After Settling the cats, Jiang Li started training again.
He continued with [Spiritual Emperor Seal]. After experiencing real combat combat, he once again marvelled at this cultivation technique.
The life and death battle had made him grasp more and more of the essence of the art.
He knew, for now, to compensate for the damage done by Fetal Respiration, he could only rely on the progress of his spirit. Once he reaches the the state of Stasis, coupled with a variety of supplements he could heal himself in no time.
The further he went on the journey of cultivation, the more he felt that there was a deeper meaning behind every move of the [Spiritual Emperor Seal]. Unfortunately he could not unlock the opaque stone and thus could not see the rest of the techniques.
Moving like a ghost in the park, he roamed in all directions, lashing out left and right. His whole body became a shadow, his arms waving about in a blur that made him look like a man with tentacles for limbs.
Finishing a set of seals, he crossed his arms and entered the deepest form of mental focus, contemplating the Brain of the Universe. Looking at the starry sky, he felt as if deep into the expanse of the universe, billions of stars formed a cl.u.s.ter, a brain that brought about mental capacity to the whole universe.
Himself, mankind, planets and s.p.a.ce are all manifestations of the mind’s work.
Everything was a part of the Brain of the Universe.
It was his dream.
And so, the vast expanse of the world was a dream.
As the Diamond Sutra it says, everything that exists is like a dream.
“If the universe was alive, then we are all projections of its thought processes. We are not real, but part of a dream.” Jiang Li suddenly came to an epiphanic notion, that life and death is but the difference between alternating dreams fantasies.
He crossed his legs to savour this state of mind.
The pa.s.sage of time was not counted for. When the sky was already bright Jiang Li looked at his watch, to find it was 10am already.
“Today i’ll go to Xing Hua City again to earn big bucks. Maybe buy some more Lunar Essence?”
Beeeep, beeep…
At this moment someone was calling him. Jiang Li’s heart skipped a beat. It was Lara.
“Yo,” out of the phone came the familiar voice of Lara. “How’s your training going?”
“Not bad,” Jiang Li smiled. “Since the life and death trials of last time, I’ve broken through cultivation barriers.”
“Then I must congratulate you.” Lara’s holographic figure appeared. “Any time you could spare in the day? Come have lunch with me ”
TL note - (he’s getting in hehe xd)
“Of course,” upon hearing this Jiang Li was quite excited. Lara actually made the first move to go out. Usually it was boys that would ask girls out, with the latter often finding excuses, but now the situation has been reversed.
Lara made the initiative to make a phone call. Jiang Li had no reason to refuse.
“Where are we going? I’ll be your host as I’ve made quite a fortune recently. “ Jiang Li had up his sleeves millions of starcoins, a man of wealth in his own right. How could he make a girl pay for him?
“Where are you? I’ll pick you up by car.” Lara smiled after hearing this.
“I’ll send you the GPS coordinates, you can come right now.” Jiang Li hurriedly opened his GPS function.
“Ok I’m coming! Wait for me on top of your house.” Lara hanged up.
Jiang Li left a message for his family saying that he would not eat at home, then ran up the stairs. About five to six minutes later a hover car zoomed through the distance and slowly landed on his roof. The doors opened and out came Lara with a cheeky smile.
“Get on.”
“Yas!”
Jiang Li leaped upon the pa.s.senger"s seat, his movement’s languid as if not a human but one of the elements, undetectable.
“Nice moves man, you’ve improved a lot,” Lara was surprised. “I reckon you can basically go toe to toe with Ou Yang Xing now .”
“You to.” Jiang Li could sense Lara’s heartbeat and rhythm. He felt that her aura and physical capabilities have improved substantially as well.
But, his spiritual cultivation has not reached stasis yet, otherwise he would be able to feel her brain’s neuronal waves and hence deduct her spiritual level.
“Everyone had improved after the exercise.” Lara eyes clouded as she recalled the killing of warriors from another planet. “Liana had been at death’s door after having her neck severed, and so she’s progressed more than me. I must work harder to not let her get stronger than me.”
Vroooom…
The engine started and the vehicle jetted into the sky, soaring hundreds of meters above ground level.
Looking at the pa.s.sing white clouds, smelling the nice scent Lara’s body gave off, he felt at ease. Half a year ago, even standing with Lara, he felt a burning sense of shame and self loath, but now he felt like it was a suitable thing to do. He had enough power and a promising future. Lara was not out of his league.
Though Lara’s family was powerful and had hundreds of millions star financial a.s.sets, he was progressing at a phenomenal speed. In the near future he will have the same social status as them.
“What are you thinking about?” Lara asked whilst driving. Her long hair blew upwards and sometimes tickled Jiang Li’s face. Jiang Li felt overjoyed at this small interaction.
“Nothing,” Jiang Li snapped out of his thoughts. “I wonder what will school life be once we enter Astral University?”
“Xing Hua city’s best university Xing Hua University is decent, however compared to Atrial University it is less than a pebble on the road.” Lara showed deep admiration in her words. “I sure hope I get in.”
“Hmm? Are we eating at the Pegasus Edifice?”
Jiang Li saw that the car was travelling towards a majestic high rise building. On top of the building was a giant silver pegasus statue, scintillating beautifully. Its wingspan was more than a few thousand meters, and absorbed sunlight. At night it released the stored rays and became visible to all of Xinghua City.
It was one of the iconic monuments of the city.
It was also the most expensive place to eat.
