Lu Heng soothed Lu Bai's emotions and asked in a low voice, "Are you feeling better?"
"Mhm."
Lu Heng could also feel the scenes Lu Bai had been recalling in his mind, experiencing them through telepathy.
The memories had initially been beautiful, filled with warmth and tenderness in a peaceful and serene life.
It was evident that Lu Bai's former master had indeed intended to cultivate immortality, and his daily activities resembled practices like meditation, comprehension, and body refinement.
However, Lu Heng couldn't discern the specific cultivation techniques or the exact content of his practice from Lu Bai's memories. He could only hope to find something else within the dilapidated room.
"Where are your former master's remains?"
Lu Heng had seen earlier that Lu Bai's previous master had passed away in bed. Yet, within the half-collapsed room, Lu Heng couldn't spot any human skeletal remains.
"I buried my master under the large tree behind the house."
"Oh, we'll go take a look later then."
"Mhm."
"Let's see if your former master left anything behind," Lu Heng released Lu Bai and gently patted its shoulder.
Lu Bai lowered its head and began searching the room. The places where his master kept his belongings were somewhat hazy in his memory.
Lu Heng couldn't tell how much time had passed since Lu Bai's former master died. Looking at the partially collapsed walls, Lu Heng could only search the room cautiously.
"Your master must have had some books or manuals for cultivation, right?" Lu Heng spoke to Lu Bai while searching.
A roof beam that had fallen blocked Lu Bai's path. The thick wooden beam was severely rotted. As soon as his hand grasped one end of the beam, the part resting on the wall fractured into more pieces, scattering and filling the small space with dust.
"Wear a mask. This accumulated dust isn't good for your lungs if you inhale it."
Hearing the sound, Lu Heng quickly led Lu Bai out of the dilapidated room, took a mask from his spatial storage, and put it on Lu Bai.
"There, all set." Lu Heng also put on a mask and re-entered the abandoned house.
Gazing at Lu Heng's retreating figure, the long hair tied simply with a ribbon behind him swayed with his searching movements, much like his former master.
"My previous master used to keep things in a hidden compartment under the bed."
"Oh, under the bed? Let me see then."
The former bed was now also in disrepair. Although the stone base of the bed could still be discerned, the wooden planks that once covered it had been smashed through by falling debris from the roof.
With the wooden planks on the bed gone, the hidden compartment underneath was exposed. Lu Heng soon discovered a square wooden box, though the wood on the outside was somewhat rotten, suggesting the contents within might not fare much better.
Carefully clearing away the top layer of wood from the box, Lu Heng looked at the items revealed below. As he had suspected, these paper items, exposed to the air, turned into dust as soon as the rotten wooden lid was removed, scattering with Lu Heng's breath.
What a shame.
"Huh? What's this iron piece?"
Lu Heng picked up a piece of black metal from beneath the paper fragments. It felt cool in his hand, and a quick weigh-in confirmed it was significantly heavier than ordinary metal.
"What is this thing?"
The metal piece was rectangular, with no trace of rust on its surface. One side featured a three-dimensional relief. Lu Heng examined it closely; it appeared to be a blooming flower, though he was unfamiliar with many plants in this异世 (otherworldly realm) and couldn't identify it.
The reverse side of the metal piece was engraved with some characters, which Lu Heng recognized.
Chang Sheng Sect.
There were some smaller characters below, but they seemed to have been deliberately ground away, making them illegible.
"I don't know, but my former master often took it out to play with," Lu Bai glanced at the dark metal piece and shook its head.
Since he didn't know, Lu Heng decided to store it in his spatial dimension for now. Given that it hadn't rusted in so many years, it would be worth testing as a metal.
Below the metal piece was another layer of wooden board. This rotten board was also lifted, revealing over a dozen magic crystals.
These magic crystals varied in grade and attribute. Perhaps the cultivator had killed magical beasts in the forest and stored them since they weren't immediately useful.
"Hmm, could your master have been a cultivator of the wood and fire elements?" Lu Heng examined the magic crystals. The highest grade was an eighth-level earth-element magic crystal.
Most of the remaining ones were below eighth level, but there wasn't a single wood or fire element magic crystal among them.
"Perhaps. When I first followed my master, I also possessed dual-element abilities, and my master would give me those low-level magic crystals to consume."
Based on the eighth-level magic crystals found here, Lu Bai's former master should have been at least at the Dao Comprehension eighth level, otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to kill magical beasts and obtain eighth-level magic crystals.
When Lu Heng first saw Lu Bai, it was only at seventh level, indicating that the higher-grade magic crystals had been consumed by the cultivator himself.
"Is it possible that Lu Bai's master simply couldn't obtain high-level fire and wood element magic crystals? Or perhaps there were no high-level fire or wood element magical beasts in this forest?"
The Director, who had been watching the live stream from within the spatial dimension, couldn't help but ask. Its claws were currently pressing down on the metal plate Lu Heng had just discovered.
"Have you been watching all along?" Are they really that bored?
"Yes, we finally followed our master to this异世 (otherworldly realm), and you didn't block our perception of the outside world."
Lu Heng... Forget it, let them watch. However, these guys couldn't sense Lu Bai's memories from before.
Even the Director could read minds, but Lu Heng had already forbidden the Director from reading him and his contracted beasts. He didn't want himself and his contracted beasts to be constantly under the Director's observation.
After collecting the magic crystals, there were no other items below. Lu Heng remained somewhat puzzled. According to the habits of cultivators on this continent, they usually carried some commonly used weapons.
Judging by the magic crystals Lu Heng had found, this person should have had weapons to kill magical beasts, but why couldn't he find any after searching the room for so long?
"Did your master not use any weapons?"
"No, he threw them away, saying that the path of cultivation involved too much killing, leading to deep karmic debt."
Lu Heng...
So, could the reason his former master failed to achieve immortality be related to stopping the consumption of magic crystals and thus being unable to evolve further?
Lu Heng knew that consuming these magic crystals or crystals not only increased one's ability level but also improved various bodily functions, which would undoubtedly help in extending lifespan.
"Let's go. There's nothing else here. We'll go take a look at your master's grave."
With that said, Lu Heng stood up, pulled Lu Bai along, and left the dilapidated house, heading towards the large tree behind the house.