Ming Li was astonished by the energy the old man was emitting. He stood in front of Ming Li with a noticeable expression, an expression who accepted certain death. His beard was long and his hair were all white, even though he looked old with dwindling life force, a vigorous feeling still spreads out from him. What seems to be different about him was one of his eyes, It has a peculiar scar on it that has a shape of a rising phoenix.
Ming Li involuntarily stood up while walking away from the man. It was as if his own body was scared to offend a powerful person.
When he regained his composure, he stood straight and looked at the man straight in the eyes.
The man didn't look much at Ming Li and shifted his gaze at the pill. When he saw the pill at a close distance, he felt tremor ran through his spine. "It is really something amazing!" The old man exclaimed in surprise.
"Yes, as I said it will let you be reborn, the pill will help you devour your previous self and will allow a new you to emerge. With that new self, I believe you can proceed with the new thing you seek."
When Ming Li heard the story of the old man, he now knew the exact purpose of the dangerous pill and why the Ten Great Merchant Union was willing to expend so much effort to recreate the pill. It was possibly because someone in the Ten Great Merchant Union experienced the same thing as this old man!
Actually, the main reason why Ming Li wanted to give the pill to the old man was not because of the reward he will get form saving a powerful seeker. It was because he wanted to know what will happen if someone actually uses the pill! He wanted to see it with his own eyes!
Even though Ming Li was willing to give the pill to the old man, he would never tell the old man that the pill has a high chance of devouring him!
"The old man will eventually die anyway, so dying from the pill would not be a big issue. He would be a good experimental subject!!" That was what Ming Li though.
Also, he would want it to appear like he was helping the old man because of his kindness, and giving out such a rare pill with sure shot at recovering will make the old man owe him more than giving him something that could possibly cause his death.
The old man held the pill in his hands and said "Young one, My name is Ji Chanming, I will die anyway, so I will risk it and try your pill. If It heals me, then I will owe you my life. If not, I ask you to bury my body at this hill where I first gained my enlightenment to what I seek. In return you can have everything inside my cube."
Ming Li nodded and said "Senior Ji Chanming, my name is Ming Li and I assure you, you will survive!"
Ming Li's expression remained the same when he said those words, however, he thought how lucky he was that he could gain something even if the devouring fails. He does not care one bit about the old man, but he does care about the old man's cube and the effects of the pill!
The old man looked at him with resolve and swallowed the pill!
After swallowing the pill, the old man growled in pain and quickly fell on his knees. His previously domineering energy slowly faded away with only a trickle remaining.
Below him, a black shadow spread out covering a five meter diameter space. Where, suddenly, a mouth emerged from the shadow on the ground swallowing the old man!
Ming Li fell on his butt from the shock as he stared at the scene. It was beyond what he imagined. He never thought that the devouring effect would be extremely bizarre as this one!
After the mouth devoured the old man, It slowly melted and turned into a figure of a human! This figure looked exactly like the old man, except he felt more alive than before!
Ming Li looked at the new body with glittering eyes. His expression was of full joy as he observe everything closely.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
When the body fully formed, another mouth came out from the shadow in the ground and devoured the newly formed body. After a few breaths another body formed from the mouth. This process continued as Ming Li enjoyed watching with excitement.
"Succeed! Succeed! Hahaha! I want to see the results." Ming Li thought while laughing lightly like a madman.
On the fourth time the mouth devoured the body. Ming Li's eyes turned bloodshot as he laughed wickedly. "Come on test subject. You can do it."
The progress of forming of the body slowed down on the fifth devouring process. Ming Li felt worried that the experiment might fail, and that he would not see the result. If he could not see the outcome, he would be forced to find another test subject until he successfully creates a reborn body.
When he saw the devouring process, he became curious of the result which made him unable to stop his desire to see the end outcome. Knowledge was after all what he lives for and what he seeks.
On the sixth time the mouth devoured the body, the devouring process seems to slow down significantly and it was as if it is about to end. This is the moment where failure and success would be known.
Ming Li bit his lips as he inhaled deeply and could not hold back his excitement from the suspense of what was happening. Currently, Ming Li was acting like a mad scientist who would kill to achieve his goal.
Slowly, the mouth melted and a new body formed. The process was slow, however it looked more profound.
Light emanated from the body as it slowly formed. Eyes, Mouth, Ears, and other parts slowly became discernible as the lump of meat slowly turned into a human figure.
When it was fully formed, the body started to inhale its first breath, which caused Ming Li to feel emotional. "Is it a success!?" Ming Li said loudly.
After its deep breath, the body exhaled slowly as it opened its eyes. Its eyes were extremely clear; It felt like the eyes of a newborn baby. Eyes which have yet to see the evil of the world.
This made Ming Li smile wide, he could not control his excitement and ask the man how it feels to be become a new person after devouring your old self.
The man looked around, then sighed in relief. But suddenly, a sharp pain hit his head then made him unconscious.
Ming Li immediately checked his test subject for any abnormalities. After a while of thorough diagnosis, he found something different about the body.
The body was made of soul! It has the same characteristics as human body, however it clearly felt that it was made from soul. This is his first time thoroughly inspecting a body of a person who possibly reached soul ascension, so he never knew if it was normal for someone who reached such a high realm.
Ming Li, inspected the body for several hours until the man woke up. When the man woke up, Ming Li assumed some distance and pretended to be watching over the man.
He then said "How do you feel?"
The man looked at Ming Li in reverence as he said "I feel alive and stronger than my previous state. I can feel that I can now proceed to seek a different goal than what I previously had. Your pill is certainly amazing!"
Ming Li smiled and asked another question "What did you feel during the devouring process?"
"When I consumed the pill, my consciousness went into a space where I saw myself threading a path, the path seems to lead to my previous actions in my life. Every time I chose a path more paths opened up. I felt confused, but I trusted my instincts and continued threading what I feel is the right path. Every time I pick a path I felt unimaginable pain, however I cannot voice out my pain and I had to endure it for me to survive. There were many times that I felt that I will be completely devoured by the pain, but I had to carry on. I do not know if I can actually die and be devoured, however, luckily it did not happen. It's a good thing I trusted your pill. The last choices had hundreds of paths, each path would lure me into going into them but I remained firm and followed my instincts, after entering the last path, I was awakened an saw you observing me."
"It only felt that way, however I assure you that there were zero chances of you dying." Ming Li said proudly.
Then the man checked his body and smiled.
"By the way, It is the first time I saw someone on your realm. Is it normal to have a body like yours?"
The man chuckled and said "Maybe you already know about this but, in the Beginners Realm, you will focus on achieving enlightenment regarding what you seek. Once you achieved enlightenment and entered the Body Tempering Realm, you will temper your body for it to be able to contain your soul. When you are ready, your body will fuse with your soul which will allow you to enter the Fusion Realm. In this realm you will prepare your soul to have a form similar to your body. After that you can reach soul realm, where you will shed your mortal flesh and become a soul which will form into a soul body. That is why people who enter that realm can fly. The next realm is the realm I am right now, It is called soul ascension, In this stage I have to prepare my soul to ascend to the heavens and If I succeed I will be able to travel other planes beyond the void."
Then the man became silent for a while and said "Have you heard of the Heavenly Realm?"
Ming Li simply nodded and waited for the man to continue.
"So you know about it. That will be the next level after soul ascension, however, no one in this plane has ever reached that level. We only got the information from legends and people from other planes actually visiting our plane!"
Ming Li then asked "So with your new body, do you think its now possible to ascend that realm?"