Qinyang and Bao Zhi sat in a small sampan boat surrounded by thick mist and pale white water.
Other boats dotted the foggy horizon of this artificial secluded domain of heaven and earth.
"What is this place?" Qinyang shivered. "It gives the creeps."
Bao Zhi felt familiar suppression. "This seems like a segnt of the River of Ti!"
"But shouldn't we be inside the grotto heaven?" Qinyang wondered.
As a forr rank eight gu immortal, Bao Zhi had more experience. The water around them unmistakably ca from the River of Ti, its dense ti path dao marks suppressed other paths.
His investigative killer moves were greatly reduced. Only Human Qi Sensation worked, revealing many gu immortals nearby from various paths: soul, transformation, ti, wind, dark path and others.
Voices drifted through the fog as immortals debated cooperation and competition. The aged voice of Shi Ji bood above the rest: "I am here for the inheritance. I do not mind if you follow , but if you dare stand in my way... Hehehe."
The gu immortals discovered how to control their boats via gu worms, moving at arduously slow pace.
One gu immortal attempted to fly above the fog.
Woosh! Splash, splash!
Two huge splashes followed by silence. "There is sothing in the water!" Soone alard.
Hui Hui, the ancient desolate year beast lurked beneath.
An ethereal chi sounded everywhere: "Contestants of Ti Fisher Grotto! You have passed the first trial. Now, let the second stage begin. Take your fishing rods."
Simple fishing rods materialized on each boat.
"If this test is about embodying the clue, then it's about patience, achieving tranquility," Bao Zhi pointed out.
Soon clashes erupted. A purple arrow striking a boat, wind blades retaliating. The grotto's arrangent didn't disqualify them, confirming such conflicts remained within rules.
Strangely, the ti path gu immortal Shi Ji encountered the most trouble from the water beast. "This damnable beast!" he cursed as waves nearly capsized him.
Bao Zhi and Qinyang sat idle until Qinyang activated a killer move in her aperture.
"[BOOT SEQUENCE START]"
"[1/27] - CIRCUIT CHECK... [OK]"
"[2/27] - POWER SOURCE CHECK... [4%]"
"[WARNING]: INSUFFICIENT ESSENCE"
"[3/27] - AUXILIARY POWER... [ON]"
...
"[27/27] - GENERATING SUMMARY... [OK]"
"[INFO]: BOOT PROCESS COMPLETE"
"[INFO]: REDUCED FUNCTIONALITY"
"WELCO USER: QINYANG"
"So far so good. The stuff I added seems to work." Qinyang glanced at the ssages scrolling before her mind's eye.
"[ERROR]: SYSTEM LOG FILE ALREADY EXISTS WITH CURRENT DATE"
"OVERRIDE EXISTING LOG FILE? [Y/N]"
"Huh? What is this?" She quickly read the ssages.
"This is the first ti I'm using this system. Why are there already log files here? Did Jue Shi forget to wipe the storage before giving the gu to ?"
She was just about to confirm overwriting, when she realized sothing.
"What do you an log files for the current date? That's not possible! Is the date set wrong?"
"Cancel, don't override. Move the existing file to another location."
"FILE MOVED TO USER DIRECTORY. NEW SYSTEM LOG CREATED."
"Let's see what this was..." She checked the date and size. "Sure enough, it is not empty."
"Open this file."
"FILE IS CORRUPTED. ATTEMPT DATA RECOVERY? [Y/N]"
"Do it."
"DATA RECOVERY RATE 89%. UPDATING FILE..."
"Most of it seems intact, let's see it then."
The information stread into her mind at a fast rate.
It contained various system information, conversation logs, and records of external events.
Qinyang combed through the mundane records with innate finesse until she found sothing shocking.
"These are my records?" She read the internal conversation logs with the system. "But it can't be, this is the first I'm using this new version of the system!"
She continued with increasing incredulity as the logs not only depicted a very similar alternate reality but continued into the future too.
The external recordings also matched her current circumstances on the boat.
"This makes no sense. Did it already start overriding the file in the beginning?"
She arrived at the corrupted part, there was a jump in the continuity as the scenery suddenly changed while she replayed the events.
There was no longer any familiarity. The events took place from a middle aged man's perspective.
Intense anticipation, then a chaotic battle for a spiritual herb.
