73.Tales of Reincarnation

Gar-Wahgar Calendar 32147-05-22

"Most people would just call me Old Re. I truly did not want to come back to this hill but the current patriarch of Mur Av'ic village who is my grandson convinced that I show up and write a biography otherwise he swore to steal my coffin and throw it in some random river.

Such ungrateful bastard.

I have lived quite a fulfilled and fruitful life and it has been more than five hundred years and I honestly do not know where to begin. My only regret is not telling my master everything.

My father is a human, a leader of a prospering town in Bugayas Municipality within Bang'et Province. Due to a drunken mistake, he forced the daughter of a rich and travelling Half Elven merchant into his room. When Half Elven and humans crossbreed, there is a ninety-nine percent chance that the offspring will be a human, yet miraculously gave birth to me, a Halfling. I was fifteen when I gave up my right to succession.

I was blessed with body constitution, talent, good looks and I am confident that every fiber of my being is superior to those of my two brothers. My two brothers threatened that they would kill my mother and everyone related to her should I continue to compete with them and although I have never met my mother, I chose to give in to their demands. Besides, I had no reason to stay in that Qi deprived town.

The truth is that I remember my past life and these memories came to me when I was two. Cultivators who have not touched the Grand Dao would refer to me as Sword Saint and Alchemy Emperor and I was proud, however when I was transported to a new planet and reached Ascension Level, I realized what a frog I was. With my previous knowledge and experience, I wished to surpass my former self. I exchanged my identity for cultivation resources and travelled northwest to find a sect open to Half Elvens.

What I did not know was that my brother hired assassins at Foundation Level. Dao Cultivators can kill experts above their level but I was still assimilating sword Qi at that time. I could barely defend against one, let alone two but the luck was on my side. During the fight, my Sword Heart has formed but I was too exhausted, so I was forced to perform a forbidden technique.

I was on the verge of death and while I was contemplating how short my life was, a stream of foreign Qi invaded my dantian. I was too weak to restrain this foreign Qi but something magical happened. My secondary dantian has connected to all the extra meridians I have. The legacy cultivation technique I was practicing is following human standards thereby I have never integrated those extra Qi Nodes. When my secondary dantian woke, my body started to rejuvenate. Though I was weak, I realized how concentrated the Spiritual Qi in the cave and before I could get up and started meditating, I finally saw the true image of my savior.

His appearance seemed to be that of the experiments I encountered on a mission during my past life. People would certainly be afraid of him based on looks but not me. I have seen something more abhorrent and dreadful but what I am apprehensive the most his bloodlust. My Spiritual Mental Strength is comparable to those of Nascent level and this bloodlust is an indication how terrifying this monster is.

I had encountered countless life and death situations in my previous life so I was able to maintain my composure. That caliber of bloodlust is not for decoration but is a mark of one's cruelty and viciousness and although I was thankful, I cannot help but think this apathetic beast had ulterior motives.

While I was thinking the reason I was saved, this monster handed me a spatial ring. He seemed to want me to use the items inside. To test the nature of this beast and for me to understand if he really indeed has motives, I decided to take out a few precious herbs.

The beast did not seem to care so I ate the herbs raw. As an alchemist, it was too wasteful but for my survival, I had no choice but to breakthrough to Foundation Level. It was the smoothest breakthrough I had experienced and I was sure it was due to the Spiritual Qi in the cave. When I extended my divine sense, it seems that the Qi is coming from a boulder and not a normal Spiritual Vein.

I know this beast is not ordinary so upon noticing that he is outside, I inscribed a tracking Formation on his cloak just in case it comes to a point I needed to escape. Now that I have a functional secondary dantian, I am confident I can run.

When I stepped out of the cave, I smelled the aroma of grilled meat. Under normal circumstances, the smell of a grilled meat without traces of flavor nor spices would not attract me but I was famished and the beast was kind enough to share. I slowly observed him. No matter how I look, he certainly is like the short-lived experiments during my mission in my past life.

