Eternal Life: I Can Sell Everything

In the great desert, beneath the dark sky, a bonfire’s glow flickered.

The moment Elder Liu Mingzhong spoke, he disparaged the Lower Grade Spiritual Artifact. His tone was full of hidden meaning, which made Yu Wenxu’s left thumb begin to rub rapidly across his fist again.

Yu Wenxu immediately said, “Rest assured, Doctor Liu. I have a Middle Grade Spiritual Artifact in my private collection that is perfectly suited for Xing Lan.”

Liu Mingzhong chuckled at once, cupping his hands toward Yu Wenxu. “How generous of you, General Yu!”

While they spoke, Song Ciwan remained silent. In truth, for a moment, she didn’t know what to say.

‘Was a Five-star Level Marvel like the Returning to the Divine Incense really equivalent in value to a Middle Grade Spiritual Artifact?’

‘In Song Ciwan’s opinion, it wasn’t.’

‘The value of the Returning to the Divine Incense probably couldn’t compare to a Middle Grade Spiritual Artifact. As for how it stacked up against a Lower Grade Spiritual Artifact, that was harder to say.’

‘After all, it was a life-saving item; its value couldn’t be set in stone.’

‘It mainly depended on whose life the Returning to the Divine Incense was saving.’

Yu Wenxu’s offer was, without a doubt, outrageously generous. Song Ciwan could clearly sense that the Treasure Saber he wore at his own waist, judging by its fluctuations, was probably just a Lower Grade Spiritual Artifact!

He himself used only a Lower Grade Spiritual Artifact, yet he was willing to offer a Middle Grade Spiritual Artifact to save his loyal Deputy General.

Decades of slaying demons had still not worn away General Yu’s passion and sincerity.

Song Ciwan composed herself, then placed the Returning to the Divine Incense into the center of Cai An’s brow.

That’s right—the Returning to the Divine Incense, being semi-ethereal, was inserted directly into Cai An’s brow.

Song Ciwan lightly brushed her fingertip across the top of this wondrous divine incense. A wisp of fiery energy flowed, and the Returning to the Divine Incense was lit.

Everyone present fell completely silent. They subconsciously held their breath, waiting for the miracle that was about to unfold.

A wisp of turquoise smoke rose gracefully in the firelight. In the distance, the wind across the dunes sounded like a mournful cry.

Song Ciwan simultaneously activated her Spiritual Eyes and, within her Sea of Consciousness, the Divine Eye Opening, carefully sensing every change in the surrounding space after the Returning to the Divine Incense was lit.

According to the Heaven and Earth Scale’s description, the Returning to the Divine Incense could only guide and coalesce the soul of a being who had been dead for no more than a quarter of an hour.

Indeed, Cai An had not been dead for a quarter of an hour. Though long in the telling, all the recent events—including the death of the Night Traveling Lamp and the cleansing of Yu Wenxu’s demonic influence—had transpired in a very short time.

The smoke from the Returning to the Divine Incense drifted gracefully. As the azure smoke swirled, a strange matter began to manifest from the Void in the surrounding air.

An inexplicable sense of divinity rose unbidden in the hearts of everyone present. Their gazes grew solemn. Not only did they hold their breath, but even the pace of their heartbeats slowed.

The azure smoke flowed from near to far, forming a stream that snaked through the emptiness, as if composed entirely of vapor.

In the distance, down the length of the stream, grayish-white points of light began to manifest and converge.

One point, and then another.

Gradually, the points of light, like starlight or snowflakes, floated and fluttered, plunging one after another into the stream of smoke!

The azure smoke was suffused with grayish-white, and within it, pale golden points of light occasionally appeared. These golden points moved with exceptional speed and purpose.

Like leaders among the points of light, they suddenly shot back along the stream, tracing the smoke to its source and flying toward the spot where the Returning to the Divine Incense had been placed.

That was Cai An’s brow!

Finally, above Cai An’s brow, a suspended head took shape.

