014 – Other Worlds

As time continued to pass slowly, the flying streamers that filled the space continued to twine themselves around her body.

Lu Mingshu felt extremely comfortable while this happened; it was as if something had seeped into her body and moistened both her body and spirit.

She suddenly thought of the words ‘flexible tendons’ and ‘purified marrow’. She then inwardly thought, This should be a good thing, right? For the Nine Jade Palace’s Founder to squander half of his lifetime on this ‘Heavenly Wheel’, not even giving up at his deathbed… it must be an extraordinary item.

Lu Mingshu quietly waited as she harboured this thought.

As time continued to pass, the streamers on her body grew denser and denser, until they ultimately formed something similar to a thin cloth over her body, and solidified into a perfect form. Suddenly, it ruptured with a Hong.

Lu Mingshu immediately gasped for air from the fresh air that gushed forth, then realized that she was now outside of that lump of darkness.

She stretched out her hands and looked at her palms, only to see that the frostbite she’d gained from soaking her hands a few days ago had disappeared. Not only had her palm been healed and returned to its previously tender and smooth state, but there was now a layer of luster present.

There was still faint streamers on her body that hadn’t completely dispersed.

Lu Mingshu then moved her hands and feet around, and discovered that they’d suddenly become extremely lithe.

She moved them to and fro as she began to grin from ear-to-ear. However, she suddenly thought of a question: How was she to leave this place? There wasn’t anything here…

She turned her head as she thought, then jumped in shock from what she saw.

A tree! There was a tree!

There was now a tree where she’d previously stood!

This was too strange; other than the six-colored streamers, there was nothing else present! And yet, against all reason, a tree had somehow grown, despite there not being any soil beneath her feet.

Lu Mingshu walked towards the tree once she managed to overcome her shock. The tree looked extremely ordinary, and didn’t seem to be of any sort of peculiar variety. It had a thick trunk, lush branches, and glistening verdant leaves.

She stretched out her hand in an attempt to pick a leaf. However, her whole body froze up the moment her hand touched the leaf.

[ I have a <Blue Spirit Scripture>, I’m willing to exchange it for a Seven-leafed Lotus. ]

[ Does anyone know how to grow a peanut? I’ll be very grateful to the person who tells me how to. ]

[ Clearance! I’m selling everything listed below, bartering is allowed… ]

……

An enormous amount of information gushed into her through the leaf she’d touched. As the information continued to gush in, Lu Mingshu began to feel like her head was about to burst. “Ah!” She shouted as she quickly retracted her hand from the leaf she’d been touching.

She then immediately grasped her head and gasped for air.

Her tension only eased after a period of time had passed. When it had, she began to quietly reflect on the massive influx of information she’d just received.

It seems… like people have left messages on the tree?

Lu Mingshu hesitated to stretch her hand out towards the tree again, as she was somewhat afraid of the painful feeling she’d received from having her head overwhelmed with information. However, she wanted to get to the bottom of this matter. Thus, she steeled her heart, then grasped hold of a leaf once again.

[ Does anyone know the ‘Ancient Tool Refining’ technique? Those who know please elaborate. ]

[ I’ve reached a bottleneck recently. I’m so bored… someone come and chat with me. ]

[ Whoa, what’s going on? I haven’t been here in a while, but the former theory discussion has become a flea market? ]

[ That… where is this place…? ]

Lu Mingshu removed her hand when her mind reached its limit.

Her head was still in great pain, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as before.

She’d noticed that final, weak sentence in the mountain of information. Was someone in a similar situation as her, and didn’t know where they were?

Once she’d had enough rest, Lu Mingshu grasped a leaf once more. This time, she intends to look for that message.

She quickly found it, and when she did, more messages gushed forth, seemingly in reply to their question.

[ Yo, are you a newbie? Don’t you know that this place is the Heavenly Wheel? ]

[ What’s the Heavenly Wheel’? ]

[ Hahaha, what a pure and inexperienced newbie. Come, come, this old fellow shall enlighten you… ]

Lu Mingshu released the leaf and foolishly stood there in a daze.

That self-proclaimed old fellow had said, “The world that you exist in isn’t the only one. In fact, there are many worlds that are similar to your world. However, these worlds will generally not interlock with each other. They’ll move individually and develop their own societies. However, there will always be unusual circumstances amongst regular circumstances. The Heavenly Wheel is one such foreign matter, through which you can communicate with other worlds.”

