The next day.
The morning dew had cleared.
Li Changsheng got up early. He had woken sometime in the second half of the night, then sat cross-legged on his bed and cultivated until the present moment.
He could clearly feel his Soul Power growing denser and advancing toward level fourteen. Surely it wouldn't be long before his Soul Power reached level fourteen.
The benefits of the Mysterious Heaven Skill were also gradually becoming apparent as his Soul Power increased.
It was still early. Outside the window, the sky showed only the pale belly of dawn. The orange-yellow sun lay hidden below the horizon, breathing out great clouds of mist.
Li Changsheng didn't cultivate the Purple Demon Eye during this ideal window of time.
Instead, he sorted through the things he needed to bring, including a change of clothes and his Refined Iron Spear. Then he put them in the Sign-in and Clock-in System's storage.
Li Changsheng also had a Soul Tool for storing things.
It was a pair of very fine rings.
They were storage rings from ten thousand years ago, among the earliest Soul Tools. He had gone to the trouble of getting them specially for his wedding, at great expense.
There was no custom of wearing rings at weddings in this world, but Li Changsheng was still a man who paid attention to such details.
Now, though, he had the system's storage to use, and he could put even his long Refined Iron Spear inside.
Normally, he couldn't keep using the Night-Startling Spear to cultivate.
After all, truly wielding the Night-Startling Spear required an enormous amount of strength. Even Li Changsheng, as he was now, couldn't wield it in a continuous, fluid sequence.
Of course, he'd gotten up so early not because he was excited, nor because he wanted to be a good little boy and arrive first at the Sea God Awakening Hall.
He wanted to walk through God Soul Village one more time. No—in his heart, God Soul Village had never existed. There had only ever been Holy Soul Village, occupying that small patch of land and home to no more than three hundred households.
After ten thousand years, he was finally leaving.
Li Changsheng stood before the mirror and looked at himself as he was now.
A small body, bright, starry eyes, fair, luminous skin that seemed made by nature itself, and thin lips that pursed slightly. His short hair had grown much longer, and now covered his forehead.
Li Changsheng wore a new set of clothes. The white shirt fit him well, though the sleeves were a little too long and looked somewhat cumbersome.
"I'm off. One last look at the village... parting from the past, huh!"
Li Changsheng paused for a moment, then managed to say those few words.
After that, he left his room and checked out.
A few people were already scattered along the streets, along with vendors setting up their stalls.
Li Changsheng bought breakfast from a roadside stall. It didn't taste as good as it used to, but at least the portions were generous.
As he ate, he walked toward the mountain outside Holy Soul Village.
Over ten thousand years, Holy Soul Village had changed from a scattered farming village into the orderly, densely built God Soul Village of today, which lived off the lingering influence of the Sea God's name.
Li Changsheng could feel the benefits of that development, but he still felt that something was missing.
He'd said he wanted one last look at the village as it was now, but it had already become this way. There wasn't much left worth remembering.
From a distance, he glanced at Tang San's former home, which he'd robbed more than ten days ago. It was now guarded by plenty of soldiers.
He also stopped to look for a while at the Li Family, where he'd lived for ten thousand years, then continued down the street.
Soon, following the steps up the mountain path, he arrived at the peak where Tang San had once cultivated, a place he himself had often visited.
He gazed into the distance.
The sea of mist rolled and churned, like a flood dragon diving into the ocean.
The orange-yellow sun glimmered along the edge of the sky, tearing at the horizon.
God Soul City lay beneath him, at his feet.
The orderly town was bustling, its paved stone streets smooth underfoot. The farmlands of old had all become shops of one kind or another.
The only plant he saw everywhere was probably Blue Silver Grass.
He drew a deep breath.
Then he let it out heavily.
His gaze swept from left to right across the buildings below.
In his clear, black-and-white eyes, what shimmered wasn't the town, but a handful of scattered houses.
After looking for a while, he didn't linger. He treated it as a place he'd merely passed through, and soon descended the mountain to visit the last place he wanted to see.
East of God Soul Village, where the starlight shone down, lay a place of blooming flowers, isolated beyond the forest. Legend had it that this was the Li Family's forbidden ground.
There were no treasures here, nor any buildings. Apart from a sea of flowers, there was only a solitary grave.
Flowers covered it, surrounding it on every side.
Li Changsheng walked over and slipped through an opening in the flower wall, nimble and practiced.
He stopped beside the lonely grave.
Looking at the grave and the gravestone standing over it, he froze for a moment.
Then he stepped forward, his once-light footsteps growing much heavier.
He crouched and reached out to touch the gravestone, already worn by the weather.
A few carved characters were just barely visible, but they had become hard to make out.
Li Changsheng smiled, as if teasing himself in a wistful daze. "Oh dear, it's been so long since I came to see you."
His fingertip slowly traced the deeply carved characters. He wanted to say more, but his lips suddenly trembled a few times, and then it seemed he had nothing to say after all.
He stayed like that for a while.
Then he stood and walked a few steps closer. Bending slightly, he pressed his face against the weathered gravestone and rubbed it gently.
After that, he turned away and walked off without looking back, waving as he went.
But when he reached the opening in the flower garden wall, he turned around again. Looking at the grave encircled by flowers, he called out in a slightly hoarse voice:
"I'm leaving. I probably won't be coming back this time."
With those words, Li Changsheng slipped out through the opening in the flower wall.
He headed toward the Sea God Awakening Hall outside God Soul City.
He walked very slowly, taking tiny, tiny steps, as if measuring something. It took him nearly an hour to cover a kilometer.
Step by step, he went on. His body was small, but as the sunlight steadily rose, his shadow stretched out larger and larger and larger...
Li Changsheng's face was expressionless. Even as the dazzling light slammed into his face, he didn't blink. He wasn't even using the Purple Demon Eye, yet he could still keep his eyes open like this.
It was a strange feeling.
Only when he reached the Sea God Awakening Hall and saw that the scenery around him had long since changed did he raise a hand to wipe his eyes and try blinking. He gave a bitter smile.
"Oh dear, the sun's so dazzling. It's made my eyes water."
He wiped away two tears with his fingertips, then gently touched them to his lips. The tip of his tongue brushed them as he murmured, "The taste of tears... salty..."
Yes, that was all tears were like. There was no bitterness or sorrow in them. Saying otherwise was just a way of describing their saltiness.
After rubbing his eyes, whose rims had taken on a faint rose-red hue, he took out his Martial Soul Certificate and walked over to the window where Martial Souls had been registered before. Through the rising mist of Blue Silver Grass, he could just make out several figures.
There was a passage that seemed very apt for Li Changsheng—and for the Li Gou'dan he had once been:
The longer you lived after transmigrating, the more the dust washed away. Even in another world, you could grow shy at the thought of returning home; so ask not where the ends of the earth lie, nor when the day of return will come...
Before you continue