Drip...
Drip...
Lin Jing gradually regained consciousness. He opened his eyes, and a cold, damp breath of air struck his face.
Where was this?
An indescribable musty odor filled the air, mingled with the scent of damp earth. Moss and inky mold covered the surrounding walls, while the sound of water dripping somewhere made the place even colder and more sinister.
A prison cell?
After surveying the dim surroundings, Lin Jing reached that conclusion, finding it absurd.
He had just passed an immortal's test and was about to follow him to cultivate and pursue eternal life. How had he ended up somewhere like this?
"You're awake?"
A sharp pain stabbed through his head. Before he could make sense of anything else, a weak voice came from nearby. Only then did Lin Jing realize that he seemed to have a neighbor.
He tried to struggle, only to find that he couldn't get up. His body was completely rigid.
"Don't waste your strength." The voice came again. "We've both had a Body-Binding Spell cast on us."
"Who are you?" Lin Jing asked.
"Someone abducted by immortal traffickers, just like you," the man replied.
"..."
Immortal traffickers?
What the hell were those?
At those words, Lin Jing quickly searched his memories.
He was a transmigrator from a blue planet.
After arriving here, he had discovered that immortals and gods actually existed.
Since he was already here, Lin Jing had soon found a new purpose.
He wanted to cultivate!
His memories stopped at the point where, after painstakingly searching for immortals, his astonishing talent and heaven-defying constitution had finally earned him admission to a cultivation organization called the Green Bull Taoist Temple.
Then everything had gone black. He couldn't remember anything after that, and now he was locked up here.
"Immortal traffickers?" Lin Jing was speechless.
Don't tell me the cultivation organization he had worked so hard to find was actually a human-trafficking den...
Damn those immortals and their whole damn lot!
The weak voice came again.
"By the way... what constitution do you have, brother?"
"If the Corpse Yin Sect took an interest in you, you must be a cultivation genius like me."
"Me? A genius?" Lin Jing didn't know whether to feel pleased or miserable.
From what the man said, that did seem to be the case. Perhaps he really did have some talent for cultivation. Otherwise, he might not even have been worth selling.
But his sole advantage since transmigrating now seemed to have become a summons to his own death.
"Brother, don't panic just yet. Being abducted and brought here doesn't necessarily mean we're finished."
"I'm not panicking. So what happens to us next?" Lin Jing took a deep breath.
He was an optimistic person.
During his serious illness, encouragement from his friends and family had helped him develop a positive, optimistic outlook.
With a good outlook, his luck couldn't be too bad.
See? Hadn't he avoided dying and transmigrated instead?
He had gotten an extra life for free.
"...The Corpse Yin Sect is one of the cultivation world's three great demonic sects. They specialize in the illegal business of human trafficking."
"They capture low-level cultivators or mortals with rare constitutions and sell them to high-level cultivators, who use them as bodies to possess or as resources for cultivating demonic arts."
"Under normal circumstances, our fate is obvious. Either we become empty shells for some cultivator to possess and start cultivating anew, or we get refined into human elixirs."
"But, brother..." the man said, "we aren't entirely without a way out. I asked about your constitution because some special constitutions don't necessarily meet a fatal end."
The weak voice continued, "Take me, for example. I have a primordial yang body, which makes me the ideal dual-cultivation vessel. Even if I die, it'll only be from having my essence drained dry-dying in bliss. If I'm lucky and the buyer is a kindhearted female cultivator, I might not even die... That's the sliver of hope I meant."
Lin Jing fell silent.
No wonder you aren't panicking.
Why does it feel like you're even looking forward to it?
"So what about you, brother? Let me help you figure it out."
"Me..."
What cultivation constitution did he have?
As far as he knew, more than ninety-nine percent of cultivators in this world started with ordinary bodies. A fortunate few, however, were born with spiritual bodies of various attributes or special constitutions, and they could often travel much farther down the path of cultivation.
