"He's still too young after all. Even with my secret assistance, it's hard for him to withstand the shock of such an enormous influx of information."
Looking at Ye Feipeng, whose face remained contorted in agony even in unconsciousness, Li Fan pondered quietly.
He retrieved a Spirit Enlightenment Fruit from his storage ring and fed it to him.
Then, he used his spiritual energy to help him refine and absorb it.
Soon enough, Ye Feipeng's expression smoothed out.
Li Fan placed a hand on the boy's forehead and activated the Cloud Water Illusory Dream Technique once more, meticulously sculpting Ye Feipeng's "past-life" memories.
When Ye Feipeng woke up drenched in sweat the following day, his expression had turned considerably steadier.
He penned a medicinal prescription and ordered the servants to fetch the ingredients.
Soaking in a hot bath, he laid out plans for his path to prominence in this life.
Compared to yesterday's tangled mess of thoughts, his mind felt markedly clearer today.
"With the aid of the Xuanhuang Mind-Clearing Incantation and this prescription, I should be able to purge the miasma from my body on my own.
"Yet without spiritual energy, I cannot cultivate, making it an exercise in futility.
"I absolutely cannot wait for ten years. I must seize this opportunity to leave this place ahead of time."
In Ye Feipeng's memories, about half a month from now, an immortal cultivator would chance upon the Li Realm.
This cultivator was not the one who had an ongoing arrangement with Great Li, and thus was unwilling to take the risk of helping the subjects of Great Li smuggle themselves out.
Ignoring the desperate pleas of the Li Realm's ruler and ministers, the cultivator was on the verge of leaving.
At that crucial juncture, the emperor suddenly remembered the jade-white skeletal hand that had crashed into the imperial palace not long before.
Treating a dead horse as if it were alive, the emperor claimed that Great Li possessed an extraordinary treasure passed down from antiquity.
As long as the immortal master was willing to take a group of people to the cultivation world, they would offer this marvelous treasure with both hands.
Perhaps out of wariness toward the immortal-mortal miasma, the cultivator did not simply seize it by force.
Instead, after some deliberation, he agreed.
However, he laid down his own conditions.
He would only take children possessing cultivation aptitude, and their numbers could not be too large.
Consequently, the cultivator personally selected ten children from the descendants of Great Li's nobles and dignitaries, taking them back to the cultivation world.
Ye Feipeng remembered that among them were Xiao Heng of the Xiao clan, Su Changyu of the Su clan, and others.
Because of his own insufficient aptitude, he hadn't caught the cultivator's eye.
That was why he had squandered ten entire years in the Li Realm.
"In my previous life, when I was in the middle Qi Condensation stage, I ran into Xiao Heng by chance. By then, he was already in the middle Foundation Establishment stage, far outstripping me.
"On the path of cultivation, one step ahead means staying ahead at every step.
"Wasting ten years led to an entirely different future.
"In this life, things will certainly not be the same.
"As long as I can break free from the shackles of this realm, the wide sea will allow the fish to leap, and the vast sky will let the bird soar freely."
With eyes gleaming sharply, Ye Feipeng stepped out of the wooden tub, closed his eyes, and began practicing the Xuanhuang Mind-Clearing Incantation.
Perhaps it was a perk of living a second life, but he felt that his efficiency in expelling the miasma was vastly faster than in his past life.
In merely a dozen days, he had purged almost all of the miasma from his body.
This brought immense joy to Ye Feipeng's heart.
Over the next few days, however, Ye Feipeng halted the purging process.
A mortal with no trace of miasma inside them would be far too conspicuous.
If it aroused that immortal master's suspicion, disaster would follow.
His current state made him look like a mortal born with extraordinarily sparse immortal-mortal miasma.
It was just enough to guarantee his selection without attracting undue attention.
"Having a second chance at life means I must be all the more cautious," Ye Feipeng constantly reminded himself.
Exactly as his memories foretold, five days later, that cultivator arrived at the imperial capital.
More than half a day later, Ye Feipeng, along with over a thousand bewildered children, stood in the public square, waiting to be evaluated by the cultivator.
Even as a reincarnator, his future fate was still in someone else's hands at this moment.
This inevitably made Ye Feipeng somewhat nervous.
Fortunately, when the cultivator's gaze swept over him, it paused for a second before finally selecting him.
This filled Ye Feipeng with excitement alongside his immense relief.
Before long, the unselected children were all dismissed.
In the vast square, only the cultivator and ten apprehensive children, including Ye Feipeng, remained.
The cultivator summoned a flying boat, preparing to lead them away.
Just then, Su Changyu suddenly yelled, "Immortal Master, please save my little sister!"
Ye Feipeng's heart stirred.
In his memories, this younger sister of the Su clan seemed to possess cultivation talent even more terrifying than Xiao Heng's.