While I was eating, the beast raised his hand and pointed his fingers towards a nearby tree. I was being cautious when suddenly, the most refined and elegant display of Sword technique was released. Even today, I am not able to emulate such magnificent and imposing power. While I was thinking how beautiful it could have been once imbued with Sword Qi, the beast suddenly asked me about Sword Dao.

When cultivators display their powers, powerful experts would be able to detect the nature of the person. While this beast has an inexplicable bloodlust, his Qi execution just now did not have a shred of killing intent nor traces of baleful nor evil nature.

I answered in honesty and with the intent to repay this beast's kindness, but all of a sudden, he tested and showed me his real strength. Even as an Ascendant, I probably would not have survived that. My whole body was telling me I had to escape. I thought he was mocking me when he asked if there are stronger versions of Sword Qi so I gave him a vague answer to buy time and after that he lost interest and flew off.

I should have had escaped but I came to realize that the beast does not have much time left. Only a fool would not take a risk. The tracking Formation I inscribed in his cloak will become imperceptible once he was too far away so I decided to follow his tracks.

Funny that I suspected this beast of hidden motives yet now I find myself acting with schemes. And what is funnier how I died coveting an essence flame in my past life and there I was again motivated by greed.

After three days, I found his cave and based on experience, he should be famished so I caught three wild beasts as offering. I was confident that even if I offered it raw, this beast would still eat them and I was right. Though I had motives, there was nothing wrong befriending him or becoming his disciple.

After a few more days, he got out of his cave and asked that I help him. I was delighted and celebrated deep inside. I pretended to call him master from that point.

When we got to a random village, I thought my master would take notice of this boy with a rare Yang Constitution yet he ignored it, or rather he does not seem to know. Powerful masters would normally fight to take the boy as a disciple or refer it to a sect. I did find out later that he really had limited knowledge about the cultivation world. I was forced to take the boy's sister as their parents were dead.

Our next destination was Mur Av'ic village and it was here my master settled in. Like many who were looking for cure, I sympathized his journey would end in disappointment. It's true I had motives but in return, I decided to help him with his final wishes.

I was expecting it would take him months but it had only been two days and he had given up. Everything should have had ended in peace, however the village leader decided to surrender the Spiritual Vein my master have planted to power their temple.

Spiritual Vein is the heart of any sect and like me driven by greed, the elders of Kra'ing Sect came to visit disturbing the slumber of my master.

And I don’t know what transpired between them but when he stepped out of the house again, he seemed motivated. Out of nowhere, he asked that I protect him when during his breakthrough.

At first glance, he was only at Early Foundation Level but when he broke through, the ripples generated by his aura is out of this world that even the combined powers of my second dantian imbued with Dao is unable to contain it.

At the same time, the Late Core Formation junior from Kra'ing Sect who stayed to guard the village came to help and after a few minutes, two Nascent elders from the same sect appeared and lent their hands.

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There are many ways to temper one's cultivation and one of the best ways is to meditate under the pressure from the aura of strong magical beasts. Major Sects would normally have one or two sealed beasts within their cultivation grounds. I know my master's power is unrivaled but now that I think about it, it does have qualities of magical beasts.

I noticed the junior from Kra'ing Sect using the ripples to temper his meridians and I too was tempted to do the same, however I just broke through I needed more time to consolidate my strength. I could easily breakthrough but having reached Ascension level in my past life, I knew too well that this may lead to a weak foundation.

Not long after, the unthinkable happened. The Kra'ing Sect junior had an epiphany and fell into a trance. Under normal circumstances, this should be a good thing but not during a major breakthrough.

I decided to show them my strength to convince them that their junior can be saved if we join hands and deflect the lightning tribulations. Their junior may not have touched the realm of Dao but it would be a waste to have a young Elven who has reached Peak Late Core Formation at a young age crippled.

Who would have thought that a Nascent level assassin had been lurking and waiting for a perfect moment to bare his fangs. Even I am ashamed to admit that having lived two lives would still fail to check something basic. I did not even notice when a Tier IV Sealing Formation has been set up.

