The Lord of Void and Real

Chapter 282: Chapter 280: Hard to Predict Fortune and Misfortune

“It’s unfortunate, the elder Ma Liang left Jianye the day before yesterday. Upon his departure, he didn’t mention when he would return, only saying that if fate should have it, we will meet again.” Shen Luo said after a slight hesitation.

He knew very well that the Bai Family was trying to recruit Ma Mian, but after all, he was an Underworld Yin God and naturally would not agree.

“What a pity indeed…” Bai Hecheng said with some regret.

After chatting with him for a while, Shen Luo bid farewell and left.

That night, Shen Luo packed up, took the stone box, and left his courtyard in the forest to go to the secret chamber at the bottom of the lake.

As he closed the courtyard door, he suddenly felt a chill on his neck. He looked up at the sky and saw patches of white snow falling from the accumulating clouds. Unbeknownst to him, it had already reached the early winter season.

Shen Luo came to the lake, opened the mechanism to the secret passage, and walked into the bottom of the lake.

After showing his token to the elder who guarded the bottom of the lake, he chose the deepest secret chamber and walked in.

After closing the stone door of the secret chamber, Shen Luo came to the straw cushion and sat down cross-legged.

Instead of rushing into cultivation, he closed his eyes to adjust his breath, and at the same time, he silently recalled his experiences and insights from cultivating in Dreamland in his heart, slowly allowing himself to be re-immersed in the Sea of Knowledge.

He opened the stone box and reached in with his two fingers to gently pinch out a small, white jade bottle a few inches high.

Shen Luo gently shook it and pulled out the stopper.

As soon as the bottle was opened, a rich power of water spirit flowed out, instantly filling the entire secret chamber.

Shen Luo took a deep breath and carefully tilted the bottle, a transparent water droplet as clear as a dewdrop, immediately rolled out of the bottle mouth and landed in his palm.

The moment the water droplet fell into his palm, Shen Luo immediately felt a chill penetrating his body, and the mana in his Dantian seemed eager to burst out even though he didn’t stimulate it.

With a joy in Shen Luo’s heart, he muttered the mantra of the third layer of the Nameless Heavenly Book, and a blue light appeared in his hands. Threads of mana began to gather in it and refined the droplet of the Three Origin True Water.

Unexpectedly, the Three Origin True Water seemed to be very compatible with the Nameless Cultivation Technique. It easily integrated the water droplet into his mana and then channelled it back into his body, circulating rapidly through his meridians.

In just a few moments, his mana had made a full circuit in his body. The speed was slower than in Dreamland, but compared to his original cultivation pace, it was many times faster.

“What a valuable item indeed!”

Shen Luo murmured quietly in his heart and immediately began actively awakening his mana. Following the mantra of the third layer, with the mana flowing around Heaven and Earth, he soon immersed himself in it.

At the same time, the Arrays etched into the four walls of the secret chamber also lit up one by one, drawing the spiritual energy from the water above into this chamber. This spiritual energy eventually made its way through the patterns on the ground, surrounding Shen Luo.

A blue light surged under him, as if he was floating on a body of azure waves, in a state of tranquility and ease.

…

One year quickly passed by, from winter to spring, and from the desolate autumn rain to winter once again.

With the blessing of his dream cultivation experience and the assistance of the Three Origin True Water, Shen Luo’s cultivation level steadily increased during his intermittent closed-door training. Astonishingly, he moved up three levels in just over half a year, advancing to the tenth level of Qi Refining Stage. He was just one step away from reaching the Grain Avoidance Stage.

However, since his last retreat into the secret chamber at the bottom of the lake, almost half a year had passed, and he had not come out. As a result, many people in the Bai Mansion began to speculate that his cultivation had failed.

After all, breaking through from the Qi refining stage to the Grain Avoidance stage is a significant bottleneck in the Cultivation path. It is not easy to condense mana into liquid – many people get stuck at this stage and could never get past it.

At the moment, the three generations of the Bai family were gathered in the study of Bai Hecheng.

“Shen Luo’s seclusion this time is really too long. After all, he has not yet reached the Grain Avoidance stage, and he did not carry any Pigu Dan with him. He has not appeared for such a long time, I fear something has gone wrong,” said Bai Jiangfeng, a short figure with a troubled expression.

“The time is indeed a bit long. Even if one fails to break through, one should have come out by now,” Bai Hecheng weighed for a moment, also expressing apprehension.

“Grandfather, Father, what do you mean by these words?” Bai Xiaoyun, who was on one side, had an anxious look on his face upon hearing this.

He was also in closed-door meditation. He had just broken through to the third layer of the Qi Refining stage this morning and planned to share his joy with Shen Luo. But he heard that Shen Luo had been in seclusion for half a year and immediately ran to ask his father Bai Hecheng.

“Shen Luo made smooth progress in the first half of the year and directly cultivated from the seventh layer of the Qi Refining stage to the 10th layer. At the time, we were only happy for him, but we didn’t consider that this might hide some concerns. He has been in seclusion for half a year now and has not shown up; I fear that something has gone wrong with his cultivation ” Bai Hecheng pondered.

“Could he have succumbed to demonic possession?” Bai Xiaoyun blurted out.

“Although such things rarely happen, they are not impossible. It’s a bit weird for Shen Luo not to show up for half a year,” Bai Jiangfeng sighed and said.

“What are we waiting for then? Let’s go and open the secret chamber and save him!” Bai Xiaoyun was anxious.

“Xiaoyun, calm down. Don’t get flustered. Whether Shen Luo can succeed this time is of great significance to our Bai family. We must be cautious,” Bai Hecheng admonished in a low voice, his eyebrows tightly furrowed at the sight of Xiaoyun’s distress.

“Is it all because of that thing? It was originally our negligence, how can we let Big Brother Shen take the risk?” Bai Xiaoyun protested, feeling dissatisfied.

“So naive! I thought you knew better. I didn’t expect you to be so ignorant,” Bai Hecheng scolded angrily when he heard this.

“Xiaoyun, demonic possession is only a guess, but it is also possible that he is on the verge of breaking through. If we barge in arbitrarily, we might disrupt his Dao-Practice and push him into demonic possession instead,” Bai Jiangfeng also advised.

“So, neither trying to save him nor not trying to save him works. What should we do then?” Bai Xiaoyun asked.

“How about we wait another three days? If there is still no movement, we will force open the secret chamber. Whether it is a blessing or a curse, it will depend on his luck then,” Bai Jiangfeng threw a glance at Bai Hecheng and suggested hesitantly.

“It seems we have no other choice,” Bai Hecheng agreed, after giving some thought.

As soon as he finished speaking, his expression changed suddenly. He quickly moved to the door, flung it open, and gazed anxiously into the distant sky, his eyebrows knitting together tightly.

Bai Jiangfeng quickly picked up on the anomaly, hastily following suit by looking into the distance.

Bai Xiaoyun, not knowing what had happened, also looked into the distance only to see leaden clouds pressing down in the sky, nothing out of the ordinary.

“Grandfather, what happened? What are you looking at?” Bai Xiaoyun asked, a puzzled look on his face.

“This movement… it’s coming from the Tranquil Lake in the backyard, could it be…” Bai Jiangfeng did not answer but instead said with uncertainty etched on his face.

“Let’s go and have a look.”

Bai Hecheng uttered in a low tone, immediately hopping out of the room and dashing in the direction of the backyard, followed closely by Bai Jiangfeng.