Possession
Although Master Xu was a grandmaster of the Talisman Cultivation Sect, he had a little-known past.
He can be considered one of the earliest founding members of Yunmeng Xianze.
At that time, they were full of vigor and couldn't stand the way the original sect acted in the remote and impoverished area. They gathered a group of fellow cultivators who wanted to climb the social ladder and fled. With the help of Chen Shi, one of their more powerful colleagues, they bought this mountain.
From then on, the sect they established was officially established and named Yunmeng Immortal Marsh.
The meaning is nothing more than transcending the world and attaining immortality.
However, this period of good fortune was short-lived, as Master Xu encountered a setback in his cultivation. Not only him, but everyone else did as well.
Their cultivation level remained stuck at the Golden Core stage, unable to break through.
If it were only Master Xu, one could comfort oneself with the excuse that it was fate. But strangely, almost everyone who escaped back then has fallen into a bottleneck.
No matter how many extraordinary elixirs one buys or how many ancient books one reads, it is impossible to fill the void in one's body that prevents advancement.
Old ailments have become chronic, and as Xianze recruits more and more disciples with unlimited potential, Master Xu and his colleagues are tormented by this unbearable situation to the point of being unrecognizable.
In order to preserve the last vestiges of their sect's reputation, they had no choice but to keep the matter a secret.
In order to prevent the disciples from verifying their master's actual cultivation level, the group spent a huge amount of spirit stones to create a spirit-detecting stone. Anyone who injects spiritual power into the spirit-detecting stone will generate a ranking list. However, in reality, it is these elders who manipulate the rankings behind the scenes—placing themselves at the top of the list.
From that time on, the Yunmeng Immortal Marsh was governed by an unspoken rule of survival: the strong are respected and the losers are condemned.
Meanwhile, Master Xu and his companions traveled extensively throughout the land, searching for the cause and a solution.
One day, Master Xu, who was on the verge of going mad over this matter, finally recklessly returned to his original impoverished sect without telling his master. He beat his former mentor so badly that the man vomited blood. The man's face was covered in blood and sticky fluid, and as he spoke, the blood that kept gushing out kept splattering onto his face.
That strange smile revealed the truth to Master Xu.
Enraged, Master Xu went berserk. His inner demons surged from his mental prison, and his crazed, bloodshot eyes slaughtered all the survivors of the sect, sparing not even the domesticated animals.
Overnight, this ancient and impoverished sect was destroyed.
However, poverty is merely a cover for the corruption and darkness within.
The old man, his mouth stained with blood, revealed the reason with a maniacal laugh before he died: They weren't a legitimate cultivation sect; for a long time, they had been stealing the talents of promising cultivators and selling them as bargaining chips to those who diligently cultivated. This was their so-called "true fuel," used to help them advance their cultivation to higher levels.
This is what the public perceives as heretical cultivation.
So that's how it is.
Xu Shi's face was covered in bloodstains he couldn't tell whose—human blood? Dog blood? Children's blood? He couldn't count them, and he didn't recognize them.
He paid no heed to how the blood seeped into the ground and stained the soil red. He coldly and swiftly looted all the sect's secret manuals and property, erased all traces of his presence, and left without looking back.
He was the only one among his colleagues who knew the truth and was exposed to it.
He stubbornly clung to those ancient books, and upon returning to his sect, he feigned injury from a travel trip and went into seclusion.
There must be a way, there must be a way!
His talent was stolen from him by his so-called mentor from a young age, gradually taken from his dreams. Compared to mediocre cultivators, this method is always effective. Perhaps those cultivators will never know that their talent has been stolen, nor will they know that their cultivation career is about to come to an end.
If not all the escaped cultivators were unable to advance, Master Xu probably would not have discovered it either.
There must be a way!
Finally, Master Xu found the operating method in a stack of tattered ancient books.
Unfortunately, cultivators whose talents have been stolen have no way to repair their physical defects through acquired means. They can only seek out cultivators with more talent and potential to directly possess their bodies. If the possession is successful, then they can deceive the Heavenly Dao.
Master Xu nervously destroyed the books one by one with real fire, pondering the feasibility of this method.
With something on his mind, Xu's colleagues noticed a change in him. The first to raise questions was Chen. Xu was extremely agitated because his secret was about to be discovered by Chen. So, he planned to test the waters with Chen first.
The plan was much more successful than expected. Master Chen was quickly taken down after being tricked, but a small accident still occurred during the process. Master Xu was unable to use Master Chen's body, and Master Chen's soul had already been scattered by Master Xu.
Looking at Master Chen's body, which was showing signs of lividity, Master Xu calmly drew a talisman at his desk and created a talisman soul that was almost identical to the original. This time, Master Xu succeeded.
He watched indifferently as the dark blue lividity on Chen Shi's body slowly faded as if time were rewinding, and his stiff skin regained its elasticity.
Chen Shi, who had been lying motionless on the floor, suddenly opened his eyes. His eyeballs were still bluish-gray, but they bulged out abnormally.
He staggered but resolutely got to his feet, bowed slightly to Master Xu, like a subordinate bowing in submission.
Master Xu said coldly, "Go, everything as usual."
Chen Shi numbly replied, "Yes."
After answering, Teacher Chen turned and left. At first, his steps were a little stiff, but as he left, his departing figure looked more and more like the real deal.
