Coastline Fluttering in the Wind

A flash of light, and when Luo Jun came to his senses, he was already standing below the arena.

Turning around, I saw that my Master had also been resurrected, looking completely bewildered.

"Inside the pyramid? I'm alive? What happened?" Old Yuan looked around, his gaze finally settling on Luo Jun's face. "You are...?"

Although he knew that Luo Jun possessed a treasure that concealed his identity, this was the first time Old Yuan had seen him wearing a mask, and he didn't react for a moment.

"It's me, Master!" Luo Jun removed the Midnight Mask.

"Xiao Jun?!" Old Yuan was slightly taken aback, then exclaimed in surprise, "What are you doing here? I remember this is [Utopia], or rather, an Different Space called Amgilla... Weren't you interning at [Martial World]? How come you are..."

"Master, you've been missing for over a week. I was worried, so I used some tricks to get here..."

Luo Jun briefly recounted the events of this period to Old Yuan, Old Yuan was greatly surprised upon hearing it.

"Has it been that long?" Old Yuan touched his smooth scalp. "As far as I remember, we arrived at the pyramids the day after we entered Amgilla, and then..."

"That's right!" At this point, Old Yuan's eyes widened. "It's not that simple..."

"That's exactly what I wanted to ask you. What happened after you entered the pyramid? How did you end up on the other side?"

"When we first entered, we also encountered this Dimension Arena, but we were fighting against several ancient mummies... who should be true Warrior of the ancient Amgilla." Old Yuan recalled, rubbing his temples. "We won easily... but the gate to leave the pyramid didn't open; instead, the restrictions were strengthened, the limitations on vital energy were made even stronger, and all offensive magical artifacts were completely sealed off... Then, a mummy with powerful Law Power appeared..."

"He defeated you?" Luo Jun looked at the statue on the platform. "Didn't we agree that you could leave if you won? Are you going to cheat?"

Old Yuan shook his head. "This pyramid should be a trap built by the ancient Amgilla people. According to my deduction, the Great God Karruth did indeed sign a pact with the Holy Father Dias invaded this world, but he must have used some underhanded methods. If he wins the Dimension Arena, Dias will leave this world as agreed. However, if Dias's side wins, Karruth does not intend to fulfill his promise. Instead, he will use the pyramid to imprison the Holy Father Dias's most powerful follower here forever."

"Looking at it this way, Karruth's actions are understandable." Luo Jun looked around. "When dealing with invaders, you can't talk about fairness... But if that's the case, won't we be unable to leave forever?"

"No... there is no perfect seal in this world," Old Yuan said. "Every seal has its core... I suspect that the core of this pyramid is that powerful mummy. If we defeat him, we should be able to find a way to leave."

"Is that mummy very powerful?" Luo Jun asked with some concern.

"It was very powerful, but not so powerful that it was impossible to fight against," Old Yuan recalled. "It's just that we outsiders were suppressed by the divine power inside the pyramid and couldn't unleash our full strength, which is why we were defeated by him."

"Then why wasn't that mummy affected..." Luo Jun recalled the previous Outstanding Trial. Everyone who entered the Trial Grounds had their vital energy suppressed and their Acquired Potential stripped away. Therefore, the gatekeepers were not humans, but giant Mechanical Puppet. This suppression should have been applied equally to everyone.

"Because the restrictions here only work on the living," Old Yuan said. "That powerful monster was probably mummified while still alive, so that it could gain immense power and, as the dead, seal away the suppressed power of the living."

"So even if we win this arena, we'll still face that mummy in the end..." Luo Jun looked at his teammates across the arena, their eyes glazed over. "By the way, Master, is there a time limit or anything for leaving here?"

Luo Jun recalled the 24-hour time limit given in the previous mission, and he guessed what might happen after that time... Now there were still more than ten hours left until that time limit, which brought Luo Jun an invisible sense of urgency.

"A time limit?" Old Yuan shook his head. "I haven't heard of it... but this Underground Ruins has been open for seven or eight days. According to the laws of the Ancient Parami, eight days is a cycle. If I calculate it, there should only be a dozen or so hours left."

"That's it!" Luo Jun asked tentatively, "Will something happen on the eighth day?"

"I haven't found any relevant clues." Old Yuan shook his head, looked across at the other side, and rubbed his hands together, saying, "The most urgent thing now is to win everyone back."

As he spoke, he couldn't help but glance at Luo Jun: "Speaking of which, you're quite something, kid. You even managed to kill me. You're ruthless enough to betray your master and ancestors!"

"Master, I was forced into this situation... I beg your forgiveness..."

"I didn't mean to blame you..." Old Yuan looked Luo Jun up and down. "I'm just curious. I shouldn't have held back after being brainwashed. You haven't even reached the Foundation Establishment Realm yet, so how did you manage to defeat me?"

"Master, how dare you say that?" Luo Jun was extremely aggrieved at the mention of this. "You didn't just hold back, you practically beat him to death... Rolf of Xiluo, such a big, strong man, weighing four or five hundred pounds, you turned him into hotpot broth with one punch... You didn't even show mercy to your own disciple. If I hadn't happened to have a treasure that Devour Protective Qi, you would have beaten me to death long ago!"

