Hundred Thousand Great Mountains.
Poke~
Poke~
Xu Fan, wearing a clean Golden Core Stage custom-made Daoist robe, blinked his eyes and poked Ji Hanyue, who had fainted under a tree, with a small wooden stick.
There was no movement.
Ji Hanyue's face was as pale as a dead person's, and her breathing was so weak it was almost non-existent. Her lips, which had turned a blackish-purple, undoubtedly proved that Ji Hanyue had been struck by a fatal poison. At this moment, she looked as if she were taking her last breaths.
Xu Fan scratched his head, looking troubled, and discussed with the System, "System, can you drop some gear so I can save Master? Just consider it a loan if you have to."
It wasn't that Xu Fan didn't want to save Ji Hanyue himself.
The main issue was that a poison capable of taking down someone at the Soul Transformation Stage was completely unsolvable, not just for the current Xu Fan, but even for the entire Taixu Immortal Sect.
Therefore, Xu Fan could only try to ask the System for help.
The System replied helplessly, "host, this System does not have that kind of function."
Xu Fan fell silent for a few seconds, then could only shake his head and sigh softly as he rolled up his sleeves, "Forget it, forget it. I'll just consider this life a waste and try harder in the next one!"
The System heard the death wish in Xu Fan's words and was instantly dumbfounded, quickly advising, "host, don't do anything rash! This System's Rebirth power is extremely unstable. You might be human in this life, but you could be reincarnated as a beast of burden in the next!"
Xu Fan used a small knife to lightly cut open a blackened and festering spot on Ji Hanyue's wrist and laughed softly, "Then a beast of burden it is!"
"Ji Hanyue has raised me for thirty years, after all. If I were to just stand by and watch her die without doing anything, wouldn't I be worse than a beast?"
In fact, he was very clear about one thing.
Given his personality and his cultivation Aptitude in this life, if he hadn't met his Master, Ji Hanyue, he probably would have died in some unknown corner before he could even develop.
Even if, by some miracle, he had managed to develop after enduring countless hardships, it would have been absolutely impossible to have endless cultivation resources available every time he opened his eyes without having to do anything, like he did now.
Although Xu Fan was a Reincarnation, he was ultimately not a heartless person; he had silently remembered all of Ji Hanyue's kindness in his heart.
Endless thoughts flowed like a tide, like the sorrow of parting that cannot be cut or untangled, troubling Xu Fan's heart.
Forget it, let this life end here. Anything else can wait for the next life.
Thinking of this, Xu Fan lowered his head slightly, deciding to use the most clumsy and primitive method: to forcibly suck out the toxin that could poison a Soul Transformation Stage Cultivator from Ji Hanyue's body.
Xu Fan didn't know if this would work, but it was the only thing he could do right now.
Then, a mouthful of black, stagnant blood that reeked like a rotting corpse was spat aside by Xu Fan at an extremely fast speed.
The moment that stagnant blood hit the ground, the surrounding flowers, plants, and trees instantly withered at a speed visible to the naked eye; even their colors turned dull and lifeless in the blink of an eye.
Clearly, the toxicity within Ji Hanyue's body was terrifyingly potent!
The System couldn't bear to watch the next scene and sighed, "host... why must you do this?"
"As long as you want, this System can actually change your target for this life."
However, Xu Fan did not respond because he was already unable to speak.
Attempting to withstand a poison of the Immortal Dao Soul Transformation Stage level with a Mortal Dao Golden Core body—almost the instant his tongue touched the toxin, it began to fester from the root at a visible speed. In just a blink of an eye, nearly half of Xu Fan's tongue had rotted away.
The flesh and tissue inside his mouth were like boiling water; after emitting a few wisps of foul-smelling black smoke with a "sizzle," they all fell to the ground bit by bit like unsupported mud.
The intense pain, like boiling water being poured over his body, made Xu Fan give a helpless, bitter smile as he lowered his head to continue his previous actions.
The second mouthful.
Half of Xu Fan's face was completely gone. Everything below his eyes had rotted and fallen off, and even the hard bones supporting his head showed a faint tendency to melt.
The System watched in Xu Fan's mind, feeling a chill and aching with distress.
