Chapter 153: Back Then

"Besides reincarnation and transmitting the art to a successor, the Mystical Pass True-Nature Preservation Art can also be used for body-seizing rebirth. For a cultivator, that is actually the best option—at least, that’s what me as a heretic thinks so.

"Body-seizing rebirth is not merely a soul moving into a new vessel. It carries along one’s knowledge, experience, and consciousness, and can transfer one’s martial power too. According to the cultivation method in the text you’re holding, the process converts true qi into primordial essence and lodges it in an external astral form. When a body is seized, the external astral form transfers along with it. After the soul takes hold of the flesh, the primordial essence feeds back to reshape the body, refine the apertures, and forge the viscera.

"It is similar to a single leap to the top, only it takes six months to a year to complete rather than happening all at once, but it also spares one the hardship of cultivating from scratch.

"Body-seizing rebirth also requires no crossing of the underworld’s various tribulations or the Womb Tribulation, only the Sea of Consciousness Tribulation. If one becomes lost in the Sea of Consciousness Tribulation, one will merge with the vessel’s own spirit, consciousness, and a portion of their cognition, then lose oneself, forget the past, and either become dull or come to believe oneself to be the original body’s owner afflicted with Soul Departure Sickness.

"Before Jiang Cheng attempted to seize your body, he wrote out a complete copy of the Mystical Pass True-Nature Preservation Art and left a letter explaining his circumstances, as a precaution in case he failed to pass the Sea of Consciousness Tribulation. As it happened, things developed beyond his expectations. He forgot where he had put both items, and his in-name disciple, Seventh Ge, who was supposed to remind him of the hiding spot, had also gone into a stupor and could no longer remember.

"I have destroyed that letter. All you need to know, Second Brother, is that Jiang Cheng was the only person in a century of Imperial Daughter Sect history to attempt body-seizing rebirth. He was expelled from the sect for it, but managed to escape and spent his days on the run.

"The Mystical Pass True-Nature Preservation Art has now fallen into our hands, to our benefit.

"Don’t you think body-seizing rebirth is better than reincarnation or art transmission to a successor? The Imperial Daughter Sect is an upright, prestigious entity, bound by Jingwei’s founding tradition and unable to act freely. We heretics have no such compunctions. Besides the Sea of Consciousness Tribulation, the only real difficulty is finding a vessel whose fate and nature are both compatible with ours, and whose soul is significantly weaker than ours.

"From what I observed of Seventh Ge’s condition, something unknown went wrong when Jiang Cheng attempted the seizure. The external astral form was severed from his soul and, carrying a portion of his spirit and consciousness, latched onto the nearest person present, Seventh Ge, and attempted to seize that body. But with no soul to complete the final step, it could only slowly merge and reshape the body.

"Seventh Ge’s body was not yet fully reshaped. It lacked the appearance of the Dharma Realm but held its substance. Yet the body-soul and the astral form were mismatched, so every time he exerted full force, it counted as borrowing an external power, something he could sustain for no more than a quarter hour. Otherwise, his soul would be incinerated and his flesh would collapse.

"Second Brother, no matter what, all that has passed is gone. Today is a new beginning, so there is no need to dwell on the past.

"Oh, and I divined that you have kept our master’s Celestial Heart imprint. That was a lie; I guessed it. With such a useful Celestial Heart imprint, I’d keep it too if I were you. And over these past months, no word has come out of the Brightnight Sect of any disciple showing strange physical anomalies, which confirmed my guess.

"Second Brother, you have not cultivated the Divine Art of Heaven and Earth Transmutation, nor have you read the complete Sutra of Celestial Heart Wisdom. If you frequently make use of the Celestial Heart imprint’s ability to divide your mind in two, you risk falling into hysteria—a condition resembling one body with two souls. Did our master never warn you of this? Oh, he wasn’t that considerate, and he died too quickly too.

"Can you guess whether what I just said is true, or whether I’m deceiving you to make you afraid to use the Celestial Heart imprint boldly, thereby hindering your cultivation progress?

