"Tribulation cannot be avoided when it comes—so that was what it meant."
Lu Qing murmured inwardly.
But as far as Lu Qing was concerned, all of that had already passed.
He did not look back on the past. He looked at the cup of tea by his left hand instead.
It still gave off a faint warmth.
The surrounding Spirit Plants remained brilliantly vivid, and the tea tree was still as pure and exceptional as ever.
A trace of spiritual wonder rose within him. After calculating the time, Lu Qing was somewhat surprised.
From the moment he entered the Treasure Bead to the moment he awoke, only a quarter of an hour had passed in the outside world.
It was precisely the time it took to drink a cup of tea.
The words he had unconsciously spoken—had they referred to the time that had passed outside as well?
In ancient times, there was the dream of yellow millet, a lifetime glimpsed upon a pillow. Now, there was a cultivator idling away the time it took for a cup of tea. Lu Qing faintly sensed the feelings of that man who had dreamed the yellow millet dream.
"Time truly is profound."
Yet he was not one to lose himself in time. He had long been mentally prepared. Otherwise, why had he guarded his Spirit Platform time and again, tempering his Dao Heart? It was all so that one day, beneath the long Long River of Time, his Dao Heart would remain as steady as before, unchanged as before.
Lu Qing raised his arm again. The cup of tea rested perfectly in his palm, its warm touch bringing a sense of reality.
Lu Qing had rarely entered seclusion for such long stretches before, having spent nearly a year this time. Yet only