After that, he made another attempt to use the key. However, nothing happened, no matter what he did. No sort of teleportation effect occurred.
Bai Xiaochun’s face fell, and his heart began to pound.
“No way! Don’t tell me it will only work that one time…?” Immediately fretting about the implications, he tried a few more tests. When they all failed, his guts began to twist with regret.
Over and over again, he nervously tried to get the key to activate, all to no avail. The command medallion now seemed completely useless and unresponsive.
He spent an entire day and night scowling on the verge of tears, and filled with regret. As dawn approached, he was about ready to give up. Sighing defiantly, he performed one more test, which was when his face lit up.
After the passage of a whole day, he was now able to sense the same fluctuations he had sensed with the original teleportation. However, he decided to be more cautious this time. Retracting his divine sense, he began to study the medallion a bit more.
A few days later, he was certain he had come to understand the medallion as best he could. Apparently, the medallion could only be used once per day, at roughly the same time each day. If an opportunity was missed to activate the teleportation, the only option would be to wait for another day.
Apparently, the command medallion wasn’t powerful in and of itself, and needed to recharge by absorbing energy from its surroundings.
“Only once per day? That's not really enough.” He sighed, but then pursed his lips to suppress his laughter as he realized that if he wanted to take more trips to the fan in a given day, he could probably just perform a spirit enhancement on the medallion.
Sadly, after performing a few test enhancements, he didn’t notice any significant changes to the medallion. Eventually, he decided to give up on the idea.
“If once it is, then once it shall be….” Sighing, he focused his thoughts on entering the damaged fan, and instantly, his vision began to swim. When it became clear, he was yet again on the fan!
The void outside of the damaged fan was pitch black, with the only light visible coming from the fan itself. Although it wasn't very bright, it was plenty for a celestial like Bai Xiaochun to see.
Clenching his hands into fists, he took a breath, stilled his excitement, and examined his surroundings closely. Then he cautiously proceeded toward the same fan rib as he had before.
As soon as he stepped onto the fan rib, the fan flared with bright light, as did the command medallion in his hand.
As soon as that light shone on him, he lost the ability to move, and felt himself yet again having an out-of-body experience as he flew into the world inside the fan.
He could even see what lay at the very far end of the fan, after all of the one hundred levels. Shockingly, there was a stone platform, upon which was a gold-colored jade slip!
It shone with boundless, holy light that instantly attracted Bai Xiaochun’s attention.
As soon as he examined it more closely, he was as shocked as if his mind had been struck by lightning. Inscribed on the surface of the jade slip was a line of characters!
“Dao Essence of Life and Death!”
Bai Xiaochun had never seen these particular words before, but for some reason, he understood their implication. In fact, as soon as he looked at the jade sip, the voice of an ancient consciousness spoke into his mind.
“I am the only sovereign from the Immortal World. But the Immortal World has perished, and the dome of the heavens has gone dark. By the Joss Flame of my world, I leave this fan behind as my legacy. Anyone who is connected to it by destiny may learn of that which existed in the Immortal World, the Dao Essence of Life and Death.”
Shaken, Bai Xiaochun immediately attempted to peruse the contents of the jade slip, but unfortunately, it was all a blur. And any attempt to make closer contact with the fan itself resulted in a powerful force of repulsion pushing him away.
It was almost like a dream. Shivering, he opened his eyes, and realized that he was still standing in the same place as before on the fan rib, and that only a moment had passed.
However, after peering off toward the end of the fan rib, he realized that what he had seen was no illusion. After the one hundredth level, the legacy really was the Dao Essence of Life and Death.
“I can only get it if I become the true owner of this fan, huh…?” At that point, determination flashed in his eyes.
“I wonder if the levels will be the same as before…?” As it turned out, the first level was exactly as he remembered it. Eyes glittering, he proceeded on, and found that it was the same with the second, third and fourth….
It took no time at all to reach the twentieth level. Nothing posed even the slightest obstacle. These twenty levels couldn’t even be considered a challenge.
Soon, he was back on the fan rib, with the twenty-first level in front of him. At this point, his expression turned serious. He knew that the power he had gained earlier had been equivalent to the first twenty levels. Therefore, everything after this point would be a true test of skill.
“Thankfully I don’t have anyone to compete with, so I don’t have to worry about the time limit….” With such thoughts on his mind, he decided not to immediately enter the next level. Instead, he searched all of the previous levels to make sure there were no rewards that had gone unclaimed by previous challengers. After placing such rewards into his bag of holding, he felt very pleased.
“This way, even if I have to go back home without completely succeeding, this journey will have been worth it.”
With his preparations complete, he looked around calmly. But then, an expression of hesitation appeared on his face as he thought back to the spirit automaton he had squared off against in the past, and wondered if it was awake now.
After thinking about it for a bit, he gritted his teeth and strode forward into the twenty-first level. Almost immediately, the thunderous sound of a roaring wind filled his ears. Everything went blurry, and when things became clear, he was in a world of ice!
The sky was gray, and the lands that stretched out in all directions were white. A whimpering wind blew snowflakes everywhere.
Perhaps this place had once been a sea that ended up being frozen. There were no mountains or valleys, only a wide, flat plain.
The frigid qi was incredible, to the point where even Bai Xiaochun shivered. And that was with him being a celestial with an incredibly powerful fleshly body. Despite that, it felt like he was being stabbed all over, and he even wondered if the flame of his life force was going to be frozen. Any other ordinary cultivator would have been unable to take this level of cold.
“It’s freezing here!” he thought. Looking around, he tested to see if the power he had over the fan could help him here, but absolutely nothing happened.
Even as he sighed regretfully, his expression flickered, and he backed up a few paces. As he did, a hole opened up in the ice ahead of him, and a fish flew out of it in his general direction. It moved with blinding speed, brushing against his arm as it flew past. Strangely, it looked almost exactly like an arrow.
Despite the level of his cultivation base, if he hadn’t reacted quickly enough, he would likely have been stabbed through by the arrowfish!
Things weren’t over yet! His face continued to flicker with shock as more holes opened up around him. In the blink of an eye, numerous arrowfish were all flying toward him at incredible speed!
They were silver, and really did look like arrows as they flew through the air with incredible speed. Bai Xiaochun could tell that he absolutely had to dodge out of their way, and that if they touched him, it would have catastrophic consequences.
They moved so quickly it was almost like teleportation. And it only took moments until there were so many of them he couldn’t count them, a host of glittering silver fish that was shocking to behold.