Li Ban held the cultivation tools he had obtained from Lady Kui, along with some medicinal herbs and special planting water.
Cat Girl held the two people's attention out front while Li Ban vaulted the wall, sneaking the items back into his room to avoid detection.
Once Cat Girl came inside, he began the seed cultivation process according to Lady Kui's secret recipe.
Cat Girl sat down at the long table, keeping a watchful eye on the doors and windows.
Lady Kui's cultivation method wasn't complicated; the true key lay in the medicinal herbs and water she had provided.
Soon, Li Ban and Cat Girl finished the first step of the seed cultivation.
Now they just needed to wait overnight to check the results.
Lady Kui would also drop by the next day to help them inspect the seeds' condition.
Li Ban had no intention of idly wasting time while they waited.
Back in the Shadow World.
After returning to the Wizard World yesterday to absorb spiritual rhinoceros and getting a good half-night's rest, Li Ban had recovered his energy. His head no longer ached or spun.
Opening his eyes again, he found himself lying on a crude single bed.
This treatment was vastly better than before.
At least he hadn't been dumped in a cave and left for dead.
As Li Ban opened his eyes, he immediately heard Nana's voice.
"—My Lord."
This time, Nana's voice lacked its usual cheer; it was cautious, as if she were afraid of waking him.
She swallowed the word "Priest," seemingly still unable to believe that the man she had stubbornly brought home from the wilderness was actually a Priest.
Still, she had recognized the man's profound strength the moment he effortlessly paralyzed the entire Mechanical Dog army.
"Mhm." Having not yet learned the local language, Li Ban simply propped himself up with his hands and sat up.
He felt even better now than he had before.
It likely wouldn't be long before he could get out of bed and walk on his own.
Nana crouched by the bedside so Li Ban wouldn't have to crane his neck to look at her.
"My Lord, please wait a moment. I'll go fetch Priest Zhong Ye."
Li Ban watched Nana trot out, nearly tripping over her own feet in the process.
He glanced around and realized the room had no windows.
The single door was its only exit.
Despite a ventilation duct in the corner of the ceiling, the room was incredibly stuffy.
It wasn't long before Li Ban heard the crunch of wheels rolling over dirt and sand.
The door swung open, and Priest Zhong Ye was wheeled inside.
The one pushing him was Luca, the towering bald man whose two-and-a-half-meter frame barely cleared the doorway.
Priest Zhong Ye had Luca push him right up to Li Ban.
Luca looked a bit worried, but he voiced no objections, simply bringing the priest's wheelchair to a halt right at the edge of the bed.
Priest Zhong Ye raised a hand. Luca opened a hidden storage compartment in his abdomen, took out a few items, and placed them within Li Ban's easy reach.
"My deepest apologies, Priest. Your Experimental Capsule and several energy items were dismantled and sold off by our starving allies. Only these two items remained."
The man still believed Li Ban was a Priest.
Li Ban lowered his head. That was fine by him.
He picked up the two items from the bed.
One was a thin, square piece of material, somewhat resembling an oversized memory card.
Its front was solid black, with a few tiny black dots scattered irregularly along one edge.
Unable to tell what it was from the front, he instinctively flipped the square over to check the back.
Then!
He saw the incredibly familiar text of the Ring World.
The words were handwritten on a label, the strokes messy yet sharp.
They clearly reflected the turbulent state of mind of the person who wrote them.
"Gu Yi's—Testament?" Li Ban read the words over and over again with great difficulty.
He sat in shock for a moment before forcing his emotions down, letting the shock settle into a heavy sigh.
Forcing his gaze away from the writing, Li Ban looked down at his current body.
It was the body of an adult male.
Perhaps due to a prolonged coma, the skin was pale and gaunt.
Still, the original outlines of muscle were clearly visible.
The Experimental Capsule must have been working hard to maintain the body's peak condition.
But why would Gu Yi's Testament be inside the Experimental Capsule?
Could it be—was this the General's body?
But this Experimental Capsule was completely different from the one Chen Dong had used in the Ring World.
Even its level of technology was drastically inferior.
Had Chen Dong survived? Had he used an outdated Experimental Capsule to escape at the last minute, eventually crashing into the Shadow World?
Or perhaps this wasn't the Shadow World at all, but the Ring World following its collapse?
Li Ban showed the square chip to Priest Zhong Ye, pointing at the writing.
Priest Zhong Ye had waited quietly by the side the entire time Li Ban examined his items, not saying a word.
Seeing Li Ban hold it out, he looked at the string of handwritten symbols.
"I apologize, but we cannot read the writing on this item either. These must be belongings you brought over from another world, correct?"
Li Ban abruptly looked up at Priest Zhong Ye.
Yet neither Zhong Ye nor Luca showed the slightest hint of surprise.
'They know other worlds exist, and they aren't surprised to see someone from another world enter theirs. Could my ability to travel between worlds be... completely ordinary?'
Priest Zhong Ye pointed at the small chip in Li Ban's hand. "That appears to be a storage device of some kind. However, we tried several common reading methods and couldn't decode its contents. It might require a much more sophisticated reader to access what's inside."
Li Ban set the chip down.
Whenever he got the chance, he definitely needed to extract the data on this drive.
But right now, the priority was finding his footing in this place.
He looked down to examine the second item.
Compared to the chip that had given him such a shock, the second item looked entirely ordinary.
It was an alloy necklace with a pendant shaped like a Möbius strip.
But while it might have looked unremarkable, the mere fact that it had been inside the Experimental Capsule convinced Li Ban that it was anything but.
