You're Still Alive?

"Eh? Jiang Chuan, you're still alive."

Seeing Jiang Chuan carrying White Jade Rice into the Chore Yard, Elder Jing Zhen wore a look of utter surprise.

Jiang Chuan: "."

What did he mean, you're still alive?

Was he supposed to be dead?

With a dark expression, Jiang Chuan set down the White Jade Rice from his back.

"Elder Jing Zhen, the Jiang Chuan you knew is already dead. The one standing before you now is Ghost King Jiang Chuan."

"I was wondering why Jing Hui kept shouting that he'd chop you to death while splitting firewood last night. How could you possibly still be alive? But even after becoming a vicious ghost, you still want to work. That alone is worth every monk in the Chore Yard learning from you."

Elder Jing Zhen nodded, acknowledging Jiang Chuan's identity as a Ghost King and declaring him a role model for the entire Chore Yard.

Jiang Chuan's face darkened further.

Who wanted to be that kind of role model?!

It was bad enough that he exploited people. He even exploited ghosts. Where was his conscience?!

Had he fed it to Jiang Daode?

Jiang Chuan clenched his fists and prepared to turn away.

Considering that he truly could not beat Elder Jing Zhen, Jiang Chuan decided to endure it!

"When my cultivation succeeds, just watch how I exploit you!"

Jiang Chuan silently recorded this debt in his heart. At the same time, considering that Jing Hui had chopped three thousand jin of firewood because of him, he ultimately decided to add Jing Hui's name as well.

"Senior Brother Jing Hui must have chopped at least a thousand times, treating the firewood as me. When I split firewood, I'll chop it all back."

After cutting another large bundle of White Jade Rice, Jiang Chuan delivered it to the Chore Yard, picked two full basins of White Jade Corn, and brought them to the kitchen.

Pinching his nose, Jiang Chuan drank a bowl of White Jade Corn porridge. He then left the kitchen, went to the rear mountain behind his little dwelling, found a patch of shade beneath a tree, and sat cross-legged to cultivate.

He cultivated until dusk, then went to the kitchen for another bowl of White Jade Corn porridge before returning to his little dwelling to rest.

Once midnight had passed, a crisp sound rang out in Jiang Chuan's mind again.

Ding! Simulation attempts reset. Would you like to begin a simulation?

"I hope Dragon Transformation Venerable left more treasures in his cave residence."

Jiang Chuan immediately began the simulation.

Ding! Simulation beginning. Randomly matching the host with a Love Simulation Target.

Ding! Match successful.

The Love Simulation Target matched for this simulation is Yu Yingnan, an outer sect disciple of the Seven Kill Demonic Sect.

"A disciple of the Seven Kill Demonic Sect? That's going to be a little troublesome!"

Jiang Chuan stroked his chin. "I'll kill Ji Xinyu first, then figure out how to pursue her."

The following afternoon, you took the initiative to visit the Warrior Monk Institute and seek out Elder Jingyun.

You bluntly stated that after breaking through to the Second Realm, many images had surfaced in your mind, and you suspected they might be a cave residence left behind by your past life's past life.

"Awakening innate wisdom and recovering memories from a past life is not uncommon in the Qingyuan Realm."

Elder Jingyun's expression remained calm. "Jiang Chuan, which fellow cultivator were you in your past life?"

"In the images that surfaced in my mind, everyone called me Dragon Transformation Venerable," Jiang Chuan answered.

"Dragon Transformation Venerable?! Jiang Chuan, you're saying you were Dragon Transformation Venerable in your past life?!"

Elder Jingyun's voice was filled with astonishment, and the way he looked at Jiang Chuan became uncertain.

Jiang Chuan nodded. "Yes, Elder. And this disciple also left behind a cave residence on Chisha Island."

"Amitabha!"

Elder Jingyun pressed his palms together. "Who would have thought that you, Jiang Chuan, were the Eighth Realm Thunder Tribulation Realm cultivator Dragon Transformation Venerable in your past life?"

Eighth Realm!

A towering wave surged through Jiang Chuan's heart.

He had long known that Dragon Transformation Venerable was powerful, but he had never imagined he was an Eighth Realm cultivator.

One had to know that many sect leaders among the Seven Sects, Six Demons, Three Palaces, Nine Clans were only at the Eighth Realm!

