Duosheng Danyuan

Sitting in the chairs at the two-seater table, Zeng Yixi and I briefly exchanged information about what Elder Qingyue was doing outside the "White Crystal Spirit Platform" when we were each lying in it.

Then, amidst the casual small talk, we successfully discovered what Elder Qingyue and the rules had both mentioned—the goal.

This goal wasn't something prominently displayed like rules carved on a wall; instead, it was written on paper, the same kind of paper Elder Qingyue handed us in the "Wonderland of Mountains and Rivers" earlier—a parchment scroll.

——Seclusion Room · Goal——

Welcome to the double retreat room on the first floor of Mingling Residence.

Here, all training goals will require the joint efforts of both of you, and the results will be shared equally after you leave the retreat room. Therefore, please give it your all so that you can both achieve the greatest results during this retreat.

notice

1. The objectives on the parchment scrolls will refresh after you complete the previous objective; they will not refresh if you fail to complete them, and you will be penalized if you give up. Therefore, please choose the difficulty of your objectives carefully.

2. Each time, three objectives will be refreshed on the parchment scroll, with the difficulty increasing from left to right. Completing more difficult objectives will yield more generous training rewards. Training rewards will be settled after you confirm your departure from the seclusion chamber.

3. Only a brief description of the goal will be provided before it is confirmed and selected. A more detailed description of the goal will be revealed after you confirm and select this goal as your current practice goal.

4. Circle the target you want to choose with a pen. Then, both of you bite your fingers. The target will be fully selected only when both of your bloody fingerprints are inside the circle.

--Target--

1. Breathing in spiritual energy

2. Cultivation Techniques

3.Double cultivation

——Divider——

"Dual cultivation?"

Upon reaching the end of the parchment scroll, Zeng Yixi and I unconsciously read the last two words aloud, then looked at each other blankly.

"Don't..."

"I don't."

"I know, but please don't..."

"I really didn't, but you, don't..."

"I don't have any!"

"Then why do you think I have it!"

"..."

After a heated but brief argument, we fell into a short silence. Unconsciously, we both subconsciously avoided each other's gaze.

"You really have no ideas?" Zeng Yixi broke the awkward silence first.

"How could I possibly have that?!" I said, a little loudly, speechless. "Besides, we're both clearly twelve or thirteen years old... okay?"

"Huh?" Zeng Yixi looked at me blankly, lost in thought for a moment.

Just a brief moment after we avoided each other's gaze, when we looked at each other again, we suddenly appeared as people in their early twenties in the real world.

"..."

For a moment, we fell silent again. However, this silence wasn't awkward; it was eerie.

"I......"

"Alright, stop talking, let's calm down." I rubbed my forehead, interrupting Zeng Yixi, and tried to maintain my rationality as I analyzed, "First of all, our goal is to leave this place, right? We've already gathered enough clues."

"...Um..."

"Therefore, our top priority is to immediately complete the two objectives Elder Qingyue has set for us, and then return to the Tranquil Abode. The sooner we get back, the safer we will be, right?"

"...yes."

"Then let's forget about dual cultivation and just choose the simplest first task."

"That's true."

"Then it's settled." With that, I drew a circle on the parchment scroll with my pen and promptly bit my finger.

Seeing my decisiveness, Zeng Yixi also bit her finger, but as a girl, it took her a little longer.

"Zeng Yixi is one thing, but why am I having such unrealistic wild thoughts? Is it because her candid background touched me? What's wrong with you, Gu Changfeng? Why is your head getting more and more confused..." Frustrated, I unconsciously pressed more hard on the parchment scroll where I pressed my fingerprint.

"Why did you tell me so much about yourself?" In the end, I couldn't help but ask Zeng Yixi the question I had wanted to ask for a long time.

"Rule number eight of Mingling Residence—Please completely trust the people who accompany you. I know you're smart, and smart people are never without their guard. Even if I could convince myself to trust you, I'd find it hard to believe you would trust me. Rather than two strangers continuing to play this pointless game of probing, wouldn't it be better for one of us to be honest and open first? After all, sincerity is the greatest weapon, isn't it?"

"Heh, your not believing that I would trust you is itself a form of distrust towards me, okay?"

"Put yourself in my shoes, wouldn't you feel the same way I do?"

Of course.

"uh-huh."

"However, aside from these mutually beneficial outcomes, what's more important is about some secrets I discovered at the Quiet Retreat, isn't it?"

"Of course. That's why I said you're very smart. For smart people, trying to be clever or being overly clever is the biggest sign of being unwise."

"Hmm... Indeed, your story is very good, and I don't think it's fictional. Although it contains some artistic elements, people's memories are naturally artistically processed by themselves. Besides, reality doesn't need logic; reality without logic is the real reality."

"Thank you for your feedback. If possible, I hope that what I've told is just a story, preferably just a story about one of my friends."

