Chapter 1: Dream Recall

  Spring sleep does not know dawn, Yang Yun had a big dream, in the dream he met an immortal, who took him to the East China Sea to learn art.

  Yang Yun knew what cultivation was, what realm was, and how difficult the path of immortality was.

  Master, senior brother, junior brother, and disciples fell one after another, but Yang Yun carefully and cautiously relied on his luck to miraculously pass through the numerous checkpoints. From a disciple of a small scattered sect, a grassroots in the cultivation world, he step by step became an expert, a master, a true person, a grandmaster, a legend, and a myth. He soared into the heavens and traversed the seas, invincible everywhere, only one step away from becoming a real immortal.

  Terrorful calamities came one after another, Yang Yun was like a lone boat on the verge of capsizing in a raging sea, but still managed to pull through. In the end, golden light radiated everywhere, and the glorious other shore seemed within reach.

  A series of clangs and clatters from a knife chopping on a cutting board woke Yang Yun up from her sleep.

  Yang Yun lay still, dazed and confused, her nose picking up the wafting aromas of food, as she began to rummage through memories buried deep within her for years.

  What a familiar yet distant flavor it is, how many years has it been since I smelled it, a thousand years or ten thousand years?

  The aroma of millet porridge mixed with wild vegetables picked from Xiaoyue Mountain, when I was still an ordinary person, my family was poor when I was a child, and often used this wild vegetable to make porridge.

  "Heavenly Tribulation — What's going on with this Heavenly Tribulation?!"

  Yang Yun suddenly woke up with a start, sat up and turned over, and a thin layer of cold sweat had already appeared on his body.

  Morning sunlight pours in through the broken paper window, illuminating a willow bed, coarse linen quilt, and walls blackened with age, as well as books and writing utensils scattered across a broken desk.

  Everything was so simple and crude, Yang Yun's memories were drawn out one by one, these long-forgotten scenes now vividly reappeared.

  "It's an illusion - it must be an illusion" But before crossing the heavenly tribulation, he had already gone through a period of true and false illusions, how could he still encounter such a harsh environment?

  Without hesitation, Yang Yun pinched his fingers together and activated "Primordial Extreme Divine Light Seal Break".

  The so-called unbreakable true trick had no reaction, and Yang Yun only discovered with horror that his true yuan was completely gone.

  What kind of illusion is this! In a state of terror, Yang Yun changed seventeen or eighteen incantations in succession, but all these divine powers that could have moved mountains and seas also lost their effect.

  "What's going on!" Yang Yun's eyes were bloodshot, and he wildly waved his hands like a madman, futilely trying one spell after another. Any of these spells would have been enough to flatten the surrounding area for miles if they had worked, but now they only served to increase Yang Yun's panic.

  "Third son, get up and eat!"

  A cry, like a morning bell, awakened Yang Yun who was about to fall into demonic illusion.

  An old woman wearing coarse cloth walked into the room, "San Er, what's wrong with you?"

  Seeing Yang Yun's poor complexion, the old woman anxiously stretched out her hand to touch Yang Yun's forehead.

  "How did you sweat so much, didn't you read too late last night and hurt your spirit?" The old woman withdrew her wrinkled hand, hesitated for a moment, and said: "Wait, I'll add an egg to the porridge for you. You've been reading too much and hurting your spirit, you need to nourish yourself more."

  This is absolutely not an illusion!

  Yang Yun was certain of this when he saw the gaze of his elderly mother. The kind concern that had been infused into her blood and soul was something that no illusion could simulate.

  "Mother, don't bother, Father and big brother have to work in the fields, let's leave the eggs for them." Yang Yun blurted out an answer, after which he was stunned.

  It was as if a big door had been opened, and memories of myself at sixteen came flooding back.

  Yang Yun, 16 years old, from a poor family, was clever since childhood and had been studying hard with the support of his whole family. Two months ago, he just passed the imperial examination and became the only official "scholar" in the village. Last night, under the dim light of the oil lamp, he studied until very late, until the lamp ran out of oil before falling asleep.

  That Yang Yun who was almost a deity, dominating the world with his might, was he just a strange dream? But the memories etched in his mind were so real. After being stunned for half a moment, Yang Yun slapped his head hard, "Zhuangzi's Butterfly Dream - how did I get entangled in such a ridiculous thing?"

  Yang Yun's mother looked at her son, her eyes filled with affection. She couldn't understand what he was saying and thought Yang Yun had become engrossed in his studies again, so she quietly left the room.

  The story of Zhuangzi and the butterfly was too profound, Yang Yun couldn't figure it out no matter what, but his rumbling stomach led him to sit down at the dinner table.

  The egg still ended up in Yang Yun's bowl.

  When the bowl of rice was brought to his mouth, Yang Yun felt as if a fire had been lit in his stomach.

