Misty radiance surged.
Lu He parted the fog and silently appeared outside the room within the Void Mirage Realm, gripping a five-colored jade slip tightly in his hand.
He looked at the familiar furnishings in the cave abode, exactly as they had been when he left.
Yet this time, for some reason, Lu He felt an inexplicable pang of melancholy.
"Perhaps my circumstances are different now. A Dao Palace apprenticeship... I fear I won't have much leisure from here on."
He murmured to himself, involuntarily recalling the apprenticeship assessment rules his Ninth Senior Brother had just explained. A trace of pressure rose in his heart.
The one fortunate thing was that advancing from the early Qi-Feeding stage into the Crimson Palace Sea Secret Realm had no rigid threshold. As long as one had sufficient resources, it could be done.
But speaking of resources...
Lu He took out his identity jade token and looked at his mere hundred-odd Dao Merit. The corner of his eye twitched.
He, the mighty Grandmaster Lu, had become poor again overnight!
And it was foreseeable that before his cultivation broke through, he would not be able to obtain any Dao Merit within the Void Mirage Realm.
If he wanted to earn Dao Merit, there was only one way—
Lu He turned his gaze toward the five-colored jade slip in his hand, and a deep look of anticipation immediately surfaced on his face.
An artifact-refining inheritance, a new talent Dao diagram!
Time trickled by.
Inside the cultivation chamber.
Lu He sat quietly cross-legged atop the Spirit-Gathering Jade-Marrow Bed, his entire aura settling into calmness.
At a certain moment, he slowly opened his eyes. The White Ape Dao Diagram rose and fell endlessly within them, and his expression was neither sorrowful nor joyful.
"Close enough."
Lu He