Chapter 2: The Earthly Land
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Outside a golden palace, the sun was slowly rising into the sky, signifying the start of the day. The once shadowy trees were now being illuminated with a beautiful amber shade.
Inside a dimly lit room, an elder sat peacefully atop a red bedding. He has been sitting in a lotus position for the past several hours.
Suddenly, the black-robed elder’s eyes flashed open as a divine lights shot out, brightening up the room for a second, before fading away. The man’s eyes looked dazed for a moment, before the light of awareness was finally registered within his pupils.
Feeling that something was out of place, the man raised his hands in front of him. Seeing the slightly wrinkled hands, he frowned as a look of confusion slowly appeared on his face. Suddenly, a pang of aching struck his mind out of nowhere. Memories of names and places flooded his mind as the elder clutched the side of his head with one hand.
“What…is happening? Why have my hands aged like this?...Song Huang Xue…? Who is that?” The elderly man thought as the pain in his head subsided. Regaining his calm, he turned and surveyed the familiar room.
This elder is naturally Shen Qin, or at least, spiritually he is.
After using up his last remaining strength to send the elder’s soul into the reincarnation cycle rather than escape himself, Shen Qin had lost conscious within the elder’s crumbling soul quarter. But when he woke up again,Shen Qin had surprisingly found that he was not inside the elder’s body anymore, but instead, he was the mortal elder himself!
“This body...is Song Huang Xue’s? How could this have happened? Did my soul merge with this body when I was unconscious?” Shen Qin had several questions but very few answers, as he contemplated in his mind.
After a while, he had come to the conclusion that his soul may have been merged together with this mortal’s body, in order to sustain itself. His strength had extremely weak at that time, and there had been a large chance that if nothing was done, Shen Qin’s soul would have shattered right then and there. But he did not want to die. Thus, most likely his desire to live on may have forced his soul to subconsciously draw strength from its surrounding, or rather, to merge with the mortal body in this case, for recovery.
Thinking up to this point, Shen Qin let out a sigh. To think that his pursuit of a criminal, would actually lead him, a heavenly commander, to resort to taking over a dying mortal’s body in order to survive…
To the current him, Shen Qin knew he had weakened severely due to his damaged soul.
“Wait, this is…?!” Shen Qin furrowed his brow as he suddenly detected a foreign aura within his soul. Upon probing it further, Shen Qin was able to see that while the energy had no conscious, it was still slowly eating away at his soul. No, it would be better said that this strange aura was actually...trying to take over him!
A grave expression washed over Shen Qin’s pale countenance. “This is...a poison yet not a poison...could this be a curse left behind by that evil god??”
After carefully observing the foreign energy, a realization dawn on Shen Qin. However, it did relieve him of his worry, but rather severely intensified it.
“The Sealing Heart Hex…”Shen Win murmured gravely to himself.
This was originally an ancient curse lost during the Era of Origin, the very first period of history of the living world. It was said that this curse possessed the ability to slowly corrode the victim's soul, causing the soul to turn a blackish hue. Upon the victim's soul turning completely black, it would signify the completion of the curse. At that time, the victim would lose his entire sense of self, having his personality altered and gaining an immense desire to seek out chaos and death!
Moreover, there were no known “external” cures for this curse. Unless one was at God Martial Realm, the person would definitely be taken over by the hex. But even then, they would only be able to suppress it; expelling it would not be possible through normal methods.
After understanding the evil aura within his soul, Shen Qin slowly regained his calm. “Even if I’m afflicted with this ancient curse, in this world there is always the law of cause and effect. Since this curse is a product of creation, there would likewise be something out there which can dispel it! If it the method of cure has not been found, then...I would do so myself!” A fierce light appeared within Shen Qin’s eyes.
However as of now, in his current body, he was left with limited options.
Seek help from those within the Jade Heaven Land ? Impossible; his soul simply did not possess the required amount of strength to transmit his divine thoughts anymore.
Use the mortal body he is in possession of right now to return to the Jade Heaven Land? That’s merely a floating dream. Because Shen Qin knew that this body he was in was merely at the borderline of the God Martial Realm. But after being interrupted during his ascension, for the third time, the elder’s body had paid a very heavy price. He would not be able to ascend to the God Martial Realm anymore in this lifetime, or at least, not through any normal means.
“It seems that I am now stuck in this body while my soul is being corrode by a curse...how laughable.” Shen QIn thought wryly.
He had not desired to take over this mortal’s body at all. But what has been done is already done. He could only try his best to adapt to it at this point.
After all, according to the memories of the mortal ‘Song Huang Xue’, Shen Qin was currently in the Continent of Feng Shui, a familiar place where the previous mortal him was from! It is the only continent in this world, a colossal landscape that stretched for nearly a two hundred million square miles. The rest was made up large bodies of water.
However, when Shen Qin was still a mortal cultivator, he was in the early era where martial arts and qigong were just beginning to be getting popular. After training for a few hundred years, he was able to easily ascend into the God Martial Realm, entering into the Jade Heaven Land. But his martial road did not end there. He found out that even the gods in this legendary land still had to continue cultivating in order to protect themselves.
However, although Shen QIn was a new god back then, with his tyrannical talent, his cultivation progressed at an incredible rate. In just over three million years, Shen Qin had transformed into a formidable god among gods.
