“Is it still not enough?”
Rarely did Luo Chen show signs of impatience.
Full of apology, Fu Qinglan said, “I am sorry. My aptitude is dull and clumsy; even two mirage cores could not help me take that next step.”
*Dull and clumsy aptitude?*
Luo Chen shook his head. How could anyone who formed a Nascent Soul at the age of three hundred be called dull or clumsy?
When it came down to it, the quantity of spiritual opportunity contained within the mirage cores was simply too meager to sustain a cultivator long enough to comprehend law intent.
What he was truly dissatisfied with was the *time*!
Beckoning with his hand amid Fu Qinglan’s confusion, Luo Chen said, “Show me your mirage chess piece.”
Though puzzled, Fu Qinglan did not resist and handed over her mirage chess piece.
Luo Chen looked down. A black radiance had tainted the white piece, covering roughly two to three percent of its surface.
The power of the Mirage Dragon would erode the black pieces of those who entered the grotto-heaven; the deeper the erosion, the shorter the time one could remain inside.
And now!
“Two mirage cores and a year of time have only eroded this much. In other words, if you fail to comprehend law intent, does that mean we must stay inside this grotto-heaven for decades, or even a century?”
That was the primary reason Luo Chen truly could not accept this!
There was no way he would spend nearly a century of his own time on someone else’s cultivation trial.
Moreover, this differed vastly from what Fu Chaosheng had told him earlier—that the Tianyuan Grand Competition would take at most a year or two.
Where had things gone wrong?
Amid his suspicion, he noticed the woman before him hesitating, as if she wished to speak but held back.
Luo Chen asked probingly, “Having absorbed two mirage cores in succession, did you gain anything?”
Fu Qinglan hesitated for a moment before speaking slowly: “I did gain some insights, but I am not certain whether those things are true or false. If Daoist Brother wishes to hear them, I can share them with you.”
***
It was still that plain surrounded by three mountains.
It was still the same formation and bait as before.
Only this time, Luo Chen did not allow Fu Qinglan to accompany him. Instead, he had her recuperate in the cave dwelling while he came alone to wait for the quarry.
Standing atop a mountain peak, Luo Chen’s gaze did not linger on the Heavenly Mechanism Pill acting as bait in the plain. With the formation and his Lifebound True Artifact guarding it, no mishaps would occur anyway.
Now, he could not stop scanning his surroundings, as if searching for something.
Yet no matter how hard he looked, he could not detect the slightest clue that differed from the outside world.
What Fu Qinglan had told him a few days ago continued to batter his mind even now.
“The mirage beasts must be the creations of the Mirage Dragon’s lingering consciousness. Driven by instinct, they attempt to rise from the ashes, rekindling the Mirage Dragon’s spirit within themselves. Opening the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven once every five hundred years is both an opportunity granted to us and a means to clear away high-rank mirage beasts, preventing the Mirage Dragon from reviving. When cultivating with the aid of a mirage core, we must purge the influence of the Mirage Dragon’s soulless consciousness and utilize only the spiritual opportunity inside...”
“From the mirage beast’s consciousness inside the core, I discovered a major difference between this grotto-heaven and the outside world. That is the difference in the flow of time. The exact ratio is roughly...”
A hundred to one!
Yes, it was this very number that had left Luo Chen restless for several days running.
He had never imagined he would enter a secret realm that existed only in legends!
Among the countless myths of immortals, tales of the destined entering secret realms were naturally commonplace.
Those secret realms differed widely. Some held boundless opportunities, others were exceptionally perilous, and still others imposed all manner of strict constraints and conditions.
In his life, Luo Chen had encountered few secret realms, and those he had actually entered were even fewer.
Nevertheless, he had gained considerable understanding of such places.
For instance, a secret realm left behind after the death of a Soul Formation grandmaster was unsuitable for most Nascent Soul True Persons. The law intent left by the Soul Formation cultivator would interfere with the Great Dao of latecomers; only those whose Daos were closely aligned could enter.
That belonged to a restriction upon one’s Dao.
As for the Land of the Fallen Demon, though fraught with danger at first glance, it actually had no overly harsh entry requirements.
Not only could Nascent Soul True Persons enter, but even Core Formation cultivators could step foot inside.
Some Foundation Establishment True Cultivators could even venture in if they were bold enough.
If there was any real restriction, it was likely that Soul Formation grandmasters who had already comprehended laws could not enter, lest they meet a violent end like the Blood Sea Patriarch.
