Back at the inn, Luo Feng sat down on the board of the single bed.
He took out his phone and opened the chat app.
He replied to his family's messages.
Over the past three months, Luo Feng had occasionally called home.
He listened as his mother chattered about how comfortable the villa was and how much better his father's health had become.
Luo Feng could only force a smile and agree, saying he was busy and that everything was going smoothly outside the Base City, so they needn't worry.
Luo Feng didn't dare return to Mingyue Residential Area.
He didn't dare tell his family about the changes to his body.
Still less did he dare imagine what would happen when he lost his status as a warrior.
What expressions would be on his family's faces when they were forced to move back to that cramped, shabby old residential complex?
It was easy to go from frugality to luxury, but hard to go from luxury to frugality.
To have tasted hope and security, only to be knocked back to square one-
That was a hundred times crueler than never having had them at all.
At that moment, Luo Feng's nose suddenly stung, and his vision blurred again.
Scalding tears finally broke through the last pitiful remnant of his self-control and streamed down his cheeks.
Luo Feng abruptly lowered his head, his shoulders trembling uncontrollably.
A man did not shed tears lightly; he simply had not yet reached the depths of sorrow.
Those salty, bitter tears carried three months of resentment and self-reproach.
And, deepest of all, his guilt toward his family.
Luo Feng bit down hard on his lower lip, refusing to let a single sob escape.
Only his breathing, suppressed to the utmost, sounded particularly heavy in the silent room.
Just then, in Luo Feng's spiritual sea of consciousness-
Hmm?
An extremely faint voice, thick with confusion and bewilderment, surfaced without warning.
The voice came neither from outside nor from Luo Feng's own thoughts.
Luo Feng was immersed in immense grief and noticed nothing.
Darkness.
Boundless darkness, where even the concept of time was hazy.
Then, a faint flicker of perception slowly emerged.
Lin Mo's consciousness began to coalesce, bit by bit, and awaken.
Didn't I die?
The thought was like a bolt of lightning, cleaving through his chaotic mind.
Fragments of his memories from before his death came surging back.
Lin Mo recalled that battle. Because of that damned Demon Race Universe Overlord,
he had been left with no choice but to self-destruct all his Immortal Divine Bodies!
In the end, he had fallen!
Could it be that a Universe Master from some major power resurrected me?
Heavens! Wouldn't that mean I'd have to risk my life for that power for hundreds of millions of years?!
At the thought, Lin Mo felt he might as well have stayed dead.
No, if I was resurrected, why does my body feel so weak?
Lin Mo tried to move, only to feel an unprecedented sluggishness and strangeness.
The familiar body that had answered his every command was gone.
He could not sense the laws of the universe.
My consciousness and perception are severely mismatched. This isn't my body!
This vessel is even outrageously weak!
Lin Mo's heart shook. He immediately focused his perception, which had only just awakened and was still feeble, and reached outward.
The first thing he saw was the interior of this body.
Its meridians were thin and withered, and its genetic level was extremely low!
There was not even a trace of baptism by cosmic energy.
This was nothing more than a garbage body that had never undergone any enhancement and had not even reached the Apprentice Level!
It was not even fit to be a slave!
Next, through the body's senses,
Lin Mo finally saw his surroundings clearly.
A cramped, confined space, with peeling walls.
The furniture was crude and worn smooth with use, and the air was filled with a faint smell of mildew and cheap cleaning products.
The surroundings are this appalling?
With all that Lin Mo had seen and the status he had once held, when had he ever seen such a primitive, crude dwelling?
Just as his puzzlement deepened, Lin Mo sensed a person.
It was the figure of a black-haired young man, his head lowered and his shoulders shaking.
He was clearly in the grip of immense grief.
At the same time, a faint but distinct spiritual fluctuation emanated from the core of this body's consciousness.
Lin Mo caught it precisely.
Luo Feng?
A name surfaced naturally in the depths of Lin Mo's consciousness.
He carefully sensed the spiritual fluctuations and life aura coming from Luo Feng.
His emotions are fluctuating wildly, and his heart is flawed. Though his will hasn't completely collapsed, it isn't far from it.
Strange. Why is Luo Feng so weak at this point in time?
Lin Mo silently speculated.
Meeting by chance is fate.
Besides, this young man's future concerns my grand plan for resurrection!
Many thoughts flashed through his mind.
Lin Mo decided to try making first contact with the owner of this body, Luo Feng.
He gathered a faint but incomparably concentrated strand of thought.
He sent it toward Luo Feng.
"Young friend, what has brought you such sorrow?"
The voice was calm and ancient, resounding directly in the depths of Luo Feng's mind.
"Who's there?!"
Luo Feng's entire body stiffened, as though ice water had been poured over him from head to toe.
All his sorrow and vulnerability were replaced in an instant by the utmost vigilance.
He sprang up like a startled leopard, his back pressed tightly against the cold wall.
His gaze darted like lightning as he quickly scanned the cheap inn room, which measured less than ten square meters.
The window was shut tight, the curtains were drawn, and the door lock was intact.
Apart from his own heavy breathing, the room was silent.
There was no sign of a second person.
An illusion? An auditory hallucination brought on by too much stress?
No! That voice was too clear!
Every word had an indescribable quality to it.
Cold and indifferent, yet seemingly imbued with the weight of passing ages, it was nothing he could have imagined himself.
"Who's there? Come out!"
Luo Feng shouted in a low voice, crouching slightly.
He assumed a defensive stance: though his strength was gone, his instincts remained.
His fists clenched, his heart pounded in his chest, and cold sweat instantly soaked his undershirt.
Was it someone the martial arts school had sent to watch him?
Or some other power?
In his current state, what did he have left that anyone could want?
"There's no need to look. You won't find me."
The voice rang out again, still calm and unruffled, with even a faint hint of understanding.
It was as though the speaker had long anticipated Luo Feng's reaction.
Luo Feng's pupils contracted sharply.
He could not locate the source of the voice. It seemed to be everywhere, yet also seemed not to exist in this space at all.
The inexplicable phenomenon sent an even deeper chill through his heart.
"Who are you? Stop playing ghosts and gods!"
He forced himself to calm down, but his voice still carried a barely perceptible tremor.
The unknown was often more frightening than a known danger.
A brief silence followed.
The voice seemed to ponder for a moment before asking in return, in an almost playful tone:
"Would you like me to tell the truth, or a lie?"
Luo Feng froze, then gritted his teeth and said,
"The truth, of course!"
Things had come to this. What did he have left to fear?
The worst outcome would be losing his status as a warrior and his family coming to harm.
If the presence in the shadows meant him harm, his ruined body would be powerless to resist anyway.
"Very well. Remember this."
The voice's tone abruptly changed, an indescribable pride showing through its calm.