The Song Dynasty was the king for thirteen years before he knew that he was Tianlong.

Chapter 381 Successive Births (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

In Yanyun, in the main hall of the Jiedushi's mansion in Zhuozhou City.

After reading Zhang Jie's reply, Zhao Ti nodded and then began to instruct his generals on matters related to troop training.

Zhang Jie marched quickly and arrived in two or three days. After resting for a day, he set off for Youzhou.

Now that we have decided to attack Yanjing, we cannot delay any longer.

One reason was to prevent the Liao Kingdom from having too much time to strengthen its city defenses and fortifications.

One reason is that in a war of conquest, one must strike while the iron is hot, then exhaust it, and finally weaken it. If the war drags on for too long, it will be detrimental to morale and put a lot of pressure on logistics.

After the meeting, the generals left. Zhao Ti glanced at the sky outside and then went back to his bedroom to practice his martial arts.

The spiritual energy of heaven and earth continued to gradually increase, but it had not yet reached a stable and unchanging state. Whether one was a cultivator or a martial artist, the speed at which they practiced their skills was getting faster and faster.

Zhao Ti's Taoist magic and Illusory Yin True Qi are currently both on the fifth floor of the Twelve-Story Tower, at the Fire Gate, separated from the Yellow Court Cauldron on the sixth floor by only a thin layer of paper, almost as easy to break through.

He ordered Zhou Tong and Bai Zhan to lead men to take turns guarding the bedroom door, and then began his breakthrough to a higher realm.

In just one or two hours, the magical power within his body surged upwards like the Yangtze River, violently rushing into the Yellow Court Cauldron.

This floor is more than halfway through the twelve-story building. The magical power here is double that of the fifth floor. Zhao Ti felt as light as a feather, as if he were floating on air.

Then he combed through his meridians, circulating his qi nine times, and mentally recited the inner demons and tribulations of this level.

He became increasingly puzzled by this tribulation. Within the tribulation, everything seemed real, not only did everyone and everything appear genuine, but the development of events was also extremely orderly, just like what really happens in the world.

Zhao Ti had also asked Mu Wanqing, A Zhu, Murong Longcheng, and others about their inner demons. Although they were thrilling, they were generally simple and far less complicated and cumbersome than they are now.

As for the inner demons of others, they occur in a single scene, and the next inner demon is completely unrelated to the previous one, unlike his, which is like a TV series that can continue, as if one is really living in it.

Moreover, once someone's inner demons awaken, they can almost immediately discern the falsehood by reflecting on the past, and the more they reflect on their awakening, the more it seems to have actually happened.

This inner demon doesn't seem to be an illusion, but if it isn't, then where have I gone?

Could it be that they went to another world and had various interactions with the people there?
But how did I get there? My body is still here, so how did my thoughts wander to some unknown other world?
If the realm of inner demons is real, then why does this situation occur? Why is my own tribulation different from others'?

Zhao Ti pondered for a long time but couldn't figure out the reason. At this moment, he couldn't help but think of the inner demon tribulation of the sixth level.

The sixth level of the Twelve-Story Tower, the Yellow Court Cauldron Realm, corresponds to a tribulation called the Golden Soup Void Tribulation.

The Golden Soil Vacuum Calamity signifies the loss of power.

Zhao Ti pondered for a moment. What did it mean to lose power? He hadn't even finished his fifth tribulation, the tribulation of deluded mind. If he were to enter another tribulation, would the two merge into one?

As he pondered, he calmed his mind and began to look inward. Suddenly, he felt a jolt in his body, and the scene before him instantly changed, revealing another world...

In Tokyo, the thirty-two layers of white rainbow light above the Imperial City collapsed once again, falling in scattered fragments into the secret chambers of the Funing Palace below.

At the northern foot of Mount Song, in front of the Yongxi Mausoleum of Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty.

A donkey, entirely black with two ears standing up high and four hooves as white as snow, was lying on the ground.

Its head was facing the direction of Kaifeng Prefecture, as if it were looking at something, but the sky above was clear and blue, with white clouds drifting by, a peaceful and serene scene, with nothing else to attract attention.

The white rainbow above the Tokyo Palace collapsed and fell. The donkey shook its head and actually spoke in human language, saying, "Foolish child, truly a foolish child."

No one responded to it. After a moment, it said again, "If you want to practice, then practice. Thirty-two levels is thirty-two levels. If you can't reach them, then so be it. Why force yourself to deduce them? It's a pity to waste your talent. Among all the grandchildren who have practiced this style of boxing over the years, you are the best. Why be so stubborn?"

Half a day later it said again: "Even if a great disaster comes, you will not be the only one to bear it. If it is destroyed, it is all destroyed; if you die, you all die. You are really not thinking straight. You are as stubborn as a donkey. You are not as good as those grandsons who knew to be afraid and stop. I'm afraid, I'm afraid... you won't live much longer."

