"S-shidi¹Younger martial brother! This is way too far off from our patrol route!"

"I know, but didn't you hear the grey-crowned crow calling just now? If we catch one, we might get noticed by a Peak Master!"

Human voices sounded faintly, causing the crow family and Le Lingyan to turn towards the sound.

"Shidi, we're venturing into the second level of the forest, we can't possibly beat the beasts that appear, much less a grey-crowned crow!"

"Shixiong²Older martial brother, do you want to remain as a little outer sect disciple forever? This could be our one chance!"

Le Lingyan furrowed his brows. Why does all this sound exactly like something he would find in a wuxia³Chinese fiction with cultivators and people capable of superhuman feats novel?

That aside; people! Actual people he could communicate with!

Le Lingyan stood up, in his arms still hugging the two young crows who were happily snuggling up with him.

The two oldest crows who'd achieved spiritual intelligence looked at each other. 

Fine. Since their mother had spoken as well, they'll accept this child as one of their brethren.

'Third brother, I'll have to trouble you to distract those humans for a while. I'll conduct the protection bond for our new brother.' The oldest sister seemed to sigh exasperatedly in her tone.

The mother bird was delighted, her thick grey feathers even rising perpendicular to the top of her head, a sight curious enough to attract Le Lingyan's attention.

Le Lingyan had wanted to go speak with the approaching people, but since the mother bird had given him a place to rest for the night, cared for him and even didn't eat him like a certain giant snake, he was extremely grateful towards her. In the end, he decided that he should formally bid farewell to the crow family before leaving.

However, one of the big crows around the size of the mother bird hopped over to him unexpectedly. Le Lingyan looked up at the enlarged graceful figure of the crow, the only thing he'd seen more clearly in a while compared to every blurry other thing in the forest.

Shifting the small crows to hug them in one arm, he reached out his hand like he was hypnotised by the sight, his warm palm landing gently on the shiny black beak of the crow.

Oldest sister: ...M-maybe he's quite cute after all.

She leaned down slightly, tapping the tip of her sharp beak gently against Le Lingyan's forehead.

Immediately, a vermillion mark blossomed between his eyebrows, staining his pale skin like cinnabar⁴a bright red ore (it's toxic) used as pigment because of how vividly red it is, the stuff people use in ancient china to draw talismans too . Le Lingyan felt a sudden rush of warmth circulate through his body, feeling like the fifteen seconds he had defied gravity yesterday.

However, the warmth was only getting hotter as it circulated around his body aggressively, drilling into his heart and pumping back out with his blood.

Le Lingyan gasped as his knees involuntarily gave out, cold sweat staining his shirt.

'What happened! What happened to the child!' The mother crow called out frantically, flapping her wings anxiously.

'He's actually so weak! He can't even take a little bit of spiritual energy!' The oldest sister was shocked. The second brother ruffled his feathers a little unconcernedly. 'At least now, it's confirmed he's not a threat.' 

'J-jie, save him! Ge! How do we save him!' The youngest crow who'd awakened spiritual intelligence was also terrified. 

The two baby crows started to cry out anxiously after being let go by the panting Le Lingyan, hopping around. They could sense that something was wrong.

Le Lingyan was choking. The hot sensation rushed through his blood, much more aggressively than the short period yesterday, which had already tired him out so much that he'd had to sleep twice, even waking up with utterly sore limbs.

This hot stream of spiritual energy rushed through all his blood vessels aggressively, forcefully opening all his closed meridians.

Le Lingyan knelt on the floor with both his trembling arms supporting himself, coughing at the floor. Eventually, feeling some hot liquid rushing up his throat, he coughed up some black blood, alarming the mother bird.

Black dots invaded his vision. 'I seem to be passing out a lot in this world…' A thought flickered through his mind vaguely. 

Then, Le Lingyan passed out.

Instead of the total blackness that usually arrived with unconsciousness, Le Lingyan opened his eyes in a mystical place. 

There was no land anywhere, all he saw was an endless sea of blue, free of ripples. The calm water reflected the bright blue sky above, which would occasionally have streaks of darker blue twirling gracefully.

But within the sea of warm light blue below, there was a string of red, lively energy swimming about in circles, the only thing moving in the area.

Le Lingyan wanted to take a step forward to inspect it, only to realise he didn't have a physical body. He "looked" down, but he still saw all 360° around him. 

Well, Le Lingyan sighed internally. At least the world wasn't blurry here.

There was a sudden sound in the distance, like rustling clothes.

Le Lingyan "moved" towards it and saw the sudden arrival of a man in white, landing softly on the blue surface. Tiny ripples formed when the tip of his cloud embroidered cloth shoes touched the pale blue water, but these ripples soon disappeared once disrupted by the tumbling of the red energy nearby.

Looking closely at the new arrival, Le Lingyan was shocked.

The man who had just arrived had a beautiful appearance; bright peach blossom eyes, straight nose and pink lips, long dark hair, paired with his white brocade robe, the man was practically oozing immortal energy.

'Good cosplay,' Le Lingyan thought absentmindedly. 

