Chapter 30 (Part 1)

Each of them had his own thoughts, and for a while, they looked at one another in silence.

After a long while, Song Yuanxi could not endure the stillness anymore and was the first to break the quiet. “Senior Brother Ji, since we’ve already arrived behind this door, that means we have fate. Why don’t we keep going together?”

They were fellow disciples, after all. Compared to the other outer sect disciples, Song Yuanxi was still quite willing to trust Ji Wuyi. At the very least, he did not believe the other party would do something like stab him in the back.

Ji Wuyi thought for a moment, then nodded and said, “That was precisely my intention. Let us advance together.”

Song Yuanxi’s cultivation was low, so Ji Wuyi opened the path for them all the way. He was only responsible for watching out for any sudden situations that might appear around them. Fortunately, the entire path was safe, and the two of them passed through the corridor without incident.

When they pushed open the door, what lay beyond was a room. It was square and perfectly ordinary. Judging by its appearance alone, it was impossible to discern anything.

Song Yuanxi was very direct. The moment he entered, he reached out and started feeling around. He kept feeling that this room was a little too plain, and that there might be hidden mysteries concealed within the stone walls.

Ji Wuyi did not move. He quietly watched Song Yuanxi carry out all sorts of operations inside, touching here, feeling there. Only after the other party had touched enough did he ask, “Junior Brother Song, what insight do you have?”

Song Yuanxi sat down against the foot of the wall and said with feeling, “These stones are pretty rough. They’re especially uncomfortable to touch.”

Ji Wuyi smiled and nodded in agreement. “Then Junior Brother Song should rest for now. I’ll take a look at what secrets this room holds.”

Song Yuanxi sat on the ground and watched as Ji Wuyi took out a compass. He also circled the room, but somehow, the other man walked with an entirely different air. Song Yuanxi was a complete layman, yet even he felt that every step Ji Wuyi took was particular. After that came the placement of array disks...

Song Yuanxi listened to the other man murmuring under his breath, precisely distinguishing the four directions of east, south, west, and north, and only felt that it was miraculous. At the same time, he was extremely puzzled. “Isn’t Senior Brother Ji a talisman cultivator? Why does he also look proficient in arrays?”

However, no one answered the doubts in his heart. Ji Wuyi focused wholly on exploring the room and was soon immersed in it.

No one knew how much time had passed before Song Yuanxi heard the other man let out a soft “eh.” Beams of light lit up at the four corners, and the originally empty room instantly changed beyond recognition. The stone walls disappeared, replaced by complex and profound inscriptions. They overlapped in layer upon layer through various horizontal and vertical arrangements, forming the walls and enveloping the two of them within.

Song Yuanxi looked around and only felt that these inscription symbols were extremely deep and obscure. Not only were they difficult to understand, they were also especially dazzling. The golden light made his eyes ache.

“What kind of place is this? Why are there so many ghost scribbles?” Song Yuanxi stood up, then quickly fell back to the ground. Only then did he realize in shock that the square room had turned into a circle, and that the surface beneath his feet was uneven.

“Senior Brother Ji?” Song Yuanxi went dumb on the spot.

Ji Wuyi opened his eyes and looked at the inscriptions before him with delight in his heart. This was the subtlety of spatial distance, the first layer of its profundity: Heaven Round, Earth Square.

In Ji Wuyi’s eyes at this moment, the heavens were round and the earth was square. Countless inscription symbols filled the space between heaven and earth. They were the contents that belonged to the laws of space.

“Junior Brother Song, use space spirit to sense them and comprehend the profundities within. Only then can you stand firmly upon the ground.” As Ji Wuyi comprehended the inscriptions, he did not forget to remind his junior brother.

What heavens were round and earth was square? Pure nonsense. This was clearly one big sphere. The sphere was also slowly turning. A person inside it was like a little white mouse in a running wheel. How could anyone possibly stand steadily?

Song Yuanxi wanted to cry. There had to be a bug with this door. He did not have any space spirit at all. Here, he was completely groping blind.

After failing for the umpteenth time, he gave up. “Senior Brother Ji, I can’t stand up.”

