Chapter 1357: Why Is This Happening?
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lu Zhou’s original intention was to spend a few months stabilizing his realm; who knew he would take five years? Five years were with the Pillar of Impermanence’s help. Although it was five years in the outside world, 500 years had passed within the range of the pillar. The time he took was unreasonable and unprecedented. Even the system and Heavenly Writing’s upgrade took a few months at most. Moreover, he did not even have the Pillar of Impermanence at that time. He found it really problematic that it essentially took him 500 years to stabilize his realm.
At this moment, Qin Renyue said, “Brother Lu, it’s really not easy for me to see you. You’ve been in closed-door cultivation all this time. I really missed you so much!”
“…”
Mingshi Yin scratched his head. He felt goosebumps erupting on his flesh when he heard these mushy words.
Lu Zhou asked, “Is there something you need?”
“Have you forgotten, Brother Lu?” Qin Renyue asked.
Lu Zhou nodded. “I remember. Originally, I planned to enter closed-door cultivation for just a while. I didn’t expect five years to pass by in just a blink of an eye. This wasn’t part of my plan.”
Qin Renyue nodded. He did not doubt Lu Zhou’s words. Moreover, if one paid a little more attention, one could tell based on the fluctuations in the southern training hall and the trees and grass around it that Lu Zhou was telling the truth.
Qin Renyue said with a smile, “Congratulations, Brother Lu, It seems like you entered a state of epiphany.”
“What’s a state of epiphany?” Mingshi Yin asked.
“When one has an epiphany, one becomes so immersed in cultivation that one forgets the time. Many people yearn to have an epiphany, but it’s not easy. After entering that immersive state, one’s cultivation would improve by leaps and bounds,” Qin Renyue explained. Then, he sighed before he continued to say, “If I’m able to enter a state of epiphany like Brother Lu, activating my 19th Birth Chart wouldn’t be a problem at all.”
Mingshi Yin asked, “Is it very difficult to advance beyond the stage of a Venerable Master?”
Qin Renyue nodded. “Of course. After activating the 18th Birth Chart, progressing no longer relies on only cultivation but the power of the Dao, the comprehension of heaven and earth, and control over the rules. Moreover, suitable life hearts would become increasingly rare as well. Apart from that, in regard to the first 18 Birth Charts, If one forsake quality for quantity, not only would it hinder one’s cultivation in the future, but it would also make it difficult for one to comprehend the more profound power of the Dao in the future.”
Mingshi Yin nodded. “Then, why do you think I’ll surely become a supreme being?”
Over the past five years, Qin Renyue had visited very often to look for Lu Zhou. However, since Lu Zhou was unavailable, he would spend a lot of time chatting with Mingshi Yin. Hence, the two of them could be considered quite familiar with each other. There was no politeness between a host and his guest when they spoke.
Qin Renyue said with a smile, “What can I say? This is why everyone covets the Great Void Seed.”
“…”
Mingshi Yin really wanted to say all his fellow disciples had the Great Void Seeds as well, but he endured and suppressed the urge. It was not good to expose such things. Moreover, it was not a bad feeling to be flattered and praised.
Lu Zhou rose to his feet and said, “Entering the state of epiphany is just pure luck..”
Qin Renyue said, “Regardless, I still have to congratulate you. Brother Lu, your consciousness will be chaotic after emerging from the state of epiphany so I won’t bother you anymore. I’ll visit again another day.”
Seeing that Lu Zhou had something to say to his disciple, Qin Renyue tactfully found an excuse and left.
After Qin Renyue left, Mingshi Yin said with a smile, “He’s really very tactful.”
“How’s everyone doing over the years?” Lu Zhou asked.
Mingshi Yi reported the general situation of the Evil Sky Pavilion to Lu Zhou. Apart from the disciples’ significant improvement, everything was normal.
Then, Mingshi Yin sighed when he spoke about the imbalance and the nine domains. “After the imbalance phenomena appeared, the situations in the nine domains were still rather stable. However, over the past two years, things have changed. Some green lotus cultivators had gone to the red lotus domain and the black lotus domain to plunder resources. Two years ago, a beast emperor appeared in the green lotus domain. However, strangely, it left. At that time, Venerable Master Qin and I waited for you for two days and two nights.”
Lu Zhou nodded. “Are there any more unusual movements?”
“Someone said that a divine beast appeared in the Endless Ocean near the golden lotus domain. That’s about it. Oh, Ninth Junior Sister’s improvement is really unusual! How can she improve so quickly?”
“What’s her cultivation base now?” Lu Zhou asked. He remembered that when they first came here, Little Yuan’er only had two Birth Charts.
Mingshi Yin said, “I’ve never seen Ninth Junior Sister so serious before. Anyway, I’m guessing she’s about to face her first Birth Trial soon.”
