Chapter 101
Chapter 101
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 101
Chapter Title: I've Always Been Loyal to the Saint Sect
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[You are entangled in karmic debts, your merit and fortune utterly lost in a single day, until you finally took your own life.]
[Remaining pages in the Book of a Hundred Lives: 93]
[Restarting a life, you may choose one of the following gains from your previous life:
One: Treasure.
Two: Cultivation.
Three: Lifespan.
Four: Forsake all gains and randomly awaken a talent based on your previous life's experiences.]
“Those whose names are called, step forward before me.”
The familiar voice gave Lu Yang a faint sense of as if separated by a lifetime. But he quickly composed himself and looked toward the Book of a Hundred Lives interface:
[Name: Lu Yang]
[Lifespan: 18]
[Cultivation: Qi Refining Tenth Layer Great Perfection]
[Talent: Dual Cultivation Prodigy (White), Has Some Skill (Purple)]
[Cultivation Method: Nine Transformations of the Dragon Art (Perfected)]
[Divine Abilities: Divine Empyrean Sword Control True Art (Perfected), Secret Explanation of Array Treasures (Perfected), Qi Concealment Art (Perfected), Great Clone Universal Assembly Divine Method (Perfected), Stealing Heavenly Secrets (Perfected), Saint Thief (Perfected), Grand Yin Corpse Liberation and Form Shedding True Art (Minor Achievement), Heavenly Silkworm Secret: Severing Thoughts to See the Self (Minor Achievement)]
[Treasures: Blood Yang Sword Pellet (Superior Magic Treasure), Innate Primal Qi (Superior奇物)]
[Book of a Hundred Lives pages: 93]
After restarting, he retained his initial state from the previous life, with only the augmentation from [Saint Thief] in terms of status. The other two great divine abilities had yet to be cultivated.
“I choose treasure.”
Lu Yang didn't dare delay and immediately selected this life's reward. The next second, a pitch-black Ten Thousand Spirits Banner appeared abruptly in his dantian.
With a thought from Lu Yang, the banner fluttered. A graceful, enchanting silhouette materialized from illusion to reality, stepping down from the banner. Eight red-clothed malevolent ghosts followed behind her, instantly combining to reform the [Yama Demon Hall], flattening all the karma on Lu Yang's body.
Compared to the previous life, however, the current [Yama Demon Hall] had been greatly diminished.
“It's because there's no Skull Mountain anymore.”
Lu Yang understood in his heart. In the previous life, [Yama Demon Hall] had Skull Mountain as its foundation. In this life, it could only reside in the banner's inner heaven within the Ten Thousand Spirits Banner.
Though the current [Yama Demon Hall] still maintained a Foundation Establishment level status, it was all form without substance. In this state, it might not even defeat the soul of the Heaven Mending Peak Master from the previous life. It could only handle tasks like obscuring karma, which required only status.
But this was merely a minor issue.
After all, Skull Mountain was right there—it couldn't grow legs and run away. Worst case, he could revisit it later and re-anchor it.
“.”
Lu Yang looked up at the sky and waited patiently for a moment. This time, the Heaven Mending Peak Master didn't detect him. After a bout of impotent rage, he withdrew his divine sense.
Only then did Lu Yang nod in satisfaction. He probed his karma again and revealed a calm expression. “As expected, the banner spirit and Ten Thousand Spirits Banner are truly one. At least in the judgment of the [Book of a Hundred Lives], they are. After selecting it as the reward, all its karma has been erased.”
He could no longer sense the karma of the Golden Core sword qi.
The Ten Thousand Spirits Banner, including the host of banner spirits within, had become, in Lu Yang's eyes, a thing utterly without cause or effect, impossible to trace.
Having sorted his thoughts, Lu Yang turned his gaze to Liu Xin on the platform.
In this life, he intended to replicate the actions from the life before last.
“The reason Dragon-Subduing ambushed me in the previous life boiled down to me not truly joining the Primal Saint Sect, lacking a sufficiently solid backer.”
The Primal Saint Sect was the Primal Saint Sect, after all. You could call it evil, but never weak.
If he had been a true disciple of the Primal Saint Sect in the previous life, even if Dragon-Subduing Arhat grew ten times bolder, he wouldn't have dared abduct him to Jiangxi for Buddhist cultivation.
So in this life, Lu Yang planned to secure a true disciple identity for himself.
From that perspective, the Three Rivers Association was a fine choice.
“At least True Person Heavy Light and Perfected Being Yin Shan should still uphold some reason. At minimum, in the previous life, they didn't outright kill me to seize the [Heavenly Corpse Baleful Qi].”
