Soul Out of Body, Another Path to Immortality

The fierce battle between the two mythic experts continued without pause.

The entire West Sea bore the brunt of the violent energy spilling from the heart of the battlefield. By now, it had been thoroughly churned into a frenzy, and countless fish, shrimp, crabs, whales, and other creatures living in these waters had been caught in the crossfire.

Scarlet blood stained the whole sea red, and countless living things perished.

The sky had turned utterly dark. Thunderbolts split the distant horizon and hurtled toward the enemy; a bitter cold spread through the air, freezing all things; and frenzied wind blades whipped up the blood mist that filled the sky.

All kinds of astonishing phenomena spread outward from the battlefield, shaking heaven and earth.

But gradually, as the seconds ticked by, all the phenomena came to a halt.

At the center of the battlefield, two vast, sky-obscuring auras had clashed. One of them was now steadily fading.

Lin Ze watched the battlefield. He saw the smoke that had shrouded heaven and earth swept away by the gale, revealing Ji Yu in a blood-red robe, gripping the Longevity Palace Master Dugu Xinghan by the throat. With heavy steps, he walked across the waves and onto a shattered island.

"Looks like I came out on top after all."

Ji Yu tossed Dugu Xinghan's body to the ground. Its essence had been drained, and it was gradually withering. His voice brimmed with the exhilaration of defeating a formidable foe.

He was, after all, the strongest man of this age, without precedent. Even with his lifespan all but spent, he had managed to defeat Dugu Xinghan in his prime.

"No matter. I'll just die half a quarter-hour after you."

Dugu Xinghan lay on the ground. In his final moments, he sighed and spoke.

He wasn't sighing over his defeat and death. Ji Yu was hardly in better shape than he was. Even if his lifespan hadn't been nearly exhausted, this battle had left his essence depleted and him on the brink of death.

He was lamenting that he could no longer continue down the path to immortality.

"Actually, I'm curious. Since you were waiting for me to die, the Longevity Palace should have gone completely to ground, so I couldn't follow the trail and find you. Why did you make contact with that kid, Lin Ze? If you hadn't, things wouldn't have come to this."

Ji Yu asked, curious.

"Immortality was within reach. I got impatient."

Dugu Xinghan said no more. He closed his eyes and passed away.

Ji Yu understood. Dugu Xinghan had probably reached a crucial point in his pursuit of immortality, one that required vast resources and time to verify and advance. So he hadn't gone completely underground and waited; instead, he had tried to acquire resources and conduct experiments from the shadows.

He had gambled that he was sufficiently well hidden, and that Ji Yu wouldn't discover his whereabouts.

As it turned out, Dugu Xinghan had lost his gamble.

He hadn't expected a young junior he'd thought nothing of to possess enough power to kill him.

"Fate, and the whims of fortune."

Ji Yu shook his head, sat cross-legged beside Dugu Xinghan's corpse, and gazed into the sky, now strangely empty after their battle.

He could clearly feel that his body's essence, energy, and spirit had run completely dry. In a few more minutes, his bodily functions would cease for good.

Even in that battle, when Ji Yu had pushed his essence, energy, and spirit to their absolute limits, he had found no hope of immortality.

Dugu Xinghan had succeeded. Even after defeating him, Ji Yu had no hope of living on.

Yet Ji Yu felt no particular turmoil. He had long been ready to face death. Dugu Xinghan's appearance before the end had been an unexpected turn, but it hadn't stopped him from calmly welcoming the conclusion of his life's story.

Through the Gates to Heavens, Lin Ze and the other two watched the battle end.

Ji Wangshu immediately wanted to pass through the Gates to Heavens, see her father, and accompany him through the last stretch of his life.

But Lin Ze stopped her.

Meeting Ji Wangshu's furrowed brows, Lin Ze calmly explained, "First, souls exist. It looks like your Great Grandfather won, but how can we be sure this isn't an illusion created by the Longevity Palace Master?"

"It could be bait to lure someone over, making it easier for the Longevity Palace Master, who might not be entirely dead, to possess them."

"After all, our life levels and Combat Power are far below those of mythic experts. We can't see through their methods, and we don't know whether they really can separate their spirits from their bodies."

