9 - The Rules Have Changed

9 - The Rules Have Changed

The father and son lived in different places, so Li Bai's status as a rich young master was naturally no use to him. Aside from the usual greetings, their main topic on the phone was still his blind dates as a lifelong bachelor.

His old dad was so anxious that he asked everyone he knew to find suitable girls and send them his way, arranging blind dates remotely. There was no one else like him.

If it weren't for the money set aside for blind dates, Li Bai's salary would have been long exhausted. Even living on the wind from the northwest would have been out of reach.

Parents' love knew no bounds. It was exactly the same in every world.

After hanging up, Li Bai looked at the Azure Flood Dragon curled up on the sofa cushion. If this Demoness could take human form and sweet-talk his old dad with a few coquettish whines, he wouldn't be so frazzled over blind dates.

Beep!

A text message came in on his phone. Two thousand yuan in blind-date sponsorship money had arrived.

Li Bai couldn't help but smile wryly.

While the Azure Flood Dragon Demoness was glued to the TV, Li Bai began checking what he had brought back from the other world.

Besides the clothes on his back, he had a Storage Ring and a Spiritually Connected Jade Token that let him enter and leave the Langya Heavenly Cave.

With the Heaven and Earth Rules having changed, it would be a shame if these things had become useless.

The clothes and accessories were made of valuable materials, but they weren't magic tools. He hung them in the closet, though he probably wouldn't wear them often in the future.

This world had no Secret Hidden Heavenly Cave Langya Heaven. The jade token was now worth only as much as the material it was made of. He could perhaps sell it for some money, but Li Bai wasn't short of cash for the time being.

The Storage Ring had a vast capacity. It held not only plenty of daily necessities, but even a wooden house. Most of all, it contained all kinds of materials for crafting magic tools and a wealth of cultivation resources.

With the Lord of the Heavenly Palace's fortune, one could easily support a Dao sect of considerable strength. The value of this Storage Ring was beyond measure.

Li Bai stirred his mind slightly. His formidable Spiritual Power, comparable to that of a True Realm of the Dao adept, had vanished without a trace, leaving him nothing at all. Naturally, the Storage Ring remained completely unresponsive.

The spiritual energy left in his body had solidified into something the size of a soybean, as hard as iron. Forget casting spells—even a spark wouldn't come out. His eight extraordinary meridians were in even worse shape. Forget Gang Qi; he hadn't even been left with a single Gang Qi seed.

His Glazed Heart, which had once reached a hundred and fifty zhang, now extended only three feet around him. It was severely suppressed.

It was like winning the five-million jackpot, only to discover at the prize counter that all he'd received was a twenty-yuan consolation prize. Just thinking about it was infuriating.

The consolation prize he had been left with was the Innate Exotic Treasure, the Chaos Green Lotus, entrusted to his mind. It was still there, but all the Lotus Petal Spiritual Light it had accumulated was now dim. A few flecks of light occasionally rose from the Lotus Core, barely enough to refine his Natal Magic Tool, "Xuan Star."

It truly deserved to be called the key to unlocking the Heaven and Earth Rules. Even in another world, it could still function.

His cultivation had been reduced to an empty shell of a realm, and the listless Chaos Green Lotus seemed to have suffered a massive expenditure too. Li Bai slapped his forehead, able to guess the reason.

He had taken the Big and Small Demonesses through the Outer Heavenly Evil God's Heavenly Gate and back to Earth. Though they'd arrived unharmed and hadn't lost any limbs, it hadn't come without a price.

It was easy to imagine that the Chaos Green Lotus had exhausted its spiritual light and his cultivation to ensure the safety of one human and two demons, preserving their physical bodies.

Li Bai glanced at the Azure Flood Dragon. Perhaps Qingyao Demoness's inability to take human form had something to do with the Chaos Green Lotus.

Though not a trace of his cultivation remained, his foundation was intact. He would only need to spend some time cultivating again, and he could recover.

Li Bai began trying to activate the Maha Bolan Sutra. He had first entered the path of cultivation by relying on half a volume of the Maha Bolan Sutra. Now he was merely retracing his steps, and he was even more familiar with the process.

"...Shi yan she pi ge, zhe tuo mo he, ye sai lu si ke, cai duo su man..."

The sutra flowed through his mind, sweeping away all distracting thoughts until his mind gradually grew clear and tranquil.

When he silently recited the sixth round of the Maha Bolan Sutra, his mind began to tremble faintly. The disturbance spread wider and wider, reaching even the spiritual energy that had solidified like stone.

Crack!

After a faint, almost inaudible sound, Li Bai emerged from his meditative state of repeatedly reciting the sutra.

A few wisps of Spiritual Power appeared in his dried-up mind. The solidified spiritual energy, condensed into a soybean-sized mass, seemed to have developed an almost imperceptible crack. But he still couldn't sense even the slightest trace of spiritual energy outside him.

The sutra's characters flickered across the petals of the Chaos Green Lotus, but once he stopped reciting, they quickly dimmed. Unlike in the other world, the lotus no longer activated on its own to continuously generate Spiritual Power.