To put it into perspective, there were gods who have trained for nearly trillions, or even quadrillions, of years would be hard pressed to advance a single stage in their cultivation. They were often considered minor gods because their rate of breakthroughs would begin to slow down as they tried to ascend into higher godly realms.
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Since in the Jade Heaven Land, it is a place where only true immortals live. Unless one has their soul extinguished by another god, these beings could practically live on for eternity if they wish! Time and age to them, were merely just a number.
Some of those long-living deities, if one were to talk about power, would even pale in comparison to Shen Qin’s at that time!
It was because of this, that Shen Qin was able to attract the attention of the Great Jade Emperor, ruler of the Jade Heaven Land!
He was immediately awarded with the high position of an Imperial General of the Jade Emperor’s Imperial Dynasty. And from then on, he was actually able to have frequent meetings with the Jade Emperor himself, resulting in a brotherly bond forming between the two.
This was mainly possible due to the “young” age of the Jade Emperor. While such a position is rarely ever changed, it does indeed happen after countless aeons; and Shen Qin had just happened to enter the Jade Heaven Land at such a time!
Furthermore, after securing innumerable benefits for the Imperial Dynasty and having his cultivation once again go through a level within two million years, Shen Qin was finally promoted to an Imperial Commander --the highest order of military authority, barely comparable to the words of the Jade Emperor himself! Their brotherly relationship with one another likewise deepened like such.
In the Jade Heaven Land, time also flows differently compared to the Earthly Land.
A hundred years in the former only equates to merely a single year in the mortal’s world!
After just 5,000,000 God Years, or 50000 Mortal Years, of cultivation, Shen Qin’s astonishing talent had propelled him to unimaginable heights.
But alas, in the end, he was still reduced to this pitiable state today!
“How hateful! Not only am I unable to seek out help, I cannot even free myself of this body and curse! However, though this body is incomparable to a god’s, in this world, it should be considered a peak level existence…” Shen Qin angrily thought.
In the higher planes, a type of absolute law known as ‘Karma’ guards over the entire Three Worldly Lands: the Hades Purgatory Land, the Earthly Land, and the Jade Heaven Land!
If Shen QIn was to kill himself just to free his soul from this mortal body, he would be punished by the divine law. For a deity to overtake or control a mortal to kill themselves was considered a serious crime --and the stronger the god was, the heavier and more severe the punishment would be!
Shen Qin was afraid that with his level of strength before, his soul would be heavily damaged once again when he escaped the mortal body. At that time, adding on that his soul was already cursed and greatly weakened, forget about being possessed by the curse, he would practically be extinguished first!
Moreover, there were legends where previous courageous victims had tried committing suicide in order to escape the curse; however, not only did it not stop the curse, it was said to have allowed the Sealing Heart Hex to grow from one's self-destruction! If Shen Qin's soul died and gave birth to such a virus, without at least setting up some sort of defense for the Earthly Land, it was bound to lead to utter chaos throughout the realms in the future.
Zhang Wang Lei’s soul was also previously damaged by the Karmic Law due to his sins, which was why Shen QIn was able to injure that ancient deity. Otherwise, perhaps Shen Qin would have to battle the latter over a course of nearly millions of God years before a victory could be decided!
On the other hand, if he were to kill other cultivators, or even evil commoners, Shen Qin was exempt from the heavenly punishment. After all, cultivators were already beings who are going against Heaven itself --their lives have already long detached from the normal laws of the world.
However, if Shen Qin could trust the memories of the mortal Song Huang Xue...then in this entire world, just how many individuals could possess a body that could match his own? Not even considering this elder’s body, with just Shen Qin’s vast 5 million God Years worth of experiences, it would still be difficult to defeat him in a regular mortal’s body, much less in stronger one’s!
Shen Qin felt a bit dizzy as he thought about all the complications in the future.
Fortunately, since he was the Imperial Commander back in the Jade Heaven Land, he was one of the few gods who had complete freedom over their life. There was no one to keep tabs on them at all times, and even if they were to disappear for several thousands of years, no gods would find it out the ordinary.
But what Shen Qin was most worried about was the Sealing Heart Hex within his soul. Likely, with his current strength, he would not last no more than ten years before he would be consumed completely by the curse!
And if he is still within the Earthly Lands at that time, it would be safe to assume that no in this Land will be safe from his transformed self. There would even be a possibility that his evil soul then would seek to wreak havoc across the rest of the Worldly Lands and minor planes! And it may lead to a great disaster for the Jade Emperor; the only being whom he does not want to harm. After all, through the many God Years, Shen Qin has come to view the emperor as someone extremely close to him, almost akin to a blood brother! An audacious thought, but one that someone of his position and talent was qualified to express!
With these thoughts, Shen Qin knew that he must quickly get rid of his poison and return!
Only then, would the Heaven Jade Land remain safe and the Earthly Land would continue on thriving. But should he fail to accomplish this within ten years...
Taking a deep breath, Shen Qin evened out his worries as he focused on his current situation. In order for him to recover as soon as possible, it was crucial for him to thoroughly understand his situation and conditions of this body. Over-thinking, panicking, rushing --these things are useless at this point. What he must do now is to adapt to whatever may occur in the future!
Circulating the Qi inside his body, Shen Qin entered a meditative state as he recalled Song Huang Xue’s memories...