The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#168 - Extraordinary understanding

In recent times, the story of Lu Jing rescuing Marasal Khan from the evil city lord had spread far and wide.

He had become the undisputed savior of this small oasis city.

Therefore, on the day of his departure, the residents of the city voluntarily came to bid him farewell, and it took Lu Jing a great deal of effort to gradually disperse the enthusiastic crowd.

Afterward, he hugged the teary-eyed female shopkeeper before taking his gains from this period and lying back into his willow coffin.

The most important things were, of course, the more than two hundred black stones he had acquired over the past month, as well as the fire lantern grass and white silk clothes he had obtained for free, and the gifts given by the residents of the city.

Of course, if he were to take all the gifts he received, one coffin would definitely not be enough; Lu Jing estimated that he would need at least a bus.

So he could only pick the valuable ones, filling the coffin with jewelry, gold, and the like.

When Lu Jing lay inside, he really felt like a prince or general being carried to his burial.

The female shopkeeper had to find six strong men to barely lift the coffin and throw it into the divine well in the courtyard.

After a familiar accelerating descent.

Lu Jing landed surprisingly smoothly this time.

Once the coffin came to a standstill again.

Lu Jing opened the coffin lid and looked outside, only to find that he had miraculously arrived in a school building.

But before he could take a closer look, his face turned ugly.

And that wasn't the worst part; the worst part was that even the black stones he had painstakingly dug out of the iron-clad warriors' bodies over the past few months had all vanished without a trace.

The empty coffin only contained his Zen staff and the bundle of fire lantern grass and white silk clothes he had gotten for free.

Lu Jing was unwilling and searched again, but still couldn't find the things he had lost.

Then he heard a voice, "Things in the trial realm cannot be brought out."

Lu Jing raised his head upon hearing this, first seeing a plaque with the four characters "Overseeing the World" written on it in sharp strokes.

Then he saw a middle-aged man who looked like a teacher under the plaque.

His square face was naturally full of majesty, like a judge in the Yama Palace, but his gaze towards Lu Jing was surprisingly kind.

He didn't urge him to speak, as if waiting for Lu Jing to adapt to the situation before him.

The latter did not disappoint him; as someone who had played hundreds of games and read countless novels, Lu Jing guessed a few things when he heard the words "trial realm."

He composed himself and said with a wry smile, "So... I wasn't in the real world before?"

The square-faced middle-aged man did not immediately answer this question, but instead asked, "What is real, and what is illusory?"

Lu Jing thought of his postgraduate entrance exam politics and subconsciously said, "Objective reality is that which does not depend on subjective will, and illusion is the opposite."

A glint flashed in the square-faced middle-aged man's eyes, and he actually stroked his beard and praised, "That's an interesting statement, let me write it down."

After speaking, he actually picked up the brush on the table and carefully wrote the sentence on the rice paper in front of him, and after he put down the brush and looked at the words he had written, he couldn't help but praise it again.

"I didn't expect you to have such a profound understanding of the world at such a young age, and a single sentence can express the essence of reality and illusion. Your comprehension is truly extraordinary."

Lu Jing was a little embarrassed by the praise, but he couldn't tell the square-faced middle-aged man opposite him that this wasn't what I said, it was Marx, I'm just a soulless memorization machine.

Because the other party would definitely ask who Marx was, and if they really started talking about that question, they could probably chat for half a year.

"Although all living beings in this world know about reality and illusion, few can explain the difference between the two. Some people choose to believe their eyes, but when what their eyes see contradicts their common sense, they will subconsciously deny what they see and think it is an illusion."

Lu Jing pondered upon hearing this.

The square-faced middle-aged man paused and continued, "Returning to your previous question, it can be answered by using your sentence just now. The [Trial Realm] does not depend on your consciousness, so it is indeed real."

"Not only you have been there, but the four hundred students who participated in the assessment with you have also been there. Before you, students from other sessions have also been there. The people and situations you encountered when you first arrived there were exactly the same, except..."

"Except that it's equivalent to a repeatable dungeon, and the things that happen in the dungeon can't affect the main world, but it's a bit much that the rewards can't be taken out either," Lu Jing sighed.

He didn't expect that after running around for more than a month, working diligently, he would end up with nothing.

Okay, strictly speaking, it can't be considered nothing. At least he did rely on the black stones to survive this month, and he got an extra month's worth of fire lantern grass and white silk clothes for free.

Finally, the most valuable gain was the unique skill he accidentally obtained from the ancient tomb!

Lu Jing transcribed the martial arts that appeared on the stone slab, and then asked the female shopkeeper to translate the text.

He discovered that it was actually the Fire Scale Armor that Nika had mentioned before, which her family had lost!

With Lu Jing's current vision, he could naturally see the extraordinary nature of this martial art, especially since he had fought Tus, who had practiced the Fire Scale Armor.

Tus could withstand his Mad Demon One Hundred and Eight Staffs with just this martial art, which also confirmed that Nika was not bragging before.

This is indeed a genuine unique skill.

Moreover, it was the body protection skill that Lu Jing wanted most before. With this martial art, coupled with Lu Jing's terrifying internal strength, he felt that his safety level had increased a lot.

: (/

From now on, I'm afraid that just standing there, few people will be able to attack.

In comparison, the gold and jewelry in the coffin are indeed nothing. The only thing that made Lu Jing feel heartache was the more than two hundred black stones, enough for him to consume three months of internal strength.

They were gone just like that, which was inevitably disappointing.

The square-faced middle-aged man opposite him was pondering Lu Jing's words again, and after a moment, he nodded and said, "The saying of dungeons is quite interesting, although not entirely accurate, it is at least 70% accurate."

His understanding of dungeons was of course different from the game dungeons Lu Jing was talking about, but rather the original meaning of the word dungeon, that is, a separate copy transcribed by later generations compared to the original version of a book or painting.

In fact, Lu Jing's game dungeons in his previous life also originated from this, so it's not considered a deviation.