A Mortal’s Journey to Immortality: Wang Yu’s Rebirth as the Reincarnation Dao Ancestor - Chapter 74

Chapter 74 The Theory of Possession

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—Angry

as he was, he remained as serious as ever.

After all, the beast attacking was a top-tier level 1 demon beast.

Its skin was covered with a layer of yellow light, a basic Stone Skin Technique, which made its body even tougher. The fleeting glint of refined iron on its tusks meant that this demon beast had cast a basic-to-advanced Tempering Technique on itself.

Both techniques were innate talents of the hyena boar, and it used them with even greater skill than a cultivator.

Furthermore, the speed of this charging hyena boar was clearly abnormal, almost matching the speed of an ordinary Qi Refining elite flying on a sword.

This was unusual in every way.

Surely the hyena boar also possessed techniques like Lightness Technique and Wind Control Technique to increase its movement speed? (Coincidentally, the man was half right.)

The events happened in the blink of an eye, leaving no time for the barefoot man to carefully analyze the subtle details. Because there was no time. The spiky boar had already closed in to within a dozen or so feet.

Should he fight or retreat?

Continuing the pursuit would still offer a good chance of catching up with the brother and sister from Spirit Beast Mountain. Retreating meant the siblings would surely escape with the Foundation Establishment Pill they’d almost obtained.

“I should have agreed to use a Foundation Establishment Pill to make peace.”

With a moment of regret, he made his final decision after only half a second of thought:

“Chase…”

“Continue, chase!”

The siblings held a finished Foundation Establishment Pill.

It was a Foundation Establishment Pill!

So

, without dodging or avoiding, he charged towards the spiky boar.

Man and beast, a mere dozen feet in the blink of an eye.

“Clang…”

The silver sword emitted a sword cry, seemingly thirsting for blood, its length-long blade of light shooting straight ahead with the intent to pierce through anything in its path.

He had complete confidence in his Silver Radiance Sword, which he had refined using a special secret method.

The sword’s material was comparable to ordinary magic weapons; how could a mere level 1 demon beast destroy it?

With a dull thud, the exquisite silver sword, infused with a significant amount of silver essence, clashed heavily with one of the tusks of the hyena boar.

In terms of strength, the hyena boar’s tusks were certainly far inferior to the silver-shine sword, but in terms of power, how could the flying sword controlled by the burly man compare to the rapidly charging hyena boar?

The immense force struck, and the sword, unable to withstand the impact, spun away.

However, due to the angle, the sword energy still managed to slash a deep, long gash across the hyena boar’s left cheek, where it was using the Stone Skin technique. Instantly, boar blood splattered, creating a vivid red landscape.

With a single strike, the hyena boar suffered an injury that made its appearance even more ferocious.

Fortunately, the injury wasn’t too severe;

it was merely a healable superficial wound and disfigurement.

“This beast, is it courting death?”

the burly man frowned.

Normally, a wild, top-tier level 1 demon beast would sense the danger emanating from the silver-shine sword’s aura and automatically retreat. In this way, he could chase the Silver Glowing Sword, avoiding the spiky boar, and pursue the brother and sister at Spirit Beast Mountain first, then deal with the beast later.

However, the spiky boar neither dodged nor retreated, charging straight at him with extreme stubbornness, making his preparations seem insufficient.

“Hiss…”

Even a thick-skinned beast like the spiky boar suffered a great loss from that attack; how could the barefoot giant fare any better?

Here, the magical artifact connected to his mind and body was struck by a tremendous force. Although it remained undamaged due to its magic treasure-level material, his mind, as the controller, felt a slight stinging pain. It turned out that the magical power and divine sense attached to the Silver Glowing Sword were rapidly depleted in that impact, almost completely consumed in the blink of an eye. This made his control over the sword slightly sluggish.

Then, he watched helplessly as the brother and sister disappeared into the mist of the crater, which made him even more furious.

Had the duck that was almost in his mouth just flown away like that?

