Chapter 3: The Mysterious Pact

  This night was dark and gloomy, with dense clouds covering the sky, and not a single star twinkling in the darkness.

  Changxin City, in a desolate forest on the outskirts of town, a bonfire was burning. Chen Luo sat cross-legged on the ground, hunched over with his head down and chin propped up by his hands, which were grasping a wooden stick stirring the flames. His eyes stared blankly at the fire.

  On his way back to the Xiao Luo Tian Institute after being released from prison, he had already made the worst plan. However, when the principal announced that he would be expelled from the institute, he couldn't help but feel a sense of loss and some inability to accept it. But things have come to this, and there is no way to recover, what can be done?

  Expel if you must expel, leaving Xiaoluo Tianyuan doesn't mean you can't cultivate.

  Chen Luo was very clear about the purpose of his return this time, only to fulfill his master's wish, open the treasure house of the Central Academy, and recite the greatest secret in the world to his master. However, now that his cultivation has been abolished, he doesn't even have the qualifications to participate in the assessment of the Central Academy. If he can't even enter the Central Academy, how can he open its treasure house?

  There is still one year left, can I really rebuild to the second boundary within a year and pass the assessment of the Central Academy?

  I don't know, I'm at a loss.

  However, Chen Luo will strive his best for this.

  The spiritual power in the body has been completely lost, and after trying to sense the mental strength, it is still relatively weak. For the time being, it cannot be concentrated and condensed, and it is likely that the formation of the array cannot be arranged in a short period of time. The only option is to slowly cultivate and wait for the spiritual power to gradually recover before continuing to arrange the array.

  Without the assistance of an array method, although cultivation is a bit slow, it can only be so for now.

  Time is limited to one year, can't waste a single day.

  As he thought of this, he began to sit up straight, furrow his brow and close his eyes, wanting to start resonating his soul to draw in the spiritual energy between heaven and earth. 'Soul resonance, drawing in the spirit' was a compulsory course for every witch apprentice, and also the most basic knowledge of cultivation.

  The Path of Cultivation, The Name of Wizard, Seven Great Realms.

  The first realm for beginners is to be an apprentice, those who enter the second realm are called junior wizards, the third realm is intermediate wizard, and the fourth realm is senior wizard. Those who enter the fifth realm become a great wizard who can turn stones into gold, the sixth realm is a divine wizard who can overturn the seas, and the seventh realm is a wizard who can roam the heavens.

  Witch apprentice, first boundary, spiritual impact seven pulses.

  In this realm, apprentices use soul resonance to draw in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, then impact the body's seven spiritual meridians. When the seven spiritual meridians are opened, one can open up the spiritual sea and become a primary wizard.

  One year ago, Chen Luo had successfully cleared the seven spiritual meridians and also opened up his own spiritual sea. However, he was crippled by the people of the Punishment Tower and now there is not a single thread of spiritual energy left in his body.

  At this moment, he was carefully sensing his own situation, but the more he sensed, the deeper his frown became. The condition of his seven spiritual meridians was worse than he had imagined. Normally, when a novice who has just started practicing cultivation, their seven spiritual meridians would be filled with impurities. Through soul resonance and breathing techniques, these impurities would be slowly expelled, ultimately clearing all impurities from the meridians, allowing the spiritual energy to flow through unobstructed, and finally connecting the seven meridians to open up his own spiritual sea.

  Although Chen Luo had already refined the Spiritual Ocean earlier, despite it having dispersed now, fortunately, there weren't many impurities within the Seven Spirit Veins. The reason his eyebrows were furrowed so deeply and his expression was so helpless was that the Seven Spirit Veins were currently somewhat disordered, and there was also a phenomenon of blockage.

  The spiritual veins of ordinary people are connected together like a circle, while Chen Luo's current spiritual veins are now connected together but very irregular and somewhat disordered.

  "It should be the people of the Tower of Punishment who ruined my Spiritual Sea, causing the seven spiritual veins to become disordered and blocked." Chen Luo muttered to himself: "It seems that I need to absorb more spiritual energy to restore the irregularly disordered spiritual veins to their original state and finally condense into a circle."

  Absorbing spiritual energy is a gradual process that accumulates over time, as it involves the soul. This thing can't be rushed, you know. The soul is mysterious and fragile, if something goes wrong and the soul gets hurt, then you'll suffer a great loss.

  The soul is a person's origin.

  A person's talent is reflected in their soul. If the soul is slightly stronger, it will naturally absorb spiritual energy faster than others. On the other hand, if the soul is relatively weak, then one must adopt the most conservative resonance method.

  In the Xiao Luo Tian Yuan, ordinary disciples generally use the 'Double Resonance Double Absorption Method', which means that the soul resonates twice and absorbs twice. This is considered the most conservative and safest resonance absorption method in the Xuan Huang world. Of course, as one's cultivation increases, the soul will also gradually become stronger, allowing for faster absorption speeds.

  Chen Luo's soul was stronger than others since childhood, and he also cultivated spiritual power. His soul strength was more powerful among his peers, at least he had never seen a peer with a stronger soul than himself. He had tried it before, his soul could withstand the highest five vibrations and five absorptions, of course, this was the limit, and he couldn't last long, so many times he used the method of four vibrations and four absorptions.

  "I was imprisoned in that broken place for over a year, I don't know if my soul has weakened or not."

  Chen Luo took a deep breath and began to sense his soul. Then he shook it, causing it to start resonating with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

  The spiritual energy between heaven and earth is invisible and intangible, only by stirring the soul and resonating with it can one draw the spiritual energy over, and then through breathing in and out, lead the spiritual energy in. Chen Luo has not started absorbing yet, he just wants to try if his soul has weakened or not, because when he was in prison, his emotions were low and he didn't have the mood to cultivate, even if he wanted to, there was no spiritual energy to absorb in that place.

