50: Nine Reincarnations

Lin Xuan sat cross-legged in this dark-golden Asura graveyard, with his Chaos Nascent Soul hovering above his head, devouring the pure, shimmering destructive energy and law fragments. The surrounding dark-golden lava rivers, the malevolent aura lingering from giant skeletal remains, and the destructive malevolence that could freeze even a True Immortal's soul—all were absorbed without exception!

The power in his Dantian was being refined, and his cultivation soared. His Tribulation Transcendence Peak realm had long been as stable as iron, and it was even pushing higher! But the energy of this world seemed endless; the Chaos Nascent Soul accepted everything, and his Dantian was like a bottomless pit.

“Exhilarating!” Lin Xuan absorbed the energy while monitoring the changes in his Dantian, feeling that his Dantian was almost unable to hold any more energy!

Just as he was wondering whether to continue, he felt the power in his body about to overflow, reaching a critical point of some limit.

Buzz!

Without warning, Lin Xuan felt his mind suddenly heavy! His vision blurred!

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself lying on a hard, dilapidated wooden bed, covered by a thin, patched quilt. A scent of poverty and cheap ink assailed his nostrils. Outside the broken window, the sky was dimly lit, and a few roosters crowed.

“Hmm? Where is this?” Lin Xuan was a bit confused. He instinctively tried to mobilize his power but found his body empty! Chaos Nascent Soul? Gone! Vast cultivation? He couldn't feel it! Even his body had become incredibly weak, powerless!

“Lin-lang? You’re awake?” A gentle, slightly timid voice sounded beside his ear. Lin Xuan turned his head and saw a young woman dressed in coarse cloth and a simple hairpin and skirt, carrying a bowl of thin, reflective porridge. The woman’s face was delicate, but her brows were etched with deep sorrow and fatigue.

“Who are you?” Lin Xuan frowned.

“Lin-lang, what’s wrong? I’m Xiaocui! Your wife!” The woman’s eyes reddened, on the verge of tears. “You went to the city for the imperial examination yesterday, got caught in the rain, and came back with a fever. You scared me to death!”

Lin Xuan: “...” Imperial examination? Wife? What was all this?!

In his first life, he was an impoverished scholar. Ten years of arduous study, only hoping to pass the imperial examination. His family was dirt poor, relying entirely on his wife Xiaocui’s mending and washing clothes to survive. He buried himself in books every day, reciting classics, dreaming of one day becoming the top scholar and giving his wife a good life. But reality was cruel; he failed repeatedly, enduring countless snubs. Watching his wife grow gaunt and sallow from saving food for him, Lin Xuan experienced for the first time the frustration and powerlessness of a useless scholar. Finally, under the blow of another failed examination, he died of depression. Before his death, looking at Xiaocui, who was crying her eyes out, he was filled with regret! Fame and fortune?! It was not as good as spending more time with his wife!

His vision went black! Then brightened again!

This time, he was dressed in luxurious silks, sitting in a magnificent mansion. Surrounded by a group of beautiful, chattering wives and concubines, the table was laden with delicacies. The butler bowed and scraped, reporting how much money they had earned and how much land they had acquired that month.

“Master, those few shops of Squire Liu in the East City have been persuaded to transfer at a low price, as you wished!”

“Master, the new Ninth Concubine said she fancies the treasure of the jewelry shop in the West City.”

“Master...”

Lin Xuan, named Lin Fugui in this life, stroked his rotund belly, enjoying the beauties massaging his legs, and listening to the butler’s flattery. He was utterly smug! Power! Wealth! Beauties! This was the pinnacle of life! What impoverished scholar? All he thought about was how to accumulate more money, occupy more beauties, and make everyone prostrate at his feet!

But good times didn’t last. His unscrupulous acquisition and extortion caused the deaths of too many people, finally provoking public outrage. A victim, whose family he had ruined, stabbed him in the belly with a sharp knife while he was drinking in a brothel! Lying in a pool of blood, watching his usually obedient wives and concubines scream and flee in panic, and his servants scrambling to pack up and run, Lin Fugui finally understood that all glory and wealth were fleeting! In the end, there wasn't even one person who truly cried for him! Only the emptiness and retribution brought by endless greed!

In his third life, he became a wandering martial artist. Highly skilled in martial arts, he lived a life of swift vengeance. Surrounded by a constant stream of female confidantes, he reveled in being admired and desired by beauties, enjoying a carefree life among many women. But what was the end result? Due to a jealous dispute, he became entangled in a huge martial arts conspiracy, was betrayed by his so-called confidantes, attacked by countless martial artists who once revered him, poisoned, and had his martial arts crippled, thrown like a dead dog into a mass grave. Before his death, seeing those once affectionate eyes turn cold and even gloating, he finally understood that the so-called romantic and carefree life was nothing but an illusion! True love? In the face of fame, fortune, and desire, it was nothing!

