From being weary of the pursuit, I have now learned to find what I seek at first glance; since I can withstand the winds from all directions with a single gust of resistance, I have learned to sail smoothly through storms…
— Nietzsche, the eighteenth-century prophet of decline
This quote would probably best describe the current mood of Hunyuanzi.
If one were to list the top ten most legendary lives in the universe, Hunyuanzi would certainly be among them. Since the third renaissance period of cultivation a thousand years ago, when cultivators flourished, Hunyuanzi had already begun to stand out. Within the famous sect of alchemy and dual cultivation, he was regarded as a rising star. At an extremely young age, he broke through the Void Meditation Stage and the Cold Solitude Stage, becoming the most outstanding among his peers and was later elected by his fellow disciples as the youngest leader of the Dan-Ding Sect.
Back then, he was young, full of vigor and ambition.
But life rarely unfolds as expected. Just as Hunyuanzi was preparing to make his mark, disaster struck. A shocking battle among cultivators erupted. The hereditary enemy of Hunyuanzi and the Dan-Ding Sect led hostile forces and completely annihilated the entire Dan-Ding Dual Cultivation Sect. In just one night, the thirty-six caves and seventy-two branches were uprooted. The once-mighty Dan-Ding Sect was reduced to only a handful of survivors.
Most of them sacrificed their lives to protect Hunyuanzi, including many disciples, friends, brothers, and lovers. One could say that when Hunyuanzi broke through the encirclement with his sword, he did so wading through the blood and lives of his fallen comrades.
Hunyuanzi carried the souls of so many fallen companions within his life. After that catastrophic battle, he was no longer the young prodigy full of promise, but transformed into a vengeful avenger.
Thirteen assassinations, thirteen attempts on the life of his greatest enemy. Each time, Hunyuanzi risked everything to attack the foe whose name he no longer wished to utter. Yet each time, he failed. He exhausted his powers, bore countless wounds, and even gave up the chance to ascend as an immortal.
During his final assassination attempt, Hunyuanzi poured all his cultivation into forcefully breaking through the most perilous Ascension Tribulation of the Dan-Ding Sect, hoping to destroy his enemy in a cataclysmic heavenly tribulation.
But fate was unkind, and the opportunity slipped away. The enemy somehow survived this ultimate assault, while Hunyuanzi’s physical body was completely destroyed. Fortunately, his spiritual essence remained intact thanks to his profound cultivation, but without a physical form, he could no longer attempt assassination.
This was perhaps the greatest setback in Hunyuanzi’s life. His powers waned, and vengeance remained out of reach. From then on, he became a wandering, despondent soul drifting through the cosmos.
This state lasted for a thousand years.
Until fate intervened once again, and he encountered Yang Hao. With this encounter, the hope of rebirth reignited within Hunyuanzi. Seeing Yang Hao reminded him of his younger self—both possessed extraordinary wisdom, bursts of passion at critical moments, and most importantly, the courage to grow stronger when faced with adversity. Thus, Hunyuanzi devoted himself to training Yang Hao, and within a short time, managed to help Yang Hao rapidly break through his limits, becoming one of the rare young experts in the universe.
Yet now, this so-called expert was pulling at Hunyuanzi’s pure white hair strand by strand, wearing a strange expression on his face. “Hey, old man, is this really your hair? It’s not fake, right?”
“Cheh!” Even while cursing, Hunyuanzi never stopped devouring the chicken leg in his hand. “Fake? It’s the real deal, I swear. You little brat, after I went through so much trouble to rescue you, you can’t even bring yourself to call me Master?”
“One doesn’t just go around calling someone Master without checking. I need to be sure you’re not an impostor first.” Having lost interest in Hunyuanzi’s hair, Yang Hao now focused on the face of this long-faced middle-aged man. “In my mind, my Master should be a steady, serious guy. How could he have such an ugly eating manner?”
Actually, Hunyuanzi’s current dining style was indeed pretty bad. One chicken leg in each hand, he had pulled all the dishes toward himself and was now eating so messily that his face was covered in grease, yet he still managed to argue, “What do you mean, ugly? I haven’t had decent food in a thousand years! Do you think I enjoy eating nothing but sausages all the time?”
“Sausages?” Instinctively, Yang Hao patted his stomach. For someone to know such a secret, he must not be a stranger after all. “If you really are my Master Hunyuanzi, then weren’t you eaten by that dragon called Heiman? Before you died, you even gave me some stupid pill. It tasted awful.”
“A stupid pill!” Hunyuanzi was so furious he nearly dropped his chicken leg. “That was the Dragon’s Breath Pill! A one-of-a-kind, irreplaceable, miraculous elixir that no one could ever recreate. Without it, you brat would’ve been dead long ago!”
