There are two kinds of humans on the Taixuan Continent: mortals and cultivators. Cultivators use natural spirit energy to nurture their bodies and gain enough power to become immortal and fly up to the heavens.
In order to step onto the path of immortality, cultivators have to go against the laws of nature. After reaching the level of Foundation Building, a cultivator"s three immortal souls and seven mortal souls would slowly merge together, forming a complete divine soul. Cultivators are unable to join the cycle of reincarnation without the immortal and mortal souls, so there is no next lifetime for them.
Once their physical bodies are destroyed, if their divine souls do not possess another body within the span of three breaths, that would be the end of the cultivator"s life.
Mo Tianliao naturally knew all of this, as his cultivation level was already rather high before his death. Thus, when a clap of spring thunder boomed and woke him up from the countless months of blurry drifting, Mo Tianliao was stupefied.
Once a divine soul left the body, it was like a thin piece of ice bared to the intense summer heat, as fragile as a b.u.t.terfly"s wing. Even the slightest breeze would be able to disperse it into nothing. However, he was still drifting along, completely conscious and with all the memories of his previous life. He looked around him and found that he was still on the range of Mount Yanhuo, but he had been blown away to another mountain peak.
Mo Tianliao tried to reach out with a thread of his divine soul and found that he was wrapped by a gentle power, just like a little bug sealed in amber, safe and sound.
Although he still retained some consciousness, he was just a translucent ball of light now, without any powers. All that Mo Tianliao could do was let the winds carry him around the mountains. Time pa.s.sed quickly as he drifted, and soon a few hundred years had pa.s.sed.
On the thirtieth year that he had awakened, Mo Tianliao had already learned how to use the feeble power left in his divine soul to change the direction that he drifted in. He didn"t dare to venture where there were humans, afraid that a high-ranked cultivator would notice him, so he stayed within the bounds of Mount Yanhuo.
The span of a few hundred years was enough for him to have seen every inch of the mountain range.
Mount Yanhuo spouted fire endlessly at its peak and nothing was able to grow there, save for a single large tree.
That tree was thirty feet tall and carried no branches; only its charred, thick trunk stretched skywards. The flames of Mount Yanhuo started up every April and only ceased in December. During the early days of spring, when no fires lit the peak, this thick tree would sprout out a layer of green buds, until the fires started up again.
Mo Tianliao had been forging weapons for many years, so he knew most of the world"s rare ingredients like the back of his palm. When he saw how the fires enveloped that lone tree, yet never consumed it, a burst of joy rose in his heart. This was an ancient divine tree! The Everlasting Tree!
Everlasting, meaning that it would never cease to live; this kind of divine wood could be used as a physical body!
Although he still didn"t understand where the power that was protecting his divine soul had come from, since he still had a chance to live on, Mo Tianlian was definitely going to find a proper body to possess and be reborn! He had been intending to look for a child with good spirit potential, but even the best spirit attribute wouldn"t be able to match up to a body made from ancient divine wood!
When intending to pursue the path of immortality, spirit potential was tremendously important. The better the potential, the fewer roadblocks on the path. The chances of actually becoming an immortal would also increase. As far as he knew, the best spirit potential so far was divine spirit potential. Those with this potential could absorb natural Qi faster and would have higher mental capacity as well.
However, if he used the Everlasting Tree for his body, his potential would surpa.s.s even those with divine spirit potential. The ancient divine tree itself was born from natural Qi, so absorbing Qi would be as easy as breathing!
Mo Tianliao circled around the divine tree. This was probably the only Everlasting Tree in existence, so there was no way he could bear to let go of this chance. All he had to do was borrow a bit of divine lightning and let it strike him, then slowly invade and refine the tree into his own body.
If it were any other divine soul, they wouldn"t have the power to possess even a single twig of the ancient divine tree, but he was different. After leaving his physical body for a few hundred years, he had already refined and reinforced his own soul. He would be able to survive a single bolt of divine lightning.
All the pieces were in place, all he needed was some divine lightning now.
