TDFM Chapter 111

Reincarnation

The room instantly fell silent.

Except for Shi Feijia, everyone’s gaze fell upon that flowing, iridescent conch shell. Yun Qing heard the sound of her own heartbeat.

Having received no response, the other party clicked his tongue, then spoke as if addressing someone else. “Can this magical treasure of yours actually be used?”

Yun Qing then said, “Let my master speak.”

“I’ve already said, you’re not qualified to negotiate conditions with me,” he laughed. “Little one, we’ll meet in the capital city.”

****

After the surface of the conch shell became dim again, Qiguang Zi looked toward the golden cage.

Inside it, Le Chenzi was eating roasted chicken.

This roasted chicken was truly enormous, stuffing the birdcage completely full. The chicken’s surface was roasted to a golden yellow, gleaming with a layer of oil. When the skin was torn open, the meat inside was so tender that juice could be squeezed from it.

This time, Le Chenzi ate quite elegantly.

He really had no choice but to be elegant. He would have preferred to devour it ravenously, but the roasted chicken was so large that one wing could have killed him, so he could only tear off strips of meat and eat them slowly.

Then he picked up a specially made tiny silver wine cup from the rack and poured wine from a matching silver wine pot to drink.

Eating a bite of meat and drinking a sip of wine, he was quite content.

Qiguang Zi turned the conch shell over in his hands. He had a handsome face, but his lips were slightly thin, making him appear somewhat cold and unfeeling.

Seeing Le Chenzi drinking wine, he too picked up a white jade wine pot beside him and tilted his head back to take a drink.

Then he asked Le Chenzi, “Why did you give me the incantation so easily?”

Le Chenzi threw away the strip of meat in his hands and tore off a piece of chicken skin, holding it like a pancake to gnaw on. The chicken skin was soft, glutinous, and chewy, rich but not greasy, making him sigh with satisfaction as he ate.

He answered, “You have other ways to contact her anyway. Whether I give you the incantation or not doesn’t affect the outcome, so I might as well give it to you in exchange for a roasted chicken to eat.

Tsk tsk, truly fragrant… What about you? Why did you insist on using the Thousand-Mile Sound-Transmitting Conch? Was it to show off or to mock?”

Qiguang Zi took another drink of wine but didn’t answer his question, only saying, “Your disciple is quite an interesting person.”

Le Chenzi lifted his head from the roasted chicken and, seeing that the other seemed to be in quite a good mood, asked, “What exactly is Yun Qing’s background? What’s made you so happy? Tell me about it, so I can die with peace of mind.”

“What will you use to trade for it?”

“Uh, I don’t have anything valuable left on me. How about I sleep with you?”

Qiguang Zi sent down a thick purple lightning bolt that struck Le Chenzi until he emitted white smoke.

“Alright, alright, you really can’t take a joke. The roasted chicken is getting charred!”

Le Chenzi turned over and sat cross-legged on the roasted chicken. This time he didn’t eat the chicken, but instead looked at the giant outside the cage, raised the small silver wine cup in his hand, clinked it with him across the distance, then said:

“If you don’t want to talk about Yun Qing, that’s fine. How about telling me about yourself? Honestly, I’m quite curious.”

Qiguang Zi remained silent, only quietly drinking wine. Just when Le Chenzi thought today’s conversation had ended, he suddenly curved the corner of his mouth and said, “Fine then, everything is about to end anyway.”

—–

His name was Yin Fanhui, and he was born into a small sect called the Yufeng Sect. His father was Sect Leader Yin, and his birth mother was a servant girl who died shortly after he was born. He was raised by Sect Leader’s wife, Madam Liu.

He also had a younger brother named Yin Fansheng, who was Madam Liu’s biological son and two years younger than him.

Madam Liu treated Yin Fanhui as her own child. Whatever his brother Fansheng had, he had too. In Yin Fanhui’s view, Madam Liu was no different from his biological mother.

Such a life of maternal kindness, filial piety, brotherly friendship, and fraternal respect was quite peaceful. The only thing that could be called a regret was that his brother Fansheng was born with a deficient spiritual core and a weak body. The doctors declared he wouldn’t live past twenty years old.

Yin Fanhui, on the other hand, was a cultivation genius with excellent spiritual roots.

Sect Leader Yin, loving his son dearly, planned to take Yin Fansheng to Hundred Herbs Valley to seek medical treatment. Unfortunately, Yin Fansheng’s weak body made travel inconvenient, so Sect Leader Yin went to Hundred Herbs Valley alone to request help.

