Wishing Grass

In a Training Room at the Yuandu headquarters.

"To withstand the various abilities of Cultivators, this place was constructed using high-grade inert materials, making it difficult for outsiders to probe here." Old Yuan led Ling Xin to the center of the Training Room and set up another shielding barrier. "Now it's absolutely foolproof."

Ling Xin nodded, opened the Hundred Treasure Box, and took out a palm-sized clover. However, it looked like it should have been a four-leaf clover, as a leaf had obviously been torn off earlier.

Old Yuan took the special four-leaf clover, swept it with his vital energy, and its attributes were revealed before him.

Name: Wishing Grass

Grade: Myth

Description: A sacred object bestowed by a supreme being in response to the prayers of his people; it is said to have the power to grant wishes.

Function 1: Make a wish. Tear off a leaf and consume it to grant one wish.

In theory, it can fulfill any wish, but it consumes vital energy based on the difficulty of the wish, with a maximum consumption of 120,000 breaths. This consumption cannot be reduced by the cultivation level of the Foundation Establishment Realm.

Function Two: Death Resistance: Tear off a leaf to consume it, which can permanently resist one death, with no cost.

Available uses: 3/4

Note: I can grant you four wishes.

"After all these years, I've finally seen this treasure again." Looking at the Wishing Grass in his hand, Old Yuan couldn't help but sigh, his eyes filled with nostalgia.

"Back then, when Ling Jue showed me this thing, I was shocked. I thought he had found a treasure that could change the world. I even warned him that such treasures shouldn't be used carelessly..." Old Yuan shook his head and chuckled, "But this kid told me he had already tried it, but without success..."

Ling Xin nodded. "My brother said that although this Wishing Grass can theoretically grant any wish, its effectiveness has an upper limit. For example, if an ordinary Cultivators wishes to ascend to Feather Transformation, they will be told that the wish has exceeded the limit and cannot be granted, and the leaves will not be consumed."

"Other functions, including killing or resurrecting a creature, are also impossible if that creature is too powerful, exceeding the 120,000-breath limit. So my brother's assessment of this thing is that it can perform all sorts of functions in different directions, but it can't reach the ultimate in any one direction. It's a jack-of-all-trades, master of none."

"Ling Yao's assessment is quite fair." Old Yuan nodded. "After all, Mythic Treasure Item are made by Deity. There are some things that even real Deity may not be able to do, and Mythic Treasure Item certainly cannot."

"My brother also said that Father once wanted to use a leaf to treat your old injury, but was refused?" Ling Xin asked, looking at Old Yuan.

"Tch, that kid's asking price was outrageous, I didn't agree!" Old Yuan curled his lip. "I should have agreed first. As for the subsequent increases, we could have dealt with them slowly... In the end, that kid wasted a piece at the last minute, and to this day, no one knows what he wished for!"

Ling Xin's expression darkened at the mention of this.

"Forget about these old stories." Old Yuan looked at Ling Xin: "Are you sure you want to use this to save Luo Jun? Did Ling Yao agree to it too?"

Ling Xin nodded. "This thing has always been in my brother's possession. I can't get it without his permission."

"But why?" Old Yuan frowned, looking at Ling Xin with some confusion. "As far as I know, you and Luo Jun were just classmates in high school. After you were admitted to the Ningdong Academy, you weren't in the same class, and you didn't interact much... Why were you willing to use such a precious artifact to save him?"

When this question was raised, Ling Xin lowered her head slightly. "I... have my reasons..."

Old Yuan looked at Ling Xin, his eyes narrowing slightly. "You wouldn't... have feelings for this kid...?"

Upon hearing this, Ling Xin blushed slightly and quickly retorted, "No, you're overthinking it..."

Old Yuan nodded, thinking to himself that it seemed there was no mistake. Ling Xin, such a perceptive girl, had most likely sensed Luo Jun's true strength... The two siblings, though seemingly successful, were actually considered marginalized members of the Ling Family. It was understandable that they wanted to win over a top expert...

"Since that's the case, I won't say anything more." Old Yuan sighed, "I only hope that you won't mention Luo Jun to anyone else. It's better for both of you."

Although Old Yuan hoped to conceal his disciple's cultivation level, he knew it would eventually come out of hiding. In the maze, Luo Jun's strength had already far surpassed his own, and he estimated that the secret wouldn't last much longer. It wouldn't matter if Ling Xin found out; he had watched this girl grow up and trusted Ling Xin character.

