0963: The Divine Marquis Awakens! The Lion and the Sheep

Death itself was not painful. What hurt was the waiting before death arrived.

Zhu Yunwen was going through that process.

Scenes seemed to flip and change endlessly through his mind.

One unfamiliar scene after another emerged in his mind...

There were icebergs and seas of fire. The fire seemed to contain ice, while the ice appeared to nurture flames.

It was a lake blanketed in ice and snow, with a volcano beneath it.

When the volcano erupted, he and someone else fearlessly plunged into the lake and entered that strange Tianchi where ice held fire and fire held ice, obtaining the inheritance of the Mysterious Hero of Tianchi.

There were two secret manuals in total. He chose one, only for it to be snatched away by that round-faced man, whose voice sounded as though he were choking on an egg yolk and could shift through several tones in one breath. Shaking his head, the man sighed. "Ah, the Adamantine Body Cultivation requires a virgin body. It doesn't suit you. This one suits you."

Thus, he received the other secret manual, upon which were written four large characters—"Great Art of Absorbing Qi"!

The scene shifted, and he became someone else—a young man dressed in an old-fashioned manner, though he was ultimately still only a tender youth of fifteen or sixteen. Surrounded by imperial guards, he went to pay respects to his imperial grandfather and knelt before the hall.

The scenes continued to turn. Upon a mountaintop, he became that imposing, highly skilled man again, but this time, he was battling atop the peak against his round-faced friend who had obtained the cultivation technique alongside him years ago.

Scene after scene flowed endlessly through his mind. Zhu Yunwen went from initial confusion to awakening, then struggled fiercely.

Yet no matter how he