Chapter 631: Luo River Seeking the Crossing (Part 1)

Pei Ye was quiet for a moment. Only when he turned his head did he realize that Li Xizhou seemed to have been silent for a while.

"What's wrong, Princess?" He felt his metaphor of spinning on stage was quite interesting.

"Nothing." Li Xizhou stood up and looked down at him under the gold face. "Didn't I tell you not to walk alone in the palace? You don't even know how you won. I originally thought you were very powerful, but now it seems you are also a fool."

"..." Pei Ye was inexplicable. "I'm telling you some heartfelt words, why are you attacking me?"

He looked back with his head tilted and frowned, but Li Xizhou just flicked her skirt and left.

The night passed like this. The lights in Guo You's side hall were on all night.

Pei Ye took medicine and went to sleep. In his dream, he still came to the Mind-Spirit Realm and persisted in cutting purple bamboo.

Since the black cat told him, he looked at these bamboos as if looking at a treasure house. The Immortal Lord descended into his body twice, and now he could be considered to be getting some money back. Especially these days when his body was not suitable for big movements, he had been working hard on this.

It was just that it seemed it would take another half a month to cut off a piece to make a "Great Correction Edict". No matter what the mechanism of the 【Mercury-Glazed Floating Raft】 was, this thing would definitely have an impact on Yu Sicheng, and it was not impossible to use it as one of the winning moves.

A piece of "Small Correction Edict" made him dazed for a moment that day. Clearly, the mind-spirit realm of this Grand Eunuch who had lived deep in the palace for a long time was not as indifferent and flawless as his face.

When he woke up the next day, the daylight had already illuminated the bed. Pei Ye washed and went out, moved his muscles and bones. The wounds on his body had already healed by sixty or seventy percent. After coming to another side hall, three newly written large volumes were placed on the desk. The fragrance of ink mixed with the fragrance of porridge, and the taste was quite unique.

Qu Xin was drinking porridge, and Li Xizhou was sitting by the desk reading. This Princess usually slept until it was bright, but today she suddenly got up quite early.

Pei Ye served a bowl of porridge and sat down beside the desk: "How is it?"

Li Xizhou read very seriously. After a while, she finished reading a page and raised her head: "Haven't finished reading yet. You go do your own things, or help me read the third volume."

"..." Pei Ye glanced at the obscure words on it and shook his head.

"Then go continue looking at the blueprint."

Pei Ye was eating porridge: "When will there be a result here?"

"After noon, I will call you when I sort it out." Li Xizhou said, writing two lines with a pen, and muttered to herself, "The ink in the hall is about to run out."

Pei Ye picked up two buns and went out. He returned to his hall and curled up on the bed, continuing to look at the blueprint. He calculated the days with his fingers. It seemed it was already the third day. Tomorrow night was the private banquet mentioned. At that time, he could probably see Yongji and Yu Sicheng and verify some ideas in observation.

It indeed took most of the day before Li Xianfang came to call him over.

As soon as he entered the hall door, Pei Ye didn't even capture the woman's figure. The most striking thing on the ground was the white color made of a large amount of paper. When he came in the morning, Pei Ye already felt that Li Xizhou's desk was a bit messy, but now he truly knew what it meant to have paper and ink as a carpet.

Li Xizhou straightened up, flicked her sleeves gently, and all the stacked draft papers were pushed down. She beckoned to Pei Ye, signaling him to sit by the side of the desk.

"... Is it done?"

"Hmm." The woman seemed too tired to talk, but her eyes were still bright. She said, "The Guo family has pursued such a dream for thousands of years, but twenty or thirty years before it was about to be revealed, they vanished into thin air first."

Li Xizhou stroked the three new volumes in front of her and turned her head: "Actually, it is still very magnificent and interesting. Do you want to read it yourself? I'm afraid you will lose a lot of the enjoyment of reasoning if I tell you."

"..." Pei Ye didn't think there would be any enjoyment.

"Hmm." Li Xizhou said, "Simply put, this "Luo River Seeking the Crossing" is a book of methods written by the Guo family for generations to enter the Spirit Realm and follow the Lord of the Water World. It contains their understanding of the Spirit Realm since ancient times, ways of getting along with it, channels for entering, and a list of potential dangers, etc. In total, it can make people contact that legendary world with some rigorous or harsh methods. It can indeed be called a precious secret scripture."

This first sentence made Pei Ye surprised: "Do they know where the Spirit Realm comes from?"

