Chapter 451 - 392: Chu Huaixu Awakens!

At this moment inside the Daoist Gentleman Temple, the scene in the room looked especially like a reaction meme.

It was a bunch of people stretching their necks to crowd around one person, their eyes all staring fixedly at him while their mouths said, "You’re awake?"

Right after that Black Bead suddenly floated up, Han Shuangjiang immediately sent a Transmission to Xiang Yan and the others.

This made the high-level members of the Daoist Sect all rush over at once to check on Chu Huaixu’s condition.

When Xiang Yan and the others all gathered together, they all stared blankly at that Black Bead.

"What’s going on with this bead on the Daoist Ancestor Sword Scabbard?" Nangong Yue folded her arms across her chest, lifting the weighty spot, her eyes locked tightly on the bead.

As an Artifact Refining Grandmaster, she was naturally most sensitive to anything that looked like a Magical Treasure.

She leaned in to take a closer look, then spread out her Divine Sense to examine it.

But no matter how she probed, the result she received was that this was just an ordinary bead.

After finishing all that, she actually found herself kind of stupid and had to laugh at herself.

"What am I even doing."

"In these thousand years, the Sword Scabbard has always been placed on Hidden Spirit Mountain."

"All the Daoist Sect’s ancestors of past generations have seen it."

"Yet not one person discovered anything mystical about this bead; everyone thought it was just an ornament attached to the Sword Scabbard, a single piece with the scabbard."

"Weren’t we all thinking the same way before?" Nangong Yue said.

Since no one had been able to see anything before, naturally now they still couldn’t see anything.

Only now, it seemed it was far from as simple as everyone had imagined.

Everyone turned their attention back to trying to check Chu Huaixu’s condition.

Among them, Tai Tingbai took the lead.

After obtaining a Profound Yellow Origin Fragment, he was already charging toward the Ninth Realm, and already possessed a wisp of Power of Origin within his body.

His current strength was far beyond what Xiang Yan and the others could compare with.

But when he was about to enter Chu Huaixu’s Sea of Consciousness, he was blocked and directly shaken out by that newly awakened little black sword!

This both shocked and delighted him!

"The Heart Sword in Huaixu’s Sea of Consciousness seems to have revived."

"With my cultivation, I actually can’t enter his Sea of Consciousness to investigate!"

"Perhaps, it will take the initiative to break this Nightmare?"

"Then there’s hope he’ll wake up," Tai Tingbai said.

Hearing this, a hint of joy appeared on everyone’s faces.

"Then why don’t we wait and see, and watch how things develop," Xiang Yan said.

Standing off to the side, Han Shuangjiang listened, silently praying in her heart: "You have to wake up."

Time passed; about an hour went by.

Nangong Yue couldn’t help speaking up: "Judging from the time, the exit of the Origin Spirit Realm... should have opened by now."

Hearing this, everyone couldn’t help but exchange glances.

Right now they were worried about Chu Huaixu, and also about Xu Ziqing.

Everyone hoped these two direct disciples of the Daoist Sect could both come through safely.

And just as her voice fell, Chu Huaixu suddenly jolted awake from the bed, like someone whose preset alarm in his head had gone off and startled him awake.

This resulted in the scene before them: everyone crowded over, all staring at him together and saying:

"You’re awake!"

Chu Huaixu, who had just been jolted awake, was gasping for breath.

He was like a drowning man who had just been hauled up.

His eyes were extremely complicated.

There was endless pain, and also boundless fury!

"Kill you... I’ll kill you!"

"I’m definitely going to kill you!"

He muttered nonstop under his breath, just like he’d gone mad.

"Huaixu, Huaixu!"

Everyone immediately crowded up to him, speaking soothingly.

After about a dozen breaths, he gradually calmed down, no longer gulping for air, and his gaze slowly became steady.

"You... what happened to you?" Han Shuangjiang’s eyes were full of worry and heartache, and she couldn’t help but ask softly.

Her small hand had been tightly gripping his large hand the whole time.

Chu Huaixu’s hair was in disarray, his head hanging; after a long time he finally raised his head, a tinge of bloodshot in his eyes.

"I..."

"I had countless long, long dreams."

"Every dream ended very badly."

"That damned Cat Demon kept tormenting me in the dreamscape, making me experience who knows how many lifetimes of miserable Reincarnation."

"In every life, neither I nor those close to me met a good end," he said.

Hearing this, Han Shuangjiang immediately gently patted his back, softly comforting him:

"Alright, it’s fine now, it’s all over, all of it is over..."

Hearing this, Chu Huaixu slightly nodded and raised his eyes to ask:

"How long... was I asleep?"

In his last memory, he should have been at Spring and Autumn Mountain.

Yet now he was home, back at the Daoist Gentleman Temple.

And in the dream, there wasn’t much sense of time.

Many people have had this experience: sometimes it feels like you only slept a little while, but in fact you’ve slept for a long time; sometimes you feel like you’ve had several dreams, but in reality not many minutes have passed.

"I couldn’t have slept for half a month, could I?" Chu Huaixu still felt a bit dizzy.

"Half a month?" Chu Yinyin’s pitch immediately rose a few notches.

"My good disciple, you really have no idea—you slept for nearly eight whole months!" Chu Yinyin said loudly, her bright, lively eyes going perfectly round.

"What?!" Chu Huaixu froze for a moment, shocked in his heart: "Nearly eight months?"