"No wonder Ji Xinyu could not let go of Dragon Transformation Venerable's cave residence. Obtaining it may well be equivalent to obtaining the entire fortune of a cultivator standing at the peak of the Qingyuan Realm."

Jiang Chuan bowed. "I ask Elder Jingyun to help me open my past life's cave residence and retrieve the magical artifacts and scriptures left behind there."

Elder Jingyun readily agreed to your request. He then gathered seventeen Bodhi Temple elders and brought you to Chisha Island.

Upon arriving at Chisha Island, following the memories obtained through the simulation, you successfully led the eighteen elders to Dragon Transformation Venerable's cave residence.

Elder Jingyun immediately led the other seventeen elders in setting up the Eighteen Arhats Demon-Extinguishing Evil-Breaking Grand Formation.

"Roar!"

A golden dragon materialized atop the crimson earth, red as blood. Then, an Arhat radiating golden light from head to toe, majestic and sacred, appeared upon the dragon's head.

Next, seventeen Arhats materialized out of thin air—some riding white tigers, some wearing golden hoops, some holding alms bowls.

"Attack! Break the formation!"

At Elder Jingyun's command, all eighteen Arhats manifested by the Eighteen Arhats Demon-Extinguishing Evil-Breaking Grand Formation struck together.

Beams of golden light tore through the sky and descended toward Dragon Transformation Venerable's cave residence.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Deafening explosions rang out without end, making Jiang Chuan's eardrums ache even from where he watched the formation being broken in the distance.

A colorless ripple surged out from the azure cave residence.

The next instant, Elder Jingyun and the other eighteen Bodhi Temple elders vanished into thin air.

Jiang Chuan's eyes widened. "What kind of technique is this? How did Elder Jingyun and the others just disappear?!"

The sight before him was simply too bizarre—so bizarre that it made Jiang Chuan's scalp prickle!

The eighteen Fifth and Sixth Realm elders of Bodhi Temple, along with the Eighteen Arhats Demon-Extinguishing Evil-Breaking Grand Formation they had set up, vanished without a trace in an instant.

"Is the gap between the Eighth Realm and the Sixth Realm really this huge?! That shouldn't be possible! Bodhi Temple isn't without Eighth Realm experts. If they truly had no confidence, Elder Jingyun would surely have invited the abbot to act."

A possibility suddenly struck Jiang Chuan.

"Could this be the inheritance Ji Xinyu has been yearning for?"

"Roar!!!"

An enraged roar rang out.

Pitch-black cracks tore across the heavens.

In an instant, the sky looked like a shattered mirror, filled with dense, crisscrossing cracks.

The figures of Elder Jingyun and the other eighteen elders appeared in Jiang Chuan's sight once more.

"Amitabha! Creating a world from the void—this technique is enough to rival Buddha's Kingdom in the Palm, one of our Buddhist Sect's supreme divine abilities. Dragon Transformation Venerable truly deserves to be called an Eighth Realm cultivator," one Bodhi Temple elder said with feeling.

"Dragon Transformation Venerable's methods truly reach the heavens, but unfortunately, only a grand formation remains to guard this cave residence now."

Elder Jingyun opened his mouth and spat out a golden scroll. Magnificent mountains and rivers flowed across it.

It was Elder Jingyun's Inner Scenery Map.

"Junior Brothers, strike with everything we have and break this grand formation!"

"Roar!"

"Cry!"

The roars of tigers and cries of cranes rang out as Elder Jingyun and the other eighteen elders pushed the Eighteen Arhats Demon-Extinguishing Evil-Breaking Grand Formation to its limit.

Dazzling golden light burst from the eighteen Arhats, as though a blazing sun had descended, making Jiang Chuan almost unable to open his eyes.

Boom!

The eighteen Arhats attacked together, and the blood-red earth shook, mountains and ground trembling.

At that moment, a terrifying aura erupted from the azure cave residence.

It was as though a netherworld hell had descended, or as though a demon god born from destruction and death was about to awaken and scatter death across the world.

In that instant, Jiang Chuan felt as though he had fallen into an ice cellar, his entire body turning cold.

He felt as though he had plunged into a frigid ocean and could suffocate to death at any moment.

"Could Dragon Transformation Venerable still be aliv—"

Boom!!!