Chapter 394: Doomed Fate across Four Lives

　　Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

　　As compared to the immortal mountains and blessed earth previously, the image now was apparently the mortal world. All who walked past in the surroundings were mortals with no Spirit Qi. This seemed to be the house of a not prominent, but well-to-do family.

　　A half-grown child ran past him laughing. Though his looks were strange, the people had somehow recognized at first sight that this person in front of them was that man in green, who was almost blown into plane storm and dragged by the world-saving cultivator to do soul salvation.

　　So this… was his afterlife after his soul was repaired by Samsara? They were slightly stunned and became even more confused. They couldn’t understand the meaning of this illusion and had to look on. Yet what happened next inside the illusion filled them with mixed emotions.

　　That man in green was named Wen Tianyou in this life, and he was the son of a merchant. His biggest wish in his whole life was to make enough money and marry the most beautiful girl in the city. Since ten, he saved every bit of money in a jar and buried it carefully like it was a treasure. And he was indeed talented in money-making. Before he turned twenty, he already owned a whole street of shops in the city, and became the richest man in the city. Everything was perfect. Yet on the day that he was about to marry his beloved girl, all of this suddenly stopped.

　　Someone came from the city. Immortals who came from the sky besides. They said that Wen Tianyou was a person with great prospects, and that he was meant to achieve the great success of Heavenly Ascension one day. Tianyou didn’t want to go, neither did he want to do immortal cultivation. Yet his parents said that this was his fate. His friends said that he was in great luck. Even the girl that he liked said that he was an extraordinary person indeed. Everyone thought that he should go on the immortal way.

　　And Tianyou had to go. The top genius of immortal sect, Supremacy Wen Ding, wanted to take him in as a disciple. He even promised that he would be his only disciple, and that he would teach him all he knew. All cultivators envied his good luck, yet he himself was not in the least willing. For some unknown reason, he didn’t like that person. He even wanted to go away every time he saw him, with a premonition that something bad was about to happen.

　　He didn’t imagine that such a premonition became reality a few months later.

　　A huge black hole suddenly appeared in the sky, and only the array of Supremacy Wen Ding could fill that gap, otherwise the whole world would be destroyed. Yet this array required soul sacrifice. Unfortunately, his soul on its own was not sufficient to activate the array, and another soul similar to his was needed.

　　And Wen Tianyou was that person!

　　He suddenly understood why everyone forced him to cultivate despite him having a Maimed Spirit Root.

　　Yet he didn’t want to die. He was afraid. He wanted to run. He didn’t want his soul to be destroyed.

　　Yet he had no chance. The escape plan was discovered.

　　Within one night, all those fellow cultivators of the sect who used to be amiable and caring to him changed their faces and started calling him selfish, insensitive, and ungrateful.

　　The sect master said, “We immortal cultivators are meant to protect justice in this world to begin with. How can you abandon the living beings of the whole world for your single self?

　　His fellow cultivators said, “We thought that although inferior in quality, since Supremacy favored you, you must have strong character. I didn’t imagine that… I have seen you wrong.

　　Cultivators of other sects said, “You are one of the living beings of this world as well. How can you bear watching living beings die? Once you leave, you destroy the whole world.”

　　His parents said, “My son, the immortal elders are right! How can you be so selfish? Since you are already an immortal cultivator, you should just be like Supremacy Wen Ding and put life and death aside.”

　　The girl he liked said, “How can you be like this? You are not the Big Brother Tianyou I knew anymore!”

　　…

　　Everyone told him that he shouldn’t escape. Everyone told him that he should be sacrificed for the array. Everyone told him that… he must die!

　　But… he didn’t want to!

　　He was named Tianyou, yet heaven didn’t seem to protect him any more! [“Tianyou” means “protected by heaven” in Chinese]

　　Finally he was still pushed onto the altar. He saw his best friend in the past push the spiritual sword into his chest, saw his own blood drain bit by bit, gathering together into an array. He saw his own soul slowly dissipate. Yet he was completely unable to resist.

　　Until the moment when he was about to disappear. Into his ears came the familiar voice of Supremacy Wen Ding, whose soul was about to dissipate just like him. “I’m sorry!”

　　From his remnant soul which was already changed into light spots, grievous energy suddenly emerged. Yet both of them went right into the River of Forgetfulness.

　　And then it was the third life…

　　Due to his being reborn with grievous energy in his remnant soul, Wen Tianyou surprisingly had the memory of his past life. His great hatred made him fall into the demonic way since young. He vowed to kill all the cultivators in the world to avenge himself.

　　He practiced the most dangerous forbidden techniques and the most vicious mental cultivations. He went through all the suffering in the world and finally became a Skyfiend. He gathered tens of thousands of demons to attack the immortal sect. Yet in the last minute his efforts failed, because he met a person who brought blessings with him since birth, and had a golden light of merit all around him. While the man’s cultivation was inferior to his own, he still died under his immense karma, his soul sacrificed once more.

　　What was ridiculous, was that he only recognized the man in his last moment. He recognized where the merit on him came from, and it was actually… the merit of world-saving!

　　Both being souls being sacrificed alive, himself was cast aside by the whole world and damned by the cultivators, while he got a good name passed down for generations, genuine gratitude by everyone, and the merit of world-saving!

　　So he was not only fighting those decent cultivators and his fate but also heaven!

　　Eventually, he fell into complete despair, only hoping that the heaven would let him go so that he could have a life of safety and security.

　　And then… his fourth life came.

　　This time, there was no great trouble at first. He had no memory of his past life, and there was no more black hole in the world. He was only an ordinary scholarly student, who for the benefit of preparing for exams, purposely moved to a quiet small house in the woods miles away from the county city.

　　One day, about a dozen Mystic cultivators in yellow robes ran hurriedly along a lane outside the woods. Behind them was a very strong wave of Yin Qi, as though something was chasing behind them. The group hurriedly took out a voice transmission talisman to seek help.

　　After a while, from the talisman paper came a male voice soft as water. “In front of you is the county. You can’t let the deviant ghosts inside the city to harm the civilians. Use the sealing talisman to seal them temporarily into the woods back there.”

　　“Yes, Heaven Master!”

　　As such, all the deviant ghosts filled the woods, and devoured the only living person inside there alive. Not even his bones were left.

　　The scholarly student became a ghost, and his soul was about to be divided into tens of thousands of pieces. An immense wave of grievous energy that even himself couldn’t understand erupted, and it was non-stop. After being devoured by the grievous energy, only one thought left in his heart.

　　He wanted an answer, wanted a justice, and wanted to ask why.

　　But…. even himself forgot why he had to ask that, and who he should ask.

　　So he rushed out of the surrounding remnant souls, out of the orders of heaven and earth, and then…

　　Appeared in front of the Manager!

　　Shen Ying, “…”

　　.Lonemoon, “…”

　　Yi Qing: “…”

　　They finally understood why these illusions appeared.

　　The three remained silent for a while, and then turned back together, to look at Yun Heng, who swayed as though he just suffered a major blow.

　　Coincidentally, that scholarly student was called Song Ren, and the Heaven Master in that voice transmission talisman had the surname of Yun.

　　“…”