"When we meet again someday, if you ask me nicely enough, my heart may soften and make me teach you the Divine Art of Heaven and Earth Transmutation, or let you read through the Sutra of Celestial Heart Wisdom once. After all, you are our master’s final disciple, and my little junior brother.

"Only, that would require you to sever your worldly ties. Our master is gone, so I as your senior sister would have to step in and help you cut off your Master Tao, and your Senior Sister Zheng.

"I have taken the original of the Mystical Pass True-Nature Preservation Art and made a copy for you. Can you guess whether I added something, removed something, or changed something, or left it exactly as it was?

"Second Brother, I am out wandering and tempering myself. Perhaps one day I will suddenly appear before you.

"Little Sister."

Get away! By the time Ding Songyan finished the letter, he was drenched in cold sweat and his skin was crawling.

Demoness Ji was describing terrifying things in a cheerful tone.

And she clearly had some grasp of his current situation!

To predict future events is terrifying indeed. It is currently January of the ninth year of Jianwu, before March... If severing worldly ties weren’t so horrifying, I’d genuinely want to learn the Divine Art of Heaven and Earth Transmutation. Damn it, if I really did sever worldly ties, you’re both my little sister and half my senior sister, wouldn’t I have to cut you off first? Hiss, could Ji Hanyi be ’grooming’ me, showering me with benefits, all as preparation to one day cut me off as a worldly tie? Ding Songyan’s head ached.

Ji Hanyi letting me go previously could still be attributed to the suspected mastermind behind the scenes—likely Jiang Weichen—but leaving behind the Mystical Pass True-Nature Preservation Art on purpose has no such explanation.

Surely she wouldn’t kill me someday, send me into reincarnation, and then lead me around telling everyone she’s my mother?

Ding Songyan suddenly understood the kind of pressure his senior sister and Senior Brother Wan must feel.

The threat of the Demon Sovereign and Ji Hanyi had always felt one step removed before. It felt distant, as if it could be avoided by simply not seeking it out. But now that Ji Hanyi’s letter was right in front of him, Ding Songyan felt as though a mountain had been lifted and set upon his shoulders.

He felt he needed to at least consolidate a perfected Grandmaster foundation, with all his martial techniques reaching that same level, before he could barely claim some capacity for self-preservation. Once he had an initial grasp of Dharma principles and formed his own martial framework, he could breathe a little easier. But all of that was still far off, and if he pushed for speed, he might easily forfeit his chance at the Heaven-Man Realm.

The path still had to be walked one step at a time.

Like treading on thin ice... Ding Songyan let out a long sigh.

Why can’t that Demoness Ji stay in seclusion like a normal person instead of wandering the jianghu?

Or is this another one of her deceptions?

The words of the Sage-Severing Way’s sect master are equal parts truth and fiction, not to be fully trusted...

Then again, those who shut themselves away in death seclusion seeking the Heaven-Man Realm like Feng Yining are ultimately in the minority. Perhaps it’s because the Fenghuang phoenix has the "rebirth comes through fire" trait. More Grandmasters found their path to the Heaven-Man Realm amid the dust and noise of the mortal world...

Ding Songyan shook his head, folded the letter, and carefully read through the Mystical Pass True-Nature Preservation Art.

Just as Ji Hanyi had said, the art focused primarily on nurturing one’s nature, strengthening the spirit, tempering the soul, and concealing awareness, with cultivation centered on the ancestral aperture at the brow. But it could not do without the cooperation of the body’s other apertures, and naturally included methods for refining apertures and installing viscera. It was indeed a complete martial art rather than a secret technique.

The copy Jiang Cheng had written contained no section on forging apertures and installing viscera. Ding Songyan had inferred the existence of such methods from the alien apertures and non-human viscera required by the cultivation process. For him and Ji Hanyi alike, their absence made no real difference.

Exquisite and profound... Ding Songyan finished his read-through and put both the text and the letter away for now.

He looked toward Seventh Ge’s body and began to reconstruct what had happened.

