Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 899 Mocha's Miscellaneous Thoughts
The treasure ship glided silently out of that all-consuming dark boundary.

In an instant, the dazzling sunlight poured down, illuminating the crystal-clear hull with a shimmering glow.

One second I was struggling in a state of deathly silence and deprivation of my senses, and the next second, a fresh, icy wind rushed in and filled my nostrils, bringing the long-lost breath of "life".

On the deck, everyone involuntarily took a deep breath, as if trying to completely replace the decay and oppression remaining in their lungs.

Wu Man quickly put away the two items he cherished, the Phoenix Wings and the Phoenix Nest, and Jin Chanzi also stopped reciting the scriptures, his tense nerves slowly relaxing.

Lu Da stretched his limbs exaggeratedly, making cracking sounds, and cursed gruffly, "Damn it! I finally crawled out of that hellhole! I was suffocating!"

The light from the Crimson Gold Lamp in Xiao Ran's hand subsided as he retracted it into his spatial storage.

He stood at the bow of the ship, his figure upright, but his gaze involuntarily turned back to look behind him.

They are separated by only a "line".

Beyond the treasure ship lies the bright daylight of the Changbai Mountain snowfield, with a clear sky and snow-covered mountains, a magnificent scene of coldness intertwined.

Behind the stern, the Void of Oblivion remained like a huge, bottomless ink stain, firmly smeared between heaven and earth.

It was a pure, chilling "nothingness," devoid of light, sound, and shape; even the perception of space was distorted and swallowed up. It hovered there silently, emanating an aura of timeless stillness and emptiness, forming an extremely eerie contrast with the surrounding icy world.

Although they had sailed out safely, looking at the deep darkness, everyone on the ship, including Xiao Ran, felt a chill run down their spines, and a sense of lingering fear quietly began to grow.

Jin Chanzi wiped his sweat with lingering fear and said, "If it weren't for Old Xiao's magic lamp, we would probably have been lost in this illusory land and turned into withered bones long ago!"

Wu Man nodded in agreement: "Brute force is useless in that place. It deprives you of your five senses, breeds distracting thoughts, and disrupts your sense of time and space. Staying there for too long will inevitably lead to mental breakdown."

Lu Da also put away his wildness and silently stared at the receding darkness. His vajra physique, which he was so proud of, was completely meaningless in this place.

Just as Jin Chanzi said, if it weren't for Xiao Ran, he would probably have died here if he had plunged in headfirst.

"Is it a coincidence?" Wu Man asked pointedly.

Xiao Ran narrowed his eyes; he knew what Wu Man meant.

Is the golden lamp in my hand another one of those works orchestrated by that writer in the shadows?
However, after thinking about it carefully, Xiao Ran shook her head and said, "I'm afraid not."

The author has already said that the areas he can influence are very subtle, and he can only guide Xiao Ran onto the path he has designed at certain times.

But most of the time, he can't take care of that.

In particular, since Xiao Ran was already able to sense his influence on her in the mine, she would be able to sense it a second time, a third time, and even in the future, whenever he had an influence on her.

But this time I didn't feel that strange feeling, which means that it wasn't the 'writer' influencing me.

In any case, it's a great thing that we were able to get out of here safely this time.

Wu Man obtained two special cursed items and sat down to study them with great satisfaction.

After leaving Zuowangxu, the treasure ship headed north.

Taking advantage of the break, Xiao Ran found a place to sit down and used the Soul Cultivation Technique to further enhance her spiritual power.

His attributes all exceeded 400, and the enhancement of his physique, in particular, greatly increased the upper limit of his mental power.

However, Xiao Ran has never practiced soul cultivation techniques to improve himself.

This wasn't because Xiao Ran was being lazy; rather, he always felt that over 400 points of mental energy was more than enough and powerful.

Further improvements would only increase one's burden.

However, after experiencing the Silent Meditation exercise, Xiao Ran can clearly feel her shortcomings.

This weakness is one that cannot be remedied.

Xiao Ran sat cross-legged in a corner of the deck, seemingly closing his eyes to regulate his breathing, but in reality, he was concentrating and carefully examining the fatal weakness exposed in the meditation.

"Soul Cultivation Technique..."

With her eyes closed, Xiao Ran's consciousness entered her own mental world, and she began to worry.

The unique and unorthodox techniques created by the Plum Blossom Taoist are unparalleled in the world, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that they represent the pinnacle of all techniques.

It refines spiritual power into something formless and intangible, all-pervasive, and unrestrained by conventional energy. However, its ultimate goal is to abandon the physical body and transform the spirit into a pure and eternal "emptiness".

The Plum Blossom Taoist succeeded. He shed his physical form, and his spirit transformed into something akin to a rule. Distractions were no longer a burden to him, but rather "food" to strengthen him—the more the better. But Xiao Ran was different!

The physical body must never be abandoned!

Losing his physical body might allow him to achieve an unparalleled increase in strength.

But that would mean I'm completely out of the game.

Without a physical body, one loses their identity as a professional, and all cursed objects become meaningless.

More importantly, he has virtually no chance of advancing further. Even if he becomes the second Plum Blossom Taoist, he will probably have to avoid appearing in the mortal world as much as possible, just like the Plum Blossom Taoist, in order to reduce his own depletion. After all, without a physical body, spiritual power is also nothingness, and being in the mortal world will consume him at all times.

