This technique can revive the dead and turn bones into flesh.
Chu Ming was still reminiscing, "By the way, General Ren, why didn't you come back with Brother Shi An this time? Every time you returned to the capital in the past, the first thing you did was to look for him."
Ren Xuan's heart skipped a beat, as if even he himself was deeply involved.
Damn it, Ren Xuan! How dare you get involved in this kind of thing!
He forced a smile and pretended to be calm: "Shi'an is in the town ahead. It's too late, so I just... came out for a walk by myself."
Actually, he was doing this trip secretly.
It was because Fang Cun was too dangerous and had a very bad reputation among him that he sneaked out of the inn alone at night and came here to investigate the situation.
Chu Ming nodded and continued to explain to Yuan Feng: "Big brother's death was a huge shock to Xiao Feng... He can't remember many unimportant things. Please don't blame me, General."
——Okay, I’m not important.
Ren Xuan forced a smile: "It's okay, it's okay. I'm the same, I've forgotten a lot of things recently."
Including how I got involved in this kind of thing...
On the side, Chu Ming poked Yuan Feng lightly with his elbow without making any expression.
Yuan Feng was stunned for a moment, then spoke politely, "...I'm sorry for offending you just now."
Ren Xuan got goosebumps all over his body again. This little brat was so well-mannered that he wasn't used to it.
But Yuan Feng changed the subject, still not intending to let go of the old matter: "Do you really have a solution for the heart problem?"
The corners of Ren Xuan's mouth twitched slightly, and only one sentence swirled in his mind: I really have no choice...
The atmosphere was about to become awkward when a slow voice broke the deadlock.
Fang Cun walked over leisurely, dissatisfaction written on his face, and said in a lazy tone: "You found me, and you found someone else? You are so blatant to eat more than one family? Youngest, you are not being kind."
Yuan Feng rolled his eyes at him and retorted coldly, "You're almost dead, can't you just let my brother go?"
Fang Cun, however, wasn't annoyed. He spread his hands and even spoke with a reasonable tone, "Youngest, you have to speak with conscience. Back then, you lost control, and the two of you were being hunted. Chu Ming was blasted in the chest to protect you, leaving a bloody hole. I saved him, right? Who pulled him back from the brink of death? Who replaced his iron heart all these years?"
Yuan Feng snorted coldly: "You just want to control him."
Fang Cun didn't hide his feelings, and smiled lightly: "My saving him and my controlling him are not in conflict."
He spread out his hands and said lazily, "What a pity, it didn't work out."
After he finished speaking, he actually sighed softly, his expression hard to tell whether it was relief or self-mockery: "Now, I'm not interested in him anymore, you don't have to worry anymore."
Yuan Feng, however, refused to listen and said indifferently, "You said you won't control it, so why should we believe you?"
Fang Cun sighed, his expression a bit helpless, as if he was trying to teach a child some truth. "Let's judge by deeds, not by heart. It's been so many years. If it weren't for me, he would have died long ago."
After saying that, he changed his tone and got straight to the point: "Don't rush to exchange for what I made. The Life Sword can't control him, I can't control him, and it's even less likely for others."
He spoke calmly, yet with a certain arrogance that brooked no argument: "Among all the Yanshi in the world, no one can do better than me. This mechanical heart of his can easily last another twenty years."
Yuan Feng remained unyielding, refusing to give in. "What about twenty years from now? Who knows if you'll still be alive?"
Given Fang Cun's trouble-making personality, Yuan Feng didn't believe that he could live another twenty years.
This was a bit unreasonable. Chu Ming spoke up to smooth things over and reached out to hold Yuan Feng: "It's still far, there's no rush."
But Yuan Feng couldn't stand hearing this. He suddenly broke free from his hand and said in an even more urgent and stern tone, "You promised Brother that you would take good care of me! Are you planning to go back on your word? Are you trying to get to see Brother before me?!"
Chu Ming choked him.
Fang Cun leaned against the door frame and sighed softly, his words revealing that he was just watching the fun and not minding the trouble: "I asked you to call me brother, but you're not happy about it. Look, who would be willing to take care of you? It's really dangerous to be your brother."
Seeing Yuan Feng's hand on the hilt of the knife, Fang Cun immediately raised his hands and said, "Hey, don't be impatient. I was just joking."
He paused, then changed the subject: "How about this, youngest brother? I'll leave a mechanical heart for you. Please help me do something."
