Chapter 144 - 141: Entering the Ancient Dust Continent Dungeon

Chapter 144: Chapter 141: Entering the Ancient Dust Continent Dungeon

Gu Qingwu... Talk about a lucky guy?

Watching the senior’s actions and listening to his tone, Li Heng felt a flicker of foreboding. Still, he asked again.

"Junior, just keep heading straight in. If you see a courtyard full of training dummies, that’s Gu Qingwu’s dorm. But I should warn you: be prepared. I have to go. I hope you have a pleasant time at Meteor University."

"Thank you, Senior!"

After saying this, the senior turned and walked away. Li Heng realized he never even learned the long-haired upperclassman’s name.

But now that he had the information on Gu Qingwu, Li Heng wasted no more time. He followed the directions and continued deeper in. About three minutes later, he spotted a courtyard.

This courtyard, with its solitary wooden house, was about the same size as his own. The only difference was that Li Heng’s courtyard was full of weeds, while the one before him was filled with wooden training dummies studded with sharp knives.

’So brutal?’

Seeing this, Li Heng subconsciously swallowed. Normal training dummies had smooth wooden sticks on them, but the ones he saw had only sharp knives, filling the entire courtyard.

"Gu Qingwu, is Senior Sister Gu here? I’m a freshman who just enrolled today." Li Heng composed himself and then knocked on the door.

"Teacher Wen mentioned you to me. What is it?"

Just as Li Heng knocked, he heard a very gentle voice come from within the solitary wooden house. He couldn’t read her tone.

Even though he was at the gate, quite a distance from the wooden house, Li Heng could not only hear the voice clearly but also sense its gentleness.

Although he had only heard her voice and not seen her, it didn’t change Li Heng’s plan. After quickly running through his thoughts, he spoke up, "Senior Sister Gu, I feel like I might be on the verge of a breakthrough in my Swordsmanship in the next few days. I want to go into seclusion to cultivate and don’t want to be disturbed."

"You use a Longsword?" the voice from the wooden house asked, colder than before.

Li Heng noticed the change in Gu Qingwu’s tone but didn’t question it, simply continuing, "Yes! I want to spend a few days quietly in seclusion."

"I understand. No one will disturb you for two days. If there’s any notice about military training during that time, I have a way to leave you a message. Is there anything else?" The voice had returned to its initial gentleness.

"Thank you, Senior Sister Gu! I appreciate your trouble."

Li Heng heard no further reply from the wooden house, so after offering his thanks, he turned and left.

On his way there, Li Heng had been speculating about Gu Qingwu, guessing that this senior sister was probably quite beautiful. But in the end, all he heard was a voice; he never actually saw Gu Qingwu herself.

But Li Heng didn’t mind. He had achieved his goal, so whether he saw his senior sister or not wasn’t a big deal.

After all, compared to meeting his senior sister, Li Heng was more eager to get back to his "dorm" and enter the Ancient Dust Continent Dungeon to see what was going on.

As Li Heng slowly walked away, back in the courtyard full of knife-studded dummies, a young woman in a white dress and a white veil slowly pushed open the door of the solitary wooden house.

Gu Qingwu, a third-year student in the General Studies Department of Meteor University and Vice President of the Meteor University Student Council. She watched Li Heng’s retreating figure, frowning slightly, but didn’t say a word.

Inside Gu Qingwu’s wooden house, the general furnishings were not much different from anyone else’s. Only the items on the round wooden table were unique.

A guqin, a wine cup, and a half-empty pot of wine. A Longsword hung by the head of the bed. Its blade was rusty, with two notches on the edge, and the hilt was engraved with the character "Liang."

Only when Li Heng’s figure had completely vanished from sight did Gu Qingwu retreat back into the wooden house. The slender, fair fingers of her right hand gently stroked the strings of the guqin. Then, she tilted her head slightly, her gaze falling on the Longsword by her bed, lost in thought.

---

Meanwhile, Li Heng was completely unaware that after he had turned and left, Gu Qingwu had pushed open her door and watched his back until he was gone. He just single-mindedly hurried back to his own small wooden house.

Seeing the four carved words, "Cultivating. Do Not Disturb.", Li Heng felt it still wasn’t enough. He dragged the training dummy from his courtyard and placed it right in the center.

He drew his Empty Cicada Longsword and then carved four words on the training dummy: "In Seclusion. Please Leave!"

After finishing these "preparations," he returned to the solitary wooden house, blocked the door with a wooden table, and once he was sure there were no issues, he spent 3,000 Soul Qi points and chose to enter the Ancient Dust Continent Dungeon.

[Ding! Entering the Ancient Dust Continent Dungeon, Meteor Dynasty, Li Liang City. Your current dungeon status is as follows.]

[Exit in a safe state: No loss of rewards or loot. Unlimited attempts.]

[Exit during combat: 50% reduction in rewards and loot. Unlimited attempts.]

[Exit upon death: 90% reduction in rewards and loot. Unlimited attempts.]

[Ding! A large number of NPCs have been detected in this dungeon. Due to special Soul Qi fluctuations, please explore for specific details!]

[Ding! The completion conditions for this dungeon are unknown. Please explore on your own!]

[Dungeon loading...]

After seeing system prompts that were quite similar to the ones for the Ice Jiao Lake Dungeon, Li Heng relaxed considerably. After all, the situation with this dungeon was rather complex.

To account for the complexity, the system had deliberately added two more prompts with information that previous dungeons didn’t have, but most of it just told Li Heng to explore on his own.

Li Heng didn’t care about the rest. As long as dying in the dungeon wasn’t true death, the problem wasn’t that big of a deal.

Aside from the different information prompts upon entry, this time Li Heng didn’t appear inside the dungeon immediately.

Instead, he was plunged into a long period of darkness. Just as the prompt had indicated, the dungeon was currently loading.

During this time, Li Heng’s mind was clear, but his body seemed temporarily unable to move freely. However, he wasn’t panicked or rushed about it.

Because underneath the "Dungeon loading..." message, there was also an "Exit dungeon early?" prompt. So, Li Heng wasn’t too worried. If things went wrong, he could just quit.

Although he was calm and unhurried, there was one thing that he only just realized as he entered this dungeon.

It cost 3,000 Soul Qi points to enter the Ancient Dust Continent Dungeon once. But because he had recently upgraded his Shangxue Flying Knife Technique, on top of his previously casual approach to grinding Soul Qi points, Li Heng hadn’t really farmed any more after being promoted to a Soul Warrior.

Especially after boarding the Flying Boat, since he didn’t know it was going to "sail into" a secret realm, he had been worried about things like cameras. So, he hadn’t farmed any Soul Qi points on the Flying Boat and had just relaxed and had fun for a few days!

Right now, he only had 6,150 Soul Qi points on him. He had just spent three thousand, so Li Heng was left with only 3,150 Soul Qi points.

This amount of Soul Qi points was only enough to enter the Ancient Dust Continent Dungeon one more time.

A complicated feeling welled up in Li Heng’s heart at this thought. But before his mind could wander, the darkness around him vanished, and a flash of light appeared before his eyes...