During the gathering, Yao Lao awakened. After Xiao Yan explained things to him, Yao Chen finally realized that his disciple had encountered such a great opportunity.
However, Xiao Yan did not tell Yao Chen about the book Battle Through the Heavens. He only told him about the Chat Group.
Xiao Yan's greatest gain from this trip was exchanging knowledge of alchemy and medicinal herbs from different worlds with Ye Fan and Han Li.
Yao Chen's alchemy knowledge was still far ahead of everyone else's, and he gave these promising seedlings a few lessons.
Everyone more or less knew each other's backgrounds. Han Li did not hold anything back either, taking out the Little Green Bottle to help Su Lin grow many spiritual plants on this mountain peak. After Ye Fan, Xiao Yan, and Yao Chen witnessed the item's power, they quickly brought out all sorts of spiritual plants and immortal herbs from their collections.
Other than Su Lin and Shirou Emiya, the two poor students who found learning quite painful, Yao Chen did not forget that they lacked foundations. He would also find time to teach them the basics separately.
Shirou Emiya shared the little magical knowledge he possessed with everyone. They were all very interested in this method of extracting so-called ether elements, and they also examined Shirou Emiya's innate talent.
"I told you, this guy is quite suited to sword practice."
"Isn't that obvious? In another style, he'd be called someone born with a sword bone, though there are still some differences."
Under everyone's guidance, Shirou Emiya trained his Projection while attempting some beginner-level cultivation. On the fifteenth day, he finally touched the threshold of entry.
"..."
In truth, Ye Fan and Han Li were already considering how to sell counterfeits in their own worlds.
Shirou Emiya's ability to project weapons was quite interesting. Once his cultivation reached a certain level, he could disguise himself and sell fake goods to his enemies or the Primordial Royal Clan.
And that time would not be too far away. Based on Shirou Emiya's future path, he could rapidly grow through the power shared by his future self. If he cultivated diligently afterward, perhaps within a few decades, they could establish an entire industry.
That was a reliable source of income.
Ninety days passed in a flash. There were no schemes or intrigues; everyone helped one another and exchanged knowledge and abilities, using their own opportunities and powers to assist the others. During those days, everyone got along harmoniously, creating an excellent atmosphere.
"The cultivation system within Water Mirror Peak is very similar to the system in my world, but vastly different from Brother Ye's world." Han Li's voice came from nearby. He held a jade tablet in his hand and examined its contents.
"Furthermore, I seem to feel that from Foundation Establishment onward, everything becomes different." Han Li looked somewhat incredulous. "More..."
Han Li seemed to be considering how to describe it.
Ye Fan added, "Perfect."
"Yes, perfect."
If he had not seen it with his own eyes, Han Li would never have believed that the Foundation Establishment technique of his world was completely different from this technique. It was another path, similar yet different.
It was as though he had previously been walking along a country trail, while what lay before him now was a broad, smooth avenue.
"The inheritance within Water Mirror Peak poses no problem up until the Mahayana Realm, but as for the method of breaking through to immortality..."
"But the key lies in that breakthrough." Ye Fan spoke up. "This is an incomplete method."
"It is far too unorthodox." Han Li evaluated.
"Perhaps they only thought of opening another path when there was no road left to take," Ye Fan guessed.
"Is there a way to complete it?" Su Lin sat in a wooden chair, refilling tea for himself and the two people beside him.
"There is no way for now." Han Li shook his head with a bitter smile. "Brother Su, perhaps the future versions of Ye Fan and me can do it."
"But right now..."
"One is at Core Formation, and the other is at the Dao Palace." Ye Fan pointed at Han Li, then himself. "Big shot, we're rookies right now, not as strong as we are later in the book."
Su Lin nodded upon hearing that. Perhaps they could help him correct the technique after a few hundred years, but that was far too long.
Sufficient strength was the material foundation for enjoying a laid-back life.
He could cultivate it for now, then switch to another technique once he found a better method in the future.
"Besides the method of becoming immortal, the technique itself has side effects." Ye Fan said solemnly. "I don't know where you got this inheritance, but cultivating until you have no desire left at all is far too boring."
"Preserve Heavenly Principles and extinguish human desires is not inherently wrong, but personally, I think this technique's effects are a bit excessive." Han Li agreed with Xiao Yan, saying, "It is best to cultivate it only up to the Nascent Soul stage, then switch to another technique afterward."
Even so, after returning, Han Li would likely reference this technique and cultivate it for now. Unlike the techniques of their world, it did not require abandoning one's cultivation and starting over. It was compatible and could be cultivated alongside other methods.
I owe him an increasingly greater favor. Han Li thought.
"I understand. Thank you." Seeing them say this, Su Lin thanked them.