"This makes no sense whatsoever. These are soone else's mories. It is most likely from the previous inheritor of the Golden Red Armor inheritance and the files got mixed up."
Nearing the end of the recording, the huge explosion buried this person, and another wave of information entered Qinyang's mind.
"???"
These were her own mories that the person she was spectating suddenly rembered.
"Maybe I shouldn't open corrupted files. This is giving a big headache." She thought.
"I am Qinyang and not Zhou Yang!" The final thought played out and the recording ended.
Qinyang ntally paused. There was too much going on here to be a re coincidence.
"Why would I see these? In what scenario could this all make any sense?"
"There is sothing wrong with this place. It is either making the system malfunction, or worse... I am hallucinating."
She opened her eyes, about to ask Bao Zhi if he could detect so kind of anomaly. But she was encased in solid ice.
Crystalline Ti!
Bao Zhi sat calmly frozen as well, fishing rod in hand.
The fog receded, improving visibility. Qinyang noticed the water surface wasn't level, they were accelerating!
All boats closed in, their occupants frozen solid in eerie silence as well.
Gazing at the horizon, Qinyang saw an impossible sight: behind the curving river water, like an upside-down mountain carved from the river, a huge vortex drew the tiny fishing boats down and forward.
"Oh no, no, no! This can't be real, this can't be real." She panicked.
"..."
"But if it isn't real, then... is it a dream?" She was grasping at straws. "This all must be a dream realm!"
"Then the thing I saw, was that the second stage of the—"
"[WARNING]: INTERNAL CLOCK OUT OF SYNC... CORRECTING... OK"
"What?" She had no ti to finish her speculation, the little boat continued to accelerate in a downward spiral at breakneck speeds.
"[WARNING]: INTERNAL CLOCK OUT OF SYNC... CORRECTING... OK"
"Don't tell this is the source of the corrupted file?"
"[WARNING]: INTERNAL CLOCK OUT OF SYNC... CORRECTING..."
"Shit! I don't have the ti! I need to— Uhmm..." She hurried in her mind, fumbling to issue one last command.
"Set reminder! Set reminder to—"
"[ERROR]: UNKNOWN ERROR"
"REBOOTING"
* * * * *
Silver Wind Valley
Zhou Yang crouched in his hidden spot near the base of the ancient tree where the moonlight lotus was beginning to bloom.
He distinctly heard a faint sound.
"What?" He checked his surroundings suspiciously. "Soone is using a sound path gu worm to target !"
He focused on the annoying sound, eyes closed, and activated his defensive gu worms.
But the sound continued to ring in his mind louder.
Ding! Ding! DING! DING!
He drew in a sharp breath and opened his eyes suddenly.
"I'm here again." Qinyang scanned her surrounding with surprise.
"Just as I thought, I'm in a dream realm." She studied the body she now embodied.
In her mind she muted the distorted sound of the alarm.
She called upon her self-made system. It took a while for it to respond and the chanical voice sounded muffled and very distant.
"It seems the power of my system killer move is greatly reduced in this second stage of the dream realm."
She reviewed the events recorded in the logs once again, now with heightened attention.
Next, she checked the aperture.
There was as set of gu worms in Zhou Yang's aperture that Qinyang had trouble identifying.
So of them had an information path aura, she activated one.
"To disciple Zhou Yang. Proceed imdiately to Silver Wind Valley and retrieve the moonlight lotus. The spiritual herb blooms at sunset on the seventh day of the second month. Secure the herb for sect use. The use of force is permitted, but avoid unnecessary conflict. The lotus takes priority over all other considerations. Return within ten days of departure."
As soon as Qinyang regained her lucidity within the dream realm, Zhou Yang and his mories from the original events were no more.
"Dream realms are like historical puzzles. I have to figure out the condition that fulfills this dream realm. Then the scene will advance to the next, or its exploration succeeds if it's the last scene."
"From the records I can see there will be a sudden explosion. I need to get away from here as fast as possible."
She still felt suspicious about future records she had no recollection of, but other concerns were more pressing at the mont.
She left her hiding spot and made her way up the other side of the valley.
"That's Zhou Yang, where is he going?"
"Is he giving up?"
"He must have figured sothing out. Soone follow him!"
"He isn't even using his movent gu, this is definitely just a diversion. Which one of you is working with him?"
Huf. Huf.