“You beast, I’ll skin you alive, tear you apart, and chop you into eight pieces!”

He spread his hands, each producing a silver

sword beam identical to that of the Silver Radiance Sword. He was filled with rage at the sudden appearance of the hyena that had ruined his plans.

However, before he could recall the Silver Radiance Sword and achieve a perfect fusion of man and sword

, two figures, hidden for some time, suddenly burst from the ground and flew towards him from the side. One petite figure wielded two blades, the color of jade flashing on their edges.

It was the Jade Mantis.

The other figure, rapidly approaching, opened its right hand.

This figure was naturally Han Li.

His right hand appeared empty, but the next moment, a sword tip appeared out of nowhere at the tip of his palm.

It was a small gray sword, a gray sword talisman.

Moreover, it was a gray sword talisman specially concealed with a fragment of a silk handkerchief magic artifact to mask

the fluctuations of magical power. The fragment of the silk handkerchief magic artifact could not only conceal the external appearance of things but also the fluctuations of spiritual power. Before he fully activated the Gray Sword Talisman, he had wrapped it with a fragment of a silk handkerchief magic weapon.

This move was even more subtle than Feng Yue’s sneak attack on Duobao Nu with his talisman-tipped flying knife.

After activating the Gray Sword Talisman, the sword emerged, quickly extending beyond the edge of the silk handkerchief magic weapon fragment, revealing its sharp tip and blade…

“Go!”

Han Li shot out the talisman sword before passing the burly man.

“Enemy attack?”

The barefoot burly man’s brain didn’t react at first.

He originally thought the Ganglie Boar was a wild forbidden land monster, but now he thought it was probably just one of the opponent’s spirit beasts, otherwise how could it be so fearless?

“Who is this person from Spirit Beast Mountain?”

Zhong Wu?

When did that guy get such a top-tier spirit pet?

The two passed each other.

The Jade Mantis slashed with both legs from the burly man’s left side! With tremendous force!

Han Li, on the other hand, controlled the Gray Sword Talisman to slash horizontally from the burly man’s right side! The force wasn’t heavy! But it was even more sharp.

Then two sounds were heard:

“Ding ding…”

and “Pfft…”

The Jade Mantis’s bladed legs left two deep cuts on the light barrier formed by the barefoot giant’s low-level high-grade defensive talisman, nearly breaking through it in one strike.

Unfortunately, a low-level high-grade defensive talisman is still a high-grade talisman; its defensive hardness and strength are still very reliable. Even though the Jade Mantis accelerated and specially stacked its talent spells to greatly increase the sharpness of its bladed legs, it still couldn’t completely break through the defense in an instant.

But the Gray Sword was different.

The moment it touched the light barrier of the high-grade defensive talisman, the barrier was easily sliced open as if cut by a knife.

The sharpness of the talisman sword was evident.

Of course, only a talisman treasure activated at the thirteenth level of Qi Refining could possess such power.

Activated at the eleventh level of Qi Refining, it would at most unleash the power of a top-grade magic weapon like the Azure Dragon Flag, not at least four or five times stronger than it is now.

The more abundant and purer the magic power, the more remarkable the power of the talisman treasure it unleashed.

“A talisman treasure?”

It’s actually a talisman treasure?

“But… but why was there no spiritual energy fluctuation beforehand?”

The barefoot man, a cold sweat breaking out in his dread, murmured. His teeth were still chattering slightly.

What a close call!

If his body hadn’t instinctively dodged, or if his reflexes had been even a fraction of a second slower in making that evasive move, he would have been decapitated and killed instantly.

Coming to his senses, he was consumed by rage:

“Who? Who ambushed me?”

The man, both shocked and furious, turned to search for the culprit.

He spotted Han Li, who was still fleeing into the distance.

Han Li, having missed his attack, was immediately disappearing.

“Huh? This person’s clothes… why do they look like those of a Yellow Maple Valley disciple?”

