The Strange Sea of Consciousness

"Big fatty!" A crisp child's voice suddenly rang out beside their ears.

Tian Buyi knew that voice all too well!

But what the hell was "big fatty"?!

A fair, clean little fatty walked out from behind a pile of books, his face full of joy. "Big fatty, how did you get in?"

"Call me Master!" Seeing his little disciple run up in front of him and even stretch out a chubby little paw to poke his belly, Tian Buyi gloomily rapped him on the head and snapped in annoyance.

"I know! Big fatty!" Luo Yunji took Tian Buyi's not-too-heavy rap without feeling any pain at all, smiling extremely happily.

"You stinking brat! Are you asking for a beating?" Seeing that his little disciple had no intention of changing how he addressed him, Tian Buyi pulled a stern face.

"Big fatty! Did you come to help me?" Luo Yunji hugged Tian Buyi's big belly and laughed utterly carefree.

"Help you? Help you with what?" Tian Buyi asked, puzzled.

"Organize these books!" Luo Yunji tipped up his round little head and looked at his fat master with an expression that said, You're so dumb.

"These papers! They all need organizing?" Tian Buyi looked around in astonishment at the papers denser than raindrops.

They floated in the sky and carpeted the ground; at first glance, it was as if the entire world were made of papers and books.

Usually, he had never seen his little disciple being all that diligent.

"Mm-hmm! As long as I find all the pieces of those damaged scrolls, they'll turn into complete books," Luo Yunji answered, nodding his round head.

"Turn into books? Then these books..." Tian Buyi looked at the countless mountains of books around him, so shocked he could not speak.

"Yeah! I organized them all! I'm amazing, right?" Luo Yunji wore an expression that said, Hurry up and praise me, amusing both Tian Buyi and Daoxuan.

"Mm! Very amazing!" Tian Buyi praised him sincerely.

He himself did not have that kind of patience.

"Nephew Yunji! Have you been here organizing these books all this time?" At this moment, Daoxuan lowered his head and looked at Luo Yunji.

"Who are you? I don't think I've seen you before!" Luo Yunji looked curiously at this person who had appeared together with his master and began sizing him up with interest.

"Don't be rude! This is your Sect Leader martial uncle!" Tian Buyi hurriedly introduced him to his own disciple.

"Sect Leader martial uncle!" Luo Yunji called out obediently.

Daoxuan responded, then asked, "How long have you been here?"

"I don't know!" Luo Yunji thought for a moment; in this place, there really was no concept of time.

"Do you know what's happening outside?" Daoxuan seemed to know where the problem lay.

"Outside? What happened outside? Didn't I split off a thread of consciousness to control my body? Did something go wrong?" Luo Yunji looked at his own fat master in surprise.

"It's fine! It's fine! Disciple, don't worry!" Seeing the nervous, frightened look on his precious little disciple's face, Tian Buyi hurriedly comforted him. "Disciple! Tell Master, when did you start staying here?"

"It's been a long time, I guess! I don't remember exactly. When I first started cultivating the Taiji Mystic Purity Dao, I discovered this place and would come in often to play. After I cultivated the Taiji Mystic Purity Dao to the fourth level, you told me this broken technique had no cultivation formulas after that, and I had nothing else to do, so I stayed here."

After Tian Buyi heard this, he silently calculated it.

Good heavens, calculating it that way, didn't that mean he had not gone out for more than a year?! No wonder! In the past, he had only been a little muddleheaded, but over this last year, he had become completely muddled beyond belief.

Just as Tian Buyi still wanted to ask something else, the entire world suddenly shook like a needle, and then books began constantly falling from the surrounding mountains of books. Some of the book mountains even began to collapse.

"What's going on?" Tian Buyi nervously pulled his little disciple into his arms, feeling the tremors grow more and more frequent.

"Not good! We've been inside too long. We've caused damage to Nephew Yunji's sea of consciousness. We need to get out quickly," Daoxuan said hurriedly upon seeing the current situation.

"Yunji, leave together with Master." Tian Buyi held tightly onto his little disciple, not daring to let go.

If this little troublemaker's stubborn temper flared up and he refused to go with him, there would be nothing he could do.

"Oh!" Luo Yunji, however, nodded very obediently.

