Chapter 97: Reborn

Chapter 97: Reborn

In the end, Qi Xuansu failed to escape from Yulan Temple. His left hand was cut off, and he could only lie on the ground, waiting for death.

Qi Xuansu watched as Yan Xiu’s figure gradually disappeared from sight and turned over with difficulty to lie on his back. Then he raised the Xuan Jade in his right hand to his eye level and laughed at himself. Is this what it means to die for greed?

Soon, Qi Xuansu felt the mighty divine power falling from the sky. Non-living things were not affected in any way, but this divine power wanted to destroy all life.

In the face of such divine power, even Heavenly beings had to tread carefully. The powerful Banished Immortals and Buddhaputras in the Guizhen stage would also die under such force. A Xiantian Being in the Kunlun stage, like Qi Xuansu, had almost no chance of survival.

The next moment, a blood-red light completely engulfed Qi Xuansu.

In an instant, Qi Xuansu felt his flesh disintegrating, as if someone had poured concentrated green vitriol oil on his body. It was so corrosive that it ate into his bones, leaving him with wounds all over.

Qi Xuansu’s consciousness gradually blurred, but he still clenched the Xuan Jade in his right palm. In a semi-conscious state, Qi Xuansu recalled the feeling of being stabbed in the chest for the first time by an assassin from The Inn. He also recalled the feeling of traveling the world by himself and when he almost got his throat slit.

He thought, Am I going to die?

That was when he fainted and started dreaming.

In his dream, Qi Xuansu saw the same tall and dark mountain as usual. This time, Qi Xuansu did not need anyone else to lead the way. He climbed the mountain on his own along the rugged trail. The wind howled, and a woman’s murmur and singing floated to his ears. The silk ribbons on the trees on both sides of the path swayed in the wind, like countless arms dancing wildly. The path was also covered with many petals that exuded a strange fragrance.

This time, he did not hear his master shouting for him to run, nor did he hear Madam Qi’s whispers. The woman leading the way was also not there.

Qi Xuansu went to the top of the mountain and found it was still the same scene—a wide open space with a big bonfire in the middle.

The difference was that ten tall figures were standing behind the fire. The light from the fire elongated their shadows. These ten tall figures were shrouded in a layer of dark cloud, so thick that he could only make out a blurry outline as well as two dots of blood-red light that looked like eyes.

Qi Xuansu did not expect any changes to his recurring dream. There was finally some new progress. Although he knew that it was only a dream, he still felt a chill down his spine because these ten figures felt oppressive. Some were kind, while others were hostile.

Then Qi Xuansu saw a lone figure that looked small in comparison to the other ten giants. The eleventh figure was closer to human size and seemed to appear out of thin air.

The eleventh figure stood out in this place. She had no respect, kicking the fire and laughing with her hands on her hips.

The other ten figures frowned. Some were displeased by her behavior and scolded her, while others remained silent, with a hint of cunning flickering in their eyes.

A mass of blood gathered where his severed left hand was, gradually contorting into the shape of five fingers before shaping the bones and meridians and filling it out with flesh and blood. Finally, brand new skin regenerated on his left hand.

This scene was similar to body regeneration for a Martial Arts Practitioner in the Flesh and Blood Realm. However, this speed of recovery far exceeded a Martial Arts Practitioner in the Yuxu stage. This was as fast as a Martial Arts Practitioner in the Heavenly-Being stage.

After an unknown amount of time, Qi Xuansu gradually woke up from his dream. When he opened his eyes, everything outside was still blood red, but the main hall of the temple had returned to normal. The mighty divine power was slowly receding, like the ebbing tide of the sea.

Qi Xuansu sat up and settled down, feeling rejuvenated. The innate qi in his body was flowing freely, and his bones were flexible. He felt like he had endless energy.

When he stood up again, he found that his body was much lighter. Even without relying on his qi, he felt like he could fly up to the rafters in one leap. This was something only a Martial Arts Practitioner could do.

Qi Xuansu hurriedly closed his eyes to feel the changes in his new body. That was when he discovered a shocking fact. He had jumped from the Kunlun stage to the Yuxu stage, which meant he was in the Rogue Cultivator’s Yuding Realm.

The Yuding Realm was more advanced than the Inner Dan Realm. It was when one’s essence, qi, and spirit gathered in the upper Dantian. In this realm, cultivators had more energy and would not need to worry about satisfying their innate desires like sex, food, and sleep. One could learn to fast for long hours, stop the pulse, and live longer as a result.

This also meant that Qi Xuansu could practice two types of average attainment methods in this realm.

One was the Fasting Technique, which was not useful in combat. Depending on the level of cultivation, one could greatly reduce food consumption. It could go from one meal a day to one meal every three days, to sustaining on dew. The extreme end was not eating at all.

The other method was the Cicada Molting Technique, which was derived from the Banished Immortal’s Illusory Body Technique. The Cicada Molting Technique allowed one to temporarily create a fake body to replace one’s death. It was an extremely practical life-saving mystical ability.

However, Qi Xuansu discovered another shocking fact. Since he was too focused on the advancement of his cultivation level earlier, he had not noticed that his left hand had regrown.

Qi Xuansu stared at his left hand in disbelief. It looked fairer and even more tender than Zhang Yuelu’s. He did not know how to rationalize this new hand because he remembered vividly how Yan Xiu had cut off his left hand. That pain was unforgettable, so he was sure of his memory.

However, his left hand had grown back intact, with finer skin and not one bit of calluses. That was how he concluded that it was not his old hand that had been grafted back on.

Qi Xuansu immediately recalled his dream. At the same time, he noticed the drastic changes in the Xuan Jade he was holding.

He stopped thinking about the dream and had some vague idea about what had happened as he looked at the blood-red spheroid jade, which resembled the bloody divine power.

Qi Xuansu thought, Did the Xuan Jade undergo some kind of change after encountering divine power? Was that how it affected me?

At this moment, the Xuan Jade in Qi Xuansu’s hand shattered silently, turning into fine dust that scattered on the ground.