Chapter 88

Chapter 88: Crazy Cultivation

At this moment, Lou Yun remained kneeling before the pale turquoise skeleton, looking up to meet its hollow void of features. For some reason, he couldn’t help feeling an undefinable trace of kindness emanating from the skeleton’s face.

Closing his eyes, Lou Yun revisited the events he had just experienced. Had it all been merely a dream?

When he opened his eyes again, his gaze drifted unintentionally to his own hand. To his shock, his finger now bore a simple, ancient-looking black ring—identical to the one Mr. Commoner had given him as a teacher’s gift in the dream!

Lou Yun froze for several long seconds before suddenly bolting toward the outer hall. The hall stood as empty as it had when he first entered, void of any objects or signs of life.

Was it truly a dream? Or had he hallucinated?

Lou Yun felt dizzy. If it was a dream, why was he wearing the ring? But if it wasn’t, then where had his teacher Mr. Commoner gone? Why had everything vanished?

"Teacher!"

"Teacher!"

He called out twice and waited silently. No response ever came.

After blankly staring for a while, he suddenly smacked his own forehead. Right—even if it had been a dream, Mr. Commoner had imparted a vast trove of information to him. He’d only had time to absorb it, not to truly digest it. If he looked now, he might uncover whether it was real.

He hastily sat cross-legged on the spot and closed his eyes. A flood of characters surfaced immediately in his mind, presenting a breathtakingly vast array of knowledge.

There was knowledge on forging common weapons, methods of refining medicinal pills, countless cultivation techniques, weapon techniques, and so much more!

Lou Yun was stunned at first. But the sheer weight of it soon pulled him into deep fascination. He began reading with an obsessive, ravenous hunger.

Time seemed to cease existence for him. By the time he had skimmed everything—organized according to his own priorities—he opened his eyes and released a long, exhausted breath.

He had stopped worrying whether the teacher’s acceptance ritual had been reality or a dream. The knowledge filling his mind was undeniably real—and rich enough in its content that Lou Yun could wholeheartedly accept Mr. Commoner as his teacher.

When he tried to stand, his legs had gone numb. He looked down at his chin. His beard had grown long and thick; his hair showed similar signs of growth. This startled him. Could reading the knowledge in his mind have consumed such a long time?

Without daylight in this place, it was impossible to measure time. He thought about it briefly; there was little point. Carelessly arranging his hair, he climbed to his feet and rubbed his legs diligently, his gaze shifting toward the three remaining small doors.

He remembered the teacher saying he could open them using the same method. Each room held treasures, to be taken away using the ring Mr. Commoner had given him.

Lou Yun threw a fireball at the first door. It burned to ash instantly. Before stepping inside, a soft glow emanated from within. Once inside, his jaw dropped in shock.

Inside, neatly piled, lay countless spiritual crystals!

Lou Yun struggled to believe his eyes. He rubbed them roughly and looked again. Certain they were real, a sound of pure joy tore from his throat.

A sudden, thunderous fortune—the once-poor boy instantly became richer than a nation!

At a rough estimate, the pile here was ten times the quantity mined from the Lingjiang City spiritual crystal mine!

Much like a sudden upstart flush with newfound wealth, Lou Yun stood clutching several spiritual crystals in each fist, his eyes greedily sweeping across the others.

After admiring it all fully, he swept his hand through the air. All the spiritual crystals vanished in a flash, stored away within the ring his teacher had given him.

He looked at the two rings now upon his hand; one seemed superfluous. Yet the first ring, given by Xu Yangteng, was something he couldn’t bear to discard. He instead emptied its contents in one sweep, tossing everything into the ring provided by his teacher.

He needed no worry about storage space now. The ring’s internal space stretched to what felt like infinity!

The first door had gifted him heaven-sent astonishment. When he opened the second door, he couldn’t restrain another wild cry of excitement!

This room dwarfed the preceding two. Inside, carefully organized for easy access, sat an entire armory of common weapons!

He picked one up at random. His mental sense scanned it, yet he couldn’t perceive its limits. Clearly, it was of advanced grade or beyond.

Lou Yun dearly wished Chang Xiang were awake right now. He would want to share this sight—it was utterly spectacular.

Just like before, Lou Yun put all the common weapons into the ring, then opened the third door with great satisfaction.

In this door, what he saw, at first glance, he couldn’t even recognize. However, upon closer inspection and giving it a few experimental hefts in his hand, he finally understood — the contents were all assorted materials used for forging weapons.

Lou Yun’s knowledge of materials was still limited to those needed for crafting high-level common weapons. As for other materials, Chang Xiang hadn’t gotten around to teaching him identification methods yet. So, he had no idea what most of these were. But that didn’t matter; it didn’t stop him from sweeping every single material into his ring as well.

All the treasures from the three doors were now relocated into the ring. The combined value was absolutely beyond measure!

Yet, the most precious of all wasn’t these physical goods, but the knowledge Mr. Commoner had imparted to Lou Yun! That was truly priceless!

Lou Yun walked back to the first room and gazed at the dark green-jade skeleton. He didn’t know if it was his master’s remains. Master hadn’t given instructions on what to do with it. After watching quietly for a moment, Lou Yun decided to treat it as his master and leave it undisturbed, allowing it to maintain its current state.

So, Lou Yun walked up to the skeleton, knelt down on both knees, and once again kowtowed three times loudly, with the utmost respect. "Master, I will always remember the grace of your teachings, disciple!"

