The forest was silent, save for the dry, rattling breath of Old Li standing over the corpse.
He held the Heavenly Ancient Order in one hand, the cold metal biting into his palm. It was a good start—he had the authority. But authority without strength was just a recipe for a faster death.
"Seventy-one hours," Li muttered, his voice sounding like grinding stones.
He looked toward the direction of the Heavenly Ancient Sect. He could walk up there, flash the token, and demand they bow. But he knew the plot of *Desolate Emperor's Counterattack*. The current Sect Leader was weak, the Elders were greedy, and there were spies from rival sects embedded in the hierarchy.
If a dying old man showed up with the ultimate treasure and no backup, they wouldn't bow. They would wait for him to keel over and then loot his corpse.
"I need the System," Li realized. "I need the Rebate."
He pulled up the System interface. The blue light hovered in his vision, cleaner now, less intrusive.
[Disciple Rebate System Active]
[Current Objective: Establish a Karmic Bond by granting resources to a qualified candidate.]
"But I don't have a disciple," Li hissed. "And I don't have time to interview candidates."
His gaze fell back onto the dead messenger at his feet.
The man was young, maybe mid-twenties. Features were plain. Bone structure was average. A mortal martial artist who had cultivated some internal force, but his meridians were shattered.
A crazy, desperate idea formed in Li's mind.
"The System requires me to 'teach' and 'grant resources' to a disciple," Li whispered, a manic glint appearing in his cloudy eyes. "It doesn't specify that the disciple has to be someone else."
If he couldn't trust anyone... why not trust himself?
"System, use the Pill of Choice Voucher."
[Please specify the Pill to forge.]
Li didn't hesitate. He searched the vast library of memories from the original Ancestor Li. He needed something that could fix a shattered heart and knit bones back together.
"Nine-Cycles Revival Pill," Li commanded. "Heaven Tier."
[Confirming... Voucher consumed. Generating Pill.]
A flash of golden light erupted in his hand. When it faded, a pill the size of a dragon's eye sat in his palm. It swirled with nine colors, emitting a fragrance that made the withered grass around him turn green instantly.
"This pill can repair the vessel," Li analyzed, his Eye of Truth scanning the item. "It can restore the foundation he had before death. But it can't bring back a dissipated soul."
The messenger had been dead for hours. His soul had long since entered the cycle of reincarnation. The body was just meat.
"If there's no soul... I'll provide one."
Li gritted his teeth. This was the gamble. The *Desolate Emperor* novel mentioned a forbidden technique used by the villainous Blood Ancestor—Soul Division.
It was excruciating. It permanently damaged the foundation. It consumed lifespan like kindling in a bonfire.
"I have 71 hours," Li snarled. "If this fails, I die anyway. Lets do it!"
He sat down in the dirt, crossing his stiff legs. He placed the corpse in front of him.
He closed his eyes and turned his spiritual sense inward, visualizing his own soul—a flickering, ancient flame. Then, he visualized a blade.
"Sever!"
Ahhhhh!
The sound wasn't physical; it was a psychic tear that ripped through the forest. Birds fell dead from the trees.
Li arched his back, his mouth opening in a silent howl of agony. It felt like someone was sawing through his brain with a rusty serrated knife. His vision went white. Blood poured from his nose, his eyes, his ears.
[Warning! Host Vitality plummeting!]
[Warning! Lifespan decreasing rapidly!]
[70 hours... 50 hours... 20 hours...]
He didn't stop. He grabbed the chunk of his own soul—a glowing, translucent blue orb that screamed with his own consciousness.
"Open!" Li roared.
His left hand forced the corpse's jaw open, shoving the Nine-Cycles Revival Pill onto the tongue. At the exact same instant, his right hand slammed the glowing blue soul orb into the center of the corpse's forehead.
Thrum.
Time seemed to freeze.
The pill dissolved the moment it touched the saliva, transforming into a torrent of nine-colored medicinal liquid that rushed down the throat.
It didn't just heal; it reconstructed. It surged into the shattered heart, weaving torn arteries back together with threads of golden light. It flooded the dried meridians, washing away the stagnation of death.
Simultaneously, the soul fragment pierced the skull. It didn't encounter resistance—the original owner was long gone. It entered the dark, empty Sea of Consciousness.
The soul fragment exploded, expanding like a nebula to fill the void. It seized control of the brain stem, the nervous system, and the spiritual roots.
