Another moment of daze, and when she opened her eyes again, her surroundings had changed once more.
Everything around her was pitch black, but fortunately, her feet were still on solid ground, and she wasn't stepping into the void as she had imagined.
The silence was absolute. In the trance, Li Nanzhu felt she could hear the thumping of her own heart. She instinctively lightened her breath, but the sound of her heartbeat only became more pronounced.
What kind of trial was this supposed to be?
Just as the thought surfaced, a light source appeared in front of her.
It was a bronze oil lamp, with a tiny, weak flame flickering inside.
"Focus on this lamp."
That voice rang out again. Li Nanzhu realized this was likely the test for this stage.
Just as she was about to observe what was special about the lamp, she discovered that her heartbeat began to synchronize with the rhythm of the flame.
That cluster of flame was very peculiar. It wasn't the common orange-red, but a faint cyan, much like lake water under the moonlight.
Was this... her heartbeat?
Li Nanzhu looked at it with interest, but she didn't forget the assessment. After a moment of thought, she decided to follow the voice's instructions.
It was easy at first, but as time stretched on, the flame on the wick—no larger than a soybean—made her eyes ache. The flame seemed to freeze, forming two bright spots in her pupils. Li Nanzhu was certain that if she turned her gaze to the darkness now, strange afterimages would surely appear before her eyes.
Another ten minutes passed. In the silence, her hearing was gradually heightened. Since cultivators already possessed keen senses, Li Nanzhu heard not just her heartbeat, but the sound of blood flowing through her body.
After another ten minutes, the sound of her swallowing saliva was like the beating of a drum.
The flame suddenly jumped up half an inch.
Li Nanzhu's breathing faltered. She had seen too many soldiers gasping out of control while waiting for an air raid to end; she hadn't expected it to be her turn now.
Her nails dug into her palms, but the pain felt as if it were separated by a layer of cotton. Her five senses were warped in this completely silent environment, and even the sensation of pain became surreal.
She suddenly unclenched her fists. The breathing method she had learned in the Kabul field hospital in her past life came in handy. Inhale for four seconds, hold for seven, exhale for eight. After three cycles, Li Nanzhu finally felt the sounds within her body gradually subside.
A quarter of an hour later, her vision began to turn gray.
This wasn't the blurred vision of fatigue, but the flame consuming her perception of color. First, the bronze of the lampstand vanished, then the pale cyan of her sleeves, until finally, even the flame itself became nothing but a bright spot.
After an unknown amount of time, a sharp ringing in her ears jolted her awake.
Perhaps ten minutes had passed, or perhaps three hours. Only then did Li Nanzhu realize she hadn't blinked in far too long. Her eyeballs were dry and stinging. More terrifyingly, her legs had completely lost sensation, as if they had merged with the darkness.
She tried to move her fingers, only to find that even this simple action had become exceptionally difficult. Her body felt stuffed into a narrow container, with only that cluster of flame still burning brightly in the depths of her consciousness.
"I can't... go on like this..." She bit the tip of her tongue, and the taste of blood exploded in her mouth.
That moment of stinging pain finally woke her body. Li Nanzhu panted heavily, watching the flame sway violently with her breath, drawing cyan arcs in the darkness.
Li Nanzhu really wanted to say that those ancient inheritors were all perverts! No wonder many modern things didn't use ancient methods anymore; who could endure this?
But for now, she could only continue.
As if the heavens had heard her complaining, images began to emerge within the flame.
First, there were blurred points of light, which gradually sharpened into a star map—the very Seven Mansions of the Eastern Azure Dragon she had identified earlier!
But this time, she saw them more clearly. Each star carried a unique halo. The Jiao mansion was cyan, the Kang mansion was white, and the Di mansion was yellow... These color differences were extremely subtle; if one didn't give full concentration, they were impossible to detect.
Li Nanzhu felt her vision changing. She was no longer "seeing" with her eyes; her entire consciousness was immersed in the observation.
Those stars were no longer distant points of light. She could feel their temperature—the Jiao mansion was cool, the Kang mansion was warm, and the Xin mansion was burning hot.
This perception didn't come from sight; it was more like the divine sense probe that only those at the Golden Core stage could achieve.
The flame suddenly flickered. This tiny change caused Li Nanzhu to instantly snap out of her immersion.
Only then did she realize that her heartbeat had slowed to the point of almost stopping. But in that brief moment of distraction, the scene in the flame had changed into the flowing jade slips within the Library Pavilion.
She took a deep breath and readjusted her state.
This time, she didn't deliberately control her breathing but let her body find its natural rhythm. Miraculously, once she relaxed, her observation became even sharper.
She could see the air disturbances caused by each jade slip as it flowed, those tiny currents causing the flame to deflect almost imperceptibly.
When the final trial scene reappeared in the flame, Li Nanzhu no longer needed to force her focus.
Her eyes were now like a magnifying glass, capable of reflecting every detail clearly without being disturbed by any interference.
The patterns on the stone statues and the flow of the runes were as clear as if they were directly engraved into her consciousness.
This was a tempering of mental power!
