"Lingzhi, I came to see you."
Jiang Ming held a Purple Star Orchid in his hand. It had been Lingzhi's favorite spiritual flower when she was alive. At that moment, he returned to his original appearance, and the demonic aura around him automatically receded, just as it always did whenever he secretly watched Tingting.
He had also been a sentimental man in his previous life. He would not let himself, wreathed in demonic aura, go see his daughter and the woman he loved.
Jiang Ming stood quietly on Green Bamboo Slope in Smoke Glow Ridge, dressed in white as pure as snow, elegant as jade and orchids, his back broad and imposing. He stood there for three days and three nights without moving an inch.
During those three days and nights, cultivators passing by after dark heard the sounds of evil spirits and ghosts raising a ruckus here—howls and wails that shook the surrounding woods until they rustled, even making the earth tremble.
"Lingzhi, after today, I'll be leaving this place.
"Awooooooo—Lingzhi, I can't even find a trace of your ashes. Ah, wuwuwuwuwu—"
Men did not shed tears easily; they simply had not reached the point of true sorrow.
As Jiang Ming stood there, the memories of this lifetime surged forth. The one who had passed away was his first love, his only confidante, and the mother of his child.
How was he supposed to face Tingting in the future?
His grief flowed backward into a river, and his heart-rending sobs sounded especially eerie and terrifying in the night sky.
Jiang Ming considered himself clever, but his previous life and this one had both been too miserable. Sorrow welled up from within. The Jiang Ming of this life howled in agony, overcome with grief, while the Jiang Ming of his past life stood with his back to him, an invisible sorrow pouring in without end.
In the end, even the emotions from the life before his previous one were affected. Poor him—he had died heroically and sacrificed himself gloriously in his past life. How heartbroken must his parents have been? White-haired parents sending off their black-haired child!
"Awooooooo—"
No one could see him in the middle of the night anyway. So what if he cried?
Jiang Ming cried like a four-hundred-pound brat, snot and tears streaming together. Great drops of tears rolled down his handsome, resolute face. Who could possibly compete with him in misery? He had clearly transmigrated and could now live freely, settling grievances and repaying kindness as he pleased. Yet although his main personality was the one from Earth, the other two secondary personalities surfaced from time to time, and he had no way to avoid them. They were all him. He had experienced all of it—it was simply that the Earthling version of him had not awakened those memories before.
They could not really be called personalities. They were two particularly intense thoughts, something like obsessions.
He could not help clutching his head and howling as he cried, weeping even more miserably.
"Who dares say they're more miserable than me?!"
"I fucking transmigrated, but I'm a lunatic!"
"I have split personalities!"
"I'm fucking split apart for real!"
"Awooooooo—Lingzhi, my wife! I fucking became a bachelor the moment my memories awakened!"
"Ah, Nü Yuan, my fox-spirit wife! I didn't even know before you died!"
"And my poor daughter Wan'er, who grew up in the Demon-Locking Tower and even became a lonely wandering ghost."
"Ah, wuwu—my wife whom I never met in my previous life!"
"Ah, Father, Mother, your son is unfilial. I can't be there to honor you."
"Awooooooo—"
"Well, calm down."
"Yes, crying enough is enough. The dead are gone. Those still alive must keep living bravely."
The obsessions of Jiang Ming's previous life and this life had both been shaken, and they hurriedly came to comfort Jiang Ming's main personality.
"Don't pull me. Don't mind me. Let me cry a little longer."
"..."
Jiang Ming beat his chest and stomped his feet, weeping loudly and wrenchingly. With every cry, the surrounding rocks, grass, and trees exploded into powder.
"Wuwuwu..."
Just then, a ghostly figure suddenly appeared beside Jiang Ming. He had white hair, tangled like straw, and wore clothes so ancient he looked like an old mountain corpse that had risen from the dead. He cried loudly, his sorrow coming from the depths of his heart, impossible to escape. Great tears rolled down from his cloudy eyes, streaking across his face as he wept and violently tore at his straw-like white hair.
Jiang Ming jolted at the crying, nearly suffering a qi deviation on the spot. Ahem, no need—that would have been redundant. He had already suffered a qi deviation, and he was a lunatic besides.
