Chapter 23 – The Tenth Cloud
After a while, Wang Lin opened his eyes and saw that it was already dark outside. He got out of bed and stretched for a while. His body didn’t feel much different. He took out the stone bowl from under his bed and was surprised to see that the tenth cloud had finally appeared on the bead.
Wang Lin was overjoyed. He saw the beads and immediately ran out of the house. He went and fetched water from the spring before quickly returning. He placed the stone beads into the water and mixed them together.
After doing all this, he drank the spring water and tasted it for a while, but there was no change as before. He looked at the bead with a hint of disappointment on his face, then tried to bite it, but the bead was still as hard as a rock.
He even dripped blood on the beads, but still there was no change.
He hesitated and gritted his teeth for a moment, then picked up the stone bowl and slammed it against the stone beads. He believed that once there were ten clouds, there would be some kind of change.
After a loud bang, the stone bowl shattered. Even Wang Lin’s hands felt numb, but there was no sign of damage to the stone bead at all.
He used everything he could think of, but the stone bead didn’t seem to change after obtaining the tenth cloud. Heartbroken, he threw the stone bead aside.
After a while, she reluctantly walked over to pick it up. After staring at it for a while, she started to feel sleepy. She was stunned. She had just woken up, why did she feel sleepy? She rubbed her eyes and continued to stare at the bead.
Slowly, he became more and more sleepy. The beads became more and more blurry before he finally fell to the ground, falling asleep with the beads still in his hand.
He had a dream. In his dream, he arrived in a boundless place. There were no stars, but there were glowing objects all around him. Even though he was dreaming, his mind was perfectly clear. He wondered why he was dreaming about this.
Wang Lin didn’t feel anything wrong with his body here. However, he didn’t know how to get up and escape this place. Helplessly, he wandered aimlessly in this boundless area for a long time.
After an unknown amount of time, when he was completely exhausted, his surroundings began to shake. It felt like his body was being torn apart. With a scream, he opened his eyes.
He looked around and realized he was still in the room. Wang Lin took a deep breath and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He was glad that the strange dream was finally over. Suddenly, his expression became very strange. He looked at the bead and realized that all the clouds had disappeared. Instead, there were small words written on the bead.
“This…” Wang Lin was stunned and immediately took a closer look. The words looked very strange, with an unusual font. He had always loved reading, and thought for a long time, trying to match the words with those he had read before. He was able to guess a few words.
Wang Lin held the beads and muttered to himself, “These seem to be numbers in written form. They have no meaning.” Suddenly, a thought flashed through his head and he remembered the strange dream.
“Does it have something to do with the beads?” Wang Lin pondered for a moment and immediately lay down on his bed, trying to force himself to fall asleep. However, he was still full of energy, so he couldn’t do it.
He remembered that the last time he fell asleep was because he was staring at the beads. So he stared at them without blinking. Soon, he became drowsy and fell asleep.
The boundless space appeared again. Wang Lin revealed a serious expression. This time, he didn’t wander around, but instead began jumping up and down repeatedly.
As time went on, he managed to jump higher and higher. At first, he could only jump about half a meter, but now he could jump over a meter. Once his entire body was exhausted, the tearing feeling returned.
Then he woke up.
As soon as he woke up, he got out of bed and jumped. He jumped very high, just like he had done in his dream.
Wang Lin was stunned. A moment later, a look of joy appeared on his face. He took several deep breaths to contain his excitement and began pacing around the room. His expression constantly changed. Sometimes he was confused, sometimes thoughtful, and sometimes anxious. Sweat dripped from his forehead.
Wang Lin muttered, “If I only exercise in my dreams, then there’s no point. I can exercise in the real world. There’s no need for dreams.”
“That’s not true. This bead absorbed so much spiritual energy before the tenth cloud appeared; it can’t be useless. There must be another use, there must be. But what is it?” Wang Lin forgot everything around him and devoted himself completely to the bead.
“Could it be…” He paused. He seemed to have caught an idea. He asked himself, “Could it be this time?”
After thinking about it, she couldn’t control her emotions any longer. She wanted to shout a few words excitedly. She clenched her fists. Her body trembled as she looked at the beads.
“If it really is related to time, then I… I, Tie Zhu, will become immortal no matter how poor my talent is!” Wang Lin took a few deep breaths before returning to normal. Without saying anything, he took out an oil lamp and filled it with oil. He sat on his bed, holding the stone bead, and began to count the time.
After 5 hours, the lights went out.
Wang Lin quickly refilled the lamp with oil. He stared at the beads and returned to his dream.
This time, he didn’t practice jumping, but instead sat cross-legged on the ground while counting the time.
One hour, five hours, ten hours, twenty hours, thirty-five hours, fifty hours!
The feeling of his body being torn apart reappeared. When Wang Lin opened his eyes, the oil lamp was almost out.
“Ten times the time. Ten times the time passed in a dream.” Wang Lin stood up happily, holding the beads tightly.
For the first time, he was confident in his cultivation.
It was already very late. Wang Lin suppressed his excitement and didn’t immediately begin using the beads to cultivate. He was afraid that if he started using the beads early in the morning, he would be discovered. If that happened, he wouldn’t be able to keep them, so he put the beads back into his storage bag and left the room.