As the three of them turned into light mist and left, beyond who knew how many mountains of books, a cold, rippleless gaze, like an ancient pool deep in the mountains, remote, profound, and chilly, looked over.

After the three of them had completely left the sea of consciousness, the sea of consciousness did not remain as it had been. Heaven and earth spun, the mountains of books shifted on their own, as if an invisible giant hand were gently fiddling with them, and the sea of consciousness instantly became different.

It became orderly, became cold and quiet, became grim and eerie!

The line of sight rapidly drew closer. In the deepest part of the sea of consciousness, a corner of white clothing flashed past inside a tower built entirely from books.

With a flash of azure light, the consciousnesses of Tian Buyi and True Person Daoxuan returned to their own bodies.

Just as the two were still adjusting, anxious calls kept sounding by their ears.

"What's going on?" After he had adjusted a little, Tian Buyi saw Su Ru tugging at his clothes, her face full of worry and anxiety, tear tracks still on her cheeks.

What was happening?!

"Buyi! Buyi! Wake up!"

"W-what happened?" Tian Buyi hurriedly asked.

"You finally woke up. You and Senior Brother Sect Leader have been unconscious for a day and a night. Just now, Little Ji started bleeding from all seven orifices, and you two had no reaction. I thought something had happened to all of you. Hurry and look at Little Ji's condition! He... he's still bleeding." Su Ru had been worried to death. Now that Tian Buyi, her pillar of support, had woken up, she could finally feel a little more at ease.

"Bleeding from all seven orifices?!" The moment he heard that something had happened to his precious disciple, he hurriedly ran over.

Sure enough, Luo Yunji's seven orifices were still seeping threads of blood.

"Nephew Yunji's sea of consciousness made us lose our sense of time. We stayed inside too long and caused damage to Nephew Yunji's sea of consciousness. But I have checked; it is nothing serious. For now, do not remove the Spirit-Concentrating Pearl. Let Nephew wear it, and after resting for a period of time, he will be fine!" True Person Daoxuan, who had woken one step earlier, had already examined Luo Yunji's body.

"Then that's good! That's good! Thank you, Sect Leader Senior Brother!" Tian Buyi let out a breath of relief and thanked him.

"We're all family here!" Daoxuan said with a smile. "Take your martial nephew back to recover first!"

"Yes! Sect Leader Senior Brother, then we'll take our leave!" After Tian Buyi, Su Ru, and True Person Shuiyue bade Daoxuan farewell, the three of them left Heaven-Reaching Peak and returned together to Big Bamboo Peak.

"What happened to Little Junior Brother?" Tian Buyi had carried Luo Yunji and flown straight back to Big Bamboo Peak on his treasure, forgetting to wipe away the bloodstains at Luo Yunji's seven orifices. When the disciples saw it after they arrived at Big Bamboo Peak, it set off another bout of chickens flying and dogs jumping.

Only after everything was settled did Tian Buyi explain Luo Yunji's condition to his disciples.

"What! So you're saying Little Junior Brother only left us a fleshly body, while he ran off into his own head to play?" Old Sixth used simple, easy-to-understand words to summarize his master's long-winded explanation in shock.

"Does that mean when Little Junior Brother wakes up this time, he won't be muddleheaded anymore?" Old Fourth asked with some anticipation.

"The little junior brother of yours I saw in the sea of consciousness wasn't exactly quick-witted either. Perhaps you'll all have plenty to suffer through in the future!" Tian Buyi thought of that little fellow who had called him "big fatty," and his hands itched at once. He really wanted to smack something to vent his anger.

"Also! This is part of that fragmentary text. Pass it around and have a look." Tian Buyi wrote down the contents from the sheet of paper Daoxuan had obtained in Luo Yunji's sea of consciousness, then handed it to Song Daren for them to pass among themselves.

"This is! Little Junior Brother's sleep-talking?" Old Fourth saw at a glance where the contents came from.

"Right! But it's still a fragment." Tian Buyi felt it was somewhat regrettable.

According to the little disciple, books that had been properly sorted would become part of the mountain of books. Then those sheets of paper filling the sky and covering the earth were fragmentary pages of books that had yet to be sorted out.

Just thinking about it was terrifying!