"It should be said that they have inferences passed down for hundreds of years." Li Xizhou corrected, and then stretched out three fingers. "Regarding the Spirit Realm itself, I summarized three true laws from this book that were not explicitly stated but were tacitly accepted by the Guo family. All their attempts at the Spirit Realm were actually built on these three."

"Oh?"

"First, the Spirit Realm has its master." Li Xizhou withdrew a finger. "I don't need to say it, you can probably infer it. Because this is the reason and support for them to pursue the shadow of Luo Shen. They believe that the Spirit Realm is not a water wilderness born of heaven and earth, but has a master. Even the Spirit Realm itself is the residence of this existence, the extension of will, or a garden personally chiseled by her."

"Luo Shen?"

"Hmm... seems like it, seems not."

"What do you mean?"

"The Guo family never saw the face of the master they wanted to serve until the end. But in the tone of "Luo River Seeking the Crossing", this 'master' is more like an ancient, distant, and huge god that can no longer be touched. The Guo family always mentions this existence from afar in their records, but never wrote down the methods and analysis of contacting her, as if it were just a background." Li Xizhou said, "And the two words 'Luo Shen' were mentioned with yearning tone incomparably frequently, becoming the core image pointed to by the entire secret scripture."

"..." Pei Ye thought for a while. "This is quite interesting. Is it like... Zhuge Liang talking to Liu Chan, always mentioning 'the late master' and 'Zhaolie' at the beginning?"

"You are truly well-versed in the Three Kingdoms." Li Xizhou smiled lightly. "It is indeed so. The so-called 'how difficult it was for the predecessors to start the business', the wilderness at that time was covered with noble glory, and now they have all turned into beautiful jade underground. Today, you are born again with this kind of blood... New god, we have been waiting for you for a thousand years."

Her tone was mocking and lazy, as if she had encountered a joke that was not easy to meet, and she had to add a sentence, then continued: "So, the image of 'Luo Shen' is vivid, growing in the present, like the crown prince of an ancient king, carrying the hope of this era... This part actually made me think about many things about mother."

Pei Ye nodded slowly, and many things came to his mind as well.

"Second, the Spirit Realm changes with the world, and its shape is not fixed." Li Xizhou continued, "The "Luo River Seeking the Crossing" determines that the Spirit Realm is not an iron tool cast, but flowing water, which may change at any moment, like mountains growing trees, like water flooding the land."

Pei Ye looked up slightly: "This is very important. Specifically?"

"Regarding the extension of this true law, I found two aspects that have been preserved from the verification of the Guo family for generations." Li Xizhou said, "First, the boundary of the Spirit Realm can be expanded and extended."

Pei Ye opened his eyes slowly, and a light laugh leaked from his lips in an instant.

Li Xizhou seemed to smile as well and continued: "Second, the content of the Spirit Realm will change... or rather, update."

Pei Ye simply clapped his hands lightly.

He tilted his head and glanced at Guo You, who was dazed again. He thought that there were many hidden talents in the palace. Although this old man was found by following the map, there might be people with ups and downs of life and stories hidden in other unknown eunuchs and nannies.

These two sentences simply answered too many of his doubts.

He turned his head back, and Li Xizhou was withdrawing the third finger.

"Third, the Spirit Realm takes water as its root, or rather, it only grows in water."

"... Impossible." Pei Ye's face converged in an instant, and he frowned and blurted out.

"The book says so."

"Unless splashing a basin of water on the ground also counts."

Li Xizhou shook her head: "The size of the water area is the size of the Spirit Realm. In "Luo River Seeking the Crossing", they call the lakes and rivers containing the Spirit Realm 'Spirit Abyss', and believe that only water where living creatures can survive can carry the extension of the Spirit Realm."

"But I have been to the Illusion Building." Pei Ye reminded her, "And many people have been there. And two days ago, I entered the Spirit Realm from the South Pool and also climbed to a garden, where I saw the residual shadows of the late Empress, Ziliang, and Guo You; even the assassination of Bright Moon twenty-three years ago, if the assassin hadn't suddenly appeared in the hall, Grandpa Yue would never have been too late..."

"Do you still remember where the Illusion Building is?" Li Xizhou interrupted.

"Behind Xunfang Garden, Cui Zhaoye said that was the former Qujiang Pool—"

"..."

Li Xizhou looked at him.

Pei Ye pursed his lips: "So that's it. You mean, the Spirit Realm spreads along the water system, but when the water system dries up, it doesn't disappear, but remains there..."

"Continuing to record the images of the human world." Li Xizhou continued his words.

