📖 Chapter 1042 - Ten Days, Ten Lives!

06 Aug, 2023

After saying those words, Li Wan’er resumed walking away, gradually disappearing from Wang Baole’s sight. However, her voice lingered in his ears for a long time, and his eyes fell into a daze. In fact, his whole person seemed to fall into a deathly stillness.

That once sentence, combined with Li Wan’er’s expression just now, seemed to turn into huge waves crashing about in Wang Baole’s heart. He felt like heavenly thunder was exploding in his mind.

It wasn’t until a long time passed that Wang Baole finally moved slightly.

“There are gods three feet above my head…” Wang Baole muttered and raised his head to look at the sky. Naturally, he didn’t just look three feet above himself. With his current cultivation, seeing through the vault of heaven and gazing into the starry sky beyond was a simple matter.

For some reason, he suddenly thought of the theory in the ancient record that Xie Haiyang had mentioned. Falling silent, he hesitated for a moment before suddenly speaking softly in his heart.

“Little Missy, are you there?”

No response.

Wang Baole frowned slightly. His divine sense spread out and merged into the broken mask, but he couldn’t find Little Missy. Apparently, she was hiding and didn’t want to be disturbed.

Retracting his divine sense, Wang Baole didn’t insist on looking for her. He just sat cross-legged on top of the mountain, watching the sky gradually darken and feeling the ground beneath him move with the slithering of the giant snake. His mind slowly stopped dwelling on Li Wan’er’s words.

He didn’t understand, so he just wouldn’t think about it!

Wang Baole knew that his current self was nothing more than a Planet Realm cultivator. When it came to many things, knowing or not knowing actually didn’t matter. The most important thing was the here and now!

Continually improving his strength was Wang Baole’s current priority. As for why the Moon Star Sect’s old ancestor would give him an invitation… Wang Baole had his own guesses. In any case, both of them could be considered from the same hometown, and Wang Baole was also the strongest person to come out of the solar system ever since the moon Star Sect left.

‘This might be the reason behind the invitation, but why such a specific time?’ Wang Baole shook his head and buried the matter in his heart. His expression changed slightly, and he suddenly looked out into the distance. He immediately saw a figure on the horizon, not flying but dashing along the undulating mountains and rushing straight toward him.

It was already dark, with only a scant few rays of moonlight shining down, and the visitor was still far away. However, the towering bun of their hair and the excessive gloss that seemed to reflect the moonlight made Wang Baole instantly know who it was.

This person could also be considered an old friend of his. He was the hard-headed fellow from the Starfall Realm who cared very much about face… Brother Expert, Gao Qu.

Upon seeing this fellow, Wang Baole’s previously heavy heart relaxed quite a bit, and a smile appeared on his face. As soon as the other party got a bit closer, Wang Baole stood up and bowed with cupped fists.

“Brother Expert!”

“Brother Dalu!” Hearty laughter rang out, and the smiling face Brother Expert soon appeared in front of Wang Baole. As soon as he arrived, he clenched his fist and suddenly punched out toward Wang Baole’s shoulder.

Wang Baole’s eyes flickered slightly. He could tell that the other party had no malicious intent and was just being friendly. However, there was still some risk to letting someone just punch him like this. After all, people’s hearts were different, and he wasn’t actually all that close to Brother Expert. If the other party held any malicious intent, then Wang Baole would fall into a passive position.

But if he avoided this punch, it would create distrust between them. Based on Wang Baole’s understanding of this Brother Expert, if there really wasn’t any malicious intent behind this punch, then they would definitely have a falling out once he dodged it.

Wang Baole didn’t think too much. He let out a laugh and clenched his fist, bumping it against Brother Expert’s incoming punch.

The two fists collided in an instant. Both parties immediately realized that neither side had used cultivation at all, just greeting each other like ordinary people. This made Brother Expert laugh even louder.

“Xie Dalu, you trusted me and didn’t dodge. Since you’re giving me such face, I won’t fuss over whether you’re Wang Baole or Xie Dalu.” After speaking, Brother Expert withdrew his fist and tossed Wang Baole a jade slip.

