My Dreams Connect to Ancient Times-Chapter 220 - 55: The World of the Philosophers, Returning to Great Virtue

The portal's sudden collapse caught Lu Xuan completely off guard. The space around him grew turbulent, and he was thrown from the original passage, plummeting toward the other side of the Peach Blossom Spring.

Lashed by the terrifying spatial storm, Lu Xuan's already grave injuries—sustained from the killing intent of a Grand Grade Existence—worsened. He was dripping with blood, his stark white bones visible.

Even his already mangled organs ruptured further. Blood spilled from his lips as he coughed up fragments of his own lungs.

He plummeted from the clouds.

Like a meteor streaking across the night sky, he smashed through the thick clouds and crashed into a winding river in a mountain range. The colossal impact threw up massive waves, momentarily damming the river and tearing the ground asunder.

An unknown amount of time passed. As the dirt and debris blasted toward the Celestial Vault rained back down, a gradual calm returned. Lu Xuan, his body and soul both grievously injured, was swept downstream by the current.

An extreme exhaustion rising from the depths of his soul caused his vision to blacken. The Physical Tribulation surged, and his mortal shell began to crack apart.

To make matters worse, although this world originated from Ancient Times, its Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi seemed to have been depleted over the long eons without being replenished, displaying all the characteristics of an End of Dharma Era.

The connection between heaven and earth was severed. Primordial Qi was sparse, to say nothing of Divine Essence. As a result, Lu Xuan couldn't absorb any Primordial Qi to heal his wounds.

But...

And yet, Lu Xuan managed to force a faint smile onto his face.

'As I thought...'

In the final moment before he lost consciousness, he calmly thought:

'It seems the Saintly Virtuous Position is indeed deeply connected to Ancient Times. This place really is a fragment from that era, one that wasn't destroyed in the End of Dharma Era...'

'Although this Little World is still in an End of Dharma Era, it can still have sages and nurture a Great Virtue.'

Feeling the Position of Great Virtue settle upon him once more, and feeling his crumbling body slowly merge with Virtue itself, Lu Xuan breathed a sigh of relief and peacefully slipped into unconsciousness.

'With the Unity of Virtue and Conduct, aided by my Great Grade Cultivation, I could crush a Spring and Autumn Dominator. Even with only the Unity of Virtue and Conduct, I'm still strong enough to fight a Grand Grade Existence head-on.'

His world went completely dark.

.......

「Hongshi Town.」

Hongshi Town was exceptionally peaceful at night.

"Sis!" Tang Shitou held Tang Xiaoxiao's hand and asked goofily, "Why do we have to go do laundry so late...?"

The young girl's clothes were simple, even a little tattered, but her face was exceptionally clean and her eyes were bright. You could even say she was quite pretty.

She pursed her lips in a smile, pinched her little brother's nose, and said as they walked,

"If we get the masters' clothes clean tonight, we can collect our wages first thing in the morning. Big Brother is coming back from the Prefecture City tomorrow, and I'll use the money to buy some fish and meat and make you both a delicious meal..."

"Yay! Yay!" Tang Shitou's face lit up, and he clapped his hands in excitement. "We get to eat meat tomorrow! And Big Brother will definitely bring me a candied hawthorn from the city. I'm so happy!"

Tang Xiaoxiao gently patted her little brother's head. Holding a large basket of clothes in one arm and Tang Shitou's hand with the other, she soon left the quiet town and arrived at the bank of the winding river.

She carefully laid the clothes out on a large, smooth stone by the river, beating and rinsing them, meticulously scrubbing the dirt from every fold and crease.

Tang Shitou wasn't idle either. While helping his big sister wash the piles of clothes, he chattered away good-naturedly.

"Sis, Sis! During class today, the Master told us about things from a long, long time ago. He said it's called 'history'..."

Tang Xiaoxiao smiled gently, the moonlight on her face shimmering in harmony with the rippling water.

As she carefully washed the clothes, she asked with a smile,

"So, what did the Master talk about?"

