Immortality Simulator

Chapter 740: Hearing The Dao Over Breaching The Wall

“It wasn’t until you said that Guan Changge might have been swallowed by the Wuliang Wall that I finally remembered.”

Nangong Shirong’s voice carried a hint of ruefulness.

“Sir, since you have previously entered the Wuliang Wall and broken out of it, then surely rescuing Guan Changge should be a simple matter.” One of the accompanying cultivators, Yan Yiqiu, hurried to flatter him.

Nangong Shirong’s face darkened. “I dare not make any guarantees. Success or failure depends on that boy’s own luck.”

Having aimed his flattery poorly, Yan Yiqiu winced and lowered his head.

Xu Bai spoke up. “Sir, what exactly is so peculiar about this Wuliang Wall?”

Nangong Shirong looked at Xu Bai, whose face was full of curiosity. He deliberated a moment before answering. “I can’t say for certain. This is just a guess, based on my own experience. The Wuliang Wall might be a naturally occurring Dao comprehension site. When an image appears on its surface, it has a chance of drawing in any cultivator nearby.

“And inside the Wuliang Wall...”

Nangong Shirong narrowed his eyes. “It’s like the Tianxuan Mirror’s Assisted Cultivation Mode, but stronger. The moment a thought stirs, countless insights come flooding in. I still remember that joy, gaining so much with so little effort.

“But there’s a flaw. This enhanced comprehension seems to target only the one ability to which you’re most deeply attached. At the time, I was fixated on comprehending...”

Nangong Shirong paused, glossing over it, then went on. “I was already one step from breaking through. With that boost to my comprehension, it didn’t take long to reach an epiphany. So I broke out of the wall on my own.”

Xu Bai glanced at the Wuliang Wall, linking it to the clues he’d already gathered. “It’s said that Guan Changge greatly admires Guan Xingxiu, and that he holds Senior Guan’s swordsmanship in the highest regard. Yet he has no talent for the sword path himself...

“Even with the Wuliang Wall’s amplification, it would take him ten or twenty years to gain anything from it. Is that the truth behind his disappearance?

“And the cultivators who traveled with Guan Changge said the scene they saw on the Wuliang Wall was someone practicing with a sword. That matches your guess too, Sir...”

Xu Bai laid out his deductions in one breath, but credited them all to Nangong Shirong’s speculation.

Nangong Shirong neither confirmed nor denied it.

After a moment, he added, “Time flows differently inside the Wuliang Wall. And if someone stays in there for too long, they may no longer be able to escape even after comprehending the Dao.

“So if we want to save Guan Changge’s life, we need to act quickly.”

Yan Yiqiu spoke up. “Then how do we get inside the Wuliang Wall, Sir?”

Nangong Shirong turned, his expression souring. “Are you asking me?”

“I wouldn’t dare!” Yan Yiqiu said hastily.

Nangong Shirong snorted. “If I knew that, why would I have brought you all here?”

Yan Yiqiu cursed his own luck inwardly, wishing he could slap himself.

But before Nangong Shirong had even finished speaking, Xu Bai had already flown back to the foot of the Wuliang Wall.

It isn’t classified as an Oddity, but a naturally occurring Dao comprehension site. With this body’s affinity for the Heavenly Dao, I should be able to sense something.

He observed for a long time and found nothing unusual, the same as before. He reached out with both hands and touched the wall.

Then, he closed his eyes and stood motionless.

At a signal from Nangong Shirong, Yan Yiqiu and the other two copied Xu Bai, pressing their hands to the Wuliang Wall to probe it.

Before the polished, mirror-like surface, the four of them looked like stone statues that had sprung up out of nowhere.

As Xu Bai pushed his perception to its limit, the wall ahead seemed to gradually soften.

His own body began to soften too, as if slowly melting into the wall.

He hesitated, but did not resist, letting the Wuliang Wall swallow his form.

Amid the startled cries of Yan Yiqiu and the others, Xu Bai vanished in an instant.

Nangong Shirong stared fixedly at the spot where Xu Bai had disappeared, a strange light flickering in his eyes.

Xu Bai had learned the secret of the Wuliang Wall from Nangong Shirong beforehand, so the moment he entered it, the thought that rose in his mind was: How can I move this Wuliang Wall away?

He wasn’t really expecting it to work, so when countless notions surged up spontaneously in answer, he felt a flicker of surprise.

But he had clearly wasted a chance to comprehend the Dao.

According to the Wuliang Wall’s own answer, moving it without imparing its ability to grant comprehension was impossible.

The Wuliang Wall’s birth had been a purely accidental event. Even heaven and earth could not easily replicate it.

Xu Bai felt a trace of regret, but let it go quickly.

After this first round of comprehension, the Wuliang Wall didn’t expel him. So he began searching for traces of Guan Changge.

The place resembled the interior of the Heaven-Earth Root in some ways: cultivators’ bodies existed here as abstract, twisted lines. But where the lines in the Heaven-Earth Root were orderly and uniform, here they were draped in a riot of colors, drifting and swaying like seaweed in water.

Xu Bai sensed that, as time passed, parts of the lines composing his own body were slowly dissolving, merging into the Wuliang Wall.

Now and then, he passed blurry, lifeless figures. Nothing was left of them but outer contours. These seemed to be the remains of cultivators who had wandered into the Wuliang Wall, lingered too long, and been absorbed into the space itself.

He darted swiftly through the wall. Guided by faint fluctuations that came and went, he soon found Guan Changge.

By now, Guan Changge’s body had dissolved to the size of a seven or eight-year-old, though he showed no awareness of it. In his hands he clutched a few sparse lines representing a “sword,” and waved them about clumsily.

“Guan Changge!” Xu Bai called, trying to wake him.

But there was no such thing as sound in the space of the Wuliang Wall. Some lines seemed to drift away from Xu Bai and dissolve into the surroundings, but Guan Changge paid them no attention at all.

So Xu Bai flew to his side and snatched the “sword” from his hands.

Then, without another word, he turned to leave, meaning to take Guan Changge with him.

But at the last moment, the part of Guan Changge that Xu Bai had grabbed detached itself from the rest of the body voluntarily.

Stunned, Xu Bai looked at him. Guan Changge met his gaze and shook his head slightly.

His body, now one size smaller, conjured a sword again. His expression was rapt, and he swung it with unyielding determination.

Hearing the Dao in the morning, one can die content in the evening.

Something stirred in Xu Bai’s chest.

A moment later, he stopped insisting. He took hold of a part of Guan Changge, broke through the wall, and left.