"Devour Protective Qi?" Old Yuan's interest was piqued. "What grade is it? With the Protective Qi Strength, how much can it weaken it?"

"It's gone now." Luo Jun shrugged. "It's a consumable item that normally lasts for an hour, but once we're off the stage, the effect seems to be canceled out. It's no longer effective. Besides, your internal energy was incredibly strong. My Devour Ability could only be weakened. It was a fierce battle, extremely difficult for me. In the end, I barely won thanks to a bit of luck..."

"That kid isn't simple either." Old Yuan nodded. "Once the Qi of the Foundation Establishment Realm is fully formed, it's worlds apart from the Qi of the Body Refinement Realm. My Innate Potential is not as good as yours, but as long as my Qi hasn't completely disappeared, my hand-to-hand combat ability should be far stronger than yours. Besides, I also have the Eight Trigrams Finger Tiger. It's truly remarkable that you were able to defeat me!"

"I also have some good news to tell Master about this," Luo Jun said with a grin.

"I know." Old Yuan waved his hand. "You've successfully broken through to the Seventh Layer of the Body Refinement Realm! If you hadn't broken through yet, even if all my internal energy were wiped out, you might not be my match."

"Not this..." Luo Jun grinned and stretched out his right hand to his Master, clenched his fist, and then extended his Thumb and forefinger.

"Eight?" Old Yuan raised an eyebrow. "What does that mean? The Eight Trigrams? The Eight Desolations? Eight people?"

Luo Jun shook his head mysteriously. "Do you remember when I mentioned the God Ruins we encountered in the Wildlands Underground?"

"After I successfully completed the game, I not only saw the altar, but also seemed to receive some kind of blessing. However, afterwards, I felt that apart from my energy flowing more smoothly, there were no other special changes, so I didn't think much of it..."

"Until this time, after breaking through to the Seventh Layer, I found that my cultivation progress suddenly slowed down significantly. At first, I thought there was some problem, until recently, when I attended the Medicine King Valley Conference and encountered an unexpected event..."

Luo Jun briefly recounted Long Hui's conspiracy to be reborn, leaving Old Yuan stunned. However, due to limited preparation time, he didn't ask for details, only wanting to hear the key points.

"So, you absorbed the vital energy gathered by Long Hui and reached the final bottleneck?" Old Yuan looked at Luo Jun: "You can now cultivate to the Foundation Establishment Realm?"

"That's what I thought too, but unexpectedly, after reaching the bottleneck, my vital energy showed signs of breaking through... just like in the first seven levels... I tried it out of curiosity, and it actually worked!"

"What?" Old Yuan was utterly shocked, his voice trembling as he grabbed Luo Jun's shoulders and shook him violently. "You... you... you... explain yourself! What exactly succeeded?"

Luo Jun made the number eight gesture again. "That means I should now be considered... at the Body Refinement Realm Eighth Layer!"

"The... eighth level?!" Old Yuan was stunned, and it took him several seconds to recover. "Such a thing actually happened? So our cultivation methods all along have been wrong?"

"No... that's not quite right... it's more accurate to say there's a deviation." Being a seasoned expert who had studied vital energy for decades, Old Yuan quickly pinpointed the key issue. "Come, Xiao Jun, let me see how your vital energy is circulating!"

Luo Jun handed his hand to his Master, and Old Yuan felt his pulse. A probe of vital energy entered Luo Jun's vital energy flow was like a rushing river. It was vast and turbulent, yet incredibly smooth. Many of the details of its flow were techniques that he had never thought of before.

"Your capacity is also off..." Although Old Yuan couldn't measure Luo Jun's exact capacity, he could sense that his primordial energy was far greater than he had expected. "Even if you're at the Eighth Floor now, your capacity wouldn't be this great... So, besides changing the way it operates, does the blessing have any other effects?"

"I don't know either. That blessing seems to have modified my body in some way. As I cultivate, my Qi is getting higher and higher..." Of course, Luo Jun couldn't say that his Root Bone was now forty or fifty times stronger than that of an ordinary person. Such an obvious change should have been mentioned when they met last time. So he could only vaguely steer the conversation towards Deity blessing. Anyway, no one else had ever seen such a thing except him, so he could make up whatever he wanted.

"It seems your spirituality is increasing too!" Old Yuan was so happy that the coastline seemed to float. "Good, good! The more spiritual energy you have, the better. When we finally deal with that mummy, the more spiritual energy you have, the more you can withstand the weakening. Your spiritual energy is probably even greater than mine now. In the later stages, if we, master and disciple, join forces, we will definitely be able to defeat that guy."

Old Yuan spoke, he grew increasingly excited, not only because he was about to leave this Secret Realm, but also because he was gratified by his disciple's achievements. He couldn't stop smiling and kept praising his beloved student...

"Master, the next match is about to begin." Luo Jun checked the time. "According to the rules, it's your turn to fight this round. Let's catch up when we get back!"

"Good, good, good!" Old Yuan held the Teleportation Divine Rune, and Luo Jun put on the Midnight Mask again. When the time came, the Old Man was teleported to the arena.

This time, Ottos is the one facing them.

This kid's skills are far inferior to Old Yuan's. Luo Jun was too lazy to even watch the game. Instead, he opened the dice panel and began to organize the information.

The gains from defeating my Master were considerable.

(End of this chapter)