Yet Xu Fan showed no reaction, only silently taking out a life-saving Medicinal Pill that Ji Hanyue had given him from his Storage Pouch.
The nine revolutions life calamity pill.
This pill was an ancient forbidden medicine, practically priceless. After consumption, as long as the injury wasn't the type that caused an instantaneous Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering, it could forcibly sustain one's life for the duration of an incense stick. It was a pill Ji Hanyue had risked her life to snatch from a Loose Cultivator's Immortal Cave to give to him for self-defense.
Xu Fan's exposed white bone gums chewed the pill a few times, and it slid down his half-rotted throat. His mouth vibrated to produce an indistinct sound, "The taste is okay, a bit like eating a coarse grain bun."
Of course, at a time like this, the nine revolutions life calamity pill was much more useful than a coarse grain bun. The mysterious power emerging from his body maintained Xu Fan's vitality, allowing him to continue his previous actions.
Since Xu Fan no longer had a tongue, he had to use his Qi to form an airflow, assisting him in continuing to suck out the toxin from Ji Hanyue's wrist, which was beginning to show a hint of blood color.
With the third mouthful, a trace of the toxin quietly invaded every part of his body the moment Xu Fan circulated his Qi.
In an instant, the Golden Core inside Xu Fan's body was like ice meeting sunlight, beginning to melt rapidly and silently. The melted portion of the Golden Core turned into a pool of foul-smelling black water, dripping into his Dantian Qi Sea.
Xu Fan's insides began to churn violently and uncontrollably. His internal organs even showed a tendency to shift under such stimulation; the balance unique to Xu Fan's body had clearly been destroyed.
In a daze, Xu Fan felt as if he saw Ji Hanyue's finger twitch slightly, and he also saw his long-departed great-grandmother waving at him.
The fourth mouthful.
The fifth mouthful.
The sixth mouthful... with every mouthful, Xu Fan's body underwent irreversible deterioration. Muscles rotted and fell off at a visible speed, and his Qi was being contaminated and eroded at an unimaginable rate. Only the profound aura belonging to the nine revolutions life calamity pill lingered on his pale white bones, tenaciously sustaining the faint flame at the end of Xu Fan's life.
Neither more nor less, Xu Fan had sucked exactly nine mouthfuls of the toxin from Ji Hanyue's body.
Xu Fan felt that this should be useful because, in the final moments of his lingering consciousness, he seemed to see Ji Hanyue's eyelids twitch slightly again.
It seemed that Master had ultimately pulled through this ordeal.
Unfortunately, your disciple will not be able to accompany you to see the vast world in the future.
Amidst endless pain and torment that felt like being sliced by a thousand cuts, Xu Fan died from the pain right where he was... half an incense stick later.
Ji Hanyue's body, leaning against the Phoenix Wood tree, suddenly twitched strangely, and her throat rolled unnaturally for a good while.
Suddenly!
A stream of thick, blackened blood, reeking like a rotting corpse, gushed out frantically from Ji Hanyue's Five Orifices like a crawling ghost. Upon contact with the air, it even emitted a faint, shrill, and resentful hiss.
Fortunately, that shrill hiss did not linger or struggle for long, eventually disappearing quickly.
In its place was Ji Hanyue, slowly waking up!
"I... I'm still alive?"
The awakened Ji Hanyue's face showed an unnatural grayish-purple hue, but the toxin in her body was no longer so fierce; it was even weak enough to be suppressed by her Qi.
Realizing this, Ji Hanyue's expression was first one of confusion, followed by disbelief. A mix of joy from surviving a disaster and doubt about the unknown cause made her expression very vivid.
She furrowed her willow-like brows, trying to recall what had happened. "What happened... logically, my injuries should have been fatal..."
She remembered that she seemed to have gone out for something and was then ambushed by the Sect Masters of several nearby immortal sects, suffering a fatal poison.
Although she had fled millions of miles to the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, she still hadn't seemed to escape the life-threatening danger.
In her final moments of lucidity, Ji Hanyue remembered contacting her disciple, Xu Fan, telling him to come to the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains to receive her Empowerment Legacy.
But it seemed she had fainted before he arrived... "Wait, there seems to be a lingering fluctuation of a Spell in the air?"
