Chapter 9: The Human Heart

  Half-naked, half of his hair was burnt, and his skin was as black as charcoal, Yuan Fu managed to survive, all thanks to the Fire Jade.

  The second-level spell, Fire Dragon Technique, can annihilate ordinary warriors without any problem. Even if it's a Xiantian warrior, if they are hit by the Fire Dragon Technique and don't have true energy to protect themselves, they will definitely die. Yuan Futong has never broken through to Xiantian, so in the eyes of Gu Dao Ren and Yuan Xing, he is definitely going to die.

  But Yuan Futong had a strange treasure on him. The origin of Huoyu was unknown to Yuan Futong, but it could protect him from reincarnation and restore his memories of past lives. This thing must not be a magic tool or a spirit device, at the very least it was a treasure of the law. In his previous life, Yuan Futong also died in the flames of a cultivator, but at that time, he had not merged with Huoyu, and he had not cultivated before. He was an ordinary person without any resistance. The Xuanxin Daoist who came to rob the treasure was one of the few golden elixir masters on Earth during the late law era. The flames that burned Du Zhuchang and Yuan Futong to death were the Samadhi True Fire condensed by Xuanxin Daoist himself, with great power, instantly burning away the innate master Du Zhuchang and Yuan Futong. But it was this Samadhi True Fire that awakened Huoyu, after absorbing the Samadhi True Fire, Huoyu recognized Yuan Futong as its master, protecting his soul as he traversed space and reincarnated into this world.

  After years of nourishment in Yuan Futong's body, Huoyu has recovered some of its functions. It helped Yuan Futong cultivate the Three Yang Decision and quickly became a martial arts master. At the same time as cultivation, Huoyu also slowly transformed Yuan Futong's body. As it was originally a fire-element treasure, Yuan Futong had strong resistance to fire-based spells. When the Fire Dragon Technique wrapped around Yuan Futong, it did not burn his body to ashes. The flames only burned his skin, and the technique's power was absorbed by Huoyu. At that time, Yuan Futong only felt a tightness on his body, a severe burning pain, and his clothes, skin, and hair were all damaged. His upper body looked like charcoal. His Lunar Bow was also destroyed by the Fire Dragon Technique, making it look even more tragic.

  After being burned, Yuan Futong did not dare to get up immediately, but instead lay on the ground pretending to be dead. Having helped Yuan Xing so much by now, he was afraid that if he tried again, he would really die at the hands of the Turtle Dao people. Moreover, his weapon, the Lunar Bow, had been destroyed and could no longer be used for long-range attacks. If he were to charge forward with a knife for close combat, it's likely that even a casual blow from the Turtle Dao people would be enough to send him to his death. At that time, both the Turtle Dao people and Yuan Xing had also reached a critical moment, and seeing that he was half-charred and silent, they judged that he was already dead and didn't bother with him anymore.

  The fight is over, and it seems that Yuan Xing has won. Only then does Yuan Futong dare to get up. Yuan Xing sees Yuan Futong walking towards him, touches the bag in his hand, and puts his hand down again, trying hard to suppress the blood glow inside his body.

  Yuan family's 22nd generation descendant Yuan Futong pays respects to the elder. "May I ask who is the elder?"

  Yuan Futong walked up to Yuan Xing and made a fist salute. With his past life memories, he didn't want to kneel down casually, so he just made a fist and bowed slightly.

  "I'm a 20th generation elder of the Ben family's inner sect, collecting spiritual medicine in the mountains when I was targeted by this lone bandit, which led to this fight. How are your injuries?"

  "Just a minor skin injury, nothing serious, thank you elder for your concern."

  "That's great, heroes emerge in youth. Thanks to you today. Your merits will be reported to the ancestors of our clan when we return, and I will promote you to our clan."

  "Thank you, elder. How's your injury? Is it serious?"

  "I'm not seriously injured, just that both legs were crippled and can't hold the flying sword. Going back still needs to find spiritual medicine for treatment."

  "Then I'll carry you out, this inner mountain is also not safe, let's get out as soon as possible."

  "Alright, you go over there and bring back the tortoise shell bag and gourd of the Taoist, we'll leave as soon as possible."

  "Alright, Elder, just wait for a moment, I'll be right back."

