An Unclouded True Spirit

Within Immortal Heaven, Cangwu flicked a finger, and Su Wuwang appeared before him. Cangwu flicked over an immortal pill and said, "Take this pill. In one shichen, you will undergo corporeal dissolution. After reincarnation, your true spirit will remain unclouded, allowing you to retain the memories of your past life. This pill also contains a wisp of Great Dao true intent, which will spare you the need to possess an infant; you may reincarnate directly into the body of an uncultivated child possessed of sufficient talent. As for the child's original consciousness, with your abilities, you can cleanly extinguish it even if he is a child of karmic destiny. "Once reincarnated, remember to seek me out in the royal capital at the earliest opportunity. Preserving an unclouded true spirit does not come without a price; if it is not nourished in time, your foundation for cultivation can easily be damaged, diminishing your future achievements." "My gratitude to the Immortal Monarch for your fostering!" Su Wuwang caught the immortal pill and swallowed it in a single gulp. Cangwu then said, "During this one shichen, you will draw heaven's envy and mortal grievance. Stay by my side; straying far might invite mishap." Su Wuwang took his place beside Cangwu, and together they looked down upon the battle below. Cangwu suddenly asked, "What do you think of this man Sun Chao'en?" Su Wuwang replied, "This man is deeply entangled with Wei Yuan, yet he possesses genuine ability. Employed properly, he is a fine blade; handled poorly, he easily turns to wound one's own hand. Whether he brings benefit or harm depends entirely upon whether one can rein him in." Cangwu pointed below and said, "Sun Chao'en is actually in cahoots with Wei Yuan, yet I insisted on making him the commander-in-chief. In order not to expose his true allegiance, he has no choice but to carry out his duties conscientiously! Haha! Look at that—isn't this battle being fought far better than under Xiao Jingyuan?" Shadows drifted past from time to time around them, letting out shrieks and snarls as they lunged toward Su Wuwang. Su Wuwang felt a profound dread toward these dark apparitions; his entire body stiffened until he could not even flee, just like a fragile beast encountering its natural predator. Fortunately, Cangwu's immortal power held the black shadows at bay, preventing them from drawing close. Even so, iridescent halos rose around Cangwu like multiple encircling rainbows, and repelling them appeared to take considerable effort. Su Wuwang watched the battle below for a moment and suddenly observed, "Setting aside weapons and equipment, many of the soldiers have very low cultivation. They look to have been in Body Casting for only a year or two. Could they be locals from the State of Ji?" Cangwu said, "Not 'could be'—they are. Of the hundred-plus thousand down there, the vast majority are locals of Ji. Two years ago, most of them were likely starving peasants on the brink of death." Su Wuwang sighed. "On one side, they cower and cling to life, refusing to budge even under the whips of the disciplinary corps. On the other, they throw themselves fearlessly into death, each fighting ten, pressing forward wave upon wave! In merely two years, how has such a disparity emerged? And how can there be so many in Body Casting across this region of Ji? It is simply beyond belief!" Cangwu said, "None of them were in Body Casting before. They only started within the past year or two." "Having set foot on the path of cultivation, why do they still fight with such desperate abandon?" Su Wuwang was somewhat baffled. Cangwu seemed to let out a faint sigh and said, "Your cultivation has been smooth sailing all the way, hailing from a renowned sect, so naturally you do not understand the hearts of common mortals. Yet even I did not expect that tens of thousands of common folk laying down their lives would prove so troublesome." At this moment, the hour arrived. Specks of light began to drift from Su Wuwang's body. He bowed to Cangwu and said, "The time has come; it is time for Su to depart. My gratitude to the Immortal Monarch for granting me this!" Cangwu nodded. "Remember to arrive at the royal capital early." Su Wuwang's dharma body dissolved into pale fire, burning away his soul, and the last wisp of his true spirit soared beyond the heavens, entering the cycle of reincarnation. Cangwu continued watching the conflict on the ground, now and then flicking a soldier bean toward a vital point on the battlefield, then recalling the heavily damaged Dao soldiers. At this point, the battle was deadlocked. On the eastern front, the State of Ji had committed nearly two million troops, pouring out in a ferocious, full-scale assault! Yet Qingming held only a hundred and fifty thousand defenders, reinforced by fifty thousand reserves drawn from the rear. Facing the fierce onslaught of an enemy ten times their number, as well as ghostly, ubiquitous Dao soldiers, the Qingming Army could only fight to the death. Even when positions were carved by the Dao soldiers into isolated pockets, every single redoubt fought without heed for life, battling down to the very last man! An army of two million had proven unable to conquer a sprawling front held by a mere hundred-odd thousand. Meanwhile, on