Chapter 3: Water Mansion

Chen Mobai saw the turtle shell and felt a slight twinge in the healing wound on his right hand.

This is how it happened.

Half a month ago, he had just broken through to the fifth level of Qi Refinement. His superstitious mother, overjoyed and hoping he would perform well in the college entrance exam, took him back to a supposedly very effective temple in their deep mountain hometown to offer the first stick of incense.

Then, an unknown, accursed person pushed him from behind while he was offering incense. He staggered, and to steady himself, reached out and grabbed a turtle shell that had been placed as an offering in front of the deity's statue.

It turned out that the turtle shell, having been exposed to incense smoke for who knows how many years, was quite dirty. Chen Mobai's right hand was cut by a sharp part of the shell, leading directly to an infection. He became so weak he couldn't stand, and had to be hospitalized for half a month.

Since this object had caused her precious son to be hospitalized, his mother naturally refused to let it go. She had a good argument with the presiding cultivator of the temple back home, hoping to get a refund of the 188 merit points from the first incense offering.

However, the old cultivator was no pushover, or perhaps the temple was simply poor. No matter what Chen Mobai's mother said, he refused to issue a refund, only offering two exorcism talismans as compensation.

As they were equally matched, but the temple ultimately in the wrong, the old cultivator eventually gave in a little.

He allowed Chen Mobai's indignant mother to take the turtle shell, saying she could burn it to remove her son's bad luck.

As it turned out, the turtle shell still hadn't been burned.

Open fires were prohibited in the city. All discarded, unusable resources had to be recycled and, after special processing, were buried by geomancers into the Earth Vein Spirit Axis to maintain the generation and circulation of spiritual energy on Earth Star.

Only companies or organizations with approved alchemy and artifact refining licenses were allowed to create fires within the city.

Chen Mobai rolled his eyes, got up, and prepared to throw the turtle shell into the trash, hoping the geomancers would bury the unlucky item the next day.

But just as his hand touched the turtle shell, a silver light flashed.

Caught off guard, Chen Mobai was completely enveloped by the silver light and then vanished from the room.

He didn't know how much time had passed.

Chen Mobai's consciousness returned, and he slowly got to his feet.

He looked around and realized he was no longer in his own room, but in a mysterious cave dwelling.

He didn't know where this cave dwelling was, but Chen Mobai was certain of one thing.

He was currently underwater.

He looked up; everything was a watery blue.

He saw that the entire cave dwelling was surrounded by a thin, semi-elliptical spherical light shield. Fish and crabs from all directions in the water, upon hitting the shield, bounced off as if they had struck rubber.

Chen Mobai waited for nearly ten minutes, but no senior expert appeared. He slowly turned to examine his surroundings.

Upon closer inspection, he realized it was a small underwater cave dwelling.

Where he stood now appeared to be the antechamber of the cave dwelling. In each of the four corners, there was a pedestal, each with a formation flag inserted into it. Along with the main pedestal formation flag in the center of the cave dwelling behind him, they perfectly formed a simple water-repelling formation.

It was fortunate that Chen Mobai usually paid attention in his formation classes, as he was able to identify this second-tier mid-grade magic formation. Besides gathering spiritual energy, repelling water, concealment, and protection, it had no other offensive functions.

Following what he had learned in school, he cautiously tested the formation. After about an hour, he confirmed that it was safe and finally let out a sigh of relief.

Having confirmed that the cave dwelling was not filled with hidden dangers, Chen Mobai waited another half an hour before starting to move around.

The cave dwelling was indeed small. Besides the unobstructed antechamber, there were only three side halls behind it.

The middle side hall seemed to be a cultivation chamber. Unsure if anyone was inside, Chen Mobai took out a "Wood Armor Talisman" from his pocket and clutched it in his palm. This was his life-saving talisman.

It was a first-tier mid-grade talisman; once activated, it could block attacks from a cultivator at the sixth level of Qi Refinement.

With the talisman in hand, he felt a little safer.

Chen Mobai then took out a coin, placed it on the ground, and gently rolled it towards the main door of the side hall.

Just as the coin rolled up to the door, a faint blue electric light flashed, vaporizing the corundum-like coin into a wisp of spiritual mist.

Seeing this, Chen Mobai felt a pang of distress.

This one-yuan coin was worth one merit point.

It was cast from crushed, dried spirit stones mixed with other jade, mineral, and metal materials. A single point of spiritual energy was imbued into it as a counter-forgery measure, making it the basic monetary unit of Earth Star.

Chen Mobai only received five yuan in pocket money per week, and he had painstakingly earned only eighty merit points in his private savings by hand-cutting talisman paper.

Losing a coin like that made him hesitate.

After waiting for a while, the middle side hall, whose restrictions had been triggered, remained silent. Chen Mobai couldn't hold back anymore. He searched himself thoroughly and found that only coins could be used for testing. He could only grudgingly roll coins towards the other two side halls, left and right.

Two distinctly different sound and light effects made Chen Mobai's eyes widen.

The restriction on the left side hall's door, just like the middle one, triggered a faint blue electric light that directly vaporized the coin.

However, the restriction on the right side hall's door was completely different; it manifested as a vibrant blue water ripple, which pushed the coin back like a ripple.

Chen Mobai stepped aside, clearing the path for the coin to roll back.

After the coin rolled to a stop, he took out another coin and precisely struck it to confirm that no residual restrictive power remained on the first coin before picking it up.

He approached the door of the right side hall, cautiously tested it several times, and finally, after confirming that the restriction on the door was harmless, he began to attempt to break it.

However, Chen Mobai had no talismans for breaking restrictions, and his cultivation method was only the Five Elements Internal Energy taught in school, used for laying foundations.

"I should have bought that 'Water Sword Talisman' I'd been eyeing for so long," he lamented.

After trying for a long time, he still couldn't break the water ripple restriction on the door, which made Chen Mobai feel a bit of regret. He had many items he wanted to buy in his shopping cart on the Immortal Sect Network's marketplace.

Among them was a "Water Sword Talisman," a first-tier mid-grade talisman worth 30 merit points, perfectly suited for someone at his fifth level of Qi Refinement.

He gauged the strength of the water ripple restriction on the side hall's door, feeling it was similar to his "Wood Armor Talisman." He thought that if he used a "Water Sword Talisman," he should be able to break it.

His mind raced, going over all his knowledge, but Chen Mobai was truly at a loss.

He could only return to the main hall of the water mansion, sat down on the central formation flag pedestal where he had woken up, and began to meditate to recover the magic power he had expended testing the water ripple restriction.

"Huh?"

As soon as he started meditating, he jumped up in surprise, took out his phone from his pocket, and opened the spiritual energy concentration testing app.

Spiritual Energy Value: 60

"This place actually has a second-tier mid-grade spiritual vein," he muttered.

Chen Mobai grew even more alarmed. This water mansion was either the villa of a wealthy family or the cave dwelling of a cultivator more advanced than himself. If its owner saw a stranger like him here, they certainly wouldn't be pleased.

"How did I get here? ...Oh, right, the turtle shell..."

Chen Mobai remembered the key point, but he searched every corner of the antechamber of the water mansion where he could move, even overturning the potted plants, yet he still couldn't find the turtle shell.

"It's over. How am I going to explain this to Mom and Dad?"

He waited another hour, checked the time, and realizing his parents would soon be home from work, Chen Mobai knew he had only one last option.

Call 110.

He hoped that the law enforcement cultivators of the Immortal Sect could pinpoint his phone's location and rescue him from this water mansion.