Xiao Chen frowned, but did not pursue the matter further. He only began to question Zhiluan again, when she had calmed down. “Why are you so flustered? What did you see?”
Zhiluan landed and pointed to the northwest, saying, “There’s a exit there that has some restriction.”
Xiao Chen looked in the direction Zhiluan was pointing at, and saw a white, hazy skyline in the horizon. Rightfully, only the master of a mystic domain knew about its exits, and most of them were covered with obfuscating barriers. “No matter, I’ll go and take a look with you tomorrow,” he said.
The Immortal’s Sword Assembly was drawing near, and even though this realm was abundant with Spiritual Qi, he wanted to leave as soon as possible, so as not to cause Xian’er and the others undue worry. He did not sleep, but began cultivating quietly, while standing guard outside the cave.
Moonlight cascaded down, causing the surroundings to look illusive. Previously, he had ascended to Nascent Soul Realm with the aid of his master, and had been refined by 3000 hellfires. It would not be easy to achieve breakthrough from the Nascent Soul Realm.
Xiao Chen was channeling energy across each major acupuncture point in his body. He was already sweating profusely, and wisps of white smoke could be seen escaping from the top of his head. However, he was relieved that he could vaguely sense that the gold elixir in his body was turning into a nascent soul. It proved that he was close to entering the Nascent Soul Realm!
Now, he had the confidence to battle with Xiaoyue, Zuo Qiuyang and the others. However, this was still not enough. He needed to truly enter the Nascent Soul Realm! He had to be strong enough to withstand the attacks of those Nascent Soul monsters!
Unknowingly, the Sun had already risen, and the surroundings turned lively. The flowers bloomed, the birds chirped, and it was truly a sight to behold. Zhiluan opened its eyes blankly, to see Xiao sitting as still as a stone, in front of the cave, and it dashed forward hurriedly.
“Kid, kid, wake up!”
Xiao Chen opened his eyes and smiled gently. “Why are you getting all worked up so early in the morning for?”
Zhiluan flew around him for a few rounds, before asking in amazement, “Have you achieved breakthrough?”
Xiao Chen grinned and remained silent. He stretched lazily and gazed northwest at the cloud covered area in the horizon. “Let’s go, we’ll visit the place you mentioned yesterday,” he said.
After two hours, the man and cat arrived at the cloudy and hazy place. They were blocked by a huge mountain, and the mountain top seemed to be in a state of chaos. He believed that they were at the borders of the mystic domain; the amount of spirit energy here was much lesser. Suddenly, Xiao Chen struck the wall of the cliff in front of him with his palm, causing everything around him to tremble.
Zhiluan got a shock. “Don’t act rashly, kid!”
“I was only trying to see if we can break through the restriction of this mystical domain’s walls.”
However, it was obvious that it was totally impossible to break through the domain using brute strength alone. Xiao Chen took a few steps forward, and observed the cliff near him. If they wanted to leave this mystical domain, he had to find the exit created by its owner, or a spot with extremely weak Mystic Power. The spot they were in, however, had neither of these two characteristics.
“Meow! Don’t tell me that I’m going to be trapped here forever!”
Xiao Chen rolled his eyes. “What are you in a rush for? Didn’t you end up alright in the Forest of Illusory Moon? Furthermore, the amount of divine berries here is enough to last you a decade.”
“What…what about after that?” Zhiluan asked in a shaky voice.
“After 10 years? After that, we’ll still be friends and can still look out for each other…”
Xiao Chen hummed a simple tune and looked at the other side. Even though he looked carefree, in reality, he was getting impatient as well. His concern about entering the Nascent Soul Realm had to take a back seat. Now, he was focused on leaving this place. He believed that Xian’er and the others must be extremely worried by now.
After another hour, man and cat had already multiple more spots. “Kid, come over quickly!” Zhiluan shouted suddenly, in a strange tone.
Xiao Chen walked over and was shocked to see that there was a small chaotic spot in a crack on the stone wall in front of him. The abundant amount of Spiritual Qi in this mystic domain had seeped in from this crack, little by little.
Was his guess that this mystic domain was set up here to secretly obtain spirit energy from the Earth Spiritual Meridian of Tianyuan City, correct? However, who created it? It was so large and was capable of rotating on its own. Was this the creation of the man frozen in ice?
“Leopard Cat Spirit, I’ve thought of a way to get out of this place. Even though it’s not an exit, I can turn this spot into one.”
“How?”
“How? Just like this…” Xiao Chen said, suddenly pushing with both palms. Two immense streams of power struck the rock wall, and there was a loud boom that caused their surroundings to tremble. A large number of trees around them began crashing down.
Zhiluan flew around haphazardly, in shock. “Don’t act rashly, kid! Have you forgotten that you caused an avalanche of snow on Thousand Summits Mountain earlier on?!” it cautioned, rubbing its head.