"You jest. So, after leaving Mingling Residence... tomorrow, at Yangyuanzhai tomorrow noon, I'll share with you what you want to know. Of course, what I'll share with you is only what you asked before, which is what we agreed upon before Elder Qingyue came. We'll talk about more later."

"Reasonable."

In the course of our conversation, it seemed as if we had returned to the state we had just been in when we first met at Mingling Residence. In other words, through this conversation, we successfully regained our senses and escaped the unnatural suspension bridge effect that had arisen under Elder Qingyue's oppression.

(The suspension bridge effect: refers to the physiological arousal (such as increased heart rate and rapid breathing) that occurs when a person is in a tense, stimulating or dangerous situation, which is easily misattributed by the brain to attraction and affection for others around them.)

After Zeng Yixi pressed his bloody handprint, the parchment scroll on the table suddenly disappeared, and in its place appeared several lines of black characters on the wall in front of us.

—Black writing on the wall—

Level D objective: Absorbing spiritual energy

Objective Description: To gather the spiritual energy of heaven and earth through the unique breathing techniques of the Shengdan Academy, and to condense sufficient spiritual power within the dantian to support the consumption of a Soul Core.

Target-related hint: Spiritual energy is a product of nature, inherently ethereal and without power. Cultivators, through the aid of their spiritual roots, can transform spiritual energy into spiritual power for their own use. Therefore, the key to efficient spiritual energy absorption lies in the spiritual root.

——Divider——

"The so-called 'unique breathing method of the Shengdan Academy' must be the Shengdan method taught by Elder Huaizhen, right?" Zeng Yixi said after reading the message on the wall.

"Yes, that's what I think too."

"Let's begin then. As Elder Qingyue said, I have a second-grade spiritual root. I'll work harder later, and we'll start our second goal as soon as possible."

"Can."

Calming our minds, we sat upright in our chairs, resting our hands on the table in front of us, and silently recited the mantra of the method for generating the elixir.

Tick-tock, time began to slowly slip away with the sound of our breathing.

Almost a day passed before I felt any changes deep within my abdomen. It was another indescribable feeling; if I had to describe it, it was like my abdomen, which could only contract and relax before, suddenly had a new point of exertion. A more scientific way to put it might be that I can now control the abdominal muscles that I couldn't control when I was just an ordinary person. That's roughly the feeling.

"Goal achieved, congratulations to both of you."

Inside the room, where we couldn't discern any direction, a mechanical voice announced the completion of our objective.

"Phew...it feels like so long. Will we really be able to get back to Jingxi Lodge in time, just like Elder Qingyue said?" Zeng Yixi opened her eyes and asked me with a long sigh.

"This is Elder Qingyue's jurisdiction. What he says goes. He says the flow of time here is different from outside, so let it be different. After all, we don't have any other choice now."

"Sigh..." Zeng Yixi sighed, wiped the sweat from her temples, and slumped onto the table with her hands on her face. "Is this what cultivation is? It's so tiring. It's completely different from what's described in fantasy novels."

"Um..."

Zeng Yixi is right; breathing in spiritual energy is far more tiring than it describes. The so-called cultivation through spiritual roots actually involves more effort in the physical body. In my secluded cultivation room, every time I silently recited the method for cultivating the elixir, I felt the fatigue in my body and the mental fog.

From personal experience, cultivation is indeed a tedious, boring, and physically and mentally exhausting chore. Perhaps the world of cultivation is inherently colorful, but for us trapped in this Shengdan Academy and this strange tale of rules, the essence of this world of cultivation must be bleak and colorless.

However, I don't dislike black and white.

After nearly an hour of adjustment, we gradually recovered from the feeling of weakness all over our bodies.

With a sigh of relief, Zeng Yixi spoke first: "Let's continue, the sooner we finish, the sooner we can call it a day."

"Hmm." I nodded and picked up the parchment scroll that had reappeared on the table.

—New Goals—

1.Double cultivation

2. Cultivating Immortal Techniques

3. Seize the Elixir

4. End of seclusion

——Divider——

"..." After reading the refreshed target, I met Zeng Yixi's bewildered and astonished gaze, and returned the same incredulous look. Then, we both turned our heads away.

"..." When we looked at each other again, I noticed that Zeng Yixi seemed hesitant to speak, while I, looking at the three new targets that had appeared on the parchment scroll, felt quite helpless.

"..." The third time we looked at each other, the decisiveness we had regained earlier was gone from our eyes, leaving only hesitation.

What should we do? These four words filled our hearts.

—Outside the seclusion room—

"Good disciples, let me see how you two will choose?" Elder Qingyue said leisurely, holding a spiritual jade that displayed the scene inside the secluded cultivation room in her left hand and resting her chin on her right hand as she sat in front of the door of the secluded cultivation room.