Master Xu withdrew his gaze, leaving behind a sinister smile.
After failing once, Master Xu reviewed the factors that led to the failure, and was therefore more cautious when looking for the next target.
Master Xu cannot tolerate a second mistake.
Just then, a cold little boy appeared on the Encounter Platform of Yunmeng Immortal Marsh; that was Shi Yuzhen.
But the child had a toy sword on his back and absolutely refused to enter the Talisman Cultivation Sect.
Fortunately, Master Chen had already become his puppet, so he could follow his lead.
That child was indeed an exceptionally talented one.
He had already broken through to the Golden Core stage at just over twenty years old, a height that even the elders could not reach at such a young age...
He wanted him.
But it wasn't that easy. As Shi Yuzhen gradually began to stand out, his colleagues seemed to regard him as a treasure within the Immortal Marsh and cherished him greatly.
Master Xu had no choice but to lie low and wait for an opportunity.
The scene of successfully possessing another body played out in Master Xu's dreams almost every day, almost becoming an obsession.
When Shi Yuzhen was over twenty-five, her dream suddenly changed; it was a dirty child whose gender could be identified.
He looked to be less than ten years old, with almost no healthy flesh on his body. He was being driven out of the sect by the cultivators of Yunmeng Immortal Marsh, like a clueless young man who had wandered into this place by mistake. However, he saw himself in his dream, stopped the struggle, and left the child behind.
That night, Xu Shi unexpectedly did not dream about how to possess Shi Yuzhen, but instead dreamed of some insignificant scenes and some trivial thoughts he had.
Master Xu was deeply obsessed with his dream and had long been aware of it. When he came to his senses, he felt that the dream seemed to foreshadow something, and he was very certain that it was a prophetic dream.
For several days in a row, Master Xu would arrive at the scene in his dream each time, waiting for that scene to appear.
Finally, Master Xu waited and waited for the child who suddenly appeared in his dream, confirming his idea.
He inadvertently meddled in a matter according to his dream, leaving the child in Yunmeng Immortal Marsh and naming her Xu Ya.
But ever since he rescued the child, Master Xu has been repeatedly dreaming of Yu Zhen himself when he successfully possessed her body, and he has not dreamed of anything else. Therefore, Master Xu has forgotten about the little episode involving Xu Ya.
When Master Xu dreamed of Xu Ya again, in the dream Xu Ya was hiking to Xingyun Peak to deliver food to Shi Yuzhen.
The dream was intermittent, repeating only a few fragments, including the scene where Xu Ya was being choked by Shi Yuzhen and unable to move.
Teacher Xu sat up excitedly, having woken up directly from his sleep!
A precognitive dream... Could this be the opportunity?
Sure enough, Master Xu observed the times when he arranged for Xu Ya to go up the mountain several times, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Xu Ya's frail body, and finally he seized the opportunity.
She will die. Xu Ya is such a frail little girl. She has never even had a full meal in Xianze.
Xu Ya's confrontation with Shi Yuzhen was like an ant encountering an elephant—absurd and overestimating her own abilities.
He went up the mountain with Master Chen and the other cultivators. As long as he captured Shi Yuzhen, he knew that harming fellow cultivators was the bottom line for Xianze. He knew that his chance to possess Shi Yuzhen had come.
However, Xu Ya was not strangled to death by Shi Yuzhen as Master Xu had hoped. Xu Ya survived, yet she claimed it wasn't true. What didn't she mean? That Shi Yuzhen hadn't grabbed her by the neck, and that she had actually lied to her savior, Shi Yuzhen?
With everyone watching, the execution of Shi Yuzhen had to be called off.
He also kept Xu Ya's various unusual behaviors in mind and pondered them repeatedly.
After that day, Master Xu kept dreaming of Xu Ya. At the same time, he also dreamed of Xu Ya and Shi Yuzhen's unusual interactions.
Master Xu did not think these dreams were superfluous; they were like divine intervention, guiding him in the right direction.
Sure enough, rumors soon began to spread throughout the Immortal Marsh, a situation that Master Xu was quite pleased with.
However, his meticulously planned Heaven-Seizing Creation Technique was actually cracked by that good-for-nothing Xu Ya... So many cultivators' lives were sacrificed in vain...
But there was still a way, and Shi Yuzhen and Xu Ya's relationship became even closer.
He pretended to sponsor Xu Ya's shop opening, but in reality, he arranged for Shen Qi to put trace amounts of toxins into the food.
In this way, the toxins silently seeped into Shi Yuzhen's body, eroding his five senses... By the time he discovered it, it was too late to save him!
He bumped into An Jiaze out of the blue, and a plan began to emerge in his mind.
At the most crucial moment when Shi Yuzhen was advancing to immortality, Master Xu, as always, hid deep within An Jiaze's cave, quietly observing him during his most vulnerable period.
He stared at Shi Yuzhen for far too long, so long that he suddenly realized he was Shi Yuzhen, forgetting the other treasures within the Immortal Marsh.
An Jiaze is actually about to break through to the Golden Core stage and condense his Nascent Soul today.
want to……
Xu Shi's face twisted with coldness. This place was a perfect position, allowing for both offense and defense. Next door was the cell where Xu Ya was being held. If things didn't go smoothly there, Shen Qi would issue the order to kill Xu Ya immediately, thus trapping her like a turtle in a jar...
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