This is an invincible path, but also a dead end, and Xiao Ran doesn't want to take this path.

However, this put his soul cultivation technique in a dead end.

His distracting thoughts multiplied, and the slightest movement would engulf him. He didn't tell Jin Chanzi and the others that when he was in meditation, he was almost swallowed up by countless distracting thoughts. If he hadn't recited the Great Freedom Mara Sutra in time, none of them on the boat would have made it out.

Right now, Xiao Ran can only improve her mental strength and eliminate the distracting thoughts in her mind.

With a thought, Xiao Ran activated the Soul Cultivation Technique. His spiritual power gathered into a vortex, constantly pulling in the subconscious representing distracting thoughts, quickly crushing them and transforming them into his own spiritual power.

This happened very quickly; in about an hour, Xiao Ran opened her eyes.

At this moment, his mental strength has increased to 500 points, and there is still room for further improvement. If he wanted, he could directly raise it to the limit of over 600 points.

But that would put too much strain on the body, and even the slightest change could make it unbearable.

The transformed subconscious has only been digested by Xiao Ran by less than a third at this moment.

It seems we need to find a different approach and forge a new path.

But how difficult it is to forge a new path.

Even Xiao Ran had no clue.

When I woke up, I saw Wu Man making soup. This guy was sneakily throwing the ginseng spirit's leg into the soup pot and staring at his pot of delicious soup with an expectant look on his face.

Lu Da lay down to the side, fast asleep.

The tiger demon and the crimson horse lay to one side.

Only the golden toad was bent over on the golden plate, seemingly still studying something.

Xiao Ran stepped forward and patted the golden toad's bottom: "Hey, what are you doing lying down like that?"

“Research, I suppose.” Jin Chanzi pointed to the golden plate in front of him.

"This thing is incredible. I originally thought the treasure was hidden in the sky, but after careful study, I found that it was not what I originally thought."

Jin Chanzi gently stroked the golden plate with his palm: "This thing is somewhat like a refining furnace made by some ancient powerful being. It draws on the power of the stars and can forge a cursed object in a short time."

"You're drawing upon the power of the stars and then refining it, right?"

"Correct."

Jin Chanzi nodded, then patted the deck: "I estimate there are still a lot of valuable materials hidden under the deck, but since we don't know how they work, it's better not to dismantle them."

After saying that, he asked, "What's wrong? Is there something you need?"

"Ok!"

Xiao Ran told Jin Chanzi about her current troubles and thoughts.

In terms of strength, Jin Chanzi is definitely at the bottom of the three.

However, Jin Chanzi possessed extremely high knowledge and theoretical knowledge. After all, he was a highly accomplished disciple from Longhu Mountain, so it was the most suitable person to ask him for help with this matter.

After hearing Xiao Ran's troubles, Jin Chanzi also fell silent, seemingly pondering what to do about Xiao Ran's situation.

After thinking for a while, Jin Chanzi said, "It's difficult, too difficult. In the current situation, you have to find a new path on your own. You can imagine how difficult it is. What I mean is, it's best to think of other ways, such as cultivating a method related to spiritual power. But such things are not easy to find."

"Sigh, what's so hard to find? It's just that my mental strength is too strong and I don't know how to use it."

At this moment, Lu Da, who was lying to the side snoring, didn't even open his eyes and said sleepily, "I know a cultivation method. If you want it, I'll give it to you."

As he spoke, Lu Da took out a scripture from his spatial storage and tossed it to Xiao Ran.

Xiao Ran took it and looked at it, and saw that the four characters "摩柯杂意" (Mo Ke Za Yi) were written on the scripture.

Xiao Ran flipped through the Buddhist scripture and carefully read its contents, while Jin Chanzi peeked out to watch.

After a moment, the two looked at each other, their faces full of surprise.

"Baldy, where did you get this book?" Jin Chanzi looked at Lu Da. "The secrets inside are even more bizarre than what Old Xiao cultivates."

The meaning of "Mokkha" is also "immeasurable," "immeasurable," and "immeasurable." The meaning of "miscellaneous" is easy to understand; it means random thoughts.

The content of this book is actually about cultivating oneself by focusing on distracting thoughts.

But this scripture is actually Buddhist teaching.

This is strange. Buddhism emphasizes the emptiness of the four elements and strongly discourages the influence of worldly distractions.

But this Buddhist scripture goes against the grain. Is this a Buddhist scripture? It's practically a demonic scripture.

Lu Da said nonchalantly, "I can't remember when it was, but one day I was passing by a dead end and saw eight hundred old monks sitting in meditation under a stone wall. I went over to take a look and saw this kind of scripture on it. I have studied it, but my cultivation is not deep. This scripture is not compatible with my temperament."

After speaking, Lu Da sat up and looked at Xiao Ran; "In the Void of Oblivion, although I cannot hear, I saw your lips silently reciting scriptures. I followed you and recited them several times. The scriptures seemed to match the contents of this book very well, so I gave this book to you."

"I see." Xiao Ran suddenly understood, and looked at Lu Da: "So what are your conditions?"

"Didn't you say that after three rounds of drawing lots, the treasure chest would go to whoever bid the highest? Does that mean I placed my bid in advance?"

(End of this chapter)