Do you want to die?

Just as Li Yan began to sink into the pool, a flicker of emotion broke through Strategist Ji's wooden expression on the bank. "He held out until he absorbed two-thirds of the medicinal power, just like the previous disciple. But with his mixed spirit root aptitude, refining that power to reach the first level of qi condensation will be even harder. Whatever the case, I won't know until I try. Hopefully, it won't end like last time."

He put aside his thoughts and pushed off the ground with both feet, springing into the air. His arms spread level with his shoulders, his broad sleeves billowing in the wind as he swept toward the pool like a black roc. Just before he reached the surface, he flicked one sleeve at the black vapors still circling and surging over the water. With a series of pops, the ten streams of black vapor broke into fine wisps of smoke and scattered. He then swooped down, reaching his other hand out of his sleeve toward Li Yan, who had begun sinking beneath the surface. With a splash, he seized Li Yan by the chest and hauled him out of the water. He tapped the surface with his toes, changed direction in midair, and flew back toward the bank with Li Yan. The unconscious young man seemed almost weightless in his hand. Like a wisp of smoke, he drifted ashore, his movements as swift and nimble as a hare springing up and a falcon swooping down.

What he failed to notice was that, when his left hand swept away the black vapors, a thread of golden light escaped from the strange book he kept hidden in his sleeve and constantly gripped. Carried out by that sweep, it mingled with the dispersing black smoke above the water, then pierced through it and shot toward Li Yan's body as he was lifted out. It vanished into him in a flash, leaving no trace.

After landing firmly on the bank, Strategist Ji laid Li Yan flat beside the water. He rapidly formed several hand seals before his chest, then pointed at Li Yan's abdomen. Several specks of blue-green light shot into it.

Li Yan's body shuddered, then went still again. Strategist Ji frowned at the sight. He formed another series of hand seals, sending even more blue-green light into Li Yan's abdomen, but this time Li Yan's body showed no reaction at all.

His brows tightly knitted, Strategist Ji strode over to Li Yan, bent down, and held a finger beneath his nose. His frown deepened. "How strange. He isn't dead, yet he won't wake. Last time, a single infusion of spiritual energy brought the disciple around. Why is it different this time?" He straightened, pressed a hand to his forehead, and began to ponder.

At that moment, fire poison was rampaging through Li Yan's body, utterly destroying the meridians wherever it passed. Just as his life was about to be extinguished, another inexplicable force suddenly arose within him. Immense beyond measure, it surged like waves of cool, rushing water, sweeping through every part of his body at astonishing speed. The meridians scorched and ruined by the fire poison began recovering at a terrifying rate wherever those tides passed, while the fire poison itself was forced into one corner of his body by that enormous power. When Strategist Ji's first specks of blue-green light entered him, a little clarity returned to his mind. These past several dozen days of arduous practice had made cultivation instinctive. He was just about to sit up and refine that day's medicinal power when a sharp shout rang through his mind: "Do you want to die?" His head buzzed, and he lost all sensation and consciousness.

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After an unknown length of time—perhaps a moment, perhaps much longer—Li Yan slowly came around. He was about to open his eyes when a voice sounded slowly in his mind. "Don't open your eyes yet, or you may not be far from death." Li Yan froze. He tried to open his mouth to ask a question, only to discover that he could make no sound. In his panic, he tried to open his eyes and look around, but found that he could not open them either. "I told you not to open your eyes, yet you wouldn't listen. Now you've made me waste what little magical power I have left." The voice drifted through his mind, steeped in exhaustion.

Li Yan was horrified. Am I already dead? Is hell this dark? I can't see, and even speaking is too much to hope for. Just then, a wave of dizziness swept through his mind, and countless images flashed rapidly before him. When he could finally see clearly, he discovered that he was above a small stretch of black lake water, his body inexplicably suspended over it. The sky was dark as well. There was no wind over this little lake, nor any waves. Its profound stillness felt oppressive. He could neither descend nor rise farther into the sky, and could only remain standing where he was.

