"Phew!"
Meng Nan's heart jolted, and he abruptly woke up.
"Xiaoshuang."
Meng Nan recalled the scene before his death. He could still hear Zhao Xiaoshuang's hoarse, desperate cries ringing in his ears, along with her unwillingness and fury as a feather pierced her heart.
In this life, Zhao Xiaoshuang was different again.
But she had died!
Meng Nan had died in the future and still managed to return to the present.
What about Zhao Xiaoshuang?
"She—"
Sorrow and regret welled up in Meng Nan's heart, along with all kinds of other emotions.
For a long time, he couldn't calm down.
In the first life, they had parted peacefully.
In the second, it had happened without warning.
Two different eras, two different Zhao Xiaoshuangs, but his feelings for them were the same.
"There'll be many more partings like this!"
"I have to learn to cope!"
Whether in the past or the future, Zhao Xiaoshuang was his family. Meng Nan didn't want to treat her coldly or feign affection in the future.
Since he didn't want that, he had to face the pain every time he returned from a life.
He had to adjust on his own.
Learn to get used to it.
But—
"If this keeps up—"
"Will I always be able to love and be loved?"
"Or will my feelings wear away, life after life, until I become completely indifferent?"
Meng Nan didn't know.
Creak—
Meng Nan was immersed in the grief of parting from loved ones when someone opened the door and came in. He saw Zhao Xiaoshuang walk in with a light step, and heard her say in surprise, "Why's the door shut in broad daylight?"
"Xiaoshuang."
Meng Nan looked at the younger, more innocent Zhao Xiaoshuang. His thoughts returned, the memories of six years in the second life sinking deep into his mind as everything in the present came back to him.
He remembered—
"I just killed Zhou Shan!"
"What was I supposed to do next?"
Meng Nan's gaze sharpened as he recalled everything. Killing intent rose in his heart. "Zhou Boren!"
Zhao Xiaoshuang was still young and innocent, and couldn't sense any so-called killing intent. She walked over to Meng Nan and said, "Sister-in-law told us to come home for dinner tonight."
"Okay."
After exchanging a few words with Zhao Xiaoshuang, Meng Nan finally calmed down completely.
Everything returned to normal.
That afternoon.
Meng Nan worked as usual while Zhao Xiaoshuang did needlework beside him. The couple chatted from time to time.
Zhao Xiaoshuang was three months pregnant. Her belly had begun to swell, and she was starting to show. Her emotions had also grown more sensitive. Meng Nan tried hard to adjust, so the feelings he'd developed in the future of his second life wouldn't affect him or Zhao Xiaoshuang.
He stayed focused like this.
His attention soon shifted away from the future and returned to the present.
In the present, Meng Nan's skills were already quite polished. He'd spent eight years at it in his first life and six in his second, and his technique had grown increasingly refined.
As he worked,
he occasionally chatted with Zhao Xiaoshuang.
Once his emotions had settled completely, Meng Nan began sorting through some of the information from the future of his second life.
He'd died in a hurry this time and hadn't had a chance to organize things before his death. Now he needed to sort through them systematically and make sure nothing had been missed or misremembered.
He arranged everything along a timeline, then singled out the things he needed to do and keep an eye on in the near future.
For example, Zhou Boren.
He was Zhou Shan's son. Over the next few years, he would grow rapidly, eventually killing Qian Yu and committing many other wanton murders of innocents.
He had to be eliminated.
This was Meng Nan's most urgent task at the moment.
But he couldn't make a move inside the village.
"It's September 30, Year 18 of the Immortal Calendar. Zhou Boren secretly left by himself on October 12."
"I'll find the right moment and kill him."
Zhou Boren was twenty this year. Over the next four years, he would grow rapidly and reach the True Essence Stage in a short time. But his current cultivation was pitifully low; he was only at the Fetal Breath Contemplation level.
With Meng Nan's current strength, killing him would be as easy as killing a chick.
Killing Zhou Boren was the first task.
Cultivation, meanwhile, was a constant.
With the experience he had from this life, Meng Nan would face no more obstacles on his way to the Inner Qi Minor Heavenly Cycle. What's more, the cultivation method he'd started using before the second life began had advanced from "Twenty-four Breaths" to "Thirty-six Breaths." This would greatly help him construct the Qi Circulation Diagram and later open up the Lesser Celestial Circuit. It was a foundation.
And he had Suoluo Seeds to build up his Inner Breath.
Meng Nan now had both internal cultivation and external medicine, and lacked nothing.
"At most, it'll take me seven or eight days to complete the Qi Circulation Diagram, raise my Inner Breath to 100, and advance to the Inner Qi Stage."
Once he reached the Inner Qi Stage, the Suoluo Seed's effects would diminish considerably. But with a single spirit tree dedicated to just Meng Nan and Zhao Xiaoshuang, it would still be enough for the short term.
It wouldn't take long to advance to the Inner Qi Minor Heavenly Cycle, either.
"Including the Visualization Realm, a month will be enough."
But being able to advance was one thing. Whether to break through quickly was another.
That was the third thing Meng Nan had to consider—
"Open progress!"
Meng Nan summoned the panel and checked his progress.
[Opening Progress—] [Basic Progress: 0%][Required] [Spirit Sand: 0%][Choose One of Two] [Sacrifice: 0/2][Choose One of Two]
"The number of sacrifices has changed to two."