  Yuan Futong picked up the Qiankun bag and calabaza that had been blown to one side by the Turtle Daoist, hesitating for a moment when he saw the Qiankun bag before handing it over to Yuan Xing. Yuan Futong knew that there must be many good things inside the bag. As a notorious lone thief of the Great Song Dynasty known as the Turtle Daoist, his value was certainly very high. But at present, Yuan Futong hadn't even entered the door of cultivation, and without any magical powers, he couldn't use the Qiankun bag. This thing had no attraction for him compared to the promotion to a great family that Yuan Xing had promised him, which would give him the opportunity to learn about cultivation.

  Yuan Xing saw that Yuan Fu Tong had honestly handed over all the things to him, and he secretly let out a sigh of relief. Now Yuan Xing's situation was not optimistic, that bloody light was the turtle path person's desperate magic, with extremely strong and sinister power. In Yuan Xing's meridians, it stirred up waves. In just a short while, it had eroded a lot of Yuan Xing's magic. The bloody light was getting stronger, but Yuan Xing's magic had not recovered yet, becoming weaker and weaker. Yuan Xing took out the spiritual stone and placed it in his hand, still unable to absorb the bloody light quickly. At this time, if Yuan Fu Tong had any other ideas, he would be in some danger, after all, the turtle path person's fire dragon technique hadn't killed this little guy earlier, who knows what trump card he still had.

  Seeing Yuan Futong being so obedient, Yuan Xing instructed him to pick up the broken fragments of the magic instruments that had shattered during his duel with Gu Dao Ren. The turtle shell had a big hole in it, and the folding fan was also broken. Yuan Xing's golden bell had been smashed into several pieces. After gathering all these things, Yuan Futong carried Yuan Xing on his back and rushed towards his own tree house.

  On the road, Yuan Xing carefully examined Yuan Fu's situation and felt very strange. Yuan Fu was practicing the orthodox Three Yang Decision, and his internal force attributes were all Three Yang Decision. Yuan Fu must be a descendant of the Yuan family, not someone else impersonating him. However, there was a strand of spiritual energy mixed in with his internal force circulation. From a distance, it was impossible to feel any fluctuations in spiritual power. The spiritual energy was tightly bound and circulated within his body, nourishing it, but had not been transformed into magical powers. It was clear that he did not know how to communicate with heaven and earth, condense his divine consciousness, or practice the Taoist method of cultivating internal energy. Had this kid eaten some kind of heavenly treasure?

  Yuan Xing curiously inquired about Yuan Fu Tong's situation. Yuan Fu Tong told Yuan Xing about his own situation, of course omitting the memories of his past life and the existence of Huo Yu, only saying that he had taken a thousand-year-old fire ginseng to cure his cold poison, which was why his cultivation speed was so fast. Yuan Xing finally understood.

  Yuan Fu Tong also asked several questions about how to break through the innate stage and cultivate magical powers. Yuan Xing refused, citing the reason that without the consent of the sect leader, he could not transmit the sect's skills on his own initiative. Yuan Fu Tong was very disappointed.

  Seeing Yuan Fu Tong's disappointment, Yuan Xing quickly promised him that after returning, he would definitely promote Yuan Fu Tong to the inner court as soon as possible. Only then did Yuan Fu Tong feel at ease.

  Yuan Xing took out a book of Taoist scriptures from Gu Dao Ren's Qian Kun bag, which was made of neither silk nor paper. The book had only a few pages and was incomplete. Yuan Xing began to study the book on Yuan Fu Tong's back, flipping through it for a while before putting it back in the Qian Kun bag.

  All the way, the two were cautious, fearing that some strange beasts or immortals would take advantage of the fire. Before nightfall, they left the inner mountain. It was only when Yuan Xing told Yuan Fu that Tong knew that there was a natural ban on the inner mountain of Suolong Mountain, and those fierce wild beasts and poisonous insects basically did not leave the inner mountain. Immortals who collect medicine generally do not mix in the outer mountains either. After leaving the inner mountain, they are basically safe.

  As the two of them were approaching Yuan Futong's treehouse, Yuan Futong felt a sudden jolt and fell heavily onto the snowy ground. Yuan Xing floated gently down beside him, his hands supporting himself on the ground as he sat in the snow.

  Yuan Futong was shocked. This time, the feeling on his body was even tighter than when he was hit by the Fire Dragon Technique. He couldn't move at all. He didn't even have the ability to speak with his mouth open. Only his eyeballs could move, looking at Yuan Xing beside him in confusion.