But if he could cultivate it, he would certainly continue. Nascent Soul was still far away.
This [Heavenly Forgetting] technique truly was a top-tier cultivation method, and its efficiency was quite high. There was no need to directly exchange points for cultivation techniques from the system.
The system's techniques could be learned immediately and came with cultivation levels, but their prices increased dramatically later on. For example, a complete Grand Unity Astral Scripture cost 5,000 points for entry and 500,000 points to cultivate to the Mahayana Realm. Although that included the cultivation level, it dared to charge 20 million points for Human Immortal to Heavenly Immortal. How many worlds would he have to visit to earn that much?
Items in the system followed a pattern: things that granted great power to oneself were expensive, while ordinary items or time-limited items were cheap.
"By the way, Brother Ye, did you feel it?" Han Li said to Ye Fan.
"Yes, I felt it." Ye Fan nodded.
"What did you feel? Don't speak in riddles." Su Lin asked strangely.
"It is not that we are speaking in riddles. This world belongs to Brother Su, so Brother Su probably cannot sense it." Han Li smiled. "Our cultivation speed has gradually begun to decline."
Su Lin asked belatedly, "Rejection?!"
Ye Fan calmly picked up a spiritual fruit he had brought from the fruit platter and took a bite. "I feel that it is more like a restriction—the Chat Group's restriction on us."
Ye Fan and Han Li exchanged smiles.
Su Lin had no intuitive sense of this limitation imposed by the Chat Group. That made sense. The time point upon returning did not change; if they went to another world to cultivate for several hundred years before returning, they would directly leave their opponents far behind.
"Then it is about time to say goodbye."
Han Li stood and cupped his hands.
"Cultivation is truly fascinating. I can only return to city life next time."
Half an hour later, they gathered by a pavilion beside Water Mirror Lake and bid each other farewell.
"There is still plenty of time ahead. Everyone, come play again in a few days." Su Lin saw them off with a smile.
This gathering had lasted quite a while. Everyone had stayed in his world for three months.
There was more than one World-Breaking Talisman, and they were given out every month. The issue was that they did not know when this restriction on cultivation would be lifted.
As agreed, they would take turns coming once a month to test when the restriction expired.
After all, they had planted quite a few spiritual plants and medicinal herbs here. When they came over, they could harvest some along the way. They found this place safe and convenient, and had cultivated many medicinal fields.
Coupled with Han Li's Little Green Bottle, the density of spiritual energy on Water Mirror Peak had risen by several levels.
If ordinary people came to live here for a while, they would likely have their lives prolonged and become incredibly healthy.
As though recalling something, Xiao Yan asked Shirou Emiya beside him, "Have you thought about the question I asked you last month?"
"Huh?" Shirou Emiya scratched his head blankly. "Which question was that?"
"Which female lead will you choose?" Xiao Yan sighed in exasperation. "Will you take them all, or choose one?"
Good heavens. Su Lin could only call it good heavens.
Amid everyone's teasing laughter,
Shirou Emiya's face turned bright red as he stammered that Sakura was his junior, Rin was a good friend, Saber was a good companion, and those things happened in parallel worlds. How could matters from parallel worlds count as female leads?
As he spoke, he hurriedly opened a portal, preparing to leave.
Xiao Yan added at that moment, "I get it. It's that little girl named Illya, right?"
Shirou Emiya, with one foot already through the portal, stumbled in fright and fell into his own bedroom.
"Shirou, what happened?" Saber next door asked upon hearing the commotion.
"Nothing..."
This was not going to end well.
Ye Fan gave Xiao Yan a teasing glance. This guy only knew how to bully honest people.
"Alright, alright. Hurry back to the Misty Cloud Sect and fulfill that three-year agreement with your old flame's disciple, hahaha." Ye Fan laughed as he opened a portal and slipped away. He was not going to give Xiao Yan time to expose his embarrassing secrets.
Yao Lao felt that his disciple was a little embarrassing. He smacked Xiao Yan on the head and returned to the ring.
"Let's go, disciple."
After Han Li nodded in farewell, he did not linger and returned to his own world.
He was going to find that person's reincarnation. Back then, he had only thought she looked somewhat familiar. Who would have expected...
Only Su Lin remained on the enormous Water Mirror Peak.
Su Lin exhaled a puff of white mist.
Under the sun, the sky was dotted with a few white clouds.
Not long after the lively scene dispersed, Water Mirror Peak became shrouded in clouds and mist once more.
Su Lin took out his phone. "Hello, Dad."
"Mm-hmm, don't worry. I found a job, and I'm doing alright."
"Huh? What job?"
"Uh..."
"Growing agricultural products. Yeah, on a large scale."
