The Long Journey to Immortality

With nearly half of the secret technique used, some changes finally occurred in his sea of ​​consciousness.

A fire suddenly broke out on the edge of the snowfield.

The rootless fire, without any accelerant, burned brighter and brighter on the snowfield, slowly spreading.

As the raging fire spread and the snow melted away, springs emerged from the exposed land, nourishing the post-war landscape and transforming the wasteland into an ocean.

Looking at the distant firelight, Feng Bailu felt a slight throbbing in his temples.

Although she didn't know how the battle in the sea of ​​consciousness would take place, Feng Bailu could guess that when the great fire melted away the snow, that would be the time when she was possessed by Xiaoyaozi.

Just when Feng Bailu was at her wit's end, her instincts kicked in and she launched a counterattack.

The once clear sky was suddenly hit by a torrential downpour.

This timely rain slowed the spread of the fire considerably, but it couldn't fundamentally solve the problem.

"That's not enough."

Watching the snowfield retreat step by step, Feng Bailu felt an overwhelming sense of exhaustion wash over him, and a wave of dizziness washed over him.

Feng Bailu's dreamy gaze deepened Xiaoyaozi's smile.

"Stop resisting. It would be a huge loss if the fire damaged your head."

Xiaoyaozi also preferred to resolve the issue peacefully. He didn't want the body he had finally found to damage his consciousness during the possession process and leave him with chronic illnesses.

The fire burned brighter and brighter, and soon the scene in Feng Bailu's mind changed.

Half snowfield, half ocean, and a wall of fire is slowly advancing, eroding the snowfield.

Having lost half of the snowfield, Feng Bailu, who was barely able to support himself while standing on the snowfield, lost consciousness and collapsed straight into the vast snowfield.

As soon as Feng Bailu collapsed, the heavy rain in his mind turned into a moderate rain, and finally only a drizzle remained.

The gentle drizzle couldn't stop the raging fire from running rampant in his mind's eye.

Seeing this, Xiaoyaozi chanted the incantation even faster, thinking that he could complete this secret technique that had been brewing for two years in one go.

In the blink of an eye, the snowfield that had occupied half of the sea of ​​consciousness was now reduced to half an acre of land beside Feng Bailu.

I'm afraid that if we blink a few more times, the fire will burn the snowfield and Fengbai Road to the ground.

Just as Xiaoyaozi was preparing to enjoy his victory, an unexpected event occurred.

Feng Bailu, who was lying on the ground, suddenly closed his eyes and flew into the air.

She radiated a multicolored light, and wherever the light shone, the fires died down, and the snow reappeared.

"What happened?" Xiaoyaozi was shocked, not knowing what had happened to Feng Bailu.

Just as Xiaoyaozi was wondering, something even stranger happened.

When the dazzling light emanating from Feng Bailu faded, feathers sprouted from her body out of thin air.

Immediately afterwards, Feng Bailu, who had originally appeared in the sea of ​​consciousness in human form, transformed into a phoenix with colorful feathers in just a few breaths.

"This is... the true spirit formed from the true spirit bloodline in Feng Bailu's body?" Upon seeing this, Xiaoyaozi suddenly realized, and a sense of unease arose in his heart.

The phoenix flying in the air flapped its wings, stirring up gusts of wind in the sea of ​​consciousness.

As the saying goes, wind fanns the flames.

But the wind stirred up by the phoenix that Feng Bailu transformed into extinguished the raging fire that was burning on the edge of the snowfield.

Not only that, the ocean, which had just usurped nearly half of the sea of ​​consciousness, also underwent new changes under the gale-force winds.

In the areas swept by the gale, water froze into ice, and with the sudden increase in temperature, rain turned into snow, and the territory that the snowfield had just lost was completely reclaimed.

The outcome is decided.

A single spark can start a prairie fire. The phoenix that Feng Bailu transformed into would naturally not let go of any remaining embers in the sea of ​​consciousness, giving Xiaoyaozi a chance to turn the tables.

When the last embers were extinguished by the heavy snow and strong winds, Xiaoyaozi was already ashen-faced.

He muttered to himself, "How is this possible? It's actually the True Spirit Illusion Phoenix, who is proficient in mental illusions!"

After resolving the fire issue, the true spirit, which Xiaoyaozi called the Illusionary Phoenix, spread its wings once more and flew towards the root cause of this series of calamities—Xiaoyaozi himself.

Seeing this, Xiaoyaozi hurriedly formed a hand seal, intending to leave, while simultaneously muttering a few words to try and buy time, "Fellow Daoist Feng, please wait, I..."

Before he could finish speaking, the enormous phoenix opened its beak and sucked Xiaoyaozi's remnant soul into it.

Before the True Spirit Illusion Phoenix, Xiaoyaozi had no chance to struggle or resist.

The battle for possession within the sea of ​​consciousness ended with Feng Bailu emerging victorious.

Having accomplished all this, the phoenix cried out three times to the sky in satisfaction before landing again, shedding its colorful feathers and reverting to its original form as Feng Bailu.

Naked, Feng Bailu lay on the snowy plain of his sea of ​​consciousness and fell into a coma once again.

While in a coma, Feng Bailu was completely unaware of the fierce final battle.

This battle was far too intense for her, who was still just a mortal, and it took a huge toll on her.

Having just woken up, she would need to sleep for a few more days before she could regain consciousness and enjoy the fruits of her unexpected victory.

[Author's Note] Requesting recommendation votes (Daily task completed 1/1)

Chapter Ten: Who Am I?

