Chapter 155 Thoughts For A Penny

Thoughts for a Penny

Xue Bai figured out why it looked so familiar. This map showed the Monarch's Tomb, a secret realm that wouldn't open for another eight years!

"Another useless piece of loot!" Xue Bai angrily thought as he threw the map to the ground.

Sadly he couldn't even vent his anger out as before the map landed on the ground, it levitated and returned to its position on the shelves.

Not even to waste his breath to bother commenting on that, Xue Bai stood up from his chair and left the library.

As he walked out, Xue Bai realized just how long he had spent in the library, from the sun that had already set.

Staring up at the sun, Xue Bai felt melancholy at it all.

Was he cursed never to obtain something directly useful from a corpse?

The most useful thing Xue Bai ever received from a corpse was the bottle of Bodhi Pills he got from Ye Xuan back in the Entrance Exam, which he could use anytime he wanted.

However, if he used them right now, it would be a huge waste of their potential.

Bodhi pills were extremely useful pills that were only used for people who wanted to understand the following chapters of their cultivation, martial, or even movement techniques.

So to use it when he didn't even have any of those would be a waste.

Ever since he had found Yggdrasil 6 years ago, it seemed that all of his good luck had left him as well.

And while his luck was by no means bad, since nothing had gone wrong in his life, it could be better. His luck right now was just purely average.

The Heavens above ignored him. It gave him no misfortune nor luck, just pure indifference.

As if he wasn't truly on this plane.

'I'm a damn transmigrated, for crying out loud. Why is my luck so mediocre?' Xue Bai inwardly cried.

"Young Master, you're out!" Xiao'er commented from a distance. She had also coincidentally just returned from Jiang Xiaorou's teaching session and saw Xue Bai walk out.

Hearing the familiar voice, Xue Bai got out of his emotions and looked over in the direction it came from.

"Oh Xiao'er," Xue Bai nodded at her, "How was it? Did First Senior Sister help you?"

Though he was sure about his opinion of Jiang Xiaorou being a tsundere, there was always the chance that the woman wasn't at her peak and couldn't help Xiao'er.

Nobody ever knew where the girl was or what she was thinking most of the time since only Yue Zifeng could truly interact with her.

Everyone else just got simple one-sentence replies and no care.

"Yes, I did!" Xiao'er happily said, "She even gave me a notebook with her notes on it for the Organ Tempering realm! It's enough for me to finish the Purification Stages."

"That's good." Xue Bai said with a smile. The stronger Xiao'er was, and the further she could cultivate alongside him, the happier he was.

He knew that Xiao'er would eventually run into a wall; however, he wanted to make sure that she lived a long life alongside him before then.

Her peak Yellow-grade Martial Veins right now were something he always thought about. However, there wasn't much he could do about them.

Upgrading something mediocre was much harder than just giving her something new.

If Xiao'er was like him previously, a cripple, that would be best. Since Xue Bai knew where a treasure was that could give the consumer a high Black-grade Martial Vein with the wood attribute.

However, Xiao'er already had a Martial Vein. So if she ate that treasure, she would just blow up and die.

The thought of taking out the Martial Veins of Xiao'er did come into his mind, but Xue Bai didn't know how to do that.

Crippling was different from a complete extraction.

"It's getting late, Young Master. Let's go cultivate!" Xiao'er suddenly spoke, bringing him out of his thoughts. Following her words, she grabbed Xue Bai's hand and started pulling him toward his courtyard.

"Xiao'er, you're getting too old for this. You're almost 20." Xue Bai sighed as he let her pull him along.

Though the appearance of Xiao'er was forever halted at her 18-year-old self, her age continued to increase. Currently, she was almost 20.

"I am eternally young, Young Master." Xiao'er replied, "My age is only a figment of your imagination."

Both stunned and confused by her choice of words, Xue Bai struggled to formulate a response as he entered his courtyard.

Zhu Que was already waiting inside, peacefully reading an ancient-looking animal hide scroll. Xue Bai immediately had his attention caught by how ancient and sacred the scroll looked, but as the two walked, she quickly hid it in her spatial ring like a thief who was caught red-handed.

"Little Sister Que, what was that?" Xiao'er asked curiously.

"Nothing, it's just something my late parents left me." Zhu Que quickly explained while waving her hands in a panic.

Xiao'er, thankfully, wasn't very keen on catching lies, so she was fooled easily. But Xue Bai knew something was special about the ancient and sacred-looking scroll.

However, he didn't point it out now and instead only gave Zhu Que a meaningful smile that made her blush slightly.

While he hadn't seen the scroll before, he could tell that it had to do with the Azure Dragon God and was most likely her core cultivation technique.

