Duosheng Danyuan

Unlike the last raid, this time, the undead's movements were almost as if they were in slow motion.

She tremblingly raised her right hand and pressed it against my forehead with a sword-finger gesture made by bringing her index and middle fingers together, while her left hand rested on my shoulder.

Our eyes met, and suddenly, I felt a suffocating sensation in my Adam's apple, as if something was pulling at my neck. Gradually, I felt myself suffocating.

Just then, I clearly felt a drop of liquid flowing up from the bottom of my throat. This strange sensation made me start coughing uncontrollably. As I coughed, the feeling of suffocation subsided.

Dizzy and lightheaded, I was helped by Lin Xu. Through my blurred vision, I saw a drop of red liquid floating above the fingertip of the immortal, as if it were floating in the air without anything to rely on.

"Done." The undead said, greedily and cautiously, yet with a mixture of eagerness and caution, bringing the drop of blood from her fingertip to his mouth. "Ah..."

Then, unexpectedly, the immortal's arm also began to undergo new changes as my drop of blood entered its throat.

On the undead, new flesh and blood gradually began to grow on the left and right arms, roughly from the elbows to the hands.

"What exactly is this..." Lin Xu stared at the strange movement on the arm of the undead in front of him, his lips twitching, barely able to speak.

In the end, to Lin Xu's and my astonishment, the flesh and blood that had grown on the undead's arms only reached her elbows; her shoulders and arms were still covered by horrifying gray-white skeletons.

"Thank you for your efforts. I will do my best to answer your questions," the undead said to me, his expression becoming more animated, still eager to learn more.

"Hehe...start answering my questions, including the answer you gave me. I admit, I'm interested." I said, barely managing to stand with Lin Xu's help.

"No problem." The Undead nodded, smiling as he spoke. "Let's get to the answer to the question about the remaining essence blood. The answer is actually quite simple. A cultivator's essence blood is a constant concentration. Advancement in cultivation level leads to higher cultivation, and higher cultivation leads to a leap in power. During this leap, the concentration of the cultivator's essence blood doesn't increase. Instead, to balance the concentration of their natal essence blood, the amount of essence blood in the cultivator's body naturally increases. In other words, the higher your cultivation level, the more essence blood you'll have."

"What you're saying contradicts what's written in the 'Blood Contract'," Lin Xu said, frowning.

"I'm just stating my opinion. The Blood Essence Contract defines the contract," the Undead shrugged indifferently, continuing, "Besides, is the content about blood essence in the Blood Essence Contract really different from what I'm saying? The most direct manifestation of power leap is the extension of lifespan, and the most direct means for cultivators to extend their lifespan is to improve their cultivation level. That's why I said the higher the cultivation level, the more blood essence they will have left. It all depends on how you interpret it."

"..." Faced with the words of the immortal, Lin Xu remained silent and said no more.

"In other words, even if one's cultivation level doesn't increase, as long as one's lifespan increases, the concentration of one's natal essence blood within the body will inevitably increase as well?"

"Smart," the undead nodded and said to me with a smile.

"Understood. Now you can begin answering my questions."

"Okay. Let me think, which question should I start answering? Hmm... well, I'll just answer them in order."

The first question is, why did I only sever my destiny and not my calamities when I severed my identity? The answer is simple.

All things possess a spirit, and life is a product of nature and the earth. That is to say, the realm of being alive is bestowed upon us by the earth, while the concept of identity is a gift from heaven. Heaven governs fortune, and earth governs calamities. Losing my identity only means losing the fortune of heaven, but I have not lost the calamities that earth bestows upon me in accordance with heaven's fortune.

Simply put, after losing my identity, I lost the parts that were beneficial to me, but retained the parts that were harmful to me. This is part of the price of becoming immortal.

After speaking, the immortal paused, and seeing that none of us interrupted, continued, "The answer to the second question, along with your third, is actually the same. Indeed, as an immortal, I will inevitably inherit the identities of those who have died. Rather, inheriting the identities of those who are still alive is an exception for me. However, whether the person I inherit the identity from is alive or dead, it does not affect my obligation to fulfill the obligations of inheriting that identity—that is, to shoulder the calamities associated with those identities."

"...Are you done talking?" I frowned when I saw that the undead had no intention of continuing.

"No, I was just waiting for you to come and get me," the undead said, smiling at me.

"Heh..." My lips twitched, and I ignored the undead's dark humor, continuing in a cold voice, "Your answer is either lying to me or incomplete. You told us the answer to the first question was Heaven's fortune and Earth's calamity. So how could you, who only inherited someone else's identity but didn't seize their existence, get a result of only calamity and no fortune? You still have a lot to explain."

"I know, but I'm not going to tell you those things."

"What?"