Before he died in his previous life, he had vaguely heard rumors that she had already attained the Golden Core realm.
Though a bit impatient, the cultivator still paid a visit to the Su manor.
Upon his return, his face beamed with delight.
Thus, an infant swaddled in cloth was added to their ranks.
Before departing, the cultivator distributed copies of the Xuanhuang Mind-Clearing Incantation alongside the corresponding medicinal compounds, instructing them to cultivate on their own first.
After cruising over Great Li for a dozen days, the flying boat finally breached the Immortal Severing Formation and entered the cultivation world.
Feeling the rich spiritual energy all around him, Ye Feipeng fell into deep intoxication.
Carefully guiding spiritual energy into his body, Ye Feipeng formally embarked on his transformation into a cultivator.
He had no idea how much time had passed when a furious roar, like a thunderclap, suddenly detonated beside his ears.
It startled him awake from his cultivation.
"Which cultivator dares assist mortals in smuggling across boundaries!"
The thunderous shout reverberated endlessly in his ears. Besides feeling dizzy and disoriented, Ye Feipeng's heart skipped a beat.
A terrible foreboding abruptly rose within him.
"Fellow Daoist, please hear me out..." The cultivator who was escorting them scrambled to explain.
Yet the other party clearly had no intention of showing mercy.
"Spare me the nonsense! By the decree of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, realm traitors die!"
Boom!
Accompanied by that cold, callous voice, Ye Feipeng felt the flying boat shudder violently, as though struck by something massive.
"You push people too far! If you want to kill me, let's see if you have the ability!"
Thunderous crashes of colliding techniques rang out repeatedly, stirring gusts of turbulent air that swept through like hurricanes.
The flying boat turned as fragile as duckweed in a gale, rocking precariously and looking as though it could plummet at any second.
Inside the passenger cabin, apart from baby Su Xiaomei, who remained sound asleep, everyone else from the Li Realm had been startled out of their cultivation.
Though they possessed some cultivation aptitude, they were ultimately only children around ten years of age.
Pampered and cherished by their noble families, they had never even witnessed mortal slaughter,
let alone a deadly duel between immortal cultivators.
Every single one of them was pale with terror, bewildered and completely at a loss.
Only Ye Feipeng handled it better. Anxious but not panicked, he peered outside the flying boat.
He could see the two cultivators seemed evenly matched, locked in an intense battle.
The spectacle was staggering, with dazzling light flooding the heavens,
making it impossible to discern the precise clash.
Yet judging by the residual shockwaves rippling from their skirmish, both were at least at the Foundation Establishment stage.
*This flying boat wasn't an impressive dharma artifact to begin with.*
*Having taken a direct blow from that Foundation Establishment cultivator who suddenly appeared, it's already severely damaged.*
*Now under the brunt of their battle, it could be utterly destroyed at any moment.*
*On top of that, our smuggling seems to have been exposed.*
*Staying here means certain death!*
Ye Feipeng forced himself to calm down and thought rapidly.
*I steered this flying boat in my past life. As long as it isn't locked by restrictions, any Qi Condensation cultivator can pilot it.*
With that thought, Ye Feipeng dashed straight for the prow, leaving the bewildered children of the Li Realm looking at one another.
Xiao Heng was sharp after all, and he followed after him to see if there was anything he could do to help.
Su Changyu was the oldest among the children.
However, he had yet to fully purge the miasma from his body and remained a mere mortal.
Knowing he couldn't offer any real help, he didn't join the commotion.
Instead, he looked after Su Xiaomei while soothing the emotions of the other children.
"Fatty, what are you doing?" Approaching the prow, Xiao Heng saw Ye Feipeng's hands pressing against the empty air before him.
Beads of sweat dripped from his forehead, looking as though he were exerting immense effort.
Ye Feipeng offered no response, merely struggling to control the vessel beneath their feet.
"Oh, I get it. You want to control the flying boat and make a run for it," Xiao Heng remarked in realization after observing for a moment.
"Why isn't it moving, though?"
Ye Feipeng grew irritated hearing his chatter. Weakness washed over his mind, and drained of strength, he collapsed to the deck.
"Let me try!"
Just as Ye Feipeng was about to curse Xiao Heng to vent his frustration, he suddenly sensed the vessel beneath them tremble faintly.
"Isn't this quite easy?"
"You can steer the flying boat?"
Both voices rang out simultaneously.
A flash of shock crossed Ye Feipeng's face, followed inevitably by a wave of jealousy upon hearing those words.
Yet at this life-or-death juncture, he had no time to dwell on such things.
Suppressing his feelings, Ye Feipeng urgently pressed, "Quick, pilot the boat away from here!"
Xiao Heng's innocent voice came back, "Where should we flee to?! Everything looks the same in all directions; I can't tell which way is which!"
Ye Feipeng snapped in exasperation, "Just pick any direction and—"
Before he finished, an image suddenly flashed across his mind.