Unfortunately, it wasn"t as if he could just call down divine lightning as he liked. Mo Tianliao could only continue guarding the ancient divine tree and wait with the patience he had honed over years of being a weaponsmith, waiting for the day that divine lightning would strike.
The seasons flew by as he waited and life moved on around him. When the time finally came, another hundred years had pa.s.sed.
Krakaboom!
A bolt of lightning split the layers of dark clouds in the sky and struck the earth. Mo Tianliao hurriedly drifted up and out of the way, narrowly dodging that terrifying lightning strike that had charred everything in a 5 kilometre radius.
After waiting for a hundred years, the long-awaited divine lightning had come. However, this was a round of Nine Tribulations Lightning, some unlucky soul must be trying to ascend to the heavens here. Mo Tianliao felt the urge to swear.
Pa.s.sing heaven"s judgement was the last step to becoming an immortal. As long as they could survive the trial by lightning, they would be able to ascend to the heavens.
Still, the trial was different for each person. For some, pa.s.sing the lightning trial would be as easy as walking through a drizzle, with tiny fingers of lightning. For others, it might be an earthshaking calamity, which would only end once the person was reduced to mere ashes. This Nine Tribulations Lightning… belonged to the latter.
Mo Tianliao could only do his best to dodge left and right, using his pitiful amount of soul energy.
The lightning trial lasted for a whole day and night before the bolts started thinning. Mo Tianliao saw that the time had come. Gritting his teeth, he shut his eyes and rushed at the divine tree.
KRAK!
An earth-shattering noise resounded from the depths of his soul. Mo Tianliao could feel every inch of his divine soul splitting apart, before he was forcefully stuffed into something hard and tough. He wanted to bellow from the pain, but without a body, he couldn"t make any sound.
The divine tree seemed to be resisting the invading soul out of pure instinct. Even though the pain coursing through him felt like it was going to rend his soul apart, Mo Tianliao held on to his last bit of consciousness and pushed his soul into the web-like meridians of the Everlasting Tree.
The sands of time continued flowing, and Mo Tianliao"s soul was becoming ever weaker, yet the Everlasting Tree stayed strong.
Is this the end? No! I"ve already been waiting for a hundred years, I"m not going to let this tree beat me!
The power that had been protecting his soul seemed to react to his determination. It slowly loosened the shield around his soul as a gentle and warm energy started flowing into him, finally merging them together as one. Mo Tianliao felt like he had just stepped out of a hot bath, comfortable and refreshed. Once that mysterious power finished merging into him, the divine tree seemed to stop resisting his invasion!
The Nine Tribulations Lightning continued on for seven days and seven nights. That unfortunate cultivator undergoing the trial had already turned into ashes.
After the fierce storm pa.s.sed, the skies turned clear.
It just happened to be March, when the fires of Mount Yanhuo were quiet and the Everlasting Tree was covered in green leaves. The divine tree slowly shrunk and warped its shape until finally, a tall and slender man emerged. His brows were sharply angled and his hair chopped short; this strangely handsome man was the newly reborn Mo Tianliao.
Feeling the ground beneath his feet again after drifting as a formless soul for hundreds of years, Mo Tianliao had the urge to shout at the heavens and feel alive again. However, first things first, he had to find a set of suitable clothes.
While he had been able to shape a body out of the divine wood, he couldn"t make clothes appear out of thin air.
Mo Tianliao shook out his slightly stiff limbs and started striding off, heading towards the giant crater somewhere near the foot of the mountains. After the seven days and nights of lightning, the surrounding greenery and rocks had also been turned into ashes, along with the unlucky cultivator.
After searching the area with his soul"s senses and not discovering any lingering souls, Mo Tianliao let out a huff of relief. If someone were to steal his body right after he had spent so much effort to obtain it, then it would have been a grave injustice. His lips drew up into a spontaneous grin. It was extremely rare for a soul to survive long enough to get another body, what kind of crazy luck did he have?
Mo Tianliao dug around the crater for a bit. Most of the cultivator"s spiritual weapons had been destroyed. After searching for half the day, he only found a storage bracelet. The bracelet was just a plain black and didn"t seem to have any particular grade. Since the cultivator had already died, his soul mark on the bracelet had also disappeared, so Mo Tianliao could access the s.p.a.ce inside.