This meant that Little Yuan’er had about six Birth Charts now. It was almost equivalent to activating a Birth Chart once a year with the help of the Pillar of Impermanence. Her speed was passable.
“Eldest Senior Brother is also preparing to face his second Birth Trial, but…” Mingshi Yin trailed off.
“Speak your mind,” Lu Zhou said.
“We’re running out of life hearts,” Mingshi Yin said.
This was within Lu Zhou’s expectations. With so many people activating their Birth Charts, this was not surprising.
Lu Zhou nodded. “I’ll allow all of you to leave the southern training hall to hunt fierce beasts. When you’re strong enough, you can go to the Pillars of Destruction.
“Yes!”
Over the past few years, Mingshi Yin had felt really suffocated.
Yu Zhenghai and Yu Shangrong felt even more uncomfortable. They had stayed in the southern training hall for so long, and it was too peaceful. It did not fit their habits. As a result, Little Zhou and Little Wu were tormented by the duo until they did not look like humans.
“Bring the remaining life hearts over.”
Mingshi Yin left the room, and it did not take long before he returned with the remaining life hearts.
Lu Zhou glanced at the life hearts and found there six or seven left. Most of them were rudimentary life hearts and were speed and healing life hearts. The speed-type life hearts were still not bad, but the healing-type life hearts were completely useless.
After selecting two speed-type life hearts, Lu Zhou said, “You can have the rest of the life hearts.”
“Ah? Master, the ones you selected are the Ling Hou’s life hearts. Master, I have no use for these remaining life hearts.”
“If you have no use for them, you can give them away,” Lu Zhou said.
“…”
“Aren’t you leaving?” Lu Zhou asked.
“Yes.”
Lu Zhou sighed inwardly, lamenting his lack of foresight. He had obtained quite a lot of life hearts in the Unknown Land, but there were only so few left now.
After Mingshi Yin left, Lu Zhou sighed and studied the two Ling Hous’ life hearts. “They should be at the level of a beast king’s life heart. They’re most suitable to be used to lay the foundation for the Great Birth Chart.”
Lu Zhou manifested his lotus and looked at his Birth Palace. He was briefly stunned when he saw that his Birth Palace had expanded slightly. It did not just expand by a region, but it had expanded by two or three regions. This meant he had broken the limit.
“What’s going on?” Lu Zhou was puzzled. He only stabilized his realm over the past five years so why did his Birth Palace expand? Did entering the state of epiphany increase his limit?
Tuoba Sicheng activated the 19th Birth Chart after entering the state of epiphany. He activated his 20th Birth Chart after consuming the Great Void Pills given by Ye Zheng. Perhaps, the state of epiphany was much more mysterious and complex than he had thought.
The surface of his Birth Palace was very smooth, indicating the cultivation base was very stable.
No matter what, the state of epiphany was a good thing. Based on Qin Renyue’s reaction, it seemed that this kind of opportunity was hard to come by as well. No wonder, five years went by like a dream.
Since his cultivation base was stable now, he could activate his Birth Chart now.
Lu Zhou looked at positions on the Birth Palace.
The Great Birth Chart could be activated using the Gracious Moon Forms the Beam position. This was because it could help stabilize a Great Birth Chart.
However, after activating this Birth Chart, it would open another four Birth Charts.
“Open another four Birth Charts?” Lu Zhou did not quite understand the Gracious Moon Forms the Beam.
A few more positions appeared in his mind.
“The Meeting of the Four Stars, the Fortunes Are In Harmony, and the Three Wonders?”
With these three positions, including the Gracious Moon Forms the Beam, Lu Zhou selected four positions. However, they were not very suitable.
“There’s the Extreme Yin, another Great Birth Chart position that fits the criteria…” Lu Zhou muttered to himself.
In the end, there was only one position that seemed suitable now. He chose to activate the Birth Chart in the Bringing the Sheep Into the Temple position in the human region.
With that, he placed the Ling Hou’s life heart in its position.
Clack!
It was much easier than he had imagined. Perhaps, that was why when it suddenly submerged a little, he was somewhat caught off guard by the wave of pain that assaulted him.
‘So fast?’
He hurriedly activated the Purple Glazed Ceramic to resist the pain. After waiting for a moment, he discovered there was no movement at all. Based on his previous experience, after placing the life heart into the Birth Palace, it would begin to slowly submerge before it would absorb his lifespan. However, there was no movement at all.
He waited for a while, but there was still no movement. Feeling something was amiss, he reached out with his bare hand, intending to grab the life heart. After all, he had spent 500 years stabilizing his realm; there was no reason for him to fail.
However, as soon as his hand touched the life heart, with the Gracious Moon Forms the Beam as the starting point, a ray of light appeared, connecting it to the Extreme Yin, the Three Wonders, and Bringing the Sheep Into the Temple positions.
“What’s going on?” Lu Zhou was perplexed. It just so happened that the few positions that had caught his eyes were connected. Was it a coincidence?
