Chapter 2: Recovering His Memories

“Xie Di!”

Inside the dream, a sound loudly rang. It rolled across the vast sky like thunder, reverberating across the mountain of corpses lying on the plains.

He pushed off the corpse behind him and arduously opened his eyes. He struggled as he climbed out of the bloody mountain of corpses. His tameless, unyielding body once again towered imposingly between the heavens and the earth while his bloodied clothes whistled as it danced in the wind. With a sharp gaze, he swept his eyes disdainfully across the dozen or so figures in front of him piercingly. He grasped a blood red blade, gleaming with a bewitching scarlet color once again.

“H—how is he still alive?!” The dozen human figures jumped back, shocked.

“What are you afraid of? He’s nothing more than an arrow at the end of its flight.” An angry voice rang out as a malicious-looking man clothed in black stepped out from the crowd. His gaze was like a knife as it cut across the imposing figure.

The man clothed in black faced the towering body standing tall on the mountain of corpses and loudly released a cold shout. “Xie Di, hand over the《Secrets of Eternal Life》and I will give you an intact corpse!”

The man’s arrogant face revealed a trace of a disdainful sneer. He took no notice of the black-robed man’s voice and just focused on slowly turning around. Behind him, a bloody path under his feet continuously stretched out for thousands of miles. The end couldn’t be seen because the crimson trail was riddled with innumerable skeletons and remnants of broken limbs.

“Hei Yao, you’ve really played a big hand for the 《Secrets of Eternal Life》, plotting against This Emperor and mustering a thousand Martial Emperor grade cultivators to ambush This Emperor. Today, I’m afraid that 90% of the world’s Martial Emperors have all died here. I’m very curious, how did you manage to make so many Martial Emperors listen to your orders?”

“Hehe.” Hei Yao laughed villainously. “The world’s martial cultivators will only do something for profit. Everybody simply moved for their own benefit. Furthermore, you’ve been moving unhindered under the heavens for so many years now and have always done things arbitrarily, acting wild and uninhibited. The man known as Xie Di has truly offended many people and those who want to kill you naturally isn’t a small number either. In fact, our joint goal isn’t just to kill you, but also to seize your Xie Di Palace along with all its resources. The Grand Martial Emperor’s resources would naturally be able to make everybody go crazy and the《Secrets of Eternal Life》is one of the treasures that we want most.”

《Secrets of Eternal Life》, a mystical cultivation manual that could make others go crazy. Who wouldn’t want to have it?

This cultivation manual contained five stages: Refined Qi, Refined Skin, Refined Bone, Refined Soul, and Refined Deity.

“Refined Qi,” allowed one to become self-healing and survive hundreds of battles without dying. “Refined Skin,” allowed one to refine their whole body’s skin to become stronger and impervious to swords or spears. It also made one’s skin unable to be infringed by water or fire. “Refined Bone,” upon success, it would yield steel muscles and iron bones. “Refined Soul,” allowed one to swallow souls for their own use. “Refined Deity,” meant that after becoming a deity, it would be possible to kill others incorporeally.

Legends say that if you cultivate with that manual, the words ‘Eternal Life’ from the 《Secrets of Eternal Life》 would become true. Unfortunately, Xie Di currently sustained too many injuries. Even though the《Secrets of Eternal Life》was working on overdrive to help him restore his injuries, he wouldn’t be able to recover even 1/10th of his strength in such a short amount of time.

In addition to the plot he had fallen into, he also killed a thousand Martial Emperors, so even if he was a Grand Martial Emperor and the《Secrets of Eternal Life》was even more powerful, he still wouldn’t have been able to endure.

At this time, somebody urgently bellowed, “Hei Yao, stop with the nonsense and kill him immediately. He has the《Secrets of Eternal Life》restoring his power. If you wait for him to come over, we’ll all die!”

“Shut up! I have to get the《Secrets of Eternal Life》,” Hei Yao angrily shouted and pushed down the other man’s words. His gaze became cruel as he stared at Xie Di. “Xie Di, I’ll give you one last chance. Hand over the 《Secrets of Eternal Life》!”

“If you have the ability, then come over here and snatch it! Hahaha!” He howled with laughter, his voice impetus and willful. It was bold and unrestrained, absolutely domineering and filled with contempt and ridicule towards Hei Yao.

Hei Yao clenched his teeth, an ominous glint flashing in his eyes. But as he stared at the crimson knife in Xie Di’s hands, he was still deeply intimidated and didn’t dare to step forward.

This was Xie Di; even though he was already an arrow at the end of its flight, he still held an unshakable tyrannical aura.

