When Chen Mobai saw the turtle shell, he felt a slight pain in his healed right hand.
Here’s what happened.
Half a month ago, he had just broken through to the fifth level of Qi Refining. His superstitious mother was happy and took him back to their ancestral temple in the deep mountains to light incense for good luck in his college entrance exam.
Then, some bastard pushed him from behind as he was lighting incense, causing him to stumble and grab onto a turtle shell that was placed in front of a statue. The shell, which had been smoked by incense for many years, was not clean, and it cut his right hand, leading to an infected wound that left him weak and unable to stand for two weeks.
Because her precious son was in the hospital, his mother naturally refused to let it go and argued with the temple’s abbot for the 188 Good Deeds earned from lighting the incense. But the old monk was not easy to deal with, or maybe the temple was just poor. No matter how much Chen Mobai’s mother argued, the monk refused to refund the Good Deeds and only gave her two talismans to ward off evil spirits.
Feeling indignant, Chen Mobai’s mother took the turtle shell and said she would burn it to dispel her son’s bad luck. But the shell had not been burned yet.
In the city, it was forbidden to start fires, and all unused resources had to be recycled and buried in the Earth Vein Spiritual Axis by a geomancer using special methods to maintain the generation cycle of the Earth Element Star Spirit Qi.
Only companies or organizations that had obtained permits for alchemy or refining were allowed to start fires.
Chen Mobai rolled his eyes and stood up to throw the turtle shell into the trash can, hoping that the geomancer would bury this bad luck item tomorrow.
But as soon as he touched the shell, a silver light flashed by, and he was suddenly enveloped by it and disappeared from his room.
…
He didn’t know how long it had been.
Chen Mobai regained consciousness and slowly got up.
He found himself not in his own room, but in a mysterious cave.
He didn’t know where the cave was, but he was sure of one thing.
He was underwater.
Looking up, he saw a blue expanse.
The entire cave was surrounded by a thin ellipsoid spherical light shield, and when fish and crabs in the water hit the shield, they bounced off like rubber.
After waiting for almost ten minutes, no senior expert appeared, so Chen Mobai slowly turned around to explore.
Upon careful inspection, he found that it was a small underwater cave.
The place where he was standing should be the front hall of the cave, with a pedestal in each of the four corners, each with a formation flag inserted into it. Together with the main pedestal in the center of the cave behind him, they formed a simple water-avoidance formation.Thanks to Chen Mobai’s diligent study of Formation class, he was able to identify the second-tier middle-grade Formation of this cave. Apart from gathering spiritual energy, avoiding water, hiding, and protection, there was no other harmful function.
He cautiously tested the Formation according to what he had learned in school, and only after about an hour of confirmation did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.
After making sure that the cave was not a trap, Chen Mobai waited for another half an hour before starting to move.
As expected, the cave was very small, with only three side halls besides the main hall. The middle one should be the cultivation room, but he didn’t know if anyone was inside. Chen Mobai took out a “Wooden Armor Talisman” from his pocket and held it in his palm. This was his life-saving talisman that could withstand attacks from cultivators at the sixth level of Qi Refining after activation.
With the talisman in hand, he felt a little safer. Chen Mobai then took out a coin and gently rolled it towards the door of the side hall.
Zi!
As soon as the coin rolled to the door, a blue electric light flashed, turning the jade-like coin into a mist.
Seeing this scene, Chen Mobai felt heartbroken. This one-yuan coin was worth as much as a Good Deed. It was the basic unit of currency on the Di Yuan Star, made by crushing dried spiritual stones and blending them with other minerals and metals. A point of spiritual energy was infused into it for anti-counterfeiting purposes.
Chen Mobai only had five yuan of pocket money per week and had worked hard to earn eighty points of Good Deed for himself. Losing a coin like this made him hesitate.
After waiting for a while and seeing no movement from the middle side hall triggered by the prohibition, Chen Mobai couldn’t help but try again. He searched his whole body and found that the coin was the only thing he could use to test, so he reluctantly rolled another coin towards the other two side halls.
Zi!
Hua!
Two completely different sounds and lights made Chen Mobai widen his eyes. The prohibition on the door of the left side hall was the same as the one in the middle side hall, and the coin was directly vaporized by the blue electric light.
But the prohibition on the door of the right side hall was completely different. It manifested as a deep blue water ripple, pushing the coin back like a ripple. Chen Mobai stepped aside, allowing the coin to roll back until it stopped. He then took out another coin and hit it precisely, confirming that there was no residual prohibition on the coin before putting it away.
He approached the door of the right side hall, cautiously testing it several times before finally confirming that the prohibition on the door was not harmful and began to try to crack it. However, Chen Mobai had no talisman to break the prohibition, and his cultivation technique was only the Five Elements Inner Skill taught in school, used to lay a foundation.
“If I had known, I would have bought that ‘Water Sword Talisman’ that I had been eyeing for a long time.”After trying for a long time, Chen Mobai still couldn’t break the water wave restriction on the door, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit regretful. In his shopping cart on the Immortal Gate’s trading market, there were many items he wanted to buy.
Among them was a water sword talisman worth 30 Good Deeds, a middle-grade first-order talisman, which was suitable for his Qi Refining fifth level.
He felt the strength of the water wave restriction on the side hall door and thought it was about the same as the “Wood Armor Talisman” in his hand. If he used a “Water Sword Talisman,” it should be enough to break the restriction.
After thinking through all his knowledge, Chen Mobai really had no other options.
He could only return to the main hall of the water mansion, sit on the central flag base where he had woken up, and begin meditating to recover the mana he had consumed while attempting to break the water wave restriction.
“Huh?”
As soon as he started meditating, he was so shocked that he jumped up, took out his mobile phone from his pocket, and opened the software to test the concentration of spiritual energy.
【Spiritual Energy Value: 60】
“This place is actually a middle-grade second-order spiritual vein.”
Chen Mobai became even more frightened. This water mansion was either a wealthy family’s private residence or a higher-ranking cultivator’s cave dwelling. If they saw him, a stranger, appearing here, they would definitely not be friendly.
“How did I end up here?… Right, that turtle shell…”
Chen Mobai finally remembered the key point, but he searched the entire water mansion’s front hall that he could access, even turning over the pots of flowers and plants, but he couldn’t find the turtle shell.
“It’s over, how am I going to explain this to my parents?”
After waiting another hour and checking the time, Chen Mobai felt that his parents would be home from work soon, so he could only take the last resort.
He dialed 911.
He hoped that the law enforcement cultivators of the Immortal Gate could locate his mobile phone and rescue him from this water mansion.