His First Unusual Art

(Sorry, when I was getting ready to post the second update yesterday, I suddenly realized the draft needed revisions. The setting for the Unusual Arts still needed some work, so I didn't upload it. I was out running around all day today, too, and only got back half an hour ago. I've started revising, but don't worry-today's the weekend, so there'll be three updates tonight!!!)

After finishing a round of Tai Chi Fist, Goudanzi was disappointed. It hadn't been nearly as perfect as he had imagined. In fact, it could even be called deeply flawed.

Still, he had found the reason for those flaws, so although he felt some regret, he wasn't particularly worried.

This mismatch between the circulation of his internal energy and blood and his own control could easily be resolved with enough time, but one morning certainly wouldn't be enough.

He glanced at the sky. By now, his family should all be awake. If his mother woke up and couldn't find him, he would probably get another fierce tongue-lashing.

At that thought, Goudanzi decided not to linger. He turned and headed home, never noticing the wisp of black mist drifting slowly down from the cliff on the wind.

At first, that wisp of black mist merely swirled with the wind, floating along at a leisurely pace. But once it came within a hundred feet of Goudanzi, it seemed to be drawn to him, abruptly picking up speed. Goudanzi hadn't noticed the faint mist at all and was completely off guard. He had barely taken a few steps after turning around when it caught up with him, settled slowly onto the top of his head, and seeped into his skull.

Goudanzi's body suddenly stiffened midstride. A trace of bewilderment appeared in his eyes, and he fell to the ground with a thud.

An hour later, the frantic members of the Zhou Household finally found Goudanzi lying on the ground behind their courtyard, already stiff as a corpse. Another uproar followed, with chickens flying and dogs jumping!

"How did I end up in this damned place again?!"

An endless void, with a strange eye suspended overhead. Goudanzi felt dizzy-truly dizzy. He knew he had actually passed out, but the problem was that he had no idea why. He had only just woken up not long ago, and his body had been recovering well. Through those strange eyes of his, he hadn't seen anything wrong with his body, either. How could he have suddenly fallen unconscious?

He soon learned the answer.

Because in this utterly empty void, he saw something that shouldn't have been there.

A mass of black mist.

A mass of black mist floated not far from him. He didn't know what it was, but instinctively sensed a hint of danger. Goudanzi began backing away.

The mass of black mist moved after him. Seeing it follow, Goudanzi grew even more frightened. He had lived two lives, yet had never seen anything so bizarre. People always feared the unknown, and even after two lifetimes, Goudanzi was no exception.

The black mist was uncannily persistent, trailing Goudanzi the whole time. He had no idea how long he ran, but he simply couldn't shake it off. Not only that, it kept drawing closer and closer until, finally, it lunged onto him.

"Aah-!"

When the black mist pounced onto him, Goudanzi screamed. Of course, if he had been able to make a sound at that moment, he certainly would have screamed. He didn't know that he, too, was now a mass of black mist, merely much denser than the wisp that had caught him. The scream was only a sensation-the cry of his soul.

"What is this-?!"

After sensing his own scream, however, Goudanzi realized things weren't as bad as he had imagined. This black mist wasn't some legendary vengeful spirit or vicious ghost, nor was it a soul trying to possess him like those he had read about in webnovels.

"The Twofold Heaven-Piercing Sword?!"

Once the wisp of black mist clung to Goudanzi's "body," it merged with him. In an instant, countless fragments of information and memories poured into his mind. Goudanzi stopped running and stood still, working hard to absorb this sudden influx.

"Li Haoran, Grand Elder of the Black Dragon Society...!"

That was the first piece of information he received.

"Old One-Eye of West Mountain, Demon Beast... Inner Core...!"

That was the second.

"A devilish young man...!"

That was the third.

"The wind, such a fierce wind! It's about to scatter my soul-!"

"...

..."

The last piece, which was also the most complete, was-

The Twofold Heaven-Piercing Sword!

"This cultivation method really is bizarre. It seems to belong to an entirely different system from internal power and Sword Qi!"

Having received the information on the Twofold Heaven-Piercing Sword, Goudanzi began slowly pondering it. From what he had learned, he more or less understood what had happened.

This must have been someone's soul. The unlucky fellow had been killed, but because he had cultivated a special secret method, his soul hadn't been completely destroyed even though his body had died. He had even had a chance to possess another body and be reborn, living another life just like Goudanzi. Unfortunately, his luck hadn't been very good-or rather, it hadn't reached the heaven-defying heights of Goudanzi's.

Ghosts were fragile, fragile in the extreme. Under ordinary circumstances, a normal person's soul dispersed the instant they died. The soul of someone with a strong will might linger for a little while, but as time passed, without energy to sustain it, it would gradually disappear as well. Only those who had cultivated some secret method and made the power of their Divine Soul immensely strong could retain spiritual awareness after death and have a chance to possess another body and be reborn. But how many such people could there be?

And that wasn't all. Even someone who had cultivated a secret method, strengthened their Divine Soul, and gained the ability to possess another body had to meet a condition: there could be no outside interference. The strength of a Divine Soul was relative. Compared with heaven, earth, and nature, it was incomparably fragile. A gust of wind could scatter it, let alone a thunderstorm encountered through sheer bad luck-a single thunderclap could blast a Yin Soul apart.

Li Haoran had cultivated the Twofold Heaven-Piercing Sword. Although it wasn't a secret method for cultivating the Divine Soul, as a powerful Unusual Art, it naturally had a strengthening effect on it. Thus, after his death, his soul hadn't dispersed, and he had retained a tiny trace of spiritual awareness. Unfortunately, he had died at West Mountain Pass, a damned place that funneled the wind, in weather plagued by raging cold gusts. Once the wind struck his Yin Soul, it scattered almost completely. Even his most basic spiritual awareness was gone. Only the things etched most deeply into his memories remained, drifting on the wind. By some ghostly twist of fate, they floated to the cliff behind the Zhou family's home, where Goudanzi happened to be practicing.

This final wisp of Divine Soul sensed Goudanzi's presence and instinctively chose the nearest vessel, rushing straight into him.

Having lost even its most basic spiritual awareness, this wisp of Divine Soul was merely a jumble of scattered memories and posed no threat whatsoever. Thus, Goudanzi absorbed those memories without much effort.

Li Haoran's memories were far too scattered and incomplete, so apart from his name and identity, Goudanzi knew nothing about him. There was, of course, also the young man who had killed Li Haoran. As the final memory of Li Haoran's life, the entire sequence was complete and deeply etched into his mind. Goudanzi could feel the terror that young man had inspired in him before his death.

"When did such a formidable expert show up around here? I have no idea what he came here for. Hopefully, he won't stir up any trouble!"

Scenes of the young man killing flashed through Goudanzi's mind, sending an icy chill through his entire body.

Soon, however, Goudanzi's thoughts focused on the Twofold Heaven-Piercing Sword. For a martial artist, the things most deeply imprinted in the mind were surely martial techniques and cultivation methods, and Li Haoran was no exception. This cultivation method had been engraved deep in his memories. Even after he had died and become a final wisp of lingering soul, his memory of the Twofold Heaven-Piercing Sword, which he had obtained by chance, remained just as vivid, without the slightest missing piece.