A Strange Space

It was August, the hottest time of the year.

Lingnan County First People's Hospital.

A young man slowly opened his eyes.

"I'm not dead?"

The young man was Su Ye, a university student who had just graduated and was doing an internship. He had been forced to leave his job after catching his immediate superior exploiting his position to demand sexual favors from a female classmate who was also interning there.

Who could have expected that, just as he packed his things and left the company to catch a cab, something would come flying out of the sky and hit him on the head?

Su Ye was twenty-two, tall and slender, with delicate features. He wore a slightly wrinkled white shirt and a pair of jeans faded from washing.

"What happened to me?"

Su Ye was a little dazed. Faced with the glaring white light outside the window, he couldn't help squinting.

Just then, a nurse in her early twenties came toward him, carrying a stack of forms.

"You're awake?"

"Doctor, what happened to me? Who brought me here?" Su Ye asked.

"Oh, you just fainted from heatstroke. A very pretty lady brought you in and paid your medical bills. Now that you're awake, you can be discharged," the nurse said.

Standing at the hospital entrance, Su Ye took a deep breath.

Sensing that there seemed to be something in his mind, Su Ye immediately hailed a taxi back to his place.

Back at his rented room, Su Ye locked the door from the inside and couldn't wait to fall onto the bed and investigate that faint, elusive summons.

"What on earth is it?"

With that, Su Ye closed his eyes tightly, calmed his mind, and immersed himself in his consciousness.

When he opened his eyes again, Su Ye found himself in a space roughly a hundred square meters in area. The air was cool and felt extremely comfortable.

There was a small thatched cottage and a pool covering roughly four or five square meters. The rest was dark soil.

"Creak~"

Su Ye walked up to the thatched cottage and pushed open its timeworn wooden door. Dust covered the room, as though no one had lived there for a long time.

Su Ye looked around. The room wasn't large, containing only a wooden bed, a wooden table, a meditation cushion, and a shelf.

A cloth bag and a book lay on the table, both covered in dust.

Su Ye slowly picked up the book and gently patted the dust off.

As the dust fell away, the book revealed its true appearance. It was made of fine parchment, and several bold, vigorous characters were written on the cover: Taihe Sixteen Grotto-Heavens.

"Taihe Sixteen Grotto-Heavens? What's this?" Su Ye slowly opened the book, wanting to see what kind of book it was.

The first page read: Taihe Sixteen Grotto-Heavens is one of the Supreme Unity Sect's five elements true arts that safeguard the sect. It consists of four major realms and sixteen passes, and requires steady, step-by-step progress. Though cultivating this art brings slow progress, it is easy to begin, and by advancing steadily and surely, one's cultivation will gradually improve. In time, becoming an immortal will be within reach.

"What? This is actually an immortal cultivation art? Could this be an immortal's cave abode?"

Several questions arose in Su Ye's mind in quick succession.

Su Ye then turned to the second page and began reading without taking his eyes off it. Only after five or six hours had passed did he slowly close the book.

It was actually an immortal cultivator's art. Su Ye was a veteran webnovel fan, so of course he knew something about immortal cultivators.

"Grrr." Su Ye's stomach voiced its protest.

Up to this point, Su Ye hadn't eaten a thing all day. As soon as he was discharged, he had rushed straight back to his rented room.

"But how do I get out of this place?"

"Could it be..."

Su Ye closed his eyes and silently repeated, Out.

When Su Ye opened his eyes again, he was back in his rented room.

Su Ye tried it a few more times.

Su Ye discovered that he could use his thoughts to put things into the space and take them out, and he could also enter the space himself.

The air in the space was indescribably fresh, almost like immortal qi, so Su Ye gave the space a name: Immortal Spirit Space.

After that, Su Ye went out.

At the fast-food restaurant downstairs, Su Ye ordered a plate of rice with toppings and eagerly dug in.

The restaurant's owner was Li Dafu, a middle-aged man who looked to be in his forties and was slightly stout.

"Little Ye, I just saw you rushing upstairs with some books in your arms. What happened?" Finding himself with a little free time, Li Dafu sat down across from Su Ye and chatted with him.

Just now? I distinctly remember spending most of the day in the Immortal Spirit Space. Could time flow several times faster inside it than outside? Su Ye wondered to himself.

"Oh, Uncle Li, it's nothing much. I offended my boss at the company and got fired," Su Ye replied as he ate.

"How did you go and offend your boss when everything was fine? Little Ye, I don't mean to lecture you, but you people born in the nineties just aren't willing to take a loss. Sometimes taking a little loss is no big deal. Just treat it as gaining experience. Now you've lost your job, what are you planning to do?" Li Dafu spoke at length. Su Ye didn't offer much explanation and simply kept his head down, eating his rice.

"I'll take it one step at a time. By the way, Uncle Li, why didn't your daughter come to help today?"

"Ah, your Aunt Zhang is sick and in the hospital. She went to look after her," Li Dafu replied.

"Huh? Aunt Zhang's in the hospital? What's wrong with her? Is it serious?"

"She has a gallstone. She's getting ready for surgery in the next few days."

"I see. I'll visit her another day. I'll let you get back to work, Uncle Li. I'm going upstairs." Su Ye finished his meal, pulled out a tissue, and wiped his mouth as he spoke to Li Dafu.

Su Ye paid and left the restaurant, heading upstairs. He wanted to study the Immortal Spirit Space some more.

Back in his rented room, Su Ye locked the door, checked the time, and entered the Immortal Spirit Space.

As soon as he entered the Immortal Spirit Space, Su Ye headed for the thatched cottage, picked up Taihe Sixteen Grotto-Heavens, and continued reading.

Only after about four hours did Su Ye put the book down.

He then sat cross-legged and began cultivating according to the qi refining method recorded in Taihe Sixteen Grotto-Heavens.

Just like that, the spiritual qi around him began slowly gathering toward him. He then guided a wisp of spiritual qi through his meridians.

About six hours later, Su Ye seemed to hear a rumble from within his body. The wisp of spiritual qi quickly completed a circuit, then turned into a stream of faintly silver true qi that settled in his dantian.

Qi Refining First Layer, achieved.

"Phew."

Su Ye stretched, feeling his thoughts become incomparably clear, and drew a deep breath.

"Whoa! What smells so bad?"

At some point, Su Ye's body had become covered in a layer of black, sludge-like substance.

"Could these be the impurities in my body?"

Su Ye guessed that cultivating Taihe Sixteen Grotto-Heavens had surely cleansed his marrow and washed his sinews, expelling these impurities.

Su Ye flashed out of the Immortal Spirit Space and appeared in his rented room. He stripped off his clothes and rushed into the bathroom.

After his shower, Su Ye looked at himself in the mirror.

His face was smooth and fair, with sharply defined, coldly handsome features. His deep black eyes shone with an alluring luster.

Even his four-pack abs had become a six-pack.

Su Ye felt as though every bone and muscle in his body had come alive. Boundless confidence and lofty ambition welled up in him, sweeping away all his former dejection. It was as though he had been reborn. Su Ye drew great, exhilarating breaths, itching to throw back his head and let out a long roar.

Then Su Ye went to the bed and checked the time. Only about an hour had passed.

Just as I thought, time flows at least ten times faster in there than outside, Su Ye thought.