"That long..." He couldn’t help but look up and gently pinch his temples.

But he reacted quickly and remembered something important.

"Wait, doesn’t that mean it’s almost the day the Origin Spirit Realm opens, or is it that..."

He couldn’t help but lift his eyes and sweep his gaze over everyone.

If it still hasn’t opened, then even with his cheats, he might not make it to the Fifth Realm in time.

If it’s already opened, then...

Chu Huaixu looked around again, and the answer quickly formed in his heart.

"Xiaoxu isn’t here." He spoke out.

Xiang Yan, as Sect Leader, pondered for a moment, then said:

"Huaixu, the time you woke up is very strange."

"Today just happens to be the day the third layer of the Origin Spirit Realm opens."

"Ziqing has already taken your place and gone in on your behalf."

Hearing this, Chu Huaixu couldn’t help but frown.

The resentment in his heart toward that Cat Demon instantly grew stronger.

This meant he’d lost a chance to do a main quest, and lost a huge pile of quest rewards.

Besides that, over on Xiaoxu’s side...he was probably going to pay a heavy price!

Xiang Yan looked at him and continued, "What’s even stranger is that the Spirit Realm entrance opens at Midnight, and that Black Bead on your Daoist Ancestor Sword Scabbard floated up exactly at Midnight, and before that it kept emitting a faint glow."

"Other than that, do you know at what Hour you woke up?"

Chu Huaixu’s brows knitted as he guessed, "Right now wouldn’t happen to be...the Chou Hour, would it?"

Everyone nodded in unison at his words.

Chu Yinyin even jumped in silly surprise, saying, "Oh! How did you guess that?"

Chu Huaixu didn’t answer.

He just felt something in his heart, then gave a deep look at the Daoist Ancestor Sword Scabbard placed by his side, and at that Black Bead on top of it.

...

...

East Continent, within the Sword Sect’s sphere of influence.

Jiang Zhi and the others were waiting at the exit, restless.

This little old man in all white couldn’t help pacing back and forth.

If the one who went in was Chu Huaixu, he would actually feel a lot more at ease.

But as luck would have it, it was clearly Xu Ziqing that he’d personally found down the mountain, the one mentioned in the Daoist Ancestor’s Proverbs.

When the exit opened, everyone saw the youth slowly walk out.

All their hearts instantly settled.

"Good! That’s good!" Pei Songji couldn’t help blurting out.

If anything had gone wrong in the Origin Spirit Realm this time, Spring and Autumn Mountain would definitely be the one carrying the big blame, shouldering the main responsibility.

Seeing everyone crowd around, the youth imitated the senior he revered most in his heart and said, "I have not disgraced the mission."

Only, when he said this he was a gentle gentleman, modest and courteous, definitely lacking the kind of bearing Chu Huaixu had.

To put it simply, he just didn’t have that much pretentious aura.

Jiang Zhi and the others came up and immediately started asking what had happened in the Spirit Realm.

Everyone had also noticed the silver threads now mixed into his hair, and couldn’t help glancing at the huge Sword Box behind him, able to guess the reason.

Xu Ziqing was an honest kid.

Since the elders were asking, he wouldn’t hide anything.

Xiaoxu told them everything that had occurred in the Spirit Realm, in full detail.

Everyone couldn’t help looking at the human-skin Array Pattern in his hand, and that Black Ring, but none of them could see what they really were.

However, hearing that this sheet of human skin could strip the Mana from one’s body, it sounded like something that could be used to specifically target Cultivators.

Only, these were all Xu Ziqing’s spoils of war, so in the end they naturally had to be brought back by him to the Daoist Sect.

"Then let’s depart." Jiang Zhi said.

On the way back, he looked at Xu Ziqing and said, "I see many white hairs have appeared in your hair. Is there any other discomfort in your body?"

"Grandmaster, I’m fine." The youth answered immediately.

Jiang Zhi gave him a long, deep look, but in the end said nothing more.

...

...

Daoist Sect, within Junzi Temple.

Xiang Yan and the others had already left first, leaving Chu Huaixu to rest quietly.

Han Shuangjiang was still the same virtuous wife and loving mother; she was downstairs cooking for Chu Huaixu.

She figured he’d been asleep for so long, always living on Grain Avoidance Pills, so now that he’d woken up he should first thing eat something hot.

Chu Huaixu stayed alone in the room and picked up the Sword Scabbard, Calming the Storm.

He ran his fingers slowly over the Black Bead, his eyes thoughtful.

Everything that had happened was far too strange.

Even Xiang Yan and the others felt it was odd.

As the one involved, how could he possibly think it was all just coincidence?

"According to the Big Ice Cube’s description, this bead doesn’t seem like a dead object."

And don’t forget, inside the bead, there’s something with spiritual nature!

Chu Huaixu couldn’t help but send his Divine Sense into the Black Bead, and instantly entered the space within it.

He looked at his Lifebound Object——Dao Generating One.

This Medicine Cauldron was normally like a moron, only constantly complaining of hunger, demanding he pour Spiritual Power into it so it could feed.

Apart from that, it had no other extra expressions at all, totally unlike other Spiritual Artifacts of this grade.

The Dead Fox’s eyes narrowed slightly.

"Speak, just who are you really!" he said to the Artifact Spirit.

....

(ps: begging for monthly tickets.)