Bang!
On the ground Li Jun was still confused about what had just happened.
He indeed took the risk and lived across the lava and nothing happened. It was when he knew his bet was not wrong. Unfortunately not everything went according to the plan.
He has the fruit at hand, but can't get out, some kind of barrier seems to have been activated.
When he tried to leave, it bounced him back with twice the force resulting in his current state.
"No! I should consume this fruit first, regardless of what happens later, I can't just suffer a loss for nothing?" With this thought in mind, he bit a huge piece and in three bites had all of it in his mouth.
He felt relived as he muched them, but then a change occured, from a gentle soft energy flowing from the mouth towards his head and other paths of the body.
Eventually it turned into a torrent, and he could feel his body changing slightly. He did not know what exactly had changed, but he felt the change.
Next, he discovered his internal instrospect state was advancing too.
Unlike Luo Li, he was improving slowly but steady. In just over an hour he had reached the fourth stage.
The change did not stop though, it went on until eventually it stopped at the 8th stage. He was just a little bit to achieve the ninth stage, but it was impossible to take that step.
He did not pass out, he had been awake all this time, and feeling the rapid transformation in the Introspect state, he was delighted.
His eyes changed though as he realized what was around him at this moment.
The hot and cold environment had vanished replaced by a white space. Before him was a small orb, he was hesitant but still extended his hand to touch it. The next moment, he felt some stinging sensation, before his perception changed.
What appeared before him was just a old man swinging a sword. He was not impressed at all, but the scene changed several times and he realized they where about three sword moves but the old man was swinging them repeatedly.
"What the hell?" He was instantly aware something was not right.
In the memories from his previous timeline, the immortal path uses the swords too to perform cool long distance attacks. The method is also what makes many individuals want to join the Immortal path.
But he was sure that it was not all because of some kind of skills in the path of the sword, rather the attacks of such range are just due to object control skills from the immortal path.
The instructions on the projection were just basics of sword skills, and learning the use of swords in a fight.
He was not tempted at all, rather he just looked at the skills displayed with doubts.
"Is this the key to leaving this boundary blocking my path?" He asked himself as he thought secretly.
Regardless of anything, it was not a bad thing to gain some skills to increase his chances of survival, but he did not seem to think much of the skills. He can't be blamed, as he was focusing on the memories in the head, but even so, he was bound to learn.
The situation left him with no choice but to do something, and his intelligence level was high enough to still remember all the moves, let alone repeat them.
He thus picked up the sword at the edge of the white space, and to his dismay, the process did not turn out as simple as he had thought.
When he started to study the sword moves, to his suprise, everything was represented in his mind clearly, even some new insights kept flooding in.
This process went on for hours, and when he reacted, even his arms where numb.
"What was that? I just completed the first step?" He was astonished and this was with reason.
He was sure that something did not add up, at first he thought perhaps his intelligence level of 55 was responsible for this, but a doubt kept lingering in his mind.
Without any way to prove this, he shifted his attention to his current changes, he could feel swinging the sword was far more flexible than before.
Even so, he had no plans to focus purely on the path of the sword, but part of his still wanted to keep something from the immortal path.
It would be a lie to say, any man would not be willing to appear with the demeanor of a sword immortal. It was just this kind of thing was not for everyone. Those that could accomplish it where few.
With the sword in arm, he made a few swings and sighed, "Even though I am still just a weak mortal, my current utilization of the sword can make a difference."
He was certain he could crush his prior self, who had yet to grasp the use of swords.
This feeling was weird, but at the same time intoxicating. He did not let himself indulge, rather he quickly brushed it off.
Standing in the white space, he was curious about what would happen next, after all this was some kind of trial.
To his left, another jade slip could be seen, he had no idea how it got there, and didn't bother to find out.
He just approached it and held it in the arms. "Is this another sword practice guidance?" He wondered before doing the same thing he did with the first one.
This time, he found himself standing on a deserted land, the sun was so hot. A man ahead of him was swinging his sword repeatedly, even though it was hot and he was sweating, but had no plans of stopping.
But what caught him by suprise was the small flame burning at the very top of the sword as the man waved the sword.
"What is this?" He could see it was not some kind of spell at all, rather the use of the sword in a certain way, or combination of some moves brought about this change.
Another major concern arose in his heart, and it was indeed about how he knew that the flame was produced as a result of skills practiced when the sword was swung.
"Can a sword skills result in flame by just waving it,or the is this a consequence of the environment." He thought to himself secretly.
But the next moment another thought poped into his mind.
"How can the environment accomplish such a feat?" He was sure this was his own thoughts, but wondered why he had developex the habit of questioning everything. Even though he was sure something had changed, but it was not the time to be distracted by this.
Looking at the scene repeat itself, he finally got some clue, but the requirements this time where slightly different.
When Li Jun started to practice the sword, he expected he might face some difficulties, but he did not think it would be so soon.
The ability to release flame obviously meant the technique was fire.related, and he had to also follow the same path, but he has not even started to use stellar energy.
Touching his chin, Li Jun was lost in thought and the next moment his face changed, as he seemed to have realized something wrong with his assumption.
The area around the sword was also burning and this was not because of some stepper technique, but the sword moves alone.
With his inteligence he quickly thought of something, "An amateur like me that has just picked up a sword is incapable of accomplishing this. There is obviously something that I have overlooked .What could it be?"
Li Jun was able to see that something was not right. The transition from the first step to this was incapable of changing so much.
"Perhaps I am thinking too much. My first attempt was just copying the moves and displaying them, why be concerned about the fire at the tip of the sword?" He thought to himself as he started to repeat the moves in his head.
He was indeed right to think this, after all the ruins had not allowed this with energy or more importantly those that have entered the path of becoming stronger already from gaining acess.
Perhaps had I not been this, he would have had no chance of stepping into a ruin.
But since he had no idea Li Jun could only blindly explore the ruins.
"My focus indeed should be on increasing my graps of the moves, after that, if nothing happens I can try other means." Even though he said this, he was more certain about him guess.
Since that was the case, he was going to put it into action and see if any chance would open up for him.
He was also trying to see if he could enter the state of enlightenment as fast as before. The reason for this was actually simple, he had doubts.