Mortal: Traveling Between Two Realms with Mei Ning to Pick Up Trash

For the next few days, Zhou Yu spent his time "devouring books".

Every day when I open my eyes, all I hear is "Ah—Oh—Uh—".

Mei Ning came several times.

Each time, they would appear silently at the door, push it open, glance inside, and then leave.

Zhou Yu was quite nervous at first. What if he misread something offensive and got slapped to death for being a lecher? Later, he realized that Mei Ning didn't have time to care about him at all. She was always in a hurry when she came.

"Not bad." During the first progress check, Mei Ning nodded slightly after hearing the few words he stammered out. "You're learning pretty fast."

Of course, Zhou Yu didn't forget the important matter.

Besides studying language books, he took the time to conduct a series of rigorous, well, not-so-rigorous scientific experiments to test how to use the calligraphy brush.

Experiment 1: Where can a crack be made?

He drew on the paper and succeeded; he drew on the wall and succeeded again; he drew on the ground, and the ground cracked open, almost causing him to fall in.

He tried gliding through the air again.

The brush stroked through the air, and nothing happened.

It seems that a flat, solid surface is necessary as a "canvas"; air won't do.

Experiment 2: How big can the crack be?

He found a spacious spot nearby, took a deep breath, and drew a long arc from left to right.

The crack extended along the tip of his pen, like a zipper being unzipped, growing larger and larger until it became a gap nearly two meters long and half a meter wide.

Zhou Yu stood in front of the crack, his heart pounding.

In theory, if he had drawn it any longer or with a larger opening, it would have been big enough for him to crawl through.

Experiment 3: Is the same place on the other side of the crack?

He drew the marks on the paper, the wall, and the floor, peering over them repeatedly.

Every time I see the same desolate battlefield, the same gray sky, the same shattered earth, and the same indistinct, shapeless wreckage in the distance.

It's not a random location, it's a fixed coordinate.

Experiment 4: Are there any side effects?

The first time I scratched a crack, I felt a little dizzy, like I had stayed up all night.

The second time I tried to swim, my dizziness worsened, my temples throbbed, and my vision would occasionally go black.

On his third attempt, he had only paddled halfway when everything suddenly went black. He fell backward, hitting the back of his head on the ground and nearly lost consciousness. It took him a full fifteen minutes to recover.

Conclusion: It should not be overused; it may only be used 1-2 times a day.

Of course, Zhou Yu also used a calligraphy brush on the storage bag. He used the brush to scratch the surface of the storage bag, and no crack appeared, but when the tip of the brush touched the storage bag, he felt something inside "responding".

When you poke the drawstring of the storage bag with the tip of a calligraphy brush, the bag opens slightly but closes again quickly.

Zhou Yu felt a repulsive force on it. After trying a few more times, he could only make a preliminary judgment that the brush had the potential to "break the barrier", but it was probably limited by his own strength or that his method and posture were incorrect.

……

It wasn't until the fifth day.

Mei Ning came to check the progress again. This time, she didn't leave in a hurry, but sat down in a chair, looking like she was about to conduct a serious assessment.

Zhou Yu took a deep breath, stood up straight, and, like a primary school student reciting a text, uttered a few words in broken local dialect.

"Hello."

"My name is... Zhou Yu."

"Thank you."

The pronunciation was distorted, the tone fluctuated, and the last "you" even took a detour, making it sound like singing.

But Mei Ning understood.

She raised an eyebrow, a hint of surprise flashing in her eyes.

"You're learning quite quickly," she said, her tone a little warmer than last time. "To be able to speak this much in five days, you do have some talent."

Zhou Yu smiled.

He looked at Mei Ning, hesitated for a moment, and finally asked the question that had been lingering in his mind for five days.

"I..." he uttered the word he had just learned, then pointed to himself, "Can I... cultivate immortality?"

Mei Ning did not answer immediately.

She remained silent for a moment, her gaze lingering on Zhou Yu's face for a few breaths, before standing up, turning, and leaving.

The bamboo door closed gently behind him.

Zhou Yu stood alone in the room, his smile slowly freezing on his face.

This is... not acceptable?

Or are you just too lazy to pay attention to him?

In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Mei Ning returned.

He held a fist-sized object in his hand, which looked like a crystal ball, with a faint light flowing inside.

"This is the only spirit orb in the village for testing spiritual roots." Mei Ning placed the orb on the table. "Give it a try."

Zhou Yu was stunned.

She didn't go to reject herself; she went to find the spirit orb for testing?

He'd figured out the village over the past few days. There were only a dozen or so households, mostly descendants of rogue cultivators or mortals, dirt poor. If they had anything to test their spiritual roots, it was probably a priceless treasure.

Looking at Mei Ning's calm face, Zhou Yu felt a little confused.

This girl was just a plot device; she appeared briefly before disappearing from the story.

