Chapter 23: The Tenth Cloud

  Today is the third watch!

  It was unknown how long had passed when Wang Lin opened his eyes and looked out the window. The outside was pitch black. He got down from bed, exercised for half a day, and didn't feel anything unusual. Then he took out the stone bowl from under the bed and found that everything in it was gone. He picked up the pearl and examined it carefully, and suddenly became excited. The tenth cloud appeared in the originally blank place.

  Wang Lin immediately regained his spirit, holding the mysterious stone bead and looking left and right, his eyes flashing. He quickly put it away and went out of the room to fetch a large bowl of water from the mountain spring. Hurriedly returning to the room, he placed the bead inside and stirred it around.

  After doing all that, he drank a mouthful of spring water and savored it for half a day, only to find that it was no different from usual. He looked at the pearl in puzzlement for half a day, then put it in his mouth and bit down on it, but it was still hard as steel.

  He squeezed out blood drops on it, and the beads remained unchanged.

  He hesitated for a moment, gritted his teeth, and slammed the stone bowl heavily onto the stone bead, thinking that perhaps after producing more than ten clouds, there would be some changes inside.

  After a loud crash, the stone bowl shattered into pieces, and Wang Lin's hands were numb, but the pearl was intact without any signs of damage.

  Having tried every possible method, the pearl still didn't show any difference after more than ten days. Wang Lin was heartbroken about wasting two gourds of dew and angrily threw the pearl aside.

  After a while, he reluctantly picked it up again and carefully observed it. As he looked at it, suddenly a wave of drowsiness washed over him, and he was taken aback - hadn't he just woken up? He rubbed his eyes hard and continued to look at the pearl.

  Slowly, the drowsiness surged in uncontrollably, and the beads became increasingly blurry in his eyes. Finally, Wang Lin's body tilted to one side, and he fell to the ground, with the beads still clutched in his hand.

  He had a dream, in which he came to a place without borders or edges. There was no sun, moon or stars here, but there were countless glowing bodies all around him. Although it was just a dream, his mind was clearer than ever before, and he even wondered why he was here in the dream.

  Here he had no uncomfortable feeling, in his heart knowing that he was dreaming, but did not know how to wake up, helplessly wandering around, walking for a very long time in this endless place.

  It was unknown how long it had been, but when he was exhausted, the surroundings suddenly shook violently, and then he felt as if his body was being torn apart in pain. He let out a miserable cry and suddenly opened his eyes wide.

  He took a deep breath, wiped the sweat from his forehead and thought to himself that this strange dream had finally ended. Suddenly, his expression changed drastically, he stared blankly at the mysterious bead in his hand, the dozen or so clouds on it had all disappeared, and several small words floated on its surface.

  "This..." Wang Lin was stunned, quickly picked it up and took a closer look. The font was crooked and unfamiliar, but he had been fond of reading since childhood and knew many types of characters. After thinking for a long time, comparing the impression of the font one by one, he finally managed to guess some of its meaning.

  "This should be a number and doesn't have any practical meaning." Wang Lin muttered to himself, holding the bead. Suddenly, an idea flashed in his mind, he thought of the dream from earlier.

  "Could it be related to this pearl?" Wang Lin pondered for a moment, then lay down on the bed and closed his eyes, forcing himself to sleep. However, he was now wide awake and couldn't fall asleep no matter what.

  He thought of the pearl and how he had fallen asleep naturally while looking at it before, so he stared at the pearl without blinking, and gradually, drowsiness emerged, and before he knew it, he closed his eyes.

  The endless space appeared once again, Wang Lin stood here, his eyes revealing a thoughtful expression. This time he didn't move around, but instead stood still for a moment before continuously jumping up and falling down, repeating the cycle.

  As time went by, he jumped higher and higher, until now he can reach a height of about half a meter. When his body was exhausted inside and out, the long-lost tearing sensation reappeared.

  Then he came to.

  The moment he opened his eyes, he immediately got out of bed, took a step forward and jumped high, just like the result of training in his dream.

  At that moment, Wang Lin's eyes revealed an unbelievable gaze, and a look of wild joy emerged. He took several deep breaths, suppressing his excited emotions, pacing back and forth in the room, with expressions changing rapidly - sometimes deep in thought, sometimes worried, and occasionally showing a puzzled expression, as sweat dripped down from his forehead onto his cheeks.

  "If it's just possible to exercise in dreams, then it's basically useless. I can also exercise in reality, no need to do it in dreams." Wang Lin muttered to himself.

  "No, this bead absorbed so much spiritual energy and only appeared with the tenth yuan. It's impossible that it's just a useless thing, there must be other uses for it, there must be! But what exactly is it?" Wang Lin's eyes showed his determination, forgetting everything around him, fully immersed in deep thought.

  "Could it be..." He stopped in his tracks, as if he had grasped a thread of clue in his mind, and exclaimed in surprise: "Could it be time?"

  Thinking of this, he could no longer control his emotions, excitedly wanting to loudly roar a few sentences, he hastily tightly clenched his fists, his body trembling as he stared at the pearl.

  "If it's really related to time, I... even if Wang Lin's innate talent is poor, he will definitely become an immortal!" After taking a few deep breaths, Wang Lin barely recovered and immediately lit the oil lamp in the house, filled it with oil, and sat down beside it, holding the bead and silently calculating the time.

  About two hours later, the oil lamp went out.

  Wang Lin hastily filled up with oil, lit it, and took the pearl, re-entering the dream.

  This time he didn't practice jumping high, but sat cross-legged on the ground, silently counting numbers and calculating time.

  Half a time, one time, five times, ten times, twenty-five times!

  A tearing sensation appeared in his body, and as soon as Wang Lin opened his eyes, the oil lamp showed signs of going out.

  "Ten times the time, the time spent in dreams is ten times the real time!" Wang Lin excitedly stood up, tightly grasping the mysterious bead.

  For the first time in his heart, he had full confidence in cultivating immortality.

  It was already three poles up, Wang Lin put away his excited mood and did not immediately use the bead for cultivation. He deeply knew that if he used the bead in the sect during the day, it was possible that someone would unintentionally discover it at any time, and by then he would absolutely be unable to keep it safe. Therefore, he put the bead into his storage bag and pushed open the door to walk out of the room.