"Second, even if your Great Grandfather really did win, who's to say he won't suddenly decide he doesn't want to die after all? He could drain everyone nearby to replenish himself. It might not solve his lifespan problem, but even another minute of life would be worth it."

"The instinct for self-preservation is terrifying when death is near. It can even twist a person's thinking."

Every reason Lin Ze gave was speculation, with no guarantee of being true, but he'd rather be cautious.

The myriad worlds were full of variables and all kinds of strange abilities.

He had the Within Reach Horizon ability and was invincible by nature, but the two people beside him couldn't withstand such methods.

If these mythic experts really could keep their spirits in the world, there weren't any living things left around the battlefield. As long as they didn't go there and offer themselves up, a few days without interference would probably be enough for the two men to fade away on their own.

It didn't matter if Ji Yu went mad in his final moments. Lin Ze wouldn't give him the chance to take anyone down with him.

"Cultivation beyond the Heavenly Realm still hasn't touched upon anything like the soul. Father's Dao heart is unbreakable; he accepted death long ago. Your speculation makes no sense."

Ji Wangshu explained. Seeing that Lin Ze remained unmoved, she simply used her movement technique and headed toward the South Sea.

The battlefield was thousands of miles away, but a Heavenly Realm expert could cover the distance in just a quarter-hour. She didn't need Lin Ze's permission.

Ji Yu might not last another quarter-hour, but as his daughter, Ji Wangshu wanted to gather and bury her father's remains as soon as possible.

Lin Ze paid no mind to Ji Wangshu's departure. Ji Qingyan, standing nearby, seemed about to say something to persuade him, but after thinking it over, she said nothing.

Ji Wangshu was a Heavenly Realm expert. What right did the two of them have to stop her?

The two stood quietly where they were, watching Ji Yu sit cross-legged.

Soon, another two minutes passed.

Ji Yu came back to himself and spoke. "Lin Ze, I know you're watching. Listen carefully. This is the mythic-level martial art I created, the Yuanyang Divine Skill. It contains the essence of everything I've learned in my life."

"With diligent practice, it can take you all the way beyond the Heavenly Realm. I hope you'll look after the Ji Family in the future."

As he spoke, Ji Yu removed a jade pendant he carried with him and infused it with a strand of Aura containing the essence of his martial art.

Anyone who comprehended the pendant in the future would be able to receive the skill within and be initiated into it.

Having done this, Ji Yu closed his eyes. His vast, abyss-like aura slowly faded away.

His youthful face rapidly aged, becoming creased and mottled.

His long, blood-red hair, once full of vitality, quickly turned white and brittle.

The Great Zhou Grand Ancestor, undefeated beneath heaven, passed away.

Lin Ze remained unmoved.

A mythic-level martial art capable of making someone a Land Immortal was tempting, but Ji Yu had surely left a copy with the Ji Family. Lin Ze would have a chance to obtain it later.

But if he went there now and Ji Yu had some kind of trick up his sleeve, he'd fall right into it.

Just look at the Longevity Palace Master. He could have curbed his greed and stayed hidden for a few more years, becoming the last man standing. But at the critical moment, he chose to gamble, and in the end he lost everything.

There was no need for Lin Ze to gamble now. He had Immortality Technology, and a long future ahead of him.

A little later, Ji Wangshu arrived at the West Sea, panting as she hurried to her father's side.

She looked at her father, now utterly lifeless, with tears in her eyes.

But before she could grieve for long, her whole body stiffened.

The stiffness lasted only a moment. Then Ji Wangshu resumed what she'd been doing, bending down to wrap Ji Yu's remains in a piece of brocade cloth and prepare to take them back for burial.

As the Great Zhou Grand Ancestor, Ji Yu would be given a grand funeral by the entire dynasty.

After gathering Ji Yu's remains, she thought for a moment, then collected Dugu Xinghan's remains as well. In an instant, she vanished from the battlefield.

"Did you notice?"

Lin Ze asked Ji Qingyan beside him.

"Great-grand-aunt's body stiffened for a moment? She must have been overwhelmed by seeing Great Grandfather pass away. I feel sad too. Although I didn't spend much time with him, he was still my elder."

Ji Qingyan answered from beside him.

If Lin Ze hadn't clearly seen the Gates to Heavens' fortune record—showing that his having caused the Longevity Palace Master and Ji Yu to fight had made Ji Wangshu's fortune plummet, allowing the Gates to Heavens to reap the benefits—he might have believed Ji Qingyan's explanation too.

