Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

“Silly child, these are all spiritual scrolls, and some spiritual mystic skill manuals. Spiritual scrolls aren't rare, but spiritual mystic skills' rarity is only inferior to thunder element mystic skill manuals.” Dongfang Niemie suddenly said, “Right now, you are only going to learn the spiritual scrolls.”

“Ahh…” Yang Dingtian spoke in an embarra.s.sed tone, “Master, then which of these are spiritual mystic skill manuals?”

“The colorless, gold and black colors are all spiritual mystic skill manuals. The red scrolls on the left are mystic skill manuals; the meditation scrolls are on the right.” Dongfang Niemie let out a gasp when he spoke until this point. “I am now even more curious about Ximen Ningning's ident.i.ty. These three spiritual mystic skill scrolls are all priceless and extremely rare. Even the black mystic skill, which is the lowest grade, would cause a huge commotion if brought out. Right now, there are actually three and even the most superior grade, the colorless scroll is here.”

“Apart from these, are the rest spiritual scrolls? Is there a difference for the height of the spiritual scrolls' rollers?” Yang Dingtian asked.

“Spiritual scrolls are meant to cultivate spiritual energy and are different from mystic and martial skills. There isn't any concept to s.p.a.ce and time.” Dongfang Niemie said, “These so-called spiritual scrolls would guide you to enter the depths of the dream realm. Inside the dream realm, time and s.p.a.ce could be unbounded. In reality, it might be two hours, but in the dream realm, it could be days, months, or even longer. The higher the grade of the scrolls, the deeper the dream realm. If one's innate talent weren't competent, one's spirit would be directly expelled or lost in meditation forever and unable to wake for eternity.”

“Wouldn't it be dangerous to comprehend high-grade spiritual scrolls?” Yang Dingtian asked.

“It might be dangerous to others, but it will not affect you.” Dongfang Niemie said, “With my divine consciousness around, you will never get lost, and I can wake you at any time.”

“Then I will choose the red spiritual scroll,” said Yang Dingtian.

Thus, Yang Dingtian took the red spiritual scroll on the right and opened it up slowly.

The spiritual scrolls were different from other manuals. Inside it was like a turbulent painting, like the combination of impressionism and ink painting. It looked mysterious and distant, there were countless fluctuations of the painting, and it looked like a complete world inside it.

After Yang Dingtian opened up the scroll, he poured in a wisp of his mystic qi to carry out the learning.

“Child, the crucial point to the cultivation of spiritual scrolls is in the depth of meditation. It is best to find an absolutely quiet, ice-cold, and remote environment so that you can meditate and cultivate your spiritual energy, leading to better results,” Dongfang Niemie explained.

Yang Dingtian got startled as he didn't expect it to have such particular methods. But right now, he just so happened to be at a side of a pool. He could simply go into the depths of the pool to meditate and cultivate.

Yang Dingtian consumed a qi condensation elixir, which would allow him to go breathless for three days and nights. Afterward, he grabbed the scroll and jumped into the pool.

In an instant, an icy-cold qi presence enveloped his entire body, making it feel as though his qi presence was solidifying.

The icy-cold water had isolated Yang Dingtian's body with the outside world, making it a great place for meditation.

This pool was more than a dozen meters deep, and it was the best place to use for meditation.

After opening up the spiritual scroll, Yang Dingtian gradually poured in some mystic qi.

Instantly, the world inside the scroll had suddenly enlarged and developed a powerful and attractive force that sucked Yang Dingtian's soul inside vigorously.

Yang Dingtian's spiritual consciousness seemed to have entered a time-s.p.a.ce tunnel, and he was shuttling through rapidly as the sceneries were constantly changing.

A few minutes later, his eyes suddenly lit up, and the time-s.p.a.ce shuttling had stopped. Yang Dingtian discovered that he was situated in an unfamiliar and surreal environment.

It was truly incomparably surreal, and it felt as though every detail was real.

This was the sixth-grade spiritual scroll, Indistinct Exile!

This place was a dazzling palace that was gigantic, majestic, and stifling.

Because this was an underground palace, right now, Yang Dingtian was in the deepest part of the palace, and in front of him was a remarkably beautiful woman wearing a palace attire.

