Arrangements Before Seclusion

Returning to his manor, Luo Zhiyuan stopped dwelling on the issue of his identity and resumed his cultivation. His main body nurtured the grade five flying weapon, Light Wings, while Xingxing continued to soak in the Evolution Fluid. Meanwhile, he practiced using the Light Wings in the Virtual Universe with Bulieni.

Soon, Luo Zhiyuan gained a preliminary grasp of how to use the Light Wings, though he was still very clumsy and far from the speed he achieved with the Lightning Shuttle. However, this would improve over time, and Xingxing had also evolved to the third rank of the Universe level.

Finally, Fuke arrived at Luo Zhiyuan's manor to complete the final step of the new identity: scanning his mental imprint.

From the moment the scan was finished, Luo Zhiyuan's original records in the Virtual Universe system vanished. In their place was a 30-year-old member of the Xuantong Race born locally on Qingyu Planet. His parents had unfortunately passed away shortly after his birth, and he had been lucky enough to be taken away by a wandering powerhouse for training, only now returning to Qingyu Planet.

The Xuantong Race was the race within the Xuanyi Universe Kingdom that most resembled the people of Earth's China; one could not tell the difference from their appearance at all. However, their bloodline was far superior to that of humans from Earth, as they were Star level upon reaching adulthood. Luo Zhiyuan was quite satisfied that Fuke's company could find a race with such a matching appearance.

He had originally intended to inform Luo Feng and Xu Xin in the Virtual Universe, but he discovered that all his previous contacts were gone. After all, it was a new identity; it was impossible to keep any information from his past.

After thinking about it, he decided that since this was the case, he might as well ensure his new identity had no connection to Earth whatsoever.

Thus, Luo Zhiyuan sent his guards to Qingyi City to obtain several anonymous Virtual Universe accounts. He then logged into the Virtual Universe using an anonymous account and sent a communication request to Luo Feng's number.

Another verification request came back with the same old question and the same old answer. It seemed Babata really had a soft spot for apples.

Soon, Babata sent a message: "Hey, who are you? You're the second guy to answer correctly. What's your background?"

He shook his head speechlessly and quickly replied that he was Luo Zhiyuan.

The other side immediately initiated a voice call: "Little Zhiyuan? Why is it you again? Why did you use an anonymous account this time? What are you up to?"

"Uh... Babata, there's a reason for this, of course. It was Bulieni who told me to do it."

Turning his head to look at Bulieni on his shoulder, Luo Zhiyuan gave an apologetic look for making him the scapegoat.

Bulieni curled his lips at him and waved his hand dismissively.

"Babata, don't ask for now. Let my dad talk to me; I'll tell him directly what's going on."

Immediately, Luo Feng's slightly breathless voice came through: "Zhiyuan? What's going on? You haven't been on the Virtual Universe for a while. Your mother is a bit worried about you. You must remember to keep in touch with us often."

Thinking of Xu Xin, Luo Zhiyuan's heart tugged.

In this life, Xu Xin had been a truly wonderful mother to him, always caring for him meticulously. If anything, he was the one who owed her a lot; ever since he started cultivating, he had spent very little time with her.

To reduce the risk of bringing unnecessary trouble to Earth in the future, he might not even be able to contact his family on the Virtual Universe often. Thinking of this, Luo Zhiyuan felt a bit down.

"Dad, are you cultivating? I can hear you panting. You should pay attention to resting and spend more time with Mom. Because of some reasons, I won't be able to contact you on the Virtual Universe as often in the future. You have to take my place and keep Mom company."

Luo Feng's voice grew tense as he hurriedly asked, "What's wrong? Did you encounter some danger?"

Composing himself, Luo Zhiyuan replied, "It's fine, we can handle it; it's not a big problem. The thing is, I'm currently in the Xuanyi Universe Kingdom. There are some cultivation resources left behind by my teacher here, so we'll be training here for a while."

"But my master has a very powerful enemy who holds a certain amount of influence in the universe. We were accidentally discovered a while ago, so to avoid them, I've changed my identity and am hiding in a safe place."

"And to avoid bringing trouble to Earth, I will also be reducing contact with you all. Of course, I will definitely use this anonymous account to contact you periodically so you can rest easy."

Hearing the situation, Luo Feng felt slightly relieved but still said, "You must be careful and keep in touch with home regularly. Talk to your mother about the situation in a bit. Don't say too much to worry her; just say it's not convenient to contact her while cultivating."

"Oh, right, how long do you need to cultivate over there, and what is your cultivation level now?"

Uh... Luo Zhiyuan blinked. What was Luo Feng's cultivation level again? It was just after the Earth crisis was resolved; he should be at the first or second rank of the Star level, right? He couldn't quite remember. The Golden Horned Behemoth seemed to be only at the seventh rank of the Star level. Would it be too much of a blow if he just told him?

"Don't worry, it won't take long. At most ten years, I will finish my cultivation and leave the Xuanyi Universe Kingdom. By then, we can contact each other normally."

"As for my cultivation, hehe, Dad, my cultivation has grown a lot! I'm already at the eighth rank of the Star level. Isn't that impressive? Haha!"

