Chapter 37: Great Generosity From Many Old Monsters (Part 1)
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The streams of consciousness that were slaughtered immediately transformed into motes of light drifted toward the burning light. It absorbed these notes and became increasing powerful. Outside Yan Xiaolong’s sea of consciousness, there were only a few dozen streams of consciousness left, and they all stared at the burning light in surprise, horror, or a mixture of both. 

 

“It’s the Ancient Flame, one of the seventy-two Great Demon Pillars!” 

 

“Impossible! He should’ve died long ago! The Demon World was one of the first to be annihilated!”  

 

“Not only is he alive, but he’s even a complete soul. He’s actually been hiding in a boy’s sea of consciousness!” 

 

“Who is this brat? He’s clearly not just any descendant of Magister Yama if he can contain the Ancient Flame’s soul. What is going here?” 

 

“Wait, did he say ‘Hell Champion?’ A Hell Champion still exist in the cosmos?”

 

Off to the side, a blue stream of consciousness that was the golden-eyed entity stared at the burning light with an odd mixture of expectancy and surprise. 

 

“My apologies, everyone. I actually sensed his presence earlier when I performed a minor soul-search on this b-.” Hearing the voices of discontent, the golden-eyed entity retaliated with frustration. “Look, I assumed he was just a bit of will! His presence was minuscule at best. Moreover, he’s a complete soul. Even for me, there’s no way I can fully analyze the complete soul of a High Monarch when those cursed chains are around me, okay? This is shocking for me too. It was an honest mistake. Beside, it wasn’t all that strange considering what an anomaly this boy is.”

 

Indeed, the golden-eyed entity had sense a familiar scent on Yan Xiaolong, that of the Ancient Flame. 

 

“Your honest mistake fucked this whole operation over! You’re the one with the greatest insight into the Dao of the Soul, so you should’ve told us something! You know the others will know about this, right? They’re not going to be happy to be destroyed just like that after sacrificing a good portion of their power,” A dark-red stream of consciousness furious said. 

 

“Er... if nobody snitch, they will never found out. Am I right?” 

 

“...” The others stayed silent. 

 

Only the dark-red stream of consciousness seemed to be willing to contest with the golden-eyed entity. “I will get a loud speaker and personally knock on everyone’s door to give them an explanation.” 

 

“You wouldn’t dare.” 

 

“Try me, old punk." 

 

Ignoring the golden-eyed entity, the dark-red stream of consciousness floated closer to Yan Xiaolong's sea of consciousness. In response, the burning light emitted more heat. 

 

"Hey, old pal," The dark-red stream of consciousness said with kind intentions. Astonishingly, this entity knew the soul that was lurking inside Yan Xiaolong. "I know this isn't like you so how about we have a nice, long chat..." 

 

In response, the burning light let out another roar of rage and summoned an even greater storm of fire. A devastating battle soon ensued. However, it did not last for too long as a one-eyed, red-feathered bird flew over with a scroll in its mouth. 

 

It looked at the soul battle inside Yan Xiaolong’s body and shook its head. The bird spat out the scroll and began to unravel it...

 

...... 

 

[Rebooting sea of consciousness. Soul has returned. Will has returned. Nothing has been lost. All is well. 7 hours, 32 minutes, and 48 seconds has passed since emergency psychic shut down. Sea of consciousness has grown much, much stronger. Heart-devil has also been suppressed. Everything is fine. Please, wake up.] 

 

"No." 

 

[No?] 

 

"Look, I just need a break from this ride. This life is great and all, but I seriously need to chill for a moment. Just let me say this for another five minutes...”  

 

[Unfortunately, there are no breaks on this ride. Get up, now.] 

 

......

 

"You god-damned guidebook,” Yan Xiaolong muttered, “If I become a god like Fortuna one day, I swear I’ll going to draw the worst of the worst of doujins on you. Mark my words...” 

 

When he opened his eyes and saw a new scenery, he sighed, and wondered where he ended up now. It seemed every time he was knocked out, he would end up at some place else. This time, it was a stone room, much like room ‘1’ but there was no altar. 

 

“Welcome, kid!” A voice said behind him. 

 

Yan Xiaolong turned around and saw dozens of miniature people sizing him with their eyes. They largely varied in appearance, with some looking like animals, a combination of different animals, or somewhat humanoid. 

 

The one who spoke was the largest of the miniature people, though, he was probably only as tall as one meter. He had the appearance of a pot-bellied child, with red skin, black hair, red pupils, black scleras, and wrinkled, sword-shaped eyebrows. 

 

They each sat on thrones, but only the pot-bellied child sat on a stone. Despite his lackluster sitting arrangement, his presence shrouded the auras of the other entities. Moreover, there was something about him that seemed more perfect than the others, as if he was a complete existence.

 

Without even thinking, Yan Xiaolong clasped his hand and bowed his head. “Did you save me, Seniors?” 

 

“Save?” The pot-bellied child gave a hearty laughter. “No, not at all! We tried to kidnapped you. And if anything, we would love to eat your flesh and drink your blood for being a member of the Yan Clan.” 

 

“Huh?” Yan Xiaolong said. 

 

“Huh!?” The others sounded. 