Although some toxins remained in her body, they no longer affected Ji Hanyue's normal perception or the release of her Divine Sense. She could even clearly sense several lingering traces of Spells around her, and among them was even the aura of the nine revolutions life calamity pill... Wait?! Why would there be a nine revolutions life calamity pill?!
Wasn't that the pill she had given to her disciple, Xu Fan, for self-defense?!
Fan'er is already here?
Realizing this, Ji Hanyue instantly felt uneasy and hurriedly struggled to get up to find Xu Fan's whereabouts.
But before Ji Hanyue's Divine Sense could cover the entire Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, a set of pale white bones that no longer had any breath of life was reflected in her Divine Sense.
No human tissue could be seen on the upper half of those bones; only below the waist were there still some sparse bits of muscle hanging. The Daoist robe on the body was stained with foul-smelling, greasy blood. No one would want to take a second look at such a miserable sight.
However, when Ji Hanyue saw those bones, her heart shuddered violently, as if struck by a heavy hammer!
Looking at the bones wearing the Daoist robe unique to the Taixu Immortal Sect, and sensing the aura emanating from the bones—an aura that shared the same source as the poison in her own body—Ji Hanyue immediately pieced together the truth.
"No! It can't be!"
Ji Hanyue's heart began to beat wildly like a drum, and her expression was more panicked than ever before. Ignoring all decorum, she rushed to the bones with her hair in disarray, and without regard for the cost, she infused her Origin into the bones. Hot tears streamed desperately from her eyes, which had not been stirred for a long time. "How could this be Fan'er!"
"Fan'er wouldn't be so foolish. He's so smart; he wouldn't be this foolish!"
However, the familiar lingering aura on the bones told her one thing with cruel and cold certainty: this was indeed her good disciple, Xu Fan! This was her Fan'er!
Holding the still-warm bones tightly in her arms, Ji Hanyue couldn't help but recall the bits and pieces of her time with Little Xu Fan over the decades. This only made her expression more frantic, and like a madwoman, she muttered in a daze, "No! It can't be!"
Ji Hanyue couldn't help but remember the thin youth who had carried her back to Yellow Sand Village in the middle of a heavy snowfall. Thinking of the oath he had made before Xu Fan's parents, her tears fell like a dam breaking. "No! Fan'er clearly said he liked me and even said he would protect me for a lifetime. He would never leave me alone like this!"
Only now did Ji Hanyue realize she was wrong.
It turned out that Little Brat hadn't been forgotten by her, but had quietly moved into the deepest part of her heart, silently causing trouble!
This naughty disciple!
Thinking of Xu Fan's previous well-behaved and pleasing appearance before her, Ji Hanyue only felt that long-lost sour and aching feeling emerge in her heart again, only this time it brought a distress that felt like her heart was being torn apart!
"No, you absolutely cannot die!"
Ji Hanyue's aura suddenly became somewhat dark and unstable. In her bloodshot, beautiful eyes, a trace of obsession and gloom that seemed to materialize appeared. "Master has raised you for thirty years. Your body, your life, your everything should belong to Master! If Master doesn't let you die, you cannot die!"
Seeing that Xu Fan's life force was still leaking away uncontrollably, Ji Hanyue acted like she was possessed, and a hint of ferocity typical of a Demonic Cultivator even faintly appeared on her face.
Without the slightest hesitation, her slender, white hand actually pierced into her own heart, and she then took out a drop of extremely precious hearts blood and merged it into Xu Fan's body!
hearts blood is the essence of a person's cultivation, concentrating their life force and containing the most precious Origin within their body; it is the Foundation of a Cultivator's path!
For a Cultivator of Ji Hanyue's level, the loss of hearts blood meant that her future cultivation would be significantly more difficult. But in exchange, the hearts blood contained a Heaven-Defying effect that could briefly sustain life!
With the integration of the hearts blood and various other methods, the last wisp of weak consciousness remaining in Xu Fan's body was ultimately preserved by Ji Hanyue through a miracle of changing fate!
Perhaps it was the Nine Revolutions Life Soul Pill, or Ji Hanyue's reckless infusion of her Origin, or perhaps Xu Fan was simply not meant to die.
In short, Xu Fan did not die in the end.
But he wasn't alive either, maintaining a strange balance between life and death...