Putting both items away, he offered Priest Zhong Ye a slight bow to express his thanks.
Such a fundamental gesture was easily understood across barriers.
Zhong Ye extended a hand, though he stopped short of touching Li Ban. "I can see that something is wrong with your body. I know a few healing spells; would you mind if I took a look at you?"
Behind him, Luca frowned.
Li Ban guessed the big man thought Priest Zhong Ye was being far too respectful to him.
After all, no one liked seeing a person they revered acting so deferentially to a total nobody.
Even if that nobody might also be a Priest.
Li Ban shook his head, but realizing the gesture might be misconstrued, he extended his arm toward Zhong Ye.
Taking the cue, Zhong Ye grasped Li Ban's wrist.
His black irises dissolved as if melting into a solvent, leaving his eyes a stark, pure white.
Li Ban felt a wave of cold energy surge into his body, threading its way through his muscles and bones and mending the necrotic cells left by his prolonged inactivity.
But when the cold energy tentatively tried to enter his brain, it was blocked by another force.
Not daring to force its way in, the cold energy probed briefly before retreating.
The cold energy then completely withdrew from Li Ban's current body, and Priest Zhong Ye's pupils returned.
Slowly leaning back in his wheelchair, he said, "Your Wizard Embryo Fragment appears to be sealed away by solid ice, leaving you unable to normally wield the power of a Priest."
Li Ban's eyelids twitched. His Wizard Embryo Fragment was perfectly functional.
Was Priest Zhong Ye simply unable to read his true condition, or had the Wizard Embryo Fragment camouflaged itself as it had in the past?
Deciding not to undermine his own system, Li Ban simply stared back in silence.
Priest Zhong Ye seemed to read his gaze.
"I am merely an ordinary Spirit Awakening Priest. I lack the means to break your seal. The seal could be a result of your past experiences, or it could be a reaction to the absence of spiritual rhinoceros in this world upon your arrival."
"If it is the latter, however, I do have some experience with that."
Li Ban raised a hand, gesturing for the priest to continue.
"I can attempt to perform the Rite of Heaven-Seizing Breath on you. It naturally won't compare to the Rite of Heaven-Seizing Breath you experienced when you first became a Priest, but it could stir your dormant Wizard Embryo Fragment. Whether or not it fully awakens in the end, however, will be entirely up to you."
Li Ban listened intently to the old priest's explanation.
Thanks to the system's precise translation, he understood everything perfectly. Priest Zhong Ye was likely among the lowest-ranked of all Priests.
And it seemed that becoming a Priest required undergoing this "Rite of Heaven-Seizing Breath."
It certainly sounded imposing enough.
Li Ban was absolutely certain he had never experienced such a thing. Which meant that if Priest Zhong Ye performed the Rite of Heaven-Seizing Breath on him, he might just become a true Priest right then and there!
The gamble carried risks, of course. If the priest's Rite of Heaven-Seizing Breath proved harmful to a fake like him, Zhong Ye would instantly discover his anomalies—and realize he had been thoroughly fooled.
Yet, Li Ban simply couldn't pass up an opportunity to instantly become a true Priest.
Especially since... if he became a Priest here, wouldn't he also be considered one back in the Wizard World?
When he and Du An had parted ways, the man had been extremely tight-lipped regarding Priests and Wizard Lords, claiming they were existences far beyond Li Ban's current reach.
Who could have predicted that Li Ban would run into a Priest the moment he arrived in the Shadow World—and a Priest who treated him with such immense respect, at that?
Li Ban nodded again, making sure to show just the right amount of gratitude in his eyes.
He was well aware that strangers—especially those scraping by in such desolate environments—did not offer kindness without reason.
A favor given was a favor expected in return.
But right now, Li Ban wasn't afraid of owing debts.
Zhong Ye smiled. Turning his head, he waved a hand at Luca. "Luca, wait outside for a bit."
Unable to hold back any longer, the bald giant lowered his head and murmured, "Lord Priest, your own physical condition is incredibly fragile right now..."
Still smiling, Priest Zhong Ye patted the back of Luca's hand and shook his head. "Wait outside. I know exactly what I am doing."
No matter how worried Luca was, he had no choice but to leave, casting anxious glances backward with every step.
Once Luca was out and the door clicked shut, Li Ban and Zhong Ye were left entirely alone in the room.
Zhong Ye wheeled his chair forward until he was right beside Li Ban. "Please lie down. I will need to touch the center of your brow."
Li Ban lay back as requested.
A moment later, a rough, icy hand pressed three fingers together, resting them gently against the center of his brow.
It was completely different from the tentative thread of cold energy the priest had channeled into his wrist earlier.
This time, a torrent of raw power slammed into Li Ban's consciousness with landslide force.
He felt as if he were standing completely naked in a frozen wasteland, a thunderous roar echoing from behind him.
Turning around, he was met with the horrifying sight of a massive, long-building avalanche crashing down upon him.
Before Li Ban could even react, he was buried beneath the suffocating snow.
His world dissolved into a blur of pure white and pure black.
Priest Zhong Ye's eyes went wide.
As he administered the Rite of Heaven-Seizing Breath, it felt as if he had caught a fleeting, momentary glimpse of a cosmic Star River.
He froze for a full second before shaking his head violently. The cosmic Star River vanished, replaced by a scant haze of drifting mist and dust.
"Ah... that's right. That's more like it."
Priest Zhong Ye withdrew his hand, pressing it against his chest with lingering trepidation.