As if struck by an epiphany, Ye Feipeng jerked his gaze toward the outside, scrutinizing the surrounding scenery.
On the sea not far away lay nine whirlpools of varying sizes.
The rushing currents were exceedingly distinctive.
*This sea territory... In my past life, when I tried to return to the Li Realm, I seem to have passed by here.*
*Going to the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals' garrison island is out of the question now. But a short distance to the northwest, there should be an uninhabited island.*
*We can take refuge there first until the heat dies down.*
He immediately verified the bearings, pointed, and told Xiao Heng, "Quick, fly that way!"
Hearing this, Xiao Heng unsteadily maneuvered the flying boat away from the battlefield.
Meanwhile, the two Foundation Establishment cultivators seemed locked in fierce combat, paying no attention whatsoever to the children quietly fleeing the scene.
Excitement surged through Ye Feipeng's heart.
After flying for over a day, an island of moderate size covered in dense jungle finally came into view.
"We're here! Fly into the woods and hide for now," Ye Feipeng directed hastily.
Xiao Heng had only broken through to the Qi Condensation stage recently, and piloting the flying boat for such a long stretch had pushed him to his limits.
Hearing Ye Feipeng's instructions, he let out a sigh of relief and gingerly brought the vessel down into the forest.
Ye Feipeng had everyone gather branches and leaves to drape over the flying boat as camouflage.
Afterward, the group retreated into the cabin to discuss what to do next.
"We've barely arrived in the cultivation world and already run into this kind of mess. How unlucky!" Xiao Heng sighed.
"We should be thankful we survived. Didn't you hear them say our smuggling was found out?" another child around Xiao Heng's age chimed in.
Ye Feipeng said, "All we can do for now is hide on this island for a while. Once the dust settles, we'll figure out a way to leave."
The children sighed despondently, their little faces filled with distress.
"That's all we can do. Fortunately, there's a fresh water source and fruit trees on this island, so we won't need to worry about food for the time being," Su Changyu sighed deeply.
With an uncertain future ahead, spirits were low across the board.
When night fell, they soon drifted off into a deep, groggy sleep.
In the middle of the night, Ye Feipeng stirred with an intuitive hunch, awakening from his dreams.
Creeping outside the flying boat, he spotted a beam of light streaking across the horizon, arriving in the blink of an eye.
It was heading straight for the camouflaged vessel.
*Oh no!* Ye Feipeng felt a jolt of panic.
Before he could react, the light had already landed right in front of him.
"Quick, help me inside..."
The newcomer was none other than the cultivator who had brought them out of the Li Realm.
Only now, he was covered in mangled wounds and his aura was feeble; he had clearly sustained grievous injuries.
Even so, he was still a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Ye Feipeng dared not act presumptuously. Acknowledging the command, he stepped forward to support him.
Yet the man suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood and collapsed face-first onto the ground.
After a few twitches, he stopped moving altogether.
"Senior!" Ye Feipeng cried out in shock.
Right at that moment, an anomaly abruptly burst forth in the sky above.
"Foundation Establishment cultivator Fan Li, having cultivated the Dao for a hundred and sixty-five years. Established his Dao Foundation with the strange item Dejected Staff. Fatally wounded in battle at the Congyun Sea.
"Now his body has died and his Dao extinguished, returning the Dao to heaven!"
A brilliant spectacle resembling fireworks lit up the night sky.
Ye Feipeng was utterly stunned by this sudden apparition.
"D-dead?"
He stood frozen in disbelief.
Never would he have imagined that this cultivator named Fan Li, having narrowly escaped with his life, would drop dead right before his eyes.
A plain bamboo staff slowly crystallized beside the corpse.
Staring at the Foundation Establishment cultivator's body, a daring idea suddenly popped into Ye Feipeng's head.
Holding his breath, he crept closer.
Reaching the corpse, he stood motionless for a while.
After a brief pause, he slowly crouched down and, under the glow of the celestial fireworks above, quickly began searching the body.
"What are you doing!"
A voice suddenly broke the silence of the night from behind him.
Startled, Ye Feipeng nearly tumbled backward onto the ground.
Turning around, he saw Xiao Heng looking at him in utter shock as he looted the corpse.
"Shh!" Ye Feipeng urgently made a hushing gesture.
Xiao Heng recovered his wits by then.
He leaned in and whispered, "How did the immortal master die?"
"Probably suffered mutually destructive injuries in the fight with that other guy earlier. He barely made it here, couldn't hold on any longer, and just died," Ye Feipeng replied casually, continuing his search across the corpse.
"Why isn't there even a storage ring?" After rummaging for a good while, he still hadn't found what he wanted.
Ye Feipeng couldn't help but complain under his breath.
"A storage ring? Is it this?" Xiao Heng picked up a ring from the ground and asked curiously.
Chapter 206