  Vegetable millet porridge flows into the throat, with a hint of wild vegetable numbness in the fragrance of millet, and the hungry stomach cheers up immediately.

  As he gulped down the porridge in big mouthfuls, Yang Yun thought to himself how long it had been since he last had such a worldly and ordinary meal.

  The porridge tasted coarse and hard to swallow in memory, but now Yang Yun felt that this hometown millet porridge was better than dragon liver and phoenix marrow.

  Yang Yun's father, Yang Tianjie, was a honest farmer. His older brother, Yang Shan, and his father were almost identical, even their posture when holding a bowl and drinking porridge were exactly the same. If it weren't for the wrinkles on Yang Tianjie's face and the white hair on his head, it would be hard to tell them apart.

  From start to finish they never looked at the egg in Yang Yun's bowl.

  Yang Yun suddenly wanted to swallow the egg in one bite, he was no longer that immortal who could live on wind and dew, his body was only sixteen years old, and had a bit of long-term malnutrition. The temptation of the egg to him was very great.

  Avoiding Yang's attention, Yang Yunfei quickly put the egg into his younger sister Yang Lin's bowl.

  Yang Lin's eyes lit up, she wolfed down the eggs and swallowed them in one gulp, without even taking a breath, and then suddenly started coughing violently.

  Before Yang turned his head back, Yang Lin quickly rolled away the egg yolk residue at the corner of her mouth with her tongue, blinked, and stuck out her tongue to smile at Yang Yun.

  Yang Yun's father and elder brother also had a hint of smile at the corners of their mouths.

  The farmer's breakfast was eaten quickly, and Yang Tiancheng and Yang Shan took up their hoes and a clay pot to go to the fields. The clay pot contained several rice balls prepared by the Yang family for them to eat at noon. They would not return until evening after working hard all day.

  Although only thirteen years old, Yang Lin also had to help with the household chores of the Yang family. Cutting grass, picking firewood, washing clothes, cooking and so on, the slender Yang Lin was already a skilled hand at these tasks.

  Yang Yun is the only one who doesn't have to work, his task is just reading books. Yang Yun, who has been clever since childhood, did not disappoint the expectations of the whole family. Since he passed the imperial examination and became a scholar two months ago, he has officially embarked on the path of reading and taking office. Although being a scholar only gives a little subsidy from the government, it is still a small help for this poor family. Of course, if he can pass the imperial examination, his status will be completely different, which is also the expectation of Yang Yun's whole family.

  Yang Yun didn't stay at home for long. The Yang family wouldn't let him interfere with anything, so he ended up leaving in boredom with just two books under his arm.

  Since he passed the imperial examination as a Xiucai, Yang Yun no longer had to attend the village's private school, but he was also unable to continue his studies at the county's academy, which charged tuition. Yang Yun could only self-study during this period, which is actually the sorrow of all poor students, without money, they cannot further their studies, and the opportunity to pass the imperial examination as a Jinshi is naturally slim.

  Self-study is also difficult. In the whole village, there was only one Yang Yun who was a Xiucai (a scholar who passed the imperial examination), and there was no one to communicate with or discuss with. Moreover, books were very expensive, and the entire Yang family didn't have many books.

  Yang Yun's home was already on the edge of the village, and he had walked along a dirt road for about an hour before turning off onto another path that led into a bamboo forest.

  Yang Yun soon arrived at a clearing in the bamboo forest after turning left and right.

  The empty space was only a few rooms in size, with a very smooth bluestone floor. The largest stone surface bulged out to form a small platform-like shape that could be used for people to sit or lie on, and this became Yang Yun's usual reading spot.

  The bamboo forest is serene and secluded, with sunlight filtering down from above. Yang Yun discovered this place a few years ago and often brings several books here to study diligently.

  However, Yang Yun did not plan to read here today. He put down the "Analects" and "Wujing Zhushu" he brought with him on the bluestone, picked up a round stone in his hand, sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and adjusted his breath.

  A gentle breeze came, and the dappled bamboo shadows danced on Yang Yun's face, but Yang Yun remained still.

  After a long time, Yang Yun suddenly opened his eyes, and a sharp light seemed to flash in them. He raised his hand, and the round stone shot out of his palm, whizzing through the air and striking a stalk of green bamboo.

  With a crisp crack, the coarse green bamboo snapped in two, and the bamboo chips flew everywhere, with one piece splashing onto Yang Yun's head.

  One stone was struck out, but Yang Yun seemed to have been emptied, his face pale and defeated, hunching over and coughing.

  After a long time of coughing, Yang Yun lifted her head, revealing a face full of suppressed excitement.

  "It's true! The cultivation techniques I remembered are all real!"