“This is what you forced me to do!” Hei Yao’s eyes glinted ominously as he turned his head to shout loudly behind him, “Bring her here!”

Behind Hei Yao, the dozen or so men stepped back to form a path. Two men stepped forward, pushing down a woman.

It was a beautiful green figure with an exceptional appearance. She had tear-filled eyes that made one feel pity.

“Xie Di-gege! Xie Di-gege!” *sobs* “Are you alright?” [1. “gege” or “ge” means older brother and may be used to call an older male relative or an older male close to them.]

“Ying’er…?”

When the woman emerged and her grievous weeping chimed in the air, that imposing and unyielding body trembled with overflowing rage igniting in his eyes.

An enraged roar, similar to that of a beast tore from his throat, unleashing surging waves of power, causing the surroundings to seem as if a hurricane had passed through. [2. Mk so this is weird. It’s like… you can think of him being enraged and unleashing his full power/aura so he’s emitting big energy waves that destroy everything. That was a bad explanation oof. Think of a bunch of energy/wind blades being shot out in all directions?]

“Hei Yao, how dare you touch my woman?!” His blood-sucking pupils dilated as the bloody color glimmering on his sword intensified and his terrifying aura increased sharply.

“Hei Yao, are you crazy? This time, you’ve truly infuriated him!” Somebody angrily shouted as they fell back in fear. They knew that if Xie Di chose to self destruct, it would be disastrous. Maybe he would die, but at the very least he would also take them along to be buried with him.

At that moment, nobody wanted to be buried along with him, so they all frantically retreated.

Hei Yao was now terrified. He suddenly clutched the woman’s throat and faced Xie Di. He loudly shouted, “Xie Di, do you want her to die?!”

“Aaaaghhhh!”

Hei Yao’s shout had no use and that terrifying aura continued to crazily rise as Xie Di furiously roared across the world.

“I’ve already said it before, whoever threatens my people will die by my hand! Since you dared to touch my woman, all of you must die!” Another furious bellow of rage reverberated across the earth with horrendous power. All the dozen or so men who were still alive immediately shook with fear and a few of the slightly weaker ones were so shaken that they directly spat out a mouthful of blood while their internal organs became a mess.

Enraged, somebody scolded, “Hei Yao, you fool! You’re still not releasing his woman?!”

“You think that releasing his woman now can spare you from death?! F*ck off!” Hei Yao howled, his visage turning savage as he forcefully dragged the woman to the side and ran.

“You want to escape? Cloudtrack Phantom!” Xie Di’s figure turned into a long blood-red phantom as he launched himself and flew into the darkness up ahead.

Hei Yao had dragged her to an overhanging cliff. Laughing psychotically, he shouted, “Xie Di, I want to make you watch your beloved woman die, ahahaha!”

On the sky cliff was a heartbroken man.

The delicate and beautiful figure of the woman was thrown down as she flew off the face of the cliff.

“No…Ying’er! Cloudtrack Phantom!”

A blood colored phantom threw itself over the overhanging cliff, grabbing the beautiful figure’s small hands.

“Ying’er, grab onto me and don’t let go!”

The woman raised her face. Tears were sliding down her exquisite features, yet her face held a trace of a small smile. “Xie Di-gege, in my next life, I will definitely be your woman again. Goodbye!”

“No! Ying’er, don’t let go of my hand, don’t—!”

“Hahaha! Go to hell!” A cruel and ruthless laughter boomed in the sky as a frenzied, dark figure charged at the man’s back, creating an explosion.

With a loud bang, the earth trembled and rocks ruptured. That imposing body and the blood red figure were pushed into a deep pit by at least a hundred feet from the explosion. The woman’s hand slid, dropping into the deep, never-ending abyss.

“Ying’er—!”

A scream filled with grief and rage shook the sky cliff and the vast heavens and earth.

*Rumble* *Rumble*

The precipice collapsed with a boom. The boulders tumbled, along with a bloody figure plunging into the abyss.

……

"Ying'er, Ying'er!"

Qin Yu suddenly sat up with a shout. A ray of moonlight streamed through the window, casting a sprinkle of silver-white light across the bedside.

“Whew…! So it was just a dream; a false alarm.” Qin Yu heavily gasped for breath as he wiped his forehead. His hands were completely covered in perspiration and his whole body was drenched in sweat.

Why would he have such an odd dream? The dream felt so real, as if it had really happened to him. Why did it give him such a feeling?

Ying’er? Who was Ying’er?