"Hmm?"

"I think the Spirit Realm is the shadow of the human world, branded with the traces of the past, but... perhaps it will constantly update, filling in more exciting content that happens on the same land." Li Xizhou closed the book in front of her, thinking with some imagination.

Summarizing laws from a book that lasted for hundreds of years with complex words, and immediately making inferences that had never been thought of but were very reasonable, Pei Ye was beyond his reach for this ability.

However, he looked at the woman and thought that if Wei Qingju was Luo Shen, then she was Luo Shen's daughter. Talking about these things was probably like talking about family affairs. Many things could probably get answers by innate intuition.

So he intended to trust her unconditionally, even if the three volumes were clearly not finished, even if these three "true laws" were only inferences and none had been verified, even if she clearly had too many details to study.

He drank the tea brought by Li Xianfang and said: "Assuming the Spirit Realm is in this shape, then the most important thing next is, how should people enter it?"

If the train of thought is to be placed on Yu Sicheng, this is a place that must be clarified.

These things must have been known by Yu Sicheng long ago. Bringing "Luo River Seeking the Crossing" is to find the predicament he is facing, and then infer the path he can take.

Li Xizhou was also more serious: "Chasing the Spirit Realm has always been the wish of the Guo family for generations, but actually, until the end of this book, they failed to complete this wish... Or rather, this itself is an impossible thing to complete."

"Hmm?"

"People going into the water is like fish going to the shore. The Spirit Realm is probably the underwater world that even practitioners cannot escape." Li Xizhou lowered her eyes. "This book records many attempts with heavy casualties. In the end, they summarized a set of rules that can be roughly adopted and followed, which is exactly the set that Yu Sicheng and the others have been using these years."

She took another piece of paper to the top: "The greatest achievement of "Luo River Seeking the Crossing" is defining the existence of 'Boundary Markers'."

"Boundary Markers?"

"The book says, 'Generally, all Spirit Realms take Boundary Markers as anchors, like nailing gauze to wood, so that it doesn't drift with the wind.' They believe that 'Boundary Markers' are like boundary markers in the human world, and are symbols of entering the Spirit Realm. We said earlier that the Spirit Realm can be expanded and extended, but clearly it does not spread just by touching water. Otherwise, after several millennia, all the water in the world would have long been Spirit Abyss." Li Xizhou said, "The "Luo River Seeking the Crossing" says that it is precisely the movement of 'Boundary Markers' that leads and drives the expansion of the Spirit Realm. At the same time, they are also equivalent to the guards of the Spirit Realm."

Pei Ye was stunned for a while and frowned: "What exactly is it?"

"It is not necessarily a certain entity, but it does exist in a certain visible image. It is probably a manifestation of the power of the Spirit Realm itself. It can travel between the two worlds, or it stands there itself, and is the only bridge between the human realm and the Spirit Realm. It will not take the initiative to attack anything, nor is it afraid of being destroyed. It only tells you that you have arrived at the Spirit Realm. When you see it, the outsider is already unable to move an inch." Li Xizhou said slowly, "Precisely because of this, those who see it have the qualification to see the Spirit Realm; those who are accepted by it can set foot in it."

Pei Ye thought of Luo Shen's wood peach in an instant.

He was stunned for a while: "Then, what counts as 'accepted'?"

"Either it 'approves' and guides you, or you take the initiative to 'rewrite' yourself." Li Xizhou frowned slightly. "Actually, I don't fully understand this part either."

A large mist in Pei Ye's mind was suddenly driven away.

"I understand."

"Hmm?"

"Jiang Yan and Liu Gong accidentally obtained 'approval'." Pei Ye said, "We took the merfolk pearl powder, which is 'rewriting' ourselves."

"..."

"I think this is not a good method found at the beginning." Pei Ye said, "The mortal body of humans and the Spirit Realm cannot coexist. Not to mention entering, actually even seeing it is impossible, so it needs rewriting. And merfolk can enter and exit the Spirit Realm, and scales and humans appear on the same body harmoniously, so the merfolk pearls produced can be taken without any rejection, obtaining a moment of divinity, and recovering the mortal body after digestion."

"But it wasn't like this twenty-three years ago." He said, "At that time, they hadn't discovered the convenience of merfolk. To enter the Spirit Realm, they could only forcibly transform the human body, feeding or burying something unknown... perhaps it was the 'Boundary Marker' itself into the mortal body. Many people died, but those who survived became 【Green Wind Envoys】." ===== CHAPTER 632 =====