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”Hate, hate, hate~ even if I don’t enter the cycle of reincarnation, remaining a lowly ghost for eternity, I will still obtain revenge!” A howl spread from a black spiritual mass. At the same time, its body enlarged as if someone had blown air into it. It quickly reached half the height of a person from that of a ping-pong ball.

If one were to look at it carefully, they would notice that it vaguely resembled that Altar Master who had died in Song Shuhang’s hands. However, only half of its features resembled that of Altar Master.

This resentful spirit was born when the dying Altar Master had cursed Song Shuhang. However, Song Shuhang himself had already destroyed this resentful spirit once, and afterward, it was swallowed several times by the pekingese Doudou. And yet, the curse hadn’t disappeared.

Right now, the pekingese Doudou wasn’t by his side. And since he had consumed too much mental energy, Song Shuhang couldn’t even use a small technique to stay on alert.

The resentful spirit born from the curse slowly took shape. After grinning fiendishly, it stretched its sharp, ghastly claws and ruthlessly aimed at Song Shuhang’s throat. If these claws were to hit him, they would surely leave five bloody holes in the latter’s throat.

Just when its sharp nails were about to prick Song Shuhang’s skin, a pure white spiritual mass shot out of his Heart Aperture—it was the ghost spirit with a golden shield he had just contracted.

The pure white ghost spirit was only fist-sized, while the black resentful spirit had already reached half the height of a person.

However, the ghost spirit wasn’t scared in the slightest. It suddenly opened its mouth and took a deep breath.

At this point, a strange thing happened. The ghost spirit resembled a black hole, and just like the Golden-Red Gourd that could swallow people, it swallowed down the black resentful spirit! [1]

”Burp~” the ghost spirit burped satisfied, and even its body got slightly bigger. Then, after a yawn, it returned to Song Shuhang’s Heart Aperture.

The fast asleep Song Shuhang smacked his lips. It seemed he was having a good dream. He rolled over and kept sleeping soundly.

***

The dream was indeed beautiful.

This time, Song Shuhang dreamt of being a person from ancient times.

He had a pure and innocent childhood, and his parents were kind. However, when he was six, he was afflicted by a strange and incurable disease. His father brought him along and searched everywhere for a cure, but it was all for naught.

At last, his parents decided to send him off to an old and worn-out daoist temple a few dozen kilometers away from their home, leaving him in the care of a daoist priest with a fiery red robe.

This daoist priest with a fiery robe wasn’t an average man. He was an immortal living among mortals. In the dream, Song Shuhang started to live with the daoist priest. Every day, he would drink a bitter medicinal liquid, and afterward, he would practice a strange fist technique.

After two years, he had already recovered from his illness and grasped a small amount of power that didn’t belong to the mortal world.

Then, on a day two years and three months later, the daoist priest brought him under a gigantic old tree that was high enough to pierce the clouds.

”My name is Scarlet Heaven, and the two of us were predestined to meet. Look carefully!” The daoist priest faintly smiled. Then, he broke a branch of the big tree and started to demonstrate a series of movements while standing in place.

He muttered the incantation of the technique with his mouth.

It should have been a peerless sword technique. However, Song Shuhang wasn’t able to understand it.

Because, when he started to demonstrate the technique, the form of the daoist priest got more and more blurry. And, from time to time, some parts would be suddenly skipped… both the incantation and the sword technique were explained in a different language. It was an alien language to Song Shuhang.

But the ‘he’ in the dream could see and listen very well.

After finishing his demonstration, the daoist priest with the fiery red robe said, ”How much of it did you remember?”

”Around 90%.” The ‘he’ in the dream replied.

”Not bad. This 90% should be enough for you to condense a Golden Core and step on the Great Way. But your future achievements will depend on your efforts,” Daoist Priest Scarlet Heaven smiled as he patted ‘his’ head.

In the dream, ‘he’ laughed, somewhat embarrassed. He felt as if the daoist priest wanted to leave him.

After caressing his head, Daoist Priest Scarlet Heaven squatted down in front of him; it seemed he wanted to tell him something.

But at this time, the daoist priest looked strangely toward the ‘he’ in the dream.

Song Shuhang could feel Daoist Priest Scarlet Heaven’s gaze; it was profound like the universe. It penetrated through the ‘he’ in the dream, and after crossing space and time, it stared at the real Song Shuhang!

Song Shuhang felt his body turn cold, as if his every secret was being seen through!

”So, it was like this. Interesting! Very interesting!” Daoist Priest Scarlet Heaven heartily laughed.

Then, he stood up and picked the tree branch once again.

Afterward, the daoist priest changed the language he used and started his demonstration again.

This time, the ‘he’ in the dream couldn’t understand anything. He wasn’t familiar with this language.

However… Song Shuhang could understand everything!

”My name is Scarlet Heaven. Back in the days, when I became a daoist, I relied on a very common set of ‘Flaming Saber’ techniques to build the foundation of my cultivation. And now, I’ll pass down this ‘Flaming Saber’ to you. Since it’s a very common saber technique, I hope you won’t hold a grudge toward this poor daoist for being so stingy.”

At this time, Song Shuhang got the impression that Daoist Priest Scarlet Heaven wasn’t talking to the ‘he’ in the dream, but was instead talking to the real him!

”There isn’t much time. I’ll demonstrate this technique only once,” Daoist Priest Scarlet Heaven continued to wave the tree branch in his hand. Using the branch as a blade, he made a slashing motion with his wrist.

Immediately, Song Shuhang felt as if the world had started to burn.