Thinking of this name, Qin Yu’s heart clenched with a sharp stab of inexplicable pain. It attacked his whole body as a familiar scene flashed through his mind. At this moment, the block to his memories was forced open. Both his own memories and the original owner of the body’s memories came flooding into his mind. Xie Di... So originally, he was able to shake the whole world. He was a man who could annihilate countless people with a wave of his hand.

“Haha! Laozi is still alive. Hei Yao, just you wait! I’ll make you live a life worse than death for touching my woman!” [3. “Laozi” means ‘your father’ and is an arrogant way to refer to oneself]

“Ying’er, are you still alive?”

A graceful face appeared in his mind. Remembering those distressed tears, a droplet quietly rolled down from the corner of Qin Yu’s eyes.

It obviously wasn’t time to be crying right now. He was Xie Di, the arrogant, unyielding Evil Emperor who believed in strength, not tears. Right now, the most important thing for him to do was to make this body stronger and stronger.

Along with recovering his memories, the original body’s memories had also returned.

Qin Yu, the Qin Family’s number one genius. At 17, he had already reached the apex of Origin Realm. 3 months ago, the Qin Family’s younger generation went together to Ten Thousand Beast Mountain to learn through experience. The Qin Family’s second gifted youth, Qin Zhao, colluded with an outsider to shatter all the meridians in Qin Yu’s body. Qin Yu’s head was also seriously injured. As a result, he had turned into a crippled dunce.

Coincidentally, at that time, Xie Di’s soul had just passed through and occupied his body. Because of Xie Di’s powerful soul, he hadn’t become a dunce, and instead, only temporarily lost his memories until he finally awakened today.

The talented Qin Yu had turned into a cripple, so naturally his family was no longer entitled to live in the main courtyard and was forced to return back to their miserable courtyard.

The martial world’s way was precisely like this; without strength, you had no rights, even inside your own clan.

Strength. He must restore his strength as quickly as possible; and for him to restore his strength, he needed to mend his crippled meridians first.

Qin Yu inspected his current body. All twelve meridians were completely crippled; the execution was truly ruthless. If it was just one meridian that was abolished, then maybe there would still be somebody who could find a way to restore it, but the success rate absolutely wouldn’t be more than ten percent. With all twelve meridians broken, finding a way to heal himself was almost impossible.

However, he was Xie Di, a former Martial Emperor ranked expert. Possessing such an exceptional cultivation manual like the《Secrets of Eternal Life》, meant that with the Qi Refining Stage, he had a strong self-healing ability. To heal such a trifling thing as crippled meridians wouldn’t be hard at all.

After a moment, Qin Yu immediately entered a meditative state and started to cultivate the《Secrets of Eternal Life》. Along with his cultivation, the crippled meridians in his body immediately began to repair itself.

Qin Yu quickly entered the cultivational state of complete selflessness. He was thoroughly immersed in freedom and the satisfaction of having his meridians restored. The night quietly passed as he cultivated.

“Cock-a-doodle-doo!” the rooster called at dawn.

Qin Yu climbed up and stretched his waist comfortably. Although he had been focused on cultivating until daybreak, he felt that his spirit was rejuvenated. He also felt completely liberated of the urge to find somebody to beat up.

After cultivating, the formerly crippled twelve meridians were completely restored. The body’s original cultivation at the apex of Origin Realm was also miraculously recovered. Plus, it seemed like his strength had increased slightly as well. From this, it was clear just how powerful the《Secrets of Eternal Life》was.

Suddenly, a high-pitched scream came from the other room, scaring Qin Yu.

“What’s going on?” Qin Yu hastily got off the bed and rushed into the room.

“Wu-ge! Wu-ge! Wake up! Wake up! You’ve already been told that you can’t cultivate martial energy. Why do you have to be so stubborn and continue to insist on cultivating by force? Now you’ve become like this! If you encountered an unexpected accident, how would me and Qin Yu continue to live?” *sobs*

“Mother, what happened to Father?” Qin Yu’s heart burned anxiously as he charged in and saw Qin Mother hugging Qin Wu in her arms while wailing. Qin Wu’s face was ashen. Blood was flowing from both his nose and mouth. This was a sign that a cultivator was about to enter Qi Deviation. [4. “Qi(gong) Deviation” is a Chinese-culture concept traditionally used to indicate that something has gone wrong in spiritual or martial arts training. (according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zou_huo_ru_mo) In most xianxia novels and dramas, if one can’t control the energy they cultivate, they will lose themselves to the energy, thus turning into “demons.” One can also lose themselves to their inner demons due to lust, greed, extreme emotions, etc.]

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