Half a year later, Sect Leader Yin returned alone. Though he hadn’t brought back anyone from Hundred Herbs Valley, he claimed to have found a method to cure Yin Fansheng.

Much later, Yin Fanhui learned that when his father went to Hundred Herbs Valley and explained Yin Fansheng’s condition, the Valley Master’s response had been:

Congenital spiritual core deficiency couldn’t be cured with medicine, but could be improved through cultivation. As long as Yin Fansheng achieved enlightenment before age eighteen, followed by two years of body tempering supplemented with pills, he should be able to cultivate a complete spiritual core before turning twenty.

It sounded simple, but achieving enlightenment by eighteen required extraordinary talent!

After Sect Leader Yin returned, he urged both children to cultivate diligently. When Yin Fanhui was sixteen, he achieved enlightenment.

From the moment he achieved enlightenment, Madam Liu’s way of looking at him changed. That complex, indecipherable gaze was something sixteen-year-old Yin Fanhui couldn’t understand.

Brother Fansheng grew to eighteen without achieving enlightenment, as expected.

His spiritual roots were decent, but unfortunately his comprehension wasn’t as good as his brother’s.

That year, Yin Fanhui turned twenty, and his father held a coming-of-age ceremony for him. At the ceremony, his parents held his hands and earnestly encouraged him, also entrusting him to take good care of his younger brother in the future. Yin Fanhui himself deeply agreed with this.

An older brother was naturally meant to take care of his younger brother, especially when his parents had been so good to him, and his brother was so well-behaved.

That day, at the feast after the coming-of-age ceremony, Sect Leader Yin brought out fine wine he had treasured for years. Yin Fanhui drank until he was completely intoxicated. He woke up in the middle of the night, dazed and confused, to find himself bound to an altar on the mountain.

Torches burned around the altar, and before him stood his parents and younger brother—the three people closest to him in this world.

It turned out that after leaving Hundred Herbs Valley, Sect Leader Yin had encountered disciples of the Tianhun Sect on the road. He had helped them with a small matter, and in return, they had taught him a secret technique.

The Soul-Exchange Technique, also called the Body-Swapping Technique—they were essentially the same thing.

Yin Fansheng’s comprehension couldn’t achieve enlightenment by eighteen, which meant he would die at twenty. Sect Leader Yin and his wife loved this younger son dearly—how could they bear to let him go!

There was nothing to be done but use forbidden arts to find a healthy body for their younger son.

Later, Yin Fanhui had wondered: if using forbidden arts to swap into a healthy body could save Yin Fansheng, why not simply capture someone with a robust physique from down the mountain? Why did they have to sacrifice him, their eldest son?

But on second thought, Yin Fanhui understood. He was a cultivation genius with extraordinary spiritual roots—that couple naturally wanted to give their younger son the best. As for how much pain their eldest son would suffer, that probably wasn’t within their consideration.

What extreme favoritism indeed.

The Soul-Exchange Technique proceeded smoothly. Yin Fanhui’s soul was forced into Yin Fansheng’s body, after which Sect Leader Yin and his wife threw his weakened form off the cliff.

Heaven decreed he shouldn’t die—he was caught by trees jutting from the cliff face and saved his life.

Afterward, he crawled down the cliff and found a withered corpse at the bottom.

This corpse carried a tightly wrapped oiled paper bundle. Opening the bundle revealed three books: “Butterfly Dream Guide,” “Butterfly Dream Kill,” and “Butterfly Dream Life”—a three-volume set for cultivating the Way of Butterfly Dreams.

The methods of cultivation had similar entry points. Yin Fanhui had already achieved enlightenment once before; understanding one led to understanding all, making it even easier to comprehend the Way of Butterfly Dreams this time.

One year later, he achieved enlightenment in Yin Fansheng’s body.

Two years later, he cultivated a complete spiritual core.

Ten years later, he left the bottom of the cliff.

Then he returned to the Yufeng Sect to find those three people.

When they knelt at his feet weeping, repenting, and speaking of their own hardships, Yin Fanhui said only one sentence: “I won’t give you a second chance to betray me.”

When he scattered the souls of his closest relatives, Yin Fanhui felt a surge of exhilaration in his heart.

Not just the exhilaration of revenge, but something more complex and profound—like the feeling of a person holding the power of life and death over ants. Pure satisfaction.

He killed them and also killed his past self.

—-

After reclaiming his own body, Yin Fanhui burned down the Yufeng Sect and thereafter wandered the martial world.

