He’s still too young. Even with me helping in secret, he can barely withstand such a massive influx of information.
Li Fan reflected silently as he watched Ye Feipeng, whose brow remained tightly furrowed even in unconsciousness.
He retrieved an Epiphany Fruit from his storage ring and fed it to him, then guided spiritual qi to help refine its medicinal power.
Before long, the tension in Ye Feipeng’s expression eased.
Li Fan placed a palm atop his head as the Cloudwater Dream Illusion Art activated once more, carefully reshaping Ye Feipeng’s memories of his so-called “past life.”
When Ye Feipeng awoke the following day, his clothes were once again soaked with sweat, but his gaze was noticeably steadier.
He promptly wrote out a prescription and ordered his servants to gather the required ingredients.
Immersed in a steaming bath, he began to chart his course in this life.
Compared to the chaos of yesterday, his thoughts were now far clearer.
With the Xuanhuang Heart Clarification Sutra and this medicinal formula, I should be able to expel the Immortal-Mortal Miasma from my body on my own.
But without spiritual qi, cultivation is impossible. Everything would still be meaningless.
I absolutely cannot wait ten years. I must seize this chance and leave this place ahead of time.
In Ye Feipeng’s memories, roughly half a month later, a cultivator would arrive in the Li World by coincidence.
This cultivator was not the same one who had long cooperated with Great Li, and thus was unwilling to risk smuggling mortals across worlds.
Just as the cultivator prepared to depart, ignoring the desperate pleas of the court, the emperor suddenly recalled the jade-white skeletal hand that had recently fallen into the palace.
In a final gamble, the emperor claimed that Great Li possessed an esoteric treasure passed down since ancient times.
If the Immortal Master was willing to take a group of people to the cultivation world, they would present this treasure to him.
Perhaps wary of the Immortal-Mortal Miasma, the cultivator did not seize it by force.
After some deliberation, he agreed, but imposed his own conditions.
He would only take children with cultivation aptitude, and the number would be strictly limited.
In the end, the cultivator personally selected ten children from among the noble families of Great Li and brought them back to the cultivation world.
Ye Feipeng remembered them clearly: Xiao Heng of the Xiao family, Su Changyu of the Su family, and several others.
He himself, however, had not been chosen due to insufficient aptitude, and thus had squandered a full ten years trapped in the Li World.
In my previous life, when I reached mid-stage Qi Refinement, I once encountered Xiao Heng by chance. By then, he was already at mid-stage Foundation Establishment, far beyond me.
On the path of cultivation, getting a head start means staying ahead.
If not for those ten wasted years, my fate would have been completely different.
This time, things will not be the same.
As long as I can break free from these shackles, it will be like leaping across the vast sea or soaring through boundless skies.
A sharp glint flashed in Ye Feipeng’s eyes as he stepped out of the wooden tub. Closing his eyes, he circulated the Xuanhuang Heart Clarification Sutra.
Perhaps it was a benefit of living a second life, but the efficiency with which he expelled the miasma far surpassed his previous life.
In just over ten days, the Immortal-Mortal Miasma within his body was almost entirely purged, filling him with quiet elation.
Yet in the days that followed, Ye Feipeng deliberately stopped the process.
A mortal completely devoid of miasma would be far too conspicuous. Should it arouse the Immortal Master’s suspicion, things would get troublesome.
His current condition was perfect, like a mortal naturally born with sparse miasma. Enough to pass unnoticed, yet sufficient to ensure selection.
With a second life granted to me, I must be even more cautious. Ye Feipeng reminded himself constantly.
Exactly as he remembered, five days later, that cultivator descended upon the capital.
Half a day after that, Ye Feipeng found himself standing among thousands of bewildered children gathered in the square, awaiting the cultivator’s judgment.
Even as a regressor, his future now rested in another’s hands, stirring an uncontrollable tension within his chest.
When the cultivator’s gaze swept across the crowd, it lingered on Ye Feipeng for just a brief moment. Then, his name was called.
Ye Feipeng quietly exhaled, a flicker of exhilaration igniting deep within his heart.
Soon after, the unselected children were escorted away, leaving only the cultivator and ten anxious youths, including Ye Feipeng, standing alone in the vast, empty square.
The cultivator summoned a flying boat, preparing to take them away. At that moment, Su Changyu suddenly cried out, "Immortal Master, please save my younger sister!"
Ye Feipeng's heart stirred. In his memories, this youngest daughter of the Su family possessed cultivation talent even more terrifying than Xiao Heng's.
Before his death in his previous life, he vaguely heard that she had already reached the Golden Core realm.
Though visibly impatient, the cultivator still visited the Su residence. Upon returning, his expression brightened with delight. Thus, their group gained an additional member—an infant still in swaddling clothes.
Before departure, the cultivator distributed the Xuanhuang Heart Clarification Sutra and accompanying medicine, instructing them to begin cultivating on their own.
After traveling through Great Li for over ten days, the flying boat finally breached the Immortal-Severing Grand Array and arrived in the cultivation world.
Sensing the rich spiritual qi surrounding him, Ye Feipeng fell into profound ecstasy. Carefully guiding the spiritual qi into his body, he officially began his transformation into a cultivator.
After an indeterminable span of time, a thunderous roar suddenly exploded beside his ear, jolting him from his cultivation.
"How dare you smuggle mortals to the cultivation world!" The booming voice reverberated endlessly in his ears.