Phoenix Destiny

“Are you ready?” In the stone room, Liu Jizhen asked.

 Four years ago, after Liu Jizhen had renovated Green Jade Valley, the master and disciple duo moved to live outside the cave and the Heavenly Ascension Pavilion’s stone room was rebuilt into a room for seclusion.

 Liu Jizhen did not shave wooden swords anymore but instead read more books. For the majority of their time, the disciple would cultivate while the teacher would read. Neither of them would disturb the other.

 If either of them needed to go into seclusion, they would be able to isolate himself from the world just by closing off the Heavenly Ascension Pavillion.

 Lu Mingshu nodded.

 “Go in then.”

 A lone bathing bucket stood in the stone room. Extremely concentrated steam was rising up from within the bucket.

 Lu Mingshu knew that this one bucket of herbal medicine had practically exhausted her master’s herb collection.

 Back when Liu Jizhen came back to the sect from Beiming, he was downhearted. Hence, he got rid of a vast majority of the treasures in his hands, thinking he, as a cripple, would not need them anymore. Although this allowed people to benefit from his misfortune, Liu Jizhen could not be bothered anymore. In other words, by the time he banished himself to Green Jade Valley, he already did not have much wealth and goods in his possession.

 Then afterwards, because he held the title of courtyard leader yet did not have the corresponding strength due to his crippled cultivation, not even a single item relevant to cultivating was distributed to Green Jade Valley. Furthermore, the items distributed to third-rate disciples were so little, that it was pitiful. All these years, Lu Mingshu relied on scavenging and exchanging items in the Heavenly Wheel to obtain the necessities for cultivating.

 In order to facilitate her breakthrough into the Harmonization Realm, Liu Jizhen had long since made preparations. It was only because of an exchange he made with a pal from the sect with the measly amount of herbs that were still in his possession, that Lu Mingshu was able to have this bucket of herbal medicine to soak in today.

 Although the herbs were few in amount, this bucket of medicine soup weighed a hefty five hundred kilograms.

 Lu Mingshu took a deep breath, and then slowly lowered herself in.

 Liu Jizhen who stood by the side of the bucket spoke warmly, “Now that you have successfully solidified seventy-two of your one hundred and eight closed apertures, the remaining thirty-six are all main closed apertures. To you now, there is no turning back after you attempt the breakthrough. You will either successfully solidify all thirty-six of your closed apertures and enter the Harmonization Realm, or will fail to solidify at least one and cause all of your past efforts to go down the drain, starting over from the beginning. Do you understand all this?”

 “This disciple understands.”

 “You also have to be clear on one point. Others have their master to keep an eye on them when they attempt their breakthrough, thus when things do not look good, their master can immediately prevent mishaps. However, you don’t. My inner breath has been completely exhausted, so if you run into any problems, you’ll have to solve it yourself.”

 “Yes.”

 Liu Jizhen nodded. “Then let’s begin.”

 Lu Mingshu shut her eyes tightly.

 The path Liu Jizhen chose for her was a ruthless one, yet it had an astonishing gain. Of the one hundred and eight closed apertures, one only had to solidify thirty-six of the main closed apertures and they would be able to enter the Harmonization Realm. The more closed apertures solidified out of the remaining seventy-two, the higher the possibility of breaking through to the Spirit Realm. Liu Jizhen wanted her to train her inner breath to be peerless and rush through the various complementary closed apertures. Only once her complementary closed apertures had all been successfully solidified, would she rush through her main closed apertures in one breath.

 Thus, to her, if she didn’t succeed in today’s breakthrough, it would be taken as dying for a good cause.

 Liu Jizhen quietly looked at her one more time, before opening the door and leaving.

 Tonight’s moon shone down brightly, illuminating the inner parts of the Heavenly Ascension Pavillion.

 He lifted his head to look at the empty and spacious core of the mountain. Rays of light passed through tiny holes in the ceiling, interweaving into a river of light. The radiance of the moonlight lightened the cave up.

 Sixteen years had already passed, but this was still the first time Liu Jizhen wholeheartedly admired this beautiful sight in the Heavenly Ascension Pavillion.

 After Founder Song had died in a seating position, successive generations of sect leaders, elders, etc. wanted to find the secret hidden in the Heavenly Ascension Pavillion, but it was all to no avail. Hence, Liu Jizhen thought things might not have been so complicated, and perhaps, Founder Song only wanted to go into seclusion here because of the beautiful scenery.

