~~~

Elder Xue once chided him for his tendency to hold back his cultivation, but Liu Jin has often felt the opposite is true. Whenever he replays the events that led him to this point, he can scarcely believe their speed. One day, he’s a boy without a home. The next, he’s a disciple of one of the Four Great Sects. Today, he’s a soldier in a civil war. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

It is the path he chose. They are the choices he made.

Liu Jin still feels like he’s in freefall.

Even the weight on his body feels like a lie. Reaching the Earth Realm is supposed to be the result of countless years of rigorous training. It is hardly fitting for someone who has not seen twenty springs.

It is not an easy weight to bear. Liu Jin now completely understands why some cultivators choose against entering the Earth Realm, preferring to stay in the True Realm for the rest of their lives. To perform even the simplest movements, Liu Jin has to carefully reinforce his body with Qi. Even his blood feels like it has a harder time flowing through his body

The Earth Realm is supposed to prepare the body for the rigors of tribulation lightning. In a way, it misses the point if he just compensates with Qi for everything. However, the lessons to be learned from the Earth Realm will have to come later. Right now, he just needs its benefits, and it is undeniable that there are many of them. The Earth Realm has enlarged his meridians, strengthened his dantian, and toughened his body.

However, it is not just the Earth Realm that has changed him.

Liu Jin breathes. His aura rises, its edges a little more frayed than he’d have liked. To avoid dying, Liu Jin allowed the power of Nine-Headed Snake God to change him. He can try to put off thinking about it as long as he wants, but the physical changes brought about by that choice are undeniable.

Scales keep appearing over his body.

The moment he raises his Qi, the scales gradually grow over his skin. It is a reflex, and reflexes can be suppressed. Already, Liu Jin is making good progress on that. However, hiding them does not change the underlying issue. Liu Jin knew that Nine-Headed Snake God’s Inheritance might potentially lead him to becoming something other than human, and he has taken a step in direction today.

Does it matter?

When Senior Brother Mud asked him if he worried about the effects Nine-Headed Snake God’s Inheritance might have on him, Liu Jin told him that he trusted his master’s judgment. Has anything happened since then that would make him distrust his master?

Of course not.

His master guided him to Nine-Headed Snake God’s Inheritance. That means he deemed it necessary for him to have it, and if that is the case, Liu Jin has nothing to worry about.

Changes or not, he is himself.

Liu Jin exhales. His Qi quiets down. His eyes shine with resolve.

“Ancestor, I ask that you grant me an audience,” Liu Jin says.

A second passes. The echoes of his voice ring across the emptiness of the Storm Dragon’s spatial realm.

“I wondered when you would call me.”

Dark clouds gather before Liu Jin and take the shape of the Storm Dragon’s head. Its red eyes shine with amusement. Its lips curl back in a grin that reveals its fangs.

Liu Jin meets his menacing visage without fear.

“You wanted me to die.”

The accusation leaves complete silence in its wake. Even the clouds that make up Storm Dragon’s body hold their silence as ancestor and descendant hold a staring contest.

Why has General He Bin failed to find him even though he should have been searching for him from the start? Why has it been over an hour since Liu Jin last ran into anyone, even though there should be thousands of soldiers inside this spatial realm? Why did he run into the Fleshcrafter so quickly?

Those questions all have the same answers.

The Storm Dragon controls everything here. He has given Liu Jin time to acclimate to the changes in his body. He has protected him from General He Bin.

He put him right in front of the Fleshcrafter to be killed.

“I wanted a part of you to die,” the Storm Dragon says at last.

“Nine-Headed Snake God’s Inheritance,” Liu Jin guesses.

“Snakes are notoriously unreliable creatures, quick to discard what is inconvenient to them.”

“Had it not been for Nine-Headed Snake God’s Inheritance, I would have died,” Liu Jin says.

The Storm Dragon snorts. Large puffs of smoke come from his nostrils.

“You think so because you fail to understand what you are, whelp. A dragon cannot be anything other than a dragon. Do you really think your soul and body would have allowed themselves to remain separate for long? Make no mistake. What you did was certainly impressive. However, it was also unnecessary. Worse still, you allowed the Inheritance of that snake to gain a greater hold on you.”

A part of Liu Jin suddenly feels foolish. The other notes this is the first time the Storm Dragon sounds irritated, so clearly, even though it is embarrassing, this counts as a victory of sorts.

“However, some good did come out of this,” the Storm Dragon continues. “Your death did half of what I expected it to. It spurred the dragon in you that your father tried to kill in himself.”

Liu Jink blinks. “My father?”

“Your father mutilated his soul. In doing so, he limited what he could pass on to you. However, it has always been there. It merely needed to be awakened, and this spatial realm created the perfect conditions for it. You are welcome, whelp.”

Liu Jin thinks back to the way his old body turned to ash and merged with his new one.

“I tire of being at the whims of the mighty.”

“You are a child. Children are always at the whim of their elders. Though they may resent their wisdom, they will be grateful to them when they are old.”

“Ancestor, I am young and regrettably can only think in youthful ways. The wisdom to be grateful for your grand designs escapes me.”

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The Storm Dragon laughs.

“What is it that your youthful ways tell you to do then? Do you intend to take out your youthful anger on me? Or do you have someone else in mind? Perhaps the one who killed you?”

Liu Jin’s eyes flash with anger. Just thinking about the Fleshcrafter gives rise to something cold and burning inside of him.

However, that is not what he came here for.

“I am here for Su An,” he says, meeting the Storm Dragon’s eyes. “Take me to her, ancestor.”

Liu Jin does not receive a verbal reply. Instead, the clouds fade away, and a single door appears in their place.

He does not hesitate for a second.