There were Fifty Great Daos, and Heaven's Evolvement counted only forty-nine, leaving one out. Thus, Heaven never left people without a way out. Under the restrictions of this world's Heaven and Earth Rules, cultivation was so difficult, but at least there was still a glimmer of hope.

His cultivation yielded half the results for twice the effort, and he progressed far more slowly than he had in the other world. But he could still cultivate, which made Li Bai breathe a long sigh of relief. At last, the weight on his heart had lifted.

His mind stirred again, and a chicken-egg-sized Spirit Crystal rolled to his feet. At the same time, a wisp of Spiritual Power vanished. This world had no spiritual energy, so every Spirit Crystal in the Storage Ring was one less once used.

With the Rules changed, even opening the Storage Ring was no longer as easy as it had been in the other world. A wisp of Spiritual Power could open it only once.

By the time he stopped cultivating his Spiritual Power, dawn had broken.

Li Bai had been sitting motionless by the dining table all night. Only then did he notice that the TV was still on, but the Azure Flood Dragon Demoness was nowhere to be seen on the sofa.

He looked around and soon spotted her coiled up on the bed in the study. At some point, she had opened the laptop. Like a seasoned gamer, she held down the mouse with her tail and was engrossed in Minesweeper.

This Demoness was quick to adapt. She'd even figured out how to use a computer in just one night.

Modern society was also known as the information age. People could easily access a vast amount of information. One night of watching TV could teach you more than traveling ten thousand li and reading ten thousand books in ancient times.

The Demoness picked things up ten or even a hundred times faster than ordinary people. If she hadn't been so cunning and clever, the great demons of the Kunlun Demon Realm would have swallowed her as a snack long ago.

After a simple breakfast, Li Bai tidied himself up. A few snips of the scissors turned his long hair into short, tousled locks. His refined air vanished at once, and he looked lively and energetic, back to the way he had originally looked in this world.

Seeing that the Azure Flood Dragon Demoness was still playing Minesweeper, he instructed her, "Stay home and behave yourself. Breakfast's in the pot. There are ingredients in the fridge and kitchen, so learn to use the cooking utensils yourself, understand? Don't go out, and don't rummage through anything."

He'd scared a rich kid half to death at the hospital yesterday. He didn't want the same thing happening to another patient.

A flash of blue lightning appeared and disappeared in the room. The Azure Flood Dragon wrapped her gentle coils around Li Bai's neck. He felt a slight sting and knew the Demoness hadn't forgotten to give him her usual good-morning bite.

"This servant understands!"

The Demoness was used to sweet, cloying coaxing whenever she wanted to wheedle affection.

The many strange new things in this world fascinated her. A single computer would probably keep her occupied for half a year.

It was the final day of the conference on psychiatry and mental health, organized by the Seventh People's Hospital and attended by colleagues from the Three provinces and one city in East China. Dean Zhou, a man of action, led the group of visiting doctors into the inpatient ward, which was separated from the outpatient building by a single wall.

An electric net and infrared sensors had been installed atop the high wall. High-definition cameras covered the corners, and capable security guards who were former Special Forces Soldiers patrolled day and night. The security level was practically no different from that of a detention center.

If psychiatric patients who lacked the ability to control their own actions had an episode, whether they hurt someone else or themselves, neither the hospital nor their families wanted to see it happen.

No wonder the doctors and nurses liked to call the inpatient ward the harem. It was full of precious "lords"—watched over and guarded, forbidden from coming and going as they pleased. Every one of them was treated as a treasure, carefully looked after so they wouldn't get so much as a bump.

When they weren't having an episode, the patients in the inpatient ward were no different from ordinary people. Besides taking their medication on time, they could move about freely, play chess, watch TV, read, recite poetry, and enjoy themselves at ease.

Deep inside the inpatient ward, behind the outpatient building, there was a special place that was no different from a real detention center. It was called the Intensive Care Unit, the cold palace within the harem. Its patients all had violent tendencies. In the common parlance, they were Martial Maniacs. Killing someone and getting away with it was the least of it; even more frightening was that some patients showed no warning signs at all when they had an episode. Even with restraints and isolation rooms, they were still difficult to guard against.

For more than twenty years, under the personal supervision of Vice Dean Wang, who was skilled with a Tranquilizer Gun, not a single incident had ever occurred. People had given her the title Invincible Divine Gun.

One wag wrote: "When His Majesty's illness struck, he went mad and tried to act. A needle flashed by, and he fell before taking seven steps. The heroes were all shocked. The old woman laughed and said, 'Nothing special. I've just had plenty of practice.'"

After being rehired following her retirement, Vice Dean Wang returned to her post with all her former swagger. She was now also known as Granny Double Gun King. Just standing there, she was even more effective than a tranquilizer.

The visiting doctors were naturally eager to pay their respects and learn from her.

It's been ten years. Li Wei, the protagonist of The Nation in Ruins, the Mountains and Rivers Remain, has a son who's grown that big now. Back then, so many people begged for a sequel. Now even the second sequel is out, so you should be satisfied, right? You haven't even read The Nation in Ruins, the Mountains and Rivers Remain? It's a legendary book that even Dragon Cavalry Fighter can only look up to.