Qinyang was out of breath from climbing the hillside in big strides.
"More, I need to make distance." She glanced back over her shoulder.
The commotion from the moonlight lotus reached her ear at this mont.
"Not good, I only have a few minutes left until the explosion. I won't make it!"
She took so deep breaths.
"This isn't real. This is only a dream realm." She reminded herself. "I won't die. Everything will be fine."
"But then shouldn't I take more risks?" She glanced at her abdon and chose a gu worm.
She channeled the rank four yellow golden essence and activated the gu.
A small paper crane materialized in her palm and imdiately burst into flas, crumbling to ash.
"Wrong one!" Panic crept into her voice.
That was a ssenger crane gu, completely useless for movent.
She chose another gu from her aperture, a crystalline beetle that looked like it was made of transparent glass.
The mont she activated the gu, her body beca completely transparent. She could see right through her own hands.
"This is concealnt!" Through her translucent form, she could see the commotion in the valley intensifying. Flashes of techniques lit up the area around the lotus.
She grabbed a third gu, this one resembling a small golden quill pen. "Please be movent, please be movent!"
The contract quill gu activated with a burst of golden light.
Suddenly, glowing text began appearing in the air around her, writing out a formal agreent in bold script.
The words "HEREBY AGREE TO..." floated past her face in shimring golden letters.
"Are you kidding right now?" Qinyang looked at the floating contract text in dismay.
She was surrounded by a legal docunt written in light, still completely transparent, while precious seconds ticked away.
The sounds from the valley were reaching their climax. Ti was running out.
Her hands shook as she chose another gu. This one looked like a tiny silver butterfly with inscription marks on its wings. "Fourth ti's the charm."
The mont she activated the butterfly letter gu, her mouth opened involuntarily and she began speaking in soone else's voice: "Dearest brother, the harvest this year has been bountiful and mother sends her regards—"
"I'm going to die because I'm delivering soone's mail!" She clamped her hands over her mouth, but the ssage kept trying to force its way out between her fingers.
She grabbed the next gu without even looking at it properly. A small jade token with carved footprints. "Co on, co on!"
This ti, she felt it imdiately. The swift ssenger gu activated and power surged through her legs like lightning.
"Finally!" She thought.
Qinyang launched herself up the hillside in massive bounds. Each step carried her dozens of ters as the swift ssenger gu propelled her with urgency.
She was still completely transparent with a trailing floating contract text behind her like so kind of bureaucratic ghost.
Words kept forcing their way out of her mouth as she raced up the slope: "—the steel grass gu have been multiplying nicely, and Elder Zhang finally approved my request for that liquor worm gu we discussed. Oh, and don't forget to feed your thick beard gu twice weekly or it gets moldy—"
She reached the crest of the opposing hill just as a trendous detonation erupted from the green hill where Hong Ting and Liu Shu Xian had t.
A pillar of white light shot into the sky, followed by a shockwave that turned the very air visible. The earth beneath the valley cracked and split. Massive boulders the size of houses tumbled down in an avalanche that buried everything.
The destruction consud the entire area where the lotus competition had been taking place.
But then the shockwave reached her.
She frantically reached for what she hoped was a defensive gu.
Guh! She suffered a backlash from the wrong gu's activation.
She tried another one, a gu that looked like a tiny silver ear.
The listening wind gu activated and suddenly she could hear every sound within miles, including the deafening roar of the approaching shockwave amplified a hundredfold. She scread and covered her ears.
The blast wave hit her like a giant's fist. Even at this distance, the force was overwhelming. She was thrown backward, her transparent body tumbling across the rocky ground. Sharp stones tore at her invisible skin. Her ribs cracked with audible snaps.
Qinyang rolled to a stop against a boulder. Every part of her body scread in pain. Through blurred vision, she watched the distant valley settle into an eerie silence, completely transford into a landscape of destruction.
"Note to self." She thought, spitting floating drops of blood. "Learn to identify information path defensive gu before the next ti."
The contract text continued to swirl around her cheerfully, as if trying to get her to sign sothing even while she lay there broken and bleeding.
"—give my love to little sister and tell her the prival stones I promised is in the usual hiding spot. Your loving sister, Xiao Lan. Lastly, the gu house rent is due next month, don't forget!"
Then her world turned even more blurred and this stage of the dream realm ca to an end.
* * * * *
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