Eight thousand zhang underground, a towering tree reached straight to the clouds.
As Su Hanshengâs body perished, clusters of phoenix flower branches instantly covered the sky-obscuring tree.
The Phoenix Bone transformed into a fire-bathed phoenix, wrapping Su Hanshengâs soul and charging straight toward the Chongxiao Shrine, breaking open the gates of Infinite Hell.
The moment the gates shattered, the Phoenix Bone radiated brilliant golden light, seemingly breaking through the barriers of time, silently falling into an illusory world where roots seemed embedded.
Su Hanshengâs soul suddenly awakened, slowly transforming into a semi-transparent phantom form, floating in midair.
He looked bewildered at the strange void, his mind in complete chaos, momentarily unable to distinguish where he was.
Only when the fire-bathed phoenix spread its wings and flew over did Su Hansheng suddenly awaken.
Hadnât his soul already scattered into nothingness? Why was he still alive?
Where was this place? Or was this strange world where people went after death?
The phoenix circled him in flight several times before suddenly flying into a thick root. After a sharp phoenix cry, flames suddenly rose.
Su Hansheng was utterly listless. Neither hiding nor panicking, he merely watched languidly.
Wherever this was, couldnât it just let him vanish into ash, dust returning to dust and earth to earth?
The Phoenix Boneâs fire instantly engulfed the towering tree in blazing flames. Su Hanshengâs amber eyes reflected the brilliant firelight. Before he could think further, his entire soul was suddenly dragged into the flames.
A nauseating dizziness assaulted his mind. If not for lacking a physical body, Su Hansheng would have retched violently.
After the intense pain gradually faded, Su Hansheng opened his eyes in confusion, only to find himself already at Yingxu Sect.
âYingxu Sect thirty years ago.
From an exquisitely arranged, tranquil space came the wailing cries of an infant.
Someone hurried in from outside, white robes sweeping past orchids still yellowed on the ground, stumbling into the inner chamber.
Su Hanshengâs soul floated in midair, yet that person seemed unable to see him, walking straight through his form toward the cradle.
Su Hansheng drifted over in confusion, his gaze following to look.
In the cradle, an infant with amber eyes was crying heart-wrenchingly, tears streaming down his face. His entire body seemed ablaze with flames, burning his strange eyes increasingly red.
Probably in too much pain, the infant cried until his voice was hoarse.
The man in white robes stood by the cradle, looking down, lost in thought.
Su Hanshengâs ears ached from the noise. Unable to leave for the time being, he could only hope this person would hurry and comfort the child to stop the crying from disturbing him.
The man slowly reached his hand toward the cradle.
But he didnât pick up the child to comfort him. Instead, his fingersâsteady as a rockâgradually tightened around the infantâs neck.
The childâs crying stopped abruptly, his flushed red face slowly turning blue-purple.
Only then did Su Hansheng realizeâthis person intended to strangle the child to death.
He instinctively tried to intervene, but his hand passed straight through the manâs arm, grasping at nothing.
From his stumbling motion forward, his gaze finally fell upon the manâs face.
That face was pale yet handsome, tear stains still wet on his cheeks, yet his eyes were cold and indifferent. The hand strangling the childâs neck was extremely steady, as if heâd long prepared himself.
That face bore some resemblance to Su Hanshengâs own.
Su Hansheng stared blankly, a thought suddenly forming in his heart.
Su Hansheng had vaguely overheard from eldersâ gossip that Su Xuanlin wanted him dead, but at the time he hadnât fully believed it.
Only now did he suddenly realizeâSu Xuanlin truly hated him.
Hated him enough to want to strangle him with his own hands.
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Su Hansheng didnât understand why, having already destroyed himself until his soul scattered, he had to relive that miserable life again.
He could only float numbly in midair, watching that foolish person confined to Hanmang Garden, day after day consuming what little life force remained.
In this illusory world, years didnât pass. Su Hansheng watched the child grow bit by bit, yet he himself truly and completely lived another full seventeen years in this world of memories.
Until several days before his seventeenth birthday.
Though Su Hansheng had been ground down until his heart was dead as ash, his face numb, when he saw the living Xu Nanxian again, he still couldnât help struggling to rush forward.
âSenior Brother! Senior BrotherâŠâ
His soul once again grasped at nothing, completely futile.
Su Hansheng could only watch helplessly as his seventeen-year-old self repeated those identical cruel words, infuriating Xu Nanxian enough to leave harsh words behind before storming away.
That was the last time the two saw each other.
The young Su Xiaoxiao felt stifled, sitting by the Cold Pool with red-rimmed eyes wiping away tears.
