Through the art of transformation, he secluded himself in Celestial Cyan City, slowly earning the cultivation resources he needed through alchemy. Lin Jing felt that maintaining his current state, without having to flee constantly, was rather comfortable.
However, contrary to his wishes, Lin Jing seemed to have forgotten something that hadn’t happened in a long time—something with the power to indiscriminately pull him away from his stable environment and into conflict.
On the commercial street of Celestial Cyan City, amidst the bustling crowd, the sky suddenly changed. A huge noise accompanied a beam of light descending from the heavens, crashing into a corner of the commercial street, within a certain pavilion.
As the beam of light fell, Venerable Ling Quan, a Divinity Transformation powerhouse in Celestial Cyan City, suddenly stepped out of his abode, "That direction is... the Nameless Pill Pavilion?"
"That young wandering alchemist has entered the grotto heaven... Radiant treasures exposed, and it’s even a Grotto Heaven of Heavenly Treasure, damn."
"This kid still owes me Gluttonous Pills, and I planned to cooperate with his master long-term. He better not die!"
"Nearly twenty years have passed, yet I never expected to enter a grotto heaven again..."
Compared to the clamor outside, inside the grotto heaven, Lin Jing himself was quite dazed.
After seeing off Senior Brother Ouyang, he had started alchemy, and as he was refining, he was dragged into the grotto heaven.
The sudden arrival of this grotto heaven caught Lin Jing off guard, but now he was more concerned about the type and mechanism of this grotto heaven.
"Heavenly Treasure Grotto Heaven!"
Before long, in the bright white great hall of the grotto heaven, the six people who had entered appeared around the central stone stele of the hall.
On the stone stele, the words "Heavenly Treasure Grotto Heaven" were carved in four large characters.
In addition, the rules concerning the Heavenly Treasure Grotto Heaven were also engraved on the stone stele.
Heavenly Treasure Grotto Heaven, heaven’s bestowed treasure.
Note 1: The Heavenly Treasure Grotto Heaven will select an extremely compatible magical artifact from the treasury for each entrant based on their situation as the final reward. Entrants can learn about their final reward in advance; each person’s heaven-bestowed treasure is different.
Note 2: After seeing the artifact information, entrants can choose to "acquire" or "forfeit."
Note 3: Choosing to acquire will lead to a melee battle with other cultivators who have made the same choice. The final sole survivor will receive the final reward.
Note 4: Choosing to forfeit will isolate you outside the great hall to become a spectator. You will be transported back after the grotto heaven ends, with no risk to your life.
"What a joke, why is it this grotto heaven..."
Among the six, a youth dressed as a boatman frantically scratched his head.
To gain fortune, one must determine life and death in this grotto heaven... The risk is too high.
The six quickly began to observe each other.
Lin Jing looked over: three men and two women.
The one who just spoke seemed to primarily cultivate water techniques and practiced along coastal areas—the boatman youth.
Another was a tall thunder cultivator youth, dressed in luxurious clothes with long golden hair, who seemed to have an extraordinary background.
Of the two female cultivators, one wore a green long dress, with a charming and delicate demeanor, seemingly specializing in wood techniques.
The other woman looked like a fire cultivator, but without the aura of pills around her. Her robust physique resembled that of an artifact refiner.
The last one was a young man, coincidentally known to Lin Jing. At that moment, the other also looked at Lin Jing in disbelief.
All six present were aware of the Heavenly Treasure Grotto Heaven’s brutality. If they chose to compete, unless they had the strength to kill all opponents, death awaited them.
"Forget it..." The boatman youth muttered to himself, feeling that none of the other five were easy to mess with.
However, when the information about each person’s heaven-bestowed treasure surfaced in front of them, strong greed stirred in their hearts once more.
The boatman youth suddenly started breathing heavily, his previous thoughts instantly cut off. Even if it meant risking death, he suddenly wanted to seize that slender chance.
With the stone stele showing a ten-second countdown for choices, what appeared before Lin Jing was an illusory hourglass only he could see.
Simultaneously, the hourglass information surged into Lin Jing’s mind, making him slightly widen his eyes.
The holder can enter the space within the hourglass to cultivate, with an internal time-flow rate of 10:1 compared to the outside world; ten years inside equate to only one year outside.
Additionally, unless a cultivator is proficient in both the path of time and the path of space, the otherworldly space within the hourglass is difficult to breach...
"This artifact..." Lin Jing was instantly captivated.
The Sands of Time also had a flaw—every ten years spent inside required the holder to leave the hourglass space and remain in the outer world for a full year before re-entering, with a cooldown period of one external year.
Furthermore, while inside the hourglass space, the entrant’s age would increase based on the internal time, and their lifespan would flow according to the internal time, not matching the external time flow rate.
But this mattered not to the Longevity Body. Normal lifespan individuals might find this difficult, as their life continued to pass normally, but the Longevity Body wouldn’t worry. Read full story at novel•fire.net
"It truly is a magical artifact tailor-made for the Longevity Body. The difficulty of a Longevity Body is how to convert an extended lifespan into cultivation. This hourglass of space-time directly solves this problem to some extent."
"The main point is, its internal space can also be used to evade powerful enemies, and cultivators proficient in both the paths of time and space..." The first cultivator Lin Jing could think of was the master of the Celestial Secret Tower—there were too few of such cultivators.
However, the cost to obtain this artifact was huge...
Lin Jing glanced at the others, their eyes also reddened, evidently seeing artifacts perfectly suited for them, their values not estimated to be inferior to Lin Jing’s vision of the Sands of Time.
"To obtain this heaven-bestowed treasure, you must kill other geniuses according to the grotto heaven’s rules. The forces behind these geniuses won’t let it go... It’s fine if they’re not from Qingzhou, but if they are, it’s troublesome."
"Then, my false identity will surely be embroiled in the turmoil again..."
"But if I choose to forfeit, I’ll miss out on this space-time attribute treasure..."
"I forfeit..." As Lin Jing was still deliberating, among the six entrants, a Foundation Establishment perfect-stage youth looking towards Lin Jing chose to forfeit this grotto heaven opportunity, opting not to compete for his own heaven-bestowed treasure.
He wore the pill attendant robe of the Heaven-Reaching Tower, exuding a strong aura. The moment he stepped out of the hall, he joined the audience below.
This youth was Xia Yan, who passed the Heaven-Reaching Tower’s test by purchasing a Gluttonous Pill at that time.
"This alchemist, with just one pill, could change my destiny and discern my father’s background—definitely not as simple as a mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator, so even disregarding favors, I won’t be his match, and it’s best not to compete in this grotto heaven opportunity." Xia Yan looked at the information of the treasure before him, his heart bleeding, but rationality forced him to give up.
After all, this was a person whom even his father feared.
In the end... the ten-second countdown concluded, and only two chose to forfeit the artifact. Following Xia Yan, the artifact refining female cultivator also stepped out of the hall, leaving the last four behind—exchanging varying emotions in their eyes as they faced the countdown on the stone stele.
"Kid... did you also see that blond hair isn’t easy to mess with?" After stepping down, the artifact refining female cultivator spoke to Xia Yan, gazing solemnly at the golden-haired youth.
"Who is he? Isn’t the one not to mess with that alchemist who took the Fire Cloud Pill?" Xia Yan glanced at her, startled, thinking she, being a fellow fire cultivator, sensed the terrifying flame power within Lin Jing.