Just then, a deep, angry voice rang out: "What do you mean, 'like a donkey's brain'?"

The donkey chuckled twice upon hearing this, but did not reply.

The voice continued angrily, "It's been a full hundred years, when are you going to leave my body?"

The noise seemed to be coming from a donkey's mouth, but the tone was completely different, as if there were two souls inside the donkey's body, talking to each other.

The donkey chuckled a few more times, then replied, "What do you mean by 'your body'? I've been here for a hundred years, I should have half of my body by now."

"Utterly shameless!" the gruff voice said. "Your own body is in the tomb behind you. Now that the world has changed so drastically, why don't you return to your own body?"

The donkey shook its head and said, "Although that body is not destroyed, after so many years, it is probably already a dried-up corpse. Do you expect me to appear in the world as a rigor mortis?"

"Then you can't just stay inside me forever, always taking the initiative and controlling my body!" the burly voice said angrily.

“I have better control over my body than you, at least I can cultivate faster than you. I can cultivate the Wuji Diagram, the Xiantian Diagram, the Yilong Diagram, as well as the Zhixuan Scripture and the Guankong Scripture. I cultivate them faster than you and my skill is deeper than yours. In the end, aren’t they all added to your body?” the donkey said.

"Even if you cultivate faster than me and your body benefits, isn't your soul the biggest beneficiary? Since you entered my body, I have lost control of my body, and my cultivation has been hindered at every turn, making it extremely slow. Otherwise, how could my soul have only reached this level now?" the burly voice said angrily.

The donkey said, "Don't worry, I'll leave sooner or later. Do you think I like staying in your body? If I hadn't been unable to find a suitable body that would allow me to live forever and cultivate, I wouldn't have borrowed your body. Do you think I want to be a donkey?"

The gruff voice said, "You can stay put, why do you keep going up the mountain to bother those female beasts? And now you're talking about donkey brains? How can you look down on donkey brains? Even if I were a donkey brain, I wouldn't have provoked those female tigers on the mountain, and I ended up being chased all over the mountain."

The donkey was silent for a moment after hearing this, then sighed and said, "It's like casting pearls before swine. I, a lone wolf... have no reason to waste my breath on you."

On the vast grasslands, fifty miles northwest of the Shamanic Church.

As the worshippers at the altar raised their voices higher and higher, and swayed their bodies more and more wildly, the sounds from the nearby mountains grew increasingly intense.

"Has the world changed? Let me take a look, and indeed it has changed. How many years have passed, how many years have gone by..." Layer upon layer of voices came from within the mountains, carrying a hint of sigh and a touch of emotion.

A figure stood before the mountain, dressed in a colorful robe, adorned with elaborate headdresses, with a string of silver bells around her waist, and her face covered with a black veil; she appeared to be a woman.

She bowed to the mountain and then sang a verse: "The immortal Kui sits serenely as the sect leader, with celestial attendants burning incense before and behind. The sandalwood clouds are long and hazy, a murderous aura rises and lingers. When the white crane cries, heaven and earth turn; when the blue phoenix spreads its wings, the sea and mountains are clear. The sect leader rises and leaves the golden palace to gather a million immortals."

Upon hearing this, Shan Zhong burst into laughter: "The younger generation certainly knows how to speak. My efforts in building this grassland haven't been in vain." Then the woman continued singing: "Scaly head, leopard tail, body like a dragon, treading auspicious light to the ninth heaven, freely traversing the four seas and nine provinces, meeting the three mountains and five peaks in an instant..."

The creatures in the mountains were overjoyed, their voices ringing out, "Excellent, excellent! You sang well! By the way, where is our master right now?"

The woman stopped chanting, performed an ancient salute once more, and said, "The sect leader is in seclusion within the sect, and this invitation to the immortal Kui to appear is an instruction left by the sect leader in the past."

The voice from the mountains said, "Very well, in that case, I will go and see the master."

As soon as the words were spoken, a tremendous noise suddenly came from the mountain. Cracks appeared on the top of the mountain instantly, and the cracks widened in the blink of an eye. Then, with a loud "boom," the mountain broke apart and collapsed to both sides.

Grass and trees flew everywhere, boulders rolled down, the sound was deafening, and dust filled the sky.

Then a figure flew out from the mountain, soaring into the air for more than ten feet before landing. It was a tall and imposing man dressed in black.

This burly man was extremely tall and robust, with thick eyebrows, a square face, a lion's nose, and a wide mouth. There was a Tai Chi Bagua pattern in the center of his forehead.

Purple electric light flickers above the image, sometimes bright and sometimes dim within the patterns. Upon closer inspection, it seems to be a continuous cycle of birth and death, where something is created, then destroyed, and then created again.

