The Path to Immortality: Starting with an Analysis of Basic Concepts

A white light filled my vision.

Zhu Yu felt as if he had been forcefully shoved into a narrow passage, and he wasn't the only one. Everyone was jostling and pushing each other, and if they weren't unable to speak, there would surely have been shouts of curses.

And so, who knows how much time passed.

puff…

As he squeezed in, Zhu Yu felt a lightness in his body. When he opened his eyes again, the sky was high and the clouds were wide, and there was a forest of green trees. In a corner of the green mountains below, there was a small village with scattered embers burning inside. The broken corpses lying in various places could be vaguely seen.

"Ancient world, a remote village ravaged by bandits..."

After quickly gathering some information and remembering Xiang Sui and the others' instructions, I didn't linger and controlled the ring to drop directly towards the village.

This place is surrounded by mountains on all sides, and there are no other villages.

If you want to take over a body as soon as possible, the village that was suspected of being robbed by bandits has the best chance.

Moreover, Zhu Yu hadn't forgotten that he wasn't the only one present. Although they couldn't see each other now, they were definitely all there. If they were too slow, they wouldn't even be able to grab a hot meal.

As he drifted down, he vaguely sensed an inexplicable force surrounding him, slowly eroding the membrane covering the surface of the ring, like a frog being boiled in lukewarm water.

"A self-generated reaction from the Otherworldly Spirit Ruins...?"

Zhu Yu felt a slight chill and activated the ring with his consciousness, causing it to fall even faster.

A few breaths passed.

The village view became clear.

Most of the houses were mud-walled and thatched, except for one brick and tile house in the center of the village, which was mostly collapsed, engulfed in flames, and littered with corpses.

Zhu Yu glanced at it only once, then quickly landed and traversed the village streets, carefully sensing the bodies that might be hiding.

They searched house by house.

When he felt the rate at which the circular membrane was disappearing suddenly increase and a burning sensation came over him, Zhu Yu suddenly felt a little anxious.

They drifted to a relatively intact house and sensed two faint signs of life.

May this bring me joy.

Without the slightest hesitation, they headed straight for it.

Soon they arrived at a well behind the earthen house. Looking at the thick layer of dead branches and leaves covering it, they vaguely understood why the two of them had survived. They crawled down into the well through the crack.

There wasn't enough time to choose.

It found a humanoid creature with a strong life force and crashed into it.

The feeling was as if a thin membrane had been broken through, and a stream of unfamiliar memories welled up like flowing water.

Memory is a skinny, dark-skinned child, like a mud monkey, without parents, living by hunting birds and catching fish, and eating food from many families.

He didn't have a formal name, only the nickname "Dog Leftovers".

My deepest memories of this world are only of Mi Village and the little girl next door, Ya'er...

"Waaah..."

After processing the memories, Zhu Yu opened her eyes and felt a tightness in her throat, making it hard to breathe. She quickly raised her hands to grab her neck and then felt herself grabbing a slender arm.

"Mi Ya'er?...No, she's a cultivator from the Yinming Cave..."

A thought flashed through his mind, and a fierce glint appeared in his eyes. He stopped the slender arm from tightening further with one hand, and thrust the other hand backward hard. When he touched a certain hole, he forced it in, and a warm flow flowed to the back of his hand.

"Well…"

A suppressed cry of pain rang out.

Immediately, Zhu Yu felt a sharp pain in his palm, as if a dog was biting and tearing at his hand.

"That bastard..."

Zhu Yu gritted his teeth and endured the pain, slowly moving his palm upwards. When he touched his eye socket and was about to clench it, he suddenly felt the arm around his neck loosen, felt a pain in his waist, and fell forward.

Zhu Yu used the momentum to roll away and hide in a dark corner. He looked around at the darkness and groped downwards with his hand. When he touched something hard, he was overjoyed.

Just then.

A soft voice rang out, "Brother Gousheng, you're hurting me..."

"..."

