022- First Traversal of Worlds

The form of Heavenly Wheel differed greatly from their first meeting.

The unified, scattered colors exuded faint lights.

From what Lu Mingshu could see, every small block had an extending streamer intertwining vertically and horizontally; some mutually repelled each other, while others came together to form trajectory paths.

Every time a block underwent a rotation, those streamers followed the rotation and formed another trajectory to achieve a new kind of balance.

She turned it lightly, causing a transformation in the streamers that made them surge towards a new trajectory. The six-colored streamers criss-crossed, and then—

Hong!

After the melting and expansion, the six-colored streamers ultimately fused and fell onto a certain small block.

That small block embossed out as the streamers circulated on its pattern, enveloping Lu Mingshu with rays of light.

(TL Note: don’t forget there are patterns engraved on each small block.)

……

“Wake up, little maiden.”

Lu Mingshu woke up puzzledly, jumping up in shock when she opened her eyes.

The first thing she saw was an enlarged, bearded old face with wrinkles all over.

She quickly got up and backed up, confused as to what had happened. Where is this place? Why am I here?

Lu Mingshu looked up only to discover herself lying below a tree, surrounded by thatched cottages in what looked to be a village. There were very few people in this village that gave off a dead atmosphere.

It was an old man with a crutch that had woken her up. When he saw that she had awoken, he asked, “Little maiden, why are you here alone? Where are your parents?”

Lu Mingshu hesitated for a moment, before answering his question with a question. “Elder, where is this place?”

“This is Locust Tree Village.” The old man looked at her strangely. “I am familiar with the people in the neighbouring villages. You aren’t from here, right? What’s going on, have you lost your way?”

As Lu Mingshu recalled the previous scene, she thought, could my appearance here be related to the Heavenly Wheel?

Keeping the thought in mind, she answered cautiously, “I am passing by. My Master had something to do and asked me to wait here for him.”

“I see.” The old man suddenly cheered up as he thought of something. “Judging from your get-up, are the both of you Mystic Masters? This is great! There is now hope for our village!”

“Mystic Masters?”

“Little maiden, come, come, come, come and rest in our house. When will your master come?” The old man led her into the village warmly.

He even greeted the villagers they encountered on the way. “Money Two, you have ground beans today, right? Send a bowl of beancurd over.”

“Third Lady Zhao, have your chickens laid eggs? Bring two over to my house.”

The two asked, “Elder Tian, is there a guest?”

Elder Tian smiled heartily. “That’s right, this is an important guest—this little maiden’s master is a Mystic Master!”

A gleam lit up in the villagers’ eyes, and they began spreading the news with unlimited joy. “There’s a Mystic Master, there’s a Mystic Master!”

Lu Mingshu was dumbfounded. She hadn’t even said anything…

Elder Tian led her home as the villagers all flocked over. Money Two brought beancurd, Third Lady Zhao brought eggs, while there were even people who brought vegetables and radishes…

“Has a Mystic Master come?”

“Where is there only a little maiden?”

“Can she make it?”

Elder Tian explained to the villagers, “This little maiden said she’s waiting for her master here, so the Mystic Master will be here very soon.”

So this little maiden was not a Mystic Master but an apprentice Mystic Master. The villagers understood, chatting animatedly in a circle around Lu Mingshu.

After chatting here and there, Lu Mingshu finally understood.

A month ago, a demonic wolf had trespassed into the village’s back mountain and eaten a lot of the village’s livestock, even injuring someone. The village had organized their most elite and strongest, in hopes of culling the demonic wolf, but they had returned in defeat and even lost two lives. Hence, they thought of inviting a Mystic Master over to get rid of this demonic wolf.

They sent a request to the authorities, but they were told that the county was in short supply of Mystic Masters and that they had to wait for further arrangements. Who knew how long they had to wait? With the demonic wolf descending from the mountain from time to time, many had already left to hide in their relatives’ home. When night fell, every household would close its doors tightly, for fear of the demonic wolf breaking in.

Lu Mingshu frequently browsed through the Heavenly Wheel these days, which had broadened her horizons greatly. From what the villagers said and some slight guessing, she deduced that she might have traversed to another world through the Heavenly Wheel. Each world was not completely identical, yet they were similar. Martial Practitioner, Cultivator, and Mage were the same thing. The Mystic Master mentioned by the villagers should be one of them, which was the way the locals called it.

She felt a little guilty. Those words about some skilled Mystic Master coming for her were only lies made up by her because she was, in fact, all alone. However, she could not bring herself to say it when she looked at all the expectant faces of the villagers.

Moreover, she was also confused as to how she was to return back to her own world.

Once night fell, the villagers all rushed back home.

Elder Tian got his daughter-in-law to settle her down in a room before shutting the main door tightly.

Lu Mingshu seized the time to enter the Heavenly Wheel and start a private chat.

“Brother Six, Brother Six are you there?”

As luck would have it, a voice traveled over not long later, “Yo, little Sister Seven. Why, you have something to ask?”

“Brother Six, I have something I need to ask you.”

“Speak.”

“I suddenly traversed to another world and am not sure what is going on.”

Brother Six’s voice suddenly grew excited. “What? You traversed to another world? Tell me more specifically about what happened.”

Lu Mingshu told him the gist of what had happened.

“Brother Six, what is going on with me?”

Brother Six’s voice returned after a while. “What rank is your Heavenly Wheel?”

Lu Mingshu hesitated for a while, before answering, “Rank nine.”

“What?” Brother Six’s voice vibrated in her ears. “Rank nine? You aren’t joking around right?”

After asking a few more times to confirm, brother six’s voice weakened, “You are too incredible, rank nine…”

“Is it really that incredible?” Lu Mingshu had no idea, as all she knew was that ranks above five were few in numbers.

“It is. Remember how we’ve discussed before that since none above rank seven has been seen before, it must be that those from rank eight and nine could not even do the restoration. That means they could not even enter the Heavenly Wheel.”

After this question, Brother Six said, “I do think I have heard of a situation identical to yours before. You should know that the higher your Heavenly Wheel’s rank, the more places you can go? In actual fact, every Heavenly Wheel has the same set of functions, but they differ in quality with each rank above the previous. Every step up in rank also increases the efficiency of your Heavenly Wheel, making it spend less Mystic force to work. To go to another world requires storing enough energy, which is called Mystic force in your world. Hence, it might be possible that you didn’t need to gather a lot of Mystic force to open a channel to another world. Of course, the energy level won’t be higher either in a world where a channel was opened this way.”

So this was the case. Lu Mingshu quickly asked, “Then how can I go back?”

“Why are you in such a rush to go back?” Brother Six smiled. “Each world has it’s own specialty, and since you are there, you shouldn’t waste this chance. As for going back, it’s very simple. You are able to inspire the Heavenly Wheel to send you back once you have gathered enough Mystic force.”

“Gather Mystic force?”

“Right, that world should have some kind of extraordinary force, too, right? There are two ways if you want to gather this kind of force. One, to grasp hold of a heaven-and-earth treasure that is filled with this force. Two, to kill a person or a beast that possesses this force.”

Lu Mingshu asked, “What about my body? Would it be alright?”

“It would be alright. You should know time flows slower in the Heavenly Wheel. Now that you have traversed to another world through it, the flow of time there should also slow down. However, it’s best you do not stay in that place for too long, or else your physical body is going to have a problem without long-term support.”

~~~~~~

Author’s note

We understand this travel as an out-of-body experience. Without returning, the body would not have any consciousness. Only when the soul returns, would the benefits obtained go into the body.