Taking advantage of Hunyuanzi’s outburst, Yang Hao quietly snatched a chicken leg for himself. Truth be told, he hadn’t had a decent meal since arriving in the divine realm. “I mean, your previous ghostly form wasn’t so bad. You were invisible and intangible. Why take on such a clumsy appearance now?”
“Ask him!” This time, Hunyuanzi grew clever. He motioned toward the smiling old man, Yunshang, while continuing to eat, knowing that if he talked too much, Yang Hao would steal all the food.
Yang Hao turned to the fat old man, puzzled. The events of the day had been bizarre indeed. He had clearly seen Hunyuanzi being swallowed by the black dragon, and logically, there was no way he should have survived. But now, not only was he alive, he looked vibrant and healthy, with a real physical form. No longer did he have to live pitifully inside Yang Hao’s belly.
There must have been a story behind this. If it hadn’t been for Hunyuanzi’s survival, Yang Hao might have died from internal injuries long ago. Indeed, only his Master could come to his aid in a moment of crisis.
At this point, Yunshang finally had the chance to speak. “Indeed, it was a fortunate twist of fate. You must know that everything in this world is calculated by the Creator, without the slightest deviation.”
“Cut the philosophical talk!” Both Yang Hao and Hunyuanzi scoffed simultaneously.
Yunshang sighed helplessly and simplified his explanation. “Just as Yang Hao and Heiman were about to destroy each other, I happened to arrive in time. I used the ‘Reversal Flow’ technique to stop time and rescued both Yang Hao and the dragon.”
Yunshang’s face showed a look of disbelief. “As you know, dragons are among the upper echelons of the divine race, and there are very few Kardis dragons in this universe, each possessing tremendous power. Normally, a human like you would find it nearly impossible to survive a confrontation with a dragon, let alone destroy one. But during the healing process, we were shocked to discover that Heiman’s injuries were far worse than Yang Hao’s. It was simply unbelievable.”
“Of course!” This time, it was Hunyuanzi’s turn to boast about his glorious battle history. He would never miss a chance to impress his disciple. “My dear apprentice inherited my legacy and cleverly used the Soul Spring Elixir to lure that stupid dragon into a trap. Naturally, I had to cooperate. Although the black dragon swallowed me, with my thousand years of cultivation, it would take a long time for it to digest me completely. So when my apprentice led the dragon astray with the Soul Spring Elixir, I decided to sacrifice my thousand years of cultivation and burn my own tiny universe inside the dragon’s body, hehehe…
Although Hunyuanzi now had a real physical form, his long-haired, middle-aged man appearance was quite pleasing to the eye. His mischievous demeanor was entirely consistent with his usual self, so Yang Hao had no doubts and joined him in laughter.
The reunion of this master and apprentice after life and death was even more joyful than their first meeting. After laughing for a while, Yang Hao even turned to blame Yunshang, the savior: “If this old man hadn’t interfered, we two would’ve already defeated that dragon. To kill a black dragon with just the two of us—what a glorious achievement for the Dan-Ding Dual Cultivation Sect!”
“But at that time,” Yunshang coldly interjected, “your Dan-Ding Spring Elixir Sect would have been long gone. When I rescued Heiman, I saw Hunyuanzi’s spiritual form on the brink of death, so I took the liberty of rescuing him too. I gave him the physical body of a deceased lower divine being and helped him solidify his essence, which is how he now has this physical form.”
Yunshang’s words were simple, but the danger involved was known only to him and Hunyuanzi. A spiritual form, or one’s soul essence, even if it survives after being separated from the original body, suffers a significant loss in power. Worse still, combining a soul with an incompatible physical form can produce a powerful counterforce. The greater the original strength of the body, the greater the counterforce. In the end, the attempt to solidify the essence might fail, and both soul and body could be destroyed.
Therefore, generally speaking, the best way for a spiritual form to acquire a new body is through “soul transference”—just like how Hunyuanzi had once possessed Yang Hao’s body. One first becomes familiar with the body, then gradually infuses their own power into it, aligning the body’s cultivation with their own, and finally expelling the original soul to take over the body.
Hunyuanzi had originally had the chance to possess Yang Hao’s body, but as their master-apprentice bond deepened, he chose to sacrifice himself rather than harm Yang Hao.
When Yunshang rescued Hunyuanzi, he gave him the body of a lower divine being, which was practically a death sentence. The divine race’s power is immense—even a lower divine being possesses far more power than Hunyuanzi originally had. One can imagine the terrifying counterforce that would arise when Hunyuanzi’s soul entered such a body. Alone, Hunyuanzi would have been unable to withstand it.
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