But when he actually stood in this bamboo house, facing her, he realized that she was also a living, breathing person, a rogue cultivator struggling to survive in a place like the Chaotic Star Sea, whose own life was not going well, yet she was willing to take in a mortal of unknown origin.

"What are you standing there for?" Mei Ning frowned.

Zhou Yu quickly came to his senses, stepped forward, and reached out to grasp the spirit orb.

Simply take the spirit orb in your hand.

Not long after.

A blue light appeared.

"monochrome?"

Mei Ning glanced at it, her eyes filled with shock.

"Water-attribute celestial spiritual root," Mei Ning glanced at Zhou Yu again, "your talent..."

Zhou Yu was also somewhat shocked, staring blankly at the blue light.

I actually have a Heavenly Spiritual Root?

In the world of "A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality," the fewer spiritual roots one has, the better. A single spiritual root makes one a genius among geniuses, a top student sought after by all major sects.

Zhou Yu had only one thought in his mind: I knew it! Everyone has their own talent, they were just born in the wrong place!

Some people's talent might be training dinosaurs, others might be piloting spaceships, but my talent is cultivating immortality!

Zhou Yu grinned, as if he had won five million spirit stones.

Mei Ning looked at him like this, and the corner of her mouth twitched slightly.

"With your talent," Mei Ning said, "you could find a major sect to join, but things are a bit turbulent in the Chaotic Star Sea right now."

Is the Chaotic Star Sea in turmoil?

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yu's excited mood calmed down a bit, and he frowned slightly as he recalled the plot.

In the original novel, Han Li met Mei Ning when he was over 190 years old. Mei Ning is currently in the Qi Refining stage, although it is unknown what level she is at. However, judging from Zhou Yu's previous conversations with the villagers, Mei Ning should be around 20 years old.

Given Mei Ning's talent, she should have reached the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment at around 80 to 90 years old, which means that Old Demon Han should be between 120 and 130 years old now.

Judging from the timeline, it has only been about twenty or thirty years since the Void Heaven Palace opened, and the time for the Reverse Star Alliance to make its move is getting closer.

In other words.

I might be able to hitch a ride on the southward journey.

……

In the following days, Zhou Yu was completely out of control.

He walks with a swagger, eats with great relish, and even feels his tongue has become much more fluent when learning languages. As a result, he spends his days either engrossed in books or grinning like an idiot, to the point that Mei Ning eventually becomes too lazy to even look at him.

Naturally, Zhou Yu became arrogant.

His expansion manifested itself in his decision to venture into the Rift World himself.

That day, Mei Ning said she was going to town to exchange some daily necessities and would not return until evening.

Zhou Yu, on the other hand, found a secluded rock not far from the village.

"Just go in and take a look."

Zhou Yu squatted behind the reef, trying to mentally prepare himself.

The moment I entered, an indescribable sense of oppression surged over me like a tide. It wasn't a physical pressure, but a spiritual, soul-level oppression.

Zhou Yu's face turned pale. He gritted his teeth and stood firm, squinting as he looked around.

The battlefield was much larger than he could see through the crack.

The sky was gray, without sun or clouds, only a uniform, lifeless gray-white light.

The earth was shattered, riddled with cracks and deep pits. In the distance stood some broken giant stone pillars, lying haphazardly on the ground, their surfaces engraved with incomprehensible patterns.

Zhou Yu walked forward a few dozen steps.

The object underfoot made a "crack" sound. Looking down, he saw it was a piece of bone, but not a human bone. It was too big, like a rib of some giant creature.

Zhou Yu swallowed hard and continued walking forward.

A huge thing appeared in front of them after a short while.

From a distance, it looks like a small hill, but upon closer inspection, it turns out to be the corpse of a giant beast, or rather, the skeleton of a giant beast, shaped somewhat like a lizard, but with bony wings that resemble wings.

"What is this thing..." Zhou Yu muttered, his steps involuntarily stopping.

Standing about ten steps in front of the giant beast's skeleton, I looked up at the enormous skull.

A thought suddenly flashed through Zhou Yu's mind: Could this thing still move?

The moment this thought popped into my head—

Suddenly, the two dark, empty cavities in the giant beast's eye sockets lit up.

The eerie green light looked particularly strange.

At that moment, only one word popped into Zhou Yu's mind: "Damn."

That thing came to life.

The next second, the giant beast suddenly raised its claws.

Zhou Yu instinctively turned and ran, his legs thrashing wildly.

The force of the bone claws slammed into him, lifting him up and sending him tumbling through the air before crashing heavily to the ground.

The brush flew out and bounced twice on the ground.

Ignoring the pain, Zhou Yu scrambled over, grabbed the brush, and made a stroke in the direction he had come from.

The crack has opened.

Zhou Yu plunged in headfirst, his body crashing heavily to the ground. He then quickly turned and closed the crack.

He was panting heavily, his whole body trembling.

Looking down, I saw a cut on my left arm. It wasn't from the bone claws that scratched me, but from some kind of chilling aura that seeped into my skin. The wound was black and icy cold.