He gave himself a Dao name: Qiguang Zi, meaning “as long-lived as heaven and earth, as brilliant as the sun and moon.” Some had mocked his arrogance, though naturally, these people later all died.

What was the martial world like? Everyone had a different answer.

If Yin Fanhui were to say, then the martial world was simply one phrase: bustling with activity, all for profit. Everyone wore masks, and beneath the masks surged desire.

The martial world had no righteousness or evil, no right or wrong. If there absolutely had to be right and wrong, then whoever blocked his path was wrong.

…..

Yin Fanhui quickly grew tired of the martial world. He stayed in Liuyun Mountain to cultivate, and after a hundred years, ascended from there.

Could he rest easy after ascending?

Wrong, utterly wrong.

After forming an immortal body, the body could no longer survive on ordinary grains or common fasting pills. To stay alive, one had to maintain cultivation.

Moreover, the world of immortals was not peaceful, because even after ascending, human desires remained unchanged.

As long as desires existed, this world would forever have strife.

He had to become stronger.

Only the strong deserved to live, only the strong had the right to decide others’ fates.

Yin Fanhui grew stronger and stronger, and lonelier and lonelier.

He fought with an immortal named Yinmei Zi and killed him. Yinmei Zi’s friend actually knelt at his feet begging piteously, offering magical treasures and secret manuals in exchange, hoping he would leave Yinmei Zi’s soul intact.

He looked down on those treasures and manuals, waving his hand to scatter Yinmei Zi’s soul.

Suddenly, a ridiculous thought arose in his heart.

It seemed like he had never made any friends.

Then he scoffed dismissively. Who needed friends?

Yin Fanhui’s realm was about to breakthrough.

Every realm breakthrough in the Way of Butterfly Dreams was accompanied by a long dreamstate.

He lay in the sea of clouds atop Lingcang Mountain, gazing at the stars above, gradually falling asleep.

Then his body transformed into countless butterflies swirling in the sea of clouds.

This sleep lasted many years. He lived in dreams, cultivated in dreams, depositing this entire existence within dreams.

When he opened his eyes, the starry sky was still the same starry sky, the sea of clouds still the same sea of clouds. Everything in the world seemed unchanged. What time was this? Dream or reality? Who could say?

He pillowed his head lazily, staring at the stars in boredom. Having slept too long, he had almost forgotten what had happened before sleeping.

In the distance, people were running toward his direction.

Yin Fanhui continued lying in the clouds, motionless, treating the passersby as if they were dead.

Who would have thought those two would actually stop when they passed him? One of them, the woman, laughed. “Eh? How is there a person here? Quick, quick, let’s go! This place is dangerous!”

Yin Fanhui paid no attention.

The other man reached out to pull him up. He impatiently dodged and said only one word. “Scram.”

The man wasn’t angry and patiently explained, “We’re not bad people.”

“Sorry, but I am.”

“……”

Both the man and woman fell silent.

After a moment, the woman said quietly, “Just how bad are you? Tell us about it.”

Yin Fanhui impatiently flipped up and jumped to his feet, drawing his sword.

Just then, thick clouds rolled in the distance. Under the starlight, the cloud mass was rapidly approaching.

Yin Fanhui quickly made out that it was actually a large group of Qiongqi beasts.

Even someone like him, who had dominated the immortal realm and weathered countless storms, was momentarily stunned.

Wait, how did they provoke such a large group?

The woman also drew her sword, laughing cheerfully, “Since you don’t want to run, then let’s fight!”

Just like that, having just awakened, Yin Fanhui inexplicably found himself caught in a melee. After the three of them joined forces to repel the Qiongqi beast group, that man and woman came over carelessly to introduce themselves, not afraid he might kill them with one sword strike.

These two—the woman was named Ye Qinghong with the Dao name Yixin Zi, and the man was named Wen Zhongming with the Dao name Huayang Zi.

Ye Qinghong asked him, “What’s your name?”

Yin Fanhui turned and walked away.

She followed behind him and asked again, “If you won’t say your name, you must have a Dao name at least?”

Yin Fanhui continued walking.

Ye Qinghong said again, “Are you interested in treasure hunting together? I have a map here that can find the great god Fuxi’s cenotaph, which supposedly contains Emperor Xi’s treasures.”

Yin Fanhui’s steps halted.

—

So the three of them went together to find Emperor Xi’s tomb. Along the way, Yin Fanhui learned that both Ye Qinghong and Wen Zhongming had ascended after he fell asleep. Wen Zhongming had ascended less than a year ago, while he and Ye Qinghong had only known each other for three days.