“Is this person a Yellow Maple Valley trial participant?” “

But this guy’s methods are more like those of the Spirit Beast Mountain people?”

He’s even more like the Spirit Beast Mountain people than they are.

His tactics are exactly the same as Zhong Wu’s, even more insidious.

A dozen feet away, Han Li seemed to sense something and turned back, saying calmly,

“You shouldn’t have turned around.”

“Besides, you have too many thoughts, and you’re happy too soon.”

What did that mean?

Oh no!

An extremely strong spiritual energy surged up behind him instantly, and an unprecedented sense of crisis made him tremble all over!

Then it suddenly erupted, giving no time to react:

“Pfft pfft pfft pfft…!”

Ice needles, densely packed ice needles, countless ice needles, instantly rained down like a storm of pear blossoms, “centered on a talisman,” rapidly covering the direction where Han Li and the barefoot giant were.

Mid-level lower-grade talisman: Ice Needle Talisman.

It turned out that just as Han Li was manipulating the gray sword talisman treasure to pass the barefoot giant, Han Li had dropped this mid-level attack talisman, which was also concealed by the fragment of the silk handkerchief magic treasure and activated in advance.

The activation order was even before the gray sword talisman treasure.

Clearly, Han Li never expected the sneak attacks from the Gray Sword Talisman and the Jade Mantis to instantly kill a seed-level existence like the Barefoot Giant. The Gray Sword Talisman was never his ultimate weapon; it was merely one of the means he used to break through the high-level light shield on the Barefoot Giant’s body. The true killing blow was the Intermediate Ice Needle Talisman.

This was a series of

interconnected attacks, a relentless barrage.

“Ugh…ugh…ugh…”

The man, riddled with needles, was instantly pierced by countless ice needles.

He struggled to open his mouth to say something, but his life force rapidly dissipated. The attack happened so suddenly that he didn’t even have time to cast a spell to separate his primordial spirit from his body.

And the Gray Sword Talisman flashed: “Pfft…”

finishing the blow.

Decapitation.

The head fell to the ground.

In the blink of an eye, the giant’s eyes widened, his death unresolved.

Looking at his back, it was clear that it was almost entirely pierced by countless ice needles. His front body was riddled with holes. His blood was frozen solid, unable to flow.

Even more tragically, the Yan family man’s top-grade silver sword, infused with a significant amount of silver essence, was only two or three zhang away from him. In other words, if the Yan family man had held on for just a little longer, just a moment, the highly spiritual top-grade flying sword would have returned to his side, providing a unique form of protection. Once the top-grade flying sword spun and acted as a shield, the ice needles from the ice needle talisman would have posed no threat whatsoever.

This type of sneak attack would naturally have been difficult to execute.

Unfortunately, that final two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters) distance was destined to become the most unforgettable regret for the barefoot giant surnamed Yan.

“Too good dynamic vision, but the brain can’t keep up; sometimes that’s not a good thing,”

Han Li thought to himself.

Those with good dynamic vision always tend to follow the enemy’s movements.

At that moment, he predicted that during their brief exchange, the giant Yan from the Giant Sword Sect would likely habitually fix his gaze on him, the Jade Mantis, and the Ganglie Boar, to prevent another attack.

But this seemingly insignificant detail was precisely a major flaw.

Han Li tested it out.

Sure enough, the giant Yan was indeed too focused on him, neglecting the danger behind him after he turned around. He

also failed to replenish his second and third defensive talismans in time.

Without defense, the barefoot giant, seemingly burly, was actually quite fragile.

Under the combined attack of “Gale and Rain” and “Rain on Banana Leaves” within two zhang of the intermediate-level ice needle talisman, he died a truly unsettling death.

“Collect.”

Han Li, who had dodged thirty feet away to avoid being caught in the blast, flew back and, after a hand seal, began collecting the ice needle talismans that the suspended monster was still shooting countless ice needles from mid-air.