In his fourth life, he became an upright official. Pure and incorruptible, he devoted himself to the people. But the officialdom was dark, colleagues ostracized him, and superiors suppressed him. He wanted to do practical things for the common people but met obstacles everywhere. Watching the people under his governance suffer from hunger and cold, seeing corrupt officials go unpunished, he had grand ambitions but was powerless. Ultimately, because he refused to go with the flow, he was framed, imprisoned, and died unjustly in jail. Before his death, he was filled with indignation! In this world, why was it so hard to be a good person?!

In his fifth life, he was a general. Wielding weapons, he defended his homeland. But the court was suspicious, and treacherous ministers held sway. The empire he fought for with his blood was usurped by villains. Finally, a baseless imperial decree and a cup of poisoned wine ended his passionate life. Watching the people he protected still suffer, seeing the enemy cavalry once again breach the border, he died with his eyes open! Loyalty and righteousness? In the face of power struggles, it was a joke!

In his sixth life, he was a lovesick fool. For a woman who didn't love him, he gave everything, squandered his family fortune, and was abandoned by everyone. In the end, the woman ran off with a rich merchant, leaving him impoverished and destitute, to freeze to death on the streets. Only before his death did he realize that unrequited love only moved himself; in the eyes of others, he was just a fool!

In his seventh life, he became an ambitious schemer. He calculated everything, climbing over the corpses of countless people. Finally, he reached the highest position, wielding immense power in the court. But the higher one climbs, the colder it gets; he became paranoid and sleepless. In the end, he was betrayed by his most trusted sworn son, who sent him to his death with a cup of poisoned wine. Watching his sworn son’s smug face before he died, he finally understood that the greater the power, the lonelier one becomes! A lifetime of scheming, only to end up with nothing!

In his eighth life, he became a recluse. Tired of the worldly troubles, he hid deep in the mountains and old forests. Seemingly carefree, he was actually avoiding responsibility. Watching wars rage below, and the people displaced, he had the ability but stood by idly. He eventually died of old age in the mountains, unknown to anyone. Only before his death did he feel endless emptiness and regret! Escaping solved nothing!

In his ninth life, he became the most ordinary farmer. He worked from dawn till dusk. He married a simple village woman and had several children. Life was poor but stable. There was no great wealth, no earth-shattering events. He just lived a plain life, worrying about the harvest in the fields and his children’s marriages. Finally, on a warm sunny afternoon, lying on his own haystack, surrounded by his children and grandchildren, listening to the crowing of chickens and barking of dogs, he peacefully closed his eyes. In this life, there was no grand drama, but there was a grounded warmth and contentment.

Nine reincarnations! Birth, old age, sickness, death, love, hate, fame, fortune, loyalty, treachery, good, evil—countless lives, countless desires, countless obsessions, like surging tides, repeatedly washing over and questioning Lin Xuan’s soul core!

Every death, every unwillingness, every regret, every realization was like a heavy hammer, striking fiercely at his seemingly indestructible Dao heart!

“Who am I?”

“Lin Xuan!”

“Demon Lord Lin Xuan!”

“Lin Xuan of Tribulation Transcendence Peak!”

“Palace Master of All Heavens Star Palace!”

“I am the formidable one who will lead a million demolition teams to the Immortal Realm to fight the Asuras!”

Every time he sank, every time he lost himself, there was always a thunderous voice roaring from the bottom of his heart! That was Lin Xuan’s true self, his indomitable will! It was his primordial heart, tempered through countless battles of blood and fire, as tough and tenacious as chaos!

The moment the ordinary farmer of the ninth life peacefully closed his eyes, all the illusions of reincarnation collapsed like shattered mirrors!

“Roar!”

A roar, as if from the depths of his soul, like a world-opening thunderclap, exploded in Lin Xuan’s sea of consciousness! The dust, confusion, desires, and weaknesses accumulated over nine reincarnations, under this roar, melted and evaporated instantly like ice and snow under a scorching sun!

Lin Xuan suddenly opened his eyes!

It was still that dead, cold, dark-golden world! He was still sitting cross-legged in his original spot, his Chaos Nascent Soul slowly rotating in his Dantian, emitting an aura even deeper and more vast than before! His Tribulation Transcendence Peak realm, far from being shaken by the inner demon tribulation, had been refined like a thousand-forged divine iron, indestructible and flawlessly perfect!