"The Master said..." Tang Shitou began, trying to recall. "He talked about a lot of things. About the Shang... and the Zhou..."

He rubbed his nose and, with another goofy smile, continued,

"The Master said that beyond the Ten Thousand Mountains, there are a bunch of... Dukes States! Places like Qin, Qi, and Chu. And there's a Luoyang City that's three thousand li wide, where the Celestial Son of Zhou lives... Sis, I want to go see Luoyang!"

"You silly boy."

Tang Xiaoxiao gave a helpless smile.

"The Master was talking about history. History is something that happened a long, long time ago. And even back then, a long, long time ago, no one could cross the Ten Thousand Mountains. Who knows what's happened on the other side since then. It's hard to say if the Celestial Son of Zhou even exists anymore!"

"Hey!" Tang Shitou corrected her. "That's not right, Sis! The Master said that with Great Virtues like Kongzi and Lu Zi to maintain it, the Great Zhou will prosper forever!"

Tang Xiaoxiao wrung out a piece of clothing, wiped her wet hands, and gently rapped Tang Shitou on the head.

"That's what Big Brother told me. Who do you think is right? Big Brother, or your Master?"

Tang Shitou froze, stammering, unable to answer for a long moment.

Seeing his reaction, Tang Xiaoxiao smiled and was about to say something more, when suddenly—

"Ah!"

Tang Shitou cried out.

"Sis, look! Over in the mountains!"

Tang Xiaoxiao instinctively looked over and saw a brilliant, fiery-red meteor punch through the thick clouds and plummet straight down into the mountains.

A moment later, a tremendous ROAR echoed as the earth began to shake violently. Everyone in Hongshi Town was jolted from their sleep. Face pale with fright, Tang Xiaoxiao shielded Tang Shitou, and the two siblings clung to each other in terror until the rumbling subsided and the ground grew still.

After a long moment, when it seemed everything had settled, Tang Xiaoxiao finally let out a sigh of relief and patted her chest. Tang Shitou, however, asked nervously,

"Sis, what... what was that just now?"

Tang Xiaoxiao shook her head, a blank look on her face.

"I don't know either. It must have been a star falling from the sky..."

Only after waiting a long time, until the lights that had flickered on across Hongshi Town were extinguished once more, did Tang Xiaoxiao's anxious heart finally calm. She hurriedly went back to washing the clothes.

'The sooner I finish washing, the sooner I can take my little brother home...'

The scare seemed to have quieted Tang Shitou down. He now focused on helping his sister, grunting with effort as he washed and beat the clothes.

Time trickled by. Everything returned to silence, and there were no further disturbances from the mountains.

After finishing the last garment, Tang Xiaoxiao meticulously folded and stacked the clothes in her basket. She was just about to take her brother home when, suddenly...

"Sis, look!" the sharp-eyed Tang Shitou shouted, pointing upstream at an unidentifiable object that was slowly floating closer. "What's that?"

Tang Xiaoxiao looked over in confusion, her pupils narrowing slightly.

'Floating on the water... is that a person?'

She jumped, thinking it was a corpse. She was just about to grab her brother and flee when she noticed the "corpse's" chest seemed to be rising and falling... 'He's alive?'

In her shock, the person on the river drifted closer. It was a young man, seemingly covered in wounds. His chest was mangled with several frightening, bloody holes, but he was definitely alive—he was still breathing!

After a moment's hesitation, Tang Xiaoxiao couldn't bring herself to leave him. With a sigh, she lay across the large, smooth stone, reached out with a stick, and tried to snag the young man floating by.

"Tang Shitou! Help me!"

Snapping out of his daze, Tang Shitou rushed forward to help his sister haul the man out of the water.

The brother and sister collapsed onto the smooth stone, panting. Tang Shitou glanced at the young man's tattered body and flinched.

"Ah, Sis, his wounds are so bad... He's probably not going to live. Shouldn't we just run...?"

