Ye Chu sat for another full day, his mind focused entirely on cultivation.
The spiritual qi here was thin. It was indeed not a good place for training. Yet as Ye Chu immersed his mind in cultivation, he sensed an ancient, grand aura. This aura felt eternal, giving the illusion that it spanned past and present.
As if drawn by this illusion, a deep, endless path slowly emerged in Ye Chu’s mind. The path had no visible end. It was built from ancient walls marked by the traces of time.
The path stretched on. Ye Chu felt as though he had walked along it for a long time. When the seemingly endless journey finally reached its deepest point, he arrived at the very end.
Right in front of him stood a stone door. The door glowed with green light and carried patterns on its surface.
Ye Chu suddenly opened his eyes, only to find himself still inside the rundown dao temple. He had not seen any stone door or long path at all. This made Ye Chu frown. He could not help recalling Weak Water’s words. Walk all the way to the deepest part of the dao temple. You will see a stone door. Press your arm against the stone door and you can enter.
Ye Chu really had seen the stone door just now, but it had only been an illusion.
Filled with doubt, Ye Chu closed his eyes once more and resumed cultivation. Using his mind to sense, the same illusion appeared again. Ye Chu stood alone on the long path, completely isolated. The surrounding silence felt oppressive.
Seeing the stone door once more, Ye Chu pressed his arm against it inside the illusion.
The moment his arm touched the stone door, a cool sensation spread instantly from his arm into the door, as if it were a key unlocking it.
The stone door opened. Radiant light poured out. Ye Chu suddenly opened his eyes and found blinding light all around him. The light fell on his body and pulled him straight inside. Ye Chu vanished from his original spot.
A cultivator happened to pass by and witnessed the scene. He stood frozen in place with wide eyes. Only after a long time did he scream, “A ghost!”
After the initial terror, he reacted. He rushed to the spot where Ye Chu had been sitting. It could not be a ghost. The other party must have found a treasure ground inside the dao temple.
This excited him. He began searching all around, but found nothing. It left him puzzled, wondering if he had just imagined it.
…
Ye Chu was swallowed by the enveloping light and appeared outside the real stone door. At this moment the door stood wide open. The surging light inside pulled him forward. Ye Chu stepped through the stone door.
Beyond the stone door lay another world. There was no surging light, only stone walls. The walls showed their age and were covered with countless patterns.
The patterns were not complicated. Ye Chu could even draw them himself. Yet there were so many of them. The vast space outside the stone door was filled with these patterns. The bluestone surfaces were densely packed with them.
Ye Chu frowned and looked around carefully. Soon he noticed something strange. Although there were many patterns, not a single one repeated.
Such simple patterns, yet none were the same. This struck Ye Chu as odd. Drawing one or two simple patterns was easy, but carving thousands upon thousands of them with no similarity at all was extremely difficult.
Yet here, behind this stone cave, not one was identical.
Ye Chu studied the strange patterns on the stone walls. Curiosity stirred in his heart. He wondered why Weak Water had asked him to memorise these patterns. They were so simple. Given enough time, almost anyone could remember them.
“Could there be some secret hidden here?”
Ye Chu felt puzzled, but he began to memorise the patterns seriously. There were so many. His memory was decent, yet recording them all would take considerable time.
Ye Chu started memorising the patterns without eating or sleeping. The patterns were far too numerous and showed no similarity at all. Memorising them proved extremely tiring.
The task was so difficult that in the end Ye Chu felt his head throbbing. He could not continue.
Ye Chu could only sit in meditation to cultivate and slowly recover his energy. But when his mind felt a little better, he discovered that he could not recall even the slightest trace of the patterns he had just memorised.
This result stunned Ye Chu. He frowned and began memorising the patterns again. When he felt he had them firmly in mind, he rested and tried to recall them later, only to find that everything had vanished from memory once more.
“These patterns are strange!” Ye Chu’s heart jumped. Patterns that could make him forget everything in the blink of an eye were definitely not ordinary.
Ye Chu refused to accept it and started memorising again. After memorising, he recited them repeatedly and even carved them on the ground, thinking that if he knew them backwards and forwards he surely would not forget again.
Yet when he stopped, rested for a moment, and tried to recall them once more, he still remembered nothing at all.
“This…”
Ye Chu could no longer stay calm. Even his level of memorisation had no effect. How was he supposed to remember them?
“Those patterns are very simple. Memorise them and then come find me.” Ye Chu remembered Weak Water’s words clearly, yet right now he wondered if she was simply toying with him. These patterns were bizarre. It was impossible to memorise them.
While Ye Chu inwardly cursed Weak Water, she stood gracefully outside the dao temple like a divine maiden, pure and otherworldly.
At this moment she stared straight at the dao temple. Her autumn-water eyes remained calm. “I hope you can enter it. I also hope you can memorise those patterns. Otherwise, only death awaits you. The will of a supreme being will soon erase you.”
Weak Water had considered many possibilities. She had thought the sharp sword might have been pulled by the old madman, by Shui Gu, or even by Ou Yi and the golden doll. Yet she had never imagined it would be Ye Chu who moved it.
Everyone in Heartless Peak was extraordinary, but only Ye Chu counted as the most ordinary. Apart from his somewhat special physique, he could not compare with the golden doll and the rest at all.
Yet it was precisely this person who had drawn the sword. Although Weak Water did not want this outcome, she had no choice but to accept it.
If it had been Shui Gu, Ou Yi, or the golden doll, Weak Water would not have worried about them failing to memorise the patterns. But with Ye Chu, she felt whether he could remember them at all was already in doubt.
“Perhaps it really is fate.” Weak Water let out a soft sigh. Only this explanation could make anyone believe that the sword in Heartless Peak had been pulled by Ye Chu.
While Weak Water sighed, she suddenly saw light flashing inside the dao temple. Her eyes brightened. She knew Ye Chu had entered. This made her nod inwardly. Entering was only the first step, however. Whether he could memorise those patterns was what truly mattered.
Weak Water could not help Ye Chu with anything. She could only wait. On this point, everything depended on Ye Chu himself.
At this moment Ye Chu had already stopped trying to memorise the patterns. He stared at them with a complicated expression, lost in thought.
Fourth update! Asking for next month’s tickets, tickets, and subscriptions…