Chapter Ninety-Six: Rebirth

Zi Chenyu rose and walked toward the garden’s exit. Before long, he reached the main hall, where Steward Liu took out a small boat and tossed it into the air. As it rose, the boat slowly grew larger, until at last it hovered in midair, and Steward Liu flew aboard it.

“Master Zi, we have come on orders from the president to report here. We hope you will lead us in carrying out the mission,” said the black-robed man standing at the front.

“Very well. Come with me aboard the flying treasure. Once we arrive, I hope everyone will cooperate with me.”

With that, Zi Chenyu led everyone out of the hall and flew directly onto the flying treasure.

From the ground, the vessel did not seem very large, but once they stepped onto the deck, there was room enough for several hundred people to stand. Looking down from above, the city below seemed tiny. The ship contained hundreds of small rooms, far more than needed for the few of them.

After the black-robed men boarded, they all went into the rooms. Only Steward Liu and Zi Chenyu remained on the deck. The two stood gazing at the scenery below, each lost in thought.

Back at the commerce hall, Lin Zhi’s mood was still somewhat foul. As he entered, Vice President Lin Tianlei came toward him with a smile.

“President, we’ve landed another big order! Another big order! We’re about to make a major deal!”

Spraying spittle as he spoke, Lin Tianlei stopped Lin Zhi just as he was about to enter and stood beside him, chattering nonstop.

“All day long it’s big deals this and big deals that. Is the money you make even enough to buy anything? It isn’t even enough to fill the cracks between the teeth of the family. Get lost, all of you. Don’t let me see you.”

With one kick, Lin Zhi sent Lin Tianlei tumbling into the hollow beneath a tree.

In the grass, Dao Sansheng’s guardian, Soul Disk, had awakened without notice after two days. Rolling over, it looked toward Dao Sansheng.

“Master, you urgently need to improve your strength. Chen Xiaofeng has been sleeping for a very long time. Through the dream, I already learned everything about him. I even had him hand over that immortal-grade cultivation art.”

A golden book flew out from Soul Disk’s hands, transforming into light that scattered into Dao Sansheng’s sea of consciousness and vanished among the stars.

The incantation of a cultivation method appeared in Dao Sansheng’s mind:

To cultivate the path of immortals, first temper the body. The body may absorb all things under heaven and earth, tempering a body that has endured myriad mortal lives...

Word by word, the chant echoed through Dao Sansheng’s mind. Half an hour later, after the entire formula repeated for a second time, he finally understood: this was a cultivation art for refining the body into immortality. Once he reached the Foundation Establishment stage, he could begin cultivating it. By then, even Foundation Establishment would count as washing away his mortal flesh and severing him completely from the dust of the world.

Soul Disk waited for Dao Sansheng. Seeing that he had finally awakened, it stood atop Chen Xiaofeng’s spirit and flapped its wings. With a single command from Dao Sansheng, it could reduce the fellow to ash.

“Master, how should we deal with him? Should I just directly...”

Before Soul Disk could finish, Dao Sansheng ran over and embraced Chen Xiaofeng’s soul.

“I still have some use for him. I’ll need him soon enough. This also counts as making full use of him.”

Only then did Dao Sansheng let go and leave the sea of consciousness.

Ever since Dao Sansheng had said he possessed Chen Xiaofeng’s soul, Du Xuetao had been waiting for the past two days with growing anxiety. Coupled with the fact that Dao Sansheng had already been meditating on the grass for two days and two nights without waking, Du Xuetao now stood beside him in constant vigilance.

At that moment, Dao Sansheng opened his eyes. Seeing the anxious figure at his side, he smiled and asked, “Senior has been waiting for me all this time?”

As he spoke, Dao Sansheng raised his hand, and a tiny figure appeared in his palm. The glowing little form was Chen Xiaofeng’s soul. Chen Xiaofeng still lay asleep in the dream and had not realized that he had already broken free of Soul Disk’s control and returned to freedom.

The little figure in Dao Sansheng’s palm was snatched away by Du Xuetao. He stared at the sleeping soul with clenched teeth, then burst into loud laughter.

“Hahahaha... Chen Xiaofeng, you never would have thought it. Back then, you pushed me into the stone pit. Now your physical body has been destroyed. Truly, heaven’s retribution turns in circles. Let us laugh at the sky and see whom it spares!”

Hearing the hearty laughter, Chen Xiaofeng began to open his eyes and look around. One face was somewhat aged, yet also faintly familiar; the other was the young man whose body he had seized on the streets of Violet Immortal City that very day. At this moment, the old man was laughing uproariously.

Seeing that there was no formation and no one around him, Chen Xiaofeng shot into the sky and fled into the distance. Dao Sansheng grew anxious and was about to give chase, but Du Xuetao was unhurried.

“No need. Let him run. No one here will let him seize another body. Once a soul is exposed outside for too long, it will naturally dissipate. And in a place like this, with so much miasma and poison, the erosion will make it vanish even faster.”

The two of them simply tailed Chen Xiaofeng from behind. Before even half an hour had passed, Chen Xiaofeng had already discovered the problem. This place was so strange—after so long, he had not seen a single person or spirit beast. If this continued, he would simply scatter away.

A trace of miasma was blown over by the wind from the sky. Chen Xiaofeng rushed toward it, only to be seized by a pain so agonizing it tore at his very soul. He stopped at once, and seeing that more than half of his spirit had already vanished, he knew that if this went on a little longer, nothing would remain.

A little creature following behind Dao Sansheng, chasing after Dao Sansheng and Du Xuetao, heard Chen Xiaofeng’s cries and curiously ran forward. Seeing that there was no one ahead, the creature looked about in puzzlement.

Floating in the air, Chen Xiaofeng saw the one-horned dust mouse on the ground, looking around in confusion. Excitement shook his entire soul. At last, he had encountered something alive.

He had already seized a body once before, and though he had failed then, now that his soul was wounded, this was his final chance. Chen Xiaofeng circled above the one-horned dust mouse’s head several times, then plunged straight down.

His incomplete soul entered the one-horned dust mouse’s sea of consciousness, which was empty and void, nothing but endless darkness. Since a Foundation Establishment spirit beast had not yet awakened intelligence, it could not condense a soul.

Chen Xiaofeng easily took over the one-horned dust mouse’s body. The mouse stood dumbly in place for a long time, motionless in the same posture.

Dao Sansheng and Du Xuetao walked over. Seeing the mouse’s strange state, they reached out and picked it up. Only then did Chen Xiaofeng, who had just seized the body, fully awaken to his new vessel. Opening his eyes and seeing the two men, he struggled at once.

“This spirit beast is my contracted beast. I never expected you to seize its body. Very well. From now on, you will serve me. Consider it the price you must pay for your past wrongs.”

Held in Du Xuetao’s hand, the one-horned dust mouse still struggled without cease, somewhat unwilling to submit, trying to break free from the giant hand.

“I’ve said so much already, and Senior Brother may not remember me anymore. But if I mention my name, you should recall me. Senior Brother, do you still remember Du Xuetao from thirty years ago?”

Upon hearing the three words “Du Xuetao,” the one-horned dust mouse stopped struggling at once and obediently fell silent.

“So you do remember. Then you also remember how the few of us brothers came together to the Violet Cloud Mountain Range. I had originally wanted to kill you, but now that you have taken possession of its body, and it has accompanied me here for thirty years, I have given up that idea. From now on, you will follow me.”

As he spoke, Du Xuetao even began smoothing the one-horned dust mouse’s fur, and the mouse narrowed its eyes in enjoyment.