Back then, Jiang Cheng had chosen the storyteller, Ding Songyan, as his new vessel and sent his in-name disciple, Seventh Ge, to lure Ding Songyan to this hollow in Immortal Grotto Mountain, where he attempted the seizure.

But the moment he shattered Ding Songyan’s soul and caused his death, I transmigrated over and introduced a new variable. Perhaps even bringing with me underworld tribulations or other complications. This caused him not only to become lost in the Sea of Consciousness Tribulation, but also to be severed from his external astral form and a portion of his spirit and consciousness. When he came back to himself, he became increasingly convinced he was Ding Songyan, and went into a stupor for some time.

His external astral form and a portion of his spirit and consciousness instinctively seized upon the only other person present—Seventh Ge—but without a soul to complete the final step, Seventh Ge too fell into a state similar to failing the Sea of Consciousness Tribulation: first dullness, then seemingly a different person, while the fusion of body-soul and astral form proceeded very slowly...

I was therefore stranded in the underworld and wandered for most of a year, until Ji Hanyi killed Jiang Cheng, who had seized the body but was lost in it, and I was finally able to return to the body.

An ordinary person like me wandered for most of a year without dissipating... Was that a transmigration bonus, or is there another reason?

Ding Songyan pondered over the matter for a while, then set the matter aside for now and turned to thinking about how to wrap things up.

Killing someone was no small matter—the authorities would need to be given some account.

After all, Seventh Ge was not a wanted man. On the surface he was an innocent farmer, and quite a few people in Ge Family Village had seen him lead an outsider out of the village today. The outsider’s name would be a single register-book check away: "Pan Yunzhou, Brightnight Sect."

In truth, if the prefecture and county officials were brought to this hollow, they would be able to tell at a glance that something was wrong with Seventh Ge. Scenes like this were not something an ordinary person or even a third-rank or fourth-rank powerhouse could create. The Brightnight Sect was said to have the "Candleflame," but that was inclined toward illumination and held no capacity for scorching mountains and boiling seas.

The problem was that Seventh Ge had displayed Grandmaster-level power and yet been killed on the spot. That would raise the question of what level of strength Ding Songyan, who had fought him to the death, actually possessed.

Simply exposing an overnight leap to the top would be manageable on its own, but that touched on the whereabouts of the Celestial Thearch’s palace, and his own origins were entangled with the Imperial Daughter Sect and body-seizing rebirth. It would be stranger if the imperial court didn’t grow suspicious.

Ding Songyan also had little desire for outsiders to know too much about his "origins." That would bring no end of trouble.

Body-seizing rebirth was a minor matter by comparison. Transmigrating from another world and returning to a body—that was the real problem.

His thoughts raced, and an idea came to him.

He walked over to Seventh Ge’s body and crouched down beside it.

For a brief moment, Ding Songyan felt a pang of emotion.

This was the first time he had fought a Dharma Realm Grandmaster to the death.

Although Jiang Cheng had been reduced to only his external astral form, he had displayed the level of a perfected Dharma Realm, likely no more than a step from the Heaven-Man Realm.

If not for the internal conflict between his soul and astral form, and his being lost in the past while desperately seeking to recover it—both of which left massive openings, Ding Songyan felt he could barely have held on to his life.

That was the absolute limit for a warrior who had only entered the Dharma Realm half a year ago with foundations still not fully consolidated.

Fortunately I’ve always taken the path of absorbing every insight from various paths, and encountered many unusual martial arts, including the Dream Sword that countered Jiang Cheng. Otherwise I really would have had to drag things out until the quarter hour was up... Ding Songyan extended his right hand and pressed it against the corpse.

His Presence-Absence Myriad Forms Qi surged out through the Chaos Realm.

Seventh Ge’s body gradually dissolved, as though it had been dropped into a corpse-dissolving pool.

Bringing All Things Into Unity!

If the eldest of the Three Fiends of Xiao City could dissolve metal and iron with nothing but "Dissolving All Forms of Qi," could the Presence-Absence Myriad Forms Qi really fail to bring a single corpse back into unity?

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