At first, there were merely some strange people and unusual events, or pictures and videos that looked Photoshopped.
Inside a venue in Magic City, a cosplayer wearing Emperor Armor and another wearing a Kamen Rider Decade suit clashed swords, drawing the attention of people attending the convention.
"Where are the security guards? What are the security guards doing?"
Someone could not stand it anymore and prepared to find security to maintain order. Although the two men's movements were impressive, the longer they fought, the more something felt off.
It would be bad if they hurt a beautiful passing cosplayer.
But before long, someone noticed something was wrong.
Emperor Armor began to shine with golden light, while flames ignited on Decade's sword.
Then, as they fought, the two smashed through the venue's glass and continued their struggle in midair.
"They're doing this for real?"
A photographer's DSLR fell to the ground.
Night in Apricot City
On the last train of Line 3, several college students had caught the subway to return to school after ending their gathering for the day.
They chatted and laughed. Besides them, there were quite a few office workers rushing to catch the last train.
Unlike the students' laughter, most people only wanted to get home quickly, rest, and end this exhausting day.
At that moment, an anciently dressed man appeared at the connection between subway cars.
He carried himself with an imposing air and had a model ancient sword strapped to his back.
The subway's swaying did not affect his balance. He simply stood not far away, his eyes fixed tightly on a man in branded hooded clothing by the door of the car ahead.
Just as someone raised their phone to film the two,
"Qingyuan Road, arriving..."
The announcement had not yet finished playing.
The hooded man in a black mask shot out through the train doors at a speed impossible to follow with the naked eye.
The anciently dressed man, meanwhile, calmly rose into the air and pursued him outside.
All sorts of incidents like these had occurred in cities of every size throughout the country over the past few months.
Meanwhile, Su Lin had spent those months living a completely useless life.
Every now and then, he used Historical Projection to create topics that sparked heated discussion and attention.
That was right. Su Lin had caused all the incidents above.
After careful consideration, he used a large portion of his remaining points to exchange for a ring.
[Veil of Cause]: Conceals heavenly secrets and karmic causality. If one encounters someone capable of seeing through falsehood and tracing causality, this item will shatter as the price to erase all karmic traces left since the day it was worn. Hide the cause, and the result cannot be seen. Without a cause, how can there be a result? Every observed result is itself a cause.
With Historical Projection's ability as well, would it not be a waste not to take advantage of Earth?
Although he could cultivate immortality, there was no reason not to stockpile land and grain.
During the day, he ate and drank, played games, watched dramas and anime, and chatted in the group.
Every now and then, he cultivated for a few days or vacationed in other worlds for a few months. Ah, what a wonderful life that was~.
He ate delicacies and fine cuisine from other worlds and drank spiritual spring water and fine beverages from the Exotic Domain.
After dinner, he wandered around, scouted locations, and designed scripts for causing trouble.
Occasionally, he even became an agent of Justice and punished criminals.
Yes, the Batman sightings across the country while hunting fugitives, Spider-Man appearing to save people, Li Xiaoyao flying swords to sweep away criminal gangs, Sun Wukong beating down cults with his staff, and Armor Hero capturing human traffickers—those had all been him.
Although he was merely at the Qi Refining Stage, that did not stop him from freeloading with Historical Projection.
There were also some one-use tools he could exchange and put to use.
Su Lin's main consciousness took control of one of his Historical Projections and hovered invisibly above the city, overlooking the scenery.
Ignoring gravity, he stood at a ninety-degree angle on the outside of an office building's glass curtain wall.
At first, looking down over the city gave him the feeling of looking down upon all living beings.
Yet now, faced with the same scenery, he felt differently as he watched the sesame-seed-sized cars and the black-dot-like crowds below.
The bustling splendor of the mortal world, the myriad facets of life.
A year ago, he had still been working 996 shifts, envying other people's comfortable lives while striving hard himself.
The piercing honking below interrupted Su Lin's memories. Fine, it was time for the superhero to make another move.
A certain brand of car with frequently malfunctioning brakes was about to charge into pedestrians on the crosswalk when a thunderous boom rang out from the sky.
Thunder crashed onto the concrete road, sending stones flying everywhere.
A muscular man wearing a Marvel's Thor cartoon mask struck the car flying the instant he landed. With movements too fast for the naked eye to follow, he used his power to slice off the roof and drag the driver, his family of three, and their dog out of the vehicle.
After setting them on the ground, amid everyone's astonished gazes, he raised two fingers to his forehead in greeting before leaping into the air.
"Honey, am I seeing things?"
"You're not seeing things. I'm the one hallucinating."
I tested positive right after signing the contract... This sucks.
(End of Chapter)