Chapter 164: Chapter 26 Miss Shi Weeping and Sobbing
Chun Mang Jun arranged a room for Luo Yan and Shi Liuli.

The furnishings in the room were extremely simple, consisting only of a stone bed, stone table, and stone stools.

Luckily, Luo Yan’s storage bag contained many commonly used pieces of furniture—they were leftovers from when he initially helped Wei Dongliu arrange the Sect at Shiping Mountain, which he had purchased from Yuqing View.

He then took them out one by one, carefully arranging them in the room: cabinets, racks, and even a copper kettle and tea leaves for brewing tea, as well as some meditation cushions and wall hangings.

After everything was set up, the room felt much cozier. Luo Yan then took out several small flags and began to set up the defensive array, only to hear Miss Shi suddenly start sobbing next to him.

“Sister, what’s wrong?” Luo Yan asked as he worked on the formation.

“Are we going to be stuck here forever?” Shi Liuli asked sorrowfully.

“Ah, that…” Luo Yan paused for a moment and then gave a strained smile, “I don’t think so. How about we first study the Gui Xu Grand Formation when the time comes?”

“But Chun Mang Jun said it already.” Shi Liuli spoke in despair, “Since ancient times, no cultivator has ever been able to unravel the mysteries of the grand formation and successfully leave this place!”

“Just because they couldn’t, doesn’t mean we can’t,” Luo Yan said, unconvinced. He turned and quietly asked the Kunlun Mirror in his Sea of Consciousness, “Ah Jing, the save from before outside the secret realm, we can still load it, right?”

“…We can,” the Kunlun Mirror confirmed, “However, this Great Gorge is indeed peculiar. To transport you out, it would consume far more spiritual power than usual.”

“Then that’s settled,” Luo Yan said, immediately as if he had taken a calming pill, his tone also lightening up, “I knew I could always trust my Ah Jing! By the way, about Miss Shi…”

“That’s not possible,” the Kunlun Mirror frowned and said, “I’ve told you before, you are a person from outside this world, not within the ‘future’ set by the Time Dao, that’s why you can traverse time and space and change fate. That’s also the reason I chose you.”

“She is from this world. The moment I try to take her through time and space, she would immediately be subjected to the backlash of the Time Dao.”

“I understand,” Luo Yan said seriously, “So if I want to use your help to leave the Great Gorge, I can only leave Miss Shi behind, right?”

“…That’s how it is,” the Kunlun Mirror said, somewhat nervously.

Was he really going to leave Shi Liuli behind and save himself?

Strictly speaking, it indeed couldn’t be helped.

After all, Miss Shi couldn’t be transported by me, which was a truly sad and helpless reality.

But… even if you were to abandon her, at least make an effort to hesitate and struggle for a while first, right?

Instead of immediately making a cold-hearted and ruthless decision, it would make me feel…

The Kunlun Mirror couldn’t help but get lost in thought, but Luo Yan didn’t immediately make a statement. Instead, he said:

“I see, so this can only be considered a last resort.”

“Yes, it can serve as a last resort,” the Kunlun Mirror hastily added, inwardly relieved.

“Sister,” Luo Yan began to comfort Shi Liuli again, “Don’t rush to conclusions. After all, we haven’t studied that Gui Xu Grand Formation yet. Don’t easily assert that we will fail.”

Miss Shi didn’t believe him. She thought about the over one hundred thousand books in that hall that hadn’t been thoroughly studied, all those ancient cultivator predecessors who hadn’t figured it out, and the chances that she and her brother could succeed seemed incredibly slim. She might end up trapped here until death… With that thought, she couldn’t help but have a mental breakdown and burst into loud tears.

Luo Yan was so anxious that he ran in circles around her. He wiped her tears, held her to comfort her, made funny faces to make her laugh, pinched her cheeks to annoy her, but nothing worked.

Miss Shi could do nothing but cry up a storm, sobbing uncontrollably, as she rubbed her tears forcefully onto Luo Yan’s clothes.

Finally, Luo Yan had a flash of inspiration and said,

“That’s right, Senior Sister! You’re a person of destiny, aren’t you? Don’t you have that…what’s it called…mysterious studies?”

He found it a bit embarrassing to mention, as the concept of mysterious studies was quite far-fetched.

But after careful consideration, all that mattered was that Miss Shi believed in it, and the priority was to cheer her up!

Upon hearing the phrase “person of destiny,” Shi Liuli’s sobbing seemed to have subsided a little.

Luo Yan seized the moment to press on,

“Senior Sister, someone as beautiful and smart as you, born into an Orthodox Sect family, a daughter of an elder, is clearly a favorite of the heavens. How could you possibly end up alone in a place like this? Why would the heavens grant you so many favorable conditions if that were to be your fate? That simply doesn’t make any sense!”

“What you’ve said… does make some sense…” Shi Liuli said intermittently, beginning to blow her nose with a handkerchief.

Seeing Miss Shi gradually returning to her senses, Luo Yan asked her to rest a bit in the room and went out to get her something to eat.

After activating the defensive array of the room, Luo Yan went to the hall and found Zhun Mang Jun lying on the throne.

“Food?” Zhun Mang Jun seemed slightly surprised before responding with a smile, “You can just go to the garden in the backyard and look for yourself; whether it’s animal flesh or fruits and vegetables, or even cooking utensils and spices, you’ll find everything you need.”

“Why is that?” Luo Yan immediately became interested, “Can this place still communicate with the outside world?”

“Of course not,” Zhun Mang Jun replied, “But with so many cultivators stranded here, even with the tiniest probability, there have been ones who brought various types of animal offspring and vegetable seeds… Moreover, most cultivators have practiced fasting and have no desire for food, so I initially left them in the garden to breed freely.”

“Plus, the Gui Xu Grand Formation enriches the spiritual power. Eventually, they proliferated so much in the garden that they became a plague, forcing me to periodically get rid of them. It would be good if you could help alleviate some of that.”

“I see,” Luo Yan said with a somewhat amused expression.

It made sense; aside from a few cultivators, most were accustomed to surviving without food or drink, plus the presence of spiritual power within Gui Xu made the sustenance of animals and vegetation plausible.

“Ah,” he sighed with a hint of emotion, “In the outside world, with limited lifespans, which cultivator doesn’t yearn for immortality? Now that we’ve achieved it here, everyone fears it like a tiger. It’s really strange.”

“You only know their words, not their meaning,” Zhun Mang Jun said with a smile, “The so-called immortality is merely a foundation for ultimate freedom and ease.”

“If one doesn’t achieve immortality, one would live in fear of nearing death. Where is the ease in that? If one is confined here, unable to leave, it’s like languishing in captivity, devoid of any freedom.”

“I’ve been enlightened,” Luo Yan first feigned a look of sincere admiration, complimenting the other for a few sentences, before subtly probing, “I noticed that many of the cultivator seniors in the side hall seem to have been driven mad by being trapped here for so long, but despite having been here even longer than them, you seem to be quite normal.”

“My method wouldn’t work for you,” Zhun Mang Jun said leisurely.

“Oh?” Luo Yan expressed surprise, “I’m keen to hear the details. If it could help maintain sanity over the long term, it would certainly aid me in studying the Gui Xu Grand Formation.”

“I am of the Dragon Clan,” Zhun Mang Jun stated plainly, “The Dragon Clan has the ability to hibernate in the summer and the winter, and can choose to enter a state of deep sleep at will, avoiding the erosion of sanity over time.”

“If you have a way to become a member of the Dragon Clan, you might as well try my method.”

Luo Yan: ………

That’s nonsense, how could I possibly become a dragon…hmm?