Yuan Feng was dissatisfied: "How many times have I saved you? You still want to negotiate with me?"
Fang Cun smiled and said, "Okay, youngest brother, no matter what, I'll leave my heart to you. Consider it a favor to you. If you don't want to, then forget it."
When Fang Cun said the same thing, Yuan Feng's brows relaxed a lot: "Tell me, what's the matter?"
Fang Cun didn't beat around the bush and shrugged straight to the point, saying calmly, "A month ago, on the third day after you left, Junior Master-Uncle poisoned my medicine and stabbed me."
Yuan Feng was stunned and raised his eyebrows in surprise: "Is he really going to kill you?"
Fang Cun smiled slightly, but there was no smile in his eyes: "It seems so."
Yuan Feng: "Why?"
Fang Cun said succinctly: "There's something wrong with him."
He looked at Yuan Feng: "Now, they don't recognize me as the leader, but recognize you as the priest. You have to find out what's going on."
Yuan Feng couldn't help laughing after hearing this: "Junior Master stabbed you personally, what else do you want to investigate?"
He stared at Fang Cun, his tone slightly cold: "Fang Cun, you are crazy, but you have done your best for him. You can even kill him, and you still ask? You are so emotional, isn't it wrong for you?"
Yuan Feng's tone suddenly darkened: "Why can't it be that—he was planning to kill you?"
Fang Cun was certainly not acting on emotion.
He only analyzed the benefits: "Of course not. He has my wedge in his hand."
He analyzed the situation slowly, like a neutral observer. "I'm useful to him, so why would he want to kill me? I can get what he wants. I don't believe that idiot tonight could do it. If he could actually figure this out, I'd find it interesting."
Yuan Feng was speechless for a moment. He probably knew that what Fang Cun had signed in order to survive during the fate selection was practically a life-sale contract.
Junior Master wants to kill Fang Cun, who is obedient and useful, and replace him with a useless guy who is afraid of death and is inferior to Fang Cun in everything.
This move is indeed unreasonable.
As they were talking, a sudden voice interrupted their conversation: "What's the big deal? He wanted to kill me back then."
Fang Cun paused slightly and looked up: "What do you mean, Second Master?"
Fang Xingfei walked in from outside, dusty and dusty, clearly still on the go. He tossed a porcelain bottle over and said calmly, "Antidote, save him."
Fang Cun raised his hand to take it and helped Bai Xiao swallow it. After a while, sweat appeared on the man's forehead and the poison gradually subsided.
Fang Cun placed the man back on the couch and said calmly, "Rest for a night, and you'll be fine tomorrow."
Fang Xingfei stood at the doorway, the moonlight like water, reflecting the coldness of his face. He spoke in a calm tone, "Fang Cun, I remember kindness as well as grudges. I'm going to take your head to my third son's grave."
He paused, and said slowly: "You saved my fourth brother. There were so many people who wanted to kill you just now, or the little uncles you call them. Just name them and I will kill them for you."
His voice was extremely cold: "Do you want to do this business?"
Fang Cun shook his head. He met those eyes under the moonlight and said, "There's no need for such fuss. Please explain what you just said. Let's finish this matter. If you want revenge, I'll accompany you."
Fang Xingfei leaned against the door and spoke slowly, "The Sima's selection is held every five years, and it's decided by the Yanshi Commander. Neither moral integrity nor cultivation of the weapon is considered; only the one who can survive to the end among his peers will be chosen."
He laughed casually, his words tinged with sarcasm. "On the surface, it's a fair process of survival of the fittest, but in reality, it's just high-ranking Yanshi hiding behind the scenes, cultivating puppets. They provide their favored pawns with mechanisms, intelligence, secret techniques, and even the opponent's weaknesses. With someone behind you, you thrive. Without someone behind you, you're trapped and fighting alone. So-called fairness is nothing but a joke. Are you the latter?"
Fang Xingfei turned to look at Fang Cun, his eyes filled with a hint of amusement. "I guess he was the one who saved you? He saved you several times back then. Would you sell your life to him?"
Fang Cun didn't answer. He even understood the other party's implication: "The winner of the last Sima Ming selection abandoned the position of leader and disappeared. That's why we're starting this time early."
His eyes turned colder: "Junior Master once mentioned that person, his surname was also Fang."