Ji Wuyi looked at Song Yuanxi, who was lying comfortably and leisurely on the ground, and felt extremely conflicted. Such profundities were rare even in a thousand years. If one could comprehend even a little, it would certainly benefit them for life. How could he be so unmotivated?

“Junior Brother Song, stand up first. If there is anything you do not understand... you may ask me.” This was Ji Wuyi’s greatest compromise. As for taking the initiative to explain, that was absolutely impossible.

Song Yuanxi did not want to run in the wheel. This circle was extremely strange. The more a person ran, the faster it spun. It was pure living torture. So he shook his head and said, “Senior Brother Ji, do as you like. I’m lying flat.”

Ji Wuyi no longer tried to persuade him and immersed himself in the spatial profundities on his own. Those golden inscriptions continuously transformed in his eyes. As his understanding deepened, they gradually became ordinary, comprehensible characters of the cultivation world.

In the end, Ji Wuyi found one clue within them: interpretation, breaking through space.

With a little thought, he understood. The so-called spatial profundities were still part of the checkpoint. They had to walk out of this Heaven Round, Earth Square before it could be considered a successful breakthrough.

In that case, understanding all the inscriptions was the first step. In other words, it was the so-called reading of the question.

Because the circle was spinning too quickly, Song Yuanxi grew dizzy. He simply closed his eyes and meditated. When he opened them again, he had returned to the square room. Ji Wuyi was also sitting on the ground, only he was holding a talisman brush and drawing back and forth, as if calculating something.

Curious, Song Yuanxi leaned over and asked with a grin, “Senior Brother Ji, did you take me out of that Heaven Round, Earth Square thing?”

“Mm. This checkpoint requires us to unravel the first layer of spatial profundity. I have already converted the inscriptions into words. Junior Brother Song, come over and study them with me.”

Song Yuanxi was stuffed with a jade slip. After pressing it to his forehead, he instantly saw a massive sea of densely packed words surging toward him. After he finished reading all the contents, he suddenly fell quiet, his mood slightly complicated.

He only half understood the contents of the jade slip. He seemed to understand a little. It was somewhat like a structural combination problem involving physics plus mathematics, but it resembled it in form rather than spirit. Every word in the problem revealed the foundational knowledge of the cultivation world.

“Did Junior Brother Song understand?” Seeing that he had not spoken for a long time, Ji Wuyi stopped his brush and turned his head.

Song Yuanxi came back to himself and opened his mouth. “I should... maybe... probably...”

“Mm?”

“How has Senior Brother Ji interpreted it? Could you let me study it? We should work together. Passing this checkpoint is the important thing.”

Ji Wuyi agreed and handed over what he had written. After Song Yuanxi finished reading it, he pondered for a while, picked up another talisman brush, and drew a matrix in the blank space. Then he established an XYZ coordinate axis and, using Ji Wuyi’s calculation data as a foundation, listed several formulas...

Ji Wuyi did not understand what Song Yuanxi was doing, but the other party was very serious, so he did not disturb him.

After Song Yuanxi finished his effort, he looked up and smiled at Ji Wuyi. “Senior Brother Ji, this is just a bit of my shallow opinion. I’ll explain it to you. If you think it makes sense, I’ll continue. If you think it doesn’t, just take it as me talking nonsense.”

“I am all ears.”

“Senior Brother Ji, then let’s first start with dual coordinates...”

Song Yuanxi did his best to use the contents of the cultivation world to describe modern knowledge. Physics-related knowledge was fairly easy to explain, while the mathematics-related parts were slightly more awkward. But seeing Ji Wuyi’s eyes grow brighter as he listened, Song Yuanxi felt extremely pleased with himself. He had a sense of accomplishment like that of a teacher.

When he finally finished explaining, Song Yuanxi looked over with eager eyes. “Senior Brother Ji, did you understand?”

Under the other party’s hopeful gaze, Ji Wuyi replied, “I did not.”

Song Yuanxi’s expression instantly wilted. However, in the next moment, he heard the other man add, “But it gave me a great deal of inspiration. I now have a new idea about breaking open the spatial profundity.”

“So?” Song Yuanxi asked cautiously.

Ji Wuyi smiled and nodded at him. “So I must trouble Junior Brother Song to continue drawing talismans and explaining in order to inspire me. We will work together to break open this space.”