“It is nice to meet you, tribulation prospect. Welcome to the h.e.l.l Palace. But this palace has been submerged in the underground for 10,000 years, and a violent demon is about to be born in the palace, and it would completely destroy everyone inside this palace. Hence, you have to escape immediately.” The palace attired beauty said, “The first floor is 3,800 units in size. There are 19,000 rooms and 39,000 routes, but only one of the routes can help you to escape. The scenery of all the routes is almost the same with the exceptions of minute differences. You only have four hours to escape the first floor.”

This was a cla.s.sic labyrinth scroll.

The spiritual scrolls had many categories, like the escape scrolls, maze scrolls, chess play scrolls, perception scrolls, and many more.

But without any exceptions, they all tempered the spiritual energy. The pract.i.tioners would be inside the dream realm, and the time would be extended by a few folds, allowing them to cultivate the spiritual energy inside the scroll's world.

In this world, spiritual scrolls, which were sixth-grade and above, were left behind from the ancient world. This world's Spiritual Masters produced those scrolls which were below the sixth-grade.

It was needless to say that this spiritual scroll that Yang Dingtian was cultivating was left behind from ancient times because this world's Spiritual Masters were unable to construct such complicated and giant worlds.

Spiritual energy was separated into static, cohesive, calculation, and perception.

Static was the ability to calm down. Cohesive was the ability to concentrate the consciousness. The calculation and perception were the abilities to manifest the strength of spiritual energy.

How was one going to make the mystic skill faster, stronger, consume less mystic qi? All these required perception. How was one going to use countless mystic qi to construct an extremely complicated attack pattern? It would require a powerful perception to sense more mystic qi and control more mystic qi.

It was just like learning stratagems, how to arrange battle formations, and control the armies in battle. A brilliant general would be able to command the armies like their own arms and would be able to win a battle with just 1,000 soldiers. An incompetent general would require 10,000 or 20,000 soldiers because he couldn't control them properly and had to make up with numbers, meaning to sacrifice the soldiers in vain.

The maze realms were able to temper the cohesive and calculation factors.

After listening to the explanation of the palace attired beauty, Yang Dingtian immediately set off and prepared to escape the underground palace.

In this dream realm, Yang Dingtian only had four hours to escape the palace. This was just the first level of the dream realm; hence four hours were equivalent to two hours of real-time.

Yang Dingtian had advanced less than ten meters before three routes appeared in front of him, and they were exactly the same. He chose the left route, and after walking less than twenty meters, another fork appeared, and this time there were four routes. Yang Dingtian still picked the leftmost route.

Just like this, Yang Dingtian didn't know how many routes had he taken, and in less than half an hour, he realized he had returned to his starting point.

It was needless to say that the first attempt was a failure.

For the second attempt, Yang Dingtian set off again and took around 40 minutes before returning to the starting point.

For the third attempt, Yang Dingtian wasn't in a hurry to set off again. If he continued to walk blindly like this, he would never be able to escape the palace even if he had his entire life. He had to remember the logical connection with each route, which instantly caused Yang Dingtian's speed to slow down.

Because, for every ten meters he advanced, his mind would have to remember more data.

When Yang Dingtian had walked three hundred meters, his mind had to remember more than a hundred data, which all had complicated correlations.

This was an extreme test for his brain's limits.

Once he successfully escaped this first floor of the palace, his brain would be able to remember thousands of data and be able to understand the correlating logic between each data clearly. When that happened, there would naturally be a great boost to his spiritual energy.

This could originally be achieved in the real world, but it was extremely hard to imagine such a profound world just based on the imagination. Furthermore, the real world didn't have so much time.

After walking more than three hundred meters, Yang Dingtian's brain had to remember thousands of data. Furthermore, inside all those data, there were plenty that were useless as there was only one escape route. All those useless data only had one use, and it was to conduct the process of elimination.

After walking five hundred meters, Yang Dingtian's brain had completely collapsed. All the data in his mind had instantly mixed up, and all the logical connections were in chaos.

This third attempt was still a complete failure, but this time, he had found 10% of the correct route.

Yang Dingtian had almost got a knack of this game and had started his fourth attempt.

But when he was less than 15 meters into his fourth attempt, the entire palace was trembling. The ground split open, and a giant demon crawled out and started to destroy everything.

The majestic and giant palace, the thick golden pillars, were all smashed in a single blow by the demon's sharp claws.

Soon enough, the entire palace had been completely destroyed, including Yang Dingtian, who was instantly killed by the flames breathed out by the demon.

“Ahh…” After suffering the scorching pain, Yang Dingtian had abruptly awakened.

