I still carried a purple lotus petal from the Origin Return Method with me. From time to time, I would take it out and try to enter a dream, but unfortunately, after several years, I had made not the slightest progress. Gradually, I lost patience. Since I had failed to understand the second layer of the technique, I had no key to the path of advancement. It was simple and easy to understand, yet impossibly difficult to take even one more step forward.
However, although it usually elicited no response, this time Zeng Zixian was beside me. For some reason, I suddenly shuddered and plunged straight into a vast sea of purple mist!
I widened my eyes and immediately began feeling out everything around me after this sudden descent into a dream. But just as before, until I had completely waded through the mist and reached that sea of flowers, there was no way to see much of anything.
I moved forward, and before long, a voice reached my ears.
"Come. Go forward."
My expression shifted slightly. I struggled to open my eyes and look ahead. Beneath my feet, water rose past my knees. It was colorless and odorless, yet flowed around my feet.
"Celestial Venerable, is that you?" I shouted.
"Come. Go forward."
The voice seemed to come from far away, as though guiding me onward. I shook my head, then said, "Forget it, Celestial Venerable. I'm not going to learn your Origin Return Method after all. It seems I'm not lacking this technique either. You can slowly recruit someone else here. I'm not going along today. Let someone else take this trial."
With that, I turned around. But the moment I did, the clouds and mist scattered, and a sea of flowers appeared before me once more. An