Xiao Chen retreated a little. It looked like his brute force approach was not going to work, nor was it any form of reactive measure. If he did not cut off the source of Spiritual Meridian power to this spot, there was no way they could escape.
“Leopard Cat Spirit, you’re small sized. Do you want to burrow in to take a look?”
Zhiluan leapt up violently. “What do you take me for? How dare you order me around?” It said, before gazing at the area of Chaos within the crack. It shook its head continuously and retreated.
“What sort of immortal are you? You’re so cowardly,” teased Xiao Chen, walking up to the crack. Zhiluan was gritting its teeth in fury. “Go, if you’re so brave!”
Xiao Chen did not bother replying it, and observed their surroundings carefully. The area of Chaos did indeed lead to the outer world, and it would open itself at regular intervals to absorb Spiritual Meridian energy. The next time it opened, would be their chance to leave.
“Come here, Leopard Cat Spirit.”
“What do you have in mind? Let me tell you, I’m not going to burrow into that filthy place,” Zhiluan replied, walking over slowly.
Xiao Chen rolled his eyes. “Didn’t you hide within a crack in the stone in Forest of Illusory Moon before?”
“You…you’re so irritating!”
“Alright, let’s cut it out. Come over and see – this area of Chaos is only as wide as a bowl now, but you’ll have to come over and observe its size daily, and report to me.”
“How about you?”
“Me? Of course I’ll head back to Flower Valley to train. The Immortal’s Sword Assembly is coming, and you’ll feel proud too, if I win it.”
“You…damn!” Zhiluan said angrily, stomping off in protest. “On account of the divine berries, I’ll allow myself to become your lackey.”
As such, man and cat went back to the valley of flowers. The next afternoon, Zhiluan arrived hurriedly to report, “Kid, the area of Chaos is the size of two bowls now!”
Xiao Chen was quietly channeling his energy and nodded gently. “Aren’t you going to take a look?” Zhiluan asked.
“Look at what? Do you think that I’ll be able to squeeze in?”
For the next eight days, Zhiluan would rush back to report after observing the crack in the valley. Xiao Chen opened his eyes upon hearing that the area of Chaos was now as wide as a water basin. “If everything goes as planned, we’ll be able to leave in a few days’ time,” Xiao said, nodding gently.
Zhiluan looked at the fruit trees around them, and replied unwillingly, “Can’t we wait for a few more days? Let’s go after 10 more years, after we’ve consumed all the berries here…”
Xiao Chen immediately rolled his eyes. “The next time this area of Chaos appears will probably be another thousand years later.”
In fact, he wanted to wait for another couple of years before leaving as well, but there were too many things in the outer world that bugged him. Perhaps what his master told him years ago, was true. One that had too many lingering thoughts, was not suited to become an immortal. He used to be completely carefree, but not so during this life.
“Leopard Cat Spirit, you have to be careful when I try to break out of here, in a few days’ time.”
Xiao Chen did not know what has happening beyond this domain, but he knew that the Immortal’s Sword Assembly was about to begin. The only thing he could do was to wait for the Path of Chaos to open, and try to break into the Nascent Soul Realm, within these few days.
He achieved breakthrough to that realm the last time by immolating himself with 3000 hellfires. This mystic domain, however, was incredibly abundant with Spiritual Qi.
For the next three days, Xiao Chen trained day and night. The Nascent Soul in his body gradually took shape, but he kept getting stuck at the fringe of the realm, unable to break into it.
The Nascent Soul Realm was the greatest obstacle during a practitioner’s course of cultivation. Once any practitioner entered the realm, he or she would be able to connect with Nature, by using his or her spirit alone. It was the same case, when Xiao Chen got a peek of Unity of Nature and Human in the Xianyong Sect yard.
The practitioner would even be able to cultivate the Violet Manor Nascent Soul in his or her body and create a domain. Of course, it would be different from a mystic realm. The latter existed within the world, while the small domain existed only within the practitioner’s Violet Manor Nascent Soul.
However, many practitioners did not have this great natural divine ability, and were only able to remain at peak Core Forming Realm, till the end of their lives. These people would forever be unable to attain immortality, and had to undergo Samsara for another shot at it.
Time passed, and Xiao Chen was already sweating profusely by the time it was nightfall. A puddle of water had formed on the ground, and he had tried to break into the Nascent Soul Realm dozens of times, failing each time.
Zhiluan observed that his face turned pale and red intermittently, and was already trembling in fear. “Why don’t…we call it a day, you’ll soon undergo Qi Deviation if you continue…” it said in a quavering voice.
“No way! Again!”
Xiao Chen growled and channeled his Qi for nine cycles again. The plants around him were shaking, and a wisp of black qi circled around his brows. The Devilish Skill “Mystic Diabolic Enchantment” had been activated by itself.
“Stop channeling your energy now, Kid! You’ll undergo Qi Deviation!” Zhiluan exclaimed loudly.