Ling Xin nodded. "Of course I know the implications..." Indeed, if word got out about the existence of the Mythic Treasure Item Wishing Grass, even those at the Ascension Realm would covet it, so this matter naturally had to be kept secret.

After confirming, Old Yuan picked up the Wishing Grass, plucked a leaf, and tried to activate the wish.

"Bring Luo Jun back to the Main World!"

The leaf shimmered with a lustrous light, and a moment later, a notification appeared in front of Old Yuan.

"Based on the calculation, this wish consumed 88,735 breaths of vital energy. Confirm the wish?"

Eighty-eight thousand interest? Old Yuan frowned and chose no.

The leaf in my hand turned into light and vanished, returning to its stem as if it had never been picked.

Seeing this, Ling Xin looked worried. "What's wrong, Old Yuan? Is your wish not going to come true?"

Old Yuan shook his head. "It's possible, but it requires too much vital energy, and I don't have enough..."

"You lack magnanimity?" Ling Xin asked in surprise, "My brother said that whether in the Main World or Different World, in terms of magnanimity alone, you should be far ahead of everyone else, and even some Feather Transformation might not be your match... How could this be..."

"My energy reserves are less than 80,000, while this wish requires nearly 90,000, a difference of almost 10,000 Breath Vital Energy," Old Yuan sighed. "I do have some items that provide energy, but they generally only provide a few hundred breaths of energy. Even if I use them all, it won't make up for the shortfall of 10,000 breaths."

"What should we do then?" Ling Xin asked, somewhat flustered.

"Don't rush... The association's treasury contains consumables that can temporarily increase your Qi level proportionally, but there's a process to apply for them. I'll take care of it right away. You go to the Reception Room and wait for me..."

That was the only way to do it now. The two parted ways after leaving the Training Room. Ling Xin walked all the way to the conference room, her mind constantly preoccupied with Luo Jun's situation.

He should be alright... That guy, although I don't know what he's been through in the past six months, he has indeed grown into Cultivators capable of standing on his own... In fact, even I can't see through his cultivation level, and I don't know what kind of abilities he has... Now that we have a way to save him, we're sure we can turn the tide...

With a mix of nervousness and excitement, Ling Xin arrived at the conference room. Before she could even react, a tall girl walked up to her and greeted her, "We meet again!"

"Zhuge Lan ..." The two had already met in Yuandu before, so it wasn't surprising.

"Let me introduce you. This is my sister, Zhuge Zi, and her friend, Sun Xiaowei." Zhuge Lan pulled the two girls over and introduced them generously, "This is the Golden Edge Witch Ling Xin that I just mentioned to you!"

Upon hearing this name, the two girls didn't react much, but the Rogue Cultivator in the room all looked on in surprise.

Clearly, Ling Xin's name is quite well-known in the cultivation world.

At this moment, another official arrived and summoned several Rogue Cultivator to leave so they could try out their methods.

Clearly, while Old Yuan was trying to apply for a Noble Phantasm, he hadn't given up on other possible methods.

"How is Luo Jun doing?" Sun Xiaowei and Zhuge Zi asked Ling Xin with concern.

"Currently, we have a direction, but for now..." Ling Xin said, looking at the two girls with some scrutiny. "You two know Luo Jun too?"

"Didn't Old Yuan mention it to you?" Zhuge Lan blinked. "Those two are teammates who did missions with Luo Jun and Old Yuan."

The error-free version can be read at 69 Book Bar! 6=9+shuba is the first site to publish this novel.

"You also went through that mission?" Ling Xin had come all the way to Yuandu and immediately contacted Old Yuan to try to rescue Luo Jun, so she didn't have time to talk in detail. Now that she had met other successful test-takers, she immediately asked, "Can you tell me what you experienced during the mission?"

"That's a long story..." Sun Xiaowei then displayed her seasoned self-media eloquence. "It was a boundless, intricate maze, and deep within it lay countless dangers and challenges..."

"This maze is indeed very dangerous..."

Standing in the lounge area's buffet Dining Hall, Luo Jun looked at the mountain of delicacies piled up and couldn't help but shake his head and sigh, "If I keep eating like this, won't I be as fat as a ball by the time I leave?"

