The Black Book: Seven Deadly Sins-Chapter 495: Ancient One, You Tricked Me!

The poor little Diao Chan was only down for a few seconds before she quickly perked up again, climbing onto Zhu Haomiao’s head with great spirit, standing upright like a meerkat and looking around.

"Squeak~"

Feeling a slight weight on his head, Zhu Haomiao didn’t need to look to know that Diao Chan had disappeared again. With a helpless sigh, he leaned back and lay on the grass.

The cool breeze gently blew by as he casually picked a piece of foxtail grass and placed it in his mouth. The boy in black gazed at the magnificently beautiful golden mountain in the sunlight, feeling a long-lost peace at heart.

He emptied his mind, enjoying the rare leisure, unaware of how much time passed until his wandering eyes slightly narrowed as he snapped back.

Sitting up and looking down, the [Dragon Emblem] on his chest emitted a faint mysterious light, as a translucent, illusory lotus flower slowly bloomed, revealing the Creation Jade Disk in the center, with its wriggling, twisting golden "flower bud."

A slight smile curled his lips as Zhu Haomiao absorbed the essence of the "flower bud" into his soul, carefully immersing himself in its profound mysteries.

"Squeak~"

In a daze for a long time, a crisp hum brought his attention back. Zhu Haomiao looked in surprise and found Diao Chan offering a strange, half-transparent flower to him.

"Little flower, for Shuishui~"

Seeing the flower that shimmered with spirit light, emanating a cool chill and looking as if it was crafted from crystal, Zhu Haomiao hesitated, stopped himself, then started again, finally meeting Diao Chan’s expectant eyes and her furiously wagging white tail, sighed helplessly again.

"Thank you."

Patting Diao Chan’s little head, Zhu Haomiao accepted her heartfelt gift.

This thing looks perfect for making soup, I’ll keep it first...

Meanwhile, feeling greatly encouraged, Diao Chan stood upright with excitement, puffing her chest out proudly.

"Shuishui don’t worry, when you’re in trouble, Xuxu will pick things up to feed you~"

Zhu Haomiao: "....."

Covering his face, Zhu Haomiao felt his temples throbbing with pain, squeezing out a few words through his teeth.

"Who taught you that?"

"Ningning taught me, she said when you all are in trouble..."

"It’s old!"

"Right, right, when it’s old, Xuxu will go out to pick things to feed you all~"

As she spoke, Diao Chan patted her little chest, full of pride, promising with utmost sincerity.

"Shuishui don’t worry, Xuxu is super amazing, she’ll pick lots of things for you to eat~"

"......"

Ye Wan Ning, are you crazy?!!

Distressed, massaging his temples, for a moment, Zhu Haomiao found himself speechless.

On the other side, fearing her master wouldn’t believe her, Diao Chan reached her paw into her mouth, fiddling around, and pulled out all sorts of bizarre things.

Bizarre-looking insects, twigs, tender leaves, mushrooms, flowers, fruits; Zhu Haomiao even saw many metal ores half-chewed.

"Treetree, so squeaky~"

"Fragrant, so squeaky~"

"Stinky, so squeaky~"

"Sweet, so squeaky~"

"Hard, so squeaky~"

......

Watching Diao Chan proudly displaying her treasures, Zhu Haomiao hurriedly stopped her sharing impulse.

"Alright, alright, Ye Wan Ning loves these, next time you go back you should stuff them in her mouth, she’ll be so moved she won’t be able to speak."

"Ningning loves squeak?!"

"That’s right! She definitely loves to eat them!"

Sending off the excessively filial Diao Chan, Zhu Haomiao sighed wearily, got up to find Wang An and began today’s practice. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

.........

"Focus your mind, visualize your destination, initially it’s best to think of a place you’re familiar with and have been to..."

Wang An’s low voice echoed in his ear. Zhu Haomiao secured the brass pendant ring, brought the fingers of his left hand together in concentration, guided the void with his finger like a sword gently circling, and in his mind imagined the small hill where he lay at noon.

However, after drawing for half a day with no response, not even a spark appeared in the air before him.

"....."

Watching the boy in black strain his features, painting circles like a constipated madman, Wang An’s gaze grew peculiar as he couldn’t help but comment.

"You’re the most magically untalented person I’ve ever seen..."

Just as the words left his mouth, he suddenly realized just who he was dealing with, jolting in realization and quickly changing the topic.

"It’s not about physical exertion, it’s spiritual. Use your soul to sense the fluctuations of time and space, imagine standing at a higher dimension, folding two different spaces together; the point of contact is the [Door]!"

Taking these words to heart, Zhu Haomiao, tense all over, exhaled slowly, relaxing his muscles, and continuously attempted to sense time and space with his mind.

Finally, a subtle perception stirred in his soul, and tiny sparks suddenly burst forth in the void not far in front of him.

"I did it!"

Zhu Haomiao’s eyes lit up, and he let out an excited low roar, but as his spiritual power slackened, the faint sparks quickly extinguished, dispersing into the air.

By his side, Wang An couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief, clapping his hands in approval.

"Congratulations, you’ve grasped the trick of the [Teleportation Gate], now it’s just a matter of practicing it to make it more stable, until it’s as smooth as using your own arm..."

The boy in black nodded happily, then somewhat reluctantly removed the brass pendant ring and handed it back to Wang An.

But Wang An did not take the pendant ring, merely smiled and shook his head.

"I didn’t give it to you before because I was afraid you’d recklessly open some dangerous other-dimensional space. Now that you’ve reached entry-level, wear it for practice at all times."

Hearing this, Zhu Haomiao was taken aback: "Such a precious item, and you’re giving it to me so easily?"

Though he agreed to the Ancient One’s condition to protect Earth, wasn’t there supposed to be some sort of trial still?

Upon hearing this, Wang An quietly took out an identical brass pendant ring.

Zhu Haomiao: "....."

So much for there only being one?

Ancient One, you deceived me!

Noticing Zhu Haomiao’s emotions clearly, Wang An chuckled gently and explained.

"The pendant rings you and I have now are replicas, containing a fraction of the original’s authority. With spell assistance, they can engage the original to perform a weakened version of the [Teleportation Gate], allowing free traversal within a certain range."

"Though not as potent as the pendant ring’s ability to freely navigate the multiverse, it’s quite sufficient for our everyday use."

With that, Wang An’s tone shifted as he spoke with a serious expression.

"To use an imperfect analogy, the replica ring is the client, while the original is the cloud server. If you control the original, you can decide who to grant [usage authority] to."

"If you shut down the ’server,’ the Earth’s magic system, based on the pendant ring, would instantly collapse..."

"Currently, the pendant ring’s original is personally overseen by the Supreme Mage. In the future... should it be entrusted to you, I hope you won’t betray your mentor’s trust..."

Patting Zhu Haomiao’s shoulder, Wang An sighed longingly, turned, and slowly departed.

And behind him, Zhu Haomiao’s face twisted peculiarly, furrowing his brows, looking at the brass pendant ring in his hand, and pursing his lips with indescribable emotions.