Zhu Yu narrowed his eyes, and in the darkness, a slender silhouette vaguely appeared. Without the slightest hesitation, he lifted his foot and pushed off the well wall, lunging forward.

They arrived in an instant.

A girl with a dirty face, messy hair, and unusually bright eyes came into view. Facing his fierce gaze, the girl showed no fear, but instead revealed a wicked smile.

next moment.

Zhu Yu then saw clearly what she relied on: a pair of black scissors!

"Suffered..."

Zhu Yu's pupils contracted slightly as he saw the girl curl up and lean against him, her arms raised, the sharp scissors aimed straight at his throat and jaw.

Zhu Yu instinctively leaned back, only to feel a sharp pain in his chin and a warm flow running down. Without thinking, he raised his foot and kicked out hard.

Bang!…

The girl was physically weak, and the kick that landed squarely on her chest left her breathless, her head spinning, and the scissors she was holding fell to the side.

"Now..."

Zhu Yu's eyes flashed with a fierce light. He pounced on the girl, knocking her to the ground, and slammed his arm, which was gripping the stone, down hard.

Bang! Bang! ...

Two blows later, the girl's forehead was mangled and bleeding profusely. Her breath suddenly stopped, and she was on the verge of death.

"call…"

Zhu Yu couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Just as he was about to finish off his fellow disciple, blinding sunlight suddenly shone down from above, and a shrill voice rang out.

"Tsk, he's got a tough one..."

Zhu Yu felt a gust of wind sweep past, and before he could react, he was covered in a blast of wind. When he opened his eyes again, he was already outside the well.

Beside him.

A young man in a blue cloth shirt with a mustache and a shifty look was applying medicine to Mi Ya'er. Miraculously, as the white powder was sprinkled on, the bleeding from the hideous wound on her forehead stopped immediately.

Seeing this, Bai Doufu put away the wound medicine, stood up, looked at Zhu Yu who had fallen to the ground, sized him up a few times, stroked his beard, and suddenly stepped forward to help him up, laughing loudly:

"Young brother, you are young yet possess the countenance of a tiger and wolf; you are destined for greatness! Would you be willing to join my Yunshan Stronghold, to feast on meat and share gold with us, and to become a true hero!"

Feeling the iron hand on his shoulder, Zhu Yu dared not utter a word of refusal and nodded in reply, "I am willing."

"Okay, okay!..."

Upon hearing this, Bai Doufu was overjoyed and exclaimed "Good!" several times. He then smiled and said, "Good, little brother. My name is Bai Doufu. I am one of the three leaders under Yunshan Village, known as Dong Chengen, the 'Cloud-Entering Hand.' Brother Dong."

"Hiss... This guy is just a lackey of a bandit leader's lackey..." Zhu Yu gasped inwardly. "Is this the Great Spirit Ruins? Even a lowly henchman's strength is comparable to a cultivator who has just entered the Qi Refining stage..."

His mind raced, and he cupped his hands in greeting, saying:

"Mi Gousheng greets Brother Bai."

"Um?"

Bai Doufu paused for a moment, patted his shoulder, and frowned, saying, "Don't imitate those poor, pedantic scholars. We're brothers; it would be too formal for us to meet like this."

"Um?"

Sensing that the underling's enthusiasm for him had waned considerably, Zhu Yu was taken aback and momentarily confused.

No?

You're not happy even though I'm being polite to you?

"Ha ha…"

Thinking of this, Zhu Yu hesitated for a moment, then laughed twice like him, clasped his hands and said, "My brother was momentarily confused because the village was destroyed, and I'm sorry to have made you laugh, Brother Bai."

Sure enough, these words came out.

Bai Doufu's fading smile reappeared. As if remembering something, she took out a small piece of silver, about the size of a thumb, from her pocket and stuffed it into Zhu Yu's hand, saying with a guilty expression:

"It's the elder brother's fault. If we had known we would encounter someone like the younger brother, we wouldn't have slaughtered the Mi family village."

"?"