A Strange Sea of Consciousness

"Back then, because of what happened at Grass Temple Village, everyone gathered at Jade Purity Hall, didn't Spirit Venerable fly into a rage?"

"Oh! I remember. I was wondering why Spirit Venerable had gotten angry for no reason, though I guessed it had something to do with my martial nephew. But from the look of things today, the reason Spirit Venerable was angry seems somewhat unusual!" When Daoxuan heard what Tian Buyi wanted to say, he turned his head and looked over, his gaze falling on Tian Buyi.

"That... I only found out afterward too. Spirit Venerable got angry because this brat smelled the fragrance coming from Spirit Venerable's dragon horn, so he couldn't help taking a bite." Tian Buyi's words left both Shuiyue and Daoxuan somewhat astonished. Thinking of the teeth this boy had, teeth that could bite through magic treasures, then...

Then they heard Tian Buyi say, "He gnawed off a section of the dragon horn!"

"What!" Two cries of shock echoed through Jade Purity Hall almost at the same time.

"Even the Nine Heavens divine weapons would have difficulty cutting through Spirit Venerable's dragon horn! Yet my martial nephew bit off a section with his mouth?!" Daoxuan truly could not stay calm at this moment.

His face was full of shock and disbelief as he looked at Tian Buyi, trying to see something from his face.

"So... so that's why my wife and I were worried about the child's origins." On Tian Buyi's chubby face, a somewhat awkward, ugly smile squeezed out.

"Don't worry! This child is absolutely, unmistakably human." Daoxuan was still very certain about this matter.

"That's good! That's good!" After Tian Buyi heard this, he kept nodding, finally able to let out a breath in his heart, his face full of joy.

That breath had been hanging in him so tightly he could barely taste his food. He felt that over these past few days, he seemed to have lost quite a bit of weight, and subconsciously reached out to touch his round, bulging belly.

"The Dao that can be spoken... is not the constant name..." Just as the four of them were silent, each thinking their own thoughts, a clear child's voice suddenly rang out in the quiet Jade Purity Hall.

"What?" Because Daoxuan had been lost in thought, he did not hear clearly. As for Tian Buyi and his wife, they were no strangers to this voice and situation. Shuiyue had also previously heard her junior sister Su Ru mention how Luo Yunji, in his dreams, had caused the disciples of Big Bamboo Peak to break through again and again, so she was not too surprised either. But when she truly encountered it, astonishment still unavoidably filled her heart.

"This is..." After Daoxuan heard it clearly, he looked at Tian Buyi and his wife in some shock.

"This! Sometimes he says a little in his sleep... it's all sleep talk!" Tian Buyi explained awkwardly.

"This is sleep talk?" Daoxuan narrowed his eyes, staring at Tian Buyi.

"Senior Brother! I swear! I truly don't know where the things this child says in his dreams come from. And besides, sometimes he'll say a little, but the vast majority of the time he doesn't talk in his sleep." Tian Buyi swore with a solemn expression.

"This is also one of the reasons you suspected his race?!" Daoxuan True Person saw that Tian Buyi did not seem to be lying, so he suppressed his surprise and asked.

"Yes! You don't know, and you haven't seen it with your own eyes! This boy began cultivating at six, and by eight he had cultivated the Taiji Mystic Purity Dao to the fourth level, then at some unknown point he broke through to the fifth level. If Senior Brother hadn't noticed it last time, I really wouldn't have paid attention."

"And now, the day before yesterday, he broke through to the sixth level again. Besides, normally this child just eats and sleeps, sleeps and eats. Some time ago there was clearly a change, and he spent a little more time awake. But during this period he's started again; even when he eats, he's mostly asleep." Tian Buyi looked worriedly at his youngest disciple as he explained the situation clearly to Daoxuan.

"Perhaps..." After hearing this, Daoxuan had a bold guess in his heart.

"Perhaps what?" Hearing Daoxuan True Person's murmur, Su Ru hurriedly asked.

"Perhaps in this child's sea of consciousness, there will be the answer we want."

"No! That's too dangerous! Little Ji is still young. Invading his sea of consciousness—if anything goes wrong, it could destroy him!" Su Ru and Shuiyue spoke at the same time, resolutely opposing it.

"On this matter, the two junior sisters can rest assured. I have a Spirit-Concentrating Pearl, which can keep his sea of consciousness unharmed." Daoxuan took out a small red pearl from his robe.

"I'll go together with Senior Brother." Tian Buyi pondered for a moment. Since they had come, it would be best to resolve the matter all at once, lest long nights breed many dreams.

Daoxuan nodded, placed the Spirit-Concentrating Pearl between Luo Yunji's brows, then looked toward Tian Buyi.

Tian Buyi stepped forward, formed a spell seal, and then he and Daoxuan True Person closed their eyes one after another, their consciousnesses invading Luo Yunji's sea of consciousness.

"This place..." After entering Luo Yunji's sea of consciousness, the two men opened their mouths wide, both stunned.

The strangeness of Luo Yunji's sea of consciousness left even Daoxuan True Person unable to escape shock.

There was nothing in an ordinary person's sea of consciousness. Even if there was, it would be colored radiance manifested from spiritual energy.

But what appeared before the two of them now was entirely books.

Many books, many, many books! So many that the two of them could not see them all, stretching without end.

It was a sea of books, a mountain of books, extending to unknown borders. In any case, everywhere their eyes could see was filled with volumes, all sorts of books, pages.

"This is..." A sheet of paper flew past Daoxuan's eyes, and Daoxuan curiously raised a hand to catch it.

After glancing at the contents on the page in his hand, he could not move his gaze away.

What was recorded on the paper was precisely the sleep talk Luo Yunji had just spoken in Jade Purity Hall.

"This is the first chapter?" Tian Buyi heard Daoxuan's voice, then saw Daoxuan's astonished expression. He leaned his head over to take a look at the contents of the paper, then muttered somewhat curiously.

Last time on the back mountain of Big Bamboo Peak, because of Luo Yunji's dream words, all the disciples had broken through in cultivation one after another.

Those dream words had already been written down by the disciples, and he himself had read them as well. So upon seeing the contents on the paper in Daoxuan's hand, he could tell they came from the same volume.

Tian Buyi also curiously grabbed a random sheet of paper drifting past his eyes.

"Eighteen Touches?!!!" Tian Buyi looked at it, then, his face flushed red to the ears, hurriedly flung away the page in his hand as if it were some venomous beast.

Daoxuan curiously reached out and caught it. He swept his eyes over the contents, then his expression also became somewhat uncomfortable, and he hastily threw it away.

The two of them each coughed twice in some embarrassment.

"How can there be so many books? And most of them are jumbled and disorderly. Some are even damaged!" Daoxuan curiously looked around, then asked in amazement, voicing the curiosity in his heart.

Of course, he did not expect Tian Buyi beside him to be able to answer him.

"Speaking of which, where's that boy? Why don't we see his spiritual consciousness!" Tian Buyi searched around but still did not see Luo Yunji's spiritual consciousness, which should have existed in the sea of consciousness.

"Logically speaking, the moment we came in, the master of this place should have sensed us." Daoxuan also looked around. Aside from books, he saw no figure.

Who knew how long had passed? In the sea of consciousness, there was utterly no concept of time.

The two of them also did not know how many mountains of books they had gone around. Before their eyes, aside from books, there were still books, and just as the two of them were preparing to give up.