The medicinal energy rising from the dantian met the spiritual command descending from the mind. They collided in the center of the body.
Thump.
The corpse's heart beat once.
Thump-thump.
Color rushed back into the pale skin, turning it rosy and vibrant. The caved-in chest inflated with a sickening crunch of bones resetting, then smoothing out perfectly.
[Lifespan Remaining: 8 Hours 12 Minutes.]
Li collapsed onto his back, gasping for air. The world was spinning. He was blind in one eye. His hands were shaking uncontrollably. He was on the verge of death. Again.
But in front of him, the "corpse" took a deep, ragged breath.
The young man's eyes snapped open.
There was no confusion in them. No "Where am I?" These were eyes that had seen the rise and fall of eras. They were sharp, clear, and brimming with an ancient will.
The disciple sat up, flexing his hands. He could feel the connection—two bodies, one mind.
"It worked," the disciple said. The voice was young, smooth, and full of life.
At that exact moment, the System stirred. It sensed the successful salvation of a life.
Ding!
A smooth, resonant tone echoed in their minds.
[Transaction Recorded.]
[Resource Invested: Heaven Tier Nine-Cycles Revival Pill.]
[Target Status: Deceased -> Revived.]
[Calculating Karmic Return... Critical Success Detected.]
[Reward: Yin-Yang Longevity Immortal Pill.]
BOOM!
The moment the notification faded, a pill materialized in the air above the old man's head.
It was terrifying.
This was not a Heaven Tier pill, nor a Saint Tier. It was an Immortal Tier item—something that existed above the laws of this world. It was black and white, swirling like a tai chi symbol, radiating a pressure that made space itself groan.
The sky didn't just darken; it turned purple. The clouds swirled into a vortex directly above them.
"The Heavens..." the young disciple—Li Wudi—muttered, looking up. "They know. An object that shouldn't exist has appeared. They mean to destroy it."
Lightning gathered in the vortex, thick as mountains, crackling with the intent to erase the anomaly.
"Eat it!" Wudi shouted.
He didn't wait for the old man to react. The puppet body was too slow, too broken. Wudi moved.
With the speed of a martial master, he snatched the Immortal Pill from the air. He didn't care about the lightning scorching his hair. He didn't care about the pressure crushing his ribs. He lunged toward the withered form of Old Li.
"Open up, you old fossil!" Wudi roared, jamming the pill into the Old Ancestor's mouth.
Crack!
A bolt of tribulation lightning struck the ground where the pill had been a millisecond prior, vaporizing the boulder into dust.
But it was too late. The pill was down the hatch.
The effect was instantaneous.
It wasn't gentle. It was a nuclear explosion of life force inside a dying star. The agony of the soul split vanished instantly. The dryness in the veins was replaced by a roaring river of Immortal vitality.
The lightning didn't stop. It lashed out, seeking the source of the Immortal Qi. But the energy coursing through Old Li's body acted as a conduit. The lightning struck him, but instead of killing him, the Yin-Yang energy of the pill absorbed it.
Old Li's back arched. His white hair didn't turn black, but it regained its luster, shimmering like silver silk. The wrinkles on his face didn't disappear, but they smoothed out, giving him the appearance of a dignified, ageless immortal rather than a rotting corpse.
His cultivation, which had been a broken mess, surged upward.
Crack!
The bottleneck shattered.
[Assimilation Complete.]
[Host Physiology Restored to Optimal State.]
[Lifespan Extension Calculated: +500 Years.]
[Cultivation Base Stabilized at Peak Saint Realm.]
Old Li exhaled, a cloud of white mist shooting from his lips like an arrow, piercing a tree ten meters away.
He sat up, his eyes clear. He felt the connection to the young man standing over him.
"System," Old Li commanded, his voice strong and resonant. "Register the disciple."
[Command Accepted.]
[Scanning Target Entity...]
[Disciple Profile Established.]
Name: Li Wudi
Identity: Mortal Martial Artist
Physique: Mortal Physique (Restored)
Cultivation: None (Mortal)
Loyalty: 100 (Absolute)
]
Wudi looked at the floating panel through Old Li's eyes, reading the stats.
"Li Wudi. 'Invincible'," Wudi said, testing the name.
"Aren't his parents a bit too arrogant?" Old Li stood up, brushing the dirt from his robes.
Li Wudi said, looking toward the distant peaks of the Heavenly Ancient Sect. "Let's go home. It's time to clean up the house."