How did I, a fake bodyguard, become a terrestrial immortal?

Chapter 47 Shoot the Arrow First, Then Draw the Target

"However, you weren't born yet at that time."

The river breeze swept across the Duanlong River, stirring up the black ash that had not yet dissipated from the riverbank.

Lu Yang looked at Fang Xuan, but did not immediately press for answers as he usually would.

He knew that Fang Xuan's "not born" was not as simple as the age not matching.

Lu Yang, who appeared on the black ship twenty years ago, had neither a body nor a complete soul. At that time, he was merely a wisp of true spirit yet to be reborn, and a destiny already written in advance.

The combination of the two is what Fang Xuan called the "seed of life".

Bai Miyao's Dao Seed can bear the Great Dao, while Lu Yang's Life Seed bears a person's entire life.

His name, destiny, true spirit, and even the unawakened power of the Xuanwu were all sealed within a palm-sized piece of Xuanwu armor.

So strictly speaking, the person Fang Xuan escorted twenty years ago was not Lu Yang himself.

Rather, he is someone who will inevitably become Lu Yang in the future.

"It sounds a bit like writing the name down first and then waiting for it to grow out on its own."

Lu Yang held back for a long time, but still couldn't help it.

"What if I grow up to be different? Would that be considered a case of not meeting the description?"

Fang Xuan did not respond to him.

He raised his hand, and seven silver needles floated in mid-air. The tips of the needles interlocked, forming a pale blue light screen.

Twenty years of buried history are also revealed.

In the seventeenth year of the Jinghe era, a rift connecting to a foreign land appeared at Huiyan Ridge.

A black ship fell through the crack and ran aground deep in the desolate mountains.

There were no living people on the boat, only a coffin covered with white paper money. Inside the coffin was a Xuanwu armor, and next to it was a tattered black dart flag.

Fang Xuan was not as old back then as he is now.

He boarded the black ship, touched the convoy flag, and a mission to escort him immediately came to mind.

The client is Lu Yang.

The target of their escort was also Lu Yang.

The destination is marked as "home".

The dart flag then pointed Fang Xuan in the right direction.

At the end of that road lies the Burial God Ferry.

Fang Xuan did not notice anything unusual at first.

The escort flag could reveal the route, and there was indeed a faint life force within the Xuanwu Armor. Following the guidance, he boarded the black ship, ready to complete this strange escort mission without a master or visible cargo.

Just as the black ship was about to enter the Burial God Ferry, the life fire within the Xuanwu Armor awakened for the first time.

The nascent consciousness neither cried out nor pleaded for help.

It only conveyed a thought to Fang Xuan.

That's not home.

Fang Xuan then realized that the so-called escort commission was a lie from the very beginning.

The true commission may indeed exist, but the escort route has already been altered. Someone is using the black ship and the escort flag to prepare to send Lu Yang, who has not yet been reincarnated, to the Burial God Ferry.

As for what will happen after they're sent in, nobody knows.

What is certain is that once the seed of destiny falls into the Burial God Crossing, Lu Yang will never be born.

Fang Xuan ultimately chose to disobey the escort order.

He burned the black dart flag, cut off the altered route, and used the still-open crack in Huiyan Ridge to send the Xuanwu Armor into another world.

There is no spiritual energy, no martial arts, and the rules of heaven and earth reject the black ship.

For a shipment being pursued, that is the safest hiding place.

"So, you threw me into that world?"

Lu Yang finally understood.

Fang Xuan glanced at him.

"That's called changing course, not throwing it away."

"Is there a difference?"

"The bodyguard who changes course will be held responsible, but throwing things away won't."

Lu Yang nodded.

"I understand, you just don't want to admit that you litter."

Fang Xuan's eye twitched, then he simply ignored him.

Lu Yang had already guessed most of what would happen next without Fang Xuan needing to explain further.

After the Xuanwu Armor passed through the crack, the life seed entered that world devoid of spiritual energy.

It did not seize anyone's body, nor did it replace the original soul. Because at that time, Lu Yang only had a wisp of true spirit that had not yet been reborn.

He was born there normally, had parents, experienced childhood, and grew up little by little.

Those twenty-odd years of life were not a fabrication, nor were they memories made up temporarily.

Lu Yang, who lives in a city of skyscrapers and steel, was originally him.

The flow of time in the two worlds is not exactly the same.

Twenty years have passed since the Great Li Dynasty, and more than twenty years have passed since that world.

The Xuanwu power sealed within the life seed, suppressed by the spiritless world, has never awakened. The escort rules left by the tattered dart flag have also remained dormant within the Xuanwu armor.

Together, they formed the system that Lu Yang sees today.

The so-called "Super Escort System" was never something that fell into his lap for no reason.

It was merely the unfinished final part of that twenty-year-long escort mission.

Just as the truth from twenty years ago was gradually becoming clear, the shadow beneath Fang Xuan's feet suddenly moved.

A black chain emerged from the shadows and instantly wrapped around his ankle.

The chains tightened suddenly.

Fang Xuan was dragged to the ground and slid rapidly towards the river.

Lu Yang stepped forward and grabbed his shoulder.

"An explanation is one thing, but don't leave halfway through."

The black scraps of paper on the river surface quickly gathered together.

A broken black coffin slowly emerged from the water.

The coffin lid was opened, revealing a ship deed that had been soaked and rotten by the river. At the very top of the deed, Fang Xuan's name was clearly written.