Rumble!

Almost at the same instant he opened his eyes, the dark-golden sky, which had been frozen for countless eons, was torn apart without warning!

It was no longer the tribulation clouds of blood-fiend heavenly punishment from before, but... a pure, boundless, terrifying sea of thunder composed of countless enormous, destructive chaotic lightning bolts! The sea of thunder surged like a boiling ocean! Each lightning bolt was as thick as a mountain, of various colors—blazing white, purplish-black, dark-gold, fiery red—intertwined and radiating world-destroying heavenly might!

Nine Heavens Chaos World-Ending Divine Lightning Tribulation!

“Heh... impatient, are we?” Lin Xuan slowly stood up, patted away non-existent dust from his backside, and looked up at the terrifying sea of thunder that enveloped the entire world. Instead of fear, a hint of impatience appeared on his face?

“I just woke up and was thinking of stretching my limbs! And you show up? Good, saves me the trouble of finding a punching bag!”

Before he finished speaking!

Boom—!

A crimson chaotic divine lightning bolt, over a hundred zhang in diameter, entwined with the laws of destruction, like a world-ending giant python, tore through the sky, carrying terrifying high temperatures that could incinerate everything, and struck fiercely down on Lin Xuan’s head! Its speed surpassed the concept of space!

Facing this terrifying lightning that could turn even an ordinary True Immortal into ashes, Lin Xuan didn't even bat an eyelid!

He casually raised his right hand, fingers spread, and with a gentle grab, he reached for the descending world-ending divine lightning!

There was no earth-shattering collision!

No roar of energy explosion!

That chaotic divine lightning, as thick as a mountain and radiating monstrous destructive aura, was forcefully choked by an invisible giant hand when it was still three zhang away from Lin Xuan’s palm! The violent lightning power instantly solidified! Then, as Lin Xuan’s fingers slightly closed—

Pffft!

Like crushing a bubble!

That terrifying chaotic divine lightning, without even a spark, silently annihilated and vanished in his palm! Only a few tiny electric snakes lingered and danced on his fingertips for a few moments, then also disappeared without a trace.

“Tsk, too weak, not enough kick.” Lin Xuan shook his hand, as if he had merely swatted an annoying mosquito, and hooked his finger at the sea of thunder above his head, “Bring on the hard stuff! Don’t be so wishy-washy like a woman!”

Boom! Boom!

As if completely enraged by Lin Xuan’s contemptuous attitude! The sea of thunder instantly turned violent! Five chaotic divine lightning bolts, each of a different color, thicker and containing more terrifying laws than the previous one, like five roaring world-ending giant dragons, tore through space from different angles, striking fiercely at Lin Xuan with an aura of destroying everything! Purple lightning danced wildly, black thunder devoured souls, golden lightning shattered, crimson flames burned the heavens, and azure froze!

This time, Lin Xuan finally moved!

He didn't dodge; instead, he stepped out, facing the five world-ending divine lightning bolts! His figure instantly vanished from his original spot!

When he reappeared, he was already like a ghost at the center where the five divine lightning bolts intertwined! Chaotic currents surged wildly around him, instantly transforming into a gigantic, continuously rotating chaotic vortex!

“Swallow, you bastards!”

Lin Xuan let out a low roar! The chaotic vortex erupted with terrifying suction!

The five chaotic divine lightning bolts, powerful enough to destroy stars, like five giant pythons dragged by invisible chains, let out unwilling roars, and were forcefully pulled by the chaotic vortex, changing direction, and then plunged headfirst into the center of the vortex!

Sizzle! Sizzle!

Violent lightning power raged and clashed wildly within the chaotic vortex! But chaos encompassed all things! Destruction was also rebirth! The chaotic divine lightning, which would give even an Immortal Monarch a headache, was forcibly broken down, devoured, and refined by the vortex! It transformed into the purest chaotic essence, nourishing Lin Xuan’s body and Nascent Soul!

Lin Xuan stood at the center of the vortex, letting the lightning explode around him, his figure unmoving! His aura, instead, climbed again under the tempering of this violent lightning! His Tribulation Transcendence Peak realm became even more perfect, moving towards that ultimate state of perfection!

“Not enough! Still not enough!” Lin Xuan felt the increase in power within him, but he frowned, seemingly very dissatisfied with the intensity of the lightning. He looked up at the surging sea of thunder and let out a thunderous roar:

“Haven’t you eaten?! Hit harder!”