10x3

Gu Yuan's heart began to beat rapidly, he began to feel a huge crisis covering him.

"Damn, why didn't you warn me before?"

[You own a troll panel and expect its spirit to not live up to it? do better, dude...]

"Fuck!" Gu Yuan began to think hard about his situation.

He wasn't too far away from the capital, and if the situation wasn't dire enough, the panel wouldn't have warned him...

"Wait, aren't you trolling me?" Gu Yuan asked with hope.

[Nah, your spirit root made a pretty big commotion outside, and the clouds were illuminated by a strong multicolored glow. Many people should be thinking a treasure was born]

"Then running away will make me suspicious!" Gu Yuan clenched his teeth.

[But do you have a choice?]

"Do you want me to die? Maybe some Qi Refining cultivators are already on their way, I can't possibly run away after being noticed by them."

[So?]

"It might be better for me to feign ignorance and look like I was attracted by the commotion as well. I must blend in and look like another opportunistic small fry."

[You are practically at the center of the commotion, they will suspect you already got the treasure anyway.]

Gu Yuan was ruthless and directly shattered all his clothes, standing stark naked.

[Fair enough. But if a strong female cultivator finds you an eyesore, you will die.]

"If I use pants, some people might think I might be hiding something..." Gu Yuan said with resentment and left the cave in a hurry.

Since he chose to be naked, it was meaningless to try and look like a treasure hunter. He just ran in the opposite direction of the original commotion.

While running, he met many cultivators, including some Qi Refining "powerhouses."

They looked at him like looking at a madman, and some thought he had been inspected by other people who arrived sooner and thus didn't bother to waste time with him.

When Gu Yuan thought he managed to run away from the crisis, tens of kilometers away, he felt a huge pressure descending from the sky.

[Well, good luck. No, I better hope the next owner has better luck.]

'How strong is the enemy?' Gu Yuan asked in his mind.

[I can't sense what you can't sense. But judging he came from the sky, at least a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator. What are your last words?]

'Impossible to win...' Gu Yuan sighed in his heart and began to plan on how to make the other party spare him.

A young man descended and stood before Gu Yuan, he seemed to be in his twenties and wore gold luxurious clothes.

Gu Yuan held his fist and greeted, "Senior, how can I be of help?"

"Hand over all your belongings," the young man was straightforward and sneered, "Especially what you are using to hide your cultivation base."

"Pardon?" Gu Yuan was confused.

"Playing stupid?" the young man narrowed his eyes and waved his hand, using a pulse of energy to send Gu Yuan flying.

Gu Yuan hit several trees and stopped, feeling his whole body ached. He couldn't resist one bit.

"A first layer cultivator can't run as fast as you, can't be as resistant as you, and your aura is pretty strange as well.

"The signature of your aura tells a story, but its intensity tells another. You should be at the ninth layer instead of the first layer."

"Senior, I'm as transparent as I can be..." Gu Guan said after cleaning the blood on the corners of his mouth, "Tell me how can I prove it to you."

[Stupid. After reaching the late stage of Qi Refining, a cultivator develops a spiritual sense, they can see and sense things outside the scope of the natural senses and can pry the cultivation base of other cultivators.

[Although your aura's signature is that of someone in the first layer, the intensity is that of someone in the ninth, this is something he can sense clearly. It's your fault for never bothering to seek a way to hide it.

[Instead of showing off your stupidity, you better make up some lie and try to gain some time.]

"No, I actually can guess why senior is suspecting me," Gu Yuan sighed and shook his head, "Indeed, I was originally at the ninth layer of Body Tempering, but it was in the past."

The young man frowned and waited.

"My cultivation base is actually that of someone in the first layer, there's nothing to be faked," Gu Yuan continued to make things up, "But my body remains at the ninth layer, it's just like that."

The young man thought for a while and found that Gu Yuan's explanation was reasonable and possible, he knew some people who regressed their cultivation but kept their original strength, they would never be able to increase their cultivation again.

However, he still felt something was off and so said, "Give me your wrist, I want to confirm if what you said is true."

Gu Yuan's brain began to work hard again, he knew he was doomed if he gave his wrist to the young man, he could sense everything with his spiritual sense.

[Oh, what a pity...]

'Shut up!' Gu Yuan cursed in his heart and moved his wrist towards the young man as if allowing it. However, his brain was at full power.

A flash of light illuminated his despairing mind, he grasped a lining of hope and was decisive.

"The reason my foundation was damaged was a wound to the soul," Gu Yuan said just before the young man grasped his wrist.

The young man used his spiritual sense and without thinking much began to explore Gu Yuan's situation.

Maybe he believed Gu Yuan's words a little, perhaps he thought Gu Yuan didn't dare to lie to him... He first explored the situation of his soul.

Gu Yuan lowered his soul defenses on purpose as if allowing the young man to explore without impediment.

He felt the young man's spiritual sense violently exploring his brain and soul, it was very hurtful. Gu Yuan felt like thousands of needles were being inserted into his soul.

'Fortunately... he knows how to search the soul...!!' Gu Yuan felt relieved and knew he won.

He immediately upgraded his cultivation technique's quality from (8) to (9), and then directly to (10), without waiting for his soul to absorb the first upgrade.

