Chapter 803: Rebirth
When Yuan Shi Dao Ren awoke from the darkness once more, dawn had already broken.
"We won in the end!"
Gazing at the fiery orb in the sky that showered the earth with its warm sunlight, even the most stone-hearted among them couldn't help but reveal a genuine smile.
They had fought the Demon Sun arduously for centuries, from being utterly suppressed to achieving an equal footing, then gaining the upper hand, and finally, completely annihilating it in the present world.
Hundreds of their fellow cultivators had sacrificed themselves on the front lines of the anti-demon war; the fallen comprised sixty percent of all True Immortals in the entire Dao Chen Realm, and every surviving Immortal bore wounds.
Those with minor injuries would require a century of secluded cultivation, while the severely wounded might have to descend into a long slumber, with only a slim chance of recovery.
Nevertheless, they had won, despite the truly heavy price. The Dao Chen Realm might need ten millennia of recuperation to fully return to its pre-war state.
......
Yet, the exhilaration of victory was fleeting. Soon, they recalled that the Moral Immortal Sect, Sheng Chen Men, and Wan Du Jiao had always harbored a deep, sea-like enmity for each other, forced to unite solely for the purpose of combating the Demon Sun.
"Fellow Daoists, I propose a three-hundred-year ceasefire for all existences above the Tribulation Transcending stage within our three sects." Chen Dao Ren, who had confronted the Demon Sun almost continuously and suffered the most grievous injuries, proactively put forth this high-level armistice agreement.
In this battle, the upper echelons of all factions had suffered catastrophic casualties. Conversely, most of the mid- and low-tier disciples, who hadn't even qualified as cannon fodder, had survived, save for a few corrupted by demonic influence and transformed into fiends.
"Acceptable."
"I agree."
While Yuan Shi Dao Ren and Yi Xi Si were not as gravely wounded as Chen Dao Ren, their injuries would not heal for a good thousand years. Even if they were to instigate a war and forcibly eliminate their opponents now, it would only compound their own wounds, irrevocably severing their Dao paths.
Yuan Shi Dao Ren's Moral Immortal Sect, Chen Dao Ren's Sheng Chen Men, and the Mother of Ten Thousand Worms Yi Xi Si's Wan Du Jiao were all super-sects with tens of thousands of years of heritage in the Dao Chen Realm. There were also numerous subordinate sects coveting their esteemed positions. Should they forcefully engage in conflict while injured, it was highly probable they would only allow others to fish in troubled waters.
"By the Fortune-Blessing Xuanhuang Heavenly Venerable above, I, Sheng Chen Men, hereby vow."
"I, Moral Immortal Sect."
"I, Wan Du Jiao."
"Hereby swear."
"That all cultivators of our three sects, above the Tribulation Transcending stage, shall cease hostilities for three hundred years."
......
"Should this oath be broken, heavenly judgment shall descend!"
The three spoke at length, each adding their piece, almost entirely patching up every conceivable loophole.
Once the solemn oath was forged, a series of ethereal imprints subtly settled upon the True Immortals of these three sects.
......
"Fellow Daoists, these Purple-Green Great Medicines serve as our token of gratitude." From their sleeves, the three each produced a handful of crystalline pills, distributing one to every living person present.
"We wouldn't dare accept, we wouldn't dare accept."
......
A torrent of pleasantries flowed, yet not a single hand paused; everyone swiftly tucked away the Purple-Green Great Medicine before them.
This potent medicine was, after all, the hard currency among True Immortals in the Dao Chen Realm, invaluable for daily cultivation, artifact refinement, and combat alike.
The Purple-Green Spirit Elixir, essential for refining the Purple-Green Great Medicine, was notoriously difficult to gather, its discovery relying entirely on sheer fortune.
"Fortune-Blessing Xuanhuang Heavenly Venerable..."
"Fortune-Blessing Xuanhuang Heavenly Venerable..."
