Gazing at the two once more arguing back and forth, Long Zhanye laughs as he leans against the wall. "Little Yuan, since we will all be travelling together in the future, you wouldn't be able to hide it from them forever. Tell them. If you don't lay it out clearly, I'm afraid that little brat's constant nagging will drive me crazy."
It isn't hard to tell that Long Zhanye had suffered through Li Qing's worried rants these past few days.
Looking at Li Qing before shifting his gaze to Qin Jun, he gives a helpless sigh, eventually telling them both about his interdimensional space, at the same time taking this opportunity to update them on what he had been up to after vanishing.
After hearing that Huo Zaiyuan possesses a heaven-defying space, Li Qing could only stare ahead foolishly, clearly still in the middle of processing this load of information. Qin Jun is more composed, merely expressing deep astonishment on his face. On the other hand, Long Zhanye is currently biting on a cigarette and blowing out smoke, expression bland as ever whilst assembling yet another gun. Comparing the three of them, in Huo Zaiyuan's eyes, the two showing such obvious shock is expected while the calm and collected Long Zhanye is clearly abnormal. (Long gong: Beloved, doesn't this count as being shot even when lying down?[1])
"That thing of yours sounds really awesome..." Li Qing awakens from his daze at last, sparkling eyes locking on Huo Zaiyuan.
"So, do you want to practise together?" Huo Zaiyuan quirks an eyebrow, taking out some fresh fruits and vegetables from his space, once again startling both Li Qing and Qin Jun.
"Meditation...don't want to! Don't want to!" Li Qing is a hyperactive person by nature, and cannot stand sitting still for long periods of time. Telling him to sit in the same spot for several days and nights...wouldn't it be asking for his life?
"All right, this amount of food should be sufficient." Looking over the pile of food on the tabletop, Huo Zaiyuan glances up at Long Zhanye who is in the middle of eating a piece of bread. "Older brother Long, during the time I go into 'closed-door cultivation', I'll leave these two in your hands."
"No problem." Long Zhanye agrees immediately, flashing a meaningful smile. "We'll wait until you come out, then we'll have to leave this place."
"Okay." With that, he turns to return back to the bedroom.
"Little Yuan, are you not going to eat something first?" Staring at the slim back, Long Zhanye frowns. He hasn't forgotten that the youth has not eaten anything these few days.
"I'm not hungry."
Picking up an apple, Long Zhanye walks over. "I know you are anxious to continue cultivating, but it wouldn't do to harm your body. Be good, eat this before going back to your space."
Standing at his full height, Long Zhanye is a good head taller than Huo Zaiyuan. Typically, Huo Zaiyuan doesn't think much about it, but now that he (LZY) is standing so close, eyes unyielding, his heart involuntarily skips a beat.
Yah ~ this imposing manner befitting a senior military officer, it truly is a rare sight to behold...taking the apple from Long Zhanye and biting down on it, Huo Zaiyuan's pretty petal-lips curves into a small smile.
Upon seeing the interaction between Huo Zaiyuan and Long Zhanye, Li Qing's eyes narrows, a mischievous light appearing. Leaning in to whisper in Qin Jun's ear, he murmurs something to his lover. Immediately after, a bright red tomato flies through the air, striking Li Qing on the forehead.
In the middle of the victim's loud cursing, Huo Zaiyuan happily enters his space.
~~~
After leaving some instructions behind with the other three, Huo Zaiyuan is able to rest his worries and enters the space. Taking one of the two peaches, he sits cross-legged on the floor of the bamboo house. When he was at the peak of the first level, he ate a peach then. Thus, he knows how sweet the peach's flesh is. In addition, these peaches are what allows him to break through to the next level. So there is really no reason to hesitate. And there's also the fact that he wishes to know how much stronger he will be once he reaches level three.
Eating a mouthful, he is a little startled to note that compared to the last time, this peach tastes even more delicious. Dissolving in his mouth, it slides down his throat as a trickle of warm energy. Devouring the entire fruit, he feels full to the brim of spiritual power. His eyes slide close, intending to do the same as before and merge the two spheres of energy into one when suddenly, sharp stabs of pain flash throughout his body.
"Urgh..."