However, only three or four breaths had passed, and the collected ice needle talismans had already consumed half their energy.

Fortunately, the battle was decided in time, and he collected the talismans quickly enough; otherwise, this mid-grade talisman would have ended its talisman-making career prematurely.

“Collect.”

The gray sword talisman landed back in his hand.

“Collect, collect…”

This time, he was collecting the top-grade silver sword and the storage bag left behind by the barefoot giant.

After collecting these, he cast a fireball spell, turned around, and immediately rode his ice-fire wolf into the mist at the edge of the crater, leaving the area far behind.

The commotion, while not huge, wasn’t insignificant either; it might attract a swarm of annoying flies.

Therefore, it was best to leave first.

…

The mist in the crater is quite interesting. It has little effect on the forbidden land’s demonic beasts, but it has a natural restraint on cultivators. Even cultivators’ divine sense cannot extend very far within the mountain mist. However, the Icefire Wolves, as top-tier demonic beasts native to the forbidden land, are much more active here, like fish returning to the sea.

Entering the edge of the mist, they not only don’t lose their way, but they can also use the mist to avoid being seen by outsiders.

He discovered this after arriving and beginning to study the mist.

Speaking of which,

what exactly happened with his intervention?

Since he wanted to save Han Yunzhi and her brother, why didn’t he act sooner?

The reason is actually quite simple: if he had helped Han Yunzhi and her brother deal with the Yan family man earlier, it would indeed have been easier with the three of them combined, but how would they divide the spoils afterward? The brother and sister had also contributed; it would be unethical not to share, but sharing would only cause internal harm.

After much thought, he didn’t want internal conflict and entanglement, so he decided to keep it all for himself.

Furthermore, unless the siblings were driven to a corner, how could the Yan family man have secured their victory and then single-mindedly pursue them? Without pursuing them, how could he approach their hiding place for a sneak attack?

The difficulty of a direct confrontation with a seed-level expert and a sneak attack are completely different.

To put it bluntly, given his current situation, a direct confrontation with the barefoot giant would likely result in a significant loss, drastically impacting his plans to explore the central area. This would be a net loss. The hyena boar was a prime example; it was injured in a single exchange by the Silver Radiance Sword, half its face severed by the sword energy. If the Jade Mantis and Icefire Wolf faced the Silver Radiance Sword directly, would they be unharmed?

He didn’t want to sacrifice any of his top-tier spirit beasts.

Moreover, without the Han siblings severely depleting the Yan family man’s mana and spiritual energy, his series of sneak attacks wouldn’t have been so easy to execute.

Although the Han siblings were defeated in their previous battle, it still caused trouble for the Yan man. His magical power and spiritual sense were significantly depleted.

In short, if he had acted sooner, the siblings’ losses would have been much smaller, but his losses would have been much greater.

His principle has always been: he can cultivate with kindness, but he cannot be overly compassionate.

Kindness is only possible when his own interests are not harmed and his own gains are not reduced.

Not provoking others is already his bottom line.

Finally, it’s also a kind of helplessness in his desire to be a good person.

Considering that the barefoot man surnamed Yan is a promising talent in the Core Formation stage led by the Giant Sword Sect, and has a cultivation family behind him, if he were to kill the barefoot man in front of the Han siblings, he would be leaving himself a hidden danger. Therefore, the best outcome is for the siblings to be defeated and flee, ideally into the misty area of the ring mountain where they have no view of their rear. Only then can he appear to cover their retreat and conveniently eliminate the man surnamed Yan.

Otherwise, regardless of whether it was him or the Han siblings who killed the Yan family man, they would both be suspicious and wary of each other.

Although doing good deeds anonymously might seem a bit less meaningful, it avoided a major hidden danger, didn’t it?

He checked the storage bag.

As expected:

“A bit poor…!”

