novelraw Chapter 130: The Many Benefits of the Illusory Realm Trials
Chapter 130: The Many Benefits of the Illusory Realm Trials
With the illusory realm trials set to begin right at the start of term, Li Qiuchen considered it a freebie question on an exam.
No difficulty whatsoever.
He could think that, of course, but that didn't mean everyone else felt the same way.
From the very first day of the new term, the entire classroom was draped in a cloud of grim, anxious tension.
Secrets come in two varieties. The kind that must never be let out under any circumstances. And the kind that everyone already knows but nobody finds convenient to say aloud.
Well before the start of term, word had already quietly spread through the county school's inner hall that the illusory realm trials were being moved up, and that standout students from the current cohort would be selected to receive proper cultivation methods.
This was a good thing, on its face.
But you couldn't afford to see only the good side.
After term began, some students had gone eagerly to the upper-year students to verify the news, and received a deeply unsettling answer in return.
The illusory realm trials were brutally difficult, and almost nobody managed to pass successfully. Most who attempted them came out having suffered serious psychological damage inside the illusion, and there were even cases of people who never recovered, losing all will to carry on with their lives.Advancing the illusory realm trials by half a year was a godsend for the rare few who were genuinely exceptional.
But most people were not exceptional. Which meant most people had just lost half a year of mental preparation time.
Some rejoiced. Others despaired.
"Supreme Ruler of the Universe" Zeng Mingming was entirely contemptuous of the whole affair.
"Rules like this are designed specifically for geniuses like me. The rest of you are already beaten before the fight begins. What are you even cultivating for? Go home and grow corn."
Genius or not aside, Li Qiuchen thought he wasn't entirely wrong.
Fear and timidity were the greatest enemies on the path of cultivation.
Would demons and monsters spare you just because you were frightened?
Quite the opposite. The softer the persimmon, the harder they squeezed.
As the top-ranked student and natural frontrunner of the cohort, Chen Nangsheng was the first to taste the inner hall's illusory realm trials.
He came back the next day with a grey, pallid face, looking worn to the bone, as though he had spent a tremendous amount of his vital energy.
The sight of him in that state made the other students even more afraid.
Was it really that bad? Perhaps... perhaps they didn't need to rush in and get a piece of this after all, did they?
"How was it?"
Li Qiuchen sought out Chen Nangsheng to compare notes.
The year before, he had taken Chen Nangsheng to observe the half-finished version that Senior Brothers Wang and Du had put together, so he knew Chen Nangsheng had gone in with some mental preparation. In theory, nothing should have gone too badly wrong.
"It was manageable, but... it genuinely wasn't easy."
Chen Nangsheng looked like someone still shaking off a lingering fright.
"Brother Li, don't be careless. A real illusory realm is far more complex and lifelike than anything we've seen before."
Li Qiuchen thought to himself that he had already experienced a real illusory realm, and it had felt perfectly fine to him.
But looking at Chen Nangsheng right now was starting to make him just a little nervous.
Still, it wasn't all bad news Chen Nangsheng had brought back.
The good news was that this early round of illusory realm trials would not charge students any additional fees.
Not that most inner hall students particularly cared about that.
With Chen Nangsheng having successfully passed, it was Li Qiuchen's turn next.
Things turned out to be a little different from what he had imagined. He couldn't simply walk in and attempt the trial.
The first step was a talk.
Walking into Master Qin's study, Li Qiuchen immediately noticed a row of bamboo slips arranged neatly on the desk.
"Master..."
"Do you know what the illusory realm trials are?"
"Well..."
He knew well enough, but being asked to explain it was another matter.
Master Qin had no patience for students who pretended to know what they didn't, so Li Qiuchen simply admitted it outright. "Your student does not know."
"The illusory realm trials are, at their core, a means of tempering one's character and steeling one's Dao Heart."
Master Qin said gravely, "Most cultivators of antiquity knew nothing beyond fighting and conquest, and never understood why they cultivated in the first place. Ask them the reason, and of course they could answer, but it would amount to nothing more than wealth and beauty, power and status, freedom and immortality. Some didn't even know that much. They simply cultivated relentlessly, like farmers who till and harvest year after year, trapped in an endless cycle."
"The greatest problem this creates is a cultivation bottleneck."
"One day you find the road ahead has completely blocked up, and you have no idea why it blocked up, or which direction to turn next. Cultivators of old would typically blame this on their cultivation methods not being powerful enough, or their resources not being plentiful enough. So they would scheme and fight to seize other people's methods and resources, or resort to heterodox paths."
"But would someone else's cultivation method necessarily solve your problem? Would stolen resources truly be worth the cost you paid to take them? Why are heterodox paths called heterodox?"
"Very few people could understand that when you are mired in this kind of bottleneck, what you lack is not material resources. It is a spiritual need."
"Put simply, two words: ignorance."
"Because of ignorance, arrogance. Because of arrogance, blindness."
"Blindness further deepens ignorance, and thus the vicious cycle perpetuates itself."
"The solution to this problem was once the closely guarded secret of the great sects, something only the rarest and most gifted true disciples ever had the chance to learn. Yet now, even the inner hall of Yun County's own county school can share this secret with its students."
"Again, two words: Dao Heart."
"With a clear and luminous Dao Heart, unobstructed by things, untroubled by the mind, undisturbed by others, the path of cultivation opens without impediment."