  The feeling of resonating with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is very wonderful, perhaps it has been more than a year since I last used my soul to resonate, so when I did it for the first time, it took a long time.

  After the soul's first resonance, Chen Luo immediately felt a gentle breath rushing towards him, just like being lightly stroked by spring breeze, making his body and mind feel pleasant. He knew this was the heavenly spiritual energy, with a long-forgotten feeling. Soon, he began to resonate for the second time, with even thicker spiritual energy surrounding his body. The third resonance, the fourth resonance... Chen Luo took another deep breath, wanting to test whether his soul had weakened or not. He must perform the fifth resonance because his limit was exactly five resonances a year ago.

  Wow!

  After the soul's fifth resonance, the surging spiritual energy enveloped it, and a hint of joy flashed across its face. The fact that it could still perform the fifth resonance indicated that the soul had not weakened. Just as it was about to absorb the energy, it suddenly felt something was off. It clearly remembered that its limit was five resonances just a year ago, and the spiritual energy brought by the five resonances already made its soul feel a sense of oppression.

  But now the soul has no sense of oppression at all, not even a little bit.

  What? How can this be?

  Wasn't it in that broken prison cell where he was locked up for a year, but instead of weakening his soul, it became stronger?

  Is it possible?

  Chen Luo approached the sixth resonance with a curious mindset, and surprisingly, he succeeded. What astonished him even more was that after the sixth resonance, his soul still didn't feel any pressure.

  How did this happen?

  Chen Luo was bewildered by this inexplicable change, and in his confusion, he also began to resonate for the seventh time under the drive of curiosity. What made him unbelievable was that after seven resonances, his soul still did not feel any discomfort.

  The eighth resonance, still nothing.

  The ninth resonance, still no discomfort.

  The tenth resonance, still nothing.

  Chen Luo didn't undergo the eleventh resonance because he was completely stunned and a bit foolish. This situation made him unable to understand, surprised and terrified at the same time. Soon, he felt uncomfortable, but it wasn't his soul, it was his body. After ten resonances, a large amount of dense spiritual energy had been drawn over, and his body really didn't feel comfortable. Instinctively, he began to frantically absorb it, and the surrounding dense spiritual energy entered his body through his seven orifices. It took a full minute for him to finish absorbing all the spiritual energy.

  Opening his eyes again, he sprang to his feet with a whoosh, staring incredulously and muttering in dismay: "How...how can this be? After ten resonance cycles, my soul doesn't feel any discomfort at all. What's going on here?"

  It's not that his endurance is poor, but the fact that he can withstand ten resonances is simply terrifying. A year ago, Chen Luo's soul could only withstand five resonances, which was already exceptional among his peers. Even the teachers at the academy, who had reached the third realm of cultivation, could only withstand seven or eight resonances at most. Now, Chen Luo can withstand ten resonances - how could this not shock him?

  After thinking for a long time, I still can't figure out the reason, and my whole body is a bit dizzy. My inner shock is greater than joy, excitement is overflowing, but also very afraid. However, just as he was pondering, he suddenly felt that his soul was extremely uncomfortable, itchy beyond compare. Yes! Very itchy! But the soul is the origin, and it can't be touched at all. How to solve this? This feeling is like tens of thousands of ants gnawing inside my body, so unbearable.

  "Damn it! Here we go again!"

  Chen Luo was no stranger to this feeling, because when he was imprisoned in the Tower of Punishment, his soul would fall ill every now and then, soon after which he would faint, and then dream that he had come to a dark world. This time was no exception; not long after his soul began to itch, his consciousness once again came to that strange dream realm.

  In the dream, there is no sky or earth, only endless dark flames burning wildly. The flames are eerie and cold, mysterious and terrifying, like the nine-underworld fire that can incinerate everything, and also like the abyssal judgment fire that can punish all living things.

  Chen Luo couldn't remember how many times he had come to this dreamland. Every time he came here, it wouldn't be long before he was burned by the dark fire that filled this place. The pain of being burned was so intense that it left a deep impression on him, and even now, there were still great shadows in his mind.

  This time, he simply sat down cross-legged, waiting for the dark fire to burn himself up. After a while, it seemed that something suddenly rang out, and he looked up at the endless dark void, because every time he came to this dream, he would see something there. At first, it was just a vague mass, and he didn't know what it was. As the number of times he was burned increased, that vague mass became clearer and clearer. It was a book, a very large book, so big that it could cover the entire dark void. Sometimes Chen Luo even suspected that the entire dark void was just a book.

  This book without edges was open, and there were words on it, only the words were very blurry. Although every time after being burned, these words would become clearer, but he still couldn't see clearly. However, this time was a bit different, as if he could see something.

  Those words are ancient and mysterious, profound and subtle, as if they contain the ultimate mystery, and also hide countless history.

  "The one who signs the contract must have their soul undergo 9981 times of burning by the illusory fire, tempering the soul's fearlessness, unyieldingness, and immobility, refining the soul's will, spirit, and wisdom..."

  This book with no edges or corners, made of void itself, had many words on it, but Chen Luo could only see clearly the ones at the beginning, and the rest were extremely blurry. Just glancing at them made him feel dizzy, yet the few words he saw already filled him with terror.

  What is a contract signer? Who did I sign a contract with? What kind of contract is it?

  Do you still need to accept the burning of 99,080 times of false fire for your own soul? Tempering the soul's fearlessness, unyieldingness and immobility? Refining the soul's will, spirit and wisdom? What are these things.

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