The true purpose wasn't for her to use her eyes to see, but to use her divine sense and mental power. Blindly relying on her eyes would only lead to a dead end.
At that exact moment, Li Nanzhu suddenly "heard" the sound of her eyelashes blinking.
That tiny sound immediately jolted her awake again. The oil lamp and the darkness had vanished, replaced once more by swirling mists. This time, what she heard was an enlightenment imprinted directly into her sea of consciousness.
—True focus is allowing all things to appear clearly before your eyes, while you leave no trace within them.
Sure enough, this stage was cleared!
Li Nanzhu's vision blurred again. She blinked her sore eyes and found herself standing in a simple bamboo house.
"Finally, a normal place!" she couldn't help but blurt out, rubbing her throbbing temples.
Though the bamboo house was humble, it at least had a table, a chair, and a small window looking out at a bamboo forest—much better than those previous hellish places.
What ghost corridors, what star maps, what stone chambers... this was where a normal assessment should be, right?
Just as she was about to breathe a sigh of relief, she felt something was off. After enduring so many rounds of torment, she didn't believe the master of this cave dwelling would be kind enough to let her off so easily. She couldn't help but whisper.
"Surely they aren't going to pull some more nonsense?"
"Who are you calling nonsense?"
A clear male voice rang out behind her. Li Nanzhu spun around so fast she nearly tweaked her neck.
A person had appeared on the bamboo chair at some point. Clad in green robes, his black hair was loosely held by a green jade hairpin. With sword-like brows and starry eyes, red lips and white teeth, he looked exactly like a banished immortal walked straight out of a painting. However, the mischievous glint in his eyes made one's hands itch to punch him.
This speaking style and temperament... Li Nanzhu found him strangely familiar for some reason.
"Who are you?" Li Nanzhu's spiritual energy began to gather secretly. If the other person made any further move, she would immediately strike.
"Aiya, why is a young girl being so violent?" The man smiled and waved a hand. "Rest assured, I have no ill will toward you. Besides, look at how much you've gained! Shouldn't you thank me for that?"
"So it was you?!" Li Nanzhu spoke through gritted teeth. Although she had been grateful initially, hearing this man speak made her fill with an inexplicable rage.
Realizing the trials were created by him, Li Nanzhu's mind relaxed slightly. After all, the essence of the assessment was to improve and temper her; he likely wouldn't harm her.
"I know you're calling me a pervert in your head." The man produced a green jade folding fan out of nowhere. "I also think I'm a pervert, after all."
Li Nanzhu: ? What kind of decent person admits to being a pervert??
Li Nanzhu took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to hit him. She narrowed her eyes and sized up this self-proclaimed "perverted" man in green.
"So," she asked through gritted teeth, "you're the one who designed these torturous trials?"
The man snapped his fan shut with a look of innocence. "How can you call it torture? It's called teaching according to the student's needs! Look at how sharp your divine sense is now, how strong your observation..."
"So I almost became a pervert like you," Li Nanzhu interrupted. "What normal person stares at a flame in the dark for hours?"
"Ah, well..." The man rubbed his nose and suddenly leaned closer. "Actually, you could have blinked."
"What?!"
"The rules only said to focus on the lamp, not that you couldn't blink." He blinked his own eyes, smiling like a fox. "You were just too rigid yourself."
Li Nanzhu was stunned. She recalled her dry, stinging eyes and the physiological reactions she had desperately suppressed... She had been played from the very beginning?
Endure, endure! He's a pervert! I can't beat him!
Li Nanzhu took another deep breath. "So, why have you appeared here now?"
The man looked as if he had just been reminded. "Oh right, I would've forgotten if you hadn't mentioned it."
Li Nanzhu: ...Is this person really reliable?
The man cleared his throat and looked at Li Nanzhu seriously. He snapped his fan shut and cleared his throat again. Just as Li Nanzhu thought he was about to say something very solemn...
"I am the cultivation world's number one dashing, handsome, brilliant, knowledgeable, peerless genius—"
Li Nanzhu's fists tightened.
"—more talented disciple!" the man suddenly turned, winking at her. "As for my master's name... I'm afraid saying it would scare you."
Li Nanzhu said expressionlessly, "Oh."
"Hey!" The man tapped the table with his fan, dissatisfied. "Isn't that reaction a bit too cold? I'm the successor of the most unique person in all of eternity! I'm even better than my master!"
"And?" Li Nanzhu crossed her arms and sneered. "Is that your reason for designing those perverted trials?"
"Don't be so excited," the man said, suddenly turning serious. "Actually, I went through those trials back then too."
Li Nanzhu raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue.
"And then I blew up the array."
The air suddenly went silent.
"So?"
"So!" The man suddenly became excited. "Suffering alone is not as good as suffering together! How could I let such a great experience be enjoyed by me alone?!"
Li Nanzhu finally understood—this wasn't some ancient inheritance. This was a disciple who had been tortured by his master and was now taking it out on society!
In other words, wasn't this a case of 'since I had to stand in the rain, I'm going to shred everyone else's umbrella'?
Rate on N.U.
