Suppress!

Fu Yuan soothed the Soul Heavenly Gold through soul transmission, presenting an amiable, approachable image.

He pressed forward as they spoke, and sure enough, he met with no further resistance.

As he descended into the depths of the vast waters, the light radiating from the Soul Heavenly Gold spread around him, bathing everything in a lustrous white.

Sacred and snow-white, it was like flawless white jade from the nine heavens. Ripples spread around it, and concentrated soul power undulated through the water.

Fu Yuan was truly shocked. This was the finest Heavenly Gold, suitable as the principal material for an emperor weapon, and the piece here was a full three meters wide and one meter tall. It had even developed sentience.

Heavenly Gold of this caliber was exceedingly rare. A piece the size of a fingernail was enough to make a Saint green with envy, while a fist-sized piece could send Saints fighting to the death.

Fu Yuan considered it. The souls of living beings below the Divine Fire Realm were fragile and had their limits. If he suppressed it and erased its sentience, it would be enough for him to cultivate his soul power to perfection in the Saint Realm, complete and without flaw.

When inanimate objects such as Heavenly Gold and strange stones developed sentience, they were called Holy Spirits. Favored by the Great Dao of heaven and earth, they encountered almost no obstacles in cultivation, progressing even more smoothly than a Holy Body.

A fully matured Holy Spirit could command the Great Dao of heaven and earth and battle a Great Emperor.

"No matter how good Heavenly Gold is, it's still an external thing. My path is destined to be extraordinary." In an instant, Fu Yuan made up his mind.

The Soul Heavenly Gold found this good-looking human very strange. One moment he gave off an evil air, and the next he seemed sacred, full of contradictions.

The human and the Heavenly Gold communicated through their souls. Fu Yuan became the big bad wolf coaxing Little Red Riding Hood, persuading the Soul Heavenly Gold to leave with him.

"I can't move." The Soul Heavenly Gold felt deeply aggrieved. Ever since developing sentience, he had wanted countless times to leave and look around.

The Double Pupils opened and closed, flashing with golden light as mysterious runes intertwined. A pattern was inscribed on the Soul Heavenly Gold's body.

Only when he opened his Double Pupils to their utmost could he barely make it out.

"An ancient character. Was it left by an immortal?" Fu Yuan speculated in shock.

It had neither been carved nor written. It was beyond imagining, vast as heaven and earth, weighty as the Great Dao. Without his Double Pupils, Fu Yuan feared he would never have discovered it, even if he had exhausted a thousand methods.

A single character contained the Great Dao, as though it were the origin and embodiment of a supreme Great Dao. Fu Yuan became absorbed, gazing at it in a daze.

At that moment, peerless beauties and picturesque scenery were not worth mentioning. The world held only a single character. Fu Yuan was like a speck of dust between heaven and earth, chancing into a dream and catching sight of an Immortal Venerable.

A billion worlds within one palm, endless galaxies unfolding in two eyes.

Eight hundred Immortal Kings sat on azure lotuses, a million immortals stood among them.

During that moment of enlightenment, Fu Yuan seemed to see a living being, hazy and impossible to discern or fathom, yet he could sense that being's power. What astonishing might it was: alone, the being suppressed the ages; with a word, it suppressed heaven and earth. A billion immortals bowed their heads, and all the Daos of the heavens honored it together...

He did not know how much time had passed. Perhaps it had been as long as an epoch, perhaps as brief as a single second. Fu Yuan came to himself.

"What a dazzling, glorious era!" Fu Yuan exclaimed from the heart. Since entering the World Road, his understanding had been overturned time and again.

How he yearned for that dazzling, glorious Immortal Ancient era!

"You're awake!" The soul transmission was filled with a childlike voice and anxiety. The Soul Heavenly Gold had never felt time pass so slowly. He had stirred up soul ripples thousands upon thousands of times, trying again and again to wake Fu Yuan, but to no avail.

"How much time has passed?" Fu Yuan asked. That state was too hard to find: perceiving the primordial origin of the Great Dao, pure and flawless.