But in the void, Su Hansheng rushed desperately toward Xu Nanxianâs furiously departing figure, struggling to use every means possible to make him stay.
Yet he could still only watch helplessly as Xu Nanxian left.
When he came back again, it was only a headless corpse.
The same breakdown struck again. No one could see Su Hanshengâs madness in the void.
Then came the same sequence againâŠ
Being cast into Infinite Hell by Qi Jianyi, meeting Chongjue dressed in black on the verge of death.
Tormented back and forth in Infinite Hell for ten years, ultimately self-destructing and perishing.
Su Hansheng had become completely wooden. He blankly returned to that strange space filled with roots.
After a long time, he was once again dragged into the phoenix fire.
Still the familiar Hanmang Garden, the familiar cradleâŠ
Su Xuanlin rushing in, attempting to strangle him in the cradle;
Day after day of torture from the Phoenix Boneâs flames, year after year of âimprisonmentâ in that corner;
Su Hansheng floated in midair, watching Su Xiaoxiao part unhappily with Xu Nanxian, no longer hysterical like the first time.
He tilted his head, coldly watching Xu Nanxian leave Hanmang Garden, then turned his gaze toward the thin figure sitting by the Cold Pool.
Seventeen-year-old Su Xiaoxiaoâs eyes were red-rimmed, sitting by the Cold Pool biting his teeth as tears fell.
Tears splashed onto the back of his hand, startling the youth so much he nearly jumped. He quickly looked left and right. Seeing neither Changkong nor Xu Nanxian, he hurriedly wiped away his tears, unwilling to let others see.
âI can go wherever I want,â the youth muttered stubbornly under his breath. âIf they wonât care about me, then they wonât. From childhood until now, hardly anyone has truly cared about me anyway.â
His parents had perished. The elders of Yingxu Sect already struggled to maintain the vast sectâthat was difficult enough. Big Senior Brother and Xu Nanxian didnât live solely for him. They had their own lives, busy day and night.
Su Xiaoxiao didnât trouble others either. Apart from occasionally causing minor mischief with his companion tree when bored, heâd never done anything truly excessive.
Yet Xu Nanxian said he wasnât obedient.
At this thought, Su Xiaoxiaoâs tears couldnât help but fall again.
Heâd already been so good.
Su Hansheng in the void had already experienced this twice. He naturally knew what the youth was thinking. He floated over, extending his semi-transparent hand slowly toward the youthâs back.
âUseless waste,â Su Hansheng thought coldly. âIt would be better if you died here.â
Perhaps he too had imagined countless timesâif heâd died the night before his seventeenth birthday, wouldnât this brief life have ended happily in confused ignorance, without leaving any regrets?
Or perhaps at the very beginning, if Su Xuanlin hadnât shown mercy and had simply strangled him in the cradle, he wouldnât have needed to expend more effort experiencing another journey through this world.
Suddenly, brilliant phoenix flames blazed around Su Hanshengâs body, wrapping his soul and briefly condensing it into a corporeal form.
After going back and forth for forty-seven years, the soul that had only ever grasped at nothing suddenly found solid purchase.
âSu Hanshengâs hand landed on the shoulder of young Su Xiaoxiao.
In that instant, the heartbeat of Su Xiaoxiaoâs living body seemed to transmit throughout Su Hanshengâs soul through that hand.
Su Xiaoxiao was wiping his tears when he suddenly felt someoneâs hand on his shoulder, freezing slightly.
He thought Xu Nanxian had returned to comfort him. Quickly clearing his throat, he pretended to be composed, wanting to maintain his pride as he turned around.
But before he could turn his head, his body unexpectedly pitched forward.
Su Hanshengâs hand suddenly exerted force, pushing young Su Xiaoxiao into the Cold Pool.
The Cold Pool was terribly shallowâstanding up, it would probably only reach his chest. Normally just sitting at the shore could briefly suppress the Phoenix Boneâs burning heat when it flared up.
Su Xiaoxiao, having suddenly fallen into the Cold Pool, frantically splashed with one hand, grabbing the shore to climb out.
But in the next instant, a burning hot hand reached into the Cold Pool. The slender yet powerful fingers pressed down on his head, immovably pushing it underwater.
Bubbles continuously rose from the Cold Pool.
Su Xiaoxiaoâs struggling, agonized sounds faintly emerged from the water.
âSenior⊠Brother⊠donât.â
Su Hansheng knelt on one knee at the shore, his hand pressing the youthâs head down with deadly force. He watched the seaweed-like hair floating and spreading in the water, feeling the struggling beneath his palm growing weaker and weaker, the splashing force growing smaller and smaller.
Su Hanshengâs expression didnât change in the slightest. Watching his younger self struggling on the verge of death in the water, his eyes could only be described as tender.