~~~

When the door appears, Su Daji stops walking. It is not a conscious act. Something deeper tells her that trying to avoid this encounter would only be doing harm to herself.

He walks out.

Hair like midnight and eyes like blood. She cannot understand how someone can look so much like the prince and the emperor yet so different at the same time. The Storm Dragon has already shown her his image, yet Su Daji still finds herself breathless at the sight of him. It is not due to some base lust or silly affection. Su Daji looks at him and thinks of a childhood she cannot remember and a hometown whose name she does not know.

Put bluntly, seeing him makes her happy.

“Su An,” he says breathlessly. A voice inside her cries out in joy.

She squashes it.

“My name,” she says coldly, “is Su Daji. You’d do well to remember it.”

Something in his face changes. His eyes darken. His Qi quiets down.

“That is right. You are not her,” he says. “You are the spirit that has taken hold of her body.”

Su Daji’s red lips curl up in amusement. Her Qi rises delicately, a purple glow spreading softly throughout her skin and forming multiple tails behind her. Something tells her it is not the first time she has been in a situation like this. Still, to think this body knew a descendant of the Storm Dragon.

The ways of Heaven are truly amusing sometimes.

“Assuming that is the case, what do you plan to do about it, boy?”

“I ask that you please let go of Su An’s body.” He inclines his head as he makes his request, but not enough to take his eyes off her.

She blinks.

This is…

“You are… asking?”

“I have nothing to lose by trying,” he tells her. “Besides, the notion of trying to drag your soul out of her body by force is rather daunting.”

…for some reason…

“I will die without a body. I have no reason to listen to your request.”

“I believe I could make one,” he says. “I have been studying the arts of the Death Fashioning Scripture.”

…a very familiar feeling.

She bristles at the suggestion. “I will not be housed in a corpse!”

“It would only be temporary until a better vessel could be procured,” he says it all plainly, as though she were being unreasonable.

Ah.

She understands now.

This man excels at frustrating her.