"Say that again?" Tang Xiaoxiao glared at him. "Is that what your Master taught you?"

Tang Shitou flinched again, not daring to reply.

Tang Xiaoxiao wiped the sweat from her brow. She looked at the unconscious young man, whose chest was rising and falling in a steady rhythm. After a moment, she said, "His breathing is stable. He doesn't seem like he's on the verge of death. The injuries must just look worse than they are..."

With that, she picked up her basket with one arm and tried to drag the young man up with the other, but she wasn't strong enough.

"Sis, let me!" Tang Shitou stepped forward eagerly. "The Master just taught us how to pay respects to the Ancient Sons the other day! I can already borrow a little bit of the Great Sages' power!"

He then took a deep breath and recited with mock solemnity,

"Lu Zi says, 'Boundless strength!'"

Tang Xiaoxiao felt a sudden surge of power welling up inside her. It felt as if she could lift an entire mountain!

She shot Tang Shitou a reproachful glare.

"Is that what your Master taught you? Lu Zi is a Great Virtue, not a Great Sage. How dare you try to borrow power from Lu Zi right away?"

Tang Shitou ducked his head, both startled and delighted, and grinned foolishly.

"I... I was just trying it out... It actually worked! I successfully borrowed power from a Great Virtue!"

"You can get lucky and succeed sometimes, but don't you dare try something so reckless again!"

Tang Xiaoxiao gave him another helpless glare, though she was inwardly astonished. She discreetly picked up a small stone and gave it a gentle squeeze.

CRACK!

With a faint crunch, the stone turned to dust, then disintegrated into particles invisible to the naked eye!

Tang Xiaoxiao jumped, but she simply chalked it up to her little brother's fluke in successfully borrowing power from a Great Virtue. Without giving it much more thought, she lifted the unconscious young man and started walking home.

....

「In the center of this Little World, within a magnificent, colossal city.」

The city was filled with ancient charm, its streets paved with bluestone slabs. If Lu Xuan were here, he would surely find it familiar.

Its layout and architecture were nearly identical to Luoyang's. The only difference was that this city was merely a replica, nowhere near as vast—only a hundred li from end to end.

And at this very moment, within the palace at the city's heart...

"Those outsiders are just like the Immortals from the records!" an old man in black robes said gravely. "Even when Soldier himself took action, he was no match for them..."

Beside him, another elder stroked his long beard and added grimly,

"Not even Soldier was a match for them? Could they truly be the Immortals of legend?"

"Most likely."

The black-robed elder nodded slightly.

"According to Soldier, those outsiders possess no power of the sages or of Virtue, yet they can walk upon the air, and their every move can shake the very earth..."

"Should we awaken the High Ancestor?"

"No. Those outsiders have all gone into hiding. It would be... inappropriate to disturb the High Ancestor over this."

As they were speaking, the black-robed elder seemed to sense something. He glanced up toward the statues of the Ancient Sons enshrined at the palace's highest point and sighed.

"It has been over a hundred thousand Years since the world was suddenly sealed off and the lands beyond the Ten Thousand Mountains dissolved into Chaos, hasn't it?"

He paused, then continued with a sigh of melancholy,

"I wonder what became of the Ancient Sons of old, and if any of them ever became a Saint..."

"If anyone did, my guess would be Lu Zi," the other elder said with a smile.

"No, I believe it must have been Kongzi."

"Heh, Ancient Mozi is also a possibility. His ingenuity was unparalleled..."

In the midst of their debate, suddenly—

VMMMMM!

The two elders, both highly respected figures in this Little World, looked over in astonishment. They stared at the statues of the Ancient Sons and saw that all of them were vibrating!

"This..." The black-robed elder was stunned, but his expression suddenly changed. "It's... is it the statue of Lu Zi?"

At the very top, among the few bronze figures standing shoulder to shoulder, a brilliant light swirled around the statue of Lu Zi as it began to vibrate!

"The statue of Lu Zi moved!" The elder's face drained of color. "A great change is upon us!"