As the giant landed on the ground, the shamans on the altar immediately roared, shouting the words "Kui Immortal".

The burly man grinned, then gestured with his hand before walking to the woman in colorful clothes at the foot of the mountain.

The woman in colorful clothes bowed respectfully, and the burly man nodded and said, "Let's go, take me to see my master."

The woman in colorful clothes hurriedly replied, "Yes, I will obey the decree of the Immortal Kui."

As she spoke, she gestured to the shamanic disciple on the other side, then turned and led the way southeast...

During the march of the Song Dynasty's western army, Lin Lingsu, who was on horseback, suddenly felt a jolt in his heart and his face changed drastically. He reached out and made calculations with his fingers, and anger welled up in his eyes.

"You wretched beast, how dare you betray me!"

"Master Lin, what happened?" Zhao Ji asked, watching from the sidelines.

"Your Highness, I have a vague feeling that my mount from my past life has been reborn, but it has betrayed the path and gone to join someone else." Lin Lingsu's voice was hoarse.

"Oh?" Zhao Ji asked in surprise, "You've turned to someone else? I wonder who you've turned to?"

Lin Lingsu frowned, pondering, "It seems...it seems to be me too?"

Emperor Huizong was greatly surprised upon hearing this: "Immortal Master Lin, how come there is another you?"

Lin Lingsu looked dazed and murmured, "Yes, how could there be another me?"

Upon seeing this, Zhao Ji hurriedly asked, "Immortal Master, has there been a mistake in your cultivation, leading to a qi deviation and causing you to have such a bizarre idea?"

Lin Lingsu slowly shook her head: "Your Highness, I have never made a mistake in my cultivation. This matter is strange. It must be due to some special reason in my past life that I was able to calculate this result. It also shows that the dream in my past life was not completed, so I do not know what happened afterward..."

Zhao Ji thought for a moment: "Even if something special happens, there can't be another immortal master, can there?"

Lin Lingsu shook her head on horseback: "It's hard to say. The dream was bizarre and strange, with all sorts of inconceivable things. No one knows exactly what kind of strange and bizarre things happened. I can vaguely feel the presence of that other me. The distance is not very close, but it is not very far either."

Zhao Ji asked curiously, "Where is it?"

Lin Lingsu pointed northwest: "I'll hide there on the vast grasslands of the northwest..."

Deep in the East China Sea, beneath the seawater, lies a massive trench.

Far from the sea, this place is vibrant with colors and strangely shaped, as if another world exists here.

Several places within the trench glowed faintly, and objects resembling crystals emerged from the seabed, seemingly a vast palace partially buried beneath the mud.

The part of the crystal palace that protrudes from the mud has a gap that winds its way into the interior.

Following the opening inwards, one passes various crystal stones that have been damaged or broken at some unknown time, and then sees various broken pearls and jade treasures, before descending into a large hall that has collapsed halfway.

Although it was a collapsed hall, it was still several tens of feet in circumference. At this moment, in the center of the ruined hall, there was a strangely shaped monster that looked like a dragon but was not. It was holding and eating the tentacles of a huge sea monster.

This monster is said to resemble a dragon, with a dragon's head and tail, and any single part of it is extremely similar to a dragon.

It is said to be somewhat non-dragon because its body is not as long and winding as a real dragon, nor does it have dragon scales, a snake's belly, or sharp, hook-like claws.

The object's body was grayish-black, resembling dried tree bark, making it impossible to distinguish whether it was scales or filthy old tangerine peel membrane.

Moreover, its body is not curved and slender, but rather round and robust, somewhat resembling the pig dragon commonly found in ditches and rivers such as the Huai River.

However, it had the appearance of a dragon, the body of a pig dragon, and was several times larger than a pig dragon, making it look extremely strange.

It eats extremely fast. The monster tentacles, almost the same size as its own body, are all swallowed in a moment, while its belly doesn't show much shape, only slightly bulging, and it's unclear where all the food went.

After finishing its meal, it smacked its lips and looked up at the passageway to the Crystal Palace, as if sensing something.

The next moment, its two long whiskers suddenly stood up, and it flew quickly outwards along the passage.

The dragon whiskers, which were only a few feet long before, now seemed to be infinitely long, and flew away into the distance after leaving the gap in the Crystal Palace.

After a while, the long whiskers began to pull forcefully, as if they had caught on some sea creature, and began to drag it into the Crystal Palace...

On the border between the Song and Liao dynasties, the bright moon hung high, and all was silent.

Wang Yuyan stopped using her lightness skill, looked around, and muttered to herself, "I wonder how far it is from Zhuozhou? Will we be able to get there by dawn..."

She found a big tree, sat down and drank some water, then got up, slung her floral bag over her shoulder, and continued flying forward.

(End of this chapter)