s underground Feng Shui, and he renamed this place Chang Lin. He wished to use this method and the passage of time to resolve the unbalanced karma here. After doing all that, the master left.
“Many years later, the master returned to this town and brought me down from the mountain. Master told me that he was an extra-dimensional traveler. He was traversing within incarnations. He was not long for this world and would soon leave for the heavenly realm. But master had collected many treasures over the years. They were useless in the heavenly realm, but he did not wish for them to fall into the wrong hands. So, he hid them inside this cave and had me guard over them.
“Before he left, master changed my intelligence and taught me how to practice spiritualism. He told me to focus on my training inside this cave and told me that everything that is not part of me should be given away to those who I might cross in my path. Other than the directive that all three books cannot be given to the same person and that I have to look after them personally, everything else can be taken by those who are lucky enough to venture into the cave.”
The stone explained a lot in one go, and he explained everything clearly. But the process taken to digest the information for Xiao Tan and Laughing Soul was different. One was blind with confusion while the other was thinking.
The stone continued. “Now that I have finished my training and I’ve completed my master’s order, my time is done. Do not stop me from moving on. With regards to the Shapeless and Formless Law, I gave it to someone called Lin Chang. But I did not give it to him inside this stone room. He came from a different entrance and has been to places different than yours.”
“Lin Chang?” Xiao Tan and Laughing Soul repeated in shock.
“Yes, Lin Chang, is the name that strange?” The stone asked.
“When did you give him the book?” Laughing Soul asked swiftly. “And… how did he get out? How big is this cave system?”
“Lin Chang was easier to deal with than you two,” the stone replied. “He found another stone room, and when I came out from the wall, he went pale in fright. Once I spoke, he crumbled to the ground and started to kowtow to me.”
When the stone said that, there was humor in his voice. “I asked him which book he wanted. He did not answer and kept begging for mercy. So, I gave him a random book. After he got it, he looked through it and started to laugh madly. After he calmed down, he said to himself, ’I need to get out of here’. Since he said that, I used magic to transport him out.”
“You can do that?” Xiao Tan’s happiness was clear on his face. He thought that he had found the way out. “Then can you…”
“Walk out on your own. I’m going to the heavenly realm. Helping you will delay my progress.” The stone said something so irresponsible. “I’ve answered everything you asked. There are many exits to this cave. As for how big this place is… As long as you keep exploring, you will explore the whole system in a day and night. So… farewell, I hope we do not meet again.”
As the stone said that, it curled back into the stone wall. The cracks on the wall rippled and soon returned to normal.
“Hey!” Xiao Tan yelled at the wall. “You’ve already said so much. What’s a little more‽”
Laughing Soul ignored him. Her arms were crossed, and her head was lowered in thought. “The Unconstitutional God that he mentioned is the man who left the characters by the village entrance… That Ling Er has to be the ghost mentioned in the main quest—enter the Realm of the Bell to find Ling Er’s soul. According to the stone, this Ling Er is very powerful, akin to a boss. Could it be that… she is this scenario’s real boss? Is the duel just a side quest and the supernatural haunting is the main quest?”
With this in mind, she opened the menu and glanced at the quest tab. The side quest to open the stone wall had been ticked, and the main quest was still there. This proved that Feng Bujue and Passing Rain had not yet encountered Ling Er.