Inside the other party’s storage bag were four mid-grade spirit stones, over two hundred low-grade spirit stones, two spare high-grade magic weapons, and six mid-to-low-grade magic weapons. Most of these gains were probably spoils of war collected by the Yan man after he hunted down the cultivators from his sect.

Considering this person’s bad habit: he liked to use his Silver Radiance Sword to weigh his opponents’ magic weapons, forcibly destroying those that were unqualified with the Silver Radiance Sword. In addition, this person only loved the Silver Radiance Sword as his only flying sword magic weapon for combat and didn’t like to equip other magic weapons.

“Besides the Silver Radiance Sword, he has no other magic weapons…”

“And he likes to destroy other people’s magic weapons…”

It was probably quite difficult to collect a few mid-to-low-grade magic weapons from his opponents as spoils of war.

Fortunately, the Supreme Silver Radiance Sword could be reforged.

While the large amount of silver essence mixed within it couldn’t be used to strengthen magic weapons or for any other purpose, a Core Formation cultivator could reshape it into another Silver Radiance Sword unique to him.

“The original owner didn’t do that because various reasons required keeping a low profile.”

“As for me, being a little high-profile wouldn’t hurt…”

The final and most important gain was a [Silver Page].

The Silver Page was merely a disguise created by the barefoot giant; hidden inside was a gold page made of special materials. It was the Xuanjian Sect’s heirloom treasure, recording the complete *Qingyuan Sword Manual* and the secret technique *Three Revolutions of Renewed Origin*, which aided in Core Formation, as well as methods for cultivating sword light and more subtle control of flying swords. It

was a pair with the other gold page Li Huayuan possessed.

Another golden page recorded the crafting method of the top-tier magic weapon “Azure Bamboo Bee Cloud Sword” and information about the “Great Geng Sword Formation.”

Inside a tree hollow, Han Li put away his belongings and pondered his future path.

…

“Azure Origin Sword Technique, Three Revolutions of Replenishment, once mastered, it can grant a person more than twice the maximum mana of a cultivator of the same level…”

“The key is, it can greatly increase the chances of forming a Golden Core!”

This cultivation technique was tailor-made for him.

If he were to switch to cultivating other top-tier techniques, he would never be able to form a Golden Core in his lifetime. Because the mana he, with his pseudo-spiritual root, obtained from cultivating other techniques could not possibly reach the purity required to condense a Golden Core.

Even if he spent a hundred years refining it, it would be useless. The reason why

Heavenly Spiritual Root cultivators do not have a bottleneck in forming a Golden Core is that they only cultivate one attribute, and are therefore not disturbed by the spiritual energy of other attributes. The mana they cultivate in the early stages is extremely pure. After entering the late Foundation Establishment stage, their mana can quickly reach the purity required to condense a Golden Core.

He’s essentially standing at the very end of the Third Rebirth stage.

The more spiritual roots a cultivator has, the slower their cultivation speed and the more difficult it is to form a core, and this is the reason.

This is because the mana cultivated by multi-spiritual-root cultivators, even at the late Foundation Establishment stage or the peak of Foundation Establishment, doesn’t meet the purity standards for mana essence. This is the origin of the bottleneck.

And him?

Four pseudo-spiritual roots.

After reaching the peak of Foundation Establishment, the liquid mana essence he cultivates simply cannot show any signs of forming a core.

In this situation, he must constantly compress and purify the mana essence within his body.

The *Azure Origin Sword Technique* + *Third Rebirth* perfectly solved this fundamental problem for his body.

Furthermore, the Third Rebirth has another hidden benefit: it helps cultivators break through the bottleneck of the early to mid-stage of Core Formation. The Third Rebirth allows his mana to surpass ordinary cultivators in purity, comparable to cultivators with Heavenly Spiritual Roots. The reason why Heavenly Spiritual Root cultivators can almost smoothly reach the Pseudo-Nascent Soul stage is also due to this.

To make things easier after Core Formation and avoid being stuck at each bottleneck for decades or even centuries, the Azure Origin Sword Technique and the Three-Turn Rejuvenation were unavoidable choices.