“I refuse!”

~~~

It is not just age that has changed her. Her hair is different, no longer a soft brown but a vivid violet, and her eyes have become alluring orbs of purple. Even her facial and body structure have somewhat changed. Su An had been pretty. The woman before him is impossibly beautiful,

Nevertheless, every instinct inside him screams that this is Su An.

He wants to hold her and never let go. He wants to spend days and weeks talking about the past, about simple, meaningless memories he can scarcely remember some days.

He has to save her first.

She attacks, and he uses a movement technique to dodge. Rather than chase after him, her aura lashes out in the shape of tails that carve deep trenches across the floor.

[Ground Contraction]

Liu Jin moves in between the tails, bouncing off the walls as they try to slam into his body. Their tips sharpen and become strong enough to pierce the walls.

[Art of the Roaming Thief]

A single step takes him right inside her blind stop. Multiple needles appear between his fingers in the blink of an eye. His eyes take in her shape, quickly calculating the position of her acupoints.

A fox charges at him from the side.

Liu Jin barely registers the incoming attack in time. A burst of [Ground Contraction] moves him to safety. The violet fox stands at Su An’s back and snarls. It is a Qi construct, much like his snakes.

Had she detached one of her tails without him noticing to keep guard over her?

“You have always been entirely too good with movement techniques,” Su Daji tells him.

A smile spreads over Liu Jin’s face.

“You remember!”

She glares at him, her features somehow more vulpine than before.

“It is said the heart of a good man has seven apertures.” She snaps her fingers. Two more foxes appear at her side for a total of three. “I suddenly find myself very eager to find out if that is the case.”

The foxes rush forward, and Liu Jin responds in kind, sending forth a massive snake. Its mouth opens to swallow the small foxes.

The foxes explode.

The explosion tears his construct shreds, and Liu Jin is rocked back by the impact. The room breaks, and a thick cloud of dust rises. It blocks Liu Jin’s sight but does nothing to prevent him from sensing the angry Qi moving across the room. Liu Jin twists around just in time to catch Su Daji’s wrist. Her suddenly too-long nails stop inches from his face.

“I know it can be annoying when one repeats himself too much, but that you just called me a good man means you do have some concept of me in your mind,” Liu Jin says, catching her other wrist and finding Su Daji physically stronger than he’d assumed.

“Is this your great plan, Boss?” Su Daji asks him. “Constant appeals to nostalgia? Women will not like you if you’re so pushy.”

Liu Jin’s smile grows at the same time as Su Daji’s face darkens, both having realized what she just said.

She kicks him in the chest.

“Understand I am not trying to demean you,” Liu Jin says, coughing as he picks himself up. “I am genuinely happy.”

His Ancestor told him Su An is possessed. That is undoubtedly true. However, the more Liu Jin interacts with her, the more certain he becomes that this is more than some spirit wearing his friend’s body like a fine set of robes.

“A part of you is Su An. I am sure of it now,” Liu Jin says. “The more I interact with you, the more that side of you becomes active.”

Su Daji does not immediately try to deny him as he assumed he would. Instead, a pensive look comes across her face.

“That might be true,” Su Daji admits. “Ever since I awakened, my thoughts have been in chaos. My memories kept escaping me. However, the more we talk, the more a part of myself becomes ordered. The chaos in my head goes away.”

Su Daji’s Qi rises as she speaks. Her aura turns a deeper purple, and the foxes around her multiply.

“But Boss, that’s no reason for you to be happy about that,” she says. “You understand, right? If one side is becoming whole, that means the other one is as well. For the first time, my thoughts aren’t fighting each other. For the first time, I can finally hear myself think.”

Her Qi spikes, its power far greater than Liu Jin’s initial estimates of her. The force of her aura is such that Liu Jin has to plant himself to the floor to avoid being pushed back.

“Ah…” Su Daji lets out a satisfied sigh. “That is much better.”

The foxes charge. Liu Jin fires a lightning spear at them, detonating them early. However, her kick catches him by surprise. Liu Jin’s back hits the wall for a second time.

“That was faster than I expected,” Liu Jin admits.

Su Daji shrugs.

“The Curse of the Earth is for the children of Nuwa, Boss,” Su Daji tells him. “I am not her child, so I am free of that pesky little thing.”

“I see,” Liu Jin says, picking himself up. “I did not know that.”

“You don’t know everything, Boss. That’s just common sense,” Su Daji tells him. “However, if we’re talking about things you do know, maybe you’d like to tell how you came back from the dead. A practical demonstration will do if you won’t.”

“I did nothing of the sort,” Liu Jin says, his injuries easily regenerating. “However, if you wish to know how my soul and body came back together, I have an ancient weapon to thank for it.”

Su Daji frowns, perhaps not sure how seriously she should take his words. Her eyes narrow as if seeing something beyond him. The light of recognition goes up behind her eyes.

“I see,” she says. “Someone put something in your soul. I’ll just have to reach it out and take it.”

“What a coincidence. It seems I’ll have to do the same to you.”

~~~