The next morning, the gentle sunlight streamed through the wooden window of the inn and fell on Mu Yun's face. Before long, he slowly opened his eyes.
"Hah…" He stared at the beams overhead, feeling a sense of unreality.
"Big Brother? Big Brother… hey… if you're there, please say something." He was both amused and exasperated, but he resigned himself to the fact that there was another consciousness inside him—one from another civilization.
"Why does such a good thing have to happen to me?"
He reached up and patted his own cheeks.
"Am I the Chosen One? My ultimate goal… to save Earth's civilization…?"
"Activate Hongmeng Creative Neurological System." A sudden inspiration struck him, and he issued the command in his mind.
"As expected… still no response."
"Why can't I use the Earth technology weapon systems when I'm awake? Is some special condition required?"
Mu Yun felt the frustration of possessing a treasure trove of abilities he could not use. He deeply envied the feeling of power he had experienced when the plasma light beam shot from his fingertip and easily killed a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
After all, his current cultivation level was still far, far from that of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Thump, thump, thump… Just as Mu Yun was sinking into self-doubt, a knock came at the door.
He shook his head, suppressed the nausea from his hangover, and walked to the door.
When he opened it, he was greeted by Master Li's beaming face.
"You were drunk last night, young friend. Your brother Yumo called me back and helped you to rest here."
Mu Yun tried to recall what had happened the night before, but the drunkenness had left him with no memory of it.
Seeing that Mu Yun did not respond, Master Li did not mind. He stepped aside and pointed into the room.
"The things on the table were left for you by him. You should keep them well." As he spoke, his expression was quite vivid, his pudgy face scrunched up with apparent delight.
Mu Yun paid him little attention. At Master Li's words, he turned around and indeed saw the items Yumo had left on the table.
A small brown pouch and a gourd slightly smaller than a palm.
Mu Yun had seen a brown pouch like this before. Among the possessions left by the cultivator surnamed Leng whom he had killed, there had been a similar bag.
Mu Yun withdrew his gaze and asked, "When did he leave?"
"He left right after helping you to your room last night. He said he had his own place to stay." Master Li answered truthfully.
…
After Master Li left, Mu Yun sat on the bed and thought. From Master Li's overjoyed expression, it was clear that he had gained considerable benefits from Yumo, his newly sworn brother.
That brown pouch on the table was likely a storage pouch, something only cultivators could use. Mu Yun's gaze fell on the small gourd.
"He wouldn't have… left me a gourd full of wine, would he?"
Somewhat amused despite himself, he picked up the gourd.
Just then, a voice suddenly sounded in Mu Yun's mind. He immediately looked around, but saw no one.
"Brother Mu Yun, don't be nervous. This is a sound talisman I left on this gourd artifact."
Recognizing Yumo's voice, Mu Yun gradually calmed down. The voice continued in his mind: "This sound talisman is a cultivator's technique. You don't need to understand it for now."
The voice paused, then went on: "Last night, I felt an instant connection with you, Brother Mu Yun. I would have liked to continue drinking with you, but mundane matters press upon me, and I must leave. The items on the table are all from the cultivation world. Seeing your strong yearning for that world last night, I give them to you. I also hope that you can become as powerful as Emperor Yu."
Mu Yun felt a warm current in his heart as he looked at the two items on the table.
Yumo briefly explained how to use them and some precautions, then his tone gradually turned serious.
"In the near future, Qingchuan City and even the surrounding region may fall into great chaos. If you stay here, Brother Mu Yun, you must be extremely careful. Last night, I overheard near a tavern that you had been inquiring about the Jubao Pavilion. That may already have brought a deadly threat upon you. But do not worry—I have helped to cover it up."
"That Jubao Pavilion is actually the Suichong Pavilion. It is said that the Suichong Pavilion may hide in the mortal world, or conceal itself in sacred mountains, or be used by some great power of an era… In short, it changes in a thousand ways and holds countless treasures. Both mortals and cultivators can exchange for what they desire within it. In recent years, it has appeared in Qingchuan City under the name Jubao Pavilion, and has been here for over a hundred years. As a result, cultivation forces from the surrounding regions have come to investigate in secret."
The voice fell silent for a moment, then continued: "The intrigues and deceptions of the cultivation world are beyond imagination. My purpose in seeking you out last night was not pure, but unexpectedly I felt an instant connection with you, and we called each other brothers. However, if you ever step into the cultivation world, Brother Mu Yun, you must be extremely careful." After that, the voice fell silent.
Mu Yun's face paled. He had not imagined there were so many hidden complications. Yumo's words echoed in his mind again and again. He stood by the desk for a long time.
"Enough. What Brother Yumo spoke of is far beyond what I can touch now. For the time being, my priority is to complete the task Grandfather gave me." Mu Yun murmured to himself, then picked up the brown pouch Yumo had given him to examine.
From the sound talisman Yumo had left, Mu Yun had already learned how to use the two items and some knowledge about the cultivation world. Now, he bit his finger and let a drop of blood fall onto the brown pouch.