Chen Dao Ren, bearing the most grievous wounds, clasped his hands together, softly uttered a Daoist invocation, and then departed with a graceful flourish.
The others echoed the same Daoist invocation, each transforming into a streak of light, silently vanishing into the distant horizon.
......
"This... where is this place?" Inside a dilapidated temple, a heavily wounded boy, his head spinning, slowly opened his eyes, meeting the gaze of a shifty, burly man who had crept close, clearly intent on "looting the corpse."
"A ghost!" The burly, curly-bearded man, startled by the "reanimated" boy, leaped back several steps, even knocking over some tables and chairs in his fright.
"Bang!"
The earthenware bowl on the table, filled with water, consequently crashed to the ground.
"What's all the commotion?!"
Moments later, several military-clad men, appearing to be soldiers, swaggered in, surrounding an old man in their midst.
"Nothing, merely an overturned table and some spilled water."
Upon seeing the water splashed across the floor, the old man seemed to have already deduced the gist of what had transpired.
"These low-lives, even half-dead they can't stay still. You, aren't you going to quickly set that table upright?" The leading military man pointed at one of the burly men.
"Yes, yes, Milord." The curly-bearded man, his initial fright subsiding, hastened to tidy the area, a nervous smile plastered on his face.
As for the ghostly encounter, he dared not utter another half-word about it.
Just moments ago, he had noticed a small jade pendant hanging from the neck of the severely wounded, unconscious boy, which had momentarily stirred his avarice. He had moved to claim it, only for the boy to awaken precisely as he made his move, startling the guilty man half to death.
......
"A'Qi, this one, this one, and these two — see them off on their journey." The old man swept his gaze around the dilapidated temple, then pointed at several of the most gravely wounded individuals.
"Yes, Milord." Behind the old man, the young man, a guard by appearance, drew his sword upon receiving the command. With a single, clean strike for each, he effortlessly ended their pained groans.
The old man and the young guard paid no further heed to the situation in the dilapidated temple, turning to depart. As for the weak boy who had initially caused the stir, they didn't even spare him a glance.
"Anyone who can still move, get out and eat your fill. Finish within a quarter of an hour, then break camp and depart. Those who can't move, wait for death." The military leader tossed out this brutal command in the ruined temple, which was serving as a makeshift infirmary, then likewise departed.
......
"Is that even human... to suffer such grievous injuries, yet still eat like a normal person, merely walking a bit slower?" The curly-bearded man recalled the boy he had seen moments ago, who clearly bore several fatal wounds.
"Am I Bai Mo?" The boy ate his rice, simultaneously sifting through the countless memories flooding his mind.
Upon awakening from his stupor, an untold number of memories materialized within the boy's mind.
His previous life had been that of the lofty Demon Sun Dao Venerable, reigning supreme in the Dao Chen Realm.
As he attempted to step into the Heavenly Dao Realm, he inadvertently exposed his true nature as a transmigrator, a being utterly intolerable to this world. Countless foes from his past, all his erstwhile enemies, manifested as human tribulations, assaulting him in a relentless tide.
Though he wielded peerless might, slaughtering them until heads rolled and forcibly repelling the human tribulation, the cumulative injuries proved too severe. In the end, he was compelled to tear through space with a wisp of his remnant soul, seizing a new body and undergoing rebirth.
This very boy, who had perished amidst the chaotic armies, happened to become the perfect vessel for the remnant soul's possession.
"It is currently the 270th year of the Great Gan Dynasty. Devastating floods and droughts have swept across numerous prefectures, leaving countless disaster victims displaced and turning them into vagrants. These vagrants, in turn, are being conscripted by various rebel armies, who are now assailing the prefectures and counties.
My previous body was originally the son of a minor gentry family in Chu'an City, Tai Prefecture. However, Chu'an City was breached by the rebel army, and his entire family was annihilated in the ensuing chaos..." Having recovered a portion of his memories, Bai Mo began to meticulously sort through the recollections of this former self.
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