The first thing Meng Nan noticed was the change in the figures. The number of sacrifices had gone from one to two, but the requirements hadn't changed: each target only needed to be one level above his current one.
In other words, a Fetal Breath cultivator had to kill an Inner Qi cultivator, and an Inner Qi cultivator had to kill a True Qi cultivator!
"Killing an Inner Qi cultivator at the Fetal Breath Stage won't be hard."
"But I might not be able to kill a True Qi cultivator at the Inner Qi Stage."
Meng Nan had cultivated for more than ten years and mastered his techniques. He far surpassed ordinary Fetal Breath cultivators, and could hold his own against some Inner Qi cultivators. As long as his target wasn't at the Inner Qi Minor or Major Heavenly Cycle, he could easily kill an ordinary Inner Qi cultivator at the Qi Circulation level while still at the Fetal Breath Stage.
This time was different from his first, when he'd had no experience.
In the twelve years of diary entries from before his death, Meng Nan had recorded every person in Yinlian Village who had already committed or would go on to commit a "capital crime." He'd done the same during the six years after that.
Eighteen years in all.
That was an entire generation.
Quite a few Inner Qi cultivators had committed evil deeds.
Before, Meng Nan had been afraid to make a move here and reluctant to provoke anyone there. But now that he'd returned to this life, he knew he'd have a great chance against someone who'd only just entered the Inner Qi Stage once he reached the peak of the Fetal Breath Stage. That meant he had more choices among the people on his kill list.
"Two early-stage Inner Qi cultivators."
"And they have to be easy targets."
Meng Nan had a list in his mind. He thought for a moment, then crossed out some names and marked others.
Soon,
he settled on two people.
That evening.
After finishing their cultivation, the Meng and Zhao couple soaked their feet and discussed the difficult points and insights they'd encountered in their practice.
Zhao Xiaoshuang was still muddled and had many questions about cultivation, making it hard for her to improve quickly. Her progress had been slow with both the cultivation method and the Qi Circulation Diagram.
She wanted to ask someone, but ordinary Fetal Breath cultivators would have a hard time answering. Even ordinary Inner Qi cultivators probably wouldn't know how to teach or clear up her confusion.
True Qi cultivators might have been able to help.
But she had no way to reach them.
So she could only figure things out on her own, and naturally, she wasn't making much progress.
But this evening was different.
As Zhao Xiaoshuang discussed things with Meng Nan, she brought up question after question. She soon found that Meng Nan could often give her a spot-on answer. Some of the things confusing her were hard even for her to put into words, yet Meng Nan could somehow articulate the questions for her and answer them.
She'd meant to discuss things with Meng Nan and explore the subject together.
Instead, she ended up asking all the questions while Meng Nan did all the teaching.
Her doubts cleared in a flash, and all kinds of confusion fell away.
Even when he didn't give her a direct solution, Meng Nan still pointed her in the right direction.
"You—"
After asking all her questions and listening to his answers, Zhao Xiaoshuang realized that the water for soaking their feet had gone cold long ago. She looked at Meng Nan, her mouth opening and closing. Amazed and delighted, she asked, "How did you suddenly get so good at this?"
"Cultivation takes hard work and perseverance."
"But sometimes you also need a flash of inspiration, a burst of insight."
"That's more or less what happened to me."
Meng Nan brushed Zhao Xiaoshuang off.
This was the present, so he had to watch what he said about these secrets whenever he was with Zhao Xiaoshuang. It was best not to let her know.
It wasn't that he was guarding himself against her.
But the methods of the cultivation world were beyond anything Meng Nan could imagine.
He had the information panel with him. Perhaps it could shield him, to some degree, from certain methods and make him immune to them. But if Zhao Xiaoshuang knew about it too, that might not be the case.
What seemed like trust could instead bring disaster. That was simply asking for death.
There was no need.
To be safe, it was better to keep it from her.
In the future, he could be honest with her to some extent.
But in the present, by the time Meng Nan could tell her everything, he and Zhao Xiaoshuang might already have stood at the peak of the immortal path, with no risks to fear.
Not yet.
"Was it sudden enlightenment?"
Zhao Xiaoshuang's eyes lit up.
She'd only just gotten married and become pregnant, and was in the throes of newlywed bliss. Her heart and eyes were full of Meng Nan. Hearing that he'd suddenly become enlightened and made great strides in cultivation filled her with joy, as though she herself had broken through.
"Mm."
Meng Nan smiled and reminded her, "The palest ink is better than the best memory. Don't get carried away. Write down whatever comes to mind first, or you might forget it the next time you cultivate."
Zhao Xiaoshuang's mind wasn't on cultivation at all. Her eyes seemed glued to Meng Nan. Only after hearing his reminder did she come to her senses and hurriedly take out paper and a brush to write everything down.
From time to time, she'd stop to think.
Then she'd become immersed in it again.
She even forgot to dry her feet, leaving them in the cold water.
Seeing this, Meng Nan dried her feet for her and dried his own, then poured out the wash water. After that, he took out a notebook and copied out the entire Alchemy Notes.
The palest ink is better than the best memory!
The Alchemy Notes were something Meng Nan needed to work hard on next. They were too important to risk losing, so it was best to write them down and study them slowly.
After some time, he could search for medicinal ingredients and try his hand at refining pills.
A journey of a thousand miles begins beneath your feet.
Before you continue