Yet this Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven surprisingly belonged to the kind of time-restricted secret realm from legends: *A day in the cave, a thousand years in the world.*
Except, the flow of time was reversed!
A century in the cave, but a single year in the world!
The ratio of time flow between the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven and the Mountain Sea Realm reached a staggering hundred to one.
Furthermore, while a cultivator was inside the grotto-heaven, their lifespan ticked away normally, and even after leaving, it would remain unchanged.
It would not be a case where someone entering at age five hundred, spending one external year and one hundred internal years, would emerge with their lifespan still at five hundred and one. Rather, when their natural limit arrived, they would truly have a century less than cultivators of the same realm who had not experienced the grotto-heaven!
Luo Chen did not know why this was so. Perhaps it was related to the law of the Great Dao mastered by a desolate beast like the Mirage Dragon.
What Luo Chen finally understood was why the Tianyuan Dao Sect reserved this opportunity exclusively for newly advanced Nascent Soul cultivators!
A Nascent Soul cultivator had a total lifespan of only a thousand years.
Subtracting the few hundred years spent cultivating prior to forming a Nascent Soul, only a few hundred years remained. Who could bear to squander a century for no reason?
Only newly advanced Nascent Souls with exceptional aptitude who broke through at a young age had sufficient lifespan to endure the toll of the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven.
This was the greatest condition and restriction of the Five-Hundred-Year Grand Competition!
As for the factors Luo Chen had surmised earlier—such as the state of having newly entered the Nascent Soul realm and having an innate closeness to Heaven and Earth—those were merely a minor part of the considerations.
“No wonder storybooks always say that when great sects encounter unknown, unidentified secret realms, they often send disciples to probe first. If they carelessly stumbled upon a secret realm with an erratic flow of time, high-ranking cultivators with little lifespan to spare would age to death in an instant upon stepping outside—how terrifying that would be.”
“Even so, Fu Chaosheng went entirely too far!”
Luo Chen felt deep anger toward Fu Chaosheng for concealing the truth of the grotto-heaven beforehand.
Or rather, back when Fu Qinglan first revealed the disparity in time flow, he had lost his composure in a rare display of fury. The terrifying aura that suddenly erupted from him had silenced her in dread. Her lingering trepidation was part of the reason she had not accompanied him to hunt mirage beasts this time.
A hundred years!
How many centuries did a person have in a lifetime?
In all his years, Luo Chen had only cultivated for a little over two hundred years. Had he known that entering the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven would cost him a century, no matter what generous terms Fu Chaosheng offered, he never would have agreed to this collaboration.
“I wonder whether the other Dao Protectors know this, or if they knowingly walk toward the tiger’s den despite knowing the beast lies in wait.”
“As for me, it seems all the benefits Fu Chaosheng showered on me earlier already had a price tag secretly attached: this single century of lifespan!”
“Through my own negligence, I have swallowed a colossal loss!”
Luo Chen took a deep breath and found a rock to sit down on.
First, he circulated the *Microdust Primordial Art* to calm himself.
Then, he began to contemplate carefully.
First was the century of lifespan he might lose. Anger aside, Luo Chen could still afford this price.
His lifespan far surpassed that of his peers; upon ascending to the Nascent Soul realm, it had surged all the way to fifteen hundred years!
Although it was no longer like previous realms where reaching minor sub-stages raised the lifespan ceiling, locking firmly at fifteen hundred years, fifteen hundred years still far exceeded the ordinary Nascent Soul limit of a thousand years.
A mere century was something he could endure.
Furthermore, he might not necessarily lose that much. As long as he captured enough mirage cores to help Fu Qinglan comprehend law intent earlier, he could leave sooner...
Yet as his thoughts reached this point, ferocity surged once more through his calm mind!
Fu Chaosheng had concealed the truth from the start, so why should he exhaust his utmost efforts for Fu Qinglan’s sake?
This indignation was not merely directed at Fu Chaosheng’s deception; it was also anger at his own conceit.
Ever since embarking on the path of cultivation:
Toward sect cultivators, he had initially felt awe—awe of the factions behind them, and awe of their formidable strength.
Yet as his own strength grew, he ceased fearing those things.
Instead, he began looking down on these sect cultivators raised in greenhouses.
In particular, the shallow disposition of the younger generation in the Tianyuan Dao Sect had fueled his disdain.
Now, reality had dealt him a heavy blow.