My master needed time to stabilize his cultivation but he still intervened easily eliminating the assassin. Though one of the Nascent Elders of Kra'ing Sect, Raata lost his left leg. Later we found out that they were at war with a neighboring Ancient Sect.

Master secluded and after four days, he stepped out of his residence. My two disciples got scared with his monstrous appearance. Not only did his horns grew bigger, he as well developed broad and grayish bat-like wings. That night, he said he needed to go somewhere.

The following morning when he returned, he asked he needed my help in preventing a war.

I had a bad premonition but I could not refuse. He had gotten a lot stronger when he reached Core Formation and it is still a mystery where he is drawing his powers from. We levitated and he protected me with his Qi and flew at a speed similar to an Ascendant. We reached Gen Zadan Sect in less than an hour.

Upon arriving, my master spread his Qi covering the thirty kilometer wide sect then handed me Recording Crystals and said to make sure to capture what's about to transpire.

Even Gen Zadan’s Defensive Formation failed to activate before the might of my master. He landed on a hill and with his wings stretched, he raised his palm towards the sky.

At first, a concentrated Qi Projection formed from his palm then grew bigger then the next thing I saw was a dreadful massive tree.

One by one, every cultivator floated and slowly converged on top of this humongous Qi Projection. Every one of them was suppressed by master's horrifying aura and was unable to make a sound but their faces shows how terrified they were.

After a few seconds, thousands and thousands of homogeneous hair-like tentacles formed from the tree and extended towards each cultivator. Then after few breaths, everyone was beheaded.

Countless heads fell from the sky followed by a rain made of blood.

What is a demon?

I once read books about holocausts, a city decimated with cannons, or clans uprooted overnight yet for once, I did not feel anything. I have killed people past and present life and was able to move on like nothing happened. Yet that day, upon witnessing the death of more than thirty thousand people, the foundation of my Dao Heart was shaken.

Why do we cultivate?

If killing is what it takes to attain power, would we do it?

If attaining immortality requires sacrificing countless lives, would we do it?

Piles of dead bodies dropped to the ground forming mountains. I was in daze and was lost in thought and I was unaware how much time passed and I did not even notice more than fifty Nascent level experts from other sects surrounded the place while floating and maintaining their distance.

They have not made any move and half of them probably have witnessed the entire scene. Their numbers continued to increase but no one had made a move. My master looked towards the sky and said a few words to drive them all off.

"Withdraw and I will spare your little colonies."

He said it nonchalantly and without any inflection as if he has done it numerous times.

After killing everyone, he retracted his Qi. I was still daze as if my soul has left me. After a few more minutes, I saw him store more than one hundred bloody root-like structures and a few corpses. He turned towards me and like how we got here, he extended his Qi to protect me and flew towards Sem Bagtu Alliance.

The location of the alliance can be spotted from above. There was a four hundred meter wide Array sparkling and fluctuating ready to be activated.

When we landed, my master summoned and threw at least twenty three dead bodies to the ground. Only then did I realize that they were the bodies of the Nascent Elders of Gen Zadan. Everyone could hardly breathe with the imposing and ruthless aura master was emitting.

Master then took out a crystal orb and threw it at one of the Peak Late Nascent elder of the alliance and said, "There is a water volcano near here and I need your help set up a Five Elemental Sealing Formation."

Master left and left me in charge.

Everyone looked at me with fear including the alliance elders and I can’t really blame them.

"Only corpses await us. Anyone above Peak Foundation and is more than one hundred fifty years old, step inside the array. The rest will follow after a day." I instructed with a respectful tone and no one dared to raise a question.

When we arrived at Gen Zadan, even the alliance elders were shocked upon seeing the mountains of corpses. The bodies were still warm. Everyone knew that death is inevitable when war transpired but not to this extent.

The elders found a flat land and started digging and I was relieved they still acted with moral rectitude and did not loot. The heads and bodies had their separate graves.

After three months, with the combined efforts of every sect in the alliance, the Five Elemental Sealing Formation was constructed and following the blue print laid out by master, we invited a High Wood Elven from San Ruk, a human town from Amkayan Municipality.