âJust stop here. Donât go any further.â
One more step forward lay an inescapable hell.
Iâm helping you, and helping myself.
Like a savior rescuing himself, his face full of compassion, he steadily drowned Su Xiaoxiao in the Cold Pool, his face displaying lucid madness.
The person in the water grew weaker and weaker, yet Su Hansheng didnât even look. Instead he hummed a tuneless song, as if lulling him to sleep.
âThe moon sets west, the magpies return home, return to the nest, return.â
The struggling completely stopped. The fingers clutching the shore had been frozen stiff.
The companion tree planted in the center of Hanmang Garden struggled desperately to save its master, but another invisible force restrained it tightly, preventing it from moving a single branch.
The lush companion tree trembled all over, its leaves rustling down.
Having personally drowned himself, Su Hansheng showed no emotion. Woodenly humming the tune, he pried open those slender fingers and slowly submerged the body into the Cold Poolâs depths.
The youthâs eyes stared blankly, wide open. Even in death, he never saw clearly who had drowned him.
Perhaps he still thought the person who patted his shoulder was Xu Nanxian.
After the flames on Su Hanshengâs body ceased, he once again became a soul that couldnât touch anything.
But he felt no fear. After all, with this body dead in this realm, the next thirteen years wouldnât need to be experienced again.
Early liberation was good.
Su Hansheng sat withered by the Cold Pool, staring at the corpse beneath the water.
He waited and waited, until the middle of the night, yet his soul still hadnât dispersed.
Su Hansheng, who had been sitting quietly, suddenly collapsed again.
His body was already dead. The Cold Pool should have frozen a Qi Refining stage soul into nothingness. Why was he still forcibly kept here?!
When would this damned cycle finally stop?
Su Hansheng had always felt that his living years were the most painful time, but now his body had self-destructed yet his soul had to endure this endless cycleâit was worse than death itself.
What sins had he committed in his past life? Why did the Heavenly Way punish him like this?
Su Hansheng was suffering when he vaguely heard Xu Nanxian and Changkongâs voices outside Hanmang Garden.
âFourth Martial Uncle, you finally came!â
âI was passing by. What, has your Young Lord finally come around and wants to apologize to me?â
Su Hanshengâs sobbing stopped abruptly as he looked blankly toward the entrance.
This cycle hadnât stopped because of Su Xiaoxiaoâs physical death.
Looking at the corpse in the Cold Pool, fear finally surfaced in Su Hanshengâs numb heart for the first time.
If Xu Nanxian saw that Su Xiaoxiao was already deadâŠ
Su Hansheng almost frantically rushed into the Cold Pool, struggling to drag this body up, but having returned to a soul state, he couldnât touch anything at all.
Xu Nanxian was cursing and complaining with Changkong, but he still hadnât left. Given his sharp-tongued but soft-hearted nature, he would definitely stop cursing in a moment and come to Hanmang Garden looking for him.
Su Hansheng grew increasingly anxious.
But Su Xiaoxiaoâs soul in the water had already scattered. Even if the body were retrieved, it would be useless.
By some strange impulse, a thought suddenly flashed through Su Hanshengâs mind.
Since this body was empty, could he perhapsâŠ
As this thought surfaced in his mind, talismans that seemed to originate from his very bloodline appeared in his consciousness like lightning.
Su Hansheng didnât have time to think about where this came from. After vaguely understanding its purpose, he instantly formed a seal and drove the possession talisman into that cold body.
Xu Nanxian broke through Hanmang Gardenâs door and rushed in urgently.
The entire companion tree was trembling violently from unknown fear.
Xu Nanxian quickly scanned the area, his expression extremely grim.
Su Hansheng violently burst through the waterâs surface, one hand desperately gripping the stone at the Cold Poolâs edge, struggling to steady his nearly frozen stiff body, slowly climbing up.
Xu Nanxianâs expression changed. He immediately rushed forward and dragged the person out of the Cold Pool.
âFool! You can drown in such a shallow pool?!â
Su Hansheng was dazed and confused, his face still carrying the aura of death. He looked blankly at Xu Nanxian before him, whose lips opened and closed, saying something he couldnât understand.
Warm hands supported Su Hanshengâs body that had nearly frozen to ice, slowly transmitting a familiar yet strange warmth.
âŠThe temperature symbolizing the living.
Su Hansheng looked at Xu Nanxian and couldnât help but laugh.
But before the smile could fully form, it transformed into tears streaming down his face.
The Cold Pool rippled in circles, with only a broken soul remnant lying quietly at its depths.
All paths are impermanent, dharma forms illusory.
Nothing but a body-snatching ghost.