Fang Cun raised his eyes and looked at Fang Xingfei: "That person, is it you?"
Fang Cun: "You refused to sign the agreement and left alone, so Junior Master wanted to kill you?"
Fang Xingfei actually laughed when he heard this. He shrugged slightly, "That's unfair to him. He never forced me to do something like this. After all, I can still win without him."
He said lazily, "But to be honest, it was quite fun to work with him. It's just that at that time, I went in under an assumed name. At that time, the third brother brought people to find me, and if I didn't run away, I would be in trouble."
From the beginning to the end, Fang Xingfei was just playing around. As for the position of commander, he was not even close to being one. After all, he had a senior brother at home, two junior brothers waiting for him, and the family business in the city to inherit.
Fang Xingfei returned to the main point: "But he has the Yinshu City technique. I just asked casually."
He paused, his eyes cold: "He's going to kill me."
As soon as these words came out, Fang Cun suddenly raised his eyes, his eyes suddenly turned cold as frost, and he spat out two words: "Return to life."
Fang Cun said in a cold tone, "Before that day, I asked him as well."
Ren Xuan's expression changed, and he immediately noticed something was wrong. He asked in a deep voice, "What did you ask him?"
Fang Cun did not hesitate. He just raised his hand and a golden inscription appeared out of thin air before everyone's eyes.
The runes were twisted and strange, like ghostly scribbles. Ren Xuan frowned, unable to understand them at all.
Fang Cun spoke quietly, "Spells, in essence, are created by drawing on the energy of heaven and earth. Spells have a source, whether it's drawing on air, fire, or wind, they all have a source to trace."
He raised his eyes and said, "But this 'Rebirth Technique' is very strange. There is not a single 'Source Symbol' in this technique that I recognize."
Ren Xuan raised his eyebrows slightly: "You... can understand these spells?"
Others found the inscriptions, which looked like scribbles, confusing and difficult to discern, but he was able to make out the structure.
Fang Cun spoke calmly, as if this was nothing more than an ordinary matter: "Spells are essentially words, but the method of interpreting them has long been lost. Among the thousands of scrolls on spells, there are always some clues. The techniques may be different, but the principles are the same. If you can find the similarities and differences, you can naturally infer the meaning."
Fang Cun continued, and with a wave of his hand, the golden inscription in the void suddenly fluctuated.
He circled three of the ancient characters, his expression darkening slightly. "The 'Source Symbol' of the Life Tracing Technique is extremely strange. It's not like the natural energy of heaven and earth, such as borrowing wind or borrowing fire."
He whispered, "It's a name."
Fang Cun frowned and uttered a startling remark: "Such a powerful spell is more like a contract. The caster enters into an alliance with this name in exchange for the spell's power."
Fang Xingfei frowned and spoke coldly, "The limit of what a person can exchange is only a life note. The art of resurrection, of resurrecting the dead and remolding flesh and blood, is actually maintained solely by human power without the energy of heaven and earth? It's unbelievable."
Fang Cun nodded upon hearing this. He and Fang Xingfei were quite compatible in this regard. "Very interesting, isn't it? So I went to discuss this with Junior Master, but he turned around and tried to kill me."
Fang Xingfei had already grasped something, and slowly said, "If this technique is a contract, then it must come with a price. Can you explain the price of retracing one's life?"
Fang Cun smiled and said something shocking: "There is no such thing as 'tracing back to the past'. This technique is just a lie."
Ren Xuan's eyes glared: "What do you mean by that?"
Fang Cun's eyes were cold, and he lightly traced the air with his fingertips, sending the inscription gleaming with a faint golden light. "In this contract, both the caster and the person saved by the spell are deemed to have signed a contract with the Source Symbol, implicitly granting the Source Symbol the right to inhabit their body at any time."
His tone was clear, each word as if cast: "Once the spell takes effect, the body of the caster and the person under the spell can be taken away, and the soul can be replaced, all at the will of the source symbol."
At this point, Fang Cun raised his eyebrows and sneered, "This is a blatant body possession technique. Whether or not it can be done depends entirely on the will of the Source Symbol. Such an unreasonable contract has been revered as a treasure, passed down from generation to generation, and misused for a hundred years. It's ridiculous."
Fang Cun spoke in a low, yet heart-wrenching voice, "This technique can revive the dead, turning flesh and bones into life. But who will survive is still unknown."
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