 Just like him right now.

 Time ticked by, little by little. The river of moonlight went from a clear stream to darkness.

 Right before disappearing, the moonlight abruptly burst forth. It seemingly became as water; flowing backwards into the cave from the tiny holes in the ceiling.

 At the same time, a cry full of pain travelled over from the stone room.

 “Mingshu!” Liu Jizhen’s expression turned a one-eighty, and he hastily rushed into the room.

 The concentrated aroma of herbs had already dissipated into a lighter smell that carried a tinge of an indescribably sour stench. This meant that the herb’s properties had been fully absorbed and the impurities had been discharged.

 Liu Jizhen was shocked when he walked over to take a look.

 Lu Mingshu unconsciously leaned against the bath bucket limply. However, a light shim formed from a layer of faint mystic force surrounded her body.

 For the mystic force to shimmer, it meant that the true energy in the thirty-six closed apertures has been successfully congealed into a whole, which was the indication that one had entered Harmonization Realm. But why had she lost consciousness then? Does this indicate success or failure?

 The consciousness of Lu Mingshu at that moment had already entered the Heavenly Wheel.

 Everything went smoothly when she rushed through her closed apertures, until the last moment when a powerful external force pressed down on her. Although it assisted her to break through into the Harmonization Realm in one go, it also caused her to feel a sharp pain from head to toe. By the time she had come back to her senses, she had already entered the Heavenly Wheel.

 “What’s going on?” She lowered her head to look at her hands and discovered the light shimmer of mystic force.

 Her form in the Heavenly Wheel should be called a spirit body. The spirit body would be a reflection of her real body. Thus, her spirit body would have the same amount of strength her real body had. Have I entered the Heavenly Wheel? How was I forced to involuntarily enter the Heavenly Wheel? What has gone wrong?

 Right when her thoughts were churning fast, her surroundings lit up brightly, blinding her in the process. When she regained her vision, a sight of the Heavenly Wheel’s physical manifestation slowly appeared in mid-air, floating at the peak of the tree. The six-coloured streamers that fluttered around the tree increased its speed as it flourished more and more. When the space in the Heavenly Wheel filled up with the six-coloured streamers, hong! the lone tree in the space transformed into fragments.

 Lu Mingshu instinctively blocked the fragments with her hands, yet she realized none of the fragments touched her.

 Once the six-coloured streamers slowed down and it came to a halt, the space returned to its usual state. However, she was shocked to find out the appearance of the space in the Heavenly Wheel underwent huge changes.

 The previous Heavenly Wheel space was empty besides the lone tree. While the Heavenly Wheel space now had the appearance of an island. An island that crusaded among the clouds. It felt as if she walked into reality from a dream of nothingness.

 Lu Mingshu looked down to discovered she herself had changed too. The previous her always had an illusory feeling in the Heavenly Wheel, unlike now when she was no different from her real body.

 Is this … a huge rise in the Heavenly Wheel’s ability?

 The only element that remained unchanged was that tree; it just remained erected there silently.

 She walked over to check for the source of the abnormality. However, a hong sounded the moment her palm touched the tree leaf. The tree then transformed itself into an illusory Wooden Wheel.

 A female voice that held not even the tiniest bit of emotion sounded out, “Congratulations 15127 for passing the newbie trial, the Heavenly Wheel shall officially open.”

 Lu Mingshu was greatly alarmed. She just silently stood there, stunned.

 What does this mean? Does that mean that the previous Heavenly Wheel was not truly opened?

 “That’s right, the Heavenly Wheel you had come into contact with previously was only the newbie district.” The voice actually knew what she was thinking of.

 “…” Lu Mingshu slowly regained her senses, These few years in the Heavenly Wheel … Oh, no, in the newbie district I had come into contact with people of various worlds. Among them, that youngster from the Magic-less world had recommended me a novel from that world. In that novel, I’ve come across a so-called online game …

 Newbie district, newbie trial … why is this so similar to the online game in that novel? Could it be that the creator of Heavenly Wheel originates from the Magic-less world? That’s not right either … Since the Heavenly wheel can link up various worlds, the creator should be a being that originates from a place above the various worlds, naturally, they would be proficient in all things of the various worlds.

 “Then, who are you?” Lu Mingshu asked.