As Lou Yun lifted his head, the skeleton abruptly crumbled into a fine powder. Then, a gentle breeze seemed to arise from nowhere, lifting all the dust into the air where it scattered and vanished.

Where the skeleton had sat, a hole roughly the width of a person’s body was now revealed. Lou Yun’s heart stirred — could this be the way out?

Lou Yun leaned in and peered down the hole. Sure enough, a deep flight of steps descended into darkness. Knowing this place was his Master’s final resting chamber now, all fear vanished from his heart. Without hesitation, he jumped into the hole and began walking slowly down the stairs.

After walking for about the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, a faint glimmer of light appeared ahead. Joy surged within Lou Yun — that was surely the exit!

Sure enough, the light marked the exit. But when he crawled out and looked around, that joy evaporated instantly. He was still inside that enclosed valley!

As Lou Yun emerged from the hole, a loud "CRRACK!!" sound echoed. The ground beneath his feet began to shake violently. This earthquake lasted for a long moment before gradually subsiding, returning everything to unnerving silence.

Lou Yun understood: the underground stone chamber had been utterly destroyed.

Finding a random spot to sit, Lou Yun began replaying his experiences in the underground chamber in his mind. If it weren’t for the ring on his finger, he might truly have dismissed it all as a vivid dream, a nap against the rocks!

A faint smile touched his lips as he snapped out of his reflections. Now wasn’t the time for reminiscing or pondering. With spiritual crystals and common weapons in hand, his priority now was to urgently dedicate himself to cultivation, striving to raise his strength and escape this accursed place!

Lou Yun retrieved a four-grade spiritual crystal from his ring and hefted it in his palm. The price of just one like this was ten thousand gold coins — equivalent to four dragon horses! The feeling of being wealthy versus poor truly was different!

After this brief lament, Lou Yun immediately began absorbing the spiritual energy contained within the four-grade spiritual crystal.

Once he had absorbed the spiritual energy from the crystal, Lou Yun realized it was time to attempt upgrading his magical weapon level. He took out another common weapon — a beginner four-star one. Using his spiritual sense to examine it, he found it contained neither a beast soul nor a spiritual crystal. Yet, its intense energy fluctuations signified its exceptionally high grade.

Likely, Master had forged it during his spare time. Lou Yun felt even greater admiration for his master — to craft the best possible grade common weapons using the simplest materials required true mastery!

The Devour Weapons process proceeded smoothly. Whether it was due to Lou Yun himself or the quality of the common weapon this time, the entire process consumed only a single day!

And so, in this perilous place, Lou Yun embarked on his mad cultivation regimen. Continuously absorbing spiritual energy from crystals until he accumulated enough to upgrade his magical weapon level, then searching for the corresponding common weapon to devour.

Within a few days, Lou Yun reached a critical threshold — advancing from the Primary to the Intermediate Realm!

Just like the previous two upgrades, Lou Yun selected an intermediate one-star common weapon. After scrutinizing it and confirming its high grade, he prepared to devour it. Suddenly, Chang Xiang’s familiar voice resonated in his mind: "Wait!"

Although he had been wholly absorbed in his intense cultivation, a deep loneliness permeated Lou Yun’s heart — a consequence of his surroundings. After all, this place held not one other human, not even an ant to be seen. His cultivation was also a temporary escape from this isolation.

Hearing Chang Xiang’s voice now was an immense shock and boundless delight. Lou Yun called out excitedly, "Brother Chang! You’re awake!"

Chang Xiang promptly manifested before him. His appearance seemed much more vibrant than before; his once somewhat translucent form now had an almost tangible feeling to it.

"Brother Chang, how do you feel?"

Chang Xiang’s face was filled with profound confusion. He didn’t answer immediately, but instead spent a long moment scanning Lou Yun up and down before finally asking, "How long was I unconscious?"

Lou Yun could only offer a bitter smile at this question, shrugging helplessly, "Honestly, I don’t know exactly. But it was definitely more than half a month!"

He arrived at this two-week duration based on his own reckoning, counting from when he started absorbing the first spiritual crystal until now.

"Only half a month?" Chang Xiang sounded incredulous. "So short a time?"

Lou Yun explained, "When I woke up, you were already unconscious. Then I discovered I couldn’t move — my injuries were too severe. I could only focus on recuperating first. I have no idea how long that healing period lasted. The half month I mentioned starts from the day I officially began cultivating!"

Chang Xiang’s expression shifted from confusion to outright shock. He pointed at Lou Yun. "You’ve only cultivated for half a month?"

"Mhm, precisely half a month as of today."

"But, your cultivation level has already…!" Chang Xiang even began to doubt his own spiritual perception.

In merely half a month, Lou Yun had leaped from a primary three-star magical weapons master to a primary five-star magical weapons master! He was about to undergo a Major Realm Advancement! This speed was unheard of!

It was no wonder Chang Xiang struggled to believe it. Who in this world, after all, possessed the resources and wealth to sustain such breakneck advancement solely through spiritual crystals?

Lou Yun had an overwhelming torrent of things to tell Chang Xiang. He grinned and said, "Brother Chang, don’t be alarmed! Half a month ago, I had an incredible encounter. Once I tell you about it, you’ll understand."

"Another encounter?" Chang Xiang was perplexed. "What encounter?"

Lou Yun chuckled. "I’ll tell you shortly. But before that, I have a question for you!"

"What question?"

Lou Yun pondered briefly before asking, "What does the ‘weight of flame’ mean?"