  Since waking up and going through the motions of eating and other things, Yang Yun's ordinary identity has become more and more real, while his memories as a cultivator seem like a big dream.

  Yang Yun suspected that he might have just had a dream, and all those immortal cultivation experiences were just fantasies in his dreams. So he ran to this undisturbed place to conduct an experiment.

  Yang Yun now has no foundation, and those profound formulas can't be tried, so he chose a simple and effective "Ji Yang Hua Jing Jue".

  Ji Yang Hua Jing Jue is a unique technique that doesn't require the use of true energy or true yuan to activate, but instead relies on extracting the body's essence, transforming it into a temporary yet powerful strike, making it suitable for Yang Yun to experiment with.

  "It seems that I failed to cross the heavenly tribulation, and for some reason, my soul did not scatter, but instead, I was reborn back to when I was sixteen years old." Yang Yun pondered for a long time. Although he had cultivated for millions of years, he had never heard of such a strange thing happening before. However, thinking about it again, crossing the great heavenly tribulation only happens once, and others who have experienced it either ascend or turn to dust, so they wouldn't be left behind to tell people what happened afterwards. Maybe failing to cross the tribulation means being reborn, who knows?

  "Whatever, since I'm here, I'll make the most of it. My life was saved anyway, so instead of thinking about why I didn't turn to ashes, I might as well live this life properly." Yang Yun made up her mind in secret.

  Just thinking of this, Yang Yun's eyes turned black and almost fainted.

  Yang Yun is now an ordinary person who has not undergone any cultivation, with poor family conditions and a slightly weak body. Forcing the use of the Jingyang Huajing Jue resulted in his body's essence being severely overdrawn, as if he had been continuously laboring without rest or sleep for several days.

  No, this body is too weak, it's too strenuous to practice the Jiyang Huajing technique. Yang Yun endured his drowsiness and sat back down to meditate and regulate his breath. If he lay down now, he was afraid he would sleep for a whole day and night, not to mention worrying his family, and also easily get sick.

  The main function of the Jingyang Jue is to extract the essence from the body's meridians, where the flow of essence is easy and suitable for rapid extraction to form combat power. Yang Yun is still operating with the Jingyang Jue, but has changed to slowly extracting the deeply hidden essence in the lungs and using it to replenish the damaged meridians.

  The original Quiet Sun Essence Technique did not have such an effect, but Yang Yun's past life as a cultivator had transcended the realm of a super master, so this small modification was naturally done with ease.

  The essence in the lungs is actually the body's reserve, which is generally not used up. Only when the body is starving for a long time will it slowly release some of it. Using qigong to extract some of it, as long as it's not excessive, the body will naturally replenish it slowly.

  However, these are all treating the symptoms, once Yang Yun restarts his cultivation and absorbs the primordial energy to solidify his foundation and cultivate his origin, the current consumption is naturally not worth mentioning.

  After a long while, the sun had risen above his head before Yang Yun finally ended his meditation.

  As soon as he got up, he immediately felt a burning sensation in his stomach and Yang Yun hastily took out the rice balls prepared by the Yang family for him. He stuffed a few mouthfuls into his belly, but felt even hungrier.

  All that could be done was to search for stone chips on the ground, and chop up the exposed bamboo shoots to fill their hunger. After eating over a dozen of them, they were able to slightly alleviate their hunger pangs.

  Yang Yun couldn't help but let out a long sigh, and he had fallen to such a state. He thought that since his cultivation was slightly successful, the worldly smoke and fire, food and drink didn't enter his eyes, no matter how many kings, nobles, and dignitaries used their vast resources to collect rare delicacies for banquets, he simply wouldn't deign to give them a glance, at most giving them some face by eating a few pieces of fruit.

  Now thinking of those delicious dishes, Yang Yun couldn't help but rush up and finish all the plates.

  He swallowed a few big mouthfuls of saliva, Yang Yun sighed, it seems that the realm is really inseparable from cultivation. Now he himself was an ordinary person, his cultivation was not even a little bit, and his realm's determination had also fallen to the bottom, and he actually moved his gluttonous desires.

  Yang Yun has countless formulas and oral secrets, but his body has not been cultivated, the acupoints have not been opened, and it is impossible to spit out the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. To reach the state of avoiding valleys, at least ten or eight years of work are required. Before that, eating is still the best and fastest way to supplement the body's essence.

  Just after using the Jiyang Jingjin technique once, Yang Yun felt that he could eat a whole cow by himself, and a rice ball with over ten green onions was just barely enough to hold him off. The sun had just passed noon, and it was still early for dinner, but his family was poor, so they wouldn't be eating anything good for dinner either - mostly just wild vegetable congee, at most with some sweet potatoes or yams added in. In short, they were struggling to get by without starving, but also not getting enough to eat.