When senior and junior brothers were of one heart, their sharpness could cut through gold. The two of them worked day and night, night and day, and finally unraveled the spatial profundity of this place. In an instant, the square room made of stone walls turned into nothingness, and the long, narrow corridor appeared before them once more.

Song Yuanxi was very happy. He felt that he had contributed his share. Though he had no space spirit, he was still able to understand a thing or two. That could be considered impressive enough.

So he could not help humming a little tune. “Hey! Us common folks, we’re really happy today~”

His happiness did not last more than the time it took an incense stick to burn before the choice appeared again, and Song Yuanxi could no longer smile.

At the end of the corridor appeared two doors. Three words were written on each door: “Prajna Sea” and “Great Dream Wasteland.” On the stone wall beside them was an explanation of the rules. Each person could only pass through one door each time. If one entered repeatedly, it would be regarded as automatically giving up the challenge.

Song Yuanxi: This is different from what I imagined. I’d already prepared myself to follow Senior Brother Ji all the way, but you...

Who knew what was behind the doors! He also did not understand space spirit. Facing it alone made him panic, all right?

“Senior Brother Ji, can we really not go together?” Song Yuanxi asked, unwilling to give up.

Ji Wuyi thought for a moment and said, “I’ll go in first. If Junior Brother Song is afraid, you can follow behind me. If you fail the checkpoint, you will be automatically sent back to the great hall. You can wait there for fellow disciples.”

Song Yuanxi shut his mouth. Even if he was a salted fish, he still could not bring himself to directly and actively give up.

However, he had no confidence in successfully passing the checkpoint. He might as well let Ji Wuyi have priority. “Senior Brother Ji, you choose first.”

Ji Wuyi looked at the two doors and, after some thought, shook his head. “Junior Brother Song should choose first. The one who chooses first receives preferential treatment, so the challenge should be slightly less difficult.”

“There’s such a good thing?” Song Yuanxi’s eyes lit up with joy. Embarrassed, he rubbed his hands together like a fly. “Then Senior Brother Ji, this junior brother won’t stand on ceremony. I choose...”

He counted eeny, meeny, miny, moe, and finally chose “Great Dream Wasteland.”

After bidding Ji Wuyi a friendly farewell, Song Yuanxi took the lead and opened the great door, then walked inside.

Ji Wuyi looked at the “Prajna Sea” before him, then glanced at the tightly closed “Great Dream Wasteland.” Only after a long while did he push the door open.

…

Song Yuanxi entered “Great Dream Wasteland” and had already prepared himself to be bound by space. But he never could have imagined that he would actually step straight into the modern world.

He was lying on his dormitory bed, still holding his phone in his hand. The phone screen was lit up, and the time displayed was six-thirty on Saturday morning. His roommates were still asleep, the curtains were tightly closed, and the entire room was dim.

Song Yuanxi stared blankly at the ceiling above his head. After a good while, he suddenly realized that this was the day he had crossed into another world.

No, it should be said that this was the early morning of the second day. He had lain under the covers in the middle of the night looking at his phone, and after looking, he had never woken again. Now, after more than ten years, he had awakened again!

“So it was a dream?”

Song Yuanxi found it unbelievable. If it was a dream, then this dream was far too real. During those ten-plus years in the dream, he remembered many things clearly.

Time passed. At around nine-thirty, there began to be movement in the dormitory. His roommates woke up one after another.

“Xizi, Father is going to buy lunch. Does my son want me to bring him a portion?” The one speaking was on the bed across from him. The two of them got along very well.

Song Yuanxi gave an “mm” and blurted out, “One portion of emerald spirit rice, one pot of clear-stewed Spirit-Rhyme Tender Chicken, and one flask of Rootless Fruit Wine.”

The boy opposite him froze at once, then slapped the table hard and burst into loud laughter. “Song Yuanxi, did you read novels until you fried your brain? Spirit rice? Spirit-Rhyme Tender Chicken? The cafeteria’s got old leftover rice, sure. As for chicken, if I get there early enough, there should be big drumsticks. I’ll get you two.”

As he spoke, the boy performed a few tai chi moves, then lifted his nonexistent Daoist robe and gave it a light flick. “Fellow Daoist, please wait a moment. I shall go swiftly and return swiftly.”

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