But wait!! That wasn't what was shocking!! He's missing the main point!!

The real shocking thing was that this man looked just. like. him! This man was Le! Ling! Yan!

The new arrival looked around with his arms behind his back in a very immortal-esque way. Furrowing his brows, the man suddenly turned around to face the formless Le Lingyan, who was still in shock.

"Who's there?!" 

The currently formless Le Lingyan was surprised again. He sounded just like him too!!

Suddenly, the man drew some cool symbols in the air using his fingers, causing a thin stream of the calm blue sea below to twirl around his fingers. The pale blue started shining softly, before it abruptly shot at Le Lingyan!

Le Lingyan involuntarily flinched even though he was currently formless, causing the shining blue energy to suddenly lose its aggressiveness and splash back down onto the blue surface.

The other Le Lingyan's eyebrows rose before they furrowed again.

Seeing the attack disappear, Le Lingyan sighed in relief, hearing it echo around the area they were in.

Wait, he could sigh now?

Le Lingyan looked down and realised that his vision had narrowed back down to two eyes. He blinked, feeling slightly out of sorts. Patting himself down, he sighed in relief again that he hadn't lost any part of his body.

He finally looked up and froze, realising that the other "Le Lingyan" was looking at him expressionlessly.

So now, there were two men, expressionlessly facing each other on the calm sea. One was in a casual, clean white tee shirt and jeans, and the other was donning full ancient clothing handsomely.

At the same time, they suddenly both raised their hands and pointed at each other, opening their mouth to speak, perfectly in time. 

(If there had been a third party now, they would have immediately thought of the Spiderman pointing meme.)

They both lowered their hands together, slightly embarrassed. The already quiet area turned even more awkwardly stagnant.

Then, their staredown was interrupted when there was a surge of red to their left, piercing the pale blue atmosphere.

The other "Le Lingyan" only spared him a glance before immediately turning, striding towards the energetic red streak.

Le Lingyan followed behind curiously, subconsciously letting down his guard. Somehow, he didn't feel threatened at all. In fact, he even felt a certain degree of comfort in the other Le Lingyan's presence.

The ancient Le Lingyan rose a brow when he saw the red energy hopping around excitedly in his spiritual sea.

"Spiritual Beast binding contract?" The ancient Le Lingyan muttered, giving a sidelong glance at the "weirder" version of himself who was staring curiously at the red energy.

'Is he my second personality? Or a soul fragment?' The ancient Le Lingyan mused internally. It was rare, but it wasn't completely unheard of. This soul had appeared in his dantian⁵spiritual sea, focal point of spiritual energy in the body  randomly, but he felt no threat from him.

'I might have to get Divination Peak Elder Liu to help me take a look when I get back.'

Turning his attention back, he reached a slender hand out, causing the red energy to happily spin towards him. 

However, at the last moment, the red energy dodged his open palm, instead latching onto his fingertips. The red energy spun the ancient Le Lingyan around, forcing him to face the modern Le Lingyan.

Surprised by the sudden change of events, the modern Le Lingyan didn't even have time to take a step back when the red energy struck his hands excitedly, pulling the two souls together.

At the moment their hands touched, the red string disappeared into both their bodies, causing a tinge of warm red to stir up the calm blue sea around them before slowly dissipating.

Just like this, the Spiritual Beast binding contract was now in effect.

On the other hand, the two Le Lingyans still had their hands stuck together, both with their eyes closed. To the modern Le Lingyan, a torrent of memories and knowledge was pouring into his head which did not belong to him… or more specifically, did not belong to his current body. Cultivation techniques, experiences and people in this world, plants, objects, treasures, every thought and every moment flashed through his head rapidly, playing out like a movie at fifty times the normal speed.

When modern Le Lingyan's eyes snapped open again, he saw Ancient Le Lingyan also looking at him. Modern Le Lingyan had lived for a far shorter time than him, so the time ancient Le Lingyan had spent in the stupor had been relatively shorter.

"So," The ancient Le Lingyan observed the slightly dazed look on the modern version of himself. He was Le Lingyan, and so was the other. 

They were both Le Lingyan.

This was the fact they'd both understood in their exchange of memories.

"Nice to meet you, Le Lingyan." It was extremely strange to be saying that to your own face, but ancient Le Lingyan felt relaxed knowing that the other was also him. 

The modern Le Lingyan even broke out into a small, rare smile.

"Nice to meet you too."

– ❀ –

[1] Shidi: Younger martial brother

[2] Shixiong: Older martial brother 

[4] Wuxia: Chinese fiction with cultivators and people capable of superhuman feats

[4] Cinnabar: a bright red ore (it's toxic) used as pigment because of how vividly red it is, the stuff people use in ancient china to draw talismans too 

[5] Dantian: spiritual sea, focal point of spiritual energy in the body 

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✉ Author's corner: ✉

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to comment your thoughts~

Thanks for reading! I'm trying out footnotes, but if they don't work out I'll go back to typing them out by hand... ;w;

Edit: They worked out! :O