It seemed as if an inexhaustible flame had started to burn on the tree branch in the hand of the daoist priest. There was nothing that couldn’t be burnt by that flame, and it wouldn’t be extinguished for eternity!

When the slashing motion ended, the flames had engulfed the entire world. All the myriad different places of the world were completely burnt to ashes! Even the clouds of the high and mighty ‘heaven’ were engulfed by those red flames!

He didn’t use the incantation of the saber technique, and he didn’t use the appropriate posture either. He merely used a slash imbued with saber intent! This slash was the essence of the saber technique!

When facing this slash, Song Shuhang felt his body becoming blazing hot, his mouth parched and his blood about to dry out.

However, he understood many things.

Even if he couldn’t see Song Shuhang, Daoist Priest Scarlet Heaven knew that he had comprehended most of this technique. He heartily laughed and waved his stretched hand. The tree branch in his hand was reduced to ashes.

Even the towering tree behind his body was reduced to ashes.

The ‘he’ in the dream was dumbfounded.

The daoist priest with the fiery red robe lightly shouted before stepping toward the void. He flew through the sky without any external help and went higher and higher, until he disappeared.

The ‘he’ in the dream respectfully knelt on the ground. Afterward, he knocked his head on the ground three times.

Soon after… the picture in the dream changed, and many years had passed by.

The ‘he’ in the dream had grown up. At this time, he was carrying a blue short sword on his back and wore a daoist robe that was similar to that of Daoist Priest Scarlet Heaven. However, its color was green.

A cultivator with a green daoist robe… the loose cultivator Li Tiansu!

The dream finished there. Song Shuhang opened his eyes; it was already dawn.

***

Early morning, 6:03 AM. July 2, Tuesday. The sky was clear.

Song Shuhang sat on the bed.

”Was it a dream?” Just as he spoke, he noticed that his entire body was covered in sweat!

‘If it wasn’t a dream, then… was it the memory of that loose cultivator named Li Tiansu?’ Since he had already experienced something like this, Song Shuhang immediately understood what had happened.

‘Li Tiansu’ should be the senior loose cultivator whose corpse flew till here when I was contracting the ghost spirit, leaving behind those two pieces of equipment, right?

When Senior White asked that loose cultivator about his name, Song Shuhang heard the phrase ‘loose cultivator Li Tiansu’.

However, why did he dream of being Li Tiansu?

Was it due to the ghost spirit? It seemed that the ghost spirit had absorbed the energy left behind by the dying Li Tiansu, undergoing a strange mutation. So after he interlinked his mind with the ghost spirit, he saw that memory?

When he was thinking, Song Shuhang lowered his head and saw that the ancient bronze ring was on his finger.

It was one of the two pieces of equipment left behind by Li Tiansu after he had dissipated.

”The ring… does it mean that it wasn’t due to the ghost spirit, but it was because the ring missed its previous owner? Therefore, it made me dream about him?” Song Shuhang wondered aloud.

When recalling the dream, Song Shuhang noticed that the Flaming Saber of Daoist Priest Scarlet Heaven had left a deep impression on him.

Scarlet Heaven said that his Flaming Saber Technique was a very common technique in the world of cultivators.

However, after recalling Scarlet Heaven’s slash and those inextinguishable flames capable of burning down everything, heavens included... was it really just an ordinary ‘Flaming Saber Technique’?

That slash was capable of burning even the heavens!

Song Shuhang started to get restless. He needed to try out this ‘Flaming Saber’ that Scarlet Heaven had passed down to him. With that, he would be able to discern if it was just a dream or if it was a fragment of Li Tiansu’s memory.

Song Shuhang quickly went toward the safe. After opening it, he took the mystical saber he had obtained from the sect master of the Moon Saber Sect, Ba Qianjun.

The name of this saber was Broken Tyrant and it was around one meter long. It was incredibly hard, and after experiencing the fires of the tribulation, it had undergone a strange transformation.

After taking the saber, Song Shuhang went to the top floor—the fifth floor.

Having learnt from the experience of the Three Star Fire Controlling Fan, he didn’t dare to act recklessly inside the room.

‘Let’s give it a try. There is no one here anyway. I’ll pretend to be still inside the dream,’ Song Shuhang took a deep breath as he tried to recall Scarlet Heaven’s appearance when he was demonstrating the ‘Flaming Saber’.

He also started to spin the saber, and after the energy of qi and blood gushed out from the Eye and Heart Apertures, he slashed down...

It seemed imposing, and the posture was very cool!

However, no flames appeared.

Let alone flames, there wasn’t even a spark.

”Haha,” Song Shuhang bitterly smiled.

Was it nothing but a dream?

Or perhaps, this ‘Flaming Saber’ could only be learnt after diligent practice?

‘Whatever, every day I have some time I’ll take out a bit of it and practice this Flaming Saber,’ Song Shuhang made up his mind.

If he could create raging flames with his saber as Daoist Priest Scarlet Heaven did, it would be really cool!

‘Forget it, let’s just cultivate for now. In the next few days, I even have to attend classes seriously,’ Song Shuhang started to do basic exercises.

Then, after putting the treasured saber Broken Tyrant to one side, he started to practice the ❮Basic Buddhist Fist Technique❯ and used the ❮True Self Meditation Scripture❯ to redirect the flow of qi and blood toward his third aperture, the Nose Aperture.

Opening the Nose Aperture was more difficult than opening the Eye Aperture. Without any external aid, it would take at least two years.

[1] TL/N: Golden-Red Gourd is a treasure from Journey To the West.