Feng Bailu woke up again three days later.

Unlike the last time I woke up from a deep sleep, I was in a clear-headed state.

This time, after waking up from the battle of soul possession in the sea of ​​consciousness, Feng Bailu felt dizzy and lightheaded, as if he had a serious illness and was not fully recovered. He lay in bed and slept for three days.

Still lying on his back, Feng Bailu rubbed his temples to ease the excruciating pain in his head.

Feeling unwell, Feng Bailu lay on the ground for a while longer. Once he regained some clarity, he slowly sat cross-legged on the ground.

Having survived such a close call, instead of immediately expressing gratitude and relief at being alive, she asked a question: "Who am I?"

Such a philosophical and complex question suddenly posed at the intersection of Fengbai Road must have its reasons.

Because, after waking up, Feng Bailu discovered many of Xiaoyaozi's memories in her mind.

Her short forty years of life were insignificant compared to Xiaoyaozi's more than six hundred years of experience. This memory, existing in her mind and not yet digested, gave her the illusion that she might be Xiaoyaozi.

It's as if he has a split personality.

Although it wasn't as exaggerated as having two personalities or two voices appearing in her mind, it still caused her to be influenced by some of Xiaoyaozi's personality and habits when she was thinking.

No wonder she asked such a question the moment she woke up.

After sitting quietly for a while, Feng Bailu tried to organize the memories in his mind, attempting to answer the question he had just asked as quickly as possible.

Only after she used the memories of Xiaoyaozi's remnant soul to learn the final outcome of the great battle in her sea of ​​consciousness and saw the phoenix devouring the soul did she find an answer.

“Looks like I’m still Feng Bailu,” Feng Bailu sighed, “I never expected it to end like this.”

"The reason I have memories of Xiaoyaozi in my mind is not because Xiaoyaozi successfully possessed my body, but because the phoenix I transformed into in my sea of ​​consciousness swallowed Xiaoyaozi's remnant soul."

"Illusion Phoenix? It looks quite pretty, and the name is nice too. I just don't know what kind of true spirit it is."

"Perhaps, in the future, after I advance to the Golden Core stage, I can seek out a few secret techniques to try to stimulate the true spirit bloodline within my body."

"But where does my true spiritual bloodline come from? My father? Or my mother?"

……

Solving one problem leads to several more.

Just when Feng Bailu was feeling a little better, she started having a headache again.

Just as she was struggling with whether she should endure the headache and continue to peruse Xiaoyaozi's memories to solve her problem, her rumbling stomach gave her a reason to temporarily put everything aside.

"Let's eat first, and think about these issues later."

Feng Bailu rummaged through her storage bag for a while, took out two portions of dry food, and without any ladylike manners, devoured the meal in a few large bites.

Now that he has returned to a mortal body, enduring three days of hunger while unconscious was Feng Bailu's limit.

If an ordinary person has been starving for three days, their appetite will probably be several times more ferocious than that of Feng Bailu.

After filling his stomach, Feng Bailu sat quietly on the Dharma seat for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn before continuing to peruse Xiaoyaozi's memories, hoping to gain more insights from them.

“At the very least, we need to find a way out of this cave,” Feng Bailu said, looking at the stone door that had been closed for several days. “Xiaoyaozi must have left him a way out after he successfully possessed the body.”

Because Xiaoyaozi, who was parasitizing the Soul-Nourishing Wood in the cave, was only a remnant soul, the memories of Xiaoyaozi that he carried were incomplete.

Even though Xiaoyaozi's memories were incomplete, they were still a priceless treasure for Feng Bailu.

This includes cultivation experience from the Qi Refining stage to the Nascent Soul stage.

There are three thousand great paths, but in essence, all cultivation methods in the human world follow the same path.

During the Qi Refining stage, one opens the acupoints and cultivates the spiritual meridians; during the Foundation Establishment stage, one focuses on the Dantian and Qi Sea.

Once the Golden Core is formed, cultivation begins with the Golden Core as the core.

Once the Nascent Soul breaks free from the core, it becomes the primary object of cultivation and advancement for Nascent Soul stage cultivators.

The cultivation and insights that Xiaoyaozi remembers can help Feng Bailu avoid many detours on his future path of cultivation.

In addition, as a rogue cultivator, Xiaoyaozi had fought and battled with others in the more than 600 years of cultivation, and the fragmented combat experience in his memory could also be of great help to Feng Bailu.

Unfortunately, the fragmented memories meant that the cultivation techniques and secret manuals that Xiaoyaozi had learned and read during his cultivation from Qi Refining to Nascent Soul were unusable for Feng Bailu.

After all, martial arts manuals cannot tolerate even the slightest error or omission.

Rashly attempting to cultivate a fragment of a cultivation technique, even if that technique is merely a recipe, could potentially drive a cultivator into a state of demonic possession.

Having been given a second chance at life, Feng Bailu was unwilling to ruin his future because of such a basic mistake.

Even so, without those countless cultivation techniques and secret manuals, Xiaoyaozi's memories are still worth Feng Bailu spending more time digesting.

After sitting quietly for half an hour, Feng Bailu managed to sort out some of his thoughts and also learned about the escape route that Xiaoyaozi had left for him after he possessed the body when he set up the cave.

"There is a hidden door beneath the platform..."

Following the map down Fengbai Road, they found a hidden door on the side of the high platform.

"Knock on the hidden door in a fixed rhythm..."

With his right hand clenched into an empty fist, Feng Bailu followed the rhythm and knocked on the hidden door.