A huge amount of knowledge flooded his consciousness and began to overflow violently, Gu Yuan lost consciousness without resistance.

At the same time, the young man felt something was wrong and tried to retrieve his spiritual sense, but it was too late.

Because he was searching for the soul, he was essentially prying on Gu Yuan's mind, and thus he received a huge amount of sudden knowledge as well.

However, different from Gu Yuan, who received the panel's assistance to convert and absorb all the knowledge as safely as possible, the young man only felt like a chaotic wave of information flooded his mind.

The young man's consciousness was directly corrupted and his soul became muddled. He turned into a fool because his mind couldn't transform that chaotic wave of information into something useful, it just occupied his soul statically.

The young man fell on the ground like a mindless fool, his eyes were blank, and he was paralyzed.

Meanwhile, Gu Yuan, who had been damaged by the soul search and then received two big upgrades in one go, was in a familiar space again.

He felt like he was somewhat mentally ill, his thoughts were out of order and he felt somewhat foolish. It was because of the soul search.

[Damn bastard, you managed to survive.]

"..."

[But maybe it could have been better to die.]

"..."

[Your soul has been damaged by that guy first and then received an overwhelming amount of knowledge in one go... I'm surprised you didn't turn into a fool already.]

"..."

[Are you going to stay silent forever?]

"...For how long must I stay here?" Gu Yuan asked with difficulty, he almost misspelled several words.

[A while.]

"...How long?"

[A while.]

"..."

[Damn it, I don't know. Normally, it wouldn't be long, but your soul is damaged, after all, I can't say with confidence how long it will take.]

"What to do? There's nothing..."

[Probably because your soul is damaged, the panel chose to not show you the entire transformation. There's only darkness here...]

"..."

[To be honest, you might die before the transformation is over...]

"I feel sleepy..."

[Yeah... it might be good for you to rest, maybe...]

[Owning the panel is both an opportunity and a horrible curse. You can't possibly imagine what kind of cause and effect the panel is entangled in.]

...

Outside the special space, in the real world, time passed normally.

"Well... what a sight..." a sigh as if carried by the wind echoed in the woods.

A figure shrouded in mist descended from the sky next to the two people lying on the ground.

"This one's soul is completely corrupted, dying is better than living..." The person's voice was as if also shrouded in mystery, impossible to distinguish between old or young, male or female.

"The other shows signs of soul wounds caused by soul search, but also strong signs of soul exhaustion..."

"Judging by their cultivation bases... no, something is wrong with this boy..." The figure seemed to be in doubt and a gush of wind made Gu Yuan float at the same time a powerful spiritual sense covered him.

"His foundation is intact, and he is truly at the first layer... but this aura intensity and amount of internal energy... how unbelievable...

"What spirit root is this? A worldly spirit root? absurd..."

Gu Yuan's body gently settled on the ground and the figure was motionless for many minutes.

Suddenly, many cards appeared in the air and a coin began to spin and wander around the floating cards.

Two cards, seemingly by chance, stood side by side, and the coin, seemingly by chance, stopped right between the two cards with its two flat surfaces not hidden, but instead each facing a different card. The coin was standing on its edge, between the two cards.

One of the cards was completely black, the other had the written words "certain death."

The figure seemed to not be satisfied and repeated the process many times, but the coin always landed between the same cards and always on its edge.

Another sigh sounded and the leaves on the ground and in the trees swayed.

The figure waved its hand and all the cards disappeared, and another set of cards appeared, different from the ones of before, they were smaller.

But a similar situation occurred, the coin landed on its edge between two cards, one was completely black, and the other was a mix of green and red.

"How can this be..." a shaky voice came from the depths of the mist covering the figure.

She tried again with many other sets of cards, but the same thing happened again and again. The coin stood on its edge between two cards. One card was only differed in size, it was the card of complete darkness. The other card was always different when the set was changed.

Noticing it would be the same regardless of what set of cards was used, the figure stopped and just seemed to be looking at Gu Yuan.

"Kill?" the figure muttered with an icy voice.

"There's no need for me to allow someone like you to interfere with so many lives and turn everything confusing and impossible to predict..."

"But..." the figure was clearly hesitant, "This might be the opportunity I was seeking."

After many minutes in silence, a rune circle began to be conjured by the figure and it covered the ground under Gu Yuan.

The figure made some sort of hand sign that couldn't be discerned thanks to the mist, and the rune circle began to glow.

A golden figure began to take form above Gu Yuan, it was the form of a human being, but it was too transparent to be discerned more.

"Why invoke me?" the golden shadow asked.

"I want to form a causality exchange with this person," the figure shrouded in mist said.

"Pay for it," the golden form was indifferent.

A golden root appeared out of nowhere and stood before the golden form, the world seemed to dim when it appeared.

"Gracious mystical root... I accept it," the golden form swallowed the golden root and both disappeared.

The rune circle under Gu Yuan began to disintegrate in many parts that then attached themselves to his skin, forming runes all over his body.

"Don't disappoint me, boy..." the figure muttered, and a silver drop of milky liquid appeared above its palm, "This is a treasure difficult to come by."

The milky liquid fell on Gu Yuan's forehead and disappeared as if absorbed by his body.