The younger generation might lack deep scheming, but the older generation of sect cultivators were all wily old foxes. How could he possibly take great advantage of them?
“In the future, when dealing with these old monsters, I must think thrice and weigh the pros and cons clearly.”
Once calm, Luo Chen analyzed what he had given versus what Fu Chaosheng had provided, realizing the old man had calculated everything down to the absolute limit.
If he worked hard enough to help Fu Qinglan comprehend law intent early and left the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven, he would lose at most a few decades of lifespan.
Meanwhile, the massive amounts of Soul Essence, Withered Source Fire Marrow, medicinal pills, the status of Foreign Affairs Guest Elder of Heaven and Earth Peak, and the mobilization of the Tianyuan Business Alliance’s manpower and resources to gather heaps of materials for him... All these benefits combined were barely enough to hire a Nascent Soul True Person to run around for several decades.
If Luo Chen had done those things himself to gather all those resources, it would have taken roughly the same amount of time, not to mention additional effort and unforeseen complications.
“Fine. Once I get out, I will have a word with that old bastard!”
Exhaling a breath of turbid air, Luo Chen resumed his earlier thoughts.
Since he was here, he had to make the best of it!
He could not let decades of his prime slip away for nothing.
In this realm, the spiritual energy was chaotic and dispersed, making it unsuitable for Qi Cultivation.
Furthermore, because he had to protect Fu Qinglan, he could not release his true Nascent Soul to meld defenselessly into Heaven and Earth to sense the laws as she did.
At the thought of having to protect that naive, simple-minded woman, Luo Chen felt a nausea akin to swallowing a fly he had no choice but to gulp down.
He shook his head vigorously, forcing down the disgust in his chest.
“A major breakthrough in realm will be difficult, but minor adjustments are no problem. Nascent Soul second layer is just around the corner.”
“For the remaining time, I must devote more attention to myself.”
“The proficiency of my two fourth-rank spells, Fire Phoenix Conflagration and Flame Dragon Descent, can be raised.”
The Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven was immensely vast, making it exceptionally convenient for cultivation.
And it was not just spells!
There was also the transformation of the Wither-Bloom True Fire. With the Heavenly Mechanism Pill in hand, Luo Chen could take that final step at any moment, whenever he wished.
In addition, there was the refinement of the White Tiger Puppet, the unraveling of the restrictions on the Penglai Octagonal Pavilion...
Finally, Luo Chen even set his sights on the *Soul Splitting Art*!
His primary soul had already reached the limit of his current realm; he could completely split off another soul fragment.
Back then, Han Zhan had begun practicing the *Soul Splitting Art* during Foundation Establishment, strengthened his divine soul foundation in Core Formation, and after forming his Nascent Soul, gained nine great soul fragments within a short century.
With the miraculous aid of the Great Soul Pill, it was not impossible for Luo Chen to reach that stage as well!
“One step at a time!”
Left with no other choice, Luo Chen laid out his plan for the days ahead.
Life was simply like this: one inevitably suffered losses unexpectedly, but life still had to go on.
Not only did it have to go on, but it had to be lived better and better, until those who made him suffer were left looking upon him with newfound respect, drowning in regret, and even paying the price!
***
“Here, this is the third mirage core.”
A fourth-rank mirage core was tossed before her, and Fu Qinglan hurriedly caught it.
She opened her mouth to speak, but the man had already put up a cold, unapproachable front and raised a protective formation.
Shut out by the barrier, Fu Qinglan parted her lips, a bitter smile spreading across her face.
Indeed, after disclosing the greatest secret regarding the time flow, she should have anticipated this outcome.
Yet what could she have done?
The Fu clan had long fallen into decline and lacked the ability to foster loyal retainers of suitable cultivation. As for hiring Nascent Soul True Persons from outside, quite apart from whether the conditions were suitable, their strength fell completely short of Luo Chen’s.
Her grandfather’s decision to conceal the truth and trick him into coming was a desperate measure.
Now, the fact that he was still willing to hunt mirage cores for her was already the act of an impeccably upright gentleman.
One could only say that her grandfather had indeed judged his character accurately.
The only regret was that their rapport, which had taken so much effort to build, had turned distant once more.
“Never mind. All I can do is comprehend law intent as soon as possible, so that he can leave this cage that much sooner.”
Clutching the mirage core, Fu Qinglan smiled bitterly and retreated into the simple cave dwelling.
Chapter 754