Divine Emperor of Death

Chapter 4495: Regression To Reincarnation

In the depths of the seclusion chamber veiled by countless layers of formations made up of life and illusion, Mingzhi stepped inside, her black eyes instantly drawn to the three figures at the center.

Everlight knelt on one side, her nine silken tails swaying in slow arcs, like soft brushes stroking the threads of time. As an Empyrean Beast, she retained her beast features as a human. Still, her expression was gentle, but also solemn. Her eyes were closed, hands glowing with a silvery-golden light of regression.

On the other side stood Myria, the Saintess herself, draped in white robes. The tips of her fingers flickered between pale silver and midnight black, a sign of the duality surging through her veins. The power of life and death transformed into reincarnation energy, surging between her palms.

Davis sat at the center, cross-legged and bare-chested, his long blonde hair cascading over his back like a frozen waterfall that was without movement. His expression was calm, almost like a soul that had already made peace with the world and was preparing to abandon it.

Mingzhi walked forward slowly, drawn by a force deeper than curiosity. Her heart pounded gently as she took her place near Everlight, just far enough not to disturb the formations.

”Begin,” Davis said softly.

”Jadesoul Minor Rebirth~”

Everlight’s palms pressed together, and the space around Davis warped, becoming enveloped by a silvery-golden glow.

Mingzhi blinked.

In that instant, she saw Davis had begun to shrink.

His muscles and form regressed at a visible rate, time folding backward like a flower closing at dusk. From a man, he became a youth in a minute. From a youth, a child in a few minutes. And then-

’What the...’ Mingzhi’s gaze shook.

A baby.

From an adult, he had turned into a baby in ten minutes.

But it didn’t stop there.

His skin paled, thinned, and vanished. His bones dissolved into light. His blood evaporated like golden mist. Even his soul began to unravel, shrinking into something so impossibly small that it defied logic, a mere spark of chaotic soul energy, flickering with an ungodly amount of power.

Mingzhi’s eyes were wide with shock. She could sense Davis, but she felt like he also wasn’t alive. It was extremely strange.

He was just a wisp.

Just a tiny wisp of chaos and reincarnation soul, trembling in the air like it could be snuffed out anytime. However, she didn’t feel like he had willingly committed suicide or something. It was more as though he had mastered the ultimate form of hibernation, a state of stasis where an existence couldn’t be considered alive or dead.

Still, Mingzhi’s breath hitched. Her hand slowly rose to her bosoms as she watched, her eyes turning moist.

”He’s... casting away everything...” she whispered, unable to tear her gaze away.

*Bzzz!~*

Abruptly, Davis materialized.

The air shimmered as his ghost form took shape beside the wisp. It looked like him, faintly glowing in an otherworldly light, tethered to the wisp but untethered from the cycle. It hovered there, silent and watchful, as though guarding the last piece of his Will.

It was unknown if it was even Davis or just a manifestation of his Will, making Mingzhi hold her breath. She wondered what kind of torture he went through to achieve this reincarnation. It was the most bizarre reincarnation method she had ever seen.

Then Myria raised her arms. With a flick of her wrist, Myria took out a jade stone. His soul and hers, swirling together, created a terrifying unity that rocked time and space.

A hum echoed through the chamber. The air felt heavy with consequence.

The Reincarnation Wheel appeared behind her.

Its presence made Mingzhi’s knees weak. Even as a Twilight Law user, she could tell it was a perfect circle of yin and yang, black and white in motion with an iridescent tone, spinning with an incredible amount of pressure, filled with reverence and stillness. It didn’t seem to radiate any divine power. However, Mingzhi could tell that it was different from the previous reincarnation wheels Davis and Myria would summon.

This one seemed to be literally a-

’Is that mimicking a reincarnation cycle...? How? Have they actually seen it before...!?’

Mingzhi’s gaze shook as she saw the circle of the wheel was filled with an otherworldly light, pulsing with a strange aura.

As the wheel spun, the chaotic wisp drifted forward. Before Mingzhi could get her answers, it passed into the wheel and began to change.

From the wisp, memories leaked like smoke, Davis’s battles, his pride- them, his sins, his compassion, his grief, and his rage. All of it poured into the wheel and was stripped clean. There was no resistance or clinging. He seemed to just let it go.

Mingzhi’s tears fell, ”No... he...”

Myria placed a finger on her lips and pointed at him, indicating for Mingzhi to continue watching.

The soul eventually emerged from the tiny reincarnation wheel, appearing blank, unburdened, free yet insanely powerful.

Mingzhi pressed her lips together, her heart tight with emotion.

When the reincarnation wheel dispersed, Davis’s ghost form was then abruptly sucked in by the newborn soul through their inevitable Karma, injecting everything back. No, it was better said that his Ghost Will was forcibly injected back into his newborn soul. His karma, his memories, and everything else seemed to reunite, causing an otherworldly phenomenon to occur as the entire temple began to shake.

A pulse shook the chamber.

The chaotic energy returned and surged into the new soul like a tide returning to the shore. At the same time, reincarnation energy swirled. The same phenomenon occurred when Autarch Elluro Coldwing killed Davis, but he was immediately able to reform his body back to peak.

As she was told, Mingzhi saw his body form again, flesh over bone, skin like porcelain, tiny fingers curled in sleep.

He was reborn as a baby so quickly. Moreover, he was already at the Adult Soul Stage, which was the Fourth Stage in the Mortal Step. It was crazy.

Myria stepped forward, lifting her hands again.

Light gathered above her, weaving into a strange shape, a glowing sphere of verdant and silver threads, humming with life and reincarnation energy. The baby floated into it, embraced by warmth, suspended like a star within its constellation.

”This will keep him from desensitizing and calm his soul, unaffected by the Ghost Will while he is still weak. However, that isn’t the main function of the Unfettered Nurturing Womb technique I created. It will aid his grow within,” Myria said quietly, ”In three days, he’ll be able to walk. In two months, he’ll be a child, so on and so forth, like you saw him grow from a teenager to an adult. His cultivation will also follow, or rather, his cultivation stemming from his reincarnation energy is what makes him grow. It is a slow process.”

Mingzhi stepped forward, eyes still wide. She absentmindedly nodded, knowing that Myria’s strange womb technique hastened the process of Davis’s rebirth by allowing the latent reincarnation energy to remember his soul and flesh while the chaotic energy powered his rebirth unlike the time where only his reincarnation energy was alone able to bring him back from the dead in all his glory.

After all, he didn’t go through something like a reincarnation cycle back then.

”To think he was truly cheating the reincarnation cycle... From regressing to the utmost limit and then carrying his Will through the Ghost Law while he is barely like a soul that had just left the reincarnation cycle...”

Mingzhi turned to look at Myria, ”How does he do that?”

Myria’s gaze was soft as she looked at the baby, ”He found the uniqueness of the yang soul. You must understand that we are like two sides of the same coin. But unlike my yin soul that propagates endlessly into countless reincarnations, his yang soul, when reaching the apex by dying and producing yin, changes into a ghost. He took advantage of that, allowing him to reincarnate with all his memories and karma. It would be nearly the same even if he died without our help but with more complications. His Ghost Will is nearly eternal.”

”Hiss...” Mingzhi sucked in a cold breath, ”The guts he has to even try this... I really want to strangle him now.”

”He’s just a baby~”

Myria looked unusually happy, making Mingzhi blink.

”Have you ever breastfed him?”

”...”

”...”

The two of them stared at each other, the chamber echoing with a pin-drop silence.