"I told her not to go, but she insisted. I wonder whether the one possessing her was your Great Grandfather or the Longevity Palace Master."

"Even if they couldn't possess people before, could two undefeated mythic experts, both masters who'd cultivated in seclusion for years, have suddenly broken through and gained some similar ability during a battle between equals?"

As he spoke, Lin Ze sprang into action.

He opened the Gates to Heavens and first took Ji Qingyan to a small Grotto-heaven World.

Then he reset the Gates to Heavens' coordinates, linking them to a point along Ji Wangshu's path. He activated Within Reach Horizon, and at the same time reset the Gates to Heavens' coordinates once again, linking them to World Number Three.

Out at sea, Ji Wangshu was carrying two bodies and walking over the waves toward Shenjing City when her vision suddenly blurred.

She had gone from the sea to a small Grotto-heaven World whose end was visible to the naked eye. A portal was still open, and Lin Ze had just passed through it. He stood on the other side of the doorway, watching her.

It sounded complicated, but the whole sequence had been simple.

First, he'd chosen a small Grotto-heaven World to use as a cage.

Then he'd locked the Gates to Heavens onto Ji Wangshu's coordinates, activated Within Reach Horizon to shorten the distance between her and the grotto-heaven, brought her into the cage through the Gates to Heavens, and left.

"Are you Ji Yu or Dugu Xinghan?"

Lin Ze calmly asked Ji Wangshu, who was trapped inside the small grotto-heaven.

"What are you talking about? Are you going to attack me just because I didn't listen to you? Qingyan?"

Ji Wangshu frowned and glanced at Ji Qingyan beside Lin Ze, as if asking her to plead on her behalf.

Ji Qingyan looked at Ji Wangshu in confusion, then at Lin Ze, unsure what to do.

"You can refuse to answer. Stay in this small grotto-heaven and starve to death, or wait a few years for it to vanish into the void."

Lin Ze said.

"Fine. I'm Ji Yu. In my final moments, I comprehended the method of Soul Out of Body. I drained my body's essence to strengthen my Primordial Spirit, then possessed Wangshu to seek a chance at reincarnation. How did you find out?"

Ji Wangshu—or rather, Ji Yu, possessing her—reluctantly gave in and spoke.

He had inspected the small grotto-heaven. There was truly nothing in it—no food or medicine. Even if Lin Ze was only bluffing about the grotto-heaven's destruction, Ji Yu would indeed starve to death if he stayed long enough.

"The only flaw in my plan to banish you to this grotto-heaven was that, when I used Within Reach Horizon to change your position, someone with fast enough reactions could have noticed the spatial shift in advance and dodged it."

"Land Immortals can dodge it, and Heavenly Realm experts can dodge it too. I don't care about peerless experts who can't. But you were banished without dodging."

"That can only mean Ji Wangshu was possessed. The person possessing her was weakened, and couldn't bring out the full strength of her body."

Lin Ze explained.

"You wanted to lure me over just now, let me lower my guard, and possess me while hiding in the jade pendant, didn't you?"

Lin Ze asked coldly.

When people had no way to go on living, they might accept death. But once there was hope of surviving, greed would follow close behind.

Lin Ze's spatial abilities and his power to travel through space and time were exactly what Ji Yu coveted. Once Ji Yu had dealt with the threat of death, of course he'd want to take a chance.

"That wasn't it. I really thought I was about to die. I only wanted to leave behind my legacy."

Ji Yu protested.

Lin Ze neither agreed nor disagreed. Instead, he brought up another topic.

"Can you tell me about your current state? What is the Primordial Spirit like? What does it feel like to inhabit someone else's body? If your Primordial Spirit can take over another person's body, could you reincarnate endlessly and live forever?"

Lin Ze asked curiously.

If the body was a ship and the soul the passenger aboard it, then the martial cultivation that the world pursued as a path to immortality was the forging of an eternal, indestructible vessel, carrying the passenger ever onward, forever fleeing the sea called death.

But Ji Yu had taken another path.

The ship that was his body had rotted away, yet he, the passenger, had learned to swim. He hadn't sunk into the sea of death with his decaying vessel. Instead, he'd swum to another ship.