Chapter 55 (1/2)

Chapter 55: Murmuring

“Is it here? This murmuring…”

Zhou Bai’s heart thumped. Both Zuo Dao’s notes and all sorts of textbook materials explained the occurrence of this phenomenon.

In the process of reading Taoist Sutra and gaining comprehension of the Heavenly Tao, even if he made all these preparations and protections in advance, as long as he gradually got into the condition of synchronizing with the Heavenly Tao, there would still be distorted knowledge trying to infiltrate his primordial spirit.

Zhou Bai curbed his desire. He paid no mind to the murmuring and didn’t try to remember it. He tried his best to act like he didn’t hear it at all.

But the next moment, in this silent meditation room, the lights seemed to get dimmer slowly. The edges of the room even gradually fell into darkness. White light enveloped only the spot where Zhou Bai sat.

As darkness gradually descended, the meditation room became quieter and quieter. Only the sound of Zhou Bai reading the Taoist Sutra echoed in the room, as if a second person were reading along.

Zhou Bai forced himself not to look at those strange places. He continued to read the Taoist Sutra.

The thumping of footsteps sounded in the dark.

Zhou Bai suddenly paused his reading. Then, without care, he continued to read.

As Zhou Bai read, footsteps constantly sounded around him, as if a dozen children ran and played in the darkness.

“Hehe.”

Zhou Bai could even hear their laughter, and sometimes he heard whispering. Cold sweat continuously ran down his forehead.

After a mere ten minutes of reading Taoist Sutra 00, although he didn’t even finish reading its contents, Zhou Bai felt the murmuring in his ears get louder and louder, clearer and clearer.

“Zhou…Bai…”

With a light gasp, Zhou Bai immediately stopped reading. He closed the book, shut his eyes, slowed his breathing, and calmed down.

As he paused his reading and closed Taoist Sutra 00, the entire meditation room returned to normal again. The dimness and darkness from before vanished, as if they were just a hallucination.

A long while later, Zhou Bai slowly opened his eyes. “Tina, those things…did you see them?”

In his cognitive sea, Christina, who had been practicing quietly, said, “See what? Weren’t you just reading the Taoist Sutra?”

Was it a hallucination? It was so realistic, Zhou Bai thought to himself. If I paid any attention to it, what would have happened?

He quickly cleared his head, shaking off this thought. All textbook materials on Taoist Sutras stated that when you read a Taoist Sutra, you must ignore any abnormal phenomena.

Zhou Bai shook his head, then looked at the board.

When he was reading Taoist Sutra 00, he saw his Degree of Taoification on the board rise to 0.1%, but when he looked again now, he found his Degree of Taoification had already returned to 0%.

Zhou Bai knew this was a normal phenomenon. Increasing Degree of Taoification required reading Taoist Sutra 00 over and over again and slowly synchronizing with the Heavenly Tao in the process.

If his Degree of Taoification could reach 0.1% even when he was not reading Taoist Sutra, that would be the first step to success.

At the same time, he recalled the contents he just read and analyzed, and he realized he gradually forgot the contents of Taoist Sutra 00. In only a dozen seconds, he had already forgotten everything he had just read. Only a faint comprehension of it remained.

That was a feature of comprehending the Heavenly Tao through the Taoist Sutras. Even if they were just words, they contained supernatural powers. They were mysterious and indescribable.

If any passage from there were leaked and read by normal people, it might cause mutation and lunacy.

Even if a practitioner read it, if their realm was not high enough, they might not even be able to organize the contents into words and remember them by heart.

The contents of the Taoist Sutras alone symbolized the extraordinary.

Only by reading the Taoist Sutras over and over again and raising Degree of Taoification could one slowly engrave in memory the comprehensions of the Heavenly Tao.

“Zhou Bai? Are you done?” Christina asked in Zhou Bai’s head.

She wasn’t ready to increase Degree of Taoification yet, so when Zhou Bai was reading Taoist Sutra 00, Christina was practicing quietly on her own. She didn’t read the scripture, so she didn’t feel any abnormalities.

Zhou Bai nodded. “This is so difficult. Let me try again.”

Thus Zhou Bai repeated his reading of Taoist Sutra 00. He started from the beginning each time. The time that he was able to read increased from the initial ten minutes, gradually to 12 minutes, 15 minutes, and 20 minutes.

He did this until four in the afternoon, when he read for 25 minutes at a time. Only then was he unable to endure the influence of the murmuring and had to close Taoist Sutra 00.

But when he looked at the board, his Degree of Taoification returned to 0% again at the moment he stopped reading.