"There's something I still want to mention to Fairy!"
Seeing him like this, Jin Bao'er had to put aside her preparations for seclusion and asked curiously.
"What is it?"
She spoke, then smiled at the little dragon person! The little girl's face lit up with excitement. She trotted over and carefully hugged her arm, softly calling out.
"Mother..."
Jin Bao'er chuckled at the sound and reached out to pinch her cheek. The bouncy, springy feel was incredibly comfortable!
The young man watched this scene of maternal affection and filial piety, almost forgetting the main topic.
"Ahem! Fairy, the time difference between the lower and upper realms seems to be widening. If this continues... the consequences are unimaginable!"
His words were not without reason. Imagine! If the gap continues to widen, a thousand years in the lower realm would only be a hundred years in the upper realm. Then, the spiritual energy in the lower realm would inevitably become scarcer...
To put it another way, the spiritual energy generated by the lower realm each year is like a cup of water! The upper realm has ten cups of water. But now, this one cup of water is divided into several portions. Consequently, cultivators in the lower realm will receive less and less spiritual energy... leading to no one ascending!
And the upper realm would remain the same, with the time difference growing larger and larger, until finally, no one could predict what would happen.
Jin Bao'er frowned. She hadn't really considered this point. No wonder no one had ascended from the cultivation world for so many years. She herself seemed to have ascended from the Dragon Clan Continent. As for the young man in front of her being able to ascend... she guessed it was probably because he was from the upper realm in the first place!
This made it seem more like some force was gradually segmenting the two worlds...
What would happen to the cultivation world after it lost its spiritual energy? Cultivators would be unable to grow stronger, forever stuck at a certain level until their lifespans ended! Artifacts and spiritual tools would gradually become commonplace in the torrent of time, eventually becoming mere decorations...
After all cultivators died, only mortals would remain, pure mortals! What would be the future of the cultivation world?
She frowned, hoping that what was to end would be unattainable even with a lifetime of effort. If it were her, she certainly wouldn't accept it.
"I understand. I will investigate it!"
She didn't say she would solve the problem. Since comprehending the power of the Great Dao and the power of rules, she had vaguely sensed the limitations of this world. All things cycle, and some things are unavoidable! Even she shouldn't interfere.
But if it was caused by other reasons, she would do her best! She would never stand by and do nothing! After all, it was the place she had grown up in.
The next morning, she led a group of little ones towards the edge of the upper realm...
The legendary place connecting to the lower realm!
There were many legends about the origin of the upper and lower realms. One of them spoke of this connection point, like parallel spaces, existing at a certain intersection. Looking down from the Ascension Gate, it seemed as if the upper realm was in the sky, but from another perspective, the two worlds were on the same plane.
Looking at the desert and the scorching sun before her, she frowned uncomfortably. Even her pure ice-element spiritual root felt the heat unbearable. Others would likely find it even worse. The little ones had already retreated into the immortal mansion...
It was no wonder that no one had used this method to travel between the two worlds over the years!
She flew for a long time, and ahead was still an endless desert, seemingly without end!
Just then, the figure in the air suddenly stopped!
"Bang!"
A dull collision sound echoed. Jin Bao'er quickly steadied herself and looked ahead, her gaze wary!
After a moment, finding no abnormalities, she reached out to touch. As expected! The hot, transparent wall that met her touch made her pause slightly, then she understood!
No wonder no one could cross. There was this layer of something in between! And it had no fluctuations of power. It was neither a formation nor a barrier, yet it was so hard that even she couldn't break through it!
The only thing that could pass through was the yellow sand and the heat on the ground...
Then, after three hours of research and probing, she decisively gave up on breaking through the barrier!
The reason was simple: the power of the Great Dao and spiritual energy were completely useless! Even the power of rules could only make her vaguely sense that the barrier seemed to be connected to the entire world. With her strength, she couldn't budge it.
At this moment, a small black cloud floated in the air. Sensing the fluctuation of rule power, it deliberately came out to see which monstrously talented freak was causing trouble again...
Then it saw Jin Bao'er's strange actions, tapping the wall, bombarding it with the power of the Great Dao, and finally probing with the power of rules! It shook with laughter...
Hmph! Foolish human, do you think you're powerful just because you have the power of rules? This is the upper realm, a world governed by the power of the Heavenly Dao. There are many things the Great Dao cannot interfere with, no matter how strong!
Then, Jin Bao'er's keen intuition sensed that mocking gaze...
Suddenly, she looked up at the sky!
Little Black Cloud: (o∆o) It's her?! How is it this woman?!
Jin Bao'er looked at the clear, blinding sky. The sun shone brightly, with not a cloud in sight, except for that one small patch of black, standing out conspicuously! It was extremely strange!
The person and the cloud stared at each other, speechless for a moment!
Jin Bao'er naturally didn't recognize it. When she ascended, in a fit of rage, she had beaten up the Heavenly Dao's incarnation, the black cloud. Years later, the little black cloud had become a dense black cloud, and Jin Bao'er was no longer the mere Nascent Soul stage nobody she once was...
Facing this sole abnormality, Jin Bao'er naturally wouldn't let it go. Her figure flickered and disappeared in an instant. The next second, she appeared before the black cloud...
The little black cloud trembled, its face full of terror!
What... what do you want now? I'm the ascension tribulation cloud. We have no enmity. Don't come so close!
Jin Bao'er looked at the trembling and retreating black cloud with surprise, inexplicably feeling that the other party seemed a bit scared? Was she that terrifying?
Seeing the unusual reaction of the other party, she tentatively asked...
"Do you know me?"
Little Black Cloud: Pfft! Didn't you have a great time beating me up back then, you bitch? It's only been a few years, and you don't recognize little me anymore? What are you being so polite for?! Who was it spewing foul language back then? We all came from the lower realm, who doesn't know who?!
That's right, after Jin Bao'er ascended, the little black cloud also came to the upper realm. There weren't many who could ascend from the lower realm anyway, and with the spiritual energy becoming scarcer, it wasn't worth staying.
To this, Jin Bao'er naturally couldn't understand!
But she had Bao Bao, a born spiritual treasure! The direct daughter born from the spirit tree! A child of the essence of heaven and earth.
"Master! It's scolding you!"
A tender voice reached her ears. Jin Bao'er paused, and thinking of Bao Bao's identity, she didn't doubt the truth of these words.
"Why? What did it say?"
She asked in her mind.
Bao Bao perched on a branch, recalling what the other party had just said and repeating it word for word. This was thanks to her memorizing so many beast names in the Dragon Clan Continent; her memory was excellent now!