The Soul Heavenly Gold fell silent. He had no concept of time. Perhaps eight thousand two hundred soul ripples had passed.

Fu Yuan kept recalling that state, tracing shapes in the air with both hands.

"Suppress!"

Fu Yuan cried out softly, uttering the single word. The flowing water stopped, the lustrous white light froze, and everything around him, affected by the character for suppress that he had traced, fell into a brief standstill.

"Suppress!"

Fu Yuan pressed two fingers of his right hand together and traced another character.

Boom!

A great mountain bore down, stirring up countless specks of dust and sending water surging in countless waves.

Fu Yuan did not stop. He closed his eyes and concentrated, hoping to perform a third technique. A full quarter of an hour passed before a helpless sigh sounded.

"What a pity!" Fu Yuan sighed helplessly. That single character contained a supreme Great Dao and countless techniques, yet he could comprehend only two.

"Amazing!" The Soul Heavenly Gold was awed by those two displays and instantly became a little fanboy.

Only then did Fu Yuan notice that the Soul Heavenly Gold was no longer in his original position. He had moved to Fu Yuan's side.

More strangely still, his face and clothes were identical to Fu Yuan's, as though Fu Yuan were looking in a mirror.

"Why do you look like that?" Fu Yuan smiled wryly. Seeing someone with an identical appearance standing before him was strange any way he looked at it.

"Can't I?"

Wearing Fu Yuan's appearance, the Soul Heavenly Gold put on an aggrieved look that was almost enough to stir pity.

While Fu Yuan had been in that strange state, he had broken free.

"No, change it!" Fu Yuan refused firmly. The thought of facing that appearance from now on sent a chill through him.

"How about picking one?" Fu Yuan grinned wickedly and showed him images of Jin So-and-so, Liu So-and-so, and others from his previous life. Indulging his mischievous tastes, he included some he liked himself.

There were the fairy sister, Big Mimi, and the "breast goddess." Fu Yuan had even photoshopped their pictures to make them more perfect. (Wicked grin. This absolutely wasn't the dog author indulging his own tastes; blame it all on the male lead.)

Although Holy Spirits had no distinction of sex, Fu Yuan still felt guilty.

Of course, our "glorious" Lord Fu Yuan felt only the tiniest bit, and it was instantly washed away by excitement and cast to the back of his mind.

"No." The Soul Heavenly Gold shook his head like a rattle drum.

Fu Yuan still wanted to argue his case and have him choose according to his own wishes. Perhaps sensing his sordid thoughts, the Soul Heavenly Gold took the form of a white-robed youth the next moment.

His features were picturesque, his bearing refined and scholarly, and his figure tall and straight. Everything about him conveyed two words.

Dashing and debonair!

"Damn, he's even more handsome than me!" Fu Yuan swore outright, unable to accept it at all. He urged the Soul Heavenly Gold not to pay too much attention to his appearance, or bad people would take notice of him.

The Soul Heavenly Gold merely smiled, neither responding nor agreeing.

The two returned the way they had come. Without the Soul Heavenly Gold, the strange sight of the vast waters flowing backward vanished. The immense current battered the earth and rock without cease, seeking to carve out a new waterway.

"From now on, how about I call you Xiao Jin, Fu Jin?" Fu Yuan asked on their way back.

The Soul Heavenly Gold shook his head again. He instinctively disliked the name. His brows drew together slightly in the shape of the character 川, and he said one word: "Feng, Feng."

"Feng works too, though it's not quite as good as my Jin." The youth's eyes curved. "Then from now on, I'll call you Xiao Feng, Fu Feng."

"Fu Feng, Fu Feng!" The Soul Heavenly Gold's ability to learn was astonishing. Imitating Fu Yuan, he parted his lips and repeated the name over and over.

He liked it, liked the name very much.

It reminded him of an old acquaintance, the one whose appearance he now wore.

Fu Yuan did not yet know what karma lay behind the face the Soul Heavenly Gold wore.

He was only the second living being the Soul Heavenly Gold had met.

And the first had been surnamed Ji, given name Feng.

Ji Feng!