the northern front, Wei Yuan led Qingming's most elite mobile heavy forces, clinging stubbornly to the Mountain Folk in relentless pursuit. Wave after wave of assaults surged like raging tides, unyielding as they pressed northward step by step against fresh Mountain Folk contingents. Cangwu kept the northern front in his sights as well. If the northern front could not achieve victory while the eastern defense line was breached, millions of Ji troops would flood into the lands of Xianghan, flattening everything in their wake. When that happened, Wei Yuan's elite Qingming main force would be caught from front and rear, pincered on both sides. Yet if the eastern front held and bought ample time for the north, allowing Wei Yuan to leisurely wipe out the Mountain Folk's main force, then once his army returned to the east, given the combat prowess they displayed now, even if only two hundred thousand remained, it would suffice to shatter the Ji army's main force. Thus, the crux of the situation lay in how long the eastern front could endure. Sun Chao'en throwing every last Ji division into the assault in one breath was precisely the optimal strategy for the moment. As Cangwu watched, he suddenly frowned slightly and murmured to himself, "How did so many Mountain Folk arrive? Could they harbor some other scheme? But whatever their plot, none of it can be hidden from the Venerable Master, can it?" On the northern front, artillery fire roared incessantly. At this very moment, Wei Yuan realized that there were still issues with the army's organization: its firepower was seriously deficient, primarily due to an insufficient number of heavy cannons. With only a thousand pieces, suppressing the mountain ridge giants proved somewhat arduous, and the density of firepower along the vast front line was far from adequate! Wei Yuan felt that a heavy cannon ought to be stationed along every single zhang of the front line—only then could it truly be called firepower. Yet it was too late for regrets now; they could only continue the slaughter with their current fire configuration. Fortunately, shells remained plentiful, and several shichen of uninterrupted bombardment had already made many of the Mountain Folk question their very existence as mountain dwellers. At this stage, the battle tested both the quantity of steel and the will of steel. And regarding both, Wei Yuan possessed immense confidence. ... In the murk, a wisp of a true spirit drifted and bobbed, as though tugged forward by a current of water. A speck of light appeared ahead, revealing itself upon closer approach to be a light portal. Drawn by the portal, the true spirit drifted toward it involuntarily. Hesitation suddenly struck it, and it strained to pull away, but the drawing power of the portal far surpassed its struggles, steadily pulling it into the gate bit by bit. Passing through the light portal, the speck of true spirit naturally began absorbing heaven-and-earth origin qi, gradually taking on human form. It looked around in some bewilderment, an expression of confusion suddenly surfacing on its face: Where is this? As time passed, his form grew clearer, vaguely revealing a weather-beaten face. A glimmer of consciousness slowly returned to him: I have a name... I am Su... Wuwang... But where is this? He looked about and saw countless mindless souls drifting and wandering. Still other souls were slowly taking shape. Where was this? By now, Su Wuwang had recalled his past life. Even as he marveled at the miraculous efficacy of the immortal pill, he could not help but feel puzzled. No matter how he looked at it, this did not seem like an infant's sea of consciousness, nor the soul of some exceptionally talented youth. Moreover, why were there so many souls here? While he was pondering, an invisible force suddenly pushed him, carrying him alongside numerous souls into a grand hall. In the center of the hall stood an altar tablet and a desk, behind which a figure sat constantly recording something in a register. The countless souls queued up and filed past him, and with each one that passed, he made an entry in the book. Once registered, many souls vanished into thin air, seemingly sent off to reincarnation. A few were escorted out of the hall. Soon it was Su Wuwang's turn. Drifting before the desk, he finally caught sight of the shadowy figure's appearance. The figure bore the face of a woman, yet its body was an indistinct blur, impossible to discern clearly. To Su Wuwang, it gave off a strange sense of familiarity. Seeing Su Wuwang, the figure paused as well, then took a closer look. Its gaze seemed tangible, piercing through Su Wuwang's soul body as though laying bare every secret inside and out. The figure remarked with curiosity, "Another one with an unclouded spirituality who awakened his past life? This is a bit tricky. Hmm, and he even brought his own name... Su Wuwang? Why does that sound familiar?" Yet with so many souls waiting in line, the figure did not dwell on it. It jotted something directly into the register. As the line of writing was finished, another invisible force tugged Su Wuwang out of the hall, drifting toward a pool of pitch-black water. A flash of realization suddenly struck Su Wuwang, and a thought surfaced: That figure just now was a heavenly demon!