Fatty held the broken sword in his hand, his gaze fixed on the dark cliff before him. He smacked his lips.
“Boss, it’s so dark in here. Fatty is most afraid of the dark.”
Fatty winked at Zhang Tian.
“You’re afraid of the dark?”
Hu Bayi looked at Fatty suspiciously. If anyone were to say this guy was afraid of the dark, Hu Bayi would be the first to disagree.
“Young Master Xie, stay close to us. This is your first time in a place like this, so you need to be vigilant. Remember, when everyone goes in, you must maintain your true heart.”
Zhang Tian spoke, and everyone nodded.
“Don’t worry, my good disciple. With the jade pendant in hand and the ghost pill I have, we have nothing to fear!”
“The Patriarch will appear.”
Yi Mei said, taking the lead. Clearly, he wanted to establish himself as a master who feared no hardship or difficulty in front of Zhang Tian.
Zhang Tian was touched. How strange.
The few of them nodded and cautiously followed.
After passing through a layer of black mist, they seemed to have entered another dark space.
It was incredibly cold all around, and there were some chaotic sounds within.
“Heh heh…”
The next moment, laughter came from beside him. Zhang Tian turned his head sharply.
The next moment, the people who had followed him in had vanished without a trace.
“Illusion, it must be an illusion.”
Seeing this, Zhang Tian took a deep breath and looked into the boundless darkness around him.
This Ten Thousand Ghosts Cave was very strange. The Yin energy was extremely dense, having formed a substance. Zhang Tian couldn’t break through this substantial illusion.
However, this Yin energy didn’t seem to have any effect on Zhang Qilin.
As everyone else was lost in the illusion, in front of Zhang Qilin…
Inside the canyon, Zhang Qilin saw only white bones. Some of the bones had weathered into powder.
Others still held curved sabers, as if in an attacking posture.
“Is this the inside?”
Zhang Qilin frowned slightly.
He looked around, and the red string on his wrist trembled. His gaze fell on Zhang Tian and the others.
“Caught in an illusion?”
Seeing this, Zhang Qilin intended to use his Qilin blood to break through their illusion, but a hand stopped him.
“Don’t rush. This illusion, although a bit dangerous, can temper a person’s will. The reason I didn’t protect him is precisely to let him temper himself.”
At this moment, Daoist Yi Mei’s demeanor changed, his eyes filled with seriousness.
With his cultivation, even if he were only a soul, his abilities were still far stronger than the ghosts here.
“What is your intention?”
Zhang Qilin looked coldly at the person before him.
“My good second disciple, what ill intentions could your master have? Master simply sees that Xiao Tian’s cultivation is not improving and is using this to break through.”
Yi Mei said, holding a bull token. With a wave, the surrounding evil energy receded, and he walked towards Zhang Qilin.
Zhang Qilin looked at Zhang Tian. He stood beside Zhang Tian, but Zhang Tian didn’t seem to see him at all.
Zhang Qilin did not help Zhang Tian dispel the Yin energy because he knew Zhang Tian had been stuck at the Heavenly level for a long time.
This time, it was time for him to break through.
“Come, my good second disciple, Master will also give you a small treasure.”
At this moment, Yi Mei walked out from not far away.
Zhang Qilin’s eyebrows flickered.
This guy is trying to take advantage of him too?
Zhang Qilin didn’t like to talk much, so he didn’t argue with Yi Mei.
“My good second disciple, you think highly of Master. Master is honored. Come, here is a magical pill furnace to give to my good second disciple.”
Yi Mei smilingly sent out a small pill furnace.
As long as he accepted it, Zhang Qilin could escape the embarrassing situation of using a pressure cooker to refine pills.
Looking at the pill furnace, Zhang Qilin didn’t take it.
“What do you want?”
He was somewhat wary, his voice a little cold.
“Heh heh, we are all family. Master sees your great potential and wants to take you as a disciple.”
Yi Mei said, his heart filled with joy.
Meeting two geniuses this time, how could he not be excited?