The storage s.p.a.ce in the bracelet was small, and it only held some spare spirit stones and a few sets of clothing. Mo Tianliao raised an eyebrow with a strange expression on his face. This bracelet was a tool he had made in his past life. Time wasn"t frozen in the s.p.a.ce and it couldn"t store spirit herbs or pills. The s.p.a.ce was rather small as well. The only good point was that it could repel divine lightning. That cultivator must have bought it because he heard that it could survive the lightning trial, but actually, that ability only extended to the bracelet itself and not to its owner…
Mo Tianliao rubbed his nose and kept a moment of silence for the poor cultivator. He then took out a dark set of robes and inspected it closely. After making sure there weren"t any sect identifiers on it and that it wasn"t some high-level equipment, he put it on.
Now that he had clothes and money, it was time to leave the mountain. Mo Tianliao snapped his fingers cheerfully, "Let"s go-"
Thus, his finger caught fire…
Mo Tianliao"s eyes widened in shock. He stared at the brilliant little flame dancing on his fingertip, which had a tinge of green to it. If his eyes weren"t playing a trick on him, this was… woodfire!
There were special kinds of fire on this earth, like stonefire, icefire, etc. This type of fire was born from other elements, so it had some special characteristics. Who could have thought that the Everlasting Tree had developed woodfire after burning for thousands and thousands of years? This woodfire shared the everlasting characteristic that the divine tree had. If he used it to forge weapons, the unique properties of the materials would be transferred without any loss.
He hadn"t been able to find woodfire in his previous life even after searching the world, but now this unexpected windfall had suddenly dropped into his lap. Mo Tianliao was stunned still.
He spent a few days to get used to his new cheat weapon, before heading to Death Valley.
So many cultivators had died in Death Valley back then that their resentment still lingered in the air. He hadn"t been able to get near this place with his fragile divine soul, but now that he had a new body, he wanted to take a look.
The ground was scored with holes, while the short tree still stood alone. Mo Tianliao crouched down by the tree and checked the fist-sized tree hollow. After all these years, the kitten was long gone.
Mo Xiaozhao was a rather special magical beast. Back then, when he had picked up the kitten with the intention to make it his servant, Mo Tianliao had fallen head over heels for the cute little furball. Thus, when Mo Xiaozhao refused to form a blood-bound contract with him, he hadn"t forced it.
That spoiled little furball… He wondered how it was surviving without his tender care…
He wanted to find his cat, but without a blood-bound contract to lead him to his pet, Mo Tianliao didn"t know where to start looking.
Although he still had the full power of his divine soul with him, his new body didn"t have any cultivation at all. Without any real power, he wouldn"t be able to avenge his death. Mo Tianliao sighed. For the sake of his future plans, he had to find a sect to stay in and train until he recovered his cultivation first.
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Author"s Note:
Mini Theatre
Carpenter: I"ve found a cheat weapon, wahaha!
Xiaozhao: What?
Carpenter: A pure wood attribute!
Xiaozhao: You"re a scratching post now
Carpenter: My epic woodfire!
Xiaozhao: Cook fish for me
Carpenter: …
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TL Note:
For those who aren"t familiar with cultivation, basically every mortal has a certain amount of potential for it. This potential affects how fast you can absorb Qi and progress through the cultivation levels. Everyone also has some attributes/elements like earth, wood, gold, fire and water. Those who have a single spirit attribute that is particularly strong tend to progress very fast, so they"re called people with divine spirit potential (天灵根).
Since Mo Tianliao took over a divine tree, he now has a body with the wood attribute. And since the divine tree was parked at the top of a volcano for so long, it developed woodfire (木中火 literally fire-in-wood), giving it the fire attribute as well. Same goes for stonefire and icefire!
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Mini Glossary:
Spirit potential (根骨) – affects how fast you can absorb Qi and progress through the cultivation levels
Spirit attribute (灵根) – type of element like earth, wood, gold, fire and water