This was when I confirmed master's knowledge about cultivation world was very limited. He did not even know what use are the smaller ears High Elven has. Terrestrial High Elvens like Mur clan needs to have their lesser ears trained from birth before they could grasp the language of Nagas and other Variant Elvens and only Wood Elvens have this natural ability.

What really surprised me is master's reaction upon seeing this guest. His name was San Ulvar Ruk. I did some investigation when master went missing and it was hard to believe that master was only seven years old. He was once a human and was abducted to be offered as a food to rear Heaven Essence Flame but nobody knows what truly happened to him after that. He was once suspected to have had integrated with black Qi and slowly transformed into a beast.

Ulvar mediated and translated their conversation with the Naga leader and master said he was trying to revive a long lost practice. Even I do not know what he did inside the water volcano but everyone knows how concentrated the Spiritual Qi emitted from the top blessing even the farthest of lands when it rains. He was brought to retrieve a sealed seed of a True Greater Kay'u Tree.

After a month, he asked the alliance again to build him a sanctuary where the seed was planted. This place is now what we call Fitagoras Sanctuary. What was once a barren land and was once a graveyard of Ul Al'iya clan is now a holy land where Chess Championship Competition is now being held every five years.

I don't know what else I should tell you about master. He calls himself Clay. Even I do not know why the Chess competitions and with regards to the mysterious boulders producing Spiritual Qi, I do not know if he created them but one thing he made clear. He said we will see a different world and will naturally understand when we practice his arts. Nothing happened when I practiced it but I hope this will help future generations.

The night before he disappeared, he approached me while I was training my disciple, Luar'y. Master asked me why I am not training Laur'y's sister, Midi the fact that she has a bigger soul than mine. I thought he was making a small talk so I asked him what he needed me for. He asked me to display sword Qi again.

Since he came from the Naga Cave, he seemed obsessed with studying Black Qi. I wish I were a scientist so I could relate. Before he cooped himself inside his residence, I asked him if he had unfulfilled wishes. He told me to mate with the villagers and get life instead of cultivating.

That was my last conversation with him.

When he built the sanctuary, he left a warning that Ascension may not be possible in this planet and he elaborated how Ul Al'iya clan vanished.

I should have told him about planets conquered by Dao Practitioners. There are conditions before space exploration is allowed and where I came from, the planet must be able to produce at least a thousand Dao Practitioners and all should be able to join the inner circle of disciples of any sect.

There are at least seven Ancient Planetary Teleportation Array scattered within Ca'ar Continent and when activated by a Dao Aura from a Peak Nascent Soul expert, that person will be able to read the instructions set by the governing Dao Alliance. During my past, I used a similar Formation to travel to a distant satellite and was later transported to a hotspot planet where I Ascended.

If you ask me why I have not broken through to Nascent Soul level and ascended, it is because I am not talented enough and I do not want to experience the same ignominious death after ascending, besides, I was magnanimous and gave the resources to Midi. Just like how Spiritual Vein has plummeted in this planet, the same is through with Heavenly Veins on hotspot planets. I was only an outer disciple despite my hard work and could barely receive resources.

However it is a different treatment if a cultivator has made progress in their comprehension of Dao. I have left details of this warning in the repository of the Fitagoras Sword Sect I established near the sanctuary. To this day, only Midi has accomplished that.

Some three hundred years ago, I was secretly guarding outstanding inner disciples during their mission when I chanced upon a human town at the western border. The maid at the inn looked exactly the same as the person who I fell in love with during my past life.

It was then that I asked myself if cultivation is really the reason of my rebirth. I remembered what master told me that I should enjoy life instead. I secluded myself for a year and gave it real hard thought.

What does one truly gain upon achieving immortality?

I hid my identity and married into their clan. When Luar'y had his first son, we discovered that the power of the secondary dantian bestowed by master can be inherited. I was forced to mate with one of the maidens of Mur Village to pass on master's legacy.

With this I have fulfilled master's final wish.

Re'y