Zhang Qilin entered here without any issues, and a faint heat emanated from him. It was clear that he possessed something powerful.
Moreover, he sensed a hint of a pill master from Zhang Qilin. After all, cultivating alchemy felt different from not cultivating it.
Yi Mei, being a wily old soul, naturally wanted to take more disciples and foster more good relationships.
“I don’t have a habit of accepting things from others.”
With that said, Zhang Qilin didn’t say anything more. Yi Mei smiled and also didn’t say much.
He simply began to walk towards the three surrounding mountain peaks, took out talismans, and began to stick them onto the mountains.
“Alas, Ghost King, Ghost King, do not leave the mountain.”
He muttered as he stuck them.
Meanwhile, within the illusion…
Zhang Tian had walked for an unknown amount of time in the dark space.
It felt as if countless hands were touching him, or perhaps many Yin souls were walking alongside him.
Gradually, a dazzling light appeared.
At the end of the light was a dark space.
“Palace of Rebirth!”
Looking at the building before him, Zhang Tian was stunned.
“Did I transmigrate a second time?”
“Or did I die again?”
Thinking to himself, Zhang Tian looked behind him. The passage he had just entered had disappeared.
There was only one path ahead.
He walked inside.
The surrounding chill disappeared, replaced by a comfortable warmth.
The Palace of Rebirth was primarily responsible for internal affairs and population management. In other words, this was the Reincarnation Hall.
For a moment, the memories in Zhang Tian’s mind became chaotic, and his head felt dizzy.
Stepping into the Palace of Rebirth, past events would turn to dust.
“Impossible, I remember…”
Zhang Tian wanted to recall, but he couldn’t remember his past memories. He walked forward like a walking dead.
Beside him, it seemed other lost souls were also walking this way.
Once one enters the Palace of Rebirth, past events are no more.
A voice came from above, and then Zhang Tian walked along a narrow path.
At the end of the path, a porcelain bowl was placed.
The bowl contained some peculiar-looking medicinal liquid.
“Drink this, and your life will be more wonderful. In your next life, you will be a general exiled to the frontier. Unwilling to yield to ambition, you will proclaim yourself king and experience a new life…”
A voice echoed in his mind.
An inexplicable force pushed Zhang Tian, and he actually drank the water.
Then the scene began to change.
“You were born into a military family. Your father commanded a million soldiers and was the left and right arm of the court.”
“At the age of eight, you could lift a thousand-pound tripod by yourself.”
“At the age of ten, you could lead troops to resist the Xiongnu entering the pass and were bestowed the title of ‘Little General of State Protection’ by the Emperor.”
“At eighteen, you successfully replaced your father and became the most influential person in the army besides the Emperor.”
“At twenty, in your prime, you married the Emperor’s daughter, but you were assigned to the frontier to guard the border. The reason was that your strength was growing, and the Emperor did not want a potential threat lingering in the imperial court.”
“Upon arriving at the frontier, unwilling to be exiled, you began to embezzle court stipends and provisions each year. Fortunately, corruption was rampant within the court, and the Emperor did not pay attention to you.”
“At thirty, the Xiongnu invaded. The Emperor sent you to hold the border, but your strength was already comparable to his. For the first time, you did not kneel before the Emperor.”
“Finally, the Emperor offered you the empire as a reward. You were only willing to send troops after being granted all the territory you reclaimed from repelling the Xiongnu.”
“You chose the optimal combat position, which was Three Finger Mountain!”
“On that day, you led an army of three hundred thousand, encircling the mountains and rivers. Because the terrain was advantageous to you, you did not launch a full-scale assault.”
Zhang Tian’s vision shifted continuously.
In this life, he experienced twists and turns, married and had children, and even became a local overlord, becoming a new warlord.
Everything seemed to go smoothly, until the Xiongnu invasion.
The Emperor made a deal with him.
In the scene, Zhang Tian was already a middle-aged man, holding an iron sword, his gaze sternly fixed on the Xiongnu general trapped below the mountain.
War was imminent.