"This isn't because I'm breaking the 'Blood Contract,' but because I'm thinking about my current situation." The undead lazily raised his hands, making a gesture of surrender to us as we were about to erupt, and then said, "You just need to know that all the unreasonable reasons are the price I paid for becoming an undead, that's enough. With the 'Blood Contract' acting as a third party to monitor my words and actions, I can't lie to you."

"..."

A moment of silence.

"Since you can't answer my question completely, how about you answer one more question for me free of charge as compensation?" I said.

"Hmm... I'm a little reluctant, but fine, as it's my first transaction, I'm willing to take a loss."

"Alright. In your initial self-introduction, you mentioned that your appearance was a requirement of the Tranquil Abode, that it needed you to balance the spiritual energy here. And in your previous answer, you also said that the obligation you are required to fulfill is to shoulder the tribulations of the identity you are using. In other words, what the Tranquil Abode requires of you and the obligation you need to fulfill are essentially the same thing, right?"

"Is this the question you want me to answer?"

"Of course not."

"Hmph..."

"Your reaction confirms my suspicions." I looked at the undead whose smile was becoming increasingly genuine, and vaguely understood why she was so fascinated by our life essence. "Listen carefully, now for my questions."

"you say."

"Are you the only immortal?"

"Yes. Uh... tsk... friend, you really know how to get a bargain."

"But I never hesitate to pay," I laughed.

"hehe..."

"Teach me how to actively expel the vital essence from my body. If nothing unexpected happens, I'll probably have to ask you a lot of questions."

"This isn't much trouble. You've already reached the Foundation Establishment stage, right? The Refining Heart Hall will teach you soon. More importantly, let me tell you about the remaining essence and blood reserves, isn't that the priority?"

"Okay, go ahead."

"You are all still young. Normally, you should have nearly two hundred drops of life essence blood by the time you reach the Foundation Establishment stage. The amount of life essence blood you have after that can be calculated based on your age."

"What do you mean? A drop of one's life essence is equivalent to a year's lifespan?" Lin Xu asked incredulously.

"Hehe." The Undead smiled at Lin Xu with narrowed eyes, which was taken as tacit agreement.

"***, what do you mean!? Does asking you a question mean you have a year's lifespan?!"

"It's just a transaction, it's consensual, don't get agitated."

"you!"

"It's alright." I stopped the agitated Lin Xu and looked into the eyes of the immortal. After a long while, I smiled and said, "A year of lifespan is a question. If you can guarantee that the question is absolutely correct, I'll accept it."

"That's great." The immortal nodded to me and clapped her hands in satisfaction. Then she continued, "Brother Lin, you don't need to be so excited. I've said it before, the depletion of one's life essence doesn't affect one's life safety. To put it bluntly, it's just a non-renewable energy; every bit a cultivator uses is a bit less. Even if a cultivator completely drains their life essence, they won't die. At most, their cultivation efficiency will be slower in the future. Ah, I've thought of an analogy for you. It's like donating a kidney, understand?"

"..."

It must be admitted that the black humor of the immortal who inherited Su Wanqing's modern memories is indeed a bit creepy.

Seeing that I didn't speak for a long time, the undead squatted down out of boredom, picked up a small piece of meat that had been spilled on the ground, and swallowed it with regret.

"These meat porridges are made with normal meat from the refrigerator, not flesh I cut off from my own body. Please don't be too hostile towards them."

Just as I was about to ask him another question, I heard a familiar voice from the horizon.

"Assemble within 15 minutes and prepare to go to the Refining Heart Hall."

It was Elder Jianshan's voice.

Looking in the direction of the sound, I found that the view outside the window had turned blue again, as if the blood red from before had never existed.

To my surprise, I turned around and found that the Undead had put her coat back on, covering the skull on her arm. And the casserole that Lin Xu had kicked over was still perfectly intact on the dining table.

In front of Lin Xu and me was still a bowl of steaming meat porridge.

"Ah, time to go to class. Let's go, Brother Gu, Brother Lin?"

"..." Looking at the undead's delicate and pretentious expression, I resisted the urge to slap her and ignored her.

"hiss--"

Beside me, Lin Xu was clutching his forehead with both hands, looking extremely pained, as if he were suffering from a severe headache.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked, puzzled.

"It's nothing, it's nothing..." Lin Xu pinched the bridge of his nose, wiped the fine beads of sweat from his forehead, and stood up with difficulty. He smiled at me and said, "My head hurts a little, but it should be fine."

"You wouldn't dare eat too much of Yangyuanzhai's food, would you? Take my advice and drink this meat porridge; it will make things easier for you later."

Without paying any attention to our astonishment at the dining table, the immortal "Su Wanqing" was the first to walk out of the room.