Lu Zhou exerted a little more strength, but the life heart was stuck and could not be pulled out.
He mobilized his Primal Qi to help him, but before his Primal Qi surged out, it collided with another force and disappeared.
“This…”
The power of a cultivator originated from the Dantian’s sea of Qi. The Dantian’s sea of Qi and the Birth Palace complemented each other. From a certain perspective, Lu Zhou’s action was akin to stepping on his own feet to rise up into the sky. It was not surprising the Primal Qi had vanished.
‘I can’t take it out, and it’s not moving. Is it just going to be stuck like this?’
Lu Zhou continued observing the four positions in his Birth Palace as they continued to shine. After a moment, he picked up the second Ling Hou’s life heart and checked the position again.
“There’s no mistake. The position I chose earlier is a good match…”
Lu Zhou had always been careful when activating his Birth Chart. Hence, he never encountered any problems so far. It was really difficult for him to understand why such a thing would happen now.
At this moment, the Birth Palace began to hum as the light from the four positions grew brighter. Soon after, vitality energy surged out from the Birth Palace, overflowing from the lotus seat.
In just a second, it lit up the training hall like a miniature aurora. Then, it grew brighter, illuminating the sky above the training hall. It was beautiful and magnificent.
…
“Go and inform Venerable Master Qin that a heaven and earth phenomenon has occurred!”
“Understood.”
Disciples rushed out of the five major training halls in the Qin clan to look at the sky.
When Qin Renyue received the report, he hurried out and flew up into the sky to look at the ‘aurora’ from afar.
“Four Lives On the Same Branch?!”
“Venerable Master, what’s Four Lives On the Same Branch?”
“Four Lives On the Same Branch means that one can activate four Birth Charts at once. This is an incredibly rare opportunity that will cause a heaven and earth phenomenon,” Qin Renyue explained.
Upon hearing these words, the disciples in the vicinity looked envious.
“Who could it be?” Yuan Lang, one of the 49 swordsmen, asked in a low voice.
“Brother Lu is already a Venerable Master so it shouldn’t be him. If it’s really him, it’d be too shocking, and it would definitely attract the Great Void’s attention. It’s like that it’s my honorable junior nephew,” Qin Renyue said.
“The fourth disciple of the Evil Sky Pavilion?”
“Apart from him, I can think of anyone who would be given such a rare opportunity,” Qin Renyue said as he nodded, “In a few years, his achievements would definitely not be inferior to Brother Lu’s.”
Yuan Lang was astonished.
The longer Qin Renyue watched, the more he felt that any miracles could happen to the owner of a Great Void Seed.
Although Qin Renyue was curious, he did not dare to disturb Mingshi Yin, whom he thought was the cause of this phenomenon. Hence, he ordered everyone to stay clear of the southern training hall. He even sent out the 49 swordsmen to patrol the vicinity of the southern training hall to drive away fierce beasts or cultivators who came to watch the show.
…
Meanwhile, Lu Zhou looked at the power that kept surging out and thought to himself, ‘This can’t go on…’
If this continued, would his cultivation base and strength that he had raised with great difficulty disappear?
“Perhaps, it’s really activating a few Birth Charts at the same time…” The more Lu Zhou thought about this, the more convinced he became. Hence, he directly placed another life heart in his Birth Palace.
Clack!
With that, the aurora dimmed slightly, and the power that was surging out slowed down as well.
“It works…”
Lu Zhou brought the life hearts of He Luoyu and the Moon Whale and looked at the positions for the Great Birth Charts in his Birth Palace. Then, he decisively placed them into their respective positions in his Birth Chart again.
Clack!
After placing four life hearts into his Birth Chart, they began to spin and absorb his lifespan.
This meant that his disciples would not be able to reuse He Luoyu and Moon Whale’s life hearts.
‘Forget it… There’s no need to worry about them for now…’
Lu Zhou paid close attention to his Birth Palace, looking for changes. He felt his cultivation and lifespan fluctuating.
…
At the same time, the aurora completely vanished from the sky above the southern training hall in the Qin clan.
…
At the white palace in the Great Void.
The blue-clad female attendant bowed before she said, “Master, the phenomenon for the Four Lives On the Same Branch appeared in the green lotus domain. It’s likely that the owner of the Great Void Seed has appeared. The Sacred Hall has sent people over.”
Lan Xihe nodded. “Back then, we lost the ten Great Void Seeds. As long as someone uses the seeds, we’ll find out sooner or later. There’s no need to care about anything apart from the White Tower Council. The Sacred Hall will deal with this matter.”
The blue-clad female attendant said, “But the current Tower Master…”
“She won’t be exposed. That’s my training hall. Don’t forget, I’m also an Equalizer. I know better than anyone how to avoid the Great Void’s attention,” Lan Xihe said.
“I understand.”