After he woke up, he realized that everything was fake and had all happened within the dream realm. He had this lingering fear and felt that the dream realm inside the spiritual scroll was too surreal.

Afterward, he couldn't help but feel upset. He had been inside the spiritual world for four hours but was only able to complete 10% of the maze. Furthermore, it was only the first level of this scroll.

“Master, I have only completed 10%. Isn't this too difficult?” Yang Dingtian asked.

Dongfang Niemie laughed heartily and replied, “Are you not satisfied with 10%? This is already a great result for the first attempt at the spiritual cultivation. Others would normally start with a first-grade scroll, and be it the chess plays or mazes are much simpler and smaller. Yours is a sixth-grade scroll, and it is a maze of a few thousand units. It involves the calculation of a few tens of thousands of data. Of course, it is challenging.”

Immediately after, Dongfang Niemie said, “Furthermore, escaping the maze isn't the objective. The objective is to make progress in the cultivation of spiritual energy. Don't look at the fact that you failed the tribulation mission; your spiritual energy should have been enhanced by quite a bit. If you don't believe it, try it with your mystic skill attack.”

“There are already some results?” Yang Dingtian was pleasantly surprised.

“This is the first cultivation, and there will definitely be obvious results,” Dongfang Niemie responded.

Yang Dingtian impatiently swam out of the water and started to condense his mystic qi. He controlled the flow of the mystic qi and started to acc.u.mulate it.

“Mountain Split…” This time it merely took twelve seconds to complete the condensation. Afterward, powerful energy burst out.

“Bang…” Thunder split open from Yang Dingtian's palm.

It was three inches long and cleaved hard on the giant boulder, which was partially submerged in water.

“Boom…” This 500-kilogram giant boulder was left with a deep charred crack, which was five inches deep and two feet long.

Subsequently, Yang Dingtian quickly felt the mystic qi in his body, and there was actually a third of his mystic qi left over.

This spiritual scroll was indeed incredible. After his first meditation, his spiritual energy was enhanced greatly. As compared to his first time executing the thunder mystic skill, Mountain Split, it was faster by 20%, stronger than a third, and the consumption of mystic qi was also reduced by a third.

Yang Dingtian was extremely surprised.

Afterward, he was in a hurry to dive to the bottom of the pool to continue his second meditation.

It was still the Indistinct Exile, and he still had to escape from the first floor of the underground palace.

The situation was exactly the same as before, but there was a fraudulent difference as the palace maze had actually changed, and the routes had changed. The rooms in the palace had changed too. It meant to say that his previous experiences and memories were all useless, and he had to restart from the beginning. He had to rely on enhancing his spiritual energy to successfully escape the first floor of the maze.

As a result, Yang Dingtian had to start the challenging maze escape again and started to remember, a.n.a.lyze, and calculate the data.

Even though the maze was completely different, with his previous experience, Yang Dingtian was able to walk over 700 meters, and after using the process of elimination from over 3,000 data, he was able to calculate 15% of the correct route.

But subsequently, Yang Dingtian's brain was unable to contain more data and was unable to continue the complicated calculations. It felt as though his entire brain was splitting apart.

In fact, even an elite prodigy would be able to remember thousands of data and conduct complicated calculations. Right now, one would require a powerful perception to find the pattern to reduce the calculations significantly, and there wouldn't be a need to remember so many complicated and useless data.

After his first failed attempt, Yang Dingtian started his second attempt at the tribulation and had gradually found a pattern before he conducted the intricate calculations.

After doing it in this manner, the results were better as expected. Yang Dingtian had traveled over 950 meters and completed 23% of the correct route.

But when he progressed further, the pattern started to lose its effectiveness, and Yang Dingtian failed the tribulation again.

Just as Yang Dingtian was going to start his next attempt, that terrifying giant demon appeared again and destroyed the dream realm along with Yang Dingtian, sending him back to the real world.

When Yang Dingtian woke up, he immediately went to the surface of the water and absorbed mystic qi.

A few hours later, he finally filled his qi vessel and mystic meridians with mystic qi that contained impurities.

Immediately after, Yang Dingtian started to test his Mountain Split mystic skill again.

Nine seconds, Yang Dingtian merely required nine seconds to condense the Mountain Split!

“Bang…” Half-foot blue thunder struck out abruptly and hit on that giant boulder.

In an instant, an eight-inch deep, and three feet long crack appeared on the giant boulder.

This time, Yang Dingtian had 45% of his mystic qi left after executing the Mountain Split.