Lu Mingshu was stunned when she heard all of this. She was still young, barely past the phase of learning how to read, and thus hadn’t yet begun to study the history of confucian classics. All of her understanding of the world was from what her grandfather had told her in passing when he told her stories.

For example, she knew that the place she lived in was called Ancient China. It was generally divided into Zhongzhou, Dongyue, Xichuan, Nanze, and Beiming. Furthermore, there were other, larger countries outside of Ancient China. However, Dongyue was already extremely large, as it had seven provinces and eighteen cantons. Half a year ago, she’d experienced just how vast Dongyue was when she’d travelled with her mother from Dongyue to Xichuan. It was extremely hard for her to grasp just how vast the entirety of Ancient China was, not to mention the other countries outside of it.

(TL Note: the areas are Central zhou, East yue, West chuan, South ze and North ming. )

Yet now, she’d suddenly been told that the world she resided in was only one of many worlds; that there were many other similar worlds even larger than hers.

Her scope of knowledge had suddenly dramatically increased.

Lu Mingshu slowly digested the new information she’d received, and a strong sense of curiosity to be in contact with even more information formed.

Once she’d finished digesting the new information she’d received and rested for a while, she touched a leaf again. She stopped to rest whenever her head hurt. Slowly but surely, she began to understand the humongous world that had appeared before her.

As it turned out, not all worlds were similar to hers, in the sense that they also practiced martial arts. Some of them cultivated to become an immortal like what that ancient text had stated. Some of them tempered their body in order to synchronize with their spirits. Some were even divided into two paths, with some eccentric worlds also studying magic.

She received an enormous amount of information that she couldn’t understand, thus her only choice was to push it to the side for now.

Currently, she had another concern.

Amongst the mess of information she’d gained, Lu Mingshu had found some interesting things.

The message had most likely been left behind from a comparatively long while ago, as someone had said that he’d met a bottleneck in his cultivation and had beseeched guidance from a Senior. Afterwards, others had asked about his situation. He turned out to be someone that had just joined a sect, and said that he wasn’t cultivating any rare techniques. As such, he shared the full details of his cultivation technique. The others then had a lively discussion about his cultivation technique, and had proceeded to take out the cultivated techniques that they’d learned when they’d just begun to cultivate to compare them.

The contents of these techniques, as well as their discussion on them, was an eye-opener to Lu Mingshu. Someone from a similar world to hers took out a book called <Basic Sword Manual>, then proceeded to compare them word by word. Even though Lu Mingshu hadn’t yet begun to practice martial arts, the memories she’d gained from the Founder caused her to intuitively know that all of what he’d said was both feasible and brilliant!

Lu Mingshu couldn’t wait to test out what she’d learned, but…

She was still stuck in this space with no visible way out. Lu Mingshu felt depressed when she thought of this.

The tree had also had a question from someone who’d asked about this problem, which the others had answered. According to what they’d said, when she’d entered the Heavenly Wheel, her body had suffered some form of impact. Only once her body had been completely restored to its original condition, would she be able to leave.

Hence, her only choice was to wait.

As she had nothing else to do, Lu Mingshu continued to browse through the information the tree held.

Even though she knew many words, she still hadn’t learned the classics or history yet. Thus, there were some cryptic words she couldn’t quite understand. Fortunately, there were many explanations for people that weren’t very proficient in literature, which she carefully looked through.

When she did this, she discovered that her memorization skills had improved enormously, to the point that she now had a photographic memory. Furthermore, her understanding of things had also improved a lot, thus she was now able to understand a majority of the explanations she saw with a single glance.

Time continued to pass at a lightning fast speed.

When Lu Mingshu felt that she’d been in the Heavenly Wheel for at least ten days, she couldn’t help but grow anxious.

The information the tree held was interesting, but she felt very uneasy since she couldn’t see the outside world.

If she was here, what had happened outside? Would Master find out that she’d disappeared? What should she say when she gets back?

While she was harbouring such an anxious mood, the streamers that had covered her body were finally fully absorbed by her. She was browsing through the information that the tree held when this happened, and she immediately fell into a trance. Afterwards, her body was sent out of the Heavenly Wheel.