"Brother Yumo said this brown pouch is a storage pouch, a low-grade storage artifact. The small gourd is a mid-grade artifact. Low-grade and mid-grade artifacts have no artifact spirit; they only require a drop of blood to recognize their master. But once an artifact has recognized its master, unless the owner dies or actively erases the mark, no one else can use it."
Thoughts raced through Mu Yun's mind. As his blood dripped onto the storage pouch, ripples spread across its surface. The blood did not spread; it simply vanished.
When the ripples faded, Mu Yun felt a mysterious connection in his mind, as if he had gained an extra pair of hands.He sensed that with a single thought, he could open the storage pouch—a completely different feeling from the earlier sense of separation between himself and the object.
Suppressing his excitement, he tried to control his thoughts and opened the storage pouch.
The pouch in his hand did not change, but in his mind, an image of a space about ten zhang in size appeared.
The space was brightly lit, with rows and rows of various items—some he had seen before, many he had not.
Small characters attached themselves to each item, labeling them.
…
"This is Dragon Beard!" Mu Yun was ecstatic, his expression that of a sudden nouveau riche.
"Black Obsidian Iron, Solid Copper, Qu Stone!" His eyes widened. "The very items Grandfather told me to find—they are all here. That saves a lot of trouble."
The storage pouch was a common storage artifact in the cultivation world, with low-grade, mid-grade, and high-grade varieties. A low-grade storage pouch could only store ordinary items like minerals and pills. A mid-grade storage pouch could store low-grade artifacts. A high-grade storage pouch could hold a vast array of things, even living creatures.
Though this was only a low-grade storage pouch, the resources inside were more than enough to cause a surge in strength for Mu Yun, who was not even a cultivator yet.
Just as Mu Yun was joyfully inspecting his newfound assets, a sudden dizziness assaulted him, followed by a tearing pain in his soul.
Before he could react, his vision went dark, and he collapsed into unconsciousness.
A few breaths after Mu Yun fell unconscious, faint white light began to emanate from his temples and the Baihui acupoint on the top of his head. Within moments, the light spread across his entire body, enveloping him.
If Old Man Zhu had been present, he would have been greatly alarmed, for this was a precursor to breaking through to the Qi Refining stage.
The storage pouch was a cultivator's tool; using it consumed spiritual sense. If Mu Yun had already reached Qi Refining, he might not have suffered such pain.
He had just used the storage pouch and been forced to expend a trace of the mental power that only Qi Refining cultivators possessed.
…
Mental power was a kind of spiritual fluctuation generated by the human mind. Before a Qi Refining cultivator broke through to the Kaiyang Realm, this fluctuation was called mental power. For example, the Object Manipulation stage used mental power to briefly control objects. After breaking through the final layer of Qi Refining, a Foundation Establishment cultivator's mental power could connect with the vast heavens and earth, multiplying its strength many times over. At that point, such spiritual fluctuations were called divine consciousness by cultivators.
At present, Mu Yun was only at the mid-stage of Body Refining, and his mental power was very weak. Perhaps Yumo had done this deliberately, or perhaps he had overlooked this point. By binding the storage pouch with a drop of blood, Mu Yun had unknowingly entered it. Though this had caused him great exhaustion and harm, it had also inadvertently opened a door to mental power for him.
Forcibly enhancing mental power in this way—throughout history, Mu Yun was likely the only one who had ever done it.
This sudden, life-threatening danger passively activated the Hongmeng Creative Neurological System, which quietly operated to protect and repair Mu Yun's nervous system.
There was another reason as well: when the Earth-origin Mu Yun had been subjected to ability extraction and the forced implantation of a spiritual root in that mysterious space, the pain he had endured was far greater than what the current Mu Yun was experiencing.
In terms of pain tolerance, it was probably safe to say that no one could surpass him.
Of course, Mu Yun knew nothing of all this. As dusk approached, he awoke.
He was now sitting cross-legged on the bed, his eyes tightly shut, immersed in a subtle state of being.
At dusk, Qingchuan City was bustling with activity. In the streets and alleys, the cries of vendors, the footsteps of pedestrians, the soft clink of bowls and chopsticks on dining tables, the creak of carriage wheels on stone slabs—all these sounds interwove like a symphony without a conductor, yet in perfect harmony, playing in Mu Yun's mind.
As if wandering through the human world, Mu Yun paused and listened attentively. All the surrounding clamor gradually faded, leaving only the clear ring of a blacksmith's hammer from a distant forge—the sound he had deliberately focused on.
Blocking out ten thousand voices, keeping only one.
After a moment, Mu Yun slowly opened his eyes. A bright, profound light flickered in them. He found that his perception of his surroundings had become extraordinarily sharp—even the dust particles floating in the air could not escape his sight.
Familiarizing himself with his new abilities, Mu Yun murmured, "So this is the Qi Refining stage—the Sharpening Senses stage?…"
"The Antimatter Combat System consumes a tremendous amount of energy from the Nuclear Arc Reactor during conversion, with ninety-nine percent of that energy concentrated in the Hongmeng System. Heh… Little Mu Yun, it seems the Hongmeng Creative Neurological System saved our lives. Is this what they call a blessing in disguise?"
Mu Yun murmured, as if speaking to himself, or perhaps to the other within.