Huo Zaiyuan frowns, but before he can do anything, his body sways and he collapses on his side. With no time to figure out what went wrong, violent bursts of pain assault his entire being. It feels as though someone forcibly cut his bones open and dragged a metal pipe through it, digging out the marrow. It was an indescribable agony that had him breaking out in cold sweat, too breathless to even cry out in pain.
Gritting his teeth, he can only wrap his arms tight around his body and roll on the floor in an attempt to alleviate the torture.
In his past life when he died under the swarm of devil ants, the acute agony he felt then is something he cannot forget. However, he died rather quickly...it was only a second of torment. Now, though...
"Ahh - "
The excruciating pain intensified beyond his imagination and in the end, he couldn't take it anymore and cry out. His prone form twitches once before falling silent, curved into a ball and unmoving.
Perspiration dripping from his face, both eyes squeezed shut, complexion deathly pale, bloodless lips. In the end, Huo Zaiyuan can't endure the intense pain and faints. As he lays unconscious, the dragon tattoo around his wrist glows a faint silver which spreads to his right hand and eventually envelops his entire body. Following that, his body also undergoes another change.
As the spiritual energy begins to alter Huo Zaiyuan's body, the bamboo house also begins to transform...
Huo Zaiyuan doesn't know exactly how long he passed out for, but when he finally comes to blearily, his body no longer aches, his four limbs still work the way they are meant to and not one bone is misplaced. Instead, he feels lighter. Well, and his entire body stinks. Badly enough he could've fainted right away again.
Controlling his breathing so he doesn't choke on the stench, he glances down at his clothes, which had become pitch black, as though someone poured a bucket of tar over him. This was a reminiscence of the last time he broke through, but this time, the putrid odour is many times worst.
Crawling to his feet, he sprints straight for the spring pool, only to nearly trip over his feet as he abruptly stops dead. The plain outside the bamboo home is somehow sprouting multi-coloured flowers of various kinds. Although the plantation itself hasn't changed, a clear brook now cuts its way through it. As for the spring pool itself, the bamboo forest that originally surrounds it has retreated back a little, revealing the spring clearly, still full of sparkling water and rich spiritual energy.
Oh my goodness! He just took one little nap and the entire space turns upside down, changing drastically. Also, he doesn't know if it is his imagination, but he feels the space has gotten a little bit bigger...
This significant change of his space amazed Huo Zaiyuan, but he really can't ignore the stench on his body any longer. In a flash, he tossed the soiled clothes away and plunges into the pool. Now his top priority is to...bathe!
Soaking in the pool for a while, he proceeds to scrub all over until not one trace of black remains. It might have been a misconception, but he feels this time, the stains were much harder to wash away on top of being smellier. He had to remain in the pool for a lot longer until the smell disappeared.
Recalling that every time he eats a peach, he will be subjected to this, his face blackens.
Feeling refreshed from the bath, he returns to the house and spends quite a bit of effort to remove the dark substance from the floor. After a hard labour, he is finally able to rest, flipping through the ancient manual to see what new things appeared on the blank pages.
Sure enough, the level three arts are there, new spells written out. It also explains that the second peach he ate was meant to clear the impurities in his bones and marrow, not just the ones in his flesh. No wonder the pain had been on another level altogether. As it turns out, the remaining peach still sitting on the table has its own use too...
After breaking through to the third level, the new Heaven Concealing Array he learns has the ability to be combined a number of times to form a huge boundary. When he had access to the first and second level spells, he made it compulsory to memorise every one of them, even if he doesn't fully understand the functions of them all, or how they would ever come in useful. Now, as he reads through the description of this level three array, he discovers that it is not as simple as it sounds. So long as the array is activated, it can resist all attacks. The one drawback is the time it can stay active for is directly connected to how much spiritual energy the user has...that's where the peach sitting on his desk comes in. In order to prevent the user from exhausting their internal energy while keeping the array activated, one can eat this peach to replenish their reserve instantly.
However, this peach cannot be eaten like the previous two. Instead, its flesh has to be crushed and mixed with the spring water to create a juice. This one peach will be able to fill three bamboo tubes.
Following the instructions written in the book, he crushes the fruit into a big mixing bowl and adds a measure of spring water in. Filling three tubes, he seals them all and buries them beside the bamboo house.
Now that everything has been settled, Huo Zaiyuan finally exits the space on the fifth day.
Footnotes:
[1] Meaning being hurt even when the target didn't do anything to deserve it/not involved in the situation.