As he spoke, he patted his stomach. "Fortunately, after the attribute upgrade, I'm not only more resistant to hunger, but also to fullness. My body seems to have some kind of regulatory mechanism, so whether I ingest too much nutrition or remain hungry, it won't have a significant impact on my body..."

"Forget it, don't think about it too much, just eat as much as you want, it's the last meal anyway!"

With that, Luo Jun plunged into the Dining Hall and began to feast.

After a satisfying meal, he took a relaxing shower, got a full-body massage, changed his clothes, and left the rest area.

"Now, it's time to get down to business..." he said, taking a piece of parchment from his Equipment Pack and unfolding it. "Let me see, based on the pattern, where should it be this time?"

As he spoke, he drew dots on the parchment with his pen to confirm the location, then put it away. He then found a direction, flipped his hand, took out the Myriad Jun Hammer, swung it around a few times, and smashed it down on the wall in front of him!

Boom!

The maze trembled, and a large hole was smashed through the wall. Before the hole could be repaired, Luo Jun nimbly squeezed through and continued in a straight line. When he encountered the next obstacle, he smashed it down with his hammer again!

More than three hundred days have passed since Old Yuan and the others left the maze. During this time, Luo Jun has not relaxed his cultivation, but just as Luo Jun had estimated before, his cultivation progress has been slowing down and his cultivation gains have been decreasing.

In an attempt to break free from the Shackles, Luo Jun also tried summoning Ailongtan and Aishiliya to help brew the Sweet Dew. The Sweet Dew did indeed accelerate his cultivation progress, but it couldn't break through the final limit.

Finally, after about 260 days, Luo Jun's cultivation progress stopped at a certain point... or more precisely, it didn't stop, but rather approached a certain point infinitely.

And this point is the predicted bottleneck that Luo Jun would need to break through if there really was Tenth Floor the Foundation Establishment Realm!

No matter how hard he cultivates or how much Sweet Dew he drinks, he can only get infinitely close, but never reach that point.

It seems that the Tenth Floor truly does not exist... The cultivation of vital energy ultimately has its Limit. Luo Jun had also attempted to cultivate the Heart Refining Realm, and even subtly sought guidance from the Thumb, after all, those Finger Merchant were all Heart Refining Realm experts in their previous lives.

However, everyone told him that to achieve Heart Refining Realm, one must first feel the inclination. This is something that can only be understood intuitively, not explained in words. If you can't feel it yourself, no matter how much someone tries to teach you, you won't learn it.

Having reached the limit of the Foundation Establishment Realm and with no hope of reaching the Heart Refining Realm, Luo Jun's cultivation path seemed to have truly come to an end.

There has been no progress in cultivation, but at least there have been gains in exploring the maze.

With the combined efforts of Luo Jun and the Finger Merchant, they finally found a clue to the entrance and ultimately confirmed that the entrance could indeed change location!

However, unlike the exit, the location of the entrance does not change randomly, but follows a pattern. Through calculation, it has been determined that the entrance will move between thirteen fixed locations. As long as you grasp its pattern, you can find the location of the entrance!

Right now, Luo Jun is heading towards the location that the current entrance will reach in eight hours!

To save time, Luo Jun chose the shortest route—going straight ahead!

Although his cultivation level hadn't improved significantly, after exploring the maze for so many days and smashing countless walls, as the saying goes, practice makes perfect. Now, his skill in destroying walls was already quite masterful!

Finally, after a series of demolitions, Luo Jun arrived at the designated location in the seventh hour.

This place looks like an ordinary crossroads, but calculations show that in one hour, the entrance to the Chaos World will appear here.

Luo Jun did his warm-up exercises while waiting in place. Time passed by, and finally, the appointed time arrived!

"Hmm?" Luo Jun looked around curiously, but nothing seemed to have changed.

Was my estimate wrong?

Just as he was doubting himself, he suddenly frowned and looked down at the ground beneath his feet.

"This aura..."

He raised his Myriad Jun Hammer and smashed it down on the ground!

Boom!

With a loud crash, the floorboards burst open, and Luo Jun plummeted down the crack to the lower level!

After regaining his footing, he looked around and found himself surrounded by countless Chaos Monster, and in the center of these monsters stood a Space Rift as black as ink...

"This is... the entrance?"

Luo Jun licked his lips excitedly and swung the hammer in his hand...

(End of this chapter)