Master Qin took a sip of tea and continued. "Ancient cultivation sects would send their disciples out into the world to train primarily as a means of tempering their character and disposition. But this kind of tempering was either left to chance, with outcomes entirely at the mercy of fate, or it took the form of a poison-rearing pit, where disciples were given some excuse to fight and kill each other."
"Everyone believed they were the legendary chosen one, destined to win through to the very end. But in reality, how many chosen ones can there be? The vast majority struggled their entire lives and ended up as nothing more than a pile of bones beneath someone else's feet."
"Our illusory realm trials, by contrast, go a long way toward solving the problem of inner cultivation for disciples. There is no need to travel far and wide in search of some vague and elusive stroke of fate. Step into the illusion, and you can experience firsthand the trials and events that your predecessors once lived through, without squandering your precious life in the process."
"The choices you make within the illusion, and the consequences those choices bring about, will be assessed comprehensively once you pass the trial. You must accumulate at least three first-class ratings to be considered a sign that your character has been sufficiently tempered."
At this point Master Qin paused, and the look he turned on Li Qiuchen became quietly meaningful.
"But that is the standard for ordinary people."
"For those with genuine talent who wish to advance further, it presents no difficulty whatsoever."
"And so there is a separate set of criteria for measuring their Dao Heart."
"Illusory realm trials are ranked by grade, and the highest grade the inner hall can arrange for students is the first-grade trial. If someone can clear three trials in succession and earn a first-class rating in all three, they may apply for the more demanding second-grade illusory realm, and so on up the scale."
"The quality of the Elixir Viscera cultivation method you receive afterward will be determined by the grade of illusory realm you have cleared."
So that's how it works!
The realization struck Li Qiuchen all at once.
In other words, clearing three first-grade illusory realms in succession would yield a first-grade Elixir Viscera method.
Clearing three second-grade illusory realms would yield a second-grade Elixir Viscera method.
That was genuinely good news. What grade was that illusory realm he had experienced before?
Right, third grade!
And the third grade was at that level, which meant he could probably breeze through the lower grades without breaking a sweat, couldn't he?
He reined in the surge of excitement and forced himself to calm down.
No. Too early to celebrate. Things that fall straight into your lap like this are never that simple.
There had to be more to it.
Otherwise, why would Senior Brother Yang have been willing to take a crooked path just for a second-grade Elixir Viscera method?
Li Qiuchen carefully turned over what Master Qin had just said, and noticed a specific detail.
It wasn't simply a matter of clearing trials consecutively. More importantly, all three ratings had to be first-class.
With that in mind, he asked, "Master, how does one earn a first-class rating inside the illusory realm?"
Master Qin held up three fingers and said, "Each illusory realm is different, and even at the same difficulty, it may or may not be compatible with the person being tested. Simply put, you only need to do three things."
"First, explore the entire illusory realm and come to understand the full sequence of events recorded within it."
"Second, resolve the problem the examiner has left for you inside the illusion."
"Third, keep your own state of mind steady and do not let yourself be affected by what the illusion contains."
Li Qiuchen nodded, then asked, "Master, what does it mean for a trial to be compatible with the person?"
Master Qin glanced at him and said with a cold snort, "Sending a sheltered maiden through a brothel. A toothless old woman trying to crack sunflower seeds. A three-year-old being asked to recite the Five Classics. That is what incompatibility looks like."
Understood. Completely understood.
Come to think of it, that time he had stumbled into a third-grade illusory realm and been matched with his own clan ancestor, that was about as compatible as compatible could get.
His ancestor was hardly going to make things difficult for the last surviving blood of the family line.
Seeing that Li Qiuchen had no further questions, Master Qin gestured toward the bamboo slips on the desk. "Pick one and go try it. Don't think about aiming for a good rating on your first attempt. Just familiarize yourself with the rules of the illusory realm. Once you feel mentally prepared, then challenge yourself to clear three with first-class ratings."
I'm prepared right now!
Li Qiuchen reached out and picked up one of the bamboo slips, turning it over to find three characters written on the other side.
"Yellow Fox Maiden."
A fine slip indeed!
He wasn't familiar with most of the others, but this one he had actually heard Senior Brothers Wang and Du mention before. It belonged to the beginner's village of beginner's villages, the simplest illusory realm of all. In their words, even a dog could crawl through it.
Li Qiuchen kept his expression perfectly neutral and held the slip out to Master Qin with both hands.
Master Qin looked at it, nodded, and said, "Take your identity token to the inn at the entrance of Zhang Family Lane. Ask the attendant to open the third upper room, and wait inside."
"Pay particular attention to the rules of the illusory realm trials. You may not disclose any information about what you encounter inside to your young miss. If she learns the contents in advance, the trial will no longer serve its purpose of tempering her character."
Li Qiuchen hesitated, then ventured carefully, "What if someone has no interest in tempering their character, and would rather pay a high price to get the information in advance, rush through the trial, and obtain a higher-grade Elixir Viscera method?"
It might not temper one's character, but clearing a trial did carry rewards. What if someone was simply after a quick run for the rewards?
He stopped short of actually asking that, though, since Master Qin hadn't brought up trial rewards at all.
Master Qin smiled at the question and said, "Those who rely on petty cleverness will sooner or later be undone by it. Anyone who hasn't even seen through a principle as basic as that, it wouldn't matter what grade of Elixir Viscera you gave them."
[NEXT CHAPTER]