Chapter 116 - 60: Frost Heaven Mark

Chapter 116: Chapter 60: Frost Heaven Mark

"Thank you, Senior."

Upon understanding the benefits of drinking the Four Bitter Nether Soul Soup, Jiang Xuan felt a surge of excitement and anticipation. He cupped his fists and bowed sincerely to Yan Shouzhuo.

"Hahaha..." Jiang Xuan’s sincere gratitude made Yan Shouzhuo laugh heartily. He then waved his hand and said, "There’s no need to thank me. Now that you’ve entered the Four Seasons Valley, you are my disciple. After the hundred-day assessment, if you wish to cultivate the Summer Chapter of the Four Seasons Reincarnation Technique, I will be the one to teach you."

"Since you’re my disciple, it’s only right to give you some advantages."

"If you really want to repay me, little one, then get a good result in the hundred-day assessment. I’d like to have something to show off to my colleagues for a change."

Hearing this, Jiang Xuan’s expression grew solemn. "I will do my absolute best," he said with great seriousness.

After their pleasant conversation, Yan Shouzhuo led Jiang Xuan to the table. He picked up a special Jade Spoon and ladled out four bowls of the pitch-black, lustrous medicinal soup for him.

Seeing this, Jiang Xuan didn’t immediately reach for a bowl. Instead, he asked sheepishly, "Master, can I only drink four bowls? I have a big appetite, I can eat a lot more."

TAP! The words had barely left his mouth when Yan Shouzhuo flicked him lightly on the forehead, both exasperated and amused. "You greedy little rascal. This Four Bitter Nether Soul Soup is no ordinary food. You absolutely must not have too much."

"It is, after all, brewed from items of extreme yin and cold. It will also deliver a massive shock to your Heart Spirit."

"Your Cultivation is still low, so four bowls is your absolute limit. Drinking any more could cause serious problems."

Despite his warning, he saw the confidence and stubbornness still shining in Jiang Xuan’s eyes. He didn’t refuse him outright, but simply ladled another four bowls of the soup and placed them on a nearby side table. "Drink these four first. I’ll stay here and watch your condition. If you’re not in any trouble after these, the remaining four are yours."

Hearing this, Jiang Xuan thanked him again.

He still did not begin right away. Instead, he first purified his clothes, performed the Purification, cleansed his hands, and enacted the Purification of the Mouth. He then secretly formed a hand seal and chanted the Three Purification Spell, invoking his True Communication Trait to empower himself.

He then launched into a series of strange movements resembling a shamanistic trance dance, performing an ancient shamanic ritual known as the Feast.

When all the rituals were complete, Jiang Xuan’s expression was solemn. A strange, primitive aura swirled around him as he slowly sat down at the long table, reached out, and took hold of a bowl of the Four Bitter Nether Soul Soup.

Yan Shouzhuo raised an eyebrow at this display, but he didn’t say anything.

He could tell, of course, that Jiang Xuan was performing some sort of ritual.

It was just that the Shenxiao Sect had countless rituals. The Scripture Pavilion in the Four Seasons Valley alone housed a great many, and of those meant to speed up digestion, he personally knew of at least a hundred.

And Jiang Xuan’s ritual movements just now... were actually quite ordinary.

They were the most basic Purification ritual and a celebratory dance from the desolate ancient era, the kind people performed before a communal meal. Recognizing this, Yan Shouzhuo didn’t think Jiang Xuan could gain much of a boost from it.

...

Jiang Xuan was oblivious to Yan Shouzhuo’s thoughts. After completing his ritual, his eyes saw only the food before him and nothing else.

He lifted a bowl and drained it in a single gulp.

GULP...

As the first bowl of soup entered his stomach, Jiang Xuan didn’t feel the biting cold he expected. Instead, a scorching wave of heat surged down his throat and straight into his Dantian.

This wave of warmth used a strange power to ignite his body’s Life Force, letting him truly experience the ultimate, vibrant peak of "birth."

However, the heat was so intense that his consciousness quickly began to blur.

With no time to savor the feeling, a famished Jiang Xuan picked up the second bowl and drained it as well.

GULP...

The sensation was different this time. Extreme Yang gives way to decay. The Life Force that had been ignited within him suddenly withered, and a sense of empty nothingness swept through Jiang Xuan’s entire body. His Soul Spirit grew numb and stiff—this was "decline," and also the "age" brought by the passage of time.

Then, the third and fourth bowls followed in quick succession.

After finishing the four bowls of soup, Jiang Xuan felt as if he had personally undergone a complete ceremony of birth, aging, sickness, and death. His aura completely subsided, his head slowly drooped, and his entire body fell still.

Outwardly, Jiang Xuan’s Flesh Body was in a state of suspended animation, but his Soul Spirit was fluctuating violently. It was being pulled by an invisible force, plunging into a bewildering, illusory realm.

WHOOSH...

Just as Yan Shouzhuo had said, this force swept Jiang Xuan into an unbidden Illusory Dream.

In the dream, unaware of who he was, he had transformed into a snow-white fox.

That’s right. He had not transformed into a human, but a beast.

There was a reason for this—to maximize the medicinal effects of the Four Bitter Nether Soul Soup, Soul Dust had to be added to it.

But if human Soul Dust were used, it would be literal cannibalism—something the Shenxiao Sect, as a Renowned and Righteous Sect, would absolutely never permit.

Therefore, the ancestors of the Four Seasons Valley could only choose to use the soul-will of beasts.

Fortunately, after a period of experimentation, the valley’s ancestors discovered that the Soul Dust of beasts was, in fact, even more beneficial to Cultivators seeking Enlightenment.

...

In the dream, Jiang Xuan had no sense of self, surviving and procreating on beastly instinct alone. He experienced the fox’s life firsthand, witnessing its swiftness as it hunted and feeling its desperate panic as it fled from predators.

And yet, for the fox in the Illusory Dream, despite facing one danger after another, its greatest fear was not its natural predators, but—the arrival of the harsh winter!

When the winds of winter arrived, all living things fell into a deathly stillness. The world between Heaven and Earth became a vast, bleak expanse. At such a time, survival for the fox became difficult beyond measure.