 

The other entities stood up, wanting to interject, but a glare from the pot-bellied child shut them up. A silent pressure descended and forced the entities to sit back down. Others seemed reluctant, while the rest put on wry smiles. They had simply not expected the pot-bellied child to be so frank. This was especially so for the golden-eyed entity who was now regretting for letting the pot-bellied child to speak for the group. 

 

“Uh, Senior, are you serious?” 

 

“Dead serious,” He said with a smile. “However, a fellow daoist had convinced us to... cancel your previous arrangement. Instead, you had performed great service and shall be rewarded for it.” 

 

“I-I did?” 

 

“Sure did. You awakened the Princess and that’s a damn fine achievement.” 

 

“May I know who this daoist senior and princess are?” 

 

“Who? The Princess is the the Princess and you’re the one who brought the daoist here. Don’t you remember carry an offensive talisman with you?” 

 

“Yes, but-”

 

“Yeah, that talisman carried a spiritual sense. An immensely powerful spiritual sense." Seeing the Yan Xiaolong's confused expression, the pot-bellied child asked, "You don’t know a lot, do you?” 

 

“I’m utterly confused.” 

 

“Well, the truth is that you’re a donkey. Or is it the wagon?” The pot-bellied child scratched his belly. “Ah, it doesn’t matter. You see, you were put on a mission to return a pocketwatch, correct? Something about returning a cursed item back to where it originally belonged? Yeah, that’s only partially true. While you were assigned to return it, there was another side to the mission and that was to awaken the Princess from her long, long slumber. You were not the person who concocted this plan, but you certainly carried this mission to success. Besides, if not for your Yan bloodline, this would not have worked out.” 

 

“What does my bloodline have to do with this?”

 

”The Yan Clan not only owns Yama Castle, but are also its prison guards. They're the only people who can access and control this place. You carry the blood of the people who locked us in here, so you can obviously come and go whenever you feel like it.” 

 

Heart pounding, Yan Xiaolong continued to ask, “If the Yan Clan can come and go as they like, how is it possible for others to arrive here as well?” 

 

“Well for that to happen, the outsider would require a Yan Clan member’s approval. Or, they could tag along by existing inside a spatial treasure that the member carries.” 

 

“Then, do you know about the people who took that pocketwatch or how it left Yama Castle?” 

 

“Nope to both of those. I just woke up recently, ya’know. Most of us did, and we’re only given some details about the things that happened outside. It’s our job now to give you good fortune,” The pot-bellied child said impatiently. 

 

“Then, do you why the pocketwatch got taken?” 

 

“Someone did something stupid and got caught. Then, they stole the Princess' treasure to undo their situation, but only made it worst. Er, at least, that’s what I was told.” The pot-bellied child stood up. “Enough jibber-jabber! It’s time to receive your reward. Everything little thing about you is fucked up so we’re going to be spending some months to fix you right.” 

 

“Months!? But, Senior, Yama Castle is about-”

 

“No worries, that bomb won’t be going off any time soon. Besides, we set up a time formation here just for your reward. Just train to your heart’s content!” The pot-bellied child raised his hands and summoned nine great columns of flame. “I am the Immovable King, the Right Commander of the Ninth Legion, and I hereby reward Yan Xiaolong with the title of Junior General, cultivation base blessing, body refinement blessing, cultivation art blessing, and a set of treasures. Any objections?” 

 

“No!” The other old monsters stood up from their thrones. 

 

“Good! Begin the blessing!” 

 

Outside of Yan Xiaolong's expectations, he was about to receive massive good fortune the likes that had never occurred in the history of Planet Eve. Not only were these powerful, old monsters going to improve his cultivation base, they were also going to upgrade every feature on him.

 

His body floated into the air as columns of flame circled around him. The pot-bellied child began chanting the words written in the Immovable King's Scripture, causing huge, flaming bodies of text to dance around him like drifting leaves during springtime. 

 

The other old monsters began chanting their martial disciplines and cultivation arts as well, reinforcing the columns of flame and fiery texts. In this unknown room, a world of fire descended and brought with it a heat that could burn nations to ashes. Yet, everything was contained inside a grand, circular formation where time flowed differently. 

 

As the flames gather around Yan Xiaolong, his body began to burn to ashes. His skin, flesh, bones, and meridians turned to dust; his berserk-type spiritual qi collapsed under the intense pressure and further combusted his body. In a blink of an eye, his physical body exploded to nothingness, leaving behind a floating soul and a semi-golden dantian.

 

Then, in another blink of time, his body regenerated. His skin cleared, his flesh toughen, his bones refined, and his meridians tempered. It as if he was going under heavenly tribulation again. 

 

However, it was not long after that that his body combusted again and then regenerated again. The cycle continued for a long, long time. 

 

Although it seemed certain that he would be in great pain, Yan Xiaolong was as relaxed as a person laying in a bath tub of warm water. At least, he of all people would be so relaxed. 

 

"This flame... is not as bad as the dream world's." He thought. "Now this is the break I needed. Who even said body refinement was painful? This is a good quality service. Five stars!" 

 

So, just like that, Yan Xiaolong took an extra long nap as the old monsters refined his body and cultivation base for him.

 

What was a power-up? THIS was a power-up! 

 

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