Once he got past Core Formation, the bottlenecks in the early and middle stages would be much easier.

The Three-Turn Rejuvenation involved first cultivating to the peak of Foundation Establishment, then dispersing his cultivation back to the early Foundation Establishment stage. This three-fold compression and purification of his mana would bring his internal mana and true essence infinitely close to the level of a Core Formation cultivator. Then, condensing his core would be a natural progression.

However, while the idea was appealing, another equally thorny problem arose:

the Three-Turn Rejuvenation was extremely resource-intensive.

Where could he find enough resources to complete the three turns?

The Foundation Establishment resources within the forbidden area were insufficient for even the first turn, let alone the second or third.

It’s worth noting that the original owner possessed the Heavenly Palm Bottle and hundreds of level-five or six demon cores obtained from hunting in the outer seas, which allowed him to complete three dispersal stages of the second-tier multi-turn Rejuvenation at age 131, ultimately forming his core around age 136.

Achieving Core Formation at 136 was only possible with the Heavenly Bottle as a safety net, ensuring ample resources.

“I can’t follow that path…”

“Without the Heavenly Bottle, I lack sufficient resources to squander; I must find another way.”

He understood the principle that those who imitate me live, those who merely follow me die.

Looking at this unremarkable body, he closed his eyes.

It seemed another plan needed consideration.

Should he possess a body of someone with exceptional talent?

Through years of in-depth understanding of possession, he had grasped some major taboos. Of

the three ironclad rules, only the first two were truly absolute:

1. One cannot possess a mortal.

2. One can only possess once in a lifetime.

3. The one with stronger magic power consumes the one with weaker magic power.

The third rule, however, is subject to exceptions. Even

when a high-level being possesses a low-level one, or a strong person possesses a weak one, there is a risk of failure.

Therefore, a more accurate statement is: a high-level being possessing a low-level being has a higher success rate, but failure is still possible. A low-level being possessing a high-level being is guaranteed to fail.

Beyond the three ironclad rules, there are some details:

First, before reaching the Nascent Soul stage, possessing a body increases the difficulty of forming the Nascent Soul several times over.

After all, forming the Nascent Soul involves the unification of essence, qi, and spirit, and the condensation of the Nascent Soul from the shattered core. However, a body that is not the original is ultimately not the original, and there are hidden dangers at the stage of unifying essence, qi, and spirit.

Second, when a Nascent Soul with inferior spiritual roots possesses a body with superior spiritual roots, although the spiritual roots of that body remain unchanged, an additional impure qi will be added. This impure qi will significantly increase the intensity of bottlenecks encountered in future cultivation. In other words, possessing a body with a Heavenly Spiritual Root will cause the Heavenly Spiritual Root to become tarnished, resulting in a cultivation effect similar to a slightly inferior heteromorphic spiritual root. Possessing a body with dual spiritual roots or most special physiques will result in a body with the cultivation efficiency of a three-spiritual-root body.

Third, to avoid damaging the cultivation talent of the body after possession, it is best to choose a body with the exact same spiritual roots for possession. A high-level cultivator with a wind spiritual root should possess a body with a wind spiritual root to avoid generating that impure qi.

Fourthly, for a high-level cultivator to possess a low-level cultivator, it requires a significant loss of vital energy to allow the primordial spirit to gradually integrate with the body, a process that inevitably shortens lifespan.

In summary, this is the main reason why Heavenly Spiritual Roots are rarely found among independent cultivators, but rather within families and sects.

Because once a Heavenly Spiritual Root appears, it’s gone.

This is also why dual-spiritual-roots and special physiques are rarely coveted.

If someone with three spiritual roots were to possess a body with two spiritual roots, they would only obtain a body with the cultivation effects of three spiritual roots—what’s the point of possession then?

In short, defying fate is not impossible, but it also has many limitations and unforeseen consequences.

(End of Chapter)