Madman

"Lingzhi, I came to see you."

Jiang Ming held a Purple Star Orchid in his hand. It was the spirit flower Lingzhi had loved most in life. At this moment, he had 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 man of deep feeling in his previous life. He would never visit his daughter and beloved while wreathed in sinister demonic aura.

Jiang Ming stood quietly on Green Bamboo Slope of Smoke Glow Ridge, dressed in white 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 eerie, ghostly wails and howls from this place. The sound shook the surrounding woods until they rustled violently and made the earth tremble.

"Lingzhi, after today, I'll be leaving this place.

Awooooo—Lingzhi, I can't even find a trace of your ashes! Ah, woooooo—"

Men did not cry easily; they simply had not reached the depths of sorrow.

As Jiang Ming stood there, the memories of this lifetime surged through him. 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 from now on?

His grief flowed like a river running backward, and his heart-rending sobs sounded especially eerie and terrifying in the night sky.

Jiang Ming had thought himself clever, but both his previous life and this life had been too miserable. Sorrow welled up from within. The him of this life was howling in agony and inconsolable grief, while the him from his previous life stood with his back turned to him, sending forth an endless stream of intangible sorrow.

In the end, even the emotions from the life before that were affected. He had died heroically and sacrificed himself gloriously in that life. How devastated 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 child, snot and tears streaming down his face. Great tears rolled down his handsome, resolute features. Who could possibly be more miserable than him? He had clearly transmigrated and could finally live freely, settling grudges as he pleased. Yet although his primary personality was his Earth self, two secondary personalities would emerge from time to time, and he had no way to avoid them. They were all him, and he had lived through all of it. It was simply that the Earth version of him had not awakened those memories before.

They could not really be called personalities. They were more like two particularly powerful thoughts, similar to obsessions.

He could not help clutching his head and howling as he cried, even more miserably than before.

"Who dares say they're more miserable than me?!"

"I fucking transmigrated, but I'm mentally ill!"

"I have split personalities!"

"I'm fucking falling apart for real!"

"Awooooo—Lingzhi! My wife! I fucking became a widower the moment my memories awakened!"

"Ah, Nü Yuan! My fox-spirit wife! I didn't even know, and you were already dead!"

"And my poor daughter Wan'er, who grew up in the Demon-Locking Tower and even became a wandering ghost!"

"Ah, wooo—I never even met my wife in my previous life!"

"Ah, Father, Mother, your son is unfilial! I can't repay your kindness anymore!"

"Awooooooo—"

"Um, calm down."

"Right. It's enough crying. The dead are gone, and the living still need to live bravely."

The obsessions of Jiang Ming's previous life and this life both wavered, hurrying over to comfort Jiang Ming's primary 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. Every cry was heart-rending, and with each sob, the surrounding rocks, grass, and trees burst apart into dust.

"Woooooo..."

At that moment, a ghostly figure suddenly appeared beside Jiang Ming. He had a head full of white hair, tangled like straw, and wore clothes so ancient that he looked like an old mountain corpse that had risen from the dead. He wept loudly, his sorrow coming from the depths of his heart and impossible to escape. Huge tears rolled from his cloudy eyes, streaking down his face as he cried and violently tore at his straw-like white hair.

Jiang Ming shuddered at the sound of his crying and nearly went into cultivation deviation on the spot. Ahem, no need for that—it would be redundant. He had already gone into cultivation deviation, and he was mentally ill too.

He glanced at the old man and saw that he was caught up in his emotions, so he did not disturb him. Jiang Ming turned back around and continued sobbing, "Woooooo—"

As dawn approached, even the old man beside him could barely hold on.

"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, while the living must go on. Accept your loss and adapt. Let's go, it's over. Today was satisfying—we cried for half a show.

Since that's the case, no day is better than today. Let's go see an old friend..."

After having a good cry, the white-haired old man even comforted Jiang Ming, another fallen soul at the ends of the earth. Then, alternating between crying and foolish laughter, he strode away into the distance. His tattered, ancient clothes were covered in traces left by the erosion of time.

"Old brother, you helped me cry for a while. I'll go help you cry too. Let's go together."

Jiang Ming had already roughly guessed who this person was. If he was not mistaken, this was Madman.

He truly admired himself. One round of crying had driven both of his personalities into depression and even attracted Madman, who had cried alongside him for half a show. The two of them could now be considered half-confidants.

As the saying went, both of them were fallen souls at the ends of the earth; why did they need to have met before to recognize each other?

The old man neither answered nor paid him any attention, merely continuing on his way. He moved incredibly fast, covering several li with every step.

Fortunately, Jiang Ming was no longer some nobody.

He immediately transformed into a Spirit-Bright Divine Ape and used Fiery Golden Eyes to observe and learn. Following behind the old man, he studied his footwork and chased after him step by step.

The old man was simply walking normally, strolling leisurely through the courtyard. He was not deliberately trying to shake Jiang Ming off. Yet Jiang Ming, relying on the Spirit-Bright Divine Ape's innate talent as one of the rarest intelligent ferocious beasts in the world, followed behind the old man 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, eventually interweaving into Dao Patterns. This speed was not related to space. Instead, it carried the Dao charm of time.

Nine Secrets: Xing!

No matter what, Jiang Ming decided to learn it first.

With this Nine Secrets: Xing,

he could transform into 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 Ferocious Beast Gu's treasure technique. That had only been possible because of the profound 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 path and could slowly comprehend it.

And so!

Jiang Ming followed Madman across a hundred thousand li of wilderness. Starting from Smoke Glow Ridge, they crossed half the ruins before continuing toward the Desolate Forbidden Land.

"Old brother, you go cry by yourself. I won't be going."

Jiang Ming stood outside the primeval wilderness at the edge of the Desolate Forbidden Land, his expression uglier than if he had been crying.

This time, he truly did not dare enter.

As someone with the Heavenly Tyrant Body, would coming here not amount to provoking the first generation Great Completion Sacred Body within the Desolate Forbidden Land?

There was also the Desolate Slave he had provoked here, the Heavenly Jade Saintess.

He remembered that the Heavenly Jade Saintess, Madman, and Old Sage Wei Yi from the ancestral grounds of Heavenly Jade Holy Land were known as the Three Heroes of Heavenly Jade.

Who knew what their relationship was? Perhaps Madman had even pursued the Heavenly Jade Saintess?

If that was the case, had he not stolen Madman's girl?

If the karmic laws of romance in the red thread affected things and the Heavenly Jade Saintess came out to welcome him, would he not be doomed?

This place was already a forbidden land. To Jiang Ming, it was a burial ground.

A place of cursed romance!

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