When he joined the Green Bull Taoist Temple, that Taoist Green Bull had apparently said he had a cultivation constitution rarer than one in a hundred million-a longevity body!
A short-lived wretch paired with a longevity body. Even he had found it surprising.
The man had claimed that once he embarked on the path of immortality, his lifespan would be at least ten times that of other cultivators at the same realm!
The constitution's effect seemed rather plain, but it was still better than an ordinary body. Lin Jing had already decided to lie low in the temple for a few thousand years, cultivating until he was invincible before venturing out into the world.
But who could have known that, before he'd had much time to celebrate...
So was this longevity body of his even real?
"If I have a longevity body, what would happen to me?" Lin Jing asked.
"Hm? A longevity body?!" The man with the primordial yang body froze, then spoke in astonishment. Even his voice grew stronger, no longer weak.
"You actually have a longevity body!"
"Then you're done for."
Lin Jing: ?
"Rumor has it that although cultivators with longevity bodies live exceptionally long lives, eating their flesh and blood can also grant 'ageless longevity.' I've heard that their flesh and blood are incredibly nourishing to monsters and hold an unimaginable allure for demonic beasts."
"I'm afraid... the Corpse Yin Sect will sell you to some demon king, and you'll become food!" The man with the primordial yang body sighed in pity.
Lin Jing: ?
So he was basically Tang Sanzang's flesh!
"That's not so bad, then." Yet a moment later, Lin Jing breathed a sigh of relief.
"I still have a sliver of hope."
"How do you figure?" The man with the primordial yang body was taken aback.
"Although I don't know much about longevity bodies, I reckon the higher the cultivator's realm, the better the effects of eating them must be." Lin Jing began analyzing the situation too.
"In other words, I might not get eaten immediately after I'm sold."
"The demon king might forcibly raise my cultivation first, then eat me."
"Besides, eating all of me at once would be far too extravagant. If I were the demon king, I'd slowly improve my quality, draw blood and cut off flesh every day, and keep eating me in a cycle. That would maximize my value. When the time comes, I'll suggest it to the demon king. We might even establish a long-term partnership."
"That's still better than having my body possessed outright..."
"Huh?" The man with the primordial yang body blurted out, utterly stunned.
He desperately wanted to ask, Are you a normal mortal? What on earth have you been through?
But in the end, he didn't ask...
Neither of them spoke.
Lin Jing once again gazed upward in silence.
An unknown amount of time passed.
With a startling boom, the cell shook.
Lin Jing, who had been sitting with his eyes closed, thinking who knew what, opened his eyes at the same time as the man with the primordial yang body.
A tremendous commotion came from outside. Someone seemed to be fighting.
Hearing the noise, Lin Jing suddenly remembered a few key words. "Brother Vessel, didn't you say earlier that the Corpse Yin Sect engages in illegal activities and is a demonic sect?"
"In other words, there are 'righteous law-enforcement organizations' in the cultivation world, right?"
"If that's the case, don't we have another way out? We could be rescued by righteous cultivators before we're sold."
The man with the primordial yang body craned his head. He hadn't expected this mortal to catch on so quickly. More importantly, his emotions were far too steady.
Still, his surname wasn't Vessel.
"Right?!" Lin Jing remained calm. He'd known it-heaven always left a way out.
That commotion... perhaps a righteous fairy had come to rescue them!
As soon as he finished speaking, the stone wall shattered and the enormous cell was smashed apart. Amid the flying rubble, an immensely powerful black bear monster, as tall as two people standing one atop the other, stepped over the ruins and appeared before Lin Jing.
The black bear monster's muscles bulged, and its eyes were blood-red. As it stared at Lin Jing, drool poured constantly from its fang-filled mouth, and it spoke in a human tongue:
"I smelled something delicious from way off..."
"What a stroke of shit luck! Finding a longevity body in a tiny place like this, with only a few puny Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators guarding it."
"Looks like I'm in for a mighty nourishing feast..."
As the black bear finished speaking, Lin Jing's smile faded. Wait, where the hell had this monster crawled out from?
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