There was a long silence on the other end, followed by a sigh from Luo Feng and a shriek from Babata: "What? Little Zhiyuan, you're already at the eighth rank of the Star level? How is it possible for your cultivation to improve so fast?"

"Luo Feng! Look at that! I told you I regretted it! If I had known, I wouldn't have picked you. If I had waited a year or two for your son to be born and taken him as my disciple, how great would that have been? I! Am! So! Regretful!"

Luo Zhiyuan didn't know what to say, but Bulieni was not pleased.

"What's this, little guy? Trying to snatch someone from me? Do you even have the resources to nurture young Luo? Don't even think about nurturing him the way you nurtured his father; I'd die laughing!"

"Just seeing that you couldn't help him solve the trouble on Earth back then, I know you don't have much of a foundation. Do you know how many resources I've used to nurture young Luo? I'm afraid of scaring you if I say it, so for your own good, I won't tell you."

"So, little guy, don't be overly ambitious. Talk about nurturing disciples only when you have the resources, hmph!"

Luo Zhiyuan really didn't know what to do with Bulieni. He usually spoke quite well, but he seemed to have a real grudge against Babata. He wondered why—could it be because they were both intelligent lifeforms? Was it some kind of innate rank suppression?

Babata didn't dare to make a sound on the other end. Luo Feng hurriedly said, "I'm sorry, Senior Bulieni. Babata didn't mean anything by it; he was just joking. Please don't take it to heart."

Bulieni huffed and said nothing more. Seeing this, Luo Zhiyuan exchanged a few more words with Luo Feng, hung up the call, and then contacted his mother on Earth. He explained the situation simply so they wouldn't worry, and after saying goodbye, he logged out of the Virtual Universe.

Arriving at the cultivation room, Luo Zhiyuan asked, "Bulieni, there's nothing left for us to be distracted by. Let's start our closed-door cultivation. How have you arranged it?"

Bulieni took the Time Chamber out of his World Ring and placed it in the cultivation room. After having Luo Zhiyuan insert the Immortal Crystal, he said, "Hehe, alright, get into the Time Chamber now. I've set up a series of cultivation schedules for you; it will definitely make you feel very fulfilled."

With no more worries in his heart, Luo Zhiyuan was very interested in Bulieni's cultivation plan. Moreover, he had never seen a Time Chamber before, so he walked in with some anticipation.

Inside the Time Chamber was a vast, barren wilderness where nothing grew. The gravity was extremely high; even Luo Zhiyuan felt he couldn't move freely. There was only the entrance and exit behind him, and nothing else.

"Bulieni, how big is the space inside this Time Chamber? And why is the gravity so high? What is the value?"

Bulieni chuckled in Luo Zhiyuan's sea of consciousness.

"As for this space, your World Ring is a hundred million kilometers in length, width, and height. The internal space of this Time Chamber is ten billion kilometers in length, width, and height!"

"As for the gravity, it can be adjusted. I've currently set it to the highest value your body can withstand while still being able to move normally. Because you haven't lived in such a high-gravity environment before, you won't be used to it at first, but you'll adapt after a while."

"Then I will increase it again until it reaches the highest theoretical limit your body can currently withstand. Once you can fully adapt to that gravity, your physical force output will increase significantly, which will also be very helpful for your cultivation of combat techniques."

Luo Zhiyuan agreed with Bulieni's approach. Although his body had been improved several times by the Evolution Fluid, which increased his physical energy, his physical force output had long since failed to keep up with his body's growth. Cultivating in a high-gravity environment to improve his physical force techniques was a very good idea.

There was just one thing he was worried about.

"Uh... Bulieni, I understand everything you've said, and I have no objections. But I'm still in a growth spurt, and my height is only half that of an adult. If I stay in a high-gravity environment for a long time, will it affect my physical development? I really don't want to end up short and look like a little runt forever."

"Hahahaha!" Bulieni was laughing so hard inside Luo Zhiyuan's sea of consciousness that he could barely catch his breath.

"Ha... ha... what kind of logic is that? If we followed your reasoning, wouldn't all life forms born on high-gravity planets or secret realms be short? How could you have such an absurd thought? You're killing me."

"Uh, as long as there's no impact, that's fine. I was just a little worried, no need to mock me like that." Luo Zhiyuan muttered, scratching his burning cheeks with his hand.

"Alright, enough joking around, let's get ready to start training. Kid Luo, when venturing through the universe, the most important thing is the ability to save your own life. That Godly Evasion movement technique you practiced before is too simple for you; you've already reached the peak of it."

"So, next, I will teach you a movement technique that starts from comprehending laws. Practicing it will significantly improve your level of law comprehension."

Luo Zhiyuan nodded, turned to look around the empty wilderness, and began his closed-door cultivation under Bulieni's guidance within the Time Chamber.

PS: Brothers, we have finally appeared on the first page of the overall new author book rankings. It hasn't been easy!

To be honest, I didn't have high expectations for this, and I won't go into the specific reasons—you brothers can go see for yourselves, I think it's quite conspicuous. I didn't expect to actually make it to the first page today; I'm currently ranked 19th, and I'm very excited.

I am satisfied, and I am infinitely grateful to you brothers! Nothing else to say, I'll keep writing.

Gentlemen, thank you! Uh... it would be even better if there were more bookmarks :P