“Brother Dalu, I put in a lot of effort to get this jade slip and haven’t given it to anyone else. When I heard that you arrived, I came over to give it to you.”

When Wang Baole heard that, he didn’t hide his curiosity and accepted the jade slip. As soon as he glanced at it, his eyes widened suddenly in surprise.

Brother Expert had been observing Wang Baole’s face the whole time. Upon seeing Wang Baole’s curiosity and surprise, he immediately laughed loudly again and put on a proud expression.

"Well, what do you think?"

“How did you get this information? Isn’t it supposed to be impossible to find out the contents of the trial before it’s announced?” Wang Baole was truly surprised. The jade slip actually contained information about the trial that would be held at the birthday celebration.

On the way here, Xie Haiyang had already told him that Reverend Heaven-Learned would hold a trial every time his birthday celebration came around. Each time, all the juniors in attendance would choose to take the trial. That was because once they were victorious, they would be given the chance to open the Book of Heaven’s Mandate.

And it was precisely because of this that the trial was ever-changing. Its content could only be known after it was announced, making it exceedingly difficult to prepare in advance. Wang Baole had asked Xie Haiyang about it before – even Xie Haiyang, with his endless contacts and resources, didn’t know the content of the trial.

But now, this Brother Expert seemed to know about it. After Wang Baole read the contents of the jade slip, he felt that they were most likely the truth.

“Didn’t I tell you that I put in a lot of effort? How about it, Brother Dalu? Isn’t this Gao loyal? You’re the only one I’ve shown this to!” Brother Expert seemed even prouder, and he lifted his hand to touch his towering hair.

“Many thanks, Brother Gao!” Wang Baole took a deep breath, immediately cupping his fists and bowing.

“Haha, there’s no need for all this politeness. Besides, although I found out about it in advance, this trial is a bit strange, completely different from all the previous ones. Thus, it’s also difficult to prepare anything in advance. I’m just using this chance to show some goodwill to Brother Dalu. When it comes to the trial, let’s help each other out, eh?” Brother Expert didn’t hide his thoughts and straightforwardly asked for help.

Wang Baole wasn’t opposed to this either, so he nodded. Then he scanned the jade slip with his divine sense again.

“The trial takes place in an illusion formation divided into countless areas. Each trial-taker will be sent to an individual area and undergo the ten-day trial. During those ten days, they can stay in their area or go to other areas… It’s no big deal!” Wang Baole said softly.

“Yeah, if that were all, then this trial would be nothing special. However, the ten-day trial actually involves experiencing scenes of your past lives!” A strange light appeared in Brother Expert’s eyes as he spoke.

“Ten days, ten lives. Each day, you see a different past life!

“By gaining enlightenment of your past lives, you can obtain their power that should have been lost in the cycle of reincarnation. Although you won’t be able to completely fuse with the power of your past lives, this is still a huge opportunity! At the same time, it’s also a gamble – do your past lives exist or not? If you don’t have a past life, then this opportunity is no opportunity at all. And if you do… who were you before you became ‘you’?” Brother Expert took a deep breath. Obviously, after learning of the contents of the trial, he had spent a lot of time thinking about it.

“Plus, there are no rules disallowing interfering with each others’ enlightenment. The only way to win is to be enlightened all the way to your tenth life… And the first ten people to do so will be allowed to flip through the Book of Heaven’s Mandate!

Wang Baole’s eyes narrowed as he thought back to what his master had told him. Supposedly, the Flame Patriarch had bought him an opportunity to view and merge with his past life^[1].

Looking at things now, it was obvious that this so-called opportunity was similar to the trial. However, Wang Baole still felt that the trial was more like a preview of what was to come… a preview for the opportunity that his master had obtained for him.

“Brother Expert, do you know what the previous trials entailed?” In order to confirm his guess, Wang Baole asked Brother Expert a question.

“Last time, the trial-takers had to fetch peaches of longevity from the everlasting ancient tree. The time before that, they had to use their divine abilities to create fireworks in the sky. And the time before that, it was just a battle royale… Compared to all these, this time’s trial is very strange!” Brother Expert said a lot in one breath. As Wang Baole listened, he became more and more certain of his inner thoughts. His eyes began shining with anticipation!