A meal was typically more than ten thousand star coins. Only the wealthy could afford such a lavish dining place. Jiang Li had seen many girls bragging online about their boyfriends that had brought them to this place to eat. They would take pictures and post them online, with some responding with vile insults and others envy.
Some girls even made posts that stated that they would become the girlfriend of whoever invited them to eat at the Pegasus Edifice
Those that were looking for girlfriends had a success rate of more than 90% if they brought the girl to the Pegasus Edifice.
Jiang Li had never eaten there because he was poor.
What was Lara’s intentions in bringing him here today?
“If we want to eat a splendorous meal, Pegasus Edifice is without doubt the best choice,” Lara smiled. “What’s wrong? Don’t be nervous, I’m shouting today.”
“Haha who lets a girl shout. Don’t look down on me, I made a small fortune recently, shouting one meal or two is easy. Pick any dish you like and we’ll have it tonight.” Jiang Li shook his head.
“Huh? You made a fortune?” Lara blinked her eyes, and made a guess, “I’ve heard recently you’ve been training hypnotism like crazy, did you become a elementary hypnotist? I know you had healed Liana’s sister.”
“Yes, more or less. Either way I’ve made some money.” Of course Jiang Li wouldn’t tell the truth, that he made 3,580,000 star coins from the Cha Xue Alliance. He was probably richer than Lara.
“I’m gonna make you wallet bleed,” Lara’s eyes glimmered.
“Whatever,” Jiang Li opened his palms and made a compliant face.
The car stopped in front of the giant wings of the pegasus, and immediately security guards came forward to direct the parking.
Jiang Li took in the surrounding sight, with the ground glinting silver in the absence of even a speck of dust. From this viewpoint the whole city could be seen.
It felt like viewing Earth from a s.p.a.cecraft.
“We’ll go to the highest cla.s.s of accommodation, near the head of the pegasus. The view there is breathtaking. I’ve already booked it.” It was clear this wasn’t the first time Lara had been here as she lead Jiang Li into the place. Crossing the dreamlike hall and up the hover elevators, they arrived at a cla.s.sy room. The window panes revealed the breathtaking sight of the city outside.
The pair sat face to face in front of each other. Jiang Li stroked the sofa and realized it was made out of a type of rare aether metal called Mythril, mined from a unique planet Earth had conquered.
This material was really good for the body, emitting beneficial radiations that could fix all soughts of illnesses. It was also why mythril furniture was extremely expensive.
The interior of the Pegasus Edifice was decorated solely with this material.
“Hmm, what dishes should we order?”
Near them were holographic screens with different dish categories and prices. It was full of rare and exotic animals and plants, all really good for the body but expensive. Even a small dish was at least 500 star coins.
And that was only the entry courses.
Not a single main course was below 1000 star coins.
“I’m going to start picking?” Lara had a cheeky smile as she thought Jiang Li was not as wealthy as he boasted.
“Sure, pick anything you’d like.” Jiang Li couldn’t care less, and focused on picking dishes that would help heal his body.
“Ok, let’s get a rainbow fruit platter, a bowl of lunar petals and sliced fire fish. Three dishes should be enough for the two of us.” Lara picked three.
It was only 3000 star coins.
She wanted to be economical for Jiang Li’s sake.
The pair conversed as they waited for the dishes to be brought up.
The sky gradually darkened.
Every household in Xing Hua City was illuminated. From afar it had a natural tendency to make onlookers feel sentimental, an atmosphere suitable for lovers. Under the great hall more and more couples arrived. Suddenly the music changed, an otherworldly rhythm that gave off a special vibe started playing. Jiang Li had never heard of such music, and felt his soul respond to the melody.
“What music is this?”
He saw that everyone in the hall was in a trance.
“This song is called Eternity, composed by spiritual grandmaster Jiang Nalan and his battle mate.” Lara showed fervent admiration in her tone, “This song reaches the human soul.”
“That brave and pure heart, how does it escape the shackles?”
“The spirit that nestles in the body, when will you awaken?”
“Outside of the cosmos, is there heaven?”
“My lover does not exist in the mortal realm, but in the eternal freedom of void…”
Upon hearing the lyrics of Eternity, Jiang Li felt that his mind and the universe merged as one, his thoughts expanding outwards infinitely, apprehending many new details to the world. The lyrics were written by spiritual grandmaster Jiang Naran, and would draw out potential in talented people.
“Jiang Naran is my idol, a G.o.dlike figure.” It seemed Lara didn’t not have Jiang Li’s talent, for all she felt was the the song was touching to the soul. She did not enter the same state as Jiang Li. “His family is the one that produces Solar and Lunar Essence, the Jiang family which owns the Sun and Moon corporation. The business owns a huge proportion of shares in the commercial market of man, all thanks to his reputation. Otherwise how could he monopolise the production of Solar and Lunar Essence?”
Jiang Li recovered from his trance.
“Sun and Lunar corporation, the Jiang Family?”
He’d heard of the enterprise before, a ma.s.sive organisation spanning many planets, producing medicine, mecha and even s.p.a.cecrafts.
Though Lara’s family was considered to be a large firm, it was but a speck in comparison to the Sun and Moon corporation.
However it seemed that the firm had very little operations on Earth, and had its focus on the exploration of s.p.a.ce.
“The Sun and Moon corporation is controlled by the Jiang family... “ Jiang Li shook his head. He had the same surname, but the difference between the two was huge. One was a dragon, the other an ant.
Beeeeeeeeeeeep…
At the same time his chip started vibrating. Someone was ringing him.
“It’s Liana?”