Lu Yang believed they absolutely had the capability.
They had the power, yet refrained. Such people were rarer than phoenix feathers and qilin horns in the Primal Saint Sect. Moreover, True Person Heavy Light, as a late Foundation Establishment great true person, was himself a rock-solid backer.
“In truth, I've always been loyal to the Primal Saint Sect.”
“Everyone in the Primal Saint Sect is exceptional. I love it here. Though I didn't join in the previous life, I've long been one of the Primal Saint Sect in spirit!”
Soon, the initiation ceremony concluded.
What followed unfolded exactly as in the previous lives. Lu Yang was still assigned by Liu Xin to Harmonious Union Hall and still caught Yu Suzhen's eye, who lured him into her cave abode.
Though he had done this many times before, Lu Yang steeled his heart each time.
The Great Dao lay ahead—how could he waver?
Transcend Yu Suzhen.
Gazing at Yu Suzhen's corpse with eyes wide in death, Lu Yang frowned. Suddenly, with a thought, he produced the Ten Thousand Spirits Banner and summoned the Maiden.
“This servant greets Master.”
The moment the Maiden appeared, she bowed respectfully to Lu Yang. As she bent, her ample peaks swayed, her waist slender as the moon's crescent—yet she paid no heed to the corpse beside her.
“Do you recognize her?”
Lu Yang pointed at Yu Suzhen's corpse on the ground. Only then did the Maiden glance sideways. Lu Yang immediately focused, sensing the Maiden's thoughts and intentions.
Next, he saw the Maiden pause in surprise, gazing at Yu Suzhen's exquisite face identical to her own. Her fine brows furrowed slightly, as if lost in confusion. But soon, she smoothed her expression. “In response to Master, yes, this servant recognizes her. That was this servant in life... Does Master wish to transcend her?”
Lu Yang's face darkened instantly. “Don't speak nonsense! I'm a cultivator!”
He was purely curious about what would happen if two Yu Suzhens existed in the world. All that transcending talk—what decorum was that?
“It seems the [Book of a Hundred Lives] fixed this bug for me.”
After restarting, though the banner spirit subjectively remembered everything from before, her self-perception had been forcibly altered after her karma was erased.
She knew she was Yu Suzhen, yet didn't believe herself to be Yu Suzhen—like a mere shadow of the original.
As Lu Yang pondered, the Maiden suddenly waved her hand toward Yu Suzhen's corpse. A bizarre ripple of karma spread out instantly.
“...What are you doing?”
Lu Yang looked up to see the Maiden equally bewildered. After hesitating, she placed her hand on Yu Suzhen's corpse as if plucking something.
The next second—
“Hm!?”
Lu Yang's pupils contracted sharply. On the Maiden, who had been cleansed of all cause and effect by the [Book of a Hundred Lives], a layer of karma suddenly appeared!
It was Yu Suzhen's karma!
“It can be done like this!?”
Lu Yang's eyes lit up. A banner spirit whose original body still existed in the present world could borrow her original body's karma?
With that in mind, he immediately turned to the Maiden and asked, “How did you do that? To what extent can you do it? Any limitations?”
The Maiden paused at his words, then carefully sensed for a moment before whispering, “There is a distance requirement. If too far, it might not work. Otherwise, no other requirements—no need to touch the other party. If the other party is dead, it can be permanently borrowed.”
“Interesting.”
Lu Yang's expression turned pensive as he glanced at the other two banner spirits in the Ten Thousand Spirits Banner: Chen Xin'an and the Heaven Mending Peak Master's soul fragment. Could they do the same?
This ability had tremendous potential if used well!
A banner spirit could borrow its original body's karma, meaning that once the original died, the banner spirit could immediately swap places, even replacing the original's existence!
Even short of killing the original, it could borrow their karma to commit misdeeds, then pin the blame on them.
“...An unexpected boon.”
Next, he looked toward Liu Xin waiting outside the door.
A plan instantly formed in his mind.
“Chen Xin'an!”
First, deal with Chen Xin'an's original body, then have banner spirit Chen Xin'an assume his karma and impersonate him to reunite with the Heaven Mending Peak Master—let father and son have their touching reunion.
Thus, Lu Yang would gain a mole planted right beside the Heaven Mending Peak Master.
Beyond that, with Chen Xin'an's status as a Primal Saint Sect true disciple and son of a true person, many sect resources would open to him.
If he broke through to Foundation Establishment later, he could even have banner spirit Chen Xin'an lure the Heaven Mending Peak Master out of the sect, exploit their father-son bond for a sneak attack, slay him outright, and finally replace him with banner spirit Heaven Mending Peak Master!
(End of chapter)