Yin Fanhui always used “only” to describe time. Yes, for an “old thing” who had lived over a thousand years, everything was brief.

Later they indeed found Emperor Xi’s tomb. After going through countless hardships, they found Emperor Xi’s treasure.

After dividing the treasure equally, there remained one strange silk scroll. This book had mysterious material with not a single stroke written on it.

All three believed this scroll definitely contained mysteries that required specific conditions to reveal its contents. They tried several times but couldn’t find the method.

Finally, Ye Qinghong suggested using rock-paper-scissors to decide the winner. The winner could obtain the Emperor Xi Wordless Book but had to swear that once they deciphered its contents, they must share it with the other two.

As a result, Ye Qinghong won this scroll and named it “Emperor Xi’s Wordless Book.”

Yin Fanhui always felt Ye Qinghong’s victory was suspicious.

After leaving Emperor Xi’s tomb, Ye Qinghong brought the two men to her mountain retreat at Changzi Mountain, treating them to wine and showing them her animals.

Yes, she had specially created a garden at her retreat where she collected many birds and beasts. She said this had been her childhood dream.

Later, Yin Fanhui inexplicably followed them to Kunlun Mountain just to soak in hot springs.

After soaking in the hot springs, they lay on clouds sunbathing.

Ye Qinghong was telling jokes while Wen Zhongming occasionally chimed in or burst into laughter at her humor. Yin Fanhui listened to their conversation. Having just finished soaking in hot springs, he felt his limbs loose and drowsy.

The thoughts that had slept for five hundred years suddenly awakened again.

Perhaps he really could make some friends.

—

Yin Fanhui became good friends with Ye Qinghong and Wen Zhongming.

This was his first time making friends in his life, and also his last.

The world was so vast—the three of them went to many places, sometimes to eliminate demons and defend the righteous path, sometimes just for pure fun.

Rarely, Yin Fanhui had even become somewhat lax in his cultivation.

However, this feeling wasn’t bad. Ye Qinghong was right—everyone would die eventually anyway, so it was better to enjoy life while they could.

The most memorable time was when they sat together on the highest peak of Liuyun Mountain one year to watch a meteor shower.

Meteor showers occurred every year but had cycles of abundance and decline, reaching extreme magnificence roughly once every sixty to seventy years. That year, they witnessed an extremely magnificent meteor shower—it was like incomparably grand fireworks set off in the sky.

Ye Qinghong excelled at divination arts. She said that to see such a magnificent meteor shower again, they would have to wait until the twenty-seventh day of the winter month, three quarters past midnight, seventy-two years hence.

The three made an appointment to watch the meteor shower together again after seventy-two years.

But Yin Fanhui never went to Liuyun Mountain again.

Nothing in the world remained eternally unchanged. Even the sun would die someday, let alone the fickle human heart.

Later, Xi suddenly found them and proposed choosing a successor for the Wish Power Pearl.

The weight of the Wish Power Pearl was far beyond what rock-paper-scissors could resolve, and moreover, the decision wasn’t in their hands.

They always avoided talking about the Wish Power Pearl. Their days seemed the same as before, but Yin Fanhui knew things were actually different now.

He could accept not getting the Wish Power Pearl, but what he couldn’t accept was this:

The two of them had gotten together.

After thirteen hundred years.

He had been abandoned once again.

Yin Fanhui decided not to give them another chance to betray him.

—

Moreover.

Though he could have directly killed Wen Zhongming, Yin Fanhui decided to let him also taste what it felt like to be betrayed. So, rarely, Yin Fanhui made a deal with that ant.

His name was Jiang Binghe, and he was Wen Zhongming’s disciple.

Before Wen Zhongming was killed by Yin Fanhui, he showed no fear and didn’t beg for mercy. He only cursed him as a “madman.”

Ye Qinghong didn’t curse him. She looked at him very calmly, then just as calmly welcomed death.

—

“What about you? Do you think I’m insane?” Qiguang Zi asked the person in the cage.

“You’re not insane.” Le Chenzi shook his head and said.

“It’s just that while you seem to have lived over a thousand years, your heart has been trapped in that night when you were abandoned by your loved ones at age twenty. From that moment on, every day you’ve lived has been a repetition of that same day.”

Le Chenzi immediately regretted saying this.

Dense purple lightning bolts struck down, turning his precious roasted chicken into a chicken-shaped piece of charcoal.