Below the head were translucent internal organs, muscles, and bones, forming a body.

In just a few moments, an ethereal, grayish-white figure finished forming, hovering above Cai An’s corpse!

Everything went smoothly, without a single hitch, at an incredible speed.

There was just one problem: the translucent “Cai An’s” head was lolled to one side. It was as if his neck had no strength at all, completely unable to support it.

At the same time, the expression on his translucent form was vacant. The entire figure appeared faint and unsteady, clearly devoid of consciousness.

The crowd watching from the sidelines went from holding their breath in silence to breaking out in soft whispers.

“Is that a human soul?”

“General Cai’s soul really has been gathered, but why does it seem to lack consciousness?”

“If we just put it back in the body and then use the Divine Sealing Yellow Register, will that fix it?”

…

Song Ciwan, however, focused her Spiritual Eyes and saw with perfect clarity that on the neck of Cai An’s soul, there was a red, thread-like wound, identical to the one on his physical body.

It was this very wound that emitted a dim, repulsive force, preventing the soul’s head from being held upright.

She glanced behind her. Elder Liu Mingzhong said in a low voice, “The head is the leader of the six yang meridians. If the physical head isn’t restored, I’m afraid consciousness will be difficult for the soul to generate. After all, General Cai died by his own hand, which is what creates this difficulty.”

Song Ciwan grew thoughtful. ‘I think,’ she mused, ‘I’m beginning to understand the nature and essence of the soul.’

‘Following this understanding, the next time I face an enemy I must kill, I’ll be able to obliterate them completely, scattering their soul so that not even a fragment can ever be re-gathered!’

Seizing on Liu Mingzhong’s words, Song Ciwan asked, “Then what if the head is reconnected?”

Liu Mingzhong was about to retort, ‘The man is already dead, how can the head be reconnected?’

‘After all, healing the dead and healing the living were two completely different concepts.’

‘No, wait. The man’s dead. What healing is there to be done?’

But then he saw the wide sleeves of the young woman before him flutter in the wind. She raised her arms, and a strange gust stirred the air in front of her.

An unspeakable, indescribable feeling, as if from the soil, the water, the sunlight, from between heaven and earth—

No, it was clearly night, in the deepest dark before the dawn.

Where was the sunlight coming from?

Ah, that was it. In front of that ethereal figure, which seemed ready to depart the Mortal World, something as bright and warm as sunlight was gathering.

The soul floating above Cai An’s severed head, with its lolling head and vacant eyes, had feet dangling downward… and they twitched slightly.

Song Ciwan pushed the handful of light forward and uttered a single, low command: “Go!”

“All things hold divinity, return to the Innate.”

“The Four Spirits generate blood, through Fetal Breathing, attain the sacred!”

The light landed on Cai An. At his severed neck, flesh and blood instantly began to writhe, as if the corpse was being reborn.

The entire area fell silent once more. Everyone stood stunned, mouths agape and eyes wide.

Yu Wenxu was no exception; the dignified Red Cavalry General had lost all composure.

Making a head grow from thin air on Cai An’s decapitated corpse was, of course, impossible; the Fetal Breathing Saint Method was not that powerful. Ordinary Limb Regeneration and regenerating a head were two entirely different concepts.

Fortunately, however, Cai An’s head was still present. It was merely a matter of reattaching the severed head to the neck and letting it grow back together, a task for which the Fetal Breathing Saint Method was more than capable.

And so, one, two, three, four, five… in five short moments, the head had properly reattached.

With that, the ethereal soul hovering in mid-air immediately straightened its lolling head and returned to normal.

Then, with a WHOOSH, the soul, as if answering a call, was instantly pulled into the body below.

Cai An shot bolt upright from the sand. “Ow,” he groaned, as if waking from a long dream. “Bloody hell, what happened to me? Feels like I just died.”

BOOM!

Before anyone present had time to rejoice, a thick bolt of lightning appeared in the pitch-black night sky without any warning, striking straight down like a furious dragon!