As he looked around in bewilderment, the air before him suddenly began to blur and distort. Black lines twisted, interwove, and overlapped within that distortion, gradually forming an indistinct human figure. Once formed, the figure slowly walked toward him, its outline becoming clearer as it approached. Li Yan gradually made out its appearance. It was a tall old man with long, snow-white hair falling loosely to his shoulders. His face was stern and lean, his eyes like unfathomable pools, as though a single glance could span a thousand years and pierce the endless reaches of time and space. He wore a long gray robe, and his face looked drained, yet an imposing pressure bore down on Li Yan as he walked, nearly forcing him off his feet. Li Yan swayed involuntarily several times.

Li Yan gave a bitter smile. So this is the Avici Hell the Buddhist texts speak of? That must be the Asura Sea of hell below me, and this must be the soul-reaping envoy. At least he doesn't look frightening.

The old man slowly came to a stop before him and fixed his eyes on him. Cold spread outward, until the entire space seemed on the verge of freezing. Then he said slowly, "Had I awakened even a little later, you would have died."

Li Yan stared blankly, then blurted out, "Honored envoy, aren't I already dead? Otherwise, why would I be here in Avici Hell?"

After speaking, he was startled again. When had he become able to speak? Hadn't he been unable to utter a word just now? Presumably, his soul had already left his body. It must be his soul speaking now.

The old man paused at those words, then a hint of a smile appeared on his lean face. "You think you're a soul now? Well, what you said is right, yet not quite right."

Hearing this, Li Yan asked hesitantly, "Honored envoy, what do you mean? I was just in the valley at Green Mountain Pass

when I suddenly arrived here. If my soul wasn't reaped, what else could have happened?"

At Li Yan's explanation, the corners of the old man's mouth curled into an amused smile. "If I told you that you're inside your own sea of consciousness right now—or, in other words, your mental space—would you believe me?"

Li Yan looked stunned. "My sea of consciousness? My mental space?" He had never heard of a sea of consciousness, but he could understand something of what his own mental space meant. When he cultivated, he meditated and used mental power to guide his qi with his will. Mental power was thus what people in the martial world commonly called intent.

"My body has appeared inside the thoughts in my mind?" A strange expression crossed Li Yan's face.

"You could put it that way. The sea of consciousness is a space of thought formed from mental power. Ordinary people simply cannot enter their own sea of consciousness, much less anyone else's. I brought your consciousness into your sea of consciousness and gave it a projection of your body, that's all. So saying that a wisp of your soul is here would also be correct," the old man explained with a smile.

Disbelief covered Li Yan's face. His body had appeared inside his own head? What kind of logic was that? Seeing his bewildered, uncomprehending expression, the old man smiled kindly and continued, "My time is limited, so I can only explain this briefly. There are more important things I need to tell you afterward. The sea of consciousness is a person's mental space, or a space of thought, if you prefer. The more powerful a living being, the stronger its mental power and the vaster its mental space. But this space is intangible; ordinary people cannot touch it. Immortal cultivators, however, can examine their own sea of consciousness, and even those of others. The vaster the sea of consciousness, the greater the power of the mental-attack immortal arts one can unleash. Of course, it has many other uses, but you will have to learn about those gradually yourself."

Li Yan felt as though he had fallen into clouds and fog. What was all this? Mental attacks—what were those? And now there were immortal cultivators? Immortals? Didn't those exist only in legends?

He was about to question him when the gray-robed old man, seemingly seeing his confusion, spoke again. "I know you have many questions, but I have little time. I can only tell you the most important things. If you someday have the fortune to enter an immortal sect, you will gradually learn about all of this." Exhaustion filled the old man's face as he spoke.

Hearing this and looking at the old man's condition, Li Yan thought for a moment, then stopped asking questions. He stood quietly, waiting for the old man to continue. Seeing his expression, the old man gave a slight nod and began to explain. As the gray-robed elder spoke, a vast, surging panorama unfolded before Li Yan, unlike anything he had ever seen or heard of in his life. It left him wide-eyed and tongue-tied with astonishment.