Twenty years ago, Fang Xuan destroyed the escort flag and released the goods without permission, which was tantamount to voluntarily breaking the escort contract.

Unable to find Lu Yang, the black ship blamed the previous bodyguard for the incident.

Although the Black Ships are now destroyed, their deeds remain.

It wants to use Fang Xuan's life to make up for the missing ship fees from twenty years ago.

[The former bodyguard has been detected as being subject to breach of contract claims.]

Once the recovery is completed, the original agency file will be permanently archived.

[The host can inherit the risks left by the previous bodyguard.]

[Would you accept this offer?]

Lu Yang glanced at it and then confirmed.

The chains binding Fang Xuan's ankles quickly loosened.

The ship's deed in the black coffin flipped over on its own in the next moment.

The two characters "Fang Xuan" above were washed away by the black water and reformed into "Lu Yang".

Hundreds of chains burst from the river and instantly wrapped around Lu Yang's entire body.

Deep within the tattered black coffin, a gigantic hand formed from black water slowly extended and grasped the other end of the chain.

"The current bodyguard is paying off a previous debt."

"I will risk my life to cross the river forever."

Lu Yang looked down at the chains binding him.

"The accounts are being transferred quite quickly."

"It's a pity no one taught you that you should ask the person in question before signing."

The giant black hand suddenly exerted its force.

Lu Yang's feet sank into the ground, and the phantom of Xuanwu appeared behind him.

Its heavy four legs stomped down onto the riverbank.

The chains, which had been tightening, were suddenly taut and straight.

The black coffin seemed to sense something was wrong, and the surrounding river water churned violently. Countless arms emerged from the water, gripping the coffin tightly, trying to prevent it from reaching the shore.

Lu Yang gripped the chains with both hands and pulled them back sharply.

boom!

The Duanlong River was blasted open from the middle.

Giant waves, several meters high, surged into the sky.

He dragged the tattered black coffin, along with the surrounding black arms, out of the river.

The black coffin crashed onto the shore, carving a long furrow in the ground.

Lu Yang stepped on the coffin lid.

The head of the Black Tortoise snake emerged from behind the phantom and bit the ship's deed.

The giant black hand struggled frantically, and countless painful faces appeared one after another on the surface of its arm.

"Your life has already been sold to the Black Ships!"

"Go find whoever sold it to collect your money."

Lu Yang suddenly exerted force with his feet.

"I will not accept any debts I haven't signed!"

boom!

The black coffin exploded with a loud bang.

The black serpent head swallowed the ship deed in one gulp, and the chains binding Lu Yang broke at the same time.

The black paper scraps remaining on the river surface spontaneously combusted without a flame.

In just a few breaths, it turned to ashes.

The death pact has been destroyed.

[The previous bodyguard's claim for compensation has been lifted.]

[Original client file recovery rate: 42%]

[Recovering return trip records...]

Another image appeared before Lu Yang's eyes.

This time, the scene depicts a different Huiyanling than it did twenty years ago.

Instead, it was the modern city he was familiar with.

Late one night a month ago, Lu Yang was working overtime and was waiting for the green light at the intersection on his way home.

Across the street, tall buildings stand side by side, and vehicles stream by.

Everything was exactly as he remembered.

Until a pale white paper lantern appeared silently above the crossroads.

The moment the lanterns lit up, the Xuanwu life seed that had been dormant within Lu Yang's body for many years began to fluctuate for the first time.

Zangshendu finally found the item that had been missing for twenty years.

The next moment, a truck lost control and crashed into the intersection.

The blinding headlights quickly filled Lu Yang's entire field of vision.

That was no ordinary accident.

As the truck crashed into them, the black ship briefly tore open the barrier between the two worlds with the help of the white lanterns. Unable to directly enter the Spiritless Realm, it prepared to take advantage of the moment when Lu Yang's soul left his body after his death to forcibly bring him into the Burial God Ferry.

But the Black Ships did not expect that the black dart flag, which had been burned twenty years ago, still retained a trace of power.

That wisp of power had been dormant within the Xuanwu Life Seed, waiting for this escort route to reopen.

The moment the impact occurred, Lu Yang's body in his original world died.

The life seed and soul separated from the body and were dragged between the two worlds by the black ship.

The remaining rules of the escort flag were then revived, forcibly seizing control of the return escort route and changing the original route to the Burial God Ferry to Dali.

Lu Yang's soul thus did not fall into the black ship.

The Xuanwu Destiny Seed reshaped his body while traversing the two realms, eventually sending him to the vicinity of Black Bull Town.

This is the whole reason why Lu Yang transmigrated.

It wasn't an accidental possession, nor was he randomly chosen by the system.

Twenty years ago, Fang Xuan sent him, who was not yet born, to another world for refuge.

Twenty years later, the Black Ship found him and tried to bring him to the Burial God Ferry, but the incomplete Escort System beat him to it and sent him back to Dali.

He thought he had traveled to a strange world.

In reality, he had simply ended his twenty-year period of refuge and was brought back by the unfinished escort.

The image slowly faded away.

At the bottom of the system file, lines of text gradually become clear.

[Temporary Escort Route: No Spirit Realm.]

[Duration of stay: Twenty years.]

[Reason for returning: The Xuanwu life seed has awakened, exposing the location of the hidden goods.]

Original return destination: Zangshendu.

[Destination changed to: Dali.]

[Status of this escort mission: Not yet completed.]

Lu Yang's gaze lingered on the last line.

He has returned to Dali, but the system still believes that the escort mission is not over.