Chapter 1 The Last Breath

With only a breath left, the chance to open his eyes again could be lost at any moment.

But at this moment, Hu Ma was trapped in the Twilight Boundary.

The Book of Life and Death enveloped Hu Ma, as if transforming this piece of heaven and earth into a cocoon, trapping him inside.

The dense flow of information stripped him of the strength to resist anything. If life in this world was a puppet show, then Hu Ma was now completely wrapped in intricate puppet strings, rendering him unable to move, even unable to struggle.

But there was also a benefit. With the strings tangled, no one could control him by pulling them.

Both sides could only maintain a stalemate.

"Soon, soon..."

The thing covered in eyes stared intently at Hu Ma, extremely excited, all its eyes shining.

It didn't mind maintaining a stalemate with Hu Ma at this time, because it could perceive everything in this world, so it knew what Hu Ma was facing in the mortal realm.

It had long been annoyed by this guy repeatedly entering to snatch things, and had made plans. As long as this guy dared to enter again, it would trap him, drag it out until his physical body was destroyed, and he could never return.

Now, only a moment was left...

"Is the price of understanding who you really are to never return to the original world?"

"No, I haven't figured it out yet!"

"..."

And at this extremely chaotic moment, Hu Ma's thoughts also had a trace of detachment, as if he possessed the ability to perceive everything for a moment, just like the monster covered in eyes, and various subtle and chaotic clues all appeared in his mind.

Normally, people can only think about one problem and then switch to another.

But at this moment, Hu Ma seemed to be able to face all problems at the same time.

In his mind, he suddenly thought of what the head of the Zhou family had said to him. This great master of the Zhou family, under the guise of coming to pick him up, inexplicably said a few words to him about the path of the Shousui Ren (Year Keeper).

He spoke of only refining one thought, being carefree and unrestrained, seizing a body and being reborn, and so on... Could it be that he also foresaw his current predicament and was giving him some hints?

Since this body is complex and difficult to understand, why not abandon the physical body, freely pursue one thought, and be a clean person at any time?

No!

But just as this thought arose, he suddenly realized a problem.

It was a problem that even he, who had seen the fate of others, had almost overlooked.

The Shousui Ren (Year Keeper) once had a path: refining the body, refining the soul, cultivating a dharma body, and when they became strong enough, they could easily discard this skin, be free and unrestrained, and if they wanted to return to the mortal world, there were countless skins in the world, and they could choose any one.

He was only talking about an idea, but what if someone could really do it?

Like, the old man Lao Jun Mei before?

On this ancient book, he could see what others had done to him, but he didn't know why they did it, that belonged to the things in other people's fates.

But Hu Ma could clearly see that Lao Jun Mei was too powerful, so powerful that even if it was just a remnant soul accompanying a celestial fate, it could easily take away everything belonging to such an infant and completely occupy this body...

But he didn't!

He always preserved the existence of this newborn's soul, allowing the two consciousnesses to entangle, engraving his memories, consciousness, everything into the new body.

Until the newborn's soul gradually grew stronger, and until he gradually died out.

Lao Jun Mei could clearly seize his body, why didn't he?

The person who knows Lao Jun Mei's skills best in the world is the head of the Zhou family, is that why he said those things to himself?

This matter is not as simple as it seems on the surface.

And following this line of thought, Hu Ma's mind flashed the image of his taciturn biological father.

He was his biological father, but in his memories, and even in the mouths of others, he only accounted for a very small proportion.

His only impression of him was that he used to hold him, letting him hit him when he acted up, without saying a word, but such a silent person had the ability to slay disasters by himself, killing the creatures of disaster that ran out of the cave.

Did the Hu family really just believe the national teacher's words and offer their only bloodline?

"Whirr..."

Also, when Hu Ma thought of the problem, something floated over in the empty Twilight Boundary, which only had floating corpses.

They were two green banners, covered in writing, and they were floating over to wrap around Hu Ma.

"You're here again!"

The monster covered in eyes saw the two banners, all its eyes were angry and frightened:

"You're here again to change my things!"

"..."

It looked at the banners, more angry than seeing Hu Ma, but it didn't dare to stop them, it could only shout from afar.

Seeing that these two banners were about to wrap around the Book of Life and Death, even the flow of information on the Book of Life and Death, which was frantically pouring into Hu Ma's body, underwent a huge change at this moment. In a trance, Hu Ma noticed his own change.

But at this moment, a silent roar sounded, passing through the layers of the Book of Life and Death, as if he saw a shadow.

He reached out from Hu Ma's fate, that is, from the Book of Life and Death, which recorded all of Hu Ma's past karma.

He grabbed one of the floating banners.