He glanced at the old man. Seeing that the man was caught up in his emotions, Jiang Ming did not disturb him. He turned back and continued bawling. "Wuwuwuwuwu—"
By the time dawn was near, the old man beside him could barely take it anymore.
"Let's go, let's go, little brother. The dead cannot return to life. When the song ends, the crowd disperses. The departed are gone, but the living must go on. Accept your loss and change with the times. Let's go, it's over. We had a good cry today—cried through nearly half a show.
"Since that's the case, no time like the present. Let's go see an old friend..."
The white-haired old man had a good cry, then even comforted Jiang Ming, another fallen soul at the ends of the earth. After that, he alternated between crying and grinning foolishly as he walked into the distance. His tattered, ancient clothes bore the marks of time's erosion.
"Old brother, you helped me cry it out. I'll go help you cry it out too. Let's go together."
Jiang Ming had already roughly guessed who this person was. If he was not mistaken, this had to be Madman.
He truly admired himself. One bout of crying had driven his two personalities into shutting themselves away, and had even attracted Madman to cry alongside him for half a session. The two of them could now be considered half-kindred spirits.
As the saying went, both of them were fallen souls at the ends of the earth; why did they need to have known each other before meeting?
The old man did not answer or acknowledge him, merely continued on his own way. He moved very quickly, covering several li with every step.
Fortunately, Jiang Ming was no longer someone with an undeserved reputation.
He transformed directly into a Spirit-Bright Divine Ape, using Fiery Golden Eyes to observe and learn. Following behind the old man, he studied the man's footwork and chased after him step for step.
The old man was simply walking normally, strolling leisurely through the courtyard. He was not intentionally trying to shake Jiang Ming off. Yet Jiang Ming, relying on the innate talent of the Spirit-Bright Divine Ape—a rare intelligent ferocious beast of heaven and earth—followed behind him and studied earnestly.
This was part of the incomplete Nine Secrets: Xing, one of the Nine Secrets.
Of course, it also contained Madman's own insights and understanding of this footwork.
Beneath Madman's feet, every footprint seemed, under Jiang Ming's gaze, to land upon the veins of the Dao. In the end, they intertwined into Dao Patterns. This speed did not involve space; instead, it carried the Dao rhythm of time.
Nine Secrets: Xing!
No matter what, Jiang Ming decided to learn it first.
With Nine Secrets: Xing,
he could transform into the Ferocious Beast Gu and comprehend its innate treasure technique.
Unlike before, when he had been like duckweed without roots. After transforming, he could use sixty percent of the Ferocious Beast Gu's treasure technique only because of the mysteries of the Red-Buttock Divine Ape's Seventy-Two Transformations.
Now that he had Nine Secrets: Xing, he had at least torn open a tiny crack in this Dao and could slowly comprehend it.
Just like that!
Jiang Ming followed Madman across the Great Wilderness for a hundred thousand li. Starting from Smoke Glow Ridge, they crossed half the ruins and headed toward the Desolate Forbidden Land.
"Old brother, you can go cry by yourself. I'm not going."
Jiang Ming stood outside the primitive wilderness forest on the outskirts of the Desolate Forbidden Land, his expression even uglier than a crying face.
This time, he truly did not dare enter.
As a Heavenly Tyrant Body, would he not be provoking the first-generation Great Accomplished Sacred Body within the Desolate Forbidden Land by coming here?
And there was also the Desolate Slave he had offended here—the Heavenly Jade Saintess.
He remembered that the Heavenly Jade Saintess, Madman, and Old Sage Wei Yi from the ancestral grounds of the Tianxuan Sacred Land were known as the Three Heroes of Tianxuan.
He did not know what their relationship was. Perhaps Madman had even pursued the Heavenly Jade Saintess before?
If so, would that not mean he had stolen Madman's woman?
What if the law of fate within the red thread influenced things and the Heavenly Jade Saintess came out to welcome him? Would he not be dead for sure?
This place was already a forbidden land. To Jiang Ming, it was a burial ground.
A place of ill-fated romance!
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