Not bothering to tease her anymore, Xue Bai shook his head and sat on the Soul Sublimation Golden Lotus.

His days were peaceful, and he enjoyed them, but he also knew that strength reigned supreme in this plane.

So without wasting any time, Xue Bai started absorbing the mist of Spiritual Qi in his room and started cultivating.

The next step would be the Small Succes stage!

–

Two slow but fulfilling weeks passed by, with the trio doing their normal routine.

Xue Bai's cultivation advanced one stage, with him reaching the 10th stage of the Bone Strengthening realm. And currently, he was also already halfway to the 11th stage as well.

He estimated that he would be able to break through in another week at most.

Xiao'er sadly was different and didn't manage to take the first step in the Purification Stages, meaning that in the two weeks, her cultivation had halted a stage, depressing her to no end.

She had gotten used to having her cultivation increase so smoothly that it made her sad when it halted.

However, after Xue Bai reminded her that for some people, their cultivation wouldn't increase even after multiple months, she was back to her normal self.

The relationship between her and Jiang Xiaorou also got closer, and Xiao'er was confident that she could break through within the month because of it.

Zhu Que, however, was like an Olympic swimmer when it came to cultivation. After she advanced to the Blood Exchange realm, her cultivation base would advance a stage almost every other day.

In just two weeks, she advanced through 6 stages going from the 1st stage of the Blood Exchange realm to the 7th, shocking everyone on the mountain but Xue Bai.

Instead of shocking him, it only made him think.

Back when he played 'Children of the Plane' on earth, he remembered that there was a feature where all of the Children of the Plane almost rotated around you.

Whether it was cultivation base, fighting for an opportunity you found, or even if you tried to hole up and hide from worldly matters like a hermit, the Children of the Plane were also close behind.

This feature was around to make sure that the game was always fun and full of action. After all, in cultivation worlds, there were also years of monotonous boredom.

However, with the feature, you could always make sure that Xiao Mo, Huo Long, and the other Children of the Plane were around for the journey, whether for good or bad.

And to ensure that even if you were miles ahead of the other protagonists in the cultivation base, they could catch up, giving you competition.

So when he saw Zhu Que advance cultivation stages like a madman, Xue Bai couldn't help but think back to that feature.

But that would beg the question.

Who is she catching up to?

Huo Long had the highest cultivation base of all the Children of the Plane currently, with his cultivation base being at the 1st stage of the Qi Sea realm.

Xiao Mo should've been awakened for only about four months, so his cultivation shouldn't be very high, at most in the Muscle Nourishing realm; however, it was most likely at the Blood Exchange realm.

The other two protagonists were in very similar situations to Xiao Mo, where they started with nothing, meaning that their cultivation bases couldn't be much higher.

So who was Zhu Que gravitating toward?

Is there another Child of the Plane that he didn't know about that takes the spot of the game's player? Or maybe he was in a playthrough himself?

Xue Bai couldn't stop thinking about all of the possibilities that this question led to.

There were so many different rabbit holes he could go down with this train of thought that Xue Bai would often just daze out trying to figure it out.

But eventually, he figured out the most reasonable answer.

'Most likely, all of the Children of the Plane are intrinsically linked, and their cultivation bases are always similar. Probably the Plane Spirit that chose them built in the feature to ensure that none of them become too overpowered and overpower the other 4.'

The theory was reasonable and the most logical, but still, Xue Bai couldn't help but think about the other unorthodox answers.

What if he was just an NPC in a game? Or maybe there was another 6th, even more terrifying Child of the Plane hidden somewhere unbeknownst to him.

He lost sleep over the possible scenarios.

–

"Young Master, are you ok?" XIao'er asked with concern, "You've been lost in thought a lot recently."

Zhu Que, on the other side of the table, Zhu Que nodded at her words, even though her mouth was full of food.

"I'm just confused about something, Xiao'er. Don't worry." Xue Bai answered with a smile, waving off their concern.

This wasn't something he could really tell other people.

Thankfully their concern also woke him up.

Worrying about something that he couldn't even fully comprehend was nonsense.

Whether there was a mysterious Child of the Plane or he was an NPC didn't even matter.

Xue Bai was still too weak to be worrying about the inner workings of the Baishen Plane.

It was better to sit down and cultivate until he became strong enough to worry about it.

"Ok.." Xiao'er simply replied. Not truly believing Xue Bai's words.

Xue Bai obviously detected her sarcasm and wanted to argue, but before he could, a voice suddenly rang in his ears.

'Bai'er come to my peak immediately. We have something to talk about.'