  Yuan Xing saw the look in Yuan Fu Tong's eyes and let out a sigh.

  "I didn't want it to be like this, but my body is no longer capable. The last blow from the Turtle Shell Immortal's blood light was a Blood Path Divine Technique, and with my current abilities, I am completely unable to dispel it. I can only go back and ask our ancestor from the Foundation Establishment period to take action in order to possibly dispel it. Even if we could dispel it, my meridians are already almost destroyed. I would need to find a spiritual elixir to heal before I can cultivate again. But with my talent, my family wouldn't be willing to expend such great effort and wealth to help me. So even if I go back, I won't have the opportunity to cultivate immortality again!"

  Yuan Xing's last sentence was already shouted out. After calming down his emotions, Yuan Xing continued to say: "I know you're not reconciled, actually I'm also not reconciled. This world has too many unfair things. Some people are born with a heavenly spirit root, the favored son of heaven. Once discovered, various sects compete for them. Spirit stones, spirit pills, magic tools, and spirit devices - nothing is lacking. But what about me? My spirit root is a mix of earth, fire, and gold, barely able to cultivate immortality, with low spiritual energy reactions. I've worked for the Yuan family for sixty years, only reaching the eleventh layer of Qi Refining. In between, I had to risk my life multiple times, stealing and killing people to get spirit medicine to boost my cultivation. Those few disciples selected by the Lieyang Sect didn't put in much effort and reached Foundation within thirty years - don't you think I've worked hard? I'm more diligent than them, but my innate conditions are poor, that's just the fact. Is this fair?"

  Yuan Xing became excited again. "I had already given up hope, but you've given me hope again. Do you know? You also have a spiritual root, I used the Spiritual Root Measuring Technique on you just now. You have a mixed spiritual root of fire, earth, and wood, similar to mine. But your fire spiritual root has an extremely strong reaction, and your speed of absorbing spiritual energy will definitely be very fast, not inferior to ordinary dual-spiritual-rooted people. Your cultivation is still the Three Yang Technique, with a good foundation, and you've also taken Fire Ginseng, so there's a strong flow of spiritual energy circulating within your body. Do you know what this means? It means that you can also be considered a first-level Qi Refining cultivator. The amount of spiritual energy you possess can actually reach the level of a second-level Qi Refining cultivator. But you don't know how to use it. Just now, you probably didn't die at the hands of the Turtle Dao person because of the spiritual energy within your body."

  Yuan Futong listened more and more confused, it seems that Yuan Xing is going to be unfavorable to him, but how to deal with him is not clear yet. He can only listen to Yuan Xing venting over there while finding opportunities to break free from the restraints. He has been contacting the Huo Yu in his body, but it doesn't work. The hot flow in his body, oh, should be the rapid circulation of Ling Qi, but he can't use it, and he can only feel anxious.

  "Now, heaven has given me another chance, which is to seize it."

  Body-snatching! Yuan Fugong was aware of this term. It was recorded in that notebook. This is a means that only appears after reaching the 9th layer of Qi Refining. It's when a cultivator's soul casts into another person's body to continue living on. However, there are three great iron rules for body-snatching.

  Firstly, cultivators must not perform soul-snatching on ordinary people; otherwise, the snatched body will collapse on its own due to being unable to withstand the soul-snatching.

  Secondly, only when a person with high magical power performs the soul transfer on someone with low magical power can it be successful without suffering from the opponent's counterattack. Moreover, the greater the difference in magical power, the safer it is.

  Thirdly, a cultivator can only undergo one transmigration in their lifetime, regardless of the level of their magical powers. If they attempt to do so for a second time, their primordial spirit will inexplicably disappear.

  Yuan Futong meets all three conditions, so Yuan Xing says it's an opportunity given by heaven.

  "I know your wish is to embark on the path of cultivation, to attain immortality. But the path of cultivation is fraught with difficulties, it's not as easy as you think. With your personality, even if you enter the world of cultivation, you'll eventually be used by others and meet a tragic end. Why don't you let me take over your body instead? I'll complete the path of cultivation for you!"

  Yuan Xing finished speaking and pressed his forehead against Yuan Futong's, his body stopped breathing, while Yuan Futong's eyes were wide open, also silent.

  (Borrowed some settings from Wang Yu's work, if you're interested, go check out DaDa's "Ordinary Person's Cultivation Story", a masterpiece!)