Did immortals exist in this world? The answer was yes. They had existed since ancient times. After Pangu split heaven from earth and Nüwa mended the heavens, the world had been divided into several tiers: the Mortal Realm, the Immortal Spirit Realm, and the True Immortal Realm.

These realms existed in ascending order, and each also contained many smaller realms, such as the Netherworld and the realm of demons and fiends. There was even a spirit plant realm specifically for plants to

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live in. Like humans and other living beings, they could move, think, and command their own spaces, among other things.

The Mortal Realm was the lowest realm. Originally, it had been inhabited entirely by ordinary mortals and lowly demon beasts. Their abilities were unremarkable, but their capacity to reproduce was tremendous.

The Immortal Spirit Realm lay between the Mortal Realm and the True Immortal Realm. Many of its inhabitants were descendants of humans, demon beasts, or other races from the ancient primordial era. This realm abounded in spiritual energy, and both humans and other living beings enjoyed long lives. Their ancestors had passed down many ancient immortal arts. By cultivating these arts, they could gain the power to soar through the heavens and delve into the earth, overturn rivers and churn the seas. Yet heaven and earth had their own laws. In granting long lives, they imposed other limitations. These descendants of the primordial age had great difficulty reproducing. Whether humans, demon beasts, or other races, all struggled to bear offspring, and their populations were relatively small.

The highest tier was the True Immortal Realm, the true realm of immortals spoken of in legends. Ancient beings such as Pangu and Nüwa were supreme immortals who dwelled there. They lived as long as heaven and earth, shone alongside the sun and moon, and endured eternally without dying. Every true immortal possessed tremendous divine powers that reached through heaven and earth. With a mere gesture, they could reshape the world, pluck stars and gather the moon, and even create their own lesser realms and fashion new races of living beings.

The number of true immortals in the True Immortal Realm was not fixed. They, too, faced the risk of perishing, whether in battles between true immortals or while exploring broader, unknown laws.

Meanwhile, many practitioners of ancient immortal arts in the Immortal Spirit Realm could shatter the void separating the two realms and ascend to the True Immortal Realm once their cultivation reached the threshold of true immortality—that is, beyond the Mahayana Realm.

To reach that threshold, they had to cultivate immortal arts and endure arduous cultivation through nine great realms before they could ascend to the realm of true immortals. Yet mastering these nine realms was extraordinarily difficult. Most people exhausted a lifetime's effort only to reach three or four realms, after which they could make no further progress. In the end, their lifespans ran out, and they could only pass away in seated meditation and enter reincarnation.

These nine great realms were qi condensation, foundation establishment, golden core, nascent soul, spirit transformation, void refinement, body integration, tribulation transcendence, and Mahayana.

Each great realm was further divided into smaller stages. Qi condensation, for instance, had ten levels. Levels one through three constituted the early stage, four through six the middle stage, seven through nine the late stage, and the tenth level complete mastery. Afterward, one could attempt to break through to the next realm, the Foundation Establishment Realm.

From the Foundation Establishment Realm onward, however, each realm had only three smaller stages: early, middle, and late. Only with foundation establishment did one truly set foot on the immortal path. The Qi Condensation Stage merely involved beginning to gather the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into oneself, building the foundation for immortal cultivation through its ten levels. Only upon entering the Foundation Establishment Realm did one truly embark on the path of immortal cultivation. Thus, aside from strengthening the body and allowing the use of a few simple spells, the Qi Condensation Stage extended one's lifespan only a little beyond that of ordinary beings of the same kind. After reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm, however, one's lifespan suddenly increased to over two hundred years. The Gold Core Realm allowed one to live for over five hundred years, while the Nascent Soul Realm granted a terrifying lifespan of more than two thousand years. Thereafter, lifespan continued to increase with each rise in realm, until one broke through Mahayana and attained true immortality, gaining eternal life without death.