……

……

"Pa!"

At the edge of the battlefield, Old Suanpan and the others were all anxious. Just now, behind them, Hu Ma's biological father's coffin moved, scaring them all.

But because it was just a movement, with no other abnormalities, and the situation was urgent, they couldn't pay much attention to it. But they didn't expect that at that critical moment, the coffin lid suddenly flew out, and a decayed hand stretched out.

As if grabbing something from the air.

At first glance, Old Suanpan was so frightened that his soul flew out of his body.

Although his skills were not great, he had traveled north and south and seen a lot, but he had never seen a corpse cleaner than Hu Ma's biological father's.

Let alone the reincarnated soul, it had already disappeared with the creatures of disaster, and even the corpse-guarding soul had disappeared cleanly.

This was the most unlikely corpse in the world to change, but at this time, it actually changed.

The surrounding wind became extremely cold, and in the faint swaying, there seemed to be a sigh, gently resounding in the coffin.

"Is it... is it really haunted?"

"..."

"..."

The same sigh also resounded faintly in Shangjing, before the incense table.

"What?"

Everyone present was the most capable in the world, and they had also seen the mysterious means of the Da Luo Fa Jiao (Great Luo Dharma Sect) Dongxuan Guoshi (Mystic National Teacher) directly defying the heavens and changing fate, and they were all dumbfounded. But no one expected that a gust of bleak and cold wind would blow up.

It blew so hard that the lights around them were shaking, and then, the sigh was extremely clear, resounding in everyone's ears, making their backs chill and sweat.

"Mr. Hu Shan..."

Behind the incense table, the Guoshi (National Teacher) also suddenly opened his eyes, his eyebrows stern: "As expected, you did something..."

"Hu Shan?"

Hearing this, everyone's faces changed slightly before the incense table.

For them, this was not a particularly familiar name, because twenty-three years ago, when the Hu family was still in Shangjing, Hu Shan had not yet taken on the responsibility, he was just a silent and unsociable young man, just an ordinary member of the Ten Clans.

Later, after the Zhen Sui Hu (Devil Suppressing Hu) lineage left, everyone had even fewer opportunities to deal with him.

Now, why did the Guoshi (National Teacher) mention him?

Amidst the shock, the Guoshi (National Teacher) had already suddenly grabbed a peach wood sword next to the incense table, slowly stood up, his figure slightly moved, he wielded the sword, his lips moved slightly, and no one in the field could hear his words.

Only in the Twilight Boundary, Hu Ma heard these words clearly: "Back then, I was afraid that you would cause trouble, so I sat back and watched you perish together with that disaster, and your reincarnated and corpse-guarding souls were all scattered..."

"All you have left is karma!"

"The karma soul is the trace you left in this world, stored in the past, unmoved and unchanged, but you..."

"...You only have this little trace left, and you still want to interfere in this matter?"

"..."

"Chī" "Chī" "Chī"

Hu Ma could feel that the hand stretched out from the Book of Life and Death was tightly clutching the green banner.

However, invisibly, this blurred and silent shadow was also enduring something.

It was rapidly collapsing and disappearing.

At this moment, in his fate, the past, a cloudy and blurry scene, all seemed to be illuminated.

That was more than ten years ago, after his biological father, Hu Shan, killed the disaster creature alone.

Knowing that he could no longer leave this village, coughing blood, he sat there withered. Usually, he was complained about by his mother, hated by his wife, and beaten by his son. He, who had always been accustomed to enduring it, slowly muttered to himself:

"How can I not love my own son?"

"..."

While saying this, he gritted his teeth and used the power of the Twelve Ghost Altars to slowly stretch out his palm.

The action was exactly the same as when he stretched out his palm in the Book of Life and Death at the same time.

This was a technique performed more than ten years ago with his last breath, but it was only now appearing in the world through the karma soul.

"Hū!"

The palm stretched out from the Book of Life and Death suddenly gained some strength, and in an instant, it tore apart one of the green banners.

Shangjing, before the incense table.

A wisp of green smoke suddenly flew back and crashed into the Guoshi's (National Teacher's) body.

The Guoshi (National Teacher) stretched out the peach wood sword and blocked it in front of him, dispersing the green smoke, but he also took a step back, his expression extremely gloomy.

At the same time, not too far away from this battlefield, in a restaurant that had already closed, a man with a beard and thick eyebrows secretly climbed in through the window, took out the restaurant's pickles and wine, using alcohol to drown his sorrows, looking unusually depressed.

But when he heard the sigh in his ear, he suddenly felt a chill down his spine, and suddenly looked around.

After a long time, he trembled and opened his mouth: "Shifu (Master), is that you?"

(End of this chapter)