Chapter 84: The Other Space

If it wasn’t related to the tree before them, then the description “Place of a Thousand-Year Eternity” would be meaningless. Since there was a clue pointing to this tree, the “Place of Dragon Playing Pearl” must also be closely related to it.

But what exactly did the “Place of Dragon Playing Pearl” describe?

After discussing it curiously for a few moments, Wang Ye and the others moved closer to the tree, intending to climb up and take a look. However, the moment they approached, a staff member from the area rushed over.

“Hey, hey, hey! What do you think you’re doing?! You can’t just climb the trees in the scenic area! Even the kids know not to climb, what are you adults doing? Don’t be a bad influence on the children! Especially you, old sir, at your age, aren’t you afraid of an accident?”

Hearing the reprimand, Wang Ye and the others could only awkwardly halt their climbing attempt.

Seeing this, Su Xiaoyu couldn’t help but find it amusing.

It seemed she would have to do this herself.

She cast Wind Thought Technique, using it to lift her wheelchair, and slipped into the dense foliage to search for the immortal destiny within this thousand-year-old tree.

But after searching every inch of the tree, she still couldn’t find any place related to the description “Place of Dragon Playing Pearl.” Puzzled, she descended back to the ground.

What could the problem be?

She looked at Wang Ye and his group. Since they couldn’t climb the tree to investigate, there was nothing they could do at the moment.

Seeing this, Su Xiaoyu decided to simply go back into the tree. Perhaps her earlier search hadn’t been thorough enough; she would just look again.

…

Gradually, the sky darkened.

By 5 p.m., the Cloud Rain Mountain viewing area was closing time. Everyone inside had no choice but to leave.

Wang Ye and the others could only walk out helplessly.

Back beside their van, Wang Ye looked at everyone and said, “Everyone, our progress so far has exceeded expectations. In a short time, we’ve solved two of the riddles. The only problem left before us is what the ‘Place of Dragon Playing Pearl’ points to.”

Li Ru frowned. “But what exactly does ‘Place of Dragon Playing Pearl’ refer to? I can’t shake the feeling that even if we climbed that tree, we might not necessarily be able to figure it out.”

Deciphering the clues to “Eight Dragons Encircling” and “Place of a Thousand-Year Eternity” so quickly was certainly a good thing, but it didn’t mean the last clue would be resolved so easily.

Wang Ye’s expression grew serious. “You’re right. So we can’t do things by the book anymore.”

Li Ru: “What do you mean?”

Wang Ye: “Originally, I just wanted to be a law-abiding citizen and not enter the scenic area when it’s not supposed to be open. But now, the immortal destiny is only a hair’s breadth away. There’s no way I can miss this… Once it’s dark, we’ll carefully avoid the surveillance cameras and sneak into the scenic area. We absolutely must figure out the meaning of ‘Place of Dragon Playing Pearl’.”

Hearing Wang Ye, Li Ru and the other three exchanged glances, then nodded solemnly.

Just as Wang Ye said, they were only a step away from the immortal destiny. How could they not be anxious?

In urgent matters, one must adapt to the circumstances.

…

The sky grew darker.

A chill wind blew across Cloud Rain Mountain, and besides the rustling sounds, no other noise could be heard.

In this environment, Wang Ye and his four companions quietly left the van, sneaking toward the scenic area with hunched bodies.

Su Xiaoyu had long been aware of their plan. So at this moment, she secretly helped out, blocking some surveillance cameras that Wang Ye and the others couldn’t easily avoid. She simply used Wind Thought Technique to land a leaf on the camera lens, making it look like a naturally fallen leaf.

With Su Xiaoyu’s covert assistance, Wang Ye and his group reached the base of the thousand-year-old tree.

“Now it’s up to you,” Su Xiaoyu thought, watching them.

She had searched up and down that tree many times today but still hadn’t discovered anything. She could only place her hopes on Wang Ye and the others.

As she watched them climb the tree, she waited quietly below.

Half an hour later, Wang Ye and the others climbed back down.

“Did you find anything?”

“I didn’t. You?”

“Me neither. Strange, there’s nothing here but normal branches and leaves.”

“Are we going to be stuck at the final step?”

They stood there discussing, looking utterly dejected, completely clueless about how to take this next step.

Seeing this, Su Xiaoyu sighed. These people hadn’t found anything either?

“Perhaps I need to change my approach.”

As if something had occurred to her, Su Xiaoyu immediately steered her wheelchair away, hiding behind a railing not far off. She then took the Diorama Box out of her Storage Ring.

Nothing had changed in the Diorama Box that day. Both the Qixi Festival Sect and the Golden Dragon Market were thriving.

After shifting her vision range to the Qixi Festival Sect, Su Xiaoyu looked at a three-story Pavilion.

This Pavilion was the Qixi Festival Sect’s library. Tong Shishi had a considerable hobby of collecting books, gathering many volumes related to the Cultivation World and storing them here.

Su Xiaoyu had previously glanced through the library once and vaguely remembered some descriptions about Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands. She wondered if the Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands in the Cultivation World differed from those in reality.

Either way, she began using Wind Thought Technique to open the library’s windows and searched through the books inside.

“Found it.”

It didn’t take long for Su Xiaoyu to find a book introducing Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands.

She used Wind Thought Technique to flip it open and read.

A Grotto-Heaven or Blessed Land was a place with extremely dense Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy.

A Blessed Land was originally an existing famous mountain or a deep valley abyss. As long as the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy was dense enough, it qualified as a Blessed Land.

A Grotto-Heaven was different.

From the description, a Grotto-Heaven referred to a space existing in an other space, not on the same plane as the current world. It only had a single connection point. This connection point might be very small, perhaps only fist-sized, but by channeling Spiritual Power to activate it, one could open the path into the Grotto-Heaven.

In the Cultivation World, Grotto-Heavens were numerous, numbering in the hundreds and thousands, too many to list…

The rest was simply an introduction to existing Grotto-Heavens. Su Xiaoyu felt she didn’t need to read any further; she now understood the crux of the issue.

“If the Carefree Grotto-Heaven truly exists, and if the other clues Wang Ye found are correct, then the connection point to the Carefree Grotto-Heaven is on that thousand-year-old tree, the ‘Place of a Thousand-Year Eternity’.”

Su Xiaoyu murmured to herself.

She put the Diorama Box back into her Storage Ring and turned her head to look at the enormous ancient tree.

The connection point was on the ancient tree. Its specific location should be indicated by the clue “Place of Dragon Playing Pearl.” If one couldn’t understand the meaning of “Place of Dragon Playing Pearl,” then expending Spiritual Power across the tree and touching every spot might also